Hey everybody. My school's been swined so I'm updating a little earlier than I thought. I'd like to inform you that my musical went really well. Funnily enough, I played a judge. (If you didn't get that, go look at my username.) I'd also like to thank you for being so forgiving. I know I've been inconsistent. I updated at least once a week when I first started this. Now, it's just getting tricky. It'll be a while before updates start getting regular again, but no worries, summer vacation starts in June. So hang tight and keep being the lovely audience I know you are.
Last time:
I zoned out as he started talking medical mumbo-jumbo on the phone. I trusted him to come up with the perfect fake illness. I trusted no one but myself to save Haley. I knew one thing. We were going to have to get some plane tickets fast.
"Yes, of course. And if you show any of those symptoms, please call me or go to the hospital. Goodbye." Carlisle hung up the phone. He looked around at all of us. Jake glared back. We all knew he was just taking out his frustration. I knew I wanted to do the same thing. I somehow managed to appear somewhat calm.
"I think we now ought to call the others," he announced.
"But aren't most of them nomads?" Embry asked. "How are you going to call them if they don't have a house or anything?" I saw his point. How the hell were we going to reach anyone besides the Denalis?
"Don't you think we learned anything from last time?" said Bella testily. "They have cell phones now in case anything happened." She really was on edge. She was usually so serene and calm. Then again, she was still very close to a newborn vampire. No wonder she was having some control issues. I was surprised she hadn't gotten up and broken my collarbone again.
Rosalie, Jasper, Alice, Emmett, Esme and Carlisle were already taking out their own phones and dialing in numbers at speeds even my wolf eyes couldn't follow. Edward had his arm around Bella. She was leaning against him. They looked so couple-y that it gave me a stomachache. And a headache. And a heartache. I understood their pain, but didn't they know that Jake and I were feeling it too?
I walked out the front door. I needed to be alone for a while. I ran off into the woods and took off my shorts, tying them around my ankle. I then phased into the huge monster that I was and started running. It was all my fault that Haley was in this mess. If it weren't for me she never would've been in those woods when the Volturi came . She wasn't even the outdoor type. If I hadn't imprinted...
But I couldn't make myself regret having imprinted. It'd given me so much that I just couldn't. Her idea that we couldn't last was so ludicrous that I almost laughed. Then I suddenly became depressed again. Right as we'd more or less set out on the fucking road to happiness, she got kidnapped. It was like I'd suddenly acquired the mood swings of an adolescent girl. My emotions flopped up and down the spectrum from outrage to anger to depression to a need for revenge. I became aware of another presence in my mind.
I'm sorry. It was Leah.
Would you get out of my head? I exclaimed. I knew it wasn't fair to take this out on her, but I really needed to be alone right now.
Seth, you can't just run off. If you want to help her then you might as well come back and help plan strategy. And don't think you can outrun me. Wasn't that just Leah? She couldn't even make a point without putting in how she was the fastest.
I can so! I just didn't want you to think that you can just take off. That won't help anything, you know.Damn, I couldn't even insult my own sister in my head anymore. I started to miss the good old days, when I could think the most annoying thoughts ever and she wouldn't crack down on me for them.
Fine! I know. I get it. I'm coming! Jesus, can't a guy get two seconds to himself without being bossed around by his sister?
Nope. Now get a move on, you're slower than molasses going uphill in January. I smiled internally. She was tricky. She'd just snapped me out of it right when I'd needed it the most. What could help you get your game face on more than an irritating older sister? Yes, I was still just as adamant on getting Haley back, but now I was more levelheaded.
I caught up with Leah, who was sitting under a tree looking regretful. She stood up and shook the pine needles out of her fur.
I'm sorry about that. I was just the only way I could think of to...
Yeah. I know. It's okay. I put my head down so it was next to her smaller, lower one. Thanks. I finally related to her everlasting pain. Even if mine was fresher and stronger, hers was bitter and had hardened her beyond belief from the sister I had know, loved, and bugged the hell out of.
Together, we ran the minute back to the trees near the Cullen house and turned our backs to each other so that we could change. I elbowed her and we walked back into the house.
I could tell from the looks on Embry and Quil's faces that they normally would've given me hell for running off like a little girl. That just showed how sorry they were and how strongly they felt the depths of Jake's and my pain, that they didn't start. I rolled my eyes at them to show them that I was okay, and that they weren't going to get away with the smirks on their faces. I didn't do anything, though. I wasn't in the mood. I was more in the mood to go hunt down and beat some vampires. Quite honestly though, I'd settle for not kicking the vampires butts and just letting them get away with it all, anything as long as I got Haley back.
Haley P.o.V.
Nessie and I had been here for a little too long. There is only so much you can do when you're trapped in a small room with vampires surrounding the outside. I was getting more and more anxious by the minute. One more minute and I was going to be very close to mentally insane.
Ness seemed to be holding up fairly well. She wasn't bouncing slightly up and down on the creaky bed, like I was. The noise seemed to comfort me, reminded me that there was still ungainliness in this place of unnatural grace. She was sitting silently, as she had for the last few hours, thinking, or so I gathered from the focused look on her face. All of a sudden, I got to the point where I just couldn't stand it anymore.
"What's wrong?" I asked. "Tell me what you're thinking, I'm going to go nuts." I sounded like a whiny baby, but somehow I didn't care.
"I've been thinking..." she said.
"No way," I muttered under my breath, momentarily forgetting that this was the wrong time for sarcasm if ever there was one.
"It's just that it doesn't fit," she said, coming around to look at me with those childlike and yet so adult eyes. "Demetri and Felix said they wanted the pack and my family to join them. Maybe they would've tried that before I was born, but I don't think they're dumb enough to think they could get any kind of loyalty out of them, whether we were held captive or not."
"So why the..." I hesitated. So what if she was more mature than I was, she was still young enough that I didn't feel like I could use foul language around her.
"You can say it," she giggled. "I'm used to it, or haven't you heard Jake and everybody?" I rolled my eyes.
"Okay, so why the hell would they take us if they weren't holding us for ransom or something?" I asked.
"That's what I'm trying to figure out," she said, her small forehead creasing. "What use they could possibly have of us, well, me." Yeah, I was extra. Just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Useless. Disposable. Thanks for reminding me.
"I guess we just have to find out," I said, though not with any anticipation. This wasn't necessarily something I wanted to find out.
A sudden creaking noise came at the door. I jumped about a foot off the bed and got a satisfyingly resounding screech from the thing.
"I am sorry," came the young accented voice. Not charming or smooth enough to be a vampire.
"Oh, thank God it's only you!" I sighed in response to Lorenzo's apology. He shrugged, as if admitting that he wasn't particularly scary. I relaxed and sat next to Renesmee so that we could put up a united front of sorts against whatever members of the undead might come in after him.
"Renesmee, I sincerely apologize, but I have orders to come get you from Aro." I panicked slightly. They were just getting Ness? I wasn't useful? Perhaps they would decide I was more trouble than I was worth and just suck my body dry. I made up my mind to give any vampire who tried indigestion.
"But what about Haley?" she asked quietly and fiercely. "Will she be safe here if I'm gone?"
"As safe as I can guarantee it. Aro said nothing of her, which possibly means that she is just to be left where she is. I'm sorry I can't give you a better answer than that. How safe are any of us in here?" Talk about rhetorical questions. I think we all knew the answer before he even asked: damn unsafe.
Nessie hopped up off the ancient bed and walked over to him without another word. "I'll see you," she mouthed to me as she followed Lorenzo out the door. I heard their footsteps walking back down the corridor.
I spent the next two or three hours in endless wall-staring. You'd think they'd give a bored prisoner a book or a jigsaw puzzle, but no. The absence of the book started to grate on me. There was only so much I could do before I went cuckoo from the silence and stillness. I supposed I was too used to keeping myself entertained.
I started to make nonsensical lists inside my head. I listed all the types of fruit I knew, all the people I had met in Forks, all the English vocabulary words I'd learned last year, all the things I was going to do if I got back home. The first would be to hug Seth. The second would be to see my family. The third would be to go to the nearest bookstore and stock up on the latest fantasies, science fictions, and thrillers. There was only so much empty-mindedness I could take.
I had gone through it seemed like every possible thought in my head, when I started getting seriously sick of myself. When it got right down to it, that inner voice somewhere in my head was annoying beyond belief. I decided to try to teach myself how to stand on my head, just for the hell of it. It was the most random thought that had popped into my mind yet, and I knew if I tried to analyze it and decide whether or not it was a rational thing to do, I'd just get a headache. I decided to go along with my instincts.
I was becoming somewhat lightheaded when I heard yet more footsteps coming down that hallway. I realized what I was doing to myself and attempted to kick my feet back down so that no one would know that I was slowly but surely losing it.
Lorenzo and Renesmee walked in right as my feet slammed to the floor. Nessie giggled, high and trilling. Poor Lorenzo looked like he was trying his hardest not to laugh. He wasn't doing a very good job with it. Chuckles kept escaping from between his pressed-together lips. I stood up and did my best to look dignified but then just ended up flushing an unusual scarlet color.
Lorenzo shook his head and walked back out the doorway. Nessie plopped back down on the mattress and continued her laughing.
"So what happened?" I asked, hoping to capture her attention. I worked. She immediately assumed a graver face.
"How about I show you?" she said, and pressed her warm palm to my cheek.
I was walking toward Aro. He appeared very glad to see me. I didn't know why, but I knew I was about to find out. He stretched out a long-fingered brittle hand and motioned that I come closer.
"So what do you really want me here for?" I asked.
"Oh, Renesmee, you clever child. I should've known you would have guessed from the beginning. May I introduce Faustus?"
From behind his robe came a small child, approximately two or three. To ordinary human eyes, he'd appear normal, but I recognized him for what he truly was. Just like me. His hair was cropped and black as pitch. His skin had a dark tint to it. What truly tipped me off to what he was were his eyes, huge and hazel, the green and brown clearly advertising that he was no immortal child.
"It is lovely to meet you," volunteered Faustus in a manner that was altogether too polite to appear real for one of his age. His real age must have been even younger than his appearance. If I was only a year old, he must only be a few months. It suddenly struck me whose child this was and I winced.
"Hello," I coolly answered back. If this was Aro's child then I shuddered to think what the mother must've gone through. They would've shown her no mercy. Perhaps she had even stayed in the room Haley and I were currently occupying.
"I'm so delighted you two can finally become acquainted. I saw how incredibly extraordinary you were, even last winter. I simply had to study this new breed of vampire hybrid. And so came about Faustus. Son, you simply must show us how incredibly talented and intelligent you are for one so young. Now I may compare the two of you and see if the incredible talents that the two of you possess are common to the hybrid." Aro was in his element. So overjoyed at finding a new study.
I shivered as Aro started questioning me in a way that was clearly meant to test my IQ. Now I knew exactly why I had been taken. And it wasn't a pleasant thought.
Nessie pulled her hand away from my face as I sat, shocked. This was disturbing. This was disturbing beyond belief. Nessie as a science experiment to be compared to Aro's own spawn? I shuddered.
Not so strangely, the thing I remembered most from Nessie's memory was her fleeting thought of Faustus's mother. What she had gone through all for the sake of Aro's whims, that was a tragedy beyond anything my imagination would be able to think up.
I needed to get out of here.