A/N – Hello! I am now back from my mini break, sorry for not posting this yesterday – my flight home got cancelled and it took a while to finally get back home. Enjoy! This is a new angle for me; time to peek inside the mind of Reuben (if you dare!). This is a taster; there will be more (if you guys want chapters on what he is thinking that is – let me know! I hope it will add substance to the story) As always, thank you for reading/alerting and reviewing the story.
Chapter 59 - Reuben
Did they honestly think a treaty made with a pack of wolves would stop me from inflicting my revenge?
Wolves?
I mean… really?
Backs to the wall…how desperate.
Trust Carlisle to suggest the idea of a formal agreement… how conventional of him, always so established and orderly…
Everything I was not.
Everything I would never be.
Charitable and courteous Carlisle Cullen… so compassionate when it came to humans… to Bella…
Where was his compassion to me?
What happened to his charitable nature when I needed it?
Good hearted and good natured Carlisle Cullen… but only if you're a human… or a member of his pathetic coven of animal hunting vampires…
Where were you, Carlisle, when the Volturi tortured me? Oh, I may be a vampire, but they have ways Carlisle… they always have ways… back then I may have been weaker, but now…
Now they would never be able to torture me again.
Where we you, Carlisle, when they asked someone to step forward to vouch for me and my behaviour?
Where were you, Carlisle, when they cast me aside and left me alone?
You, with your fake smile and your fake friendship, where were you?
Oh… of course, I remember. I always remember Carlisle. I never forget.
I watched you as the Volturi Guard read out my list of transgressions…
I watched as you shook your head in disappointment, avoiding my gaze…
I recall your final words to me before they led me away to inflict their punishment…
"You broke the law, Reuben. Leave here while you still can, I will not allow your misdeeds to continue"
How Dare You.
And how dare the Volturi, although my argument is not with them.
At least, not yet.
No, my argument is with you, Carlisle…
Had you spoken up for me…
You were one of their favourites, although to this day I am still trying to comprehend why…
Had you spoken, they may have let me stay… instead of beating me and throwing me out of the Coven…
I broke the law… I killed a few feeble and inadequate humans; I was doing them a favour…
Oh, I committed a crime when I led them away from their families, and devoured them to satisfy my ever increasing thirst and hunger…
I was at fault, disobedient and defiant…
No, I was Reuben, vampire…and I had every right to feast on the pray of my choice…
But you didn't help me, did you Carlisle?
Where was your compassion when they led me away in chains?
Where had it gone when you heard my cries as they tortured me?
Why didn't you stop them, when you knew deep down that you could have?
Because of you, I am Reuben the Nomad… a roamer who has no ties to anyone… oh; don't think I didn't try, Carlisle.
I did.
But nobody wanted me.
Nobody
Wants
Me
News travels fast my friend… my contraventions, my infringements…
Nobody wanted me, because of you.
Nobody wants me, because of you.
Alone – I am alone; and that's exactly how I liked it… until…
Until she came along.
I like trespassing, Carlisle.
I like vice and wrongdoing…
And I love to sin…
And when she came along, that's exactly what I did.
Have you ever sinned, Carlisle?
Of course you have… you commit an immoral action every single day you exist…you feed off animals! You are a vampire, Carlisle… you should embrace what you are, instead you hide away from it, deprive it of its hunger…
Vampire, my friend.
Vampire.
To dismantle what we are, and what we need to survive…
To disrobe the desire for human blood…
To spurn your heritage, and ask those around you to do the same…
That is the biggest sin.
She was such a small, little thing.
Always so fragile looking, yet her gaze… it held wonder… it held the unknown…
Mary, I believe they called her…
Mary Alice Brandon…
I knew she was special, because I could sense it.
Who would have thought that such a tiny little thing could unlock my greatest gift?
I wonder if she saw me watching her? Not in the physical sense, but through her mind? Did she see me coming to her?
Or were her senses more acute when she became…
Can she see me in her mind now?
Does she know my power came from her?
Or is everything still blocked…
The way I like it.
Masquerade, my favourite game.
Ah, she recalls so very little of her human life… that sad, depressing little world she lived in; the world her family forced upon her…
Family…
How caring; to commit their daughter into an asylum…
Where I found her…
Where I found my moment of weakness…
Me, a vampire… and her, a mere human…
How could that thought have entered my mind?
What was so special about her that made me weak?
Alone, Carlisle. I was always alone…
Yet she made me wonder…
Oh, how I contemplated my life back then, contemplated the hidden forces that must have been at work…
Restraint, stagnation, keeping still… yet I encountered her…
My resolution? To retreat, walk carefully… wait…
But perseverance met conflict.
Ah, the power of her… her influence… my need to gather everything together, how it nourished my very core.
Our union was destined to bring harmony… how was I to walk away?
My ache for final completion, a revolution… finally progress in abundance…
She was going to be the one to help me remove my obstacles, the chains that had arrested my very movement for so very long…
She was the one who would follow me on my journey…
She was the one who was going to be sincere…
She would be the one, and I would no longer be alone...
And then it all went wrong, so very wrong…
Oh, Carlisle… how the wheel of fortune can thus turn in one, swift, motion…
Mary Alice Brandon… now your adoptive daughter! How ironic…
And how utterly delicious.
I have all the time in the word to inflict my revenge, yet here I am… faced with two adversaries at the same time!
And let's throw intoxicating Bella and dense Jacob into the mix too…
Bella Swan… how your scent screams at me like Alice's once did.
But I won't make the same mistake twice.
Or, perhaps I will…
Do they know, I wonder? Know that you, dear Bella, have a gift too?
A gift I have only come across once before…
Because I am the only one who had it, until now…
What a combination we would make, my dear Bella…
You and I, professionals at self control, even though you have only experienced fleeting glimpses of your ability…
Poor Edward, unable to read your mind…
A walking, breathing living shield…
The greatest gift of all, not bestowed upon you by some unknown force like it was for me, no…you are born with it! Alice's blood hasn't triggered the transformation, because it already resides deep within you…
Alice Cullen; the common denominator.
Does she even know?
I am a master at mind control, I wonder, could you be too Bella?
I can penetrate your shield Bella… I wonder, can you penetrate mine?
Should I allow you to? Should I attempt to draw you in…
Too soon, Reuben…
Too soon.
Remember, her loyalties lie with Carlisle… with Alice…
Alice… Bella's sweetheart or so it would seem…
How flawless.
And Jacob, the wolf… completely devoted to Bella, the human, who is bewitched by Alice, the vampire…
Who is your daughter, Carlisle.
"Kill two birds with one stone" I believe the saying goes…
I'd rather kill four…
Ready or not…
Here…
…I…
……Come…