A/N: Alrighty… I just wanted to make it be known that my other story, now titled What Will Never Be is up! So… go check that out! It's a huge cliffie… but I will be updating soon BECAUSE… I already have most of it written! Yes! I am holding out chapters for reviews! So go check that out, and while you're at it, review!
Now… on with the story. This was kind of hard to write because it's more… mellow than the last chapter and it didn't direct itself like the last few have. I actually had to work on this one! :'(
Disclaimer: Do I really need this? Obviously I don't own Twilight, I'm not Stephanie Meyer, and I don't own Google, either. So there! I do, however, own NASA and the Olympics… okay, maybe not.
Chapter 13 – Down the Rabbit Hole
Edward's POV
The first thing that I did when I got home was go to my computer. Well, the first thing after my mother had assaulted me with questions.
"Hi, mom," I called tentatively once I opened the door.
"Oh, hi, Edward," she greeted me, looking up from a magazine. I looked at the magazine appraisingly and then back at her.
"Funny, I didn't know that you were interested in Sports Illustrated."
She blushed and put the magazine down, cover blown. "You caught me," she laughed. "Why don't you come sit down and tell me about how it was? You're home earlier than I thought you would be…"
I sat on the couch and propped my feet up on the coffee table once I had kicked my shoes off.
"It was fun," I said, shrugging my shoulders. Then, knowing that she wouldn't be satisfied with only that, I added, "The music store didn't really have anything, though."
"Did you get a ride home with Mike? I thought that he was driving that van."
Uh oh. I had hoped that she hadn't noticed that. It was going to be rather hard to explain…
"Uh, no, I didn't," I replied cautiously.
"Who, then? Was it one of Mike's friends? I didn't know that any of them drove such an expensive car."
"No," I shook my head, biting my lip. Suddenly, my mom looked extremely concerned.
"You weren't hitchhiking, were you?"
I couldn't help but laugh at the idea. "No, I wasn't hitchhiking."
"Well, who was it, then?"
Here it comes… "Umm, Bella Cullen."
She blinked once, twice, and then a third time. "Oh." That one little syllable was so full of surprise, I almost laughed again. "You mean, Dr. Cullen's daughter?"
I nodded. "Yeah…"
"Not the blond one, right?" Her eyes narrowed a little bit.
"No."
"Good. Because she's too old for you, anyways. Which one is this… Bella?"
I groaned loudly. "Mom, I'm not going out with her. I just got a ride home… that's it! And the blond one is 18, she's only a year older than me." She glared at me.
"Still… which one is Bella?"
"Um… well, she's taller than Alice, but shorter than Rosalie – that's the blond one. She's brunette, her hair is pretty long…" I tried to explain. There were other things that I could have said, but I didn't think that my mom would appreciate it if I started telling her about how gorgeous and graceful and beautiful Bella was.
"And how did that all… come about?"
"Well, I went to the music store when the all went to eat, because I wanted to check out what they had. Which was nothing, by the way."
My mom glared at me to continue.
"So, when I was leaving the music store, I got lost. I was wandering around downtown Port Angeles, trying to find everybody else, when Bella found me." I was editing the story quite a bit, obviously. "She offered to give me a ride to the restaurant where all the other guys were, and so I went with her. She had been shopping in Port Angeles with her sister," I added to dispel my mom's suspicious look. "When we got there, they were all just about to leave and Bella and I hadn't eaten yet, so Bella told them that they could go home and that she would give me a ride. The end."
"That's it?" she looked almost disappointed.
"Yup," I nodded. Suddenly, she leaned in and stage-whispered, "Did you kiss her?"
"Mom!" I shouted, jumping up.
"Well, did you?" She leaned back, looking very pleased with herself.
"No, I did not," I half hissed.
"Well, you looked pretty dazed when you came in. You never know…" she trailed off as I left the room and went upstairs.
Gah. Of course I had looked dazed when I came inside, I thought to myself. Bella was just so… dazzling. And intoxicating and… the list could go on forever. I tried, and failed, to put Bella out of my mind as I went to shower. Once I was done, I threw on a pair of basketball shorts and a tee shirt and went to sit down at my computer.
Time for a little bit of research, I thought as I booted up my computer. The first website that I went to was Google. If anything, that would be where I could find what I needed. In the search box, I entered what I knew about Bella. Pale, super strong, gold eyes, human appearance, indestructible… I thought for a minute and then also entered, inhumanly beautiful, cold skin. Finally, I hit the search button. After 0.27 seconds, I had 295 results. Sighing, I began to scroll through the results that I had. Most of them weren't helpful at all, only one peaked my interest. It was about the succubus, the supposed inhumanly beautiful demon. The only thing that fit with that, though, was the inhuman beauty. Bella didn't seem like a demon or one who would attempt to seduce monks to me.
Finally, in a last-ditch attempt to find anything worthwhile, I opened up a chat room focused on Indian myths and legends. There were three people signed in – Quileutegurl13, Vamp-lover78, and Mysterious1. They seemed to be talking about vampires, something that I was sure Bella wasn't. Just as I was about to close the window, though, I saw something that caught my eye.
I've heard that they can come out in the day and be around humans, Mysterious1 had written.
They live in covens, too. Usually around 5 to 10 of them will live together, Vamp-lover78 had replied.
Bella and her family consisted of 7 people. It was an unusually large family… even for an adopted one. Deep in my mind, the tiniest bit of suspicion stirred.
This is stupid… I thought as I signed in as Musician-man17. Quickly, I typed in the question that had been burning in my mind.
Muisician-Man17: So, what are these vampires supposed to look like?
The first one to respond was Quileutegurl13.
Quileutegurl13: Well, it depends on what legend you believe in.
Musician-Man17: I don't really believe in any of them. I'm just curious.
Mysterious1: We were talking about an old legend from the Quileute tribe.
Musician-Man17: Okay, so what are the vampires from this legend supposed to look like?
Quileutegurl13: Inhumanly beautiful. Super pale. Incredibly strong. Practically indestructible. Cold, rock solid skin. Can run faster than… anything. Despite it all, though, they look human. They're supposed to have gold eyes, too. Because of their diet.
Musician-Man17: Their diet?
Vamp-lover78: They don't hunt humans.
Quileutegurl13: Which means that they aren't supposed to be dangerous. That's what the legend says.
Musician-Man17: Will you tell me the legend?
Quileutegurl13: Sure thing. Just don't believe any of it… I think that the tribe elders were on crack when they made this up.
Quileutegurl13: Okay, so apparently, there are these people. Vampire people. We call them the cold ones.
Musician-Man17: Cold ones?
Quileutegurl13: Yep. Cold ones. According to the legend, my great-grandfather knew them. He was a tribal elder. And, if you believe the legend, he helped to make a treaty to keep them off of our land.
Musician-Man17: Your land?
Quileutegurl13: The Quileute tribal reservation.
Musician-Man17: Oh. Go on…
Quileutegurl13: Because, you see, the cold ones were the natural enemies of the wolf. There's also a legend that says that our tribe descended from wolves, and that the wolves are still our brothers. That's why it's against tribal law to kill them.
Quileutegurl13: And actually, the cold ones weren't even the natural enemies of the wolf. They were the natural enemies of the men that could turn into wolves. I guess that you could call them werewolves.
Vamp-lover78: Hey, I thought that this chatroom was only about vamps.
Mysterious1: Shut up. I'm enjoying this story.
Musician-man17: Okay, so the werewolves only one natural enemy was the… cold ones?
Quileutegurl13: Yep. So this pack came onto our land during my great-grandfather's time. Except they were different than the others like them. They didn't hunt humans, so they weren't supposed to be as dangerous. My great-grandfather made a truce with them that said that if they stayed off of our land, we wouldn't expose them to the white people.
Musician-man17: And they agreed to this?
Quileutegurl13: Uh huh. Their leader, Carlisle, he agreed to the treaty.
When I read that name, I froze. Bella's adopted father's name was Carlisle… could it really be that much of a coincidence? Still… it had been a long, long time ago. The 'cold one' in question would probably be long dead. That is, unless he couldn't die… My hands were shaking as I typed my next question.
Musician-man17: How many of them were there?
Quileutegurl13: Only 3. Carlisle, his wife, their son, and their daughter.
Vamp-lover78: Did the legend ever say that they left?
Quileutegurl13: Yes. They couldn't age, and so eventually they had to leave, before people could become suspicious.
Vamp-lover78: Did they ever come back?
Quileutegurl13: Yes. That's the worst part of the legend that not even I can believe: apparently, they're living here right now. Except now there's more of them – two new females and one new male.
I swear, my heart just about stopped when I read that.
Musician-Man17: And where is here?
Quileutegurl13: Well, I live on the rez, but they don't… obviously, if we're still believing in the legend… they live in Forks.
Musician-man17: Washington?
Quileutegurl13: Yeah! How did you know?
Musician-man17: I live there, too…
Vamp-lover78: OMG! Really?
Mysterious1: Haha, watch out for vamps.
Quileutegurl13: Hmm… you don't happen to know anybody by the name of Cullen, do you?
Musician-man17: Is it bad if I do?
Quileutegurl13: Only if you believe in the legend…
Musician-man17: Shit
Musician-man17: So, you're telling me that the Cullens are these supposed cold ones?
Quileutegurl13: Well, they aren't supposed to be dangerous, because they don't hunt humans. Once again…
Vamp-lover78: But you still don't let them on your land…
Quileutegurl13: Well, yeah. Just because they aren't supposed to be dangerous doesn't mean they aren't. If one of them got thirsty, for example, and lost control…
Quileutegurl13: It's just superstition. I don't believe it one bit.
Mysterious1: Aww, come on now, don't ruin it.
Musician-man17: Wow
Musician-man17: I have goose bumps. You're a very good storyteller…
Quileutegurl13: Thank you, thank you. I do try.
Musician-man17: Thanks for telling me that story…
With those parting words, I logged off. My brain was in a frenzy, trying to sort through what I had just learned. According to this person, the Cullens were… vampires. Old vampires, too. Ancient. But not dangerous because they didn't… don't… drink blood.
Hands still shaking, I turned off my computer and threw myself down on my bed. Bella Cullen… a vampire. Somehow, I could almost see it. That black glare that she could deliver so easily, that made you feel so vulnerable and unsafe… How she said that she was dangerous, that her entire family was like her… different. I felt like I was Alice in Wonderland and had just fallen down the rabbit hole into a completely different world. One where vampires went to high school and the girl that you had a crush on could be immortal.
Gold eyes.
Inhuman beauty.
Incredible strength.
Rock hard, frigid skin.
Indestructible.
Immortal.
Somehow, unbelievably, in the back of my mind I started to believe it.
Bella Cullen was a vampire.
A/N: Ohhhhhhhhhh… cliffie, much? Okay… so, I know that a lot of you are probably like, WTF? He found out in a CHATROOM? But… you know, I just kind of liked the idea. It's impossible sounding and probably would never happen… so I felt like it fit with the rest of the story. Plus, he had to find out SOMEHOW and I didn't want to send him off to first beach to find out from some female version of Jacob… that's just a bit to clichéd, you know?
Review if you love me!
Check out my other story… it's purdy coolio! plus, I've decided that because I have most of that written in advance and none of this written in advance, I'm going to alternate updating. Like, update this, update that. That way… lalala! I won't get lazy and ditch this story in favor of the easier to write one! Yay!