p class="MsoNormal"strongChapter 6/strong/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Knowing I had bought myself a precious few seconds, I started sprinting down the slightly sloping road towards the beach. A road I had run thousands of times in my life, with Jacob, with Quil, with the twins and any of the other kids I spent my summer with. I knew where every dip and twist in the poorly paved road, and it was once place I actually felt comfortable running./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I could hear Jacob was gaining on me as I approached the one corner, the one that would leave me just yards from the parking lot and therefore the beach. He had gotten significantly faster as he had grown, and he was gaining, but if I could just push myself the last few steps, I'd have all the bragging rights./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Just one more step and then the sharp turn./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"But my foot never touched the ground where it should have, instead I felt Jacob's arms wrap around my waist and lift me up as he continued running to the beach./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Put me down, Shrek!" I yelled, arms thumping against his arms wrapped around my ribs./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Jacob just bellowed with laughter as he ran to the grassy strip that had always served as the finish line for our races./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""I win!" He yelled, jumping up and down with me still firmly held above the ground./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I couldn't help but laugh along with him, his joy infectious./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Finally, he placed me back on the ground, and bent over still chuckling and catching his breath./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Cheater!" I childishly poked my tongue at home and crossed my arms./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Jacob had finally caught his breath and threw an arm over my shoulders, leading me towards the stony beach on our familiar walking route./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Ah, but you love me anyway." He smirked./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Hmm, that's debatable." I elbowed him lightly in his ribs, laughing with him now as we made our way towards a large driftwood tree up on the beach./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""So, tell me what else is going on that had you so wound up?" He finally asked as he dropped his arm, and I took the hint to climb up and sit leaning against one of the large, petrified tree roots./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Please don't laugh." I started, taking a deep breath. "I think someone might be stalking me, and I don't think he is human."/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Aww Bells, not you too!" Jacob groaned as he flopped down onto the rocky beach beside the tree. "Let me guess, you think there is something weird going on with the Cullen's?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""I never mentioned the Cullen's." I bit back. "But who else has been talking about them?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Ah fuck." Jake swore under his breath. "Dad said I wasn't supposed to repeat that." He rubbed his giant hands over his face then tangled his fingers in his long hair./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""So, your dad thinks something is up with them?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Yeah, he said its something to do with emback in the day/em. Ya' know?" He sighed. "Said something about his grandpa Ephraim having a run in with the Cullen's. But old Ephraim would be like a hundred by now so there's no way he actually met these ones."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Yeah, but what if they were immortal or something?" I asked back, my eyebrow raised./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Are you seriously that certain they aren't human?" He asked, his own eyebrow mirroring mine./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I nodded./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""If I wasn't sure there was something up with them, I never would have said anything." I sighed. "But clearly you aren't taking this very seriously."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Alright, tell me. Prove to me they're some mythical creature."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I could tell as I recounted all the strange occurrences that Jacob wasn't entirely convinced. He said I had to be misremembering the strange look Edward gave me in biology class, that I was a klutz and probably tripped when he hit me with the door, that I must have hit my head and not realised exactly where Edward was standing in the parking lot./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"But I had my last, very convincing point. The cold skin along with the family's strange reaction to me mentioning my ties to the tribe, and that one passage from the book of myths that spoke of the 'cold ones'./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Cold Ones?" Jacob laughed. "That's just a scary story we got told as kids. You would have heard it too. Cold Ones is just the English version of our name for vampires. There's no way that they are real and that you have a vampire stalking you."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Fine, don't believe me then. I know I'm right though." I huffed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Aww don't be salty about it, you're just having a temporary case of insanity or something." He continued to laugh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""No Jake, I know what I've seen, and something isn't right."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Okay well if you're so insistent on the existence of the Cold Ones, does that mean the tribes protectors are real? You know they're supposedly men from the tribe who turn into giant wolves like our ancestors?" He continued to laugh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I realised that I wasn't going to get anywhere further with Jacob and decided to drop it now. There had to be a way that I could prove it. Though as I continued to think it through, I realised just how insane I was sounding./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Was I letting myself truly believe there were vampires in the world?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Would that leave it up to all the other mythical creatures to exist? Were there werewolves and fairies and mermaids? Was there a logical explanation for this? Or was I essentially going insane?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""That's fine if you won't listen to me about the strangeness of it all, but I still think that Edward is way too interested in me and it's starting to give me the creeps."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Shall I get together a group of the boys and go and scare this boy away from you?" He laughed again./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I had a bit of a giggle too before a thought popped into my mind./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Jake, didn't you say the Sam and his little gang call themselves emThe Protectors/em?" I once again raised my eyebrow expectantly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Shit, yeah I did." He laughed again. "Well, the Quileute word for protector, but yeah. Maybe they were crazy enough to believe the rumours and decide they would take the place of the giant wolves." His loud chuckle echoed down the beach. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"He certainly didn't believe this was a possibility. But the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up again, and I knew there was some kind of truth. There were beings in this world, in this town, and I wasn't sure how I felt about them. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"A sudden cold shiver ran down my spine and reflexively I sat up higher and looked around./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"There, in the little parking lot, I locked eyes with one of the men from the gas station. The short haired one who looked angry in the car./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I expected him to have a murderous gaze, but instead he looked strangely serene, though somewhat annoyed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I quickly nudged Jacob and nodded towards the man watching the beach./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Who's that, Jake?" I spoke quietly, not wanting him to hear me./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"He quickly spun like he had, and quickly loped away from us./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Ugh, that's Paul Lahote. Sam's cousin and apparently shadow." Jacob sighed. "They keep watching me, I think they want to recruit me, but I'm not interested. Same with Quil."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Strange." I offered. More confused now than I had been before. "Well, looks like the rain is about to pick up, should we go and do some of this homework before Uncle Billy bans me from your house?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Pft. Dad thinks the sun shines out your ass Bella. He's always telling me to be more like Bella and Rachel." Jacob laughed while getting back on his feet. "But yeah, let's head back and maybe we can go see Quil later if he's cooled down."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Not like Bec?" I laughed as we began the short walk back to the little red house./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Nah, Bec and I are too much alike, and more like Mom. He wants less of that these days." He answered with a laugh. "Hey, I didn't tell you the news about Bec?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""No, you never tell me anything."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Yeah, I'm not too good at telling you all the goss' am I?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I just snorted in response./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Well, Bec moved to Hawai'i a little bit ago, right? Transferred college to live out her marine biologist dreams and works a few jobs to pay for it, but she met this Samoan surfer dude." He started. "And anyway she managed to finish college early and has been travelling around with this dude, and get this," He took a deep breath. "He knocked her up."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Shit Jake, for real? You're gonna be an uncle?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Yeah. Found out yesterday." He beamed his thousand sun smile. "So don't tell anyone yet because Bec is pretty early on."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""She happy about it?" I asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Over the freaking moon. She always wanted to have a big family."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Well next time you speak to her, give me her congratulations." I answered with a smile. "And I'm super excited for you too Jake, you'll be a great uncle."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"As we walked through the parking lot the rain became a little heavier and we boke into a comfortable jog. Well, I did, he just seemed to be walking faster as we made our way up the beach and onto the main road, where the turn back to the Black's little red house and the road continues on to the main area of the village where the little store owned by the Ateara's was./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Are you ever going to stop growing?" I growled, to which he just laughed in answer./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""You ever going to start?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Hey you should respect your elders." I shot back. "Hey, should we stop by the store, I'll buy lunch?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Any time you're paying, I'm in", he laughed again as we headed straight down the road./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"By the time we were entering the store, we resembled drowned rats, our long hair plastered to our faces and clothes dripping in time with the tinkling of the small bell above the door. The light drizzle of rain had rapidly turned into a downpour, and Aunty Joy nearly screamed when she saw the mess we were making in her stores doorway./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Hi Aunty Joy!" I chirped as we stood in the doorway and tried to limit the mess./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Bella dear!" She chirped back from her stool behind the register. "What on earth have you two been doing? You looked like you crawled out from the depths."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Hi Aunty Joy, we were at the beach and got caught in the rain on our way to come get some lunch." Jacob replied. "Sorry for the mess." He tacked on./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Alright, go borrow a couple of sweaters from Quil, Jacob," She nodded to the door that lead though to the little attached house she and the two Quil's lived in. "Both of you will freeze if you don't. And help him make a few sandwiches while you're at it, the two of you are growing, and getting far too skinny."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Jacob sent her a blinding smile as he quickly strode through the store and into the house./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""And Bella, come take a seat over here girl and let me fix that hair for you." He stood and patted the stool she was perpetually perched on and I quickly took a seat behind the ancient register. Aunty Joy then patted the top of my head lovingly before she began to drag her fingers through my dripping, tangled mess of hair./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""How have you been Bella?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Relaxing into the always loving touch of Joy's fingers in my hair, so reminiscent of my childhood, and began to fill her in on how school and the recent search for a part time job was going./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""I can't believe how grown up you are now, nearly finished your junior year, looking for a job, and Charlie always raves about your cooking. Sometimes I still think of you as the little girl running around in the nude and covered in mud with the boys." She laughed, reminiscing on the many memories of my childhood visits./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""I'm getting old, Aunty Joy," I joked with a laugh. "I'll be eighteen before you know it and then off to college."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"She jokingly slapped my shoulder before returning to parting my hair down the middle for the two braids./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Oh don't be calling yourself old, if you're old then the rest of us will be about ready to fall off the perch." She laughed. "And you're still younger than I was when I had Quil." I was barely younger, she had Quil around nineteen, she was still a couple of years younger than Charlie./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Her hand were gliding through my hair as she ended the first braid while we continued to chat. She was starting on the second braid as the bell above the door tinkled again and the tall, rather attractive man who had been watching me and Jacob on the beach made his way into the store. Paul Lahote./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"He called out a friendly greeting to Joy and shot me a cheeky, somewhat lopsided smile before making his way to the fridges at the rear of the convenience store. Joy and I continued to chat quietly until she finished my hair and tied off the two braids with two of the many hair elastics that perpetually lived on her wrist./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Paul continued browsing through the store before coming to the counter with a stack of canned drinks. Coke, Sprite, and beer. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Uh-uh mister. You are not a day over nineteen and I'm not selling you any beers." Joy scolded him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""They're for my dad." He said with a cocky smile./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""No, they aren't. I know what beer your dad drinks and these aren't it. You gonna put them back or am I? She said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Fine," He sighed. "I'll put them back but Sam will just come buy them later."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Well that's a problem for Sam and he's going to have to talk to me about that. He's been a good influence on you, but I have your dad and your aunts number and I'm not afraid to tell them you've been trying to buy beer."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I sat back and let Joy deal with the little act of teenage rebellion. Paul certainly didn't look like the average nineteen-year-old, more like a man in his mid-twenties. He was tall and muscular in the extreme, his wet t-shirt sleeves were clinging to his biceps and I could see the hint of definition in his chest and abs./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Like something you see there?" He asked with that cocky smile, catching me starring./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I blushed violently, the heat rushing to my overly pale cheeks./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""What's your name, sweet?" He asked while I stammered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""This is my niece, Bella." Joy supplied. "And you can stop with that cocky smile of yours, I know how you are with the ladies." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Ah but Joy, the ladies love me, and who am I to deny them?" He chuckled. "Can I also get filters and papers?" He said, gesturing to the cabinet behind us as he pulled a well worn leather wallet from his back pocket, causing the shirt to cling to his defined body even more./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Joy handed over the goods and rang him up while I continued my impression of a beetroot, before Paul left with another smile to me, and a warning to be good from Joy./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""He didn't make you too uncomfortable, did he Bella?" She turned to look at me./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""No, I was just embarrassed to be caught staring." I mumbled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Oh we have some good looking boys hanging around the res these days, maybe you could find yourself a nice boy down here?" She laughed. "Or at least something nice to look at."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"We both shared a laugh and I finally felt my cheeks begin to cool down a little more. Joy finally shooed me off to join the boys for lunch, teasing that if we took any longer they would eat all the food in the house and leave none for me. I agreed and made my way to her familiar kitchen./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"…/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Sunday dawned bright and early again, the strange bang that awoke me a little too early, and more water around my window frame./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Luckily enough, Charlie was home today and awake when I realised. I showed him the problem and he suggested the bang was likely the window shaking in its frame in the wind, and the water was likely rain getting in through the lose frame./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"It seemed so strange to have such a mundane reasoning behind all of it. It made sense. Of course in an old home there were things that came lose over time. Of course there would need to be repairs made. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I felt so stupid for jumping to the crazy conclusion of a mythical being stalking me and jumping through my window. Insane for even thinking that the kind doctor in town and his strange children might be the vampires or cold ones from stories of my childhood. They were just a strange family, and Edward was likely harmless. I must have hit my head in the car accident. I must have tripped when the door hit me on my first day of school. I must have misinterpreted his actions in biology tat first day too. He said he had received bad news and left suddenly after school with a family emergency. And surely it was a coincidence that he appeared on that street in Port Angeles. I was going insane./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I made breakfast for Charlie and I before he headed off to the hardware store for supplies to fix my window, and I set myself up to complete my latest English assignment in the den downstairs./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Then den was off of the living room, and before I moved back had mainly been a place for Charlie to store his fishing gear and occasionally work on the large desk. Now, I had taken over the desk, enticed by the view of the woods out of the large window, and kept perpetually warm by the old gas heater on the wall. It was warmer than my bedroom and with as much natural light as you could come across in such an area of the world, and perfect for long days of assignments. And Charlie's old desk was far larger than the small one I had in my room, much more convenient to spread my many books and notes around me as I studied./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I had never actually gotten around to studying with Jake the day before, we had instead spent the afternoon goofing off with Quil, playing Mariokart and other games on his new console. Their fight from earlier in the day was forgotten./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"By mid afternoon I was done with all of the weekend homework and Charlie had repaired the window in my room, also installing a newer lock that wasn't rusted in the unlocked position./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I quickly locked it, just in case my hunch about overnight visitors was right./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Which it wasn't. It couldn't be. If there was a vampire sneaking into my room at night then surely I would be dead by now./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"With all of the household chores done, except for the washing that Charlie volunteered to take care of, a trip to the grocery store was all I needed to do for my weekend to be deemed a success in my mind./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Charlie and I had loosely planned the dinners for this week. He had some fish fry from Harry for tonight, and I had a couple of dishes I wanted to try, but that meant I needed a couple of chicken breasts and a few other ingredients that weren't in the pantry./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Charlie handed me his credit card to pay, and I loaded myself and my chopping bags into the truck./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Sunday afternoon was quiet in the store. The parents with children had shopped earlier in the day, and I mostly founds myself alone in the aisles. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Until I was at the meat cabinet./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"There was a man, who seemed out of place./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"He was tall and lean and wore light jeans and denim jacket that seemed a little worn out, and were covered in small tears and stains. Including something suspiciously like dried blood around one of the cuffs. The t-shirt he wore under the jacket and a faded flannel seemed near threadbare and several sizes too big. And his feet were bare except for flip-flops that were almost too small. It was like he had just grabbed a random assortment of clothes off of the floor of somewhere particularly nasty and had worn them for weeks. His long blond hair was tied at the nape of his neck, and while it looked dirty, it didn't look greasy at all. Almost like it was dusty./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I tried to ignore the strange feeling in the pit of my stomach and look for the chicken breasts, but he was standing right in front of them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I inched towards my goal, and the strange man, trying to be quiet and unnoticeable, but all the hairs on my body seemed to be standing on end again. My instincts were screaming at me to forget the chicken and run./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"But this guy was probably just some random junkie. Every town has those. He was just a junkie and I was being ridiculous./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Finally I was close enough to see the chicken and reached out to grab the closest package, but he reached for it as quickly as I did. His hand brushed mine and I swear he inhaled sharply as if he was sniffing me./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I grabbed the pack and nearly threw myself away from him. But I could have sworn on my life I heard him whisper something. Just barely audibly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Delicious."/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"The pit of my stomach warned me he definitely wasn't talking about the chicken./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Stupidly, I felt my eyes drawn to his, and I was startled to realise they were a deep red. Like a muted burgundy with a strange blackness to them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"But the rest of his face, that was unnaturally gorgeous. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Instantly I knew what I was looking at on a deeply instinctual level./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"This strange man was like the Cullen's. And if I was right on my hunch about them. This man was a vampire./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I tore away from his hypnotic gaze, grabbed a hold of my cart and ran towards the front of the store where I could hear other people./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"My heart was beating a thousand beats a minute in my throat, and it felt like I had left my stomach behind at the meat display./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I just knew that if I was alone with this man, I wouldn't survive the encounter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"…/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Sorry for the delay, I have been super busy but have felt a deep need to rework this story. I want to make it a little darker than originally planned, and I would love to know you thoughts./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Knowing I had bought myself a precious few seconds, I started sprinting down the slightly sloping road towards the beach. A road I had run thousands of times in my life, with Jacob, with Quil, with the twins and any of the other kids I spent my summer with. I knew where every dip and twist in the poorly paved road, and it was once place I actually felt comfortable running./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I could hear Jacob was gaining on me as I approached the one corner, the one that would leave me just yards from the parking lot and therefore the beach. He had gotten significantly faster as he had grown, and he was gaining, but if I could just push myself the last few steps, I'd have all the bragging rights./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Just one more step and then the sharp turn./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"But my foot never touched the ground where it should have, instead I felt Jacob's arms wrap around my waist and lift me up as he continued running to the beach./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Put me down, Shrek!" I yelled, arms thumping against his arms wrapped around my ribs./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Jacob just bellowed with laughter as he ran to the grassy strip that had always served as the finish line for our races./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""I win!" He yelled, jumping up and down with me still firmly held above the ground./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I couldn't help but laugh along with him, his joy infectious./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Finally, he placed me back on the ground, and bent over still chuckling and catching his breath./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Cheater!" I childishly poked my tongue at home and crossed my arms./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Jacob had finally caught his breath and threw an arm over my shoulders, leading me towards the stony beach on our familiar walking route./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Ah, but you love me anyway." He smirked./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Hmm, that's debatable." I elbowed him lightly in his ribs, laughing with him now as we made our way towards a large driftwood tree up on the beach./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""So, tell me what else is going on that had you so wound up?" He finally asked as he dropped his arm, and I took the hint to climb up and sit leaning against one of the large, petrified tree roots./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Please don't laugh." I started, taking a deep breath. "I think someone might be stalking me, and I don't think he is human."/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Aww Bells, not you too!" Jacob groaned as he flopped down onto the rocky beach beside the tree. "Let me guess, you think there is something weird going on with the Cullen's?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""I never mentioned the Cullen's." I bit back. "But who else has been talking about them?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Ah fuck." Jake swore under his breath. "Dad said I wasn't supposed to repeat that." He rubbed his giant hands over his face then tangled his fingers in his long hair./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""So, your dad thinks something is up with them?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Yeah, he said its something to do with emback in the day/em. Ya' know?" He sighed. "Said something about his grandpa Ephraim having a run in with the Cullen's. But old Ephraim would be like a hundred by now so there's no way he actually met these ones."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Yeah, but what if they were immortal or something?" I asked back, my eyebrow raised./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Are you seriously that certain they aren't human?" He asked, his own eyebrow mirroring mine./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I nodded./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""If I wasn't sure there was something up with them, I never would have said anything." I sighed. "But clearly you aren't taking this very seriously."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Alright, tell me. Prove to me they're some mythical creature."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I could tell as I recounted all the strange occurrences that Jacob wasn't entirely convinced. He said I had to be misremembering the strange look Edward gave me in biology class, that I was a klutz and probably tripped when he hit me with the door, that I must have hit my head and not realised exactly where Edward was standing in the parking lot./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"But I had my last, very convincing point. The cold skin along with the family's strange reaction to me mentioning my ties to the tribe, and that one passage from the book of myths that spoke of the 'cold ones'./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Cold Ones?" Jacob laughed. "That's just a scary story we got told as kids. You would have heard it too. Cold Ones is just the English version of our name for vampires. There's no way that they are real and that you have a vampire stalking you."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Fine, don't believe me then. I know I'm right though." I huffed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Aww don't be salty about it, you're just having a temporary case of insanity or something." He continued to laugh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""No Jake, I know what I've seen, and something isn't right."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Okay well if you're so insistent on the existence of the Cold Ones, does that mean the tribes protectors are real? You know they're supposedly men from the tribe who turn into giant wolves like our ancestors?" He continued to laugh./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I realised that I wasn't going to get anywhere further with Jacob and decided to drop it now. There had to be a way that I could prove it. Though as I continued to think it through, I realised just how insane I was sounding./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Was I letting myself truly believe there were vampires in the world?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Would that leave it up to all the other mythical creatures to exist? Were there werewolves and fairies and mermaids? Was there a logical explanation for this? Or was I essentially going insane?/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""That's fine if you won't listen to me about the strangeness of it all, but I still think that Edward is way too interested in me and it's starting to give me the creeps."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Shall I get together a group of the boys and go and scare this boy away from you?" He laughed again./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I had a bit of a giggle too before a thought popped into my mind./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Jake, didn't you say the Sam and his little gang call themselves emThe Protectors/em?" I once again raised my eyebrow expectantly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Shit, yeah I did." He laughed again. "Well, the Quileute word for protector, but yeah. Maybe they were crazy enough to believe the rumours and decide they would take the place of the giant wolves." His loud chuckle echoed down the beach. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"He certainly didn't believe this was a possibility. But the hairs on the back of my neck were standing up again, and I knew there was some kind of truth. There were beings in this world, in this town, and I wasn't sure how I felt about them. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"A sudden cold shiver ran down my spine and reflexively I sat up higher and looked around./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"There, in the little parking lot, I locked eyes with one of the men from the gas station. The short haired one who looked angry in the car./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I expected him to have a murderous gaze, but instead he looked strangely serene, though somewhat annoyed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I quickly nudged Jacob and nodded towards the man watching the beach./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Who's that, Jake?" I spoke quietly, not wanting him to hear me./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"He quickly spun like he had, and quickly loped away from us./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Ugh, that's Paul Lahote. Sam's cousin and apparently shadow." Jacob sighed. "They keep watching me, I think they want to recruit me, but I'm not interested. Same with Quil."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Strange." I offered. More confused now than I had been before. "Well, looks like the rain is about to pick up, should we go and do some of this homework before Uncle Billy bans me from your house?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Pft. Dad thinks the sun shines out your ass Bella. He's always telling me to be more like Bella and Rachel." Jacob laughed while getting back on his feet. "But yeah, let's head back and maybe we can go see Quil later if he's cooled down."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Not like Bec?" I laughed as we began the short walk back to the little red house./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Nah, Bec and I are too much alike, and more like Mom. He wants less of that these days." He answered with a laugh. "Hey, I didn't tell you the news about Bec?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""No, you never tell me anything."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Yeah, I'm not too good at telling you all the goss' am I?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I just snorted in response./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Well, Bec moved to Hawai'i a little bit ago, right? Transferred college to live out her marine biologist dreams and works a few jobs to pay for it, but she met this Samoan surfer dude." He started. "And anyway she managed to finish college early and has been travelling around with this dude, and get this," He took a deep breath. "He knocked her up."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Shit Jake, for real? You're gonna be an uncle?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Yeah. Found out yesterday." He beamed his thousand sun smile. "So don't tell anyone yet because Bec is pretty early on."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""She happy about it?" I asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Over the freaking moon. She always wanted to have a big family."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Well next time you speak to her, give me her congratulations." I answered with a smile. "And I'm super excited for you too Jake, you'll be a great uncle."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"As we walked through the parking lot the rain became a little heavier and we boke into a comfortable jog. Well, I did, he just seemed to be walking faster as we made our way up the beach and onto the main road, where the turn back to the Black's little red house and the road continues on to the main area of the village where the little store owned by the Ateara's was./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Are you ever going to stop growing?" I growled, to which he just laughed in answer./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""You ever going to start?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Hey you should respect your elders." I shot back. "Hey, should we stop by the store, I'll buy lunch?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Any time you're paying, I'm in", he laughed again as we headed straight down the road./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"By the time we were entering the store, we resembled drowned rats, our long hair plastered to our faces and clothes dripping in time with the tinkling of the small bell above the door. The light drizzle of rain had rapidly turned into a downpour, and Aunty Joy nearly screamed when she saw the mess we were making in her stores doorway./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Hi Aunty Joy!" I chirped as we stood in the doorway and tried to limit the mess./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Bella dear!" She chirped back from her stool behind the register. "What on earth have you two been doing? You looked like you crawled out from the depths."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Hi Aunty Joy, we were at the beach and got caught in the rain on our way to come get some lunch." Jacob replied. "Sorry for the mess." He tacked on./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Alright, go borrow a couple of sweaters from Quil, Jacob," She nodded to the door that lead though to the little attached house she and the two Quil's lived in. "Both of you will freeze if you don't. And help him make a few sandwiches while you're at it, the two of you are growing, and getting far too skinny."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Jacob sent her a blinding smile as he quickly strode through the store and into the house./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""And Bella, come take a seat over here girl and let me fix that hair for you." He stood and patted the stool she was perpetually perched on and I quickly took a seat behind the ancient register. Aunty Joy then patted the top of my head lovingly before she began to drag her fingers through my dripping, tangled mess of hair./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""How have you been Bella?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Relaxing into the always loving touch of Joy's fingers in my hair, so reminiscent of my childhood, and began to fill her in on how school and the recent search for a part time job was going./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""I can't believe how grown up you are now, nearly finished your junior year, looking for a job, and Charlie always raves about your cooking. Sometimes I still think of you as the little girl running around in the nude and covered in mud with the boys." She laughed, reminiscing on the many memories of my childhood visits./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""I'm getting old, Aunty Joy," I joked with a laugh. "I'll be eighteen before you know it and then off to college."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"She jokingly slapped my shoulder before returning to parting my hair down the middle for the two braids./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Oh don't be calling yourself old, if you're old then the rest of us will be about ready to fall off the perch." She laughed. "And you're still younger than I was when I had Quil." I was barely younger, she had Quil around nineteen, she was still a couple of years younger than Charlie./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Her hand were gliding through my hair as she ended the first braid while we continued to chat. She was starting on the second braid as the bell above the door tinkled again and the tall, rather attractive man who had been watching me and Jacob on the beach made his way into the store. Paul Lahote./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"He called out a friendly greeting to Joy and shot me a cheeky, somewhat lopsided smile before making his way to the fridges at the rear of the convenience store. Joy and I continued to chat quietly until she finished my hair and tied off the two braids with two of the many hair elastics that perpetually lived on her wrist./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Paul continued browsing through the store before coming to the counter with a stack of canned drinks. Coke, Sprite, and beer. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Uh-uh mister. You are not a day over nineteen and I'm not selling you any beers." Joy scolded him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""They're for my dad." He said with a cocky smile./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""No, they aren't. I know what beer your dad drinks and these aren't it. You gonna put them back or am I? She said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Fine," He sighed. "I'll put them back but Sam will just come buy them later."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Well that's a problem for Sam and he's going to have to talk to me about that. He's been a good influence on you, but I have your dad and your aunts number and I'm not afraid to tell them you've been trying to buy beer."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I sat back and let Joy deal with the little act of teenage rebellion. Paul certainly didn't look like the average nineteen-year-old, more like a man in his mid-twenties. He was tall and muscular in the extreme, his wet t-shirt sleeves were clinging to his biceps and I could see the hint of definition in his chest and abs./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Like something you see there?" He asked with that cocky smile, catching me starring./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I blushed violently, the heat rushing to my overly pale cheeks./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""What's your name, sweet?" He asked while I stammered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""This is my niece, Bella." Joy supplied. "And you can stop with that cocky smile of yours, I know how you are with the ladies." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Ah but Joy, the ladies love me, and who am I to deny them?" He chuckled. "Can I also get filters and papers?" He said, gesturing to the cabinet behind us as he pulled a well worn leather wallet from his back pocket, causing the shirt to cling to his defined body even more./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Joy handed over the goods and rang him up while I continued my impression of a beetroot, before Paul left with another smile to me, and a warning to be good from Joy./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""He didn't make you too uncomfortable, did he Bella?" She turned to look at me./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""No, I was just embarrassed to be caught staring." I mumbled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Oh we have some good looking boys hanging around the res these days, maybe you could find yourself a nice boy down here?" She laughed. "Or at least something nice to look at."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"We both shared a laugh and I finally felt my cheeks begin to cool down a little more. Joy finally shooed me off to join the boys for lunch, teasing that if we took any longer they would eat all the food in the house and leave none for me. I agreed and made my way to her familiar kitchen./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"…/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Sunday dawned bright and early again, the strange bang that awoke me a little too early, and more water around my window frame./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Luckily enough, Charlie was home today and awake when I realised. I showed him the problem and he suggested the bang was likely the window shaking in its frame in the wind, and the water was likely rain getting in through the lose frame./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"It seemed so strange to have such a mundane reasoning behind all of it. It made sense. Of course in an old home there were things that came lose over time. Of course there would need to be repairs made. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I felt so stupid for jumping to the crazy conclusion of a mythical being stalking me and jumping through my window. Insane for even thinking that the kind doctor in town and his strange children might be the vampires or cold ones from stories of my childhood. They were just a strange family, and Edward was likely harmless. I must have hit my head in the car accident. I must have tripped when the door hit me on my first day of school. I must have misinterpreted his actions in biology tat first day too. He said he had received bad news and left suddenly after school with a family emergency. And surely it was a coincidence that he appeared on that street in Port Angeles. I was going insane./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I made breakfast for Charlie and I before he headed off to the hardware store for supplies to fix my window, and I set myself up to complete my latest English assignment in the den downstairs./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Then den was off of the living room, and before I moved back had mainly been a place for Charlie to store his fishing gear and occasionally work on the large desk. Now, I had taken over the desk, enticed by the view of the woods out of the large window, and kept perpetually warm by the old gas heater on the wall. It was warmer than my bedroom and with as much natural light as you could come across in such an area of the world, and perfect for long days of assignments. And Charlie's old desk was far larger than the small one I had in my room, much more convenient to spread my many books and notes around me as I studied./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I had never actually gotten around to studying with Jake the day before, we had instead spent the afternoon goofing off with Quil, playing Mariokart and other games on his new console. Their fight from earlier in the day was forgotten./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"By mid afternoon I was done with all of the weekend homework and Charlie had repaired the window in my room, also installing a newer lock that wasn't rusted in the unlocked position./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I quickly locked it, just in case my hunch about overnight visitors was right./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Which it wasn't. It couldn't be. If there was a vampire sneaking into my room at night then surely I would be dead by now./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"With all of the household chores done, except for the washing that Charlie volunteered to take care of, a trip to the grocery store was all I needed to do for my weekend to be deemed a success in my mind./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Charlie and I had loosely planned the dinners for this week. He had some fish fry from Harry for tonight, and I had a couple of dishes I wanted to try, but that meant I needed a couple of chicken breasts and a few other ingredients that weren't in the pantry./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Charlie handed me his credit card to pay, and I loaded myself and my chopping bags into the truck./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Sunday afternoon was quiet in the store. The parents with children had shopped earlier in the day, and I mostly founds myself alone in the aisles. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Until I was at the meat cabinet./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"There was a man, who seemed out of place./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"He was tall and lean and wore light jeans and denim jacket that seemed a little worn out, and were covered in small tears and stains. Including something suspiciously like dried blood around one of the cuffs. The t-shirt he wore under the jacket and a faded flannel seemed near threadbare and several sizes too big. And his feet were bare except for flip-flops that were almost too small. It was like he had just grabbed a random assortment of clothes off of the floor of somewhere particularly nasty and had worn them for weeks. His long blond hair was tied at the nape of his neck, and while it looked dirty, it didn't look greasy at all. Almost like it was dusty./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I tried to ignore the strange feeling in the pit of my stomach and look for the chicken breasts, but he was standing right in front of them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I inched towards my goal, and the strange man, trying to be quiet and unnoticeable, but all the hairs on my body seemed to be standing on end again. My instincts were screaming at me to forget the chicken and run./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"But this guy was probably just some random junkie. Every town has those. He was just a junkie and I was being ridiculous./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Finally I was close enough to see the chicken and reached out to grab the closest package, but he reached for it as quickly as I did. His hand brushed mine and I swear he inhaled sharply as if he was sniffing me./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I grabbed the pack and nearly threw myself away from him. But I could have sworn on my life I heard him whisper something. Just barely audibly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;""Delicious."/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"The pit of my stomach warned me he definitely wasn't talking about the chicken./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Stupidly, I felt my eyes drawn to his, and I was startled to realise they were a deep red. Like a muted burgundy with a strange blackness to them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"But the rest of his face, that was unnaturally gorgeous. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Instantly I knew what I was looking at on a deeply instinctual level./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"This strange man was like the Cullen's. And if I was right on my hunch about them. This man was a vampire./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I tore away from his hypnotic gaze, grabbed a hold of my cart and ran towards the front of the store where I could hear other people./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"My heart was beating a thousand beats a minute in my throat, and it felt like I had left my stomach behind at the meat display./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"I just knew that if I was alone with this man, I wouldn't survive the encounter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="text-align: center;" align="center"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"…/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"emspan style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;"Sorry for the delay, I have been super busy but have felt a deep need to rework this story. I want to make it a little darker than originally planned, and I would love to know you thoughts./span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="mso-font-kerning: 0pt; mso-ligatures: none;" /span/p