Alice and Jasper never came back that night. In fact, they didn't come back at all. Everyone was frenzied about Alice's vision about the Volturi. Bella and Edward stared into each other's eyes the whole night. Jake was sleeping in wolf form in the corner of the room, snoring like a chainsaw, and twitching anxiously every once in a while. Carlisle had thought it was best that Briana to be changed before the Volturi came, but Briana refused saying, and I quote: "If you try to change me against my will like you did to Erin, I'll make sure Erin rips you apart and burns the pieces herself!" That seemed to shut him up about the topic.
Anyway, Bri and I were borrowing Alice's Porsche so we could go to Briana's apartment to get some of her stuff without freaking her neighbors out that we'd 'walked' there. Yep, Bri was officially moving in with us until the trouble was all sorted out.
"What's my mom's name?" I asked her as I drove down the road at over 90 miles an hour. I'd actually been curious about a lot of things, but this was the first thing that came out.
"Jodi. My mom and her had been keeping in touch before…well, you know, before I came here," she answered me.
"And my dad's name?"
"Brandon. He used to play tag and hide-and-go-seek with us all the time," she smiled at the memories.
"Do I have any siblings?" It seemed weird asking about my life, almost like I had amnesia.
"One. Older sister," she wrinkled her nose in disgust. "About four years older than you."
"That bad?" I asked her wryly.
"Well…Sosha was always playing pranks on us, and stuff. One time when we were baking cookies—with your mom's supervision, of course—she'd somehow slipped salt in your mom's 'precious sugar shaker,' and, well...let's just say that those cookies were meant for the dogs." She chuckled a little.
"We're here," I announced as I pulled into the parking lot. It was only eight in the morning, and I heard some of the people in the building grumbling about 'early morning suckers' or something like that.
We got out of the car and waltzed on in. Briana's apartment was on the second floor. She unlocked the door and hurried inside, me following her. The apartment was like your average apartment; small kitchen, one bedroom, small living space, small bathroom with a barely working shower…that's basically it. Bri made a bee-line for the bedroom while I looked around. She'd made the place as neat as she could, by the looks of it. It reminded me of the old lady's apartment I used to visit when I was little—probably my grandma's. There were pillows in cradled in the arms of the couch, blankets neatly stacked in a basket, books placed in alphabetical order on the bookshelf...one of those books caught my eye—a red and black one, with some white. Twilight. I dashed over to the bookshelf and whipped said book off of it. It was one of the earlier copies that didn't have one of those '#1 New York Times bestseller' captions and it was paperback. In my mind, it was ironic that one of these books was in the world it was about.
"Ugh! Erin, could ya give me a hand? This is kinda heavy." Briana's voice brought me out of my staring contest with the book.
"Coming," I said, putting the book back on the shelf. I walked into her room, at human speed, and saw she was struggling to pick up a box.
"Help?" she squeaked.
I chuckled and took it from her, holding it effortlessly. "How many more boxes are you gonna need?"
"I dunno," she muttered as she rummaged her closet for another box. "Now that I think of it, I think it's kinda creepy that my best friend is a vampire."
"Why d'you say that?" I asked. She emerged from the closet holding a box the size of a microwave.
"I dunno. Just kinda strange, I guess." She walked out of the room, heading towards the bathroom.
"I'm gonna run this out to the car," I said, strolling out of the apartment.
"'Kay," my friend muttered, knowing I could hear her.
I was about to walk outside, but once I opened the door, I saw that the sun was out. Crap. I groaned, and walked back up the stairs towards her apartment.
"Hey, Bri?" I asked once I walked into the room. "The suns out, do you have a hoodie I could borrow?"
"Yeah! There's one in my closet," she shouted back.
I found the hoodie easily—it was a purple one that had VIKINGS written across the top of it—and put it on. It was a little small, but it would work. I grabbed the box again and made my way outside with the hood up. An hour later, Bri was ready to go. When we were leaving, I quickly grabbed the Twilight book. Something told me we were gonna need it, but I didn't know what. As I was starting the car, my vision started to slowly turn black. Crap, vision.
I was panicking, sort of, but quickly I asked, "Bri, do you know how to drive a Porsche?"
"Yeah…" she said a little too slowly.
"Good, 'cause I need you to drive," I said before I was no longer there with her. Distantly, I felt something shaking my shoulder. A few minutes later, everything was still black, and I felt myself walking and then being seating someplace. Then, I was in the blizzard—again. Only this time it was different. I saw myself in the truck again with Seth, but he was asleep this time. The vision-me was crying—no, more like sobbing, with tears running down her cheeks. The Seth in the vision jolted awake slowly. The car passed by me, and I decided to follow it. I saw both of the vision versions of Seth and I talking, but strangely couldn't hear them. Then, I saw the really old car with the drunk driver in it. It was like I was seeing the dang thing for the first time—it was one of those cars that if it got in an accident, it would crush the car it ran into, but would come out perfectly fine. I growled at the driver in there who was grinning like an idiot.
The next thing I knew, the cars had rammed into each other. The whole front of my car was totally demolished, so it looked like a shortened version of it. The vision-me hit her head on the steering wheel, instantly knocking her out and I heard the sickening crunch of the bones in her legs shattering. The driver sort of swerved, then drove away as if nothing had happened. Meanwhile, with nobody driving my truck, it skidded on the ice, and flipped over a few times into the ditch! I heard feeble voices come from the vehicle a few minutes later…
"Erin?" That was vision-Seth. "Erin, are you still alive?"
"S-Seth…?" The whisper was so soft, yet so loud in my ears. "I-I'm so…I'm so sorry…" she slurred.
"No!" The Seth in the car seemed to try to shout, but it was only a strained whisper. I could smell blood in the truck. "Stay with me, Erin, you hear that? Stay with me! Don't you die on me! I love you!"
After a few seconds of ragged breathing, I heard her whisper again: "I-I love…I love…" She was silent. Very silent. After a few seconds of deadly silence, I heard her let out a peaceful sigh, and her—my—heard stopped beating.
"No! Erin!" Came the hoarse whispers of the vision-Seth. I heard him trying to struggle out of the banged up truck. "Erin! Please don't be dead! Erin!" His struggles were becoming feebler. No, Seth! Don't die, too! "Erin…Erin…" He stopped moving. NO! I didn't think, I just ran toward the wreck. And this was when I realized I wasn't seeing the future, I was in it. I was a time traveler, and there was a way to prevent things! When I was on the passenger side of the car, I ripped the door off its hinges, and the vision-Seth moaned quietly. I searched through his thoughts, and he thought I was an angel, and he was dead. He was also wondering how the hell my eyes had become liquid butterscotch again.
"Seth, I'm from the past," she whispered. "This is the one thing I saw I did not want you to know about." In truth, I was not going to tell Seth about this! "I can travel through time. Those times I spaced out? I was time traveling uncontrollably. I don't regret saving your life. Please, life your life. Don't die." And with that, I forced myself to return to the present.
LINE BREAK
As soon I regained the sense of my surrounding, I was bombarded by questions:
"Erin, what did you see?" Seth asked immediately.
"Erin, could you tell me why I had to drive to the Cullen's house and get lost five or six times?!" Bri demanded.
"Did you see something about the Volturi?" Carlisle asked.
And they were all asking this at the same time.
"Everyone SHUT UP!" I screeched. "Carlisle: No, it had nothing to do with the Volturi. Bri: I'm sorry, but I can't control it, and Seth: I'm sorry, but I can't tell you."
I realized I was in Carlisle's study when I heard Emmett chuckle from the living room. "Seems like Erin's joined the living dead again."
"Erin, what do you mean you can't tell me?" Seth asked.
"Bri, would you come downstairs with me and join the others?" Carlisle turned to my friend, sensing we'd rather be in the room alone.
"Sure," she said awkwardly, following him out of the room.
Once we were alone, I said, "I'm so sorry, but I just can't tell you."
"Why?" He was trying a sad-eyes look on me, and I almost gave in. Almost.
"I-I…" I never knew a vampire could stutter. "I'm so, so, so, so, so sorry Seth. I…can't. I know that's not a good enough reason, but I have a darn good reason to keep from you. Please understand."
"I do. I don't like it that you're keeping something from me, but…I'm okay with it."
I breathed an unnecessary sigh of relief. I whispered, "Thank you."
After a long moment of silence, I asked, "Were Alice and Jasper allowed on the rez to get to the ocean?"
Seth nodded. "Yeah. Everyone's worried about them. You know where they're going?"
I blocked mine and Seth's minds from Edward as I thought to him. South America.
"Why there?"
With the both of our minds still blocked, I answered him. I probably shouldn't tell you, but they're looking for another half-human-half-vampire like Nessie. They succeed.
"Really?" He asked, grinning and excited a little.
Yep. They come back right during the 'standoff' with the Volturi with a hundred something year old half-breed called Nahuel. It's enough to convince the Volturi to leave. Make sure you don't let Edward know about this though. I played in my mind how Aro would find out everything we have been doing by reading Edward's mind with one touch.
"Yeah, that would not be good," he agreed.
"Have they contacted Tanya's family yet?" I asked, curious.
"Yeah, actually. They'll be here in a few minutes," Seth told me uncertainly. "You've been out of it for a long time. Over a day, actually. The only reason I'm less than a hundred yards of this building is because of you."
"Oh, you should go then," I said hastily, getting up off the chair I was in. "They don't exactly approve of the truce at first." I thought for a second. "Wait, strike that, Jake's going to be there, so it won't matter." And I need a Diet Coke. I added in my head. And then I heard I car slow down on the highway and pull into the long driveway. They were here. I raced downstairs at lightning speed into the living room where Tanya's family would be able to see me. Seconds later, Seth followed after me into the room and stood next to me.
Soon, the car in the driveway came to a halt and shut down. Edward opened the door for them before they could even knock.
"Edward!" Came Tanya's voice.
"Hello, Tanya. Kate, Eleazer, Carmen."
Kate, Eleazer, and Carmen murmured hellos.
"Carlisle said he needed to talk to us right away," Tanya said. "What's the problem? Trouble with werewolves?"
Seth scoffed, and I could picture Jacob rolling his eyes at that.
"No," Edward said. "Our truce with the werewolves is stronger than ever."
Tanya chuckled. "Aren't you going to invite us in?" she asked. "Where's Carlisle?"
"Carlisle had to leave."
"What's going on, Edward?" Tanya demanded after a short silence.
"If you could give me the benefit of the doubt for just a few minutes," he answered. "I have something difficult to explain, and I'll need you to be open-minded until you understand."
"Is Carlisle all right?" Eleazer asked.
"None of us is all right, Eleazer," Edward said, and I heard him pat the guy's shoulder. "But physically, Carlisle is fine."
"Physically?" Tanya asked sharply. "What do you mean?"
"I mean that my entire family is in very grave danger. But before I explain, I ask for your promise. Listen to everything I say before you react. I am begging you to hear me out."
A very long silence greeted him. Seth was tense.
"We're listening," Tanya finally said. "We will hear it all before we judge."
"Thank you, Tanya," Edward said fervently. "We wouldn't involve you in this if we had any other choice."
Edward moved away from the door, and the four Alaskans walked through the doorway. Tanya saw me, and asked, "Is this a part of your problem?"
Edward chuckled, but it was a dark, morbid chuckle. "No. But she does know the outcome of it, somehow."
They just nodded, as if this type of thing was normal.
Tanya sniffed then, and wrinkled her nose. She muttered, "I knew those werewolves were involved." She narrowed her eyes at Seth, and then turned back to Edward.
"Yes," Edward said, also glancing at Seth, "and they're on our side. Again."
The reminder silenced Tanya.
"Where's your Bella?" Kate asked. "How is she?"
"She'll be joining us shortly. She's well, thank you. She's taken to immortality with amazing finesse."
"Tell us about the danger, Edward," Tanya said quietly. "We'll listen, and we'll be on your side, where we belong."
Edward took a deep breath. "I'd like you to witness for yourselves first. Listen—in the other room, not the living room. What do you hear?"
It was quiet while they listened to the heartbeats in the other room. Eleazer started to walk into the dining room, but Edward stopped him. "Just listen, please."
"A werewolf, I assume. I can hear his heart," Tanya said.
"What else?" Edward asked.
They paused while they listened.
"What is that thrumming?" Kate asked. "Is that…some kind of bird?"
"No, but remember what you're hearing. Now, what do you smell? Besides the werewolf."
"Is there a human here?" Eleazer asked.
"No," Tanya disagreed. "It's not human…but…closer to human than the rest of the scents here. What is that, Edward? I don't think I've ever smelled that fragrance before."
"You most certainly have not, Tanya. Please, please remember that this is something entirely new to you. Throw away your preconceived notions."
"I promised you I would listen, Edward."
"All right, then. Bella? Bring Renesmee, please."
A few seconds after he said that, Bella slowly walked out of the dining room, her long hair draped over Renesmee, Jake following close behind her. Renesmee peaked out from around her mother's hair, and I was still surprised to this day that all hell didn't break loose. Tanya skittered back a few steps, poised in a defensive crouch. Kate sprung all the way to the front door, tense against the wall, while Eleazer took a protective stance in front of Carmen.
"Oh please," I heard Jacob complain under his breath.
Then I groaned.
"What is it?" Carmen asked.
"Nothing," I muttered, and then I made sure it was almost inaudible to everyone. "I'd just forgotten how long this chapter is! Come on, Seth. Let's go run."
I knew what would happen, so I wasn't going to stay to watch. Seth and I ran out of the house, and I waited for him to phase once we were in the woods. When he'd joined me again, we ran off hunting.