Chapter 4:
My eyes widened, he had to be joking, there was no way this was happening. Then I remembered myself thinking the same thing about how nice he was to me not too long ago, when we first met. But he continued to stare at me with the same neutral expression as when he had said it, his eyes as flat and emotionless as a polished stone. They almost seemed to gleam, at the thought, in the patchy moonlight that was filtering down through the tree branches overhead.
"Are you afraid now?" He asked, almost smugly. There was no point in lying, "A little." My voice quivered, rising several pitches, my breath coming out in short, staccato pants. He just smiled back at me. Not like before, this smile was different, crueler, lifeless. He lifted his arm and, again, offered me the rose.
When I took it he grabbed my forearm with his free hand and slung me fireman style over his shoulders and began running in the opposite direction of the arch of ferns, the direction he had said was the way back, out of the woods.
We had been running for little more than five minutes or so when we came to a large clearing. There was a colossal house in the middle of the clearing. It's design was truly unique, white, with four large pillars lined up across the front, supporting the black, triangular roof, just like in old movies, and there were many sections of the house, some of them full walls, that were constructed entirely of glass. The delicate light coming from the mansion of glass was truly enchanting. Edward began to slow his sprint into a slight canter, this couldn't be good, this meant my end was rapidly approaching. I began to squirm, not wanting to give up without a fight, but painfully aware of the fact that there was no way I would be able to fight Edward off. I was beginning to question if he were even human. Underneath me, Edward snorted.
He stopped just inches before the side door, kicked it in and shouted, "Carlisle!"
After rapidly gliding through what looked like a kitchen and out into a large foyer. I saw a blonde man on the second to bottom step in the stairwell. When I looked up at him he was reaching out in the direction of Edward and myself, the shock was plain on his face.
One by one I saw more and more unfamiliar faces pour in from upstairs, each stopping further away then the last had, each as equally shocked as the blonde man. The fact that no one seemed to be afraid to show how they were truly feeling on their faces scared me, it meant all pretences were gone. The game was over, this was all real.
"How could you bring that here!?" Roared a devastatingly gorgeous girl with blonde waves cascading down to her waist. The blonde man whirled his head around to her and said,
"Rosalie! This matter is much more delicate than that, and is none of your concern." She narrowed her eyes at him, and opened her mouth to argue with the blonde man. Before she had time to speak, however, Edward dumped me onto the creamy tiles that reflected the soft lights overhead and the twinkling candlelight from the wall holsters.
"Please don't fight over my mistake, I made this mess and I intend to fix it, I just came for Carlisle's council first." His voice was neither nervous nor angry. Everyone was both silent, and still, I saw this as my window of opportunity. Taking in a deep breath, what very well may be my last breath, I sprinted from the floor back the way Edward had brought me in. I had barely made the door when I was back in Edward's unshakable grasp. I wriggled and writhed in vain, in my attempts to free myself I kicked the kitchen doorjamb, there was a distinct, sickening snap, after that all I felt was crippling pain. Edward brought me back to the front room and threw me onto the floor, in exactly the same spot I had been before. When I tried sliding my arms underneath my throbbing body to lift myself back up he grabbed me by my now broken ankle and squeezed, bringing me to the fetal position instantly.
"You don't know when to quit, do you?" He barked at me, "You've succeeded in breaking your ankle, are you happy?" He continued, squeezing my ankle even harder. As determined as I was not to let any of them see that I was in pain I let out a small yelp. Somewhere at the top of the stairs I heard the one they called Rosalie chortle darkly.
"Edward! That's not helping any." Said the blonde man, I think Edward had called him Carlisle. Edward released my swollen ankle, and I dug my nails into the skin of my calf to relieve some of the pressure flowing through the veins in my leg. Carlisle began to slowly approach me, outstretching his hand to me. I didn't want any of them touching me. I began dragging myself across the tiles and into the small corner space between the doorjamb I had kicked and the side of the stairwell. Resting my head against the concaved section of wall, trying to level my breathing which had become ragged, I heard a slight gasp come from above my head. It was like someone had dropped a tinkling bell onto the floor, short, high pitched, and musical, sweet. Then I heard the voice that unmistaken ably belonged to the gasp, she said,
"Jasper, you should probably leave. Now." Whoever she was sounded like a pixie. Confused, I looked to Edward hoping to get answers. He was frozen solid, like an ice carving, his expression was wild, I've never seen such an expression, it made me nervous. My grip on the rose, Edward had given me earlier, began to tighten. Unfortunately, Edward hadn't torn off all of the thorns, because one of them pierced the muddy skin of my palm, it didn't hurt too much in comparison to everything else that had happened so far. I pulled back my hand to inspect the damage, the thorn was lodged in my palm. Pulling it out released a tiny burst of scarlet blood, which rapidly began pooling into the curve of my hand.