Disclaimer: This is a complete work of fiction based off of the "Twilight" series by the author, Stephanie Meyer.
Authors Note: Hey everyone, thanks for being so patient with me. I apologize for dropping off the grid for awhile, but I had my reasons, which I will mention in my little "closing statement" thing at the end of the chapter. If you don't feel like reading that, here's my email now: Jonellsocool@aol.com. Feel free to send me your thoughts and opinions of the story =)
Twilight Tale- Chapter 6
I leaned forward intensely, preparing myself for what Bella would say next. Jacob sat beside her, quiet and still, while I sat on the couch opposite from them. Jasper remained standing near the doorway; his expression seemed more concentrated, as if deep in thought. Outside, I could hear the light rapture of rain against the window. Looking me in the eyes, she began,
"I'll start from the beginning..I moved here about a year ago from Arizona. My mom remarried and I thought it would be best to give the two their space, so I decided to come live with Charlie. When I started school, I met Edward," she paused, taking a breath. I remained silent as I studied her face, she looked tired. She continued,
"I started noticing things about him, his family too, that weren't what you would call `normal'. The first, obviously being their beauty. When I tried getting an answer from him, he politely denied me that, so I did my own research. Most of which came from Jacob," she said glancing at him. He smiled, but returned to his prior posture.
"There's an old Quileute legend that tells of a group of beings called the Cold Ones. They were said to have, " She was about to continue, but Jacob cut her off. "To sum it up, they were feeding on our lands..off of the blood from the animals." He said looking directly at me. I shook my head, trying to comprehend.
"So, they were a bunch of freakish hillbillies or something?" I asked, not fully understanding.
"No," Jacob sighed in frustration. "What creature do you know of that feeds on blood?"
I scanned my brain for about two seconds before my mind had a minor epiphany. At that moment, my breathing stopped. Realizing what they were trying to get me to understand, I whispered aloud,
"Vampires?"
They remained silent, staring at me. Their silence answered my question. I turned towards Jasper who was looking at me expectantly. He had been in the room with us the entire time, so I knew that he was listening to our conversation. His face showed no argument with what we were talking about. Normally I would be freaking out right now, pacing around the room..all that good stuff, but I was doing none of the above. What shocked me the most was how calmly I was taking this. I had, for a brief moment, thought that this was all a joke; that I was being `Punk'd'. But looking at the seriousness in their faces, and thinking back to what had happened in the forest, just about any outlandish explanation would work for me, and this one was golden.
"Okay, so you're saying that the Cullen's are these Cold Ones, right? That they're vampires?" I asked. They nodded silently. The air was still as we sat there; my eyes were on Bella who returned my gaze.
"Okay, well..lets assume that I believe you, that everything you just told me is fact. Why doesn't anyone else know about them?
Bella spoke first,
"We're not supposed to know about them," she said pointing at herself then towards me. "Vampires have a strict set of rules and the first is to not let their existence be known." Jasper took a step forward,
"In the world of vampires, there is a clan called the Volturi. They are headed by the oldest vampires known to our history. The Volturi are what you would call peacekeepers. They keep our secrets from becoming exposed to the human population, by any means possible." He finished
I shifted in my seat. The look that Jasper was giving me, made me uncomfortable. Jacob stood up and walked over to my side.
"Control yourself, bloodsucker," he spat. As if appearing out of thin air, Edward was standing behind Jasper with his hand on his shoulder.
"Relax my friend, Alice is waiting for you upstairs," he said calmly. Jasper turned to face Edward. A silent understanding was shared between the two before Jasper exited the room.
"What was wrong with him?" I asked, confused.
"You," Edward answered. "Or rather, your blood. As you know, vampires require blood to live. Human blood in particular is extremely nourishing to us..It also smells and tastes a lot better than animal blood." He said, eyeing me. "We are one of few vampire covens who would rather not cause harm to humans and instead, we live off of animal blood. You would call us, vegetarians."
Edward took a seat next to Bella and Jacob sat down next to me. I could feel the heat emanating from him; it was a welcome presence considering how cool the house was. Its not as if I wasn't weary of the situation I was in, I just became genuinely intrigued by everything I was told. My heart rate raced, along with my fascination. At the same time, Edwards face scrunched into a scowl and glared at me. Jacob must've thought he was threatening me. I could feel the reverberations he was giving off, vibrating the couch. But Edward quickly replaced his facial expression with an apologetic one and clarified,
" Calm down Jacob, its just," he paused looking from Bella to me. "These two are so..alike." he finished. Jacob loosened up and responded,
"You think I didn't realize that already?" he laughed, sarcastically. After a brief stare down with Jacob, Edward scoffed at me. He literally scoffed at me, and let out a dry laugh. He continued,
"The both of you share the same curious nature. Bella was like you when she first found out about us, blind of the danger she imposed upon herself for just being around us. For you to be so intrigued...It was just very reminiscent of her." He said, giving Bella a breathtaking smile.
I nodded thoughtfully to what he had said. The last part in particular caught my attention though.
"I don't remember ever claiming to be intrigued." I said questioningly. Jacob and Bella turned to look at Edward, who again had that look of apology on his face.
"Some of us vampires..when we are turned, we become more..unique than usual."
"Unique?"
"Yes, we gain a certain trait or ability. Many are different, while others seem to be similar to one another. Traits such as being able to track a person down, anywhere in the world. Or in my case, the ability to read minds." He finished, gauging my reaction.
I looked at Bella who gave me a meek smile, then towards Jacob whose face looked rather bored. Returning my gaze back to Edward, the obvious of questions was in my head.
"If you can read minds, then what's the answer to the question I'm thinking about right now?"
Edward gave me an awkward smile before responding,
"Your question was what your middle name is, and the answer is Gabriel."
I was speechless, and I'm pretty sure the look on my face suggested so. The fact that he responded so quickly was one thing, but that he knew the question AND the correct answer was another. This shattered all previous doubts of them lying to me, and Edward now knew that. I could tell by the way he was eyeing me, listening to my thoughts. Defeated, I went on.
"Alright, I give. I believe you and all but, why tell me? I mean, aren't you guys like, sworn to secrecy?
"Yes, we are supposed to keep are existence a secret, but yesterday a certain incident pushed our deciding factor to tell you." He finished
My posture perked up instantly at the mentioning of yesterday. I knew he could hear my thoughts, but I wanted to hear Bella's explanation, she could speak for herself.
"Yeah, what was with that? Jacob wouldn't tell me anything." I said, rolling my eyes at him. Jacob sighed as he stood up to stretch before speaking.
"The stench of dead bodies is making me sick. I'm gonna go outside and see if I can talk to Sam, they should be running shifts right about now." He said, turning and walking towards the front door. "I'll be on the porch." He called over his shoulder. I continued staring at his muscular back until it disappeared from view around the corner and upon hearing the door close, I focused my attention on Bella. She began to speak,
"Well, awhile back, there was a vampire, James, who tried to kill me. Long story short, the Cullens ended up killing him and now his lover, Victoria, is after me. She figured since we killed her lover, then she would take Edwards, me." She said. Edward took her hand into his as she went on. "Yesterday at school, Edward sensed her presence nearby. So to avoid putting anyone else in danger, we left school, attempting to lead her into a trap we'd set up in the woods." Edward cut in,
"Unfortunately, you were there, in the woods. Remember?"
Did I remember? How could I forget something traumatizing?
"So was that her? The redhead I mean, was that Victoria?"
"Yes, but we hadn't anticipated that you'd be there. Jacob was supposed to be taking you to his place." Edward sneered. I was sure my face was turning a lighter shade of red as I felt the blood rush to my face, remembering the events leading up to being in the same place as Victoria and the wolf-thing.
I ignored his distaste for Jacob, because I had another question that needed to be answered.
"Did you guys see the wolf-thing as well? It was chasing Victoria and..." At that point, I went off on a rant using all kinds of hand gestures to go along with my poorly told story-telling. When I was finished, Bella looked at Edward and they both shared a smile before they both turned to look at me. Bella spoke,
"We thought it would be best if Jacob explained that part to you. It's not really our place to."
"What do you mean?" I asked, confused.
"You'll see." Edward said, smirking.
I dismissed his remark as a jab at Jacob and stood up, remembering I was supposed to call Charlie.
"Crap," I said, patting my pockets. "I must've left my phone in the truck."
"Here, you can use mine," Bella said, extending her phone out to me.
"Uh, thanks but it's just outside. I'll be right back." I said, waving them off as I moved towards the front door. As I grasped the door handle to open the door, I instinctively called out to Jacob.
"Hey Jacob, I think I left my phone in...the truck."
As soon as I was outside on the porch, my voice had died down to a whisper. The sight before me was so surreal. There before me lie a giant wolf-thing like the one I saw in the forest. Only, they weren't the same. This one was a Russet- Brown and may have been slightly smaller, but it was still enormous. My voice was caught in my throat and my body wouldn't move. I was stuck, staring into this wolf's deep brown eyes and the thought running through my mind was, "Oh my God, Jacob is dead."
Chapter 6- End
Okay so finally, its up haha. I again apologize for my absence of writing. I am a high school senior [18 of course] and keeping up with my story while juggling school, sports, and other aspects of my life, can be a bit over-bearing. But after receiving multiple emails about the progress of the story, I decided to put some more effort into getting it out. Now that that's all in the open, I've gotta say, I actually hated writing this chapter. I had to like, actually do a bit of research so I didn't sound so ignorant of how the events of the "Quileute legend" took place. So yeah, email me once again at Jonellsocool@aol.com to give me some feedback on what you thought of the chapter/story. Thank you for the support and have a wonderful Valentines Day =)