Chapter 6: Mysteries Compound


The day after Tyler's accident there was still a lot of hype about it circling around the school verbally, and even worse in their thoughts. Despite them brushing up against death every day we were in their presence, they acted as if this incident was shattering their belief in their safety. Most of their thoughts displayed how they were simultaneously distraught and in disbelief. Humans' ability to deny the truth in front of them is what allowed us to move about them. In terms of instincts, it made them the stupidest species on the planet. Every other species hid or ran from us from the smallest bug to those we hunted. Over and over again the humans I had murdered had been the same. Their brains had refused to accept that they had become the prey, even as they died, they attempted to find a way around the inevitable. One of the worst parts of high school minds was how it reminded me of those men, because both subgroups were certain in their invincibility. Over and over I had to remind myself that most of these infants would change and leave this stage of development behind, while the men I murdered were psychopathic. The similarities were more disturbing than I ever dared utter out loud, although given Jasper's thoughts on occasion he might agree.

These children around us pretended we presented no danger, ignoring their biological signals that told them we were predators, while speaking about the accident as if they had nearly lost their life or limb. My irritation was high, particularly due to the females. Many women had been attracted to the men who I had killed. These women seemed to believe that being with the most dangerous man somehow made them safer. Unfortunately due to their brush with harm, they were even more desirous of me than usual.

They must be really bugging you, Jasper said in the first period, even though we were in different classes.

I attempted to calm my irritation, as to not bother him or make his situation worse. Him dealing with the conniving intent would be bad enough.

Their stupidity made me wish that I hadn't promised my family. If it had been up to me, I would have tuned out every human in this building. Instead, I kept my gift open. Tyler was home, but not in school. My medical training suggested this was because Carlisle had warned against overstimulation. I couldn't imagine Tyler putting up any fuss about having to stay home, since academics weren't his passion.

Other than Tyler's accident, the only notable thoughts were Mike's, as he seemed to be remembering kissing Bella. In addition to this memory, I observed her through Mike's eyes flirt with him and encourage him. It was odd to me, as previously Bella had been nothing over than giving Mike a polite dismissal since her arrival. My conclusion was that some event after the hospital was responsible. Her quick change of heart was typical of high schoolers, but I was nevertheless disappointed, which then confused me. As a result, Jasper kept sending me questions regarding his concern of my state throughout the morning.

I reported these two notable items to my siblings as soon as we started our pretend eating of lunch, beginning with the thoughts within the building.

Was our absence noticed at all? Jasper enquired after my explanation.

"There were no thoughts by students or teachers regarding our whereabouts," I informed them.

There were a few more similar questions from either Jasper or Rosalie ensuring that no suspicion was upon us. Each question required me to review the thoughts I had collected, helping me ensure that I had not missed anything. Our conclusion was that their heightened state brought no attention to us in anyway, which was a relief. My near killing of Bella was enough.

Even after reporting Bella's strange behaviour, my siblings had disagreed with my insistence to keep an eye on her.

"She wasn't even in the parking lot for the accident," Emmett pointed out. "You're grasping at straws, because her mental voice is silent to you."

Could that be true? Jasper mused.

I could not explain to them why, despite her not being impacted directly, I focused on Bella, but there was inconsistent behaviour there. I planned on finding evidence to explain it. I hated a mystery as much as Alice.

Bella's change of heart with Mike seemed completely unrelated to Alice's mystery. Yet, when looking at the day like a 'what is missing?' puzzle, it was the only item out of place. The worst part was my lack of capacity to explain my apprehension adequately to my siblings.

Once that was settled, Jasper began asking question about the fluctuating emotions he had gotten from me. I ignored him.

Alice reported that she had made no progress figuring out the cause to her gifts fuzziness. My future was as difficult for her to tune into as it had been since its start. We talked about hypotheses for a bit.

Then, right before the lunch period ended a girl I had never met and didn't even know her name, had stopped at the doorway of the cafeteria. I only glanced her way, because my gift had picked up an image of myself in her mind. Our eyes connected and the mental link between us strengthened. Additionally, there was a sense of two friends meeting after a separation, which was bizarre. To make things even stranger the images flashing through her mind were memories of Bella and my one conversation in Biology, as if she had been the one to have it with me. If that was not strange enough, her mind, after the memory, like a light switch had been thrown, focused on another memory-a conversation with an older man who through the resemblance was likely her father. Generally, human minds didn't work like that, and certainly not any highschooler that I had come across. They simply didn't have the mental discipline. Not to mention that usually, unless I purposely entered a human's mind, my gift collected all of their thoughts at once, dull and bland in comparison to a vampire's, but present. Instead, it was like I got one thought in high definition, almost like a vampire's mind, but singular.

Before I could fully register the confounding elements happening, she broke eye contact, turned away, and left the cafeteria. It was a strain to keep focused on her mental voice, given the clamouring of my siblings and the other humans. Nevertheless, I was able to pick up most of her thoughts. If what had happened already was not odd enough, there was no mental gushing about us Cullens, no thoughts about our beauty, actually no thoughts about us Cullens at all, except for the memory. It was if we were the same as other students. Most humans almost could not help but be at least a little infatuated or repulsed by us. Either way, direct eye contact having no mental reaction was not something I had encountered in decades. The crescendo on this bizarre series of interactions was that this random girl's behaviour reminded me a little of how Bella had reacted abnormally in our conversation after I had returned from Alaska. Were these mysteries related? It was certainly an avenue worth pursing. Leave no stone unturned and all that.

The accident and the family's concerns had pushed the details regarding the conversation in Biology with Bella to the back of my mind. Was that only yesterday? Usually our lives were so monotonous that it was off putting to realise how that hadn't been the case since Bella's arrival. Despite the accident, my task today was to evaluate Bella and the school to ensure my barely constraining the beast within hadn't endangered the family. With today's added mysteries conversing with Bella in Biology took on a new light. No longer was it merely a space to ensure our secret stay hidden, but potentially an opportunity to unravel the strangeness. So little in our life was interesting, it was enjoyable to have a challenge. Hopefully my scrutiny of Bella would add clues, as she was the one person in the building behaving out of character, thereby getting clearer answers for my family. With what transpired with the strange girl increased my concern about Bella. I was especially irritated at not being able to come to a logical conclusion as to why the strange girl would have the memory of Bella and my encounter. Something was definitely afoot

What is it? Jasper asked clearly picking up my emotions from the encounter.

Shrugging my shoulders and sending him uncertainty, he replied After school?

Affirming with him through his gift, nothing more was said. I wasn't yet ready to share with my family what had happened with the strange girl, especially since I had nothing to go on but a mystery and a unpleasant sensation within. In fact, I hoped to keep it to myself.

Jasper must have picked up on my reluctance or resistance, because as the bell rang he warned me, You're not off the hook. I expect an explanation at home.

Internally I groaned, but did give him a slight nod.

I would admit that since the encounter with that girl my thoughts and emotions were more tumultuous than usual, even including the side effects of keeping my gift open. Jasper had more than likely picked up that.

All my hopes and expectations that Biology with Bella would give me answers or at least some clarity was completely blown to smithereens.

When she sat down I asked her how she was dealing with Tyler's accident.

"Fine," she stated tersely, like my question was a bother.

Given her reaction, especially as it was nearly opposite to how she had spoken to me yesterday, I was at a pondery of how to get her to open up.

Then, she proceeded to actively give me the cold shoulder, which added to the contrast.

She didn't express any of the typical physical responses of fear in the least. So, that one part was the same as our last encounter, but everything else was different.

Each minute that ticked by caused my suspicions to rise. First off, she was, at best, indifferent to me. In a way that part was assuring, since her seemingly previous curiosity that could have been worrisome for the family was absent. Yet, the lack of curiosity, hiding, all while trying to catch glimpses of me was lacking, adding even more odd aspects. Any minor concerns and puzzlement turned into something significant when we attempted to complete the worksheet.

Building on our microscope activity, I insisted she go first. Rather than confident and irritated, she seemed lost. In fact, she spent the whole time reading the text, as if it was completely foreign to her, despite stating yesterday to Mr. Banner that she had taken the subject in Arizona. I could have passed it off as a technique to ignore me. However, whenever I brought her attention back to the sheet, she was so confused that it was as if none of the concepts were familiar to her. Where was the girl who had known the lab for onion root almost as well as me? As a result of my refusal to do the work for her, we only answered two out of the ten questions.

Combined, my suspicions were confirmed that something was wrong about Bella. There were lots of additional little things, probably not noticeable to a human, but it was in the way she did not bite her pencil or cover her face with her hair or bite her lower lip. She looked like Bella, and her blood definitely smelled intoxicating as always, but if I did not know any better, I'd say that she was possessed.

Mr. Banner seemed pleased to be giving us a poor grade, me in particular, congratulating himself in his thoughts that he might have stumped me. They were inconsequential thoughts from a small minded insecure little man. I would have not even noticed, if it were not for the fact that I was monitoring the school's inhabitants for the family. Bella's reaction was most notible, as she did not seem to be that bothered, which was completely contrary to the high achieving student she had previously presented herself to be. The small mercy her behaviour offered was that I had barely needed to take a breath the entire period.

By the time the bell rang indicating the end of Biology, I was up and out of my seat as quickly as I could get away with. Ironically, whatever changes had happened to alter Bella, unless I was mistaking things, had increased the strength of the demon living inside of me. Her indifference of me seemed to weaken some element within me that had wanted to keep her alive. Never before could I have imagined that a girl's curiosity about me would be to my benefit. It was beyond ironic and something I hoped to hide from my family.

Needless to say, I skipped the last class, sitting in my car, attempting to contain the demon within who was working hard to convince me to lure her away from the school in order to enjoy the nectar and bliss that would occur by drinking her. Just like that first day I had come across Bella, my siblings found me beyond ready to leave.

As soon as the Volvo was stationary in our garage, I was sprinting towards the closest animal. After it was drained, I found another. By the end of the third I was almost once more in control of myself. I was reluctant to return home and face their mental voices, questions, and opinions, after keeping my gift open all day long. However, my sense of responsibility to the family overruled my selfish desires. Grudgingly, I took myself back to the family.

Before arriving I decided to shower, so that Alice could prepare everyone for the timing of our gathering. Clean and as ready to face them as possible, I headed downstairs. Within seconds everyone had joined me and we had taken our usual spaces with Carlisle at the end of the table to my left, Esme to his left, and then Rosalie and Emmett, next Jasper and Alice.

After telling Carlisle and Esme the strange occurrences of the day, and the family all the changes I noticed in Bella, and especially the challenge of resisting her, a similar argument irrupted from when I had returned from Denali. Rosalie was most concerned about keeping the family safe, as was Jasper. Emmett figured I should just drain her, enjoy it, and we'd stage the body. Esme and Carlisle were proud of me resisting her blood, and did not want me to live with the guilt of her death.

Eventually the conversation got round to the other girl having an image of me in her head. Everyone was throwing out theories, each crazier than the last when Emmett stated as if he had found the solution to world peace, "It's a Freaky Friday."

We all stopped and stared at him, while everyone's mental voices were expressing their confusion.

"Come on, like the movie. The Chinese lady wants to teach a mother and daughter a lesson and they switch bodies. Then they learn their lessons and switch back," he stated like we were idiots for not knowing this. When no one immediately responded he added, "It's the perfect answer. We just have to find the Chinese lady and get her to make the switch back." Then, he crossed his arms over his chest in a near dare for anyone to disagree.

Shockingly, no one dismissed his suggestion out right.

Annoyingly, his joke was not actually anywhere close to the conclusions I would have drawn, yet it did fit the evidence.

"I never suggested they switched bodies," I contradicted, "I was only paying such close attention to everyone in the school due to the glitches in Alice's vision, and my commitment to help pick up anomalies."

"Now, Ed, you cannot steal my brilliant idea," he chastised in a teasing tone.

The family had begun to see it as he meant it, a comical intervention to lighten the mood. Carlisle on the other hand had latched onto Emmett's suggestion. His analytical analyses were swimming with possibilities of how a soul exchange might have occurred.

"Witches, really, Carlisle?" I alleged.

Everyone looked at him like he had said we were aliens, except Esme who merely appeared puzzled.

"In my youth we believed in vampires, werewolves, and witches," he explained. "If we know two are true as well as shapeshifters, then it is not a far stretch of the imagination to connect Edward's observations, and Emmett's suggestion, lightheartedly intended or not. Simple deduction, really."

Everyone was stunned into silence, while their minds raced. Emmett and Jasper were mostly focused on possibilities of witches, Jasper for the danger they could pose to the family, Emmett thinking about whether their magic would work on vampires and the pranks he could pull with magic. Alice was cataloguing the visions that were fuzzy with Bella. Esme was worried about Bella and the changes I mentioned.

It was Rosalie who broke the silence with, "Who?"

"Well the girl in the cafeteria who had a memory of me had Quileute features," I told them.

"Their oral histories would certainly give credence to what we would refer to as witches," Carlisle mused.

Alice jumped up and came back with paper and a pencil.

"Thanks," I told her, and then drew the girl.

Alice and Esme were far better artists than I, but my depiction allowed everyone to have a basic image of the girl.

"Her father might be Lieutenant Kenneth White," Carlisle told us. "This young woman was at the hospital when his mother was ill last month. The patient's son's wife, Roni White, a nurse in paediatrics, appears Quileute in heritage."

"I'll do some searching in the town's records," Jasper offered.

"If it requires some B&E, can I go with?" Emmett asked.

"Sure," Jasper agreed with a shrug.

"Let us learn more about the parentage of this young girl," Carlisle summarised, "and Edward please use your gift to learn more about her. You too Alice, if possible."

Alice and I both agreed easily.

"No one will make any decisions or actions until we know more," Carlisle decreed, and we all consented.

Each person's thoughts swam with their own considerations of magic having been at fault for Alice's gifts glitches. Esme's were, naturally, the most empathetic, wondering what heartache might have happened for a human to tamper with magic. Alice was slightly relieved to have a potential answer, while also annoyed that a human could have caused it. Rosalie's thoughts wondered if magic could give her a baby, and Carlisle postulated that magic was behind the shapeshifting of their tribe.

"I'll be back before we leave for school," I told them before heading out.

There was only so much I could take.

Sitting on a rock high enough to see the asleep town of Forks, I could not help but be slightly amused at the fact that we had thought Forks was a sleepy small logging town with only shapeshifters to think about.


A/N: I sincerely apologize for my long delay in posting. I returned to the states 5 August to take care of my mother, who was diagnosed with cancer in June, only for her to steeply decline a few days after my arrival and die 27 August. I am not put together yet, but am working at it, so I ask for grace. Gratefully.