"Hey, pussy cat."
I sniffed the air, and sighed, rolling my eyes. "Come out from there, Elijah."
The custodian-boy grinned as he stepped out from the abandoned hallway. "Come on. I should have been able to prevent that whole thing in Biology, so now I can prevent any further mistakes." He motioned grandly to the end of the hallway, where there was a crack of light. An exit.
"Yeah," I snorted. "You should have. Now my parents haven't met yet and Edward's invited me to the Cullen house."
"Has he really?" Elijah chortled as he linked my arm, and we traveled down the hallway. Nobody y saw us leave, and we could always say that Elijah got sick and I had to drive him home. At this point I barely cared.
I yanked my arm from his as we pushed out way out of the exit, and found ourselves swamped by watery, gray light. It was a rainy day (shocker) and looked even more depressing than that one cartoon character, Eeyore.
"So is there another trick? Another teacher to snatch us?" I demanded.
Elijah just smiled as he led to me a rusty, yet proud-looking old truck. He stabbed the key in the silver lock, twisting it. A dusty click sounded in the door. "I think I've kept you waiting long enough," he chuckled.
I sighed, as he slipped into his side of the car, and unlocked my side. Cautiously, I slid into the vehicle, almost expecting some kind of trap. After all, Elijah was still a fairly perfect stranger.
The doors shut with a slam, and he locked in the keys, the old car grumbling to life with a low roar. I clutched the leather seat as he gripped the wheel, and glanced around before hitting the gas. And we were out of the Forks High School parking-lot.
"Let's go for a drive, shall we?" he asked with a playful grin.
"Alright, bucko," I growled. "Talk."
He glanced at me, then sighed. "Okay, fine. Look..." He hesitated. "I don't really know where to start."
I made sure sarcasm thrived in my next words. "Maybe you could start with that one bit about you claiming to be a time traveler!"
He smiled, but not in amusement. "Okay, girly, but promise, no interruptions, no shouting-"
"Alright, fine, just talk!"
"You already broke your promise." He laughed.
"Elijah!" I snarled. This was the farthest thing from being a funny situation I'd ever been in, and I felt like slapping him. "I'm serious! I'm lost, I'm scared, and I'm getting pissed. And you don't want to upset a vampire!"
He nodded, smile sliding from his face. "Fair enough," he muttered. We were on the main-road, driving fairly slow. Not very many people were out on the rainy roads right now. I glanced at the small digital clock: it read 1:28 PM.
"My full name is Elijah Maley. My parents are both dead; I live with my sister, Michelle, and we raise ourselves. I come from an unremarkable family, people who cheat and lie and steal. Nothing like the hero material you'd expect a time traveler would be mad of," he added, sounding almost rueful. I listened, motionless, wishing he would get on with it.
"I didn't even know I had the power until a year ago. An old man came to me; he said I had a journey ahead of me, and that a year from then, I'd be visited by a crazy girl." He looked at me. "That she'd come from a different time, and would need a mentor to help her realize why she is here."
"But that makes no sense. Are you the time traveler, or am I?"
"I- I don't know about you. I know I am. Because he gave me a dead pocket watch, and told me that the watch is the key."
I stared at him, eyes wide, and slowly reached into my pocket, drawing out the pretty watch that had gotten me in this whole mess. Slowly, I clicked it open. And something struck me.
It wasn't ticking.
"It's dead," I breathed.
Elijah looked at me. "I know. See... I created that pocket watch." He nodded to it, eyes unreadable. "The very first time I met the old man, it was in an old antique shop, and he offered me the dead watch."
I stared at him in shock. "An antique shop?" Oh, hell no...
"Yeah. He said if I could fix it, I could have it. So I took it home, and worked on it. But... I realized it was very special after I got it ticking. And it took me..." He hesitated. "To another time. Where I was told everything... that you would come, that I had to help you to keep time flowing properly."
I stared at him, shocked. "But that makes no sense. Why am I even here? I did nothing wrong to deserve this... I don't need any life lessons... I don't need a mentor!"
Elijah glanced at me. "Are you sure about that?"
I stared out the window. It was starting to rain. The cold splashes of rain darted down on the glass of his windows like diamonds, and they split into a thousand little drops as they fell.
"Renesmee," he said firmly, voice low. "I don't understand why you were chosen to come back in time. But Time is not something to mess with. I've been mentored that for the past year. It's delicate, and beautiful. But if you do
one thing, you change the course of time forever."
I slowly looked over at him, a feeling of dread falling over me. "Elijah... I already have broken that rule."
Elijah's eyes widened, startled.
"I think... I think I've affected Edward's and Bella's relationship. I think he's..." I shuddered. "He's not into my mom!"
Elijah slowly looked away, gazing at the road, his eyes flickering. "Renesmee," he said slowly. "If we're not careful... we may just erase your very birth."
I stared at him, shock crashing over me. And finally, after the many terrible events in just one day, I felt my mind struggling. It was fuzzy, and things got grainy and dark as I felt myself fading.
"Renesmee?" I heard his voice ask, low and slurred.
And I was out.
* * *
I groaned, shifting slowly on the blankets. Hell. Everything hurt. My mind, my bones, my back. Although this bed was pretty comfortable...
I froze.
What the- who's bed was I on?
I sat up sharply, eyes flashing. I was in a small room; it was cluttery and dark. Outside, I could hear rain falling, and a flash of thunder rumbled in the stormy sky. I quickly shot up, tasting the air, my hands fisted.
The last thing I remembered was fainting. Now what had Elijah done with me?
Snarling, my eyes fell upon something in the bed. Slowly, I turned, and my eyes bugged in disgust.
Elijah!
I reached over and slapped his face. I knew it hurt, because it sounded painful, and I left a pale red hand mark on his cheek as he let out a shout and shot up, rubbing his face.
"What the hell!" he exclaimed.
"You've got no room to be cussing!" I snarled. "Why am I in a bed with you?"
Elijah glanced around, and then did something that infuriated me even further: he laughed. I swiftly reached down, prepared to slap the ignorant teenager again, but he stumbled back, trying to dodge my hand, and instead fell off the bed with a loud thud.
"Smooth," I hissed as I stepped around the bed, hands on hips, glaring at him.
Elijah slowly sat up and yawned, rubbing at his face, looking like a dejected puppy. "Aw, that hurt, Renesmee..."
"Where am I?"
"You're at my house!" He shot up, lifting his palms up, as if showing he was innocent. "I'm sorry, alright! Don't slap me again!"
I stopped my swift hand reluctantly, and sighed. "Fine. But you've got ten seconds to change my mind."
"After you fainted, I tried to wake you up, but you were dead out, seriously! I had no choice but to put you somewhere, and seeing as you have no exact house, I thought you'd be safest here. When you didn't wake up, I just left you, and then-"
"And then climbed into the bed where I was sleeping? We're not a married couple, you moron!"
"I'm sorry! I didn't touch you, I swear! I would never do that!" I saw earnest honesty and a true regret in his eyes, and I sniffed, deciding to trust him. Still, it made me pretty mad. Guys were so freaking stupid.
"You'll pay for this, human," I growled.
"I already have," he sighed, rubbing his face. It was still red. I smirked.
"What time is it?"
Elijah sighed as he climbed into the window seat by the dark windows. "Four in the morning. You slept a long time."
I widened my eyes.
"But you really surprised me. Vampires don't sleep, firstly. And secondly, you need blood to faint, and you are a vampire, which should exclude you from them." He lifted a brow. "Explain."
I rolled my eyes. "I'm not completely vampire," I growled. "When I was born, my mother- Bella- was still human, so I have part of that in me. I guess I sometimes show human traits." I curled my lip at the thought.
Elijah just shrugged, too busy in thought to really listen to me. "Alright, well, now that we're awake, you might as well go meet my sister. She made so much fun of me for bringing an unconscious girl home... did you get her drunk or kill her, Elijah?" he mimicked someone's high voice.
I snorted, and shook my head. "No, I don't want to meet her. I want to..." I hesitated. What did I want to do? Despite our talk yesterday, Elijah had answered none of my questions, and I still had no idea why I was here.
"Sit down," Elijah told me. "Come on. I'm not used to being up this early anyways, so you're lucky I'm trying to stay up with you."
I rolled my eyes, and motioned for him to come sit on the bed. "Come on, then."
He grinned devilishly at me. "Eager to get me back in bed with you, darling?"
I scowled at him as I shot up, moving to sit in the windowsill, where he had been, as he took my spot on the rumpled bed.
As soon as we were settled, it got quiet. I listened to the rain for awhile, and wondered if Elijah had fallen asleep.
"So you still don't know why you're here?" he asked in a soft voice. I sighed. Apparently he was awake after all.
The windowsill was actually fairly comfy (from a vampire's point of view, anyways) and covered with pillows and some ratty-looking stuffed animals, as as I replied, I stretched out, feeling comfortable. "Nope."
He was quiet, thinking. "You know, you never told me how you got here, anyways."
I blinked. "Oh. Well... okay."
There was a pause. "Are you going to tell me or..." I could practically hear Elijah's grin.
"Okay, okay!" I exclaimed, unable to keep a smile from my face. "Alright, so... back home, before I came here... I'd been with Dad and Mom- Edward and Bella- and they're into antique stuff. So we were in this old town with a bunch of those kind of shops, and I wandered off, because they were acting all lovey and gross. I hate it when they do that," I noted.
"Continue," Elijah said, sounding amused.
"So I went into this old antique shop, and this... this old guy there offered me the pocket watch. I opened it because he basically ordered me too, and it... it took me here." I blinked.
Elijah sat up. "What did the old guy look like?"
I glanced over at him, tugging at a curly strand of my hair. "Wrinkly, with little white hair and glasses and gray eyes."
He was silent for a moment, eyes wide. "That's the same old man who first told me about time travel."
I sat up, too, staring at Elijah. "That old prick. He'd trying to mess with our normal lives, test us like guinea pigs. It's all his fault!"
Elijah hesitated. "He's not a bad old man, though. He's a friend."
"Yeah, well, he's my enemy then. We've got to find him!"
Elijah just looked away and lay back down, staring at the ceiling. I lay back eventually too, waiting impatiently for Elijah's answer.
"He's a time traveler, too. I haven't seen him for a few weeks. I mean, he used to check in a lot, but ever since..." His voice trailed off.
"Ever since what?" I asked sharply.
Silence.
I blinked as the moments dragged by, and I squinted my eyes towards Elijah's bed. He lay motionless, chest rising and falling gently. I knew he was probably faking being asleep, but I had no way to prove it. Sighing, I sunk back into the arrange of pillows on the windowsill, gazing out the window. I lay like that, lost in thought, until the sun peeked over the sky, many hours later.
And so the mystery deepens(: I don't know about anyone else, but I love Elijah so far, he's a pretty flexible OOU-character, although sometimes he go ad-libbing and I can't stop him. Oh, well...
The support has been great so far, I've enjoyed writing it partly because you all want more, and that always inspires writers right?(:
So like I said last chapter, I'll be going on vacation to South Carolina tomorrow and won't be back for about a week, so I won't be able to update. Until then, why, you can just re-read chapter five!(;