BUT THEN...
...English class started. They were all going to recite poems they were supposed to have written for the class. Rain cursed internally because she wasn't prepared at all, and since she was gothic and all emotional she was sure to be asked to read hers. If she'd had time to prepare herself, she would have written a masterpiece that would reduced the whole class to tears. Now she had missed a chance to shine, wich was a bummer.
Bella read her poem first. It was about how she thought it was hard to show emotion, and how that problem was eating her from the insides. The class clapped, and Mr. Szokolowski said that Bella had true talent. Of course... there was hardly a teacher who didn't like BELLA, Rain thought bitterly.
Then it was Rebecca's turn to read hers. (A/N: This is copy pasted from the original story.)
"let me tel a tail
o listen 2 me wale
abut how muhc my live rockz
i am 1 of dose
awsum and cool peeps
hu weres awsum cloesths
sumtimez i lisen 2 me wine
sumtimez i lisen 2 me dred
but i am luking up
cuz my life is geting up
am i jsut paranode
liek i sound!"
Everyone looked at Rebecca like she had just farted during a presidential inaugumentation. She bowed left and right, and said "Thank you! Thank you! I LOVE YOU, FOOOOOOOORKS!" then she went to sit on her chair again, oogling Edward googlingly.
"Thank you, Rebecca, that's enough," Mr. Szokilowski interjected. "Now we'll hear Edward's poem."
"AHEM," said Edward. "This is a wee poem in ye style of William Shakespeare, that I hath writteneth to a wench whom meaneth ye world to me." He stood up and started reciting dramaturgically:
"Thou art my fairy of magic rhyme
Like a starry night in springy time
When unicorns grazeth in ye fields of gold
And a special snowflake in a wynter so cold.
Thou art the hangman of my bleeding heart
Rusty nails in nights so dark
Grindeth my soul to smithereens
And I'm feeleth old."
Rebecca was swooning in her seat because she thougth the poem was obviously for her. Bella looked ashamed. And the rest of the class were giggling maliciously.
The school was over for the day, and the students all milled out of the institutional doors like ants who have located a lollipop. Rebecca came over to speak to Edward.
"So, Edoweird, what are we gonna do now that school is over today?" she pimpled adolescently.
"We must abide our time to go and rescue poor, wee Alice!" Edward said, making a sad puppy face. "She be suffering most dreadfully in her lonesome dungeon."
A lightbulb flickered above Rebecca's mostly empty head. But then it disappeared again.
"I hath a plan by the ready," Edward explained. "We must beget ourselves to thy homestead by evenfall, and we shall prevail."
"Awesome," Rebecca screached.
Edward took Rebecca away to keep her occupied, while Bella, Rain and James got into the Mercedes and drove to Charlie's house. They stopped at an army outlet along the way to get a bullet proof stab vest for Charlie, who probably had no idea what he was up against.
Charlie was washing the police car in the drive when they arrived.
"Dad!" cried Bella. "You need to help us. Rebecca is completely insane, and we need to get her mental help before she hurts anyone."
"The thought had occured to me," Charlie sighed. "I've been trying to help the kid the best I can, but I have failed." He looked very sad. "I'm a lousy father."
"You are NOT!" said Bella. "You are the best father anyone could ever have!" Then she kissed her dad on the cheek in front of her friends. Suddenly Rain missed her own parents. She wondered how they were doing, travelling the world freely.
"Here is the thing," she explained, handing Charlie the vest. "Rebecca thinks that you are holding Alice captive down at the nick. She's coming here later to steal the keys and liberate her. When she arrives, you need to stop her and keep her contained. Then we will call a friend of James', who runs a place where they can help girls like Rebecca."
"But why do I need a bullet proof vest?" Charlie increduloused. "She is just a little girl."
"She is capable of murder," said James solemnly. "At school today she tried to kill Edward, who she desires like other people desire oxymorogen. Sam Uley will have a career in the opera thanks to her. And she also thinks she has killed me already."
"We gave her a theatrical knife with a false blade," said Rain. "And Edward is bringing a paint gun with red cartridges. But we need to be sure in case she goes for heavier equipement. She thinks she's doing a jail break, remember."
They saw Edward's silver Volvo approach, and took cover indoors. Charlie insisted that Bella went to hide in the basement, while James and Rain hid in between the coats in the hallway wardrobe.
Edward pulled up in front of the house. From their hiding place it wasn't possible to see what was going on outside the window, but Rain's vampire ability was to see in her head what was going on when she thought about someone. (Her parents were in Hawaii, she had found out.)
Rebecca was coming out of the car. Edward had somehow managed to get all the mud and war paint washed off of her, and made her dress in a deceptively normal track suit she had probably borrowed from Alice's closet. She was still ugly as fuck, though!
The sight of Bella's old, well-used truck seemed to piss Rebecca off something grandiosa. She ran over to it, and kicked it with all her might with her bootless foot stupidly. There was a nasty crunch of toes breaking, and Rebecca howled in pain.
"Migh I suggest it would be wizer if thou left ye motorized vehicle by its lonesome?" Edward inquired politely.
"Wait, Edward," said Rebecca, as if she had suddenly remembered something obvious. "What if Chadley is in?"
"Who might Chadley be?" asked Edward.
Rebecca didn't hear the question, because she was busy whipping her hair back and forth for dramatic hero effect. Rain started laughing against James' shoulder.
Rebecca looked up at Edward, and her eyes had aquired quite a preposterous countenance. (A/N: thesarus FTW!)
"I just mean, what if he's there? That could be bad for us in all sorts of ways. What if he catches you trying to steal his keys? Then what, Edoweird?" Rebecca screamed. "I can't live without you, you FUCKING MOTHERSUCKER(sic)! STOP TRYING TO BREAK UP WITH ME!"
Edward looked at her like "WTF is wrong with her NOW?"
"Rebecca, thy uncle must hath ye keys," he said. "All we hath to do is to thief thy uncle's keys."
A face-splitting moronic grin appeared onto Rebecca's appalling visage, as if to say "GR8 ID!"
"I know what I must do, Edoweird," she said, and opened the front door.
James and Rain snuck soundlessly after her as she went into the livingroom. Charlie appeared in the kitchen door.
"Charlie, give me the keys, or I will fucking kill you!" Rebecca said threateningly. She pulled out a knife she had strapped to her back. Rain breathed a sigh of relief when she recognized the prop knife.
Charlie looked a bit unsure about what to do. Then he discovered the paint gun Edward had left on the table. He reached for it and aimed it at Rebecca.
"Rebecca," he said sternly. "Put down the knife. I will shoot if I have to."
Rebecca came a step closer.
"You are acting out of control," Charlie continued. "I can't let you continue like this. I'm not punishing you, I'm trying to help."
For a second it looked like Rebecca was going to give up. Then she lunged at Charlie and punched him in the face hard enough to distract him for a second. She stabbed him several times in the stomach, and Rain was glad they had brought the vest. Even if the blade was plastic and retractable, it would probably have hurt without it.
Charlie seized the girl by her arms and struggled to get control of her. The gun went off, and Rebecca's left arm was covered in red liquid. Surprisingly, it didn't make Rain feel particularly hungry. She and James ran out from their hiding place and helped Charlie restrain the frantic girl.
Rebecca didn't even appear to notice them. Her hateful gaze was fixed at Charlie, and she started to laugh. A laugh that was so manical and bonechilling it made Rain shiver to the core. She could tell it had the same effect on James and Charlie.
"HA HA, YOU FUCKER! YOU SHOT MY LEFT ARM, NOT MY RIGHT!" she shrieked, as her eyes rolled around in her skull. She was drooling and shaking all over, and Rain suspected that she was hallucinating.
"Her mind is crashing," James said seriously.
Charlie started shaking her violently. "Rebecca!" he shouted, "Stay with us! Come out of there! Don't go down this path! We can help you."
Suddenly the front door went up, and two men came running in. One was tall and lean with shaggy brown hair. The other was younger and shorter, blond and cheeky looking.
"I think we've got to her in time," the blond man said as he bent down next to Rebecca on the floor. "Hugo, have you got the shot ready?"
"Here," said the man called Hugo, and handed the other one a syringe filled with a clear, green liquid.
Hugo pulled up Rebecca's sleeve and injected the medicine. It worked quickly. After a few seconds Rebecca stopped struggling. The manical contortions disappeared from her face, and Rain could see that she actually looked quite ordinary. Not exactly beautiful, but not the monster she had seemed a few moments ago.
"What is wrong with her?" Charlie asked worried. "And who are you?"
"I'm Brian Hahnel from the FBI," explained the young man. "And this is Hugo Smith. He's from a special unit. Our friend James told us about this case. Your niece has got a very serious mental condition, Mr. Swan. It's got a long, difficult Latin name, but we mostly refer to it as "Sueitis", after the first known victim."
"It completely takes over the sufferers brain," Hugo continued. "Rebecca does no longer know who she is and what is going on around her. She will have had delusions of invincibility, and believed herself to be special or chosen in some way. It is important that she receives the proper psychiatric attention."
"Is she going to be allright?" asked Bella, who had come up from the basement. Edward had been keeping her company while she was hiding, and had his arm comfortingly around her shoulder.
"I think so," said Hugo. "We have had a very high success rate in the past. My own daughter has made a full recovery."
"She'll be taken good care of," said Brian. "There are several other girls her age at the facility, that are well on their way to getting back to their real selves. Ebony, Twila and Dally are inspiring cases, and can offer her a lot of support on her road back to life."
They put Rebecca on a stretcher, and took her away in what looked like an ambulace, except it was gothically black. Rain could hear Brian and Hugo discussing whether to put Rebecca with a girl named Marissa or one named Ariana.
EPILOGUE
"I'm glad Rebecca is going to be OK," said Rain as she was checking her inbox. "Oh, I have a mail from Mom."
"What is she saying?" James asked. "Hawaii still treating them well?"
"Yes and no," Rain said with a funny expression. "They have been deported."
"Huh?" asked Jessie, who was watching Bones, "What did they do?"
"Apparently, they have caused the extinction of the Hawaiian blue-nosed wombat," Rain sighed. "It tasted like pineapple daquiry, their favourite drink. The VBI (Vampire Bureau of Investigation) are sending them to Australia for punishment, and they will have to remain there until the rabbit population is under control. I am SO ashamed of my parents that I don't even know what to say!"
"I know a guy who has a time machine," said James thoughtfully. "We could go back in time and retrieve a few breeding specimens. Then we can reintroduce them to their native habitat, and be famous as the people who discovered it wasn't actually extinct!"
"Hooray!" shouted Rain. "We're gonna be so stinking rich! Oh, can we build a new house in the woods? One that looks more like Downton Abbey? Oh, and can we rescue the thylacines as well?" (A/N: They are the animals in my avatar!)
"Sure," said James. "And maybe we should all go on a long vacation. I think we deserve that after this commotion. Your parents may need some help with those rabbits, eh?"
"Kawaii!" shouted Rain.
And so concludes the Rebecca Swansin arc of Rain's gothic chronicals. But who knows what adventures lie ahead for our intrepid heroes.