Disclaimer: I do not own anything from Twilight
Chapter 4: Suspicions:
(Takes place immediately after school)
Two cars pulled up in front of a mansion located opposite from the Swan mansion and five vampire teens walked out, Edward, Jasper, Alice, Rosalie and Emmett. They just finished school and it was the same as the other thousands of times they have been to school, except for one thing.
"I'm going to call Carlisle." Alice said, getting her phone.
"Why are you calling, Carlisle? Is everything okay?" Esme said walking into the living room.
"For now, everything's fine, but we notice somethings in school that we need to discuss with both of you." Jasper answered.
All five kids noticed the abnormalities. They might have been small enough to go unnotice, but not for the Cullen kids. Not with their vampire instincts and their need to keep a sharp eye out for anything that could be a threat.
"He's on his way." Alice said, after she closed her phone.
10 minutes later, another car came at their house and Carlisle was inside the house a second later.
"I'm here. So what's going on? Did anything happen?" Carlisle asked.
"Let's move this to the dining room." Alice said.
They went to the dining room and took their seats, except for Edward who decided to stand.
"Now explain what's going on." Carlisle said.
"When we came to the school we saw a girl who might be be a vampire." Rosalie said.
"Might be?" Esme questioned.
"It's so strange. If you look at her from afar, she looks like a normal human. She has light brown eyes and a even saw her eating human food like it wasn't disgusting. But her scent tells a different story, it smells just like a vampire. There is no scent of blood on her." Alice explained. "I bumped into her and shook her hand, we at the same temperature."
"Maybe she is a vampire, but she has a power that makes look human." Carlisle suggested.
"Great, now we have to deal with another vampire in the same town as us and we just moved here." Rosalie complained.
"She might not be a threat. If she lives here and goes to high school. She might be a vegetarian vampire like us." Carlisle said.
"That's if she's a vampire. If we confront her and tell her what we are, what will keep her from telling everyone?" Rosalie argued.
"Look, we don't know for sure if she is a vampire, but we are certain that she's not human. There's is definitely something different about her." Jasper said.
"What's her name?" Esme asked.
"Amelia Parker." Emmett answered. "And it's not just her. I heard she has other siblings with her. Their names are Anthony, EJ and Lillian. And she also has adopted siblings named Allison, Renesmeeand Mason."
"And the others are like her?" Carlisle questioned.
"Well not exactly." Jasper answered. "They look and smell more human than she does, but they are also different from the other humans."
"Assuming they are humans. They are the first humans we've seen who were not drawn in by our appearances. Like they already knew better not to. Plus, I couldn't see their future and Edward couldn't read their minds." Alice said.
That brought their attention to Edward, who hasn't said a single word since the meeting started. "Edward!" Carlisle called, getting his eldest sons' attention. "You couldn't read their minds?"
"N-no, not at all." Edward answered. "I tried to, but it felt I was being blocked. As if…" He trailed off because he couldn't finish that sentence.
It was as if he was trying to read Bella's mind.
Edward took a deep breath and closed his eyes. It has been forty-five years and it still felt like it was yesterday when he met Isabella Marie Swan. Every single memory he has with her is permanently etched into his brain. Including the night of Bella's 18th birthday. His mind then came to the moment where he walked Bella to the forest and left her there. He had no idea how he was able to pull it off or why he didn't stay back to make sure Bella got out of the woods after that. All he knew was that after forty-five years, he still loves her. Even if she has grown old and possibly moved on.
He also knew that he wasn't the only one affected by the departure. Everyone in his family saw Bella as another member of their family and they weren't the same without her. Carlisle would often busy himself with his job, even though he made an effort to not completely neglect his family, Esme would lament on the loss of her daughter when she was alone, Emmett was not laugh so much as he use to, Jasper is stuck dealing with everyone melancholy over missing Bella along with his own and although Alice still shops, she never does it as enthusiastically as she used to with Bella. Even Rosalie was affected. Yes it was true that she was never welcoming towards Bella, but that didn't mean she hated the human. She was more cautious of her, wanting to look out for her family and mostly she envied Bella. The reason Rosalie envied her was because Bella had a chance to grow old, be human and have kids, something Rosalie would give anything to have. The blonde vampire would sometimes close her eyes and remember her human life when she visited her best friend and held her baby. She would remember the cute dimples and the curly and sigh.
The family slowly got better over the years, but just barely.
"Edward." A voice called, bringing Edward out of his thoughts. He turned to see that it was Rosalie this time who broke him out of his thoughts. "Pay attention, this is serious."
"W-what were you saying?" Edward asked.
"There was another girl with them, according to the others' she's hundrend percent human. Could you read her thoughts?" Carlisle asked.
"Yes, her name is Desiree Johnson. She is dating Anthony Parker."
"Assuming that there is something going on with that family, do you think this Deseree girl is in on it?" Emmett asked.
"I don't know for sure, but she is definitely hiding something. Her mind seemed to be too focus on random thoughts. It's the same way you guys do when you're trying to block a particular thought from me." Edward said.
"That is crazy! Why would she hide it from her mind?!" Emmett asked in disbelief.
"She wouldn't unless she somehow knows that Edward or someone could read her mind." Rosalie inferred.
"Come to think of it, she was the only one besides the Taylors and the Parkers to not be drawn in by our looks. I've never seen a human like that. It's like she knew better than to do that and she was trying to avoid us." Alice said.
"There was a feeling of weariness coming from her that she was trying to fight away and stay calm." Jasper noted.
Carlisle thought about it for a moment before saying. "Those are all interesting points, but we need to remember that these are all just assumptions. For all we know, they could be normal people and we're being paranoid. For now, just keep your eyes and ears opened."
Rosalie started at her adopted father in disbelief. "What that's it? We have to face a possibilty of another vampire, a human who might know our secret and six kids who might not be human and might not be vampires, and you want to let this slide?!"
"There's nothing else we can do, Rosalie. We don't really know for sure if those kids are different. We shouldn't do anything until we know for sure something is up." Carlisle said, and everyone knew that, that was the final word.
Rose grumbled, not happy with the decision, but made no complaints.
"Come on, Rosie. If these kids are threats than we can take them on easily." Emmett said, chuckling.
Rosalie wasn't ammused as she walked out of the dining room and off to hers and Emmetts' bedroom. Emmett followed her after that. Alice and Jasper went out hunting and Carlisle and Esme went to play chess in the living room. Edward joined them a few minutes later and slumped down on the sofa without a word. His eyes went to the piano, an instrument that remained unplayed for a very long time. He sighed, remembering the last time he played the piano. Sometimes he wondered if he ever made the right decision leaving Bella. He wondered where she was, did she have a job, was she with someone…
The last question was too painful for him to think.
Everyday, he would stare off in space, trying to imagine what the day would be like if Bella was with them, if he hadn't left Bella, if maybe he stayed with her and just accept the fact that Bella couldn't have a normal life with him and his family. Maybe their relationship would have survive, they could have gotten married and Bella could have been turned into a vampire by now.
He shook himself out of that thought. He couldn't be selfish. This is her life, he was talking about. She has the opportunity to grow old, become a mother and a grandmother, have a normal life and not be stuck with having to go to high school and college every few decades. She has a chance neither he nor anyone else in the family had and he has no right to come in a take that away from her.
So he stuck by his promise and made sure it was like they never existed to her. He even made up a lie and told her that he no longer loved her, not wanting to keep up the façade, so that she could move on from him. He felt the pain as soon as he left her in the forest and it was still with him, but he endured it because it was his decision and there was no turning back.
Esme looked at her eldest son with worry and sadness. This was not the first time she was seeing this from Edward and she knew exactly what was causing this. She knew from that moment in Forks when Edward started playing the piano again that Bella was not just another human, definitely not to Edward. She could tell by the light in Edwards' eyes whenever he talked about her that she was definitely someone special to him, everyone in the family could tell. So the morning after Bellas' eighteenth birthday, when Edward came in announced that they need to leave Forks and Bella, he was of course met with a lot of objections from everyone except for Jasper, who was too focused on his guilt for how Bellas' birthday ended and managing all the emotions from his family. This debate lasted all night, which didn't really matter for the Cullens as they never needed sleep since their transformation, but eventually Edward managed to convince his family that Bella would be better off without them and they got ready to leave. Not the rest of the Cullens were wondering if they made the right decision.
Carlisle saw where his wife was looking and could immediately tell what she was thinking. He grabbed her hand and gave it a soft squeeze to offer her comfort. Esme responded with a smile that did not completely meet her eyes.
Another voice, or rather mind, then broke Edward out of his own thoughts.
'Edward quick! Call the others and get them to come over here!' Alice alerted.
Edward immediately got up, which caught Carlisle and Esmes' attention. "Is everything okay, Edward?" Esme asked.
"It's Alice. She said she wants us all to come to her and Jasper right away." Edward answered before turning to the stairs of their house. "Emmett! Rosalie! Both of you get down here now!"
A few seconds later, Emmett and Rosalie were downstairs, with Emmett buttoning his shirt. "Dude, this better be important, since it interrupted Rosie and my 'alone time'." Emmett said.
Edward cringed as he did his best to avoid his adopted brother and sisters' mind. "Alice says we need to go to her and Jasper now."
Without wasting a second, the five Cullens ran out to where Jasper and Alice were.
"Any idea why Alice called us?" Carlisle asked Edward.
"No, but it sounded urgent." Edward replied.
They soon arrived to where Alice and Jasper were. "What's wrong? Are you two okay?" Carlisle asked his adopted kids.
"We're fine, but check out the area." Jasper said, pointing to the path in front of him. "Notice anything about the scents hanging around it?"
The other Cullens, except for Alice, inhaled the scent and while Carlisle and Esme were confused, Rosalie, Emmett and Edward immediately understood what the two were talking about.
"Those scents…" Emmett trailed off.
"It's the same ones from the Taylor and Parker siblings." Edward finished for his brother.
"But I thought people don't come to the forest because it is full of wild animals." Esme said.
"Apparently some people do come here." Jasper said.
"These scents are definitely recent." Carlisle noted. "They might still be here."
"One way to find out." Rosalie said, before she took off to follow the scents.
"Rosalie, wait!" Esme said, before she and the other Cullens flew off to join the blonde hair girl.
After a few seconds, Rosalie finally stopped, allowing the others to catch up to her.
"Seriously, Rosalie? What were you going to do if you found those kids? Stalk them? What if they saw us using our speed?!" Alice chastisized.
But Rosalie didn't listen to her. Instead she pointed ahead of her. "Look."
The rest of her family did so and were surprised to see and mansion in the middle of the forest. And what made them more curious about it was that, that mansion was where the scents of the mysterious family was the strongest.
"Now they have a house far away from the town. Doesn't that make it more suspicious now?" Rosalie pointed out.
"Maybe we could meet them and see what they are like." Esme suggested.
Carlisle considered. "Yes we can do that, but listen, we need to give them the benefit of doubt. We can't go barging in and be suspicious of them. Which means no glaring at them, especially you Rosalie." He said sternly.
Rosalie just nodded, not saying anything.
Carlisle then turned back to the house. "Then let's go."