'Run, run!'
This sweet voice has been warning me since I left the hospital a few months back. A voice that is clearly only in my head. She demands me to run, and I do. I listen. She doesn't need to tell me twice. I run at full speed down another dark alleyway, leaping over fallen trash cans and their spilled waste. Never did I think I could run this fast - faster than what I've seen other humans run - so fast the wind snaps against my cheeks like a whip. But it is still not fast enough.
"And she ran, and ran, and ran, just like the Ginger Bread man," his voice is icy, foreign, and echoes all around me as if he's amplified by a speaker. Afraid to look, I keep my eyes forward, turning on my heels around another corner and nearly skipping across the alley. I take a sharp turn down another. He's been chasing me for a while now, but this is the closest he's gotten. Playing with me. I know he can catch me with ease - I am not nearly as fast as he is. For whatever reason.
It started in Butte, Montana, shortly after my escape from the hospital. I worked here and there to make money to take buses to Forks. They were simple jobs, low paying work like sweeping up hair at a salon or doing the dishes and trash for family owned restaurants. Jobs that rarely ask for previous employment and social security since I have neither that I can remember. Depending on the job, it depended on how long I stayed in each city and where I slept. Most times I slept in the buses on the way to the next city, or behind shops, or in the park.
Working at the restaurants was the easiest to manage, since I wouldn't need to worry about food. But then I reached Hayden, Idaho. It was a cute city, but one day after working at a bakery, I ran into a tall man with short dark brown hair and brilliant red eyes. He wore a long black trench coat and sunglasses to cover his eyes, at which he revealed to me. At first, I thought he was just one of those people who liked to dress up and was wearing colored contacts. But then he smiled, an evil smile, one that sent chills down my spine. He grabbed me by my shoulders, his pale skin bright in the moonlight.
I broke free from his hold and ran away. At the time, he didn't chase. He watched as I got away with that damned smile on his face. I didn't stop running until I reached a bus stop, where fortunately, a bus was waiting. As I got on and walked to the back, I saw the man waving at me from behind the bus, his red eyes piercing in the dark. My heart never beat so fast.
I reached Spokane, Washington, and got another job at a hair salon; which meant I'd be stuck there since I'd need to buy food. Three days went by without incident, and that's when I saw him again. I was lying on the hard grating surface of a jungle gym in a park when I saw his eyes below the grating, staring up at me with that same crooked smile.
"Looks like the cat's out of the bag," he said with his strong Italian accent.
Not understanding what he meant and not caring to find out, I leapt off the jungle gym and bolted for the city. It's there where I can get lost in the crowds. I ran down a hall, nearly tripping halfway down, and skid onto the first street. I chanced it by glancing behind me to find him standing on the hilltop, his arms crossed and a wicked smile on his face. I was able to get into a crowd and lost him when I shuffled past a few bystanders. I felt safer. After that, I kept to the crowds while I stayed in Spokane. Sleeping on the pavement next to trash cans, where everyone and their mother could see me. The stares I got were mixed with disgust or pity, but I was happy I was seen. Finally, a week later, I reached Seattle. And it is now, during the present, that I am being chased by him again.
"Come out, come out, wherever you are. Mio dolce angioletto [My sweet little angel.]" He chuckles loudly and it echoes down the alley. He must be walking as he pursues me, for I know he can outrun me. I don't slow my pace even knowing this, though. "I hear so many are after you." He coos.
So many are after me? I have no idea what he means by that. I haven't been chased like this except for in my memory back in La Push. And even then, I Can't remember what it was that chased me or why.
"Leave me alone!' I shout, taking a left turn. I am in the middle of the city somewhere, near the middle of the night. When the majority are at home and asleep. Safe and sound. And where I have no idea where I am going in this maze of alleyways.
I glance over my shoulder to find no one chasing me, and I feel the confusion swelling my face. Looking back ahead, I find the man standing a few feet in front of me, forcing me to skid to a stop. I step a few feet back from him, my hand on my chest trying to calm my racing heart.
He looks comfortable and unmoving, with his arms behind his back and his red eyes shining above the sunglasses that have slipped down his nose. He dives into my soul with those eyes.
"Who are you, what are you, and why are you following me?"
"My name is Giovani," he smiles, bringing his hand up elegantly to his chest. "And I am a creature of the night. I follow you because you are the demi-god they want." His hand lifts up and waves in the air and then drops down. He takes a step forward towards me. I take another step back.
He must have gotten mixed up with someone else. How could I be a demi-god? And creature of the night? Maybe he's delusional. But I can't be certain, he's followed me a great distance all without taking the same bus as I have. "What do you mean, creature of the night? Like a vampire or werewolf?" I ask, trying to stall him while I figure out what to do next.
"Magnifico [Magnificent.]"
It's common sense what that word means. He throws his hands out to both sides and lets out a diabolical laugh.
The very sound has me stepping back again, my heart pounding fast in my chest, having not slowed down since the run. He doesn't look like what a werewolf would appear as, but he looks like a man who'd dress up as a vampire. But that can't be true. Vampires are not real….Or are they? He's managed to find me no matter where I am and quickly, appearing so suddenly out of nowhere. Humans can't do that.
"Who sent you?"
"Tsk, tsk," he shakes a finger at me. "That I can't tell you."
He disappears and reappears in front of me so quickly that I barely catch sight of the movement. I take a clumsy step back, raising my left hand to block myself, but my foot catches on something on the ground and I land on my ass. He reaches down for me and my heart panics.
There is a light burning at the corner of my left eye. I look down and notice a yellow glow coming from my left hand, and it's slowly taking over my arm. The apparent vampire hisses, his skin glittering like a diamond in the light. He leaps back and away from me. I notice the hand that he was using to reach down for me is burning.
Did the light burn him?
I bring my left hand forward and twist it this way and that way in front of me. The light comes to a stop at my shoulder. Hesitantly, I touch it with my right hand and feel an incredible warmth coming from it. Almost too hot to touch. But it burned him? How? He didn't even touch it. I stand up and use my left arm as a shield as I speak.
"Stay back," I turn my left palm back towards him. "Or I will use this."
He grins slowly. "You don't know how to play with that do you? Mia dolce bambina [My sweet child.]"
Desperation takes over, I fling my left hand at him twice, but nothing happens. His grin only grows, and he's gaining confidence again. He brushes himself off and makes his way back to me.
"No one's going to help you, bambina [child.]"
"Hey!" Shouts a man coming from behind Giovani. We both look to find a young man with bronze hair, gold eyes, and pale skin. As pale as the vampire. This man doesn't look menacing with his gold eyes and normal looking clothes.
"And who the hell are you?" Questions Giovani.
"I suggest you let her go," he says with an almost cool voice. "If you do, I will let you go free."
"Cazzate [bullshit.]"
"Lasciala andare. [Let her go.]" The young man replies in perfect Italian.
"Oh, a man after my own heart," Giovani places both hands against his chest that vibrates when he laughs. "You speak Italian."
"I speak many languages. Now let her go."
"Ah, no." Giovani quickly replies.
"I didn't want to have to do this," the young man places a foot behind himself, readying to run.
"Oh goody," Giovani coos. He does the same movement as the young man.
Quicker than I can blink, they are at each other's throats, literally. Both of their hands on the others' throats, tugging, clawing, and clenching. Next thing I know, Giovani throws the young man down onto the ground with a loud crack, and is choking him from above.
The man who came to save me is going to die, all because of me. I can't let that happen. I sprint to Giovani, stretching out my left arm that is still inflamed, and grab him by the hair. The back of his head sizzles and smoke rises from where we are contacted.
"Che cazzo! [What the fuck!]"
I pull his head back by his hair, bringing him up and away from the young man. The man stands up slowly, his hands on his throat and his eyes wide and staring directly at my left arm. I can't do anything else but this, I don't have the strength to kill a man.
"Stop staring, get him!" I demand.
The young man nods and grabs the vampire's head and shoulder, and starts pulling the two separate from one another. I don't release until I hear an unfamiliar sound of crackling coming from the vampire's neck. I pull away and watch, wide eyed, as he tears the two limbs apart, the crackling getting louder until Giovani's head rips off from his neck.
I hold back a scream, and rip my eyes from the sight. But when silence is all that follows, I look back and see no blood, but instead, the inside of Giovani's body looks like crystals.
"Wait, what?" Stepping closer, I kneel down next to Giovani's head that has a permanent expression of shock. "He really was a vampire. I thought they bleed, though."
"No, they are made of diamond-like material," the young man says. "You might want to step back."
My brows furrow and I take a step back. The young man pulls out a packet of matches and lights one of the many. He throws it onto Giovani's body and the body explodes into flames as if it's gasoline. The young man kicks the head into the flames, and it, too, explodes.
The light that once glowed around my left arm slowly disappears. I move my hand back and forth to see if it had burned me in any way.
The man turns towards me, his hands in his front pockets as he eyes me cautiously. "What are you? You're not a vampire. But not human either."
"What?" The word comes out before I can think of it. I realize that things I do are a little odder than human behavior. I run faster and I have this light that glows around my arm when threatened. It pushes and burns. And then there is what Giovani said, demi-god. I look down at Giovani's dissolving body. "He called me a demi-god."
The man's thick bronze brows knit together as he examines me for evidence.
"What are you? Hard to believe a human can rip a guy's head off from his shoulders like that."
I earn a smirk from the young man but he stands still as stone, thoughts run across his face.
"What's your name, at least?" I ask.
"What was that light that came out of your arm?" He avoids my question with his own.
"It's happened before," I run my fingers through my hair and frown. "I don't understand why it happens but it only happens when I feel threatened."
"I can't hear your thoughts, either."
"Hear my thoughts?"
When he does reply, and all I get is him staring at me, I grumble. "What's your name?" I try again.
"Edward."
"My name is Furiae. Maybe you can help me again. I am trying to get to Forks. Do you know of a bus that goes there?"
"To Forks? What's in Forks?" He raises a brow.
"My friend Jacob. The last time I saw him he was pretty sick and I want to make sure he's doing okay." And get answers to why I was sent so damn far away.
His shoulders slumps and he lets out a brief sigh, and a small smile. "Do you mean Jacob Black?"
My eyes narrow suspiciously. "Yes."
He nods. "If you want I can take you to Forks. My fiance and I just came here to pick up a few things. Come on," he tilts his head towards the alleyway nearest to him, and I follow slowly, my eyes still narrowed and watching his every move.
It doesn't take us but a few minutes to get out of the maze of alleyways that I got myself lost in. Edward knew his way out without an issue, but it makes me wonder how he found me to begin with. We end up coming to a hotel where just outside is someone I recognize.
Bella.
"Furiae, is that you?" She asks, squinting her brown eyes at me.
"You know each other?" Edward asks.
"Yeah, we used to hang out at Jake's. She was living there for a short time period and then she just left, never to be heard from again. How'd you two meet?" Bella questions.
Is that the story those men came up with? That I just up and left? My heart sinks, wondering if Jacob believes that lie.
"I told you I heard something: well, it was another vampire who was chasing her."
She eyes Edward. "Does she know about, you know?"
"Not that I know of."
"What are you doing here, Furiae?" Bella asks.
"It's complicated," I sigh.
"We know complicated," Bella says. Edward approaches her from the side and wraps an arm around her waist. She seems happier now. Maybe Edward was the one she pined over when Jacob was pursuing her. She was broken then, and he was breaking. My eyes linger over the two of them, their bright smiles and how they look at one another with some kind of magnetism.
"Easy to tell you two are together."
"We're getting married soon," Edward smiles even wider.
I want to ask how Jacob is handling this. He must be in so much pain, after trying so hard to win her over.
"She wants to go back to Forks. I'ver offered for us to take her."
"Sure, and on the way, you can tell us about this complication."