A/N: I don't really have all that much to say right now, just that the disclaimer in the prologue was meant for the entire story and that this chapter is just background info, necessary for the story, but not really all that exciting... yet.
Chapter One- Beginnings
Ari's POV (main character for this story guys, get used to her)
I frowned at my sister across the table where we were eating breakfast. To say that she was acting like a superior bitch would be pretty accurate. She was trying to get me to take her babysitting job for her so that she could go to a house party and get drunk with her friends. I thought that it was a pretty stupid thing to do, even for her. Not because our parents would care, she's little Miss Perfect for them. Just stupid in general.
I normally would have said yes, if someone asks nicely I'll do what I can to help them. Unfortunately for sister dearest here, she didn't ask nicely. Blackmail is frowned upon in most civilized societies, as is bullying. Lucky for me I tend to ignore both, so Katie here is out of luck.
"No," I shot at her, "I am not going to waste my Saturday just because you decided that you're too mature to deal with babysitting, so you have to run off and get drunk."
"You help Sam babysit his sister all the time." True, I did, but if she thought appealing to my sense of fair play is going to help her in this particular situation... well the old saying about what goes around comes around is pretty accurate here. Wouldn't it be nice if this was karma coming and biting her in the ass?
"Sam asks nicely and doesn't try to blackmail me. Answer is still no."
She shot me a glare that could have roasted flesh and stormed up the stairs. I could hear her door slam.
I smiled slightly and walked out the door; hopefully she'll go to the party anyway and get in trouble. Aunt Sylvia will just call me and ask me to babysit, and Katie would get in trouble with the parents for once. Normally they turn a blind eye to her problems, but if mom's sister knows how spoiled a brat Katie in they'll have to do something.
Turning off the side walk around the side of the house, I started to walk down a path into the woods. It led to the park where I was meeting Sam. Some people find the woods scary, I don't really, it's just another place in the world. You're more likely to get hurt in your own house. There's really nothing wrong with the woods as long as you know what you're doing.
The way the light filters through the trees is quite pretty; it leaves little patterns of light on the ground. It's cloudy out today so there isn't very much of that, just a sense of gloom.
I turned my head to the side and stopped dead. I could swear that there was a man with a gray cloak on staring at me. His eyes were a bright ruby red, like freshly spilt blood. He had a very handsome face, but there was something about it that just wasn't human. Something that just made me want to turn and run. A cruel smile twisted his lips. Then I blinked and he was gone.
What on earth...? I did the only reasonable thing I could. I started to sprint as fast as I possibly could. Whoever the hell that man is, I most certainly don't want to be in the same forest as he is, not one little bit.
I broke clear of the trees and ran over to the bench, gasping for breath. Out in the open where everyone could see I felt a lot safer than before. Sam wasn't here yet, a good thing, I'd have time to relax. Sam would be able to tell how terrified I was right away. He'd ask me what was wrong, I'd tell him and then he'd probably say something stupid, like 'really? Let's go look for the creepy red eyed guy!'
He doesn't have a very good sense of self preservation.
I waited here for a few minutes before I saw Sam coming around the corner. He was a small kid with light blond hair; light freckles ran across his face, looking more like dust than freckles. Blue eyes with hints if gray smiled across the field from behind glasses resting on his small nose. He was always smiling and he tended to be notoriously shy.
All this was almost totally opposite to the way I looked; I had flaming, curly red hair that ran down to my back in soft ringlets. My eyes were a bright emerald green. My skin was very pale and I didn't have a single freckle. I was shy in front of large groups of people, but for the most part if I had a problem with you I was going to let you know about it.
Sam smiled at me. "Hey, Ari. What do you want to do today?"
Hmmmm... A good question, I really didn't have anything planned. We could play here at the park or we could go downtown and get something to eat. With creepy guy in the woods I think that it would probably be better to just go get something to eat. I wasn't really hungry, but knowing Sam, he was.
"Do you have money?" I asked.
"Of course. Are you planning to steal it?"
"Of course I am. No, seriously though, do you want to go get something to eat?"
"Hell yeah! I'm starved, I forgot to eat breakfast." He always does. My lips quirked up into a grin.
"You keep forgetting to eat Blondie and one day you'll shrivel up. Let's go eat."
"I am not blond!" He yelled. I should know better than to tease him about his hair colour, I really should, but it's just so tempting. Sam hates the fact that he has blond hair, the whole 'dumb blond' stereotype. He has straight A's, compared to my B- average he isn't looking all that dumb.
School and I don't really agree. The only thing I'm good at is music. I'm really good at music actually, it always feels like there's something warm glowing in me when I'm playing music or singing. My teachers, when they're not failing me, are always quick to comment on how great it sounds. My parents... not so much. Let's just say that my parents and I don't get along at all. I know they love me (or so they say...) so I put up with their shit. We do things like that for people we love.
"Of course not, sorry." Sam's my best friend, for everyone else on the planet I'd keep teasing, but, well... best friends are the family you get to choose.
We went and had a good lunch a Suzy's diner, they're the only restaurant in town and they serve good food. Yeah, Havenbeck is a bit of a hick town, but I love living here anyway. Lunch took us about two hours, so it's about noon now. Sam and his family are going on vacation for a week, so he has to go home now so that they can leave for Florida. Hope he has fun, Florida's never really appealed to me -too muggy.
I waved good bye as he walked up the driveway. "Have fun dying of heat stroke in Florida!"
He yelled back. "Have fun dying of hypothermia here in Canada!"
"It's August! If I freeze it'd be pretty pathetic." I turned and walked away grinning. Good old Sam. Now I had to choices, I can go home the normal way, meaning through the forest, and face my new-found fears, showing myself that the red-eyed man isn't really real. Or I could be a coward, taking the long way home and laughing at myself because I'm afraid of the woods.
Being the over-confident idiot I am, guess what one I'm taking.
I turned down the path that led to the forest. It took all my self control to do that and a lot of thinking 'the red-eyed guy is a figment of my imagination' over and over again. I started humming to myself. Cheesy, I know, bad horror movie just waiting to happen.
I got to the part of the path where I'd seen him standing. I'd kind of been expecting something big and scary to happen. So naturally, I'd been all tensed up, waiting for the big scary man to jump me, adrenaline pumping through my veins.
Then a bird started singing. I jumped at least a foot. And then I started laughing hysterically, I am such a stupid child, I can't believe I thought he was real.
And then I heard the twig snap behind me.
"Oh fuck."
End of Chapter
I know you all hate me for that one, but hey, it's always nice to get reviews and the more reviews I get, the quicker I'll start updating, you know what button to click o n. Is it a bear?
Felix?
Demitri?
The red eyed man?
Edward Cullen?
Alice Cullen?
Take a guess, it's one of those options... but you'll never really know, not unless you review.
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O.K., I tried, I really did, but I'm just not that mean... here you go... I still like it if you review by the way, if you've written a story you know how great it feels.
I tried to spin around and see what, or who, it was, but a hand reached out and covered my mouth, pinning me against what felt like a rock. The movement yanking my head back was strong enough to make me think I was going to bruise later. The hand was ice cold. Another arm reached around and pinned my arms up against my side.
I tried to get free, but it was like fighting against a rock. Literally.
"You might as well stop fighting little one, I'm bigger than you and you know it." His voice was soft, musical. I'd say it was bell like, but it was too masculine for that, a deep bass, but not with the rough feeling you normally get with that. I bet he has an awesome singing voice.
I'd normally have a thousand smart ass comments for that, but his hand was pinned over my mouth so I couldn't really say anything. Probably just as well, I'd most likely end up pissing him off. I doubt that that would be a very good idea at all.
I ignored him and kept squirming around anyway, if he wants to grab me I certainly don't plan on making it any easier on him.
"I'm not allowed to cause physical harm to you on Aro's orders, he has given me no such restrictions on your family," his face was down by my ear, I could feel his breath whispering on my face, "and you wouldn't want anything to them would you?" Well... put it that way... I stopped fighting. I have no idea who the hell Aro is, and I most certainly don't want to find out. "Nice to see you've come to your senses."
He removed his hand from over top of my mouth. I could have started screaming up a storm, but better to wait until someone can actually hear me. Might as well make him think that I'm just an innocent little girl.
He stepped around in front of me, letting go completely. I watched how he moved with a sinking feeling; he was huge, physically muscular in a way that immediately made me think stereroids. And the way he moved was so inhumanly graceful that I know if I were to try to run he would catch me in seconds. I stood their completely frozen, like a deer caught in headlights.
It was the red eyed man, and my first impression had been right, he was wearing a cloak. I thought maybe it was the shadows of the forest. Who the hell wears a cloak?
"Nice cape." I said sarcastically.
"Thank-you." Either he didn't understand sarcasm or he wasn't rising to the bait. Shame, pissing people off makes me feel better.
He took a step towards me. "What are you doing?" I asked, instinctively taking a step back.
"Kidnapping you." His arms shot out and grabbed me, pinning me against his chest in a tiny ball.
"That's just lovely; you got any other interesting hobbies? Scrapbooking? Model airplanes? Murdering children? Collecting wine, perhaps." I didn't get an answer for that. But I wasn't really paying attention anymore; red-eyed guy had started running through the woods. It was a lot less like running and a lot more like flying. The trees were a blur around us and I was terrified we'd hit something.
We stopped in a sandy clearing surrounded by ferns and trees. There was a dirt road with a blue car sitting on it. We must have gone really far, I've never seen this part of the woods before.
He tossed me through the air so I hit the ground with a bone-jarring impact. I wasn't hurt, the sand was soft enough to stop me from getting hurt, but I was stunned.
"I told you she was here, Felix." I heard another man say. I looked up, there were three other people in the clearing. The man I heard talking was tall; he had the kind of look that told you he would kick your ass in a fight. He wasn't physically huge like the red eyed man, Felix, but he was just as scary.
"And I believed you Demetri, you've never been wrong. After all, you are gifted." So, his name is Demetri. Peachy.
The next was a boy, he looked about my age. With medium length brown hair and the kind of half muscle, kind of tall look you get in people who are still adolescents; he was the most beautiful boy I had ever seen. Demetri and Felix were both handsome, but this boy blew them out of the water. He looked bored, his face showed no emotion at all. I felt strangely drawn to him, like he was... I don't know, similar to me. Another half. The expression his face was changing too, looking faintly shocked, like someone had hit him in the face with something. I probably looked the same.
He was the first one to break the gaze, looking quickly at his feet.
That was when she walked out of the car. Her cloak was a deeper gray then the rest of theirs, almost black. She was tiny, very obviously a child, just like me and the boy. Her face was stunningly beautiful; she made the children angels you see at Christmas look hideous. But if you looked at her eyes you saw something a lot worse. Some say the eyes are the window to the soul, if that is true then her soul is evil and twisted beyond belief. How can something so innocent and pretty be so evil?
She smirked at me. "Hello Arianna, nice to see you've finally joined us." I'm starting to get a very bad feeling about this. Not that it wasn't bad enough already, but the little bitch just sent it skyrocketing.
I shot a glare at her. "What do you want?" I prefer being straight to the point in lovely little situations like this. And then she started laughing. It was a beautiful sound, like chiming bells. As lovely as it was though, it made me want to run screaming.
Her grin widened, revealing perfectly white teeth. For some reason I feel like she needs fangs. Nice long ones, that scream 'I'm a monster'. Not that she needed any help with that statement, she was doing just fine on her own.
"We would like to offer our hospitality to you, but first we have to get there. Get in the car." Felix and Demetri could probably have just thrown me in the car, but monster girl felt the need to test out how much authority she had over me, how I was going to react to orders.
As was previously stated, I don't react well to bullies. "No thanks, I don't take orders from six year olds." Her grin widened till it became a snarl, and then I was on the ground writhing in pain. It felt like I was being burned alive. I couldn't scream though, I have a problem with being stubborn. I knew that lovely little psycho bitch over there would love that I wanted to scream, so I decided not to scream.
And then I heard a voice. It was young, boyish. "Leave her be Jane, you don't have to torture her and you know it, you could probably pick her up with you pinkie, you know you're stronger than she is." I heard little Jane sigh. The pain stopped. Normally I would have been insulted by the comment, but, anything to stop the pain is O.K. with me.
"I'll listen to you this time Alec, but don't get in my way again, or next time It'll be you on the ground." Alec, the boy was Alec. I wonder why he would stop Jane from torturing me; no-one else seemed to feel the need to do anything. "Demetri." She said it like an order.
Demetri walked over and grabbed me by the throat. Literally, he just wrapped his hand around my neck and started walking over to the car, dragging me along with him. He tossed me into the back seat and slammed the door shut. I felt my neck, it was sore; I'd definitely have a bruise there.
Alec climbed into the passenger seat, damn; since I highly doubted Jane was driving that meant she definitely had to be sitting here beside me. Demetri slid into the front seat of the car. Felix slid into the right seat of the car, Jane jumped in to my left. Lovely, I'm trapped in a small area with two psychopaths I hate. What a great way to spend a car ride to hell.
End of Chapter
I'm actually serious this time. I love reviews, they make my day and make me want to write more. And if I write more you get more updates...