Sorry for taking so long to release this. First I couldn't log on because of some glitch, and then before it got fixed I went somewhere for a couple of days that had no internet. I made this extra long to make up for the long wait. Thank you for your patience!
Disclaimer: I wish I owned Twilight, but I do not.
Girl's POV:
I was falling, falling. I suddenly hit something hard and cold and I couldn't move, couldn't see, couldn't hear, couldn't do anything. As I shivered in the cold, everything went black.
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I screamed as I woke up from the dream. But it wasn't a dream; it had happened. Then why was I in a hospital cot underneath a blanket hooked up to IVs? I tried to remember what had happened, but all that remained was the thought of the dream. I shivered fearfully. Now that was just terrifying.
I saw someone move from out of the corner of my eye. I turned my head slowly, wincing as my head protested the movement.
The person was a tall Native American boy, who appeared in either his late teenage years or early twenties. He was very tall and slightly scrawny, but I could definitely see that he had some muscle.
As I stared at him, he caught me looking and stared straight into my eyes. I felt like he was looking into my soul in the good sort of way. He grinned at me, breaking the eye contact, before grabbing a blanket from a nearby shelf.
"You looked cold," He said as he threw the blanket over me. "So I decided to get you another blanket." He smiled tenderly the whole time. "I forgot to tell you my name. My name is Seth."
I paused for a moment, puzzled. I couldn't remember my own first name. Then it popped up in my head and at the same time I was in excruciating pain. I let out a blood-curdling scream, and the next thing I knew, Seth was hugging me.
"It's all right, don't worry about anything, you're safe." He whispered to me sweetly. Amazingly, the pain went away almost immediately and I calmed down.
"Thanks." I told him. "My name's Kathleen."
"Hmmm." He replied. "Kathleen fits you." I realized I was blushing, and tried to hide my embarrassment and my cheeks by randomly fiddling with my thumbs.
At that moment, I heard the door open. I looked up and saw a very handsome man in his late twenties walk in, wearing gloves and carrying several different bottles of medicine who I guessed was a doctor. He had blonde hair and golden eyes. He gave me a small smile as he walked in.
"So, she's finally awake after all. That's a good thing." He strolled over to the side of my bed. "How are you feeling?"
"Ummm… fine, I guess." Too much in one day already! I'd been fearful, in pain, surprised, confused… the list stretched on and on. I was tired, but I attempted to resist the urge to go to sleep. I was very curious, and wanted to know some things I didn't know or remember.
Finally, after what had seemed like hours but had probably been only seconds, my sleepiness won the battle. I barely held back a yawn, and felt my eyes getting heavier. I closed them, and fell almost immediately into a deep and dreamless sleep.
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When I woke up, I found Seth was still there, snoring loudly in a chair that looked a little small for him. I looked to my right to see that I no longer had the IVs and the sides of the bed were now lowered. My sleep satisfied, I now set out to fulfill the filling of my curiosity. I very carefully slid off the bed, my feet hitting the floor with a soft thump. I looked behind me to see Seth still fast asleep. Satisfied I wouldn't be seen leaving the room, I tiptoed across the room to the closed door. I then proceeded to slowly turn the doorknob and taking my time to opening the door. Though I put much care into opening it silently, it still let out a shrill creak. I glanced behind me. Seth had stopped snoring for a moment, mumbling in his sleep, before silencing and commencing once again to snore loudly. I sighed in relief to myself. I don't know why I was trying to leave silently, but I definitely did not want to wake him up right now. He looked exhausted, and he probably needed the sleep badly.
I walked slowly out into the hallway of a house, silently shutting the door behind me. Judging by what I saw looking out a nearby window, I was on the second floor or so. I crept slowly down the hall, looking back every so often to make sure no one was following me. I found a tall staircase, and I started to descend it carefully, as I still felt kind of odd and didn't want to risk injuring myself. When I was about halfway down, I peeked my head over the edge of the railing. I had just caught a glimpse of a couple of couches surrounding a big-screen TV when I felt a very warm hand on my shoulder. I looked up to see Seth looking down at me.
"You know, in your current condition, you shouldn't risk the stairs unaided." He said, a smile spreading upon his lips. I blushed again. How could he make me blush so easily? Still smiling at me, he swiftly picked me up. I gasped, surprised at the speed and ease of him picking me up. He chuckled quietly before hurrying down the rest of the steps. I would have expected that he would have made a lot more noise than I had, considering he was larger than me and was going down the steps I lot faster, but he actually made less noise. He reached the bottom of the staircase and walked towards the couches, where I could now spot several heads. We turned around the corner, and I spotted the others. There were six of them, all looking up at us. The closest one to us had short, black hair and looked pretty small. She reminded me of a pixie. The boy sitting next to her had light blonde hair and was quite a bit taller than the first. They were silently holding hands on the couch. A few feet away, another couple sat, the girl's hair being a beautiful brunette and long and the boy's a kind of bronze-like color. Those four all shared a light, almost pale white skin and golden eyes. Next to the second couple a three-year-old girl with bronze curls and chocolate brown eyes was sitting on another Native American boy's lap, this one looking older than Seth and quite a bit more muscular and taller. He was smiling down at the little girl in his lap, who looked up at him and abruptly giggled in the cute way that only a small, innocent child could.
I looked back up at Seth, who set me down on another couch before sitting next to me. For a moment there was an awkward silence, everyone else looking at me and me looking between the people on the other couch and Seth.
After a couple of moments, Seth abruptly cleared his throat. "Well, Kathleen, let me introduce you to everybody. Kathleen, this is Alice," He said, pointing to the short girl, who gave me a sweet smile before glancing at the blonde boy, "That is Jasper," He pointed at the blonde boy, who gave me an awkward smile, "That is Bella," He now pointed at the brunette, who gave me a big grin, "That is Edward," He pointed to the bronze-haired boy by Bella, who barely looked at me before looking back at Bella again, "And those two are Renesmee, whose known as Nessie, and Jacob." Renesmee, the little girl, waved cutely at me while Jacob looked at me for a moment, giving me a polite smile, and looked back down at Renesmee.
"Hi." I shyly said. They all looked back up at me, Renesmee giving me a huge grin and loudly saying "Hi!", Bella and Alice saying polite hellos and the men looking back down again almost as quickly as they had looked up.
Was I bad looking or something, or was I just embarrassing? I didn't know them, or at least I don't remember knowing them, and I guess that's what also lent to making this encounter awkward. I blushed, feeling embarrassed in front of people I didn't know, when I heard the door open. Several more people walked in, including the doctor I had seen earlier.
"Hello Carlisle." The one named Edward said to the doctor. "As you can see, Kathleen and Seth have finally come downstairs." He gave a small smile.
"Hello again Kathleen. It's nice to see you awake and appearing well." Carlisle looked at me kindly. He looked back behind him at the others who had come in with him. "I'll introduce you to the others. Kathleen, this is my wife Esme," He said, indicating another beautiful brunette who appeared very motherly and who smiled sweetly at me, "This is Rosalie, and this is Emmett." Rosalie was an absolutely gorgeous blonde who had a kind of snide look on her face, while Emmett, a taller boy with a muscular body and short brown hair smiled a very wide smile. "Leah and Nahuel are out spending some time with each other at the moment, but they'll be back for dinner later."
How weird. What was up with the pale skin and golden eyes? The only people here that didn't have golden eyes were Nessie, Jacob, Seth, and I. Did they have some sort of genetic mutation or something?
"Would you like something to eat Kathleen? Everyone else has eaten already." Esme asked me. "We have cereal, bread, salad, eggs… what do you want?"
I thought for a moment. I wasn't that hungry, but still… "Can I have a piece of bread? I'm not very hungry." I replied.
"Are you sure that's all you want?" She asked. I nodded yes. "Ok then. I'll be right back." With that, she glided gracefully out of the room.
I shivered slightly. It must have been cold outside, because I now felt like I was freezing. Seth noticed, and grabbed a blanket that had been over the back of the couch and threw it over me. He hugged me lightly, but it was still being right next to a nice, warm fire. He was so warm. I cuddled closer into his chest, sighing in contentment. He smiled, and I smiled right back at him. Then I felt everyone's stares on me, and I blushed. Great. I pulled my head off his chest reluctantly. He was very nice and warm. At least he was still hugging me.
Esme walked back into the room with a piece of bread. She walked over to me and gave it to me. "Here you go. If you want anymore just tell me, okay?" She said.
"Thank you, and I will, but I don't think I want to eat anything else." I gave her my nicest smile. She had just met me, and she was already being very sweet to me. I couldn't say that about many of the others other than Carlisle, Seth, and Renesmee.
I looked towards the door as two people walked in. The first was a large Native American woman, who appeared to be in her early twenties at the latest and who had short hair. Behind her came in a wild looking young man, about her age. The girl looked right at me with a glare, and abruptly turned around and walked swiftly out of the door, the guy following her out.
"Why did she leave? Was it my fault?" She had glared at me like I had done something wrong, though I had just seen her for the first time.
Seth looked down at me with a face full of horror. "Of course not! She's mad at me, not you. She just is grumpy a lot of the time." He reassured me, though I was pretty sure he was lying. Seth looked up at Jacob, and they exchanged a knowing look before Seth turned away to look back at me.
"Who were those two then? Were they Leah and Nahuel?" I asked. What sort of name was Nahuel anyway? I thought I heard Edward chuckle, but when I looked at him his face was composed.
"Yes, they were Leah and Nahuel." Seth said. He had an upset look on his face.
Edward looked up at me. "You know, we haven't really greeted you with open arms, have we?" He gave me a small smile. "We're usually not open with many people."
"He's right." Alice said, turning towards me with a smile. "We're not used to visitors."
"Jakey, can I play with Kitty?" Renesmee said, looking up at Jacob. He looked at Bella and Edward, who both nodded silently, before turning back to Nessie and saying "Sure, if Kathleen wants to." He turned to look at me.
"Of course I would love to play with you!" I told her. Kitty wasn't too bad. Not bad at all. It actually sounded kind of nice.
Nessie leapt down from Jacob's lap, amazingly coordinated for her age. Edward gave her a knowing glance before she turned towards me. "Let's go outside!" She said eagerly before putting on a coat and slipping on some cute boots.
I hesitated. It might be cold outside, and I didn't really have any other clothes.
I was saved by Alice. "I'll lend you a coat and some warm shoes Kathleen, so you can actually go outside." She gave me a small smile before running upstairs. I didn't have to wait very long before she was back downstairs with a dark blue coat and tennis shoes. I put them on gratefully, shuddering slightly when the cold fabric came into contact with my skin.
I turned towards the door, Nessie waiting impatiently at the door. I opened the door, and she rushed out gracefully, looking back at me and laughing with pleasure. It was cloudy and slightly cold. I looked up, noticing that darker clouds were coming in our direction slowly.
I felt Nessie grab my hand and start to run. She was slightly colder than Seth, but still pretty warm. She ran amazingly fast for a three year old. Thinking about it, she was extremely intelligent for her age too.
We ran for a while, and I soon was starting to get exhausted. She kept on tugging on my hand and keeping me going though, so I couldn't stop and get a break. I was wondering when we were going to stop when she tugged me to a standstill. I looked up from where I had been watching the ground to make sure I wouldn't trip and saw a large tree ahead with a dry spot at the trunk that was hollowed out slightly. Nessie walked over to the hollow and sat down, dragging me down with her.
"So, why are we here?" I asked. It was beautiful, sure, but why would a little girl go here?
Nessie smiled. "I have my reasons. Mainly, I like to watch the wildlife, like the birds and rabbits and wolves and squirrels and-"
"Wait- did you just say wolves?" I asked. Hopefully she was just letting her imagination run wild.
"Yes, I did just say wolves. I don't see them that much, but they're more common than you would think. Jakey makes sure to keep me safe from them." She said, smiling. I thought she was insane. Even for her age, this was stupid. She came here, alone with me, when she knew that wolves roamed around here?
"Maybe we should go back now. I'm not sure if the wolves would leave us alone if they spotted us…" I said, standing up and reaching towards her hand. We had to get out of here before either of us got hurt.
She grabbed my wrist, dragging me back down. I tried to fight back and pull her up, but she was actually very strong and I was weak. I gave up, plopping on the ground beside her.
She looked at me, still keeping a strong grip on my wrist, before she started to explain. "The wolves won't hurt us. I've been here alone lots of times, and all they've done is stared at me. They surely won't bother us now."
"I'm not sure…" I started to say, but drifted off when I saw the look of resolution on her face. We both were staying here, no matter what I said or thought. I slumped down, feeling my exhaustion once again. I felt Nessie leaning against me as I drifted off into unconsciousness.