Hey! A slightly shorter chapter, I've had loads of time for writing but I've written mostly in my notebook and I keep changing it when I type it up so it's a little frustrating getting everything in order!
This chapter is for AllisonteamEmmett, who won that mini competition I put on with the Author's Note in Chapter Ten. April has arrived! Thanks for all the positive (well...not positive towards Emmett!) reviews! :) Enjoy!
Chapter Eleven
(Careful/Pressure by Paramore)
Jason's POV
This wasn't death.
What Jason was experiencing, he knew was not death. He could feel something strange and venomous seeping through him, pumping around him. Jason felt his body change in strange and painful ways. Death couldn't be this painful and this extensive. This was something he had never experienced. It was blazing slowly through the inside of his body, leaving his fast-beating heart and spreading before retracting back. This cycle was continuous and the pain excruciating. It was hard, but Jason managed to think of something other than the pain. He remembered people that he loved.
April. His daughter. Jason and his wife Isabelle had adopted her when she was fifteen.
A picture of her flashed through his mind. She was remarkably beautiful; porcelain skin that held no blemish, piercing golden eyes and dirty blonde hair artfully cut to a bob. She was a tall fifteen-year-old and a naturally good kid. She respected adults and was liked by everyone. But when the topic of her real parents came up, April changed. Her cheerful expression was blank and she would state the facts that everyone knew. Her parents died in a tragic car accident a year ago. She had been moving from foster homes until Jason and Isabelle Dave adopted her.
During her first month with them she was quiet and kept to herself, only speaking if spoken to first. She was very polite, but it didn't change her mood. Finally, she changed. April started talking more; she helped around the house, and got to know her adoptive parents. Now, after a year, she was very close to Jason and Isabelle, and called them by name.
She mostly grew close to Jason. She respected him and loved him as a daughter would love her father. And he loved her like a father would love his daughter. They had never fought before and April had told him everything, keeping no secrets. Or, that's what he believed. Every couple of weeks, she would have a certain day where she came home hours late after school. Usually around midnight. She always refused to tell her parents where she had been and what she had been doing, but promised it was nothing bad. Usually she made up something – she fell asleep on the bus and went too far, or she was at a friend's house. Either way, it was an unsolved mystery.
She was interested in ballet, though no one would ever guess if they met her. She listened to classic to modern rock bands and had a great admiring for strange art that no one else seemed to know. She wrote in diaries, all had locks and were hidden in strange places. Jason had promised to himself that one day he would read one of those diaries, because he expected amazing creative writing.
Huh. He thought bitterly. Guess that'll never happen. Whatever was happening to Jason didn't feel like it would end.
April's POV
Where was Jason?
April Dave's adoptive father, Jason Dave, had still not returned from his hiking trip.
Worriedly, April checked the time on her watch and was shocked at how much time had escaped her. It was around eleven thirty – nearly midnight. She leaned over her white desk and dug through books and papers until she found her phone - a sleek red touch-screen. April flicked through her contacts list until she found Jason, and hit 'call'. She pressed the phone to her ear. It was cold after a few hours of hiding under books.
One ring. Two, three, four rings. Nine rings. Finally, Jason's warm voice came through the receiver.
"Hey,"
"Jason? I've been so worried – it's -"
"You've reached Jason Dave's phone. I'm currently not available to pick up the phone right now, so please call back later or leave a message." Beep. April was speechless for a moment, but hung up. Where was he? She thought. She swore under her breath and paced her bedroom. Looking out the window, she saw that the streetlights had turned on, giving the street an eerie glow. After a few paces, April stopped at the window with an idea.
Smiling grimly, she unlocked the window with blurry hands and threw it open. A short blast of mid-October air hit her full in the face, but it passed as soon as it had come. Quietly, she sprung up on to the window sill and crawled the two steps outside. April glanced down. Beneath her there was no where safe to land. No bushes or grass, instead just a hard concrete driveway and a leafless tree that loomed above the house. This fall would probably ruin her new Converse...
Wiping away those thoughts, April slid into a crouch in the confined space and took a deep breath. Again she faced facts – no human could survive this fall.
She jumped.
And landed smoothly, standing straight. She bent over to examine the damage to her precious neon-green shoes. To April's surprise, they remained unharmed and in perfect condition. Feeling rather like a dog, she leaned her head back and sniffed the air. Many different smells wafted towards her. Plants, the forest, human blood, and normal household things. Glancing momentarily back at her house, April raced into the forest.
It was just behind her house, and she had already picked up Jason's scent. She followed it at a rapid speed, winding through tall trees and finally onto a trail. Oscar's scent also mingled with his. Halfway up the trail, they had decided to do some exploring, and had walked off of it and into the thick trees. April had to jump over thick underbrush and avoid piercing branches that seemed to prick up in random places. Around a couple trees, there was a dramatic change in scenery. The thick, rough underbrush and sticks were gone, and only a small clearing remained. Small, but held evidence of a long series of events. April played it out in her head.
Jason and Oscar arrived in this little clearing. Jason cut himself on that branch there, and was bleeding a little bit. Someone else arrived. There was evidence of a fight of some sort, tufts of grass moved in certain ways. Unsurprisingly, there were some unfamiliar scents.
Oscar stood here, while Jason was pinned down by our stranger here. April ran around the tiny area, examining different things. Oscar ran away. Jason got up and tried to run...but stopped. At the place where he stopped, it was bloody. She had to stop breathing. Dried blood matted the grass next to the many footprints in the neighbouring dust. There was little signs of struggle, and a large space where a body had been lying. A sick feeling washed through April.
Somehow everything was falling into place in this one, tiny scene.
This was a vampire attack.
Jason's trail led to a strange white house. By picking apart the different scents and footprints, April picked up that someone had carried Jason all the way here, and in the backdoor. So she followed the trail exactly, and quietly crept in the back door. Inside, more of the strange scents hit her. But Jason's blood was the strongest, so April let it pull her silently through a modern-looking kitchen and living room. Up the stairs...down the hall, and to a blue door.
She opened it and slipped in, but her breath caught when she saw the room. It was empty, except from what looked like a hospital bed in the corner. On it lie Jason. He was unconscious and breathing unevenly. His heart was beating rapidly against his chest. As April stepped closer, her horrors were confirmed and she smelled the vampire venom pumping through his veins.
The pain he must be in...
Before she knew it, she was laying on the side of the bed, face buried in Jason's shoulder. She began to tearlessly cry for him, and to murmur how sorry she was that he was going through this.
After what seemed like forever, she looked up into the golden eyes of Doctor Carlisle Cullen.
Jason's POV
Just as he was thinking of April – he heard her voice. If it was a memory or reality, he didn't know, but he was sure he heard her angelic voice come to him through the torture. First it was sobbing, and there was coldness at his shoulder.
"Dad...I'm so sorry. I-I'm sorry. I know what you must be going through. I'm so, so sorry!" she was apologizing? No. April didn't do this to him. But...How would she know what this burning felt like? Jason's mind was brought back to the burning. He jolted suddenly and groaned in pain. Outside of his body, there were a few words exchanged. But they were being drowned out. Jason felt as if his pounding heart would leap straight out of his body. Something alien was pumping through him, changing him...or destroying him?
April's POV
"I...I..." she found herself speechless as April tried to explain herself to Dr. Cullen. But her gaze darted back to Jason as he made a painful noise.
"It's okay," his voice was strong and confident. Carlisle patted her shoulder hesitantly. "I understand. I'll leave you for a while...but then we need to talk." He exited silently, leaving April and Jason alone. Watching his face, she noticed it change suddenly. Pain drowned it, and his mouth opened again to let out a little noise of pain.
April couldn't bare to stand there and watch, so she sat on the side of the bed and talked quietly to him, whispering soothing words. At that moment, she forgot all about the listening Cullens.
It was just her and her father.
Alice's POV
He sits on his throne. Long, white hair and beard. Turned at an old age - and an old vampire. A stranger sits before him.
"What is it that you need from me, young one?" the vampire asks. The man in front of him shivers.
"I can't bear this life, but I cannot go to the Damnati - I want a painless escape from this Temptation. I've heard that you can take away the thirst for blood from the Immortals, and you can also do much more. Please spare me a painless death." the man begs.
"Of course." is all that the old one utters, before placing his steady hands on either side of the younger vampire's head. He mutters a few quiet words in an old tounge, and closes his eyes. It is so sudden, but already the vampire starts to radiat light. Within a minute, the vampire he is performing a spell on...disintegrates into nothingness. A light flows through the dark room, but disappears, too.
Alice shook the vision away before it could continue - she needed to find Jasper and visions would slow her. But - wait. Take away the thirst for blood. Could this mysterious man from her vision really do that?
If he could...then he could save Jasper from what he had become. From himself. Alice let herself slip back into the vision.
Lucifer. The Redeemer. The Ancient.
As quickly as it started, Alice's vision was over. It was just names and pictures. Of Lucifer, the one that had...killed the vampire in her previous vision. These were details though, and would help her find him.
Alice turned back home.
Within a mile of her house, Alice knew that there was someone else in it. An unfamiliar scent covered the South-East part of the house. A vampire's. She walked up to the backdoor, which was wide open.
"Carlisle?" she called. "Esme?"
Esme arrived in front of her, but Carlisle was no where to be seen.
"Alice! Did you find Jasper?" Esme's eyes were huge and desperate, and Alice hated giving her bad news.
"I...no. I had a vision while following him and had to return." she explained.
"A vision?" Carlisle had appeared in front of her. "What did you see?"
Alice paused before answering.
"First," she said. "I want to know who the hell is that girl." Because a stranger stood in the doorway, watching Alice.
Thanks for reading! To anyone that DIDN'T use an online translator, "Damnita" from the vision means "The Damned" in latin. You'll find out about them soon...IN DUE TIME, MY FRIENDS! MWAHAHAHAHA!
Just a 'lil' warning...April and Alice WILL NOT get along...hee hee. Click that little review button and follow the instructions! :)