It took me longer than expected to get this third chapter together for posting, but I got there in the end. It's also the longest out of the 3 that have been posted. I'm leaving y'all with a bang because I don't know when the next chapter will be posted... I'm aiming for 2 weeks max, but we'll see.
The coffee had its desired effect, and after an hour of lounging, Addison hopped up to finish her closet organization. She had already sorted the clothes that she'd left there the summer before. With a few trash bags worth of clothes donated to the nearest thrift store, there was now more real estate for the newer items she'd brought from Phoenix.
Sure, she could put everything on hangers and call it a day. That would be easier and faster, and she could still group the clothes decently. Well, if she were someone like Bella, that would work. Unfortunately, her brain wouldn't dare allow herself to organize so simply.
Not only did she have hangers for some of her longer items and paired outfits, but her closet had drawers, racks, cubbies, and baskets. There wasn't a single inch of space wasted—including the doors, which had organizers holding her shoes and hats. Every item had its place, and it took careful thought and consideration for Addison to place them. She couldn't rush such a sacred process.
So, after a few hours of really digging her heels in—interrupted only by the occasional dance break—she was able to close the doors to her updated closet with a relieved sigh. Her shoulders slumped momentarily before she stretched her arms high above her head and shifted onto her tiptoes to ease the kinks out of her back. "Glad that's over with," she muttered to herself. While the work needed to be done for her to be able to fully relax in her room, it was a painstaking task that now had her antsy and ready to move.
First, though, she needed a break to refuel.
After quickly handling her business in the bathroom, she went downstairs and opened the fridge to grab something to drink. She didn't bother looking to see if there was something she could make a meal out of inside, knowing the outcome regardless. So, she reached straight for the money her father told her about before moving to the living room to relax on the couch.
Pulling out her Nokia, she dialed the number she remembered for the local pizza place—that wasn't so 'local'—and crossed her fingers. The line rang a few times before someone picked up on the other end. A split second of panic ended as she heard the familiar beeps and dings of an establishment. "Hello, how can we help you today?" a teenage boy's voice asked.
Great, a possible classmate, she thought with a silent groan. She smiled through the momentary discomfort and recited their regular order. "Hey. Yeah, can I get a large pepperoni pizza with an order of that cheezy bread and a Coke? Delivery, please."
Upon realizing she was his age, his customer service voice eased into something more casual. "For sure, we can do that for you today. Can I have the address?"
"Yup, it's Chief Swan's house."
There was a pause on the other end of the line. "Uh… could you repeat that?"
"Oh, totally, no problem. It's Chief Swan's house. I can give you the full address if you—"
He interrupted her. "I'm sorry, but you're goin' in and out right now. Yeah, I just need the full address to send this order to. You said it was a house?"
The moment he finished, she groaned and put a hand on her forehead to rub away her instinctual frown. Of course, her phone would choose now of all moments to start going haywire. "I should've known it was too good to be true," she hissed while moving the phone away from her ear to look at it. Sure enough, the screen flickered in and out with the call still in progress. Through previous experience dealing with her faulty phone, she knew she had only a matter of minutes before the thing gave out on her for the umpteenth time. "Yeah, yeah, I'm sorry, sorry. My phone, it's- never mind, that's not important. Can you hear me?" She spoke louder and repeated herself in the hopes she could get the order in before her time ran out.
There was a slight delay in his response. "Yeah, I was able to hear that."
"Great! Good. Okay, so the address, address? Yeah, deliver to Chief Swan. The head of Forks police?"
Another delay, but now he sounded more confused. "The chief? I thought he was supposed to be in Seattle for—" he stopped himself, and she could tell the second it clicked for him, "Oh. So, you must be the chief's daughter who came from Arizona. Isabella, right?"
That made her laugh to herself. The news of Bella's arrival seemed to have spread like wildfire, but that wasn't much of a surprise. She knew her father had likely been telling anyone who held a conversation with him for longer than five minutes about Bella coming back. That was the kind of juicy gossip the people in town thrived on. Bella's gonna hate that, she knew.
"You were so close. It's actually Addison, the older one."
Pause. An awkward chuckle. "My bad. Okay, I think I got it. You wanted a large pepperoni pizza, cheesy bread, and a Coke delivered to the Chief's house for an Addison? Did I get it right?"
"Yes. You got it, yes. I'll be paying with cash, by the way."
"I think you said cash, cool. I was just about to ask that. We'll get that out to you soon." He hesitated for a beat and continued, "Uh, and good luck with your phone. It sounds like you could use it."
Addison groaned audibly and rolled her eyes with a humorless chuckle. "That's an understatement, but I appreciate it. Thank you."
The moment the call disconnected, she glared at the small device. "For you to be a smart-phone, you sure aren't acting like it," she grumbled while shaking the thing. The screen still glitched away and got progressively worse, almost as if to personally spite her.
She fiddled with it for a while, but when it became clear that the trick she and Bella had come up with wasn't going to work for a fifth time, she gave up on trying to fix it. Defeated, she struggled through the technical difficulties to send out texts to Renee, Charlie, and Bella letting them know that her phone was freaking out again. They were used to getting that text over the past few months, so it wouldn't be that big of a deal.
Luck must have truly been on her side because she managed to get out all the texts before her phone entirely gave up on her. The last thing she saw before the screen went entirely black was Bella's reply that read, 'Again?'
Reduced to a useless brick, she tossed the phone onto the coffee table and slumped into the cushions. A new phone was a high priority now. It didn't outweigh her need to go shopping for more in-season attire, but it was close. Knowing her sister, Bella would likely bring an old phone for her to use for the time being. Addison would just have to last 3 days without easy contact with the outside world.
She could handle it. There were plenty of other things to do that didn't involve talking to anyone. For example, she could finally take that walk she'd been thinking about since she came back to Forks. Now that she'd completed her most tedious task, it was the perfect way to de-stress and work off some extra energy.
Plans made, Addison grabbed the remote and turned on the TV to pass the time while waiting for her meal. It was already switched to the sports channel—which came as no surprise—and a hockey game was on. The players were just getting ready for the second period, so she left it on and settled in to see how the game would end. Even though they weren't the teams she supported, she wasn't against watching just in case they managed to surprise her.
Three hours later, Addison had enough time to digest her food to head out. Decked out in her favorite coat and warm beanie, she armed herself with bear spray. A promise was a promise, and she'd carry it to give her father the piece of mind. That didn't stop her from rolling her eyes with a giggle at his expense, though.
She made sure the back door was locked before turning to head into the forest behind the house. The cold air of forks felt refreshing in her lungs as she walked, and she took deep, calming breaths to take in more fresh air. Normally, she would have pulled out her MP3 player to fill the silence, but she chose to hold off for now. Leaves swished and occasionally crunched under her boots with each step, and she could hear the calls of wildlife in the distance while birds chirped in the trees. It all came together to form a song she felt more in her soul than she heard with her ears.
Addison missed this more than anything, and she hummed to herself as she went deeper into the trees. She couldn't tell how long she hiked without her phone, so she relied on her memory of the forest to let her know when she should start to turn around. There were landmarks from her childhood that she knew like the back of her hand. Charlie had been sure to drill them into her head as she grew older and more curious to explore. They were visible barriers to keep her from going too far from home or getting lost. Since she'd gotten older and proved herself to be responsible enough, she used them more as milestones than anything.
She'd already passed three of the markers, which let her know that she was coming close to her turning point. The latest one she passed had been the fallen tree that crossed a tiny stream. Addison remembered it because it was the furthest Bella had ever gone when they were little kids. All she could think about was Bella's expression when she slipped and ended up having to walk back home with a wet butt. She still laughed to herself every time she crossed.
As her laughter faded, she was in silence once more. However, the silence was different. This silence felt overbearing. Her smile dropped; she came to a slow stop. The birds weren't chirping anymore. When did that happen? Beneath her coat, the hairs on her arms stood on end.
The breaths that previously felt calming now dried out her throat. She was so hyperaware of the lack of noise that she could hear her throat contract as she swallowed. All the sounds from her body felt like they were suddenly being played on a speaker that echoed off the trees.
Something was watching her.
She'd never been so sure of anything in her life—a bead of sweat built on her forehead. Ever so slowly, she reached into her pocket and clutched the bear spray tightly in her fist. She scanned the area ahead of her with her eyes, but there wasn't a thing that stood out. That meant whatever it was was behind her. Please don't let it actually be a bear, she begged, mentally preparing herself for what she was about to do.
Before she could psych herself out of it, she whipped around while holding the bear spray like a loaded weapon. Left, right, up, and down, she looked for the threat with wide eyes. Even though she raked her eyes over her surroundings three times, there wasn't a single sign that an animal was stalking her. Nothing was there.
She lowered the spray and took a shaky breath. Though she'd been hoping it was nothing, she knew that feelings of panic like that didn't appear out of nowhere. Something had triggered her fight or flight, and she wasn't going to stick around to find out what it was.
The bear spray remained clutched in her hand while she took cautious steps toward home. Every part of her body screamed at her to run all the way back without stopping. And yet… there was a tiny—almost overlooked—urge to turn and run in the opposite direction.
Of course, she wouldn't have dared give it a second thought if it weren't for what happened after she made it a few feet. There was a crack so loud that it made her ears ring—ringing that was made worse by the way the sound echoed around her. Right before her eyes, one of the thinner trees snapped as if it'd been rammed by a car going full speed. It went crashing to the ground and made a second bang and groaned as the branches settled, blocking her path ahead.
No bear would have been able to knock down a tree like that. The wind wasn't strong enough. There wasn't any lightning that struck. If all that were the case, Addison was left to come to the worst conclusion there possibly was. It was something scarier and stronger than a bear.
Her legs were moving her in the opposite direction before she fully processed she'd started running. It didn't matter that she hadn't seen the beast that was able to cause such destruction. What mattered most was getting the hell out of dodge.
Leaves stirred along the forest floor beneath her boots from her focused sprint. She'd never run so fast or so hard in her life. Suddenly, she was grateful that track was one of the sports she'd participated in during her freshman year of high school. Winning trophies and medals hadn't gotten her blood pounding or motivated her nearly as much as a threat to her safety did.
Behind her, she could hear it now, the creature. Since she knew it was there, it seemed to give up on all pretenses of trying to be sneaky. One minute, she would hear twigs snapping and more trees cracking, and the next she could hear the shuffling of leaves in the treetops. What creature had the speed and agility to be able to move like that, Addison wasn't sure, and she wouldn't be looking back to figure it out.
Her lungs burned, and her panting breaths were loud in the air, but she wouldn't stop. Her muscles protested the rough treatment, but she couldn't stop. Even when she blew past her final marker—a tree with a branch that looped around the trunk—she continued her sprint into new territory.
The forest past that point grew more dense and was darker due to the treetops covering the sky. It didn't help that Forks was cloudy even on a good day, so the dim surroundings worsened her ability to see what obstacles were in the way. Addison powered through low-hanging branches and bushes, uncaring of the scratches that marred her face and tears in her clothing. Her hair managed to get caught a few times, and though she recognized the pain of strands being yanked from her scalp, she did not stop. She endured all the pain due to her single-minded drive to escape her pursuer, but no matter how far she went, she could hear it gaining ground as it closed the gap between them.
Addison thought that maybe if she ran far enough, she'd break out of the trees and end up on the road again. From there, she'd be able to flag down a passing car for help, and this hell on earth would be over. She'd go home and eat the entire tub of strawberry ice cream in the freezer and take a long bath to relax.
After that, she would wait for Bella and Charlie to get back so she could tell them how silly she felt for running from… something she couldn't even see. They'd laugh, and her dad would warn her from going too far into the woods in the future. He might even go as far as grounding her from hiking for a while. She wouldn't fight him about it, either. This was enough "excitement" to last her a lifetime.
Unfortunately, her hope was snatched from her before she had the chance to fully absorb herself in the delusion.
Her momentum was abruptly stopped by a root poking out of the ground. A high-pitched shriek left her throat when she went from vertical to horizontal in the span of a second. Her body hit the ground with a heavy thud, knocking the wind out of her. She'd tried to catch herself, but her hands couldn't find purchase on the slippery leaves. To make matters worse, something sharp sliced her left palm, leaving behind a stinging cut that instantly beaded up with blood.
Desperation welled up in her throat as she clawed at the damp earth to right herself. Get up! Dirt lodged itself beneath her nails and into her fresh wound in her scramble to stand, but the discomfort was the least of her worries. No, her focus was on the sound of the creature closing in.
Don't look back! You can't look back! Just run! Hurry! The words repeated in her thoughts like a mantra. So long as she kept running, she would still have a chance.
She got to her feet and made it one full step when she was suddenly weightless. Ramming into her from behind, a force stronger than anything she'd ever experienced in her life sent her flying directly toward a tree. Addison screamed and tried to put out her arm to brace herself but, ultimately, made it worse.
There was a sickening snap and a brief moment of blissful nothingness that was shortly replaced by a pain so acute that tears instantly fell from her eyelids. She crumbled to the ground with a guttural scream, landing on her right arm which she knew was broken without a glance.
It felt both heavy and numb at the same time and hung uselessly below the elbow. Addison had felt something similar when she'd broken her left arm in a bike incident with Bella. They were around 7 and 8 years old when it happened. She'd been trying to do a trick with her younger sister that involved them giving each other a high five as they passed in opposite directions. Admittedly, she'd been going faster than she should have, but it was terrible timing that Bella happened to lose control and start to wobble. They'd crashed into each other, leaving Bella with a broken leg and Addison with her arm out of commission. It hadn't hurt nearly as much as it did now, though; she knew that for sure.
Her vision darkened at the edges, and she blinked to try and clear it away without success. On top of her failing vision, her head was swirling to the point of dizziness, and her stomach churned. Shakily pushing herself up with her less injured arm, she leaned over and released the remnants of her previous meal onto the forest floor.
When her stomach was empty, she heaved a few more times until the nausea passed. That was when she heard a distinctly male chuckle echo menacingly around her. In her current state, she'd nearly forgotten that she was being chased in the first place. Terrified, her head whipped around, and she scrambled so that her back was against the same tree she'd been thrown into.
At first, she didn't see anything. The forest was still eerily silent, and there wasn't a single animal in sight. Addison blinked, and a shriek burst past her lips when a man appeared. It wasn't like he stepped out from behind a bush or tree—that would have been more plausible. Instead, it was as if he spawned into existence before her very eyes. Though she was scared and confused, Addison took in his appearance carefully.
The man looked to be in his mid 20's or 30's. His clothes, which were outdated by at least six seasons, were tattered and scattered with rips and tears. He didn't have a jacket in sight even though the temperature was chilly enough to make anyone freeze. And yet, this man didn't seem the least bit bothered despite his toned pale arms being at the mercy of Forks' cool temperature.
The stranger had blond hair that was pulled back into a messy bun at the base of his skull with a few strands escaping to frame his face. A sprinkling of facial hair went along his chiseled jaw and smooth upper lip. Had circumstances been different, Addison would have gone so far as to say the man was handsome.
He tilted his head at her and clicked his tongue. "That's it? Your kind really are pathetic." His voice was a smooth drawl that might have put her at ease any other day. Today, it just so happened to be the creepiest thing she'd ever had the displeasure of listening to.
Her heart pounded so loudly in her chest that she swore she could feel the valves contracting with each pump. Just because it was a man instead of some mysterious creature didn't make her relax. They were still deep in the forest, and she was alone with a broken arm and a single can of bear spray to protect herself. She slowly inched her hand toward her coat pocket where the can was while trying not to draw attention to what she was doing.
"Who are you?" she questioned, doing her best to keep up a brave face. It felt like he was trying to get some kind of reaction out of her from his taunting words, so she was determined not to give him one.
The man sighed and shook his head lightly to himself. "It's always the same inane questions. Who are you? What do you want? Why are you doing this?" As he spoke, he slowly circled her without actually getting closer to her until his final question.
When he started coming in her direction, her eyebrows shot up and she uselessly tried to back up further into the tree. "Stay back! Don't come any closer!" she hissed with a glare. Unknowingly, she'd backed herself into a corner and was going to have to struggle to get herself out of it.
"And just what would you be able to do to stop me? You're weak; that broken arm should prove it." He continued to stalk closer. Only 50 feet separated him from her now. "I could break you in an instant, but that wouldn't be nearly as fun as watching you squirm."
Cold sweat sent chills down her spine. Nope. She didn't need to hear anything else to know that she was dealing with a psychopath. She needed to have been running yesterday. Taking a chance, Addison scrambled to her feet as best she could. The odds were stacked against her, but she couldn't stay there like a sitting duck and wait for him to make a move.
This time, she didn't even get a step in before a frigid hand was wrapped around her throat. It hoisted her up against the tree so that the bark dug into her upper back, and her lower half was suspended above the ground. Choking, her eyes bulged when she looked down to see that the man was holding her up one-handed. There wasn't the slightest hint of a struggle or strain in his muscles. It was truly as if she weighed nothing to him. How did he—
"As if you could outrun me," he chuckled, "I would normally have let you try, just so I could see the hopeless look on your face when I caught you, but now isn't the best time. Lucky for you, I'm just passing through."
Up this close, she was finally able to see his eyes. They'd previously been shadowed by the distance, but now, they were clear.
Dark, piercing, red eyes met her bloodshot baby blues blankly. There was no mistaking them.
It wasn't that the lighting was making the brown look brighter or any other logical explanation her brain so desperately wanted her to accept. Black spots may have started blooming in her vision, but she hadn't lost the ability to tell colors.
Addison tried using her feet to gain some leverage and make him release her windpipe, but it did nothing. His grip was steel and unshakable. As a last resort, she finally pulled out the bear spray and pressed her finger down on the nozzle as hard as she could. She aimed directly for those unnatural eyes of his and threw her entire body weight to the side, hoping that he would be distracted enough to drop her.
Oh, he dropped her alright. He threw her so hard that her body bounced and rolled multiple times before forcefully being stopped by yet another tree. The impact caused her to heave again, but her empty stomach could only produce bile for her to spit up. Her can of bear spray, her last form of protection, had fallen somewhere out of reach. She was left utterly defenseless.
The creature—because Addison was sure he wasn't a man—was by her side the second her eyes opened. He'd already proven his speed, but the sight of him directly in front of her made her scream. Speed like that didn't exist; it was impossible.
His expression morphed from a sick and twisted version of playful into malice just as quickly. Though his face was wet, the spray seemed to be ineffective against him. He grabbed her calf in one hand and her wrist in another. "Don't you know," a crunch sounded before being followed by a pain that made her scream bloody murder, "that it's impolite to interrupt someone while they're talking?"
He'd broken her leg. This monster had broken her leg effortlessly with the palm of his hand. Though, broken was putting it lightly. Shattered would be more precise.
She was full-on sobbing now. Both the pain from her broken limbs and the feeling of overwhelming despair were almost too much to bear. Yet, it was the yearning to live that made her cry the hardest. There was so much she had left to experience. It couldn't end like this. It couldn't.
"Please! You don't have to do this! Let me go, and I won't tell anyone—"
Entirely unaffected by her pleading, he pulled her palm closer to his face to examine. Or, at least, she thought he was. Instead, the monster put his nose near her cut, stained with dried blood, and took a deep enough inhale that she could feel the displaced air. Addison tried to pull away from him, but he was a solid and immovable wall.
His eyes darkened, juxtaposed by an unsettling smile on his face. He was enjoying the discomfort he was putting her through. "Nice bracelet," he commented casually while thumbing the charms attached to it, "you won't miss it, right?"
Her heart dropped to her stomach. "Please, don't! It's from my sister! I'll—"
One chilling index finger was held in front of her lips as he shook his head and shushed her. That creepy smile of his was unchanged. "None of it will matter in a few minutes. You won't be around long enough to miss it." Without another second's pause, he smoothly snatched the jewelry from her wrist. More disturbing was the fact that he'd transferred it to his own in the same second.
That was when Addison noticed the other jewelry he wore. None of the pieces went together. They were a mishmash of colorful beaded bracelets, watches, leather braces, and—now—one of her most prized possessions.
A terrible thought crossed her mind. Are they from each of his victims? The idea of it made her tremble.
Of course, that didn't escape his notice. His grin widened. "So, you finally understand how hopeless your situation is, hmm? I can practically smell your fear in the air." He leaned his head back and took a dramatic breath before zeroing in on her neck. She swallowed thickly, and his eyes followed. "You would have never gotten away, you know? The moment I caught your scent, you were doomed."
There was no time to question what he meant about her scent. In the next breath, he slammed her head into the ground so hard she saw stars and held her in place. Thick tears left her eyes in steady streams that she couldn't control. The finality of the situation was kicking in.
She expected the man to rough her up some more just to see her struggle before finally doing whatever sick and twisted act his mind could conjure. She even tightened her bruised core in preparation for the next blow. Imagine her confused shock when instead of a blunt force attack like before, she felt two pricks of sharp pain where her neck and shoulder met.
Is he… biting me? Addison was stunned enough that she didn't notice the pain at first, but it kicked in shortly after. Heat bloomed around the puncture wounds rapidly, as if a fire had been started just below her skin. It escalated so quickly that she almost missed how the man's lips sealed around her skin as he began to suck.
Her jaw fell open, and a grizzly scream pierced the silence of the forest for only a moment. A cold, unwavering hand clapped over her mouth so tightly that she could feel her jaw creak in her skull and her teeth pulse painfully, abruptly turning her cry into pitiful whimpers.
Addison would have tried fighting against his hold by bucking like a wild deer if she could. The heavens knew how she longed to push against his anchored chest and claw out his unnatural eyes. If only they could also give her the strength to raise her petrified limbs to enact her defense. As of now, she was powerless to do anything besides lie limply in his grasp while crying weakly against his palm while he… actually, what was he doing?
Through the pain, Addison tried to focus on the pulsing area of her neck where the pain was the strongest. She knew he'd bitten her with something but she wasn't sure what. He also had his lips in a tight vacuum around the column of her throat as he swallowed like he was drinking. That couldn't be right, though. What could he have possibly been getting from her neck that caused her to freeze while simultaneously burning?
Sluggishly, she blinked her eyes and found that her screams had been reduced to nothing more than a gentle hum. The air, she thought while staring blankly up at the treetops, it smells weird, like salt and… rust? It took her a few more blinks—each slower than the last—to remember why those smells were alarmingly familiar.
Her mind was transported back to a particular day of her Sophomore year in high school; Bella was a freshman at the time. She recalled half-dragging, half-carrying, her sister to the nurse's office and remembered vividly how pale Bella had been, which was a feat in itself and reason for concern. When Addison asked what caused her sister to do her best impression of a corpse, the girl seemed to go green and took a shaky breath before responding a few beats later.
"Holy crow, I could smell it," she'd managed to groan through a gag. "It smelled like rust and salt everywhere. They made me—hurrgh—they made me prick my own— ugh. It's gonna make me puke."
"What? I didn't smell anything. What smelled like salt and rust?" Addison had questioned, momentarily pausing by a patch of grass so her sister could aim her vomit away from her new shoes. She remembered having to hold Bella's hair while she heaved up the chicken nuggets they'd eaten for lunch just an hour prior. Renee ended up having to pick them up early from school that day.
As the memory slowly faded to the black at the edges of her vision, she felt a startling chill that cleared the fog of the burn for a brief moment. It was long enough for her to finally place the smell that surrounded them like a thick cloud. She hadn't been able to pick up on the smell during biology class years ago, but it was impossible to miss now, especially when her captor was chugging it by the mouthful.
Blood. He's drinking my blood. After an embarrassingly long processing time after that thought, the full weight of its meaning became clear to her. He's drinking my blood… which makes this monster a… a vampire. She was being attacked… fed on… murdered by an honest-to-God vampire. Had she not been his current prey, still within the clutches of his jaws, she would never have believed it.
Maybe she would have wondered how a vampire was feeding on her during the day. She might have even taken the time to ponder why her garlic breath from the pizza she'd regurgitated moments earlier wasn't repelling him. Hell, she likely would have even tried to get a glimpse of the fangs currently piercing her vulnerable skin just to be doubly sure. All of them were viable possibilities. Though, they would all require her to live long enough to get the answers she sought, which, unfortunately, didn't seem to be in the cards for her.
Any fight that she had left was lost with the devastating recognition that she truly was out of her league. More of her vision darkened; it was like she was seeing things through a tube. Addison also felt cold, much colder than his skin which stopped bothering her at some unknown point.
I'm dying, she realized, though she wasn't nearly as panicked as she thought she'd be. She couldn't even muster the strength to hold her head up on her shoulders, let alone get herself worked up. Addison didn't want to die, of course, she didn't, but nothing short of a miracle would save her now.
So, rather than dwell on her fate that seemed more than sealed, she chose to instead follow the path of a solitary leaf that drifted from the canopy of others. As if it were a solo performer putting on a final show for an audience of one, the leaf danced in lazy arcs and spins toward the forest floor. Addison allowed her mind to drift as she watched, entranced.
As the leaf flipped, Addison thought of her father, Charlie. How would he feel, knowing that his oldest daughter died when he wasn't there to protect her? Would he search for her body? Would she be found? Would he be the one to find her? What would he think happened? Could he ever forgive himself?
As the leaf twirled, Addison was reminded of her mother and Phil. Would Renee blame Charlie for her death? Would she blame him for tearing apart their family? How many nights would she lie awake, uselessly sobbing for her baby girl to come back home? What about Phil, will he care? Is that something Phil would be able to comfort her through? Would they want to stay together as a twice-broken family?
As the leaf dipped in low arcs, Bella filled her thoughts. Would she immediately book a return ticket to Phoenix after she got the news or would she wait until after the funeral? With her gone, would Bella ever come back to Forks to check on Charlie? When she noticed Addison's bracelet couldn't be found, would her sister feel resentment toward her? After her future kids were old enough, would she tell them stories about their late Auntie Addie? Will she visit her grave?
As the leaf spiraled toward the earth, Addison pictured the life she'd hardly gotten to plan for. Would I have graduated top of my class? What colleges would I have applied to? Maybe I would've gotten into one of those fancy schools like Yale or even Harvard. I don't even know what I would've gone to school for; I planned on figuring that out during a gap year. What would I have done after college? Would I have met someone? What if I met the someone?! What would he have been like? Would I have wanted to have kids? Holy shit, I could have had a baby! If we did have kids, how many would we have had? Which genders? Raising a girl would have come more naturally, but I could have had boys too! What kind of mother would I have been? Would we have been a happy family, like those families you see in the Hallmark movies?
What life would I have lived? What life could have been mine? Why didn't I get the chance? I'm not ready. It wasn't my time. It couldn't have been. There's so much I'm still supposed to do!
Addison stared—through blotchy vision the size of a quarter—as the leaf did a large swoop in the air before taking a swan dive and plummeting to the ground. The leaf's performance had come to an end, leaving a vibrant speck of color amongst the dull, graying leaves that had fallen before. It was a beautiful sight and she stared as the darkness began to seep into her scopes.
Her thoughts slowed. She felt her heart give a weak flutter in her chest. A sad excuse for a breath crept past her lips and didn't make it to her lungs.
As death finally began to embrace her, she realized two things at once.
One, she didn't feel that monster's piercing bite anymore.
Two, the pain of the bite had numbed… but the fire raged on.
Wow! It feels so wild to be finally posting these chapters after stressing over them for the past few months. It's also crazy how happy I am with them. They are a major step up from the last iterations. As far as progress though... yeah, it took me 3 chapters to catch up to my chapter 1 in the last rewrites. It's okay, I'm not complaining, but that just speaks to the length this puppy is gonna be. If I keep being so wordy, it could easily go over 50 chapters...
Anyway, it feels great to post something again! It's been a few years, so I'm excited to hear feedback. Constructive criticism is always welcome, just be kind about it, and I am open to listening and continuing to practice. Even if only like 6 of y'all ever read this story, it will serve as a personal milestone and accomplishment that I can read back a few years after finishing.
I don't have a lot else to ramble about down here. Thanks for checking out the story if it's your first time coming across it on the site. If you're checking out the story after I posted that update to the previous rewrite, wow! I'm glad you came back. I told y'all that I was gonna rewrite it, and I meant that. It's just taken me longer than I would have liked, but I found my courage. I hope you like the changes I'm going to be making to the story. I think I'll be able to tell a proper story this time.
I'm thinking that the Cullens will be introduced in a few more chapters... if I manage to keep on pace with my plan. I haven't been doing so hot at that so far. Chapter 3 was supposed to be so much more, but it's already massive as is for me. There needs to be some more separation.