In the year 2020, Vampires took control of society and ordered all humans placed in vampire custody. The people who were not captured formed a Resistance movement, headed by the Human Council, who began to plan the Insurgence.
I am, of course, indebted to Stephenie Meyer for this world we all play in, and these characters we all adore. Additionally, I am indebted to hitntr01, who has graciously allowed me to use certain concepts from her wonderful story "In Need of Rescue", which constitute much of the background of my own story. These include: the language Vampiri, the Rules, the machines used to draw blood from humans, Manners Training, and the plot theme of Edward working as a guard at a facility holding humans. Thank you, hitntr01.
Chapter 16 - The Doll arrives at the Cullens
Day 6986 (August 16, 2039)
One rainy day, Esme had just come in from grocery shopping. I had heard her car pull into the garage, and then her soft footsteps enter the kitchen. So I went in to nose around, and there, on top of the eggs, was the doll my mother had made for me. I froze at the sight of it.
"Honey, would you like this doll? I saw it at the store, and picked it up," Esme said, as she unpacked the groceries.
"Yes", I stammered out, barely able to control my fury. Someone had touched my doll, someone including Esme had touched my doll. I picked the doll up gently and went into the living room.
"Hey, little one! Esme bring you something good from the store?" asked Emmett.
I managed to choke out, "Yes, this little doll," and then I sat down in front of the fire. I gently turned her in my hands, and breathed a sigh of relief as I could see no signs of damage. The cousins quickly forwarded a message from an Ally through our shared consciousness.
"Did you like getting your doll?" the ally asked.
"How dare you touch my doll! How did you find, her, she was in a safe house," I snarled. It was a struggle keeping a calm face for the Cullens as I shot this message back to him through my cousins.
"Don't be that way," he said soothingly. "You've been in there for weeks, so I sent in your doll. I went into the store and set the doll on a book rack Esme always pauses at. I watched from across the store as Esme picked up your doll and then walked up to the check out counter. I made sure she left with it. Mrs. Miniver didn't miss a beat. The doll wasn't part of her inventory, but she flipped the doll over and charged Esme $10 for her."
I lost it then inside, still keeping a blank face for the Cullens. I raged at the ally, "you m-f, you will be lucky if your hands are the only thing I rip off of you when I see you. And that hag Miniver dies as well. She didn't pay a dime for the original inventory of that store she took over after the Resistance. She just added a few things, like changing out the bottled water for bottled blood, keeping the same Coke refrigerated containers. And now she charged for my doll. She's dead!"
The ally came back with, "Do you want me to kill her tonight?"
"No," I answered calming down. "Miniver acts as a snitch regularly and has already made two reports on humans to the cops, trying to show she is a good citizen. The two reports that the cops acted on mean that the next report leads to her death. Wait to get verification that it is her call that sends out the cops, then kill her."
That was the correct way. The Human Council did not want any resistance fighters involved in revenge killings. They had decreed that we could not free individual humans, which put blood slaves off limits for liberation, or fight individual vampires, except in self-defense. If a fight was needed, send an ally. There were more allies than free human fighters, and not only would an ally not be noticed, they had a better shot at surviving the fight.
The Council had also decreed that we would not act in revenge. The Insurgence would have two goals: to liberate all humans from vampire captivity and to reinstate human law. There would be no vengeance killings; all was to be left for the trials after the insurgence. Every surviving vampire would stand trial for their actions involving humans from the date of the event to the date of the insurgency.
Their goal was to ensure that the Resistance fighters would not become revenge driven and inflict painful deaths. Almost any vampire who had hurt an individual probably had hurt many humans. The council wanted to see these vampires to go on trial so all human survivors would have a chance to give their testimony, whether for themselves or for their families. The council did not see a road to closure otherwise. They did not want to see the resistance fighters becoming psychologically or morally damaged by inflicting revenge deaths. They wanted all humans to have chance to be at peace with themselves, and be able to find their place in the post-Insurgence world.
The mind readers had begun a thorough scan of the houses containing blood slaves in preparation for the Insurgency, and those people who were being badly abused, including physical or sexual abuse, were being slowly liberated. The allies would kill the vampire owner, usually making it look like a fight after a car accident or some other trivial incident that lead to a fight. The ally would go to the house after killing the vampire, get the human and take them to a colony.
The allies were also dealing with the cops' snitches. Many vampires were acting as snitches, making reports to the cops about humans who were not being treated according to the rules. Some reports were true, some were trumped up to create trouble for the vampire owner. If the cops acted on the report, and a human was removed or injured, the allies would move in. Mrs. Miniver had been reporting her neighbors and was about due for an action by the allies. Her days were numbered, and she would only survive until the cops acted on her next snitch call. When a cop went out on it, the allies would take her out.
When it became clear I was staying in Forks with the Cullens, several allies had been posted to Forks and taken up positions at the edge of town between Forks and the Cullen house. If the cops ever passed their post, the allies would follow. If the cops turned down the Cullen driveway, the allies were to attack and rip them to shreds before ever actually reaching the house.
Meanwhile, back at the Cullen house, I looked around until I found a white towel to wrap my doll in. She had been made from a scrap of my mother's wedding dress, and I wanted her to stay clean.
Jasper noticed how much care I was taking with the doll. "That's a nice little doll you have there, darlin'," he drawled.
"My mother made it for me," I replied. "She made it from a scrap of her wedding dress. The belt is from the flower girl's bouquet and the button eyes were once the buttons on my grandmother's boots. Part of my mother's wedding veil is inside, inside of the quilting material used as stuffing. That's why she doesn't bend, and why she kind of 'crinkles' when you handle her".
I was going to continue when Rosalie cut in from her throne on the love seat, making her snarky remark in Vampiri: "Esme found that rag doll today at Mrs. Miniver's. She's being absurd."
She had said it so quietly, that I barely heard her, but the mind reader relayed the crack. I waited to see if anyone would either say something to her or ask me to continue. When neither happened, I wrapped up my doll. I'm not going to try to convince anyone of my true stories; I just won't waste my time.
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