Chapter 5 Waiting
I woke up and I could feel I was on something hard and cold, and realized I was half on top of Edward. I wondered how much I must have been tossing and turning through the night, and hoped
I hadn't said anything I didn't want to. I didn't open my eyes yet, but I could tell the sun was up and it was morning. It was also very windy and I could hear the fifty mile an hour gusts howling outside. But our little house was sturdy and didn't seem to have a problem with it.
"Are you ready to get up?" Edward asked quietly. I should have known he knew I was already awake.
I sat up and stretched, "Yeah I think so. I certainly slept enough yesterday. What time is it?"
"It's only eight," he replied.
I smiled, it looked like my sleep schedule was getting on the right track again.
"Do you want some breakfast?"
"In a few minutes. I want to get washed up first. Do we have running water?" I wasn't actually hungry, but I thought it would be a good idea to get some nourishment inside me.
"Yup, everything is still ready and running. The people who rented this place last just moved out a couple days ago."
"That was lucky for us," I said smiling. It was nice to not have to worry about all that kind of stuff. "I'll be a few minutes."
"I'll wait in the kitchen," he told me. He was pushing me to eat, probably thinking the same thing I was.
I grabbed some of my new warm comfortable clothes and headed into the bathroom. Like the rest of the house, the bathroom was impeccably clean and in good shape. When I stepped in the shower, the water came out fast, and dispensed hot water right away. I stayed in the shower a long time, enjoying the warmth. Eventually I had to reluctantly turn the water off and get dressed. Then I headed to the kitchen for breakfast.
There was cereal and milk from the food Edward bought me yesterday, so I poured myself a small bowl and ate slowly. I looked out the window as I ate, and my heart sank a little for two reasons. The first was because the sun was shining, with only a few clouds scattered around. It looked like we'd be stuck in the house most of the day. The second reason was even though the sun shone beautifully, the rest of the the scenery did not look very pleasant. The grass was brown and dead looking, but also very wet. Small mud puddles were scattered around everywhere, and there were still some small patches of brown dirty melting snow. Spring really was disgusting in the northeast.
I looked around the house, noticing how empty it seemed. "Where's Emmett?" I realized what was missing.
"He went out again really early this morning. He said, even though he's not thirsty, he just wanted to see what animals there are in this area." Edward grinned," I could hear him hoping there were some kind of bear around."
I suddenly felt sorry for any nearby bears. I finished eating and washed my bowl and spoon. Edward and I went into the living room to watch TV. The day was as uneventful and slow as I'd feared it would be. But it still wasn't the slow agonizing tourcher staying at the hotel with Jasper and Alice had been. This time I spent the long day curled up next to Edward. I worked to keep my mind clear so I wouldn't worry. Then things became a little noisier when Emmett returned later that afternoon, but it was still peaceful. I had to give Emmett credit, he was being less annoying than I ever thought he could be, and was usually very quiet. There was probably something on his mind, but I didn't think to ask Edward about it.
Around six that night, after the sun had set, Edward stood up and turned of the news I had been half listening to. "Do you still want to go drive around, and go out for dinner?"
"Yes." I was glad we could finally do something, the more I sat and did nothing, the more likely I was to worry. "Is Emmett going to come too?"
"I don't think I will, I'm just going to go out again on foot." Emmett said a little distractedly.
I looked at him, wondering why he was acting so out of character. I noticed he had the cell phone curled in his hand. I had forgotten all about it. "Is Emmett alright?," I asked Edward as we got in the car.
"Don't worry about him. He's only been trying to predict what James is going to do next," he sounded like he was talking cautiously, or trying to choose the right words. "Him and Alice have been
on the phone a lot, trying to strategize and catch him sooner than later."
I suddenly realized how easy it was for news and updates to be kept from me. Emmett could just listen to news from Alice while he was out, and Edward was able to read Emmett's mind. "Where is James right now?" My question was almost a demand for answers.
Edward sighed, and I guessed he didn't want to answer this. " Rosalie lost track of Victoria just a few hours ago. Somehow she was able to slip away, she seemed to know she was being followed. Alice and Jasper have been tracking James, and they've followed him into Pennsylvania. Alice is having trouble seeing the future right now too, James keeps changing his mind. We're worried he and Victoria know about Alice and how to cloud her visions."
I gasped, I didn't realize how close he was getting. At the same time, I didn't feel as worried as I thought I would, because this meant he was getting further away from Charlie and Renee.
Edward cringed at my reaction.
"Emmett's going toward Pennsylvania to see if he can cut him off. That's what Emmett's been planning, trying to find the best way to go," Edward added.
We were both silent for a while, I watched the scenery. There were a lot of hills, and a lot of leafless trees. After we drove for half an hour we came to a small town that seemed to still be covered
in snow. It was hard to tell though, because it was so dark. It also still very windy, when I looked at the mostly bare tree tops, they were always swaying back and forth wildly.
We came to a city after an hour. "Where do you want to eat?" Edward asked as we passed several restaurants.
"I don't know," it was hard to decide where to eat now that I was nervous and anxious again.
"How about here," Edward suggested indicating a fancy expensive looking Italian restaurant.
"I don't want gourmet food," I said truthfully. "How about something simpler, like that Pizza Hut."
"That seems good enough," Edward agreed.
Once we were inside, I realized it was possible to order the salad bar, which included soup, some pizza, and even dessert. That was what I decided on to eat. "What have you been thinking about," Edward asked me politely and curiously as I started to nibble on my small salad.
"I'm just remembering some good times I've had with Renee, and even a few with Charlie when I was little."
He smiled slightly, then looked serious again, "I promise everything will go back to normal, and you will be safe again."
I nodded, "I know," I did believe him. It was just hard to stay calm when so much was happening in such a short amount of time.
When we got home that night, I noticed Emmett wasn't around, but I didn't say anything about it. I had trouble falling asleep that night, even though I was tired and snuggled next to Edward. He
seemed to notice this and started to hum my lullaby. As always, this calmed me down and I felt myself fall into an uneasy sleep.
I woke up and found myself on my stomach, holding Edward's hand. I never slept on my stomach, I must have been really thrashing last night. I really hoped Edward wasn't getting too worried
about me, and I hoped again I hadn't said something to make him feel worse. I tried to smile, "I think I'm ready to get up now and have breakfast." I did feel hungry for once. Maybe having good food yesterday had done some good things for my metabolism.
He smiled back, "Don't you want to have a few moments to yourself first, to clean up?"
"I'll do that after breakfast," I said simply.
"Alright, lets go track you down some food," he said as he got up and held out his hand.
I took it and we headed to the kitchen. I pulled out a couple frozen waffles and put them in the toaster. While the cooked I pulled out the milk, syrup, butter, a plate, and a fork and knife. I ate
slowly, I didn't want to be alone yet. Eventually, I did finish, and I figured I wanted to be clean more than I didn't want to be alone. So I went in the bathroom and showered and got ready for the day fairly
quickly. When I got out, Edward was waiting for me on the couch.
I flopped next to him and snuggled up close to his cold hard body. We sat like this for a long time, not saying anything or doing anything. Everything seemed very quiet and peaceful lately, it seemed
strange that anything fearfully terrible was happening at the moment. I started to wonder what I was going to tell Renee and Charlie when this was finally over, but couldn't think of anything.
Suddenly Edward started growling furiously, making me jump. "What's wrong," I was starting to panick. Was it Renee? Charlie? Did he manage to hurt someone in my vampire family? And
how did Edward find out about whatever happened so suddenly?
He ignored me though, and continued to growl, looking at the door. He did wrap his arms around me a bit tighter, in a more protective way. Someone must be coming here I thought. I tried to keep
myself composed and collected, and looked out the glass door too. I saw a fast blur headed straight for the door, and felt the edge of pure panic and terror, but before I could react in any way, the door
opened and I discovered it was just Emmett.
"What do we do now? We have to find a way to get her away." Edward spoke with a mix of panic and fury before Emmett even closed the door.
"Please," I begged, "tell me what has happened!"
Edward finally looked at me, and I almost gasped and jumped again at the pain and anger in his hard topaz eyes. He tried to keep his words emotionless, but he was unsuccessful in completely hiding
his frustration. "Emmett just got a call from Alice while he was out. Alice saw a vision of both James and Victoria arriving here. To make things worse, she predicts that's about to happen withing minutes, and
they must have found out enough about Alice to change their intentions constantly. Even now, Alice sees them arriving and showing themselves in various ways. She doesn't know how they will show themselves, she only can see when."