Chapter 2: Thunder
Bree's legs took a small push from the ground as she jumped effortlessly over a tree trunk. Her feet hit the grassy land on the other side, causing a thump to echo in the forest.
She cringed. Her senses checked out the wilderness around her, worried that someone had heard her short jump.
She had been running and hiding from the yellow-eyed vampires for a day now. It was exhausting to have to constantly be on alert, even if she did not get tired. It almost felt like she was lifting boulders. She hoped that she would be able to get out of the coven's territory soon. She just needed to find the perfect spot to get over their border without getting detected.
The brown-haired girl had found an ocean twenty hours ago. She had run towards it, feeling hope leak into her heart, only to discover that the vampire clan whose territory she was on had decided to guard their territory borders in hopes of finding her.
The tactic proved itself successful when she was dumb enough to not make sure she was alone on the ocean shore. She had been about to dive into the warm water when a man who looked straight out of Marvel comics charged at her.
He had looked like a hulk with his enormous muscles. They were huge, making Bree happy that she had been able to flee the scene without getting killed. She would not have had any chance of fighting against the man.
Her body had somehow turned invisible in the process of fleeing him, creeping her out quite badly. She had almost wanted to cry when she hadn't been able to see her hands. At first, she had frantically fallen to the dirt, trying to see if she had made any marks on it. She thought she had died. To her relief, she had succeeded in her test.
The hulk-like man had stared in confusion at her hiding spot, turning multiple times around, trying to locate her. He had eventually taken his phone out, looking like someone would have stolen his pet.
The encounter had shaken her up, leaving her too terrified to try to go in any other direction for a while. She had climbed up a tree five kilometres from the ocean and ended up sitting on its branch for hours, attempting to practise her newfound powers.
Bree let her senses lead her towards a stream. Her brisk steps stopped as she came to it.
The water glittered magically under the sun's rays as the tranquil water revealed round rocks on the bottom of the stream. They moved slightly every time a bigger currency picked on them, pushing them further along their underwater home.
The red-eyed girl crouched down and touched the silky water. It nudged her sparkling fingers gently, making her giggle with delight. She loved how water felt to her after her transformation. She liked to think it felt like a hug, but she wasn't completely sure how accurate her perspective was; after all, she couldn't remember what it felt like.
She had only been four when her mother left her and her father. She hardly remembered anything about the woman. Humans seemed fond of hugging their children, so the girl wondered if her mother had used to hug her too before her death. Her father had disposed of all the pictures of the woman, leaving Bree to only imagine what she could have looked like.
The teens' gaze turned towards where the stream continued. She stood up uncertainly, not sure if she should follow it.
She took a step in the direction, wondering what she would find there. Perhaps she would see a unicorn. A beautiful creature with a rainbow mane and a white long coat to protect it from harsh winters. She could not forget its long silver horn that would rise from its place in the unicorn's head.
What was she thinking? She was being very silly right now. Of course, she wouldn't find a unicorn. They weren't real. Or were they? Bree tilted her head in confusion. Her dark hair fell to her sides in compliance. What if unicorns were real? Vampire's were, so who was to say the mythical horse-like creatures wouldn't?
A wet drop fell on her head, scaring the young girl. Her face turned towards her attacker, ready to give a warning growl. To her surprise, crystal-like liquids started to fall from the sky. They filled the grey canvas, creeping towards her like bombs.
She suppressed a yelp before running under the closest tree. She looked frantically around, trying to find better shelter. She wasn't ready to be wet again.
The rain droplets splashed to the ground, watering the plants in the forest. The sky's cries made the teen slide down against the tree trunk. Closing her eyes, she hoped the tree would feel empathy towards her and shelter her from the starting storm.
Her body tried to find warmth from the rough trunk without success. She shuddered when a few water droplets managed to go through the tree's defence and fall straight on her olive-coloured jacket. They created small, dark spots on it.
"Please," Bree whispered. Her voice sounded weak and pleading. She wouldn't be surprised if the tree above her thought she sounded pathetic and let all the rain pour down on her.
She gathered her legs closer to her, pressing them against her shirt. Was this her life now? Running away from other vampires and hiding? She didn't want to live the rest of her life like this. Surely she deserved something better. Or did she? Was she meant to be killed all along? Was her destiny to be destroyed?
She felt her tearless sobs rock her body. They travelled from her lungs to her stomach, leaving the girl shaking from sadness.
She cried along with the sky, hoping that it would grant her permission to leave beneath the tree. She was stuck here like she had been stuck inside her home when her father told her how ungrateful spoiled brat she was and how it would be better if she were dead. Had he been right? Was she better off in the sky?
Sadness swirled in her body as she opened her mouth once again for an unheard plea. It choked her, stripping all words from her mouth and replacing them with cold sobs. They flooded from her mouth, forming a lump in her throat. It grew bigger the more she cried. And the more she did, the sadder she became.
The sky crackled as rain intensified. It started forcing itself through the tree's branches, wetting her completely. Her wet clothes became glued to her skin as the girl cried even harder.
The droplets tapped hard into the soil, splashing uncontrollably from it back towards the sky. It almost looked like they were trying to escape the world back to the safe clouds they came from.
Bree understood them. She wanted to go back home too. She wanted to see her father again, regardless of what he had done to her. She hardly even remembered what the man looked like anymore. All her memories of him were now unclear, muddy pictures, their true colours unnoticeable, and tattered by the filth on them.
Another sob escaped from her lips. It shot in the air, playing with the water, until falling down to the wet grass.
The clouds raged, colouring the forest with bright, sudden lights. Their deep, loud screams accompanied them, bringing shivers down the girl's back. She squeezed her body harder, hugging her frail legs comfortingly.
Her soggy, pale hands stared back at her, blaming her for their misfortune. It was her fault they were now made of a hard, flawless marble-like material. She was an idiotic teen who should not have trusted Riley's offer to buy her food. Why had she been so dumb? She had been warned about not trusting strangers, but of course she had not listened to all the warnings and went head first towards danger itself—a vampire. She had seen the blond boy's glowing blood-like eyes and the skin as white as a sheet, but still decided to trust him.
She would never trust anyone so easily again. Not after what had happened to her now twice. Riley had betrayed her trust, and the yellow eyes had betrayed her too. She could only count on herself and perhaps also on Fred. He was the only one who had been deserving of her trust so far, if Diego was not counted.
Sharp pain slashed her chest at the thought of her late friend. She missed him feverishly.
Snap behind her made the young girl flinch. She shot up from her seat on top of the tree's root, her frantic sad eyes searching for the creator of the sound. It had been too sudden, too intentional, to be from an animal.
The sky lit up, lighting the forest with an intense luminous glow. Her bright scarlet-coloured eyes found an abnormal movement from their edges.
Her legs bolted from their place, carrying her with them.
She could sense the vampires behind her. Their smells saturated the air, poisoning it with their sweet scents. The rain had to have hidden them from her. It was the only explanation why she had not detected them before. How long had they watched her sob? Or had they just arrived at the scene? It was all a mystery to Bree, but she did not care to find out the answers to her questions. They would get her killed.
The girl heard their heavy boots thudding against the soil as she ran.
Mud splashed beneath her worn sneakers as her feet touched the ground even harder, motivated to get away from her dangerous chasers.
As her instinct took over, the sadness she had felt moments ago disappeared like it had never even existed. Instead, it was replaced with pure terror. It ate her body, munching on her excitedly, waiting to expand more.
The teen felt adrenaline shoot in her frozen veins as she flew in the muddy forest, tattering her clothes further. She could only think about running and how she needed to escape. Her brain felt like it was stuffed full of cotton, unable to think properly. Everything around her melted, making nature look odd with its warped shapes.
She ran blindly, hoping to find something that would help her. Her intentions proved themselves to be fruitless as the forest gave her a cold shoulder and ignored her wishes. She couldn't see through her panic, making all of her attempts to find help futile. Even the forest had ended up betraying her and instead served its owners, helping them in their pursuit to capture her.
Footsteps behind her grew closer and louder.
With desperation shimmering in her face, Bree's stiff body sprinted faster. She jumped over the river she had swam in just under a day ago. Her eyes looked at it in the air, full of longing. She hoped she could have used it again as her escape route, but the vampires behind her were now too close to her. She wouldn't be able to swim away from them, and would get herself captured.
Her face looked around, trying to find help.
The thunderstorm raged above her, roaring like a lion. Its claws left marks on the dirt beneath her as raindrops fell hard against the soil.
The young teen got hit from behind. She tumbled into a mud pond, hissing furiously as her clothes got engulfed in the brown substance. Her pale hands started lifting her body up on the slippery ground, only for her to get slammed back into the mud. It splashed as her body hit it once again.
Thunder cracked in the sky.
"Stop resisting. You're just making this harder for yourself," a voice with a southern accent said. It vibrated strongly in the oxygen, making her feel calmer. The feeling got progressively stronger as six hands locked her in the slimy mud.
Bree struggled against the strange calmness growing inside of her. It slithered into her body, sneaking into all the possible holes and spaces inside. She hissed furiously, trying to shake the feeling off.
Hands held her still, stopping any movement she tried to make. They locked her head, keeping it touching the dirty soil.
"Bree, I know you are scared, but I need you to stay still for your own good," a male voice pleaded as she kept trying to trash around. "If you ought to stay alive, you need to calm down. We don't want to hurt you, but will if needed."
The teen hissed as an answer, trying to take a peek at the vampires holding her. She already knew, based on hearing the two male vampire voices, that one of them was the blond coven leader, the man who had spared her but later backstabbed her with no care in the world. The other one being the scary southern boy who had wanted to kill her from the start. His skin was full of crescent-shaped scars, and blond curls fell to his chin.
Image of the latter vampire woke involuntary shudders from the girl's body. They racked her, making her grateful that she was held down. Otherwise, the coven that had captured her would have seen her lonely shudders.
"Bree, dear, listen to my husband. We simply want to help you. Your safe" woman's voice danced in her ears. It was warm and calming, almost lulling her into feeling false security. But Bree was not an idiot; she knew she could not trust the yellow-eyed vampires repeatedly. They had already betrayed her trust, and she was not about to give them a new chance to do so again.
"No," she growled. Her voice had come out weaker than she had hoped. It sounded like a scared young child. She wanted to take her words back, eat them from the air, and gulp them inside of her, but it was already too late to do so. She could not take the already-said words back inside of her. Why had she opened her mouth? She could have simply growled like the creature she was now. She didn't need to answer politely to the yellow-eyed coven.
"You will obey us. Stop squirming, and we might consider letting go of you," the southern-accented boy hissed. He tightened his hold on her, causing pain to jolt in the girl's body.
She swallowed in pain as a short silent creak shot into the air. "Jasper," another feminine voice reprimanded. Immediately, when the bell-like voice rang, the tightness in the southern vampire's grip loosened up.
"Alice. I know you know what will happen if we don't bring the newborn to our home and tell Volturi we have it seized. We can't risk endangering our family for someone who won't cooperate. I will use power if it won't come in peace with us to the house."
"It's she, Jazz. Please don't refer to her as an animal," the bell-like voice said, sounding more pissed off.
"I won't refer to it as a person before it starts acting like one."
Bree growled in response to the male's words. She was scared of him but was unwilling to let him insult her.
The mud beneath her cheeks stuck uncomfortably against her stone-hard skin. It refused to wither away as the rain tried to clean it away from her face. She felt appreciation towards the clouds; maybe they had decided to stick up to her when seeing in how weak position she was in.
"Don't you think that's a bit harsh, Jasper? Like you said, she is a newborn—a scared one, if I may say. It's not a surprise she is not acting pleasantly nor taking our words well," the other female reasoned, her soft voice sounding more like a warm hug.
"I'm not being harsh. I simply just refer to it, like it acts," the boy called Jasper stated.
Bree's jaw tensed as her fury sparked. The emotion rolled through her body, consuming her whole being. She hissed, causing gasps around her.
"Hold on to her. We cannot risk letting go of her," the coven leader ordered. His voice had a hint of panic emerging from it.
The hands on her torso began holding her more stiffly.
The girl's eyes shot to her chest. She couldn't see it anymore. Her body was completely invisible again.
The young teen could see the yellow-eyed coven members marble-like hands through her transparent torso. They looked like they were floating in the air.
The sight made her feel disturbed, prompting her to struggle against their hold.
She gritted her teeth in annoyance. Why didn't her power activate when she needed it the most but came when she was already locked against the mud, captured like an animal? The scarred boy's words rang in her head. Maybe she was an animal. If so, she was going to be the best animal there could be and escape like they always did. The forest creatures always found a way out of the situation, right? She could try to do the same. She just needed a new escape plan.
A doubt came to her mind. Was planning it even worth it? There was no way she would be able to free herself from the amber-eyed monsters. They were clearly not going to let her go. The girl's eyes flashed with terror, a feeling that had started becoming too familiar to her liking.
"Bree, I need you to calm down. I know you're frustrated and scared, but everything will be fixed if you come with us," the blond leader's voice said. "We can help you with your new life, but only if you want to. Otherwise, there is no point in trying to help you. You need to work with us." He sounded like a father trying to talk to his stubborn child, awakening the rebellious side of Bree.
"I'm not scared," she hissed. Her lips pulled back, showing her pearly white teeth. Realising the yellow-eyed were not able to see them, she hid them, feeling a wave of awkwardness jump to her body.
The teen, of course, knew what she had said was a lie; in fact, she was terrified, but her capturers did not need to know that. She wanted them to believe her. Think that she was only frustrated so she could use it to her advantage. She wasn't sure how but knew that she would figure out how when the time came.
"Don't lie to us," Jasper arraigned.
The calmness inside the girl grew again, outgrowing all her other emotions. It drowned them and pushed them aside violently. What was this strange feeling, and why was Bree feeling it? It did not make any sense at all. She knew she should have been writhing in terror or shaking in anger, but she was only able to feel peaceful. She felt the same emotion as when she had been a child and hid under her covet, reading herself to sleep.
It made her feel tipsy.
"Jasper, please," the bell-like voice sighed. This time, it sounded more annoyed than last time.
"How about we get out of the rain?" The leader suggested interrupting the starting argument and redirecting everyone's focus to the sky.
Bree had completely forgotten it was raining. Water droplets battered rhythmically against the soil. They trickled down her face, tickling her skin pleasantly. She wondered why the sky was still crying. Why was it so sad? Had it kept all the tears and pain inside the clouds and been unable to hold them anymore, pouring them all to the ground and revealing its secrets with them?
"How are we going to get Bree to our house?" one of the women asked. Her face appeared in front of the teen, kneeling on the mud to take a better look at her. The caramel-haired vampire's soft eyes looked at her empathetically.
The girl's gaze went alarmed towards the woman. She wasn't invisible anymore. Her power did not seem to give her much help. She had heard from Fred that they could be developed, and really hoped that she would be able to do so. Her power was too unreliable to be used without worrying that she would reappear. She wasn't even sure how to trigger it to work. So far, she had just become invisible without any warning.
Bree felt the hands on her pull her body around, her face now facing towards the sky. She could see all her capturers looking at her, their gazes full of pity.
"Perhaps she could come with us willingly?" the leader stated. He raised his blond eyebrows questioningly and looked at her with pleading eyes.
The girl shaked her head, staring at the coven before her with blazing red eyes. She was not going to go to her death without a fight.
"Please. It will be more pleasant for all of us if you won't struggle against us. I can assure you, we would much prefer to get you safely and unharmed to our home rather than have to force you there." The man spoke again, this time more assertively.
The young teen dodged his eyes, rather looking at her stomach. She let her mind loose, trying to imagine a way out of the situation. Becoming invisible seemed to be her best chance, but first she would need to get rid of the hovering hands on her soaked clothes. Mud had stained them to almost unrecognisable colours. Her olive jacket and blue jeans were now mostly brown. She doubted her hair and face were clean either. The slimy substance seemed unfazed by the rain pouring on it. It refused to leave and gripped hard against her clothes.
"Bree, listen to my husband. Wouldn't you prefer coming willingly with us? I doubt you want to get hurt," the caramel-haired woman said. The vampire's friendly, amber eyes stared at the girl warmly as her other hand extended towards her.
The calmness Bree had felt before withdrew. It disappeared, letting her emotions crash hard against her heart. They multiplied, going over her body's edges and spilling over them. The sudden change in her body made the girl growl. She tried to trash out of her capturers arms.
Fear took hold of her once again, making her thoughts dizzy and hard to understand. She felt like crying as it rose inside of her, telling her to run far away from everything.
She surprised herself by managing to escape the marble hands, their hold on her weaker than she had expected. The vampires in front of her probably relaxing their holds when she had not been trashing and shaking.
Bree took off running, not wanting to waste her opportunity to escape, her legs carrying her away from the dangerous coven. She flew in the rain, dodging trees that came in her way. She could hear their footsteps behind her as she sped up.
"Follow her footsteps on the grass before the rain dissolves them!" The southern voice shouted from behind. It made the teen look at her body. It was once again invisible. She needed to run now, when they would struggle to follow her.
Her gaze went to her feet, realising what the boy behind her had meant. Her foot-sized mud prints tarnished the soil. They followed her, giving her location away. She would need to do something about the footprints. She was finally free and didn't want to get caught again.
Her mind raced as she ran. She tried to come up with an idea that would solve her small problem. The most logical thing would be to run to the water and wash her sneakers, but the girl did not know would she have time for that.
Her shoes carried her forward. They felt slippery from the mud cover hanging onto them, slowing her considerably. The thought of having to run faster made her breath hitch. She was worried that she would fall to the ground and get captured for good this time. She doubted the vampires running behind her were going to be so gracious when they caught her next time. She wouldn't be able to escape from them again.
The steps of the coven behind her continued steadily. They seemed confident about chasing their prey, ready to kill her.
Bree's steps lead her to run by the river she had swum in. She continued moving, taking a look at her body as time wore on. She started getting more anxious about her power, worried that it would make her visible again.
The river came to an end, opening up to a lake. Its stormy, dark surface waited for her invitingly, tempting her to dive deep into it. The young teen's mouth widened from hope. She could dive into it and save herself.