April 19, 2009~
We did manage to escape from the laboratory with Bristol, but unfortunately not with my family. Edward and two other unknown Cullens broke free after Edward tried to vanquish Piper and me in our attempt to save him. So, we are in hiding; a small, countryside motel is where we are now. Days here remind me of the trailer park with Jacob, Michelle, Leah, Chris, and Paul—long and boring. I spend most of the time with Olive, Max, and Kerry (or now better known as Violet). Ever since the breakout, there have been no near sightings of the three destructive vampires, which is good and bad at the same time. But as all hope seems lost, a small shimmer of light glows valiantly at the end of the dark tunnel…
Kerry, Max, and I are walking along the streets of the small town just a few miles west of the lab. On the glass display window of a shop, I notice a poster with the pictures from our trial. "Yikes" is all I have to say.
"What are you looking at?" Kerry asks, suddenly coming up behind me and leaning in to read the sign. Her topaz eyes scan it eagerly, and then she suddenly stops and pulls back. There is a huge grimace on her face. "That's gross!" she retorts, still scowling.
"What is it??" Max asks, abruptly coming up behind me as well.
"Can I please have some space here?!" I say, annoyed. Kerry and Max completely ignore my request and push me into the glass window.
"It's not bad, Violet," Max says, still circumspectly studying the ad. "These average people, just your normal 'Joes' off the street…they're coming together to form some kind of team that's going to help you and Nessie! They're rebelling against the government's choice to do experiments on your family. That's incredible!"
"Ohmigod," Kerry gasps, "We could like, SO join the rebels because we're supernatural! We do have a chance at saving them ourselves!" She grasps my shoulders and shakes me hysterically. "We can liberate our parents without getting killed!"
"How do you know the government won't fight back?" I ask.
"Yeah," Max adds. "This is one of the world's greatest discoveries. They would never relinquish as easy as we hope."
"So what?" Kerry urges. "We have to help. This is all for our sakes. If we don't help them, they might fail."
Max and I exchange hesitant glances.
"C'mon," Kerry pleads. "We need to be a part of this army. We're gonna save the people that mean the most to us." She puts on the puppy dog pout and gets her eyes all watery.
"Oh, stop it, Kerry," I snap, but she keeps pouting.
Max bites his lip. "Fine. We'll do it. We'll meet at the town square tonight and that's that."
"Yes!" Kerry shouts. Score one for me!"
"Eh whatever," I say. "I was gonna suggest it, but then I thought it was stupid."
"Yeah sure," Max jokes, bumping me a little.
Kerry laughs and Max just grins broadly, but I have a horrid notion that this will be the last time we are together like this.
When we get back to the motel, Olive is sitting at the little meal table with her head resting in her folded arms. Percy is sitting across from her, tapping his fingers on the wood, frowning.
"What's up with you two?" Kerry asks as Max shuts the door behind us.
Then Bristol emerges from the back room. Rex is standing behind her, carrying a suitcase.
"What are you doing with that, Rex?" I ask nervously, my voice shaking.
He looks up at me, his green-blue eyes full of pity. Bristol came forward. "Brave ones, this is not our battle. You must go on without us. We can no longer help you. We rescued you, and kept you safe for as long as we could. But now we must part."
Olive looks especially sad. She became a good friend of mine over the past week. I would miss her, but I know that I will be able to catch up with her eventually.
Kerry doesn't seem to grasp that concept though. "What about us?" she asks, her voice shrilly. "What will we do? What happens if Edward attacks us? What do we do, just die?!"
"You are strong," Piper says, putting a hand on her shoulder. "You will not fall against the one who seems all-powerful."
"But…Max? What about you? What about the army?" she asks, still desperate.
Max looks at his feet, then at Sonic standing over Percy at the table. "I will meet up with you when my duties are finished. For now I need to help save the Cullens," he announces darkly.
Everyone stares at him in shock, even Kerry and I.
Bristol nods. "That is very brave of you to accept the mission to protect their family. I understand your decision completely." She turns to her family. "We must go now. Max will join us later."
As the seven black-haired vampires file out the motel room door, Olive stops and locks eyes with me. "Good luck out there. The world is dangerous," she says, pulling me into a hug. "Don't die…please."
"I'll try, Olive," I promise. She pulls away and follows her family out of the dark room. In the parking lot, Piper looks back one last time. For the first time, I see a miserable and worried expression on her angelic face.
Part II:
There are about fifty people gathered in the center of the little town. A few street lamps are lit, illuminating the cobblestone street. Max, Kerry, and I approach quietly, slipping through the darkness unseen. In the middle of the square is a tall lanky boy with wild brown hair and light brown eyes. He looks about twenty years old. He is wearing old football pads and a military helmet.
"Who is that?" Kerry wonders aloud.
"I don't know," Max answers blankly. "But I think we should line up in front of where he's standing. That's what everyone else is doing."
We shuffle awkwardly to the end of the line and wait as it moves forward. When we reach the front, the boy is standing there with a big barrel of dirty sports pads behind him. Kerry eyes it suspiciously, but keeps her comments to herself.
"Why, hello there," the boy says enthusiastically. "I see we got ourselves the real deal fightin' for their flesh and blood."
"Huh?" Max says.
"Our very own Renesmee and Violet Cullen," the boy beams. I blush and look at my feet.
"I'm Reed," the boy says. "I'm runnin' this little militia here." He looks me square in the eye. "Don't worry; we're gonna save your parents."
I smile and shake his hand as he hands the three of us shoulder, knee, chest, and elbow pads along with an eccentric helmet. I got a traditional military helmet, like the one Reed is wearing. Kerry gets an old faded football helmet, and Max gets a hockey one.
"What are we supposed to do with these?" Kerry asks, examining the stinky equipment.
"Well put it on o' course," a skinny girl with two dirty braids says. Her round face is smudged with filth and her hazel eyes sparkle mischievously. The dim light of the lamps give her skin an eerie glow.
"Who are you?" Max questions, strapping on mismatched shoulder pads.
"I'm Betsy," the girl says. "That there's my brother Reed. We had pity on you two poor souls when we heard about your trial. That's just wrong, what they did to your momma and daddy." She leans in closer. "Are yous really a bunch o' vampires?" she asks.
I shake my head. "No. That's what they think. Those two girls used Photoshop with that deer picture. It's obvious."
Betsy laughs and slips on her old New York Giants helmet. I finish putting on my armor and then we all gather around for information.
"Listen up, ya'll!" Reed hollers over the people's noise. "We got them weapons right here, so me an' Jeremiah here are gonna train ya'll to handle 'em." He sighs and looks down at me and Kerry. "Tonight, we got our very own Cullen girls joinin' this army to save their parents. We're gonna help 'em take the government down. So let's do this!" The crowd cheers excitedly, but Kerry starts whacking her self in the head with her fist.
"You know that's not gonna affect you," I notify her. "You still have your helmet on."
"I don't care," Kerry murmurs.
Max shrugs and Jeremiah goes around the mob with a bucket of weapons.
"Shot the chainsaw," Max says and yanks a rusty one out of the bucket.
"Max are you crazy?!" Kerry shrieks. "A chainsaw?!"
"We're takin' 'em down!" Max cries, yanking on the string and letting the engine growl like an angry dog.
Hesitantly, I take a big gun that looks like an arsenal was robbed to get it. "Are you sure we're gonna do this?"
"Positive," Kerry says, taking a gun like mine. "Sweet machinery…"
"Whaddya think?" Betsy asks, approaching me on surprise.
"We look like we're about to go into a big city and do a mass murder," I tell her, grimacing.
"Aw, we ain't hurtin' a fly," Betsy chuckles. "We just makin' 'em scared o' us."
She walks away, but an awful feeling stays in my gut.
"Training begins now," Reed says, lining us up. He grabs me and puts me next to Max and Betsy, but I feel completely out of it.
Part III:
Rain shoots down from the black sky as the bus rides over the George Washington Bridge and into New York City. I gulp nervously. Yesterday, training was brutal. I feel as if the world is crashing down, and I'm the one who has to save the human race.
"You okay?" Max asks, bumping me a little.
"No," I mumble and keep my focus out the window.
"They're hidin' 'em in the Empire State Building," Jeremiah says to the bus driver, a kid who looks a little older than Reed. "That's where we need to go."
Hiding them? Last I knew, Edward and the others escaped. Unless the government caught up with them…
My mind drifts as the buildings get taller and taller…
Atop the Chrysler Building, Edward and Rosalie look down on the bustling streets of New York. Edward has a long black cape draped over his shoulders, as he had in the laboratory. His now-black hair is gelled back like Dracula's and his death-white skin is dotted with raindrops. Rose sits across from him on a ledge, wearing a sleeveless red dress with Stiletto heels and startling red lipstick.
"I sense her," Edward says. "I sense the girl from the laboratory."
"She is coming," Rose says darkly, her perfect voice rolling out like a serpent's. "With whom?"
"An army," Edward growls, the venom sizzling in his velvet voice. "She is planning to vanquish our masters."
"How dare they?!" she spits. She turns to her evil partner. "I will stop them from coming to the rooftop. Holding them off shall be simple." She smiles maliciously, her sharp fangs glistening, as a bolt of lightning strikes in the distance…
I wake with a start as Max shakes me. "Nessie, Nessie, wake up!" he orders.
"Max," I begin quietly. "I know where they are." My voice gets louder as I stand up and squeeze into the aisle way. "Jeremiah! Reed! They are at the Chrysler Building, not the Empire State Building!"
"How do you know?" Jeremiah scoffs as a loud clash of thunder shakes the bus.
"Because I know where my father is! Just take us to the Empire State Building, now!!"
The bus swerves to the left and I fall back into the seat across Max's lap.
"Oops," I breathe and Max laughs.
But then, the huge skyscraper is towering over us, the rain showering down from the heavens like a bad omen.
"We're here," Max announces dismally. I gulp as the bus pulls to a complete halt.
"Everyone follow me!!" Reed hollers, and we grab our weapons and jump out of the bus. Taxis beep and buses honk, but Jeremiah halts the traffic with a huge ax he is handling carefully. And then, we barge right into the building.
People in formal outfits scream in horror as the scream of several chainsaws starting up roar throughout the lobby.
"Security!!" the man behind the desk shouts, and about twenty police officers with guns race toward us. Twenty of us race into the elevator just in the nick of time and shoot down to the basement.
The doors open and we file out, but what we see is extremely unexpected: an army of newborn vampires. Their eyes glow red with fury and there is Rosalie, standing in the middle of it all. Her eyes glow bloodred as well and she hisses as the newborns spring into action. I neatly dodge a few of them and rip another few apart. I watch in horror as they pull out huge machine guns and begin firing at my allies.
"MAX!! KERRY!!" I cry and yank them behind a brick wall just as a bullet flies toward us. Explosions sound throughout the basement and the bloodcurdling screeches of the humans echo throughout the basement. Just then, Jeremiah crawls to us, his face smudged with dust, and pants, "Dracula is on the roof! You must go, Renesmee, or else he will destroy the entire building!" And just like that, it clicks.
Dracula is Edward. He sensed us coming…
"Max!!" I holler. "I have to get to the roof! You and Kerry and Reed are coming with me!! Come on!!" Max rolls away from an explosion of bricks and sprints to me. Kerry follows.
"Hurry, Reed!" I shout, as he runs toward us.
"I can't leave Jeremiah and Betsy!" Reed says, breathing hard.
"You have to!" I yell. "You just have to!"
Out of the blue, an unseen newborn places a bomb on a furnace and scrambles away snickering. No one notices, not even me, for I am scanning the room to see if Rosalie is still there. But Max does.
"He planted a bomb!! Everybody run!!!" he cries, and the four of us leap to the elevator just as fire blasts throughout the room and concrete blocks fly everywhere. The elevator doors shut as Max jams his finger onto the 'roof' button. "Hurry up, stupid!" he shouts at it.
"Max!" I say. "Yelling at it won't get us anywhere!"
Then the lights flicker out and the elevator stops. "Oh great," Kerry says, folding her arms.
"Lemme take care of it," Max says, climbing on top of the ceiling and ripping through the metal with his superhuman strength. He does not even bother to use the chainsaw.
"Everyone climb through the hole," I instruct, helping Kerry and Reed up and then boosting them up onto the elevator cable. I climb after them, gripping onto the greasy steel with all my might. I ascend up the cable as fast as I can, and finally we come to an air vent that leads to the roof. Reed saws the grate off and we crawl through it, finally reaching the space that empties out onto the roof.
The icy rain is coming down in sheets now. Lightning illumines the night sky and thunders cracks throughout the city.
"There," I gasp, pointing to the tall peak of the building. "Edward's up there."
"I'm afraid of heights," Kerry mutters awfully, but I wrench her along with me to the ladder.
"Max, you go first. Then me, Kerry, and Reed," I order. Max nods and grasps the rings of the ladder, and so the climbing all begins again.
I can't see anything, not even Max climbing right in front of me. The rain is such a torrential downpour that I cannot bring myself to move up the fire escape ladder at a faster pace. Reed and Kerry are gripping onto the ladder close behind, the water washing into our eyes as we will ourselves to look up to the very top of the skyscraper. My skins are soaked and so are my clothes, looking like I just jumped out of a freezing shower. I climb for my life, for my forgotten past, for everything that I and never even known about before I became Renesmee again. I dread the moment when I stand atop the building with my comrades at my sides, staring my father right in the eyes. I realize that I am about to kill Edward, the man who helped give me life, the man who loved me so much, the man who did everything to protect Bella and me…he is my father figure, but I can't do anything anymore. I have tried to shape my mind around the idea that we cannot defeat the government. This is the only way—killing Edward. My heavy gun is strapped to my back, weighing me down, along with the sheets of New York rain plunging from the black sky. I am crying, but my tears are invisible because of the buckets of water pouring down my face. I can hardly breathe, because the amount of rain is becoming insane. I feel as if I am submerged in twelve feet of water, my ears clogging with the rain. The whir of sirens blare stories beneath us, and I shut my eyes as I leap over the edge of the building and onto a small ledge. And there, in front of me is someone I thought I'd never see again…Edward.
Max stands beside me, trembling from the cold—and fear. He is a vampire, but Edward is more powerful. Yet now, my father is more vulnerable. He can be killed like humans can because the government turned him into a simple-minded weapon. The venom is still present in their bodies, but immortality is not included. That is why Rose escaped the explosion quickly. One single mishap and they will die. But I have to…I have to.
He roars at the sight of us, his velvet voice so cruel and thick with venom that I cower in fear at him. "WHY ARE YOU PRESENT?!" he demands.
Kerry screams and tries to run, but Edward did some strange movement with his hand and froze Kerry in some purple ice shell. "NO!!!!!!!!!" I cry desperately and race toward my cousin. "Kerry, Kerry, can you hear me?!" I shout, pounding on the encasement. Anger burns inside of me. Edward would never do this to Kerry. Never.
Suddenly, I feel the rage forming inside of me like a monster. No one messes with my family. No one makes them lethal weapons and no one dares to try to get past us either. I let out an earsplitting howl and leap to Max's side. Where is Reed? I look over the side of the building, and Reed is injured, his leg snapped in two, ambulance surgeons carrying him away on a stretcher. I turn to face Edward, fury growing inside. This was the government's fault. I growl and aim my gun at a cop car in the street, sending in ramming into a fire hydrant, watching the water explode upward and meet the drops of unforgiving rain. I find myself turning into such a teen rebel that juvy won't even be able to hold me.
I dodge Edward's shots of purple ice, running and diving along the edge of the skyscraper. Finally I stay crouched behind a gargoyle. Max is there too. "I'm sorry I dragged you into this," I tell him. "You have been an amazing friend and I just wanna let you know that no matter what happens tonight, you and I will always stick together." His blue eyes sparkle like a thousand gems, even through the monsoon in the night. Just at that very second, Edward launches another stream of purple ice toward us. I roll out of the way, crossing the puddle-streaked roof of the skyscraper. I notice that Max is no longer beside me, and look near the chimney. There he is, frozen in the ice.
I cannot be angry any longer, because my heart hurt too much. Tears swell through my eyes and stream down my ivory cheeks. "Please, Edward!" I beg, as he towers over me immensely, his black cape blowing in the strong wind and rain. "Find the will! Find the will! I am your daughter, Renesmee! Do not hurt me! I am here to help you escape this!"
His black eyes pierced through me like daggers. He used to be a good vampire, and now was a deadly weapon. What was his soft side? Then, I knew.
"Bella!" I shout. "Bella, my mother! Your wife! Your love until the end of forever!!!!" My voice is hoarse, and I find myself whispering. For a second, I think I see Edward's expression soften, but it is just sorrow.
"She is gone, Renesmee. She is no longer my duty." His eyes are like ebony fire.
"No!" I say. "She still loves you! She loves us! Believe me, please!!"
"I cannot. You are a rebel. I am designed to kill rebels."
"Daddy," I sob. "How could you say that?"
He doesn't respond. He continues to glare at me with a menacing stare. Shoot him, shoot him! my mind urges me. He doesn't care for you or Bella anymore! Shoot him! I hold my gun in my hand, examining it, wondering what I should do. My white hands are scraped and torn, revealing the crimson red blood hiding underneath the skin. I don't realize it, but I am silently crying. Then, I make one huge mistake.
"I'm sorry, Edward," I murmur, then take my gun and pull back the trigger, raising it up to my father…
"You shall be SILENCED!" he bellows, and gathers an incredible force in his hands. A striking light streams out from behind his fingers, and his eyes glow with a golden light that make me remember him before he was evil. Suddenly, everything so quickly, I cannot fully comprehend what happened. A lightning bolt about twelve feet is fired at my heart. I hear the crack of the gunshot and am being pulled over the edge of the giant edifice by an indescribable force. I land in the awning of the building, dazed and petrified. Another smaller body is lying beside me, so cold and wet. Someone is lying on top of me, and I yearn to be free at this very moment. But instead, as I open my milk chocolate eyes, I find myself staring into the miraculous sapphire irises of my rescuer.
Then, I woke up.