Thanks to Gothic Girl 3000, La Belle Morte, LiTlTe BeLlA sWaN, aquakim, WillUBMyEdwardCullen? and MrsBellaEdwardSwanCullen for reviewing.
Medusa Sparrow-Descouedres: Thanks you thank you thank you! I can't thank you enough!
3. Nightmares
School the next day was the same as the first; everyone gawked at us when we entered the building, staring at our extraordinary beauty. Alex ignored me all throughout, only being polite in few situations. For some reason, it made my throat constrict and my eyes water, even though I knew there was no reason to feel like this. At lunch, I met up with Bella and the others outside the cafeteria.
"Mind if I sit with you today?" I asked.
Rosalie glared. "And you're asking, because…?"
I fought off a smile. Obviously Rosalie would feel like that. Even though I hadn't sat with them yesterday, I wasn't supposed to ask to sit with them.
"Just because."
I walked with them to the table, keeping my head now. I sat next to Bella on her left side, Edward on her right, trying to ignore all the interested looks that were constantly shot our way, though no one made a move. It was obvious how together my 'siblings' were.
I forced myself not to look for Alex anywhere, and was pleased when I ignored my surroundings, concentrating instead on my brothers and sisters. They didn't mind when I stole food from their plates; it wasn't like they were eating it.
After lunch, Marianne came to pull me away from the others, greeting them nicely. I found myself liking her; she was enigmatic and sweet, and really cheery. At lunch I had vaguely remembered a horoscope that seemed like hers for this month, to distract me from Alex.
The stars are aligned to give you the gift of a new friend, one who will like you and be attracted by your natural charisma, sweetness, and bubbly personality. Saturn will be your leading planet, and in order to make this new friend you must offer a hand of friendship towards her. Secrets will be revealed to this friend, so take care with what is exposed.
Marianne was close to becoming my best friend and rang immediately when we got home from school. I was on the phone with her for long, talking about everything in random.
At night, I still found it hard to sleep and sat on my pillow, pulling my knees up to my chest. I rested my head on my knees, revelling in the silence, but somehow drifted off.
Marianne knelt in front of the unconscious body of her sister, checking for a pulse. She found one, but it was faint, weak. There was silence, but suddenly the creature was in front of her.
"Don't worry darling, you won't a feel a thing."
The blow caught her in the side of her head. She fell unconscious; waking up to find she was tied to a chair in the same room. There was also a gag over her mouth, and she looked up, seeing the man coming closer. He was wearing a mask, but otherwise looked ordinary.
"I see you're finally awake." His chuckle was low, dark. Marianne knew it was no use struggling, but fury coursed through her veins when she noticed the body of her sister lying in the same place. The man was silent, staring at her for a while his head tilted to one side.
"Such a pretty face and the eyes…lovely." He murmured. With a sudden fluid movement, he ripped the mask off his face.
The horror couldn't be expressed in words.
The right side of his face was scarred, running from his forehead and dribbling down to his neck, disappearing into his high collar. His cheekbones were visible, pink tissue crisscrossing his face. The burn marks were worse. It looked like someone had just carelessly branded that half of his face, but underneath it all were neat marks, forming a game. Noughts and crosses. Words. Vampire.
"This is what that dreaded priest did to me seven centuries ago." He snarled.
"Capturing me, burning me. All because of who I am." His eyes burned dark, crimson. "Your great great great great great-grandfather, in fact. I swore I would have revenge, and here I am." The vampire smiled, evilly. "Revenge on his descendant. I hope he's watching this from heaven."
There was a knife from nowhere. It gleamed dully, its edge jagged. And then it slashed down at Marianne's face, and for a second, when the knife came away, there wasn't much left of the right side of her face. Only blood and flesh and bone.
I woke up screaming, my body responding wildly to the ghostly pain. Bella's arms were suddenly pressed around me, soothing me as she had when I was a child, rocking back and forth. Edward was at her side, and his hands reached out to cup my face gently, drawing me into his arms.
"Don't worry, sweetie, nothing's happened, nothing's wrong, we're here." She whispered again and again, trying to reassure me.
"What is it, Elizabeth?" He asked, his voice worried.
"Just – a dream." I whispered. "Nothing but a dream."
"It was one of your visions, wasn't it?" Bella asked, stroking my hair.
My eyes fluttered open. "Yes."
"If you want to talk about it, we're here." Edward held my hand gently, reassuring me, giving me comfort.
I swallowed my voice weak. "Thanks." Bella didn't ease up from her position, and I felt comfortable, my head nodding. She lifted my head gently and set it down on the pillow, pulling my cover up to my chin.
"Don't worry about being alone. We're here for you always."
I smiled; noticing the way Bella echoed Edward. For once I wanted my Mom to watch over me as she had when I was a child, even though I was ten years older. With her comforting presence in the room, I drifted off to sleep.
When I woke up, Bella was still there, leaning against Edward's side.
"Morning sleepyhead. More school today." She laughed, a tinkling sound like bell chimes. Ever since I was born I'd loved that laugh.
"Yeah, I know." I disappeared into the bathroom, and when I came out they were gone; I could hear them downstairs, and the sound of piano music floated upstairs. Edward, of course. The lullaby that was for Bella and me. I dressed quickly and went down, my parents looking up as soon as I entered the door.
"Sleep well?" Bella asked, inspecting my face more closely.
I nodded. "I feel better now."
Bella smiled, glancing at Edward to throw a look at him.
At school I acted normal with Marianne, trying not to let her notice anything was off, though I was confused. I'd seen what he'd done to her face, but when I looked, I didn't notice anything. There was just… nothing. In English, Mr Faulks made me stand up and read me some lines from a poem about love.
"True love is a sacred flame that burns eternally, and none can dim its special glow or change its destiny…" at the mention of the word destiny, I peeked at Alex.
Are you my destiny?
He was staring back, his forehead creased. He was staring at me, and there was nothing negative in his expression, just wonder. It made my heart pound faster, my body tingle, and I ripped my gaze away, unwilling, to get back to the poem.
After school, my feet unwillingly led me towards the pitch where I knew there would be soccer practice, and I stood next to the bleachers, watching Alex, who was holding the ball. At that moment, his gaze lifted to mine – how had he found me amongst the bleachers? – And the electric current that rippled through me made me freeze.
I was locked in his eyes, experiencing the same feelings as before in literature class. While Alex was distracted, I had a feeling Trent, the linebacker, would slam into Alex. My stopped beating for a second at the though of Alex getting hurt, and without thinking, I was running for Alex and pushed him out of the way, my momentum carrying us onto the other side of the pitch. We fell, and somehow I ended up on top of Alex, who was staring at me strangely.
"Liz?" How I wished the ground would swallow me up.
"Oops…"
"Are you both okay? What was that?" Coach Laufield came running towards us.
"Nothing sir. Liz was just running and crashed into me by accident. I tried to prevent her from getting hurt." Alex explained, all innocence.
Coach Laufield nodded, uninterested. "Black, you want to sit out, feel free. Only five minutes, you hear me?"
Alex nodded. "I won't need much longer than that, sir."
Coach Laufield turned to go and I looked at him, when Alex coughed to get my attention.
"I think you're lying on top of me."
Blushing I rolled off quickly, and stood up, dusting my clothes off. "Sorry."
"Why did you do that, Liz?" Alex asked.
"I just… I saw Trent running into you."
Alex raised his eyebrow. "Thanks, but that's what soccer's all about. I get worse from the other teams."
I nodded. "I know, I'm sorry."
"It's fine. Whatever." A casual dismissal. I turned around and walked to the Volvo, which was already purring, the engine switched on. I got into the back and all I could feel was this mind numbing pain, the pain of knowing that I'd fallen in love with Alex straight away as soon as I saw him, the pain of seeing Trent about to slam into him, the pain of the way he just turned his head away from me. All I could so was stay in my room; the tears coursing silently down my cheeks as I stared up at the wood-panelled ceiling.
Everyone wisely stayed away, though I knew my mother was aching to comfort me. I needed the time alone.
The rest of the week passed by in a blur, and so did the following week. At school I noticed that Alex looked tired, worn out, as if he'd been unable to get any sleep.
His face was pale; dark bruises forming under his eyes. His eyes were dull and though I didn't know what brought it on, it added to my pain to know that he was suffering in some way. I was beginning to look as bad as well, and it seemed as though I was sleep-walking through the day, all time ceased to have meaning.
And then there were the nightmares. The vision of Marianne was only a vision I had had and so far I hadn't confronted her about it, especially as I didn't know if it was the past or would be in the future.
But the nightmares were much worse; each night I woke up screaming in agony that brought my parents running to my room and making the others concerned about me. Carlisle once asked me if I had considered going to a doctor, but I couldn't.
Things only started going bad when I started sleepwalking.
The vampire who had carved off half of Marianne's face, the Spanish one, Jesse, laughed cruelly as he drew out the blade once again.
But this time it was different. This time it was I tied in the chair, not Marianne. This time I would feel Marianne's pain, not an echo of the pain, but all of the pain.
And this time he would carve my whole face.
It was over quick, and then excruciating pain. It was all I could feel, pain. He drew back, and I saw my reflection in the mirror on the wall behind him. My silvery-blonde hair framed a perfect oval face but what was in the oval was ravaged, a caricature of the worst evil, destruction of carnage.
And then the door opened and my parents walked in, sporting the same faces.
It had been okay when it had been only me to bear the pain, but the people I loved most in the world…
I shrieked with rage and tore free of my binds, running at Jesse, my fingers curled into claws, the blood seeping down my neck, the loss of vision, sense, taste.
I wanted him to pay.
But he sidestepped easily and I pulled myself short before I went barrelling through the window.
"You won't do it because you're scared, coward."
I could hear his taunt, but couldn't see. What to do? I looked at my parents who were at the door, the remains of their faces turned to me.
Only my vision had been tampered with; blood seeped into my eyes.
Jesse was near them and the sword sliced through both their midsections. The top half of their body tumbled off, and the bottom half remained. Quick as a flash, Jesse pushed me through the window, shattering glass, and my body automatically touched the ground lightly on all fours.
Then I was running, running away from Jesse, away from my murdered parents away from the reflection of the ravaged girl in the mirror.
The cold night air rushed to greet me, and I breathed in the air deeply, wonderingly.
So far, I hadn't known where I was running to, but suddenly rock loomed all around me and I could see the edge of the cliff. I walked right to the periphery and looked down, at the sparkling stretch of shimmering blue water that was illuminated by the moonlight.
It was beautiful, and it called to me.
"Lizzie! LIZZIE!"
I ignored the anxious cry, my foot stretched out to walk over the edge, but the next second someone grabbed me around my waist and pulled me back, and then darkness reigned.
I woke with a start, shuddering. Even though I couldn't feel the cold I could tell it was icy and I opened my eyes, seeing only darkness. But not the familiar darkness of my bedroom; I was… outside. And lying on top of Alex.