I jerked up in bed. My room was pitch-black. I had had a nightmare with Edward in it. He had his mouth open, fangs poised near Bella's throat. I had screamed and tried to stop him, but I had been too late. I saw him suck the life out of her as she lay limp in his arms.
Despite my wild dream, one thing jumped out at me: could this have been how Bella had died?
I quickly got rid of that thought. Edward was not a vampire, I told myself once again.
I couldn't go back to sleep now, though. I got up and peered out the window. Though it was only 5:30, my dad's car was gone, just like any other day of the week. After my mom and Cynthia had died, he had started leaving early and coming back late, going off to wherever he went.
I sighed, ran my hands through my short black hair, and looked around the room. My gaze landed on the diary.
I stared at it. Suddenly, I got an idea. I made breakfast and slowly ate it. When it was 9:30, I got in my car and drove to La Push.
I knew Embry Call, because his mom worked at the store and I would sometimes see him there. We hadn't really talked before, just simple greetings. But I knew he was friends with Jacob, according to Jacob's Facebook profile. I could ask Embry where Jacob lived and visit him, and confront him about the diary.
I opened the door to Mrs. Call's store. "Hello, Alice," she said, smiling.
"Hi, Mrs. Call," I greeted back. "Is Embry here?"
She looked mildly surprised. "Sure. He's in the back."
I thanked her and scurried off. He was exiting just as I was about to open the door, and we crashed into each other.
"Hey, sorry," he said, pulling me up. "Didn't see you there."
"It's okay," I said. "I need to ask you something super important."
"Sure," he said hesitantly, probably wondering why I was talking to him now.
"Do you know where Jacob Black lives?"
He looked surprised for a second before his expression changed to a nervous one. "I do. But he's not at home right now."
"When will he be back?" I asked.
He shrugged. "I don't know. Probably not for a few months."
I frowned slightly at him. "And where did he go for this long?"
He avoided my gaze. "A vacation."
"Where?" I pushed.
"I don't know," he said again, though it was clear he did.
I knew I wasn't going to get anything more out of Embry. I thanked him and stalked away.
"Wait," he said, grabbing my arm as I started to exit. "Why do you want to know?"
"Reasons," I said vaguely and went away.
At home, I sat cross-legged on my bed and picked the diary up. I wondered if I should read more or not. The first part had given me nightmares. What would the rest do?
Suddenly, I saw myself in my mind reading it. I didn't look horrified or scared, just very interested in whatever she had written.
The vision disappeared. I silently counted in my head. That was the eleventh one this month. I had an unusual ability to sometimes see visions of the future. It wasn't big things, usually, just small and not far into the future. No one had known this except for my mother. She had encouraged me to keep track of when it happened, to see how often the visions occurred. Interestingly, they had increased as I grew older. It evened out when I was almost fourteen, but after Mom and Cynthia had died, the visions per month spiked up again. Last month, I had had eighteen visions, much different than before they had died, when the average was about seven.
I didn't tell my father about my ability for good reasons. Firstly, he wouldn't believe me. And if I did prove it to him, he would see it as a curse, not like a gift like my mom had.
I opened the diary, skipping past the part I had already read. I leaned back against the purple wall and began to read.
I began to wonder if agreeing to go to Seattle with Edward was a mistake. I felt so confused about him. His emotions were everchanging, one day pretending I didn't exist, the next wanting to be friends. I knew Jacob's story was close to unbelievable, but I had always known Edward was anything but human. But I was still hesitant to believe that he was a vampire. So I decided that there was a possibility that he could be a "cold one," an enemy of the werewolf.
But if it was true, what would I do? That was harder to answer. I could always follow his advice and avoid him. But for some reason, the thought of staying away from Edward seemed impossible to me. I could not stay away from this strange boy. After all, he hadn't hurt me yet, so he couldn't be all bad…
The rest of the day passed in a swirl of chores. The next morning, I noticed that Edward was not at school. I felt disappointment, much more than I should have felt. Angela, Jessica, and I made plans to go to Port Angeles so they could shop for dresses. We went after school, and it felt good to leave Forks behind for a while, along with my other worries.
After we shopped, Ang and Jess decided to walk by the beach before we would eat dinner. I decided to go hunt for a bookstore instead.
As I was unfamiliar with the town, it took a while before I found a store, but it definitely was not what I was looking for. I continued walking. The sun was starting to set.
I noticed four men who were near me, dressed in ratty clothing. One of them called out a greeting to me, and I responded- an automatic reaction. I went on.
Later, I noticed that they were following me. My heart pounded as I walked faster, hoping to lose them. Soon, they slowed down, maybe noticing that they had scared me. In my rush to avoid them, I hadn't noticed that two members of their group was missing.
I rounded a corner, and stopped. The two other men were casually there, waiting for me. I realized they hadn't been chasing me, but surrounding me.
I quickly skimmed through basic self-defense in my head. Besides fighting, my only other options were to scream or run. Running wouldn't get me very far with my clumsiness, and there was no one to hear me scream.
Suddenly, a silver car zoomed towards us. I jumped in front- I recognized this car.
Edward stopped and told me to get in, which I did gladly. He slammed down the pedal and we went off. He seemed to be mad...no, not just mad, furious.
I wondered how he had known where I was. He drove me to La Bella Italia, the place where I was supposed to meet my friends.
Once again, there was an abrupt stop to the entry. Just like Bella, I was wondering how Edward had known where she was. And Bella had never told me about these four men who had tried to hurt her. I remember I had unfortunately been sick the day Jess, Ang, and Bella invited me to go with them, otherwise I would've been there. I would never miss a shopping trip.
I guess I would have to find out what happened next.