~16~
I ran out of the school, not caring at the teachers who yelled at me as I booked it down the hall. I didn't care; I had to make sure Aiden was alright.
Alice came and picked me up. I got into the car and told her what happened.
"I know," she said, "I read it in the paper. He was killed in his house in Florida. They found him bleeding with bruises and bite marks on him. It seemed he had been killed by an animal that got in."
I looked up at her in shock. How could that happen to him? He was found dead in his own home, bleeding to death, with bite marks from an animal—
"Alice! Did a vampire kill him?"
She looked down at the wheel. "I don't know…"
"Alice," I screamed, "Did a vampire kill him? Don't lie to me, I'm not a little kid anymore!"
She looked up sadly, "Renesmee, I don't know for sure, but all of the evidence points to a vampire."
"Who was it?" I demanded.
"I don't know," she stuttered, "It was in Florida, nowhere near here. I can't be sure who it was."
"Was it the Volturi?" I shuddered, remembering the clan with black cloaks strolling into an open field. "Was it them?"
"I don't think so," she answered, "They would have no reason to. He's not a vampire and he's too far out of their way. Renesmee, I know this hurts you, but this is what vampires do. They attack random humans as victims so they can get their feed of blood and survive."
I was practically crying now in anger. "So it's okay for a vampire to attack an innocent human?" I screamed, my tone rising.
"Of course it isn't!" she defended, "I'm just saying that this is their way of life and there's nothing you can do to stop it!"
I didn't want to hear it anymore. All I thought of was Aiden and his dad and the picture he had shown me of them two at the park taken last week on his last day here, the last day he would have with his son.
I started to cry, feeling sorry for both Aiden and his father. They had just been brought back together, getting reacquainted with one another. Aiden was finally forgiving him. He had been so proud, so happy to finally get his life back with the father that he still loved and claimed to hate.
I wanted to seek vengeance for Aiden; to make this vampire pay for what they had done to Aiden and his father. I wanted them to feel the pain that Aiden felt for his father's death when they tore his world apart.
As I got home, I didn't know what to do. I didn't know if I should call him or just leave him alone. I decided with the latter and didn't call him, besides, I wouldn't know what to say to him anyway.
Aiden didn't come to school the next few days, as everyone had expected. I sat and stared at his lonely desk, wondering how he was doing. I hadn't contacted him, I didn't know what to say.
His father's funeral was a few days later. They had brought his body up to Buffalo so they could bury him with his family. Alice decided to go with me so I could support Aiden and pay my respects. Many people from school were there and brought up memories of when Mr. Montgomery still lived in Buffalo when Aiden was little. They reminisced how he would always be at the park, ready to start a baseball game with any of the kids who wanted to and how he was always there at Aiden's science fairs and Boy Scout ceremonies to support his son.
I sat in the back of the church with Alice, crying to myself. Hearing their stories was like being on the outside of a stranger's life and looking in; it didn't seem real to me.
After the ceremony, I headed outside with Alice, watching as everyone else filed out and began to make their way to the cemetery. I watched as Aiden came out, clutching his mom's hand. I didn't know whether to go to him or stay where I was, but it didn't matter, because seconds later, Aiden's tear-streaked face looked right in my direction and locked eyes with me. He immediately let go of his mother's hand and ran toward me, as I ran toward him.
We joined in the center, as he threw his arms around me, clutching me to him.
"Oh Remy," he sobbed into my shoulder.
I held him as tight as I could, even tighter than the day he told me his father had left him. "Aiden, I'm so sorry," I cried back to him, my voice barely audible.
We stayed like that for a few minutes, closing our eyes and feeling the closeness, as a soft snow began to fall. Aiden looked up and muttered, "It's snowing. One of the things he loved most; the one thing he said he would miss most in Florida aside from me."
His tears began to fall again as we went back to our embrace. I stood there in the freezing cold clutching my angel. With the new presence of his father back in his life, he had begun to fly again. Now, he wasn't a fallen angel; he was a broken angel and it was up to me to help him rebuild his wings so he could fly once more back into the heavens, the only place a pure and innocent boy would belong.