Into the Mist - Chapter Four
Once Alice had washed Fleur, and dressed her in some decent clothes, all of the Cullens sat down to talk to the child. They were wary now of her anger. Anything could set off the little child. And she didn't look all that happy to see all of them again. She sat close to Alice, her sharp eyes darting all around her, suspiciously. Alice was the only one she trusted.
"I think a proper introduction is in order." Said the blonde man. He started.
"I'm Carlisle, founder of this coven." He stepped back, while the lady who Fleur remembered as Esme stepped forwards. "I'm Esme, Carlisle's wife." She stepped back to stand with Carlisle, while the mahogany haired girl stepped forwards. "I'm Bella, the 'human' of the coven." She glanced at the one named Edward, grinning teasingly at him. He glared teasingly, a small smile gracing his face. He stepped forwards, to hold Bella's hand. "I'm Edward, Bella's husband." He and Bella turned to stand with Carlisle and Esme. The guy named Emmett came forwards, grinning and flexing his massive muscles. "I'm Emmett, and I'm not on steroids." He stepped towards the blonde lady, and whispered to her. She shook her head, and stalked out of the room. Emmett chased after her. The honey blonde boy stepped forwards, looking at Alice and Fleur. "I'm Jasper, Alice's husband. And the pighead that just left is Rosalie, Emmett's wife."
Fleur knew that they were dumbing down their sentences so that she would understand. Not that she couldn't understand more advanced sentences. She had picked up on that when she was listening to conversations of her parents. Fleur was very intelligent..
Alice nudged Fleur. "Stand up and tell them your name. Don't worry, they won't bite unless you do." She grinned at Fleur, and nudged her to her feet.
"Do I have to?" Fleur whined, sounding more like a six-year-old. Alice nodded. Fleur looked to the floor instead of addressing the big family. "I'm Fleur. And I'm six." She said curtly. Bella burst out, "Aw, that's such a pretty name! Doesn't it mean flower in french?"
"Part of it." Edward answered her.
"So, why am I being put through this? Why do I even need to know who you people are?" Fleur glared at them. Despite their obvious hospitality, she was ticked off. What did they want with her? She asked herself for the millionth time.
"Alice? Care to explain to little Fleur here? And the rest of the family?" Carlisle asked Alice generously. Alice nodded, and hopped up to stand in the middle of the room. She bathed in the spotlight, enjoying the attention.
"Well, only Carlisle knows this." She began mysteriously. "A few months ago, I had a vision of a little girl playing in her backyard. In my vision, I could sense a vampire lurking nearby." Fleur let out a breath of sorrow for her dead parents.
"Mal." She said miserably. Everyone but Alice glanced at Fleur quickly.
"What? That was his name." Fleur shot at them. They immediately turned their attention away from her, and onto Alice. They didn't want a fight.
"Anyways, in another vision I saw a little girl running through a forest, away from the vampire. In the vision I saw flashing teeth and eyes... and then it ended, very abruptly. I was shocked. I didn't tell Carlisle until yesterday because I didn't think she was of that much importance."
Fleur's eyes flashed.
"Not that you aren't important, sweetie." Alice ruffled her hair. Fleur was calmed. "And then, in a few days after the second vision, yet another vision of that same little girl came. In it she was gazing at two dead bodies. I knew that she was a vampire already, and yet her eyes were icy blue. I could feel her anger mounting, and I knew that it was an anger that no one had ever felt before..." Alice averted her eyes from everyone except Fleur's. "It would take either a miracle to calm her, or months, maybe years to calm her. Brief periods of calm would occur, but then she'd fire right back up."
Fleur smacked her forehead. "Great. Just great." Her petit hand slithered down her cold face, and back onto her lap. I don't want to be an uncontrollable anger freak. A menace. A monster. Taking a great shuddering breath, Fleur concentrated on controlling her anger at herself.
"But her eyes aren't blue! They're completely red, like any newborn's." Bella said, her eyes looking into Fleur's, curiously. Fleur turned away, afraid of what judgements would be made of her. With these topaz-eyed people, she felt like a complete outsider - a freak.
"Bella, she's an enraged newborn. What do you expect? Your eyes were red about a year ago, if I remember correctly." Alice looked at Bella sternly, warning her not to upset the already afraid, angry child.
But it was too late. Fleur blew up.
"Red RED RED. Is eye color all you people care about? How am I supposed to control the color of my eyes? A few months ago they were blue! And this was after I was turned into a stupid, angery, red-eyed, evil vampire!" She sobbed dryly into her hands. Alice rushed over to hug her.
"Shhh. It's okay, Fleur. Just because you have red eyes doesn't mean that we won't like you. And soon enough they'll be blue again." Alice assured her. Bella looked completely guilty and miserable.
"Look what I've done, Edward! I'm horrid. I've just upset a mere child!" Bella whispered into her lover's shoulder. Edward rubbed her hair soothingly.
"It's not your fault. I can hear it in her thoughts; in her thinking, there are only two emotions. Anger and sorrow. You just happened to catch her in the angry thinking." Edward told her quietly. Not quietly enough, apparently.
"I can think other ways, thank you very much! It's just not very helpful when people know that you're an uncontrollable, angry, FREAK!" Fleur stood and ran out the door. She seemed to be doing a lot of running away lately.
As she ran, she formed a plan. She'd murder herself, that's what she'd do. She drown herself. There was a lake nearby, she knew.
Reaching her destination in no time, Fleur threw herself into the water. She plunged into it's icy depths, and settled herself into the bottom. Now she'd just wait to run out of air...
Well, that most certainly didn't happen. Poor little Fleur didn't know that vampires didn't need oxygen to survive. So she waited at the bottom of a lake for a day. She waited until someone came to find her. She waited until she was scolded and taken back to the Cullens. She waited until she was a miserable brat again. She waited until she was confined to Alice's room by Carlisle. She waited until she had scars all over herself from her own teeth. She waited until Alice noticed her scars. And she waited until someone told her that they cared about her.
That was all that the poor, small child needed. Love.