Chapter 10
Google is the best of sources. Or search engines. Whatever. But Googling “Reasons to visit Seattle” was less promising than I thought. The first result informed me that Seattle had the most sunglasses per capita as a reason to visit.
I stared at the meager results.
Three days before the dance. Three days before my trip to Seattle. And I couldn’t spend hours reading books and nursing iced coffees. It was a big city; I had to do something else. That was the point of big cities: a different culture from pokey little small-towns.
But apparently everything was outside of Seattle; Seattle was just the main resting stop. And a very nice place to live. And eat, judging by all the foodies’ ecstatic blogs.
To go or not to go....I glanced outside, to see my wonderful truck, in all its indestructible glory, but sadly less-than-wonderful gas mileage.
“Save the environment,” I said tonelessly, sending my computer to sleep. “Joy.”
Seattle was out of the question then. The weekend would be like any other, now that I had found the Forks Library was good, as well as the decent mall in town. Or I could stay at home and chat with my friends in Phoenix on the computer.
Interesting choices.
“Hey, Bella!” I froze. Jacob Black?
I went down the stairs to see his wide grin; his father rolled in on his wheelchair and waved at me, his eyes showing no real emotion.
“Umm...Hi, Mr. Black,” I said, drawing up memories of him from the previous few years. He had doted on me, treating me like another daughter. This cold treatment wasn’t like him at all. “It’s good to see you again!” I said, trying to sound chipper. Or whatever that British term is. It always seemed like a word for “falsely cheerful”. In any case, his frown deepened. He saw right through it.
“Big game tonight!” Charlie said, gesturing to the living room. Billy Black’s face broke into a
smile, increasing the few, but deep wrinkles in his face. He rolled himself in, the two of them already discussing strange football statistics that I could never made head or tail of.
“Let’s go outside,” I said quickly; Jacob nodded and we headed out into weak sunshine.
“You’ve been hanging out with the Cullens, I heard,” Jacob said, leaning against the truck that my father had bought from his father. He grinned when he saw my scowl. “Just my dad hearing things.”
“I didn’t hang out with Cullen; I had to be around him due to dire circumstances,” I said stiffly. Jacob crawled into the truck bed, using the back wheel as a step. He sat with his legs dangling over the side.
“Dire circumstances,” Jacob said, his voice high-pitched.
“Oh, stop it.”
“You’re a very strange person, you know, Bella? You’re way too mature. It’s a turn-off. Actually no,” he tapped his chin, staring up at the grey sky, “You just know way too many words. I suggest you forget a couple, just to not creep people out.”
I gaped at him.
“And lose that deer-in-headlights look.”
“Oh, for Heaven’s sake-“ I threw up my hands.
“I’m kidding. Come on, Bella. Oh, and sorry about my dad. He’s been a bit...err, upset. He doesn’t like the Cullens.”
“Really?” I said. “That’s awesome.”
Jacob blinked. He rolled backwards to allow his legs to be on the truck bed. “You don’t like the Cullens? Almost everyone who does likes them.”
“Just Edward. The rest-I haven’t met Carlisle and Esme-are pretty cool.”
“Oh well, I think my dad’s thinking about those old ghost stories. You know, werewolves needing to be scared of the pale ones. Don’t worry. When I get home, he’ll burst out laughing and I’ll call you and let you know that he’s sorry he scared you. You qualify anyways as a pale one. And as of right now, a cold one.”
I stared at my arms. Goosebumps all over. I sighed. The fact that they were pale-white goosebumps didn’t help. Jacob grinned, crossing his arms and perhaps intentionally drawing attention to the fact that he was wearing only a white T-Shirt and a black pair of shots, and no jacket as he should have been. Although admittedly, I was not wearing a jacket either, but a pair of jeans and a T-shirt.
“I dunno how you can hang out with them,” Jacob was saying, as if oblivious to the fact that I hadn’t been hanging out with Cullen. “I think they’re really strange. Almost too polite, you know.”
“I don’t hang out with them,” I repeated.
“Don’t believe you,” Jacob said in a sing-song voice. I sighed.
“Believe whatever you want then.”
“Aw, Bella, lighten up. You want to go to downtown? I haven’t been to Forks in a while,” he leapt off the truck. “We could walk. It’ll take forever though. Or we could choose to die in my car or your truck.”
In spite of my determination to be glum, I grinned. “Whatever’s best.”
“There are some awesome trails in the forest,” Mike said on Friday afternoon, just after school ended. “You know how the Northwest is; there’s plenty of places to go for hiking. For a good day, all you’ll have to bring is some food and safety equipment. It’s good stuff for if you want to be alone.”
I had to give him credit; he was really perceptive. “That sounds good,” I said, squirming under the sunshine. It felt glorious to feel warmth creeping all over my skin. Hiking in the forest would be fun.
“Yeah, you know, I think I’ll do that,” I said. Mike nodded; he glanced up at the sky.
“Tomorrow will be fun,” he said, smiling. “Jessica seems excited.”
“You have no idea,” I said darkly. “She’s been thinking about not much else.”
He laughed. “See you around then, Bella,” he said as he walked to his car.
The next morning, I found myself standing before the beginning of a trail, carrying a rather large bag, and wondering how the hell I had managed to convince myself this was a good idea. I couldn’t get through my house without stumbling.
But there was sunshine all around and the trees didn’t quite feel like they wanted to swallow me like the trees in the Old Forest in The Lord of the Rings.
Really, it was better than I thought. The trail was uphill, but not badly so, and it was clear and dry. Nothing too hard really. And there weren’t any loud noises that scared me. Just birds, some small scurrying that I blamed on rabbits. The wall of trees on both sides never ended except for a few gaps that showed views of the rolling hills that grew to snow-capped mountains in the distance. Very picturesque. I grew to forget that this place had bears.
Until I saw a swathe of the forest that was only dark brown dirt, scattered with the corpses of trees. There was a path carved from this line of destruction.
Sighing, I shouldered my pack and walked onto the impromptu path.
This was harder. The path wasn’t as smooth and was actually uphill, in that I was breathing hard. But the forest had always been a dark green, and as I climbed, it was growing into a lighter green, and then almost golden from sunlight. It was when my surroundings were almost entirely shades of yellow alternating with light green that I heard them.
Voices.
I froze in the middle of the path, convinced that I was going insane. Three light male voices, laughing.
Oh Lord, what had I done?
I tip-toed up the path.
Emmett?
“You know you can’t beat me,” he said smugly. “I always win.”
I gasped, feeling nausea steal through my body. It was the meadow from my dreams: perfectly circular, wildflowers scattered throughout the green grass, the trees standing like sentinels.
Three of the Cullens were sitting in the meadow: Jasper lying in the grass, Edward and Emmett sitting straight.
Jasper sat straight up and turned towards me, his nostrils flaring. “Bella?” he said incredulously. He hissed in pain and collapsed back onto the ground, his eyes closed. He trembled as if trying to master some pain.
“What are you doing here?” Edward said quickly, standing up, his body trembling as well.
“What the hell are you doing?” I sputtered, backing away from the three...vampires. Emmett stood up, shaking all over, but he managed a roguish grin. In the sun, their skin seemed far paler.
“It’s our game,” Emmett said. “Some guys press cigarettes to their arms and see who yells first. We do this.” He winced again, his lips pinched together. “Doesn’t ruin our looks.”
This was a hideous reproduction of my nightmare, with three times as many vampires. But they didn’t look thirsty; all three of them had golden eyes. “So I was right. It burns your skin.”
“Hurts like hell,” Jasper said, and his Southern accent, normally just a trace, seemed more prominent than ever. Emmett laughed, his voice ragged, as if he was about to sob.
“It...it won’t affect you too much, right?” I whispered.
“As long as we’ve had enough blood,” Edward said, his fists clenched, but at least his voice was flat. “Look, Bella, you’re not supposed to be here.”
“Oh hell, I’ll go wherever I want to go,” I snapped. “So, I’ll leave you to your...whatever. Fun times. I’m leaving.”
“I’m sick of this,” Jasper announced, standing up. “Let’s just say I hollered.”
“No! We have to do this the right way!” Emmett whined. “Jazz, please!”
“I’m leaving,” I declared again, turning my back on the three brothers and that damn meadow. Red flashed before my eyes and I felt sick at the idea of blood staining those wildflowers. My friends dying at the hands of those three men who were right now arguing over who could stay in the sun longer.
“I’ll go with you,” Edward said quickly, stepping out of the sunlight.
“I don’t trust you,” I said automatically, shouldering my pack and already stumbling into the darkness that was the path below. It was way better than being in that sickening meadow. I could hear Edward’s footsteps stop. “Too cowardly to stalk me in front of your brothers?” I called, walking so fast that I was almost stumbling over my feet.
They were talking, their voices low, fast, and indistinct to me. Just as I rounded a corner, a voice called, “I’ll go with you.”
“What?”
Jasper Cullen was beside me, his face calm. “Just for Edward’s sanity, all right, Bella?”
“So you stalk me as well?”
“Why would I?” he asked, taking a pen from his pocket and spinning it in his fingers; it spun like a black top. “Edward wouldn’t be quite as cooperative with Emmett if he knew you were walking alone. He’s still disturbed by whatever happened in Port Angeles.”
“He’s still a stalker-“
“He has reason to worry, actually,” Jasper said quietly, throwing the pen up in the air and catching it with ease.
“Not again! The stupid justification.”
“There are other vampires searching for you,” Jasper snapped. I blinked.
“What?”
“So he hasn’t told you,” he muttered under his breath. “Three vampires passed through Forks one of the days Edward wasn’t at school. The reason why he wasn’t at school...well, part of it was because he was scared that his bloodlust would take over him. But another reason was that he was meeting with the three vampires. They had been near the airport in Seattle when you arrived and they smelled your scent.”
The trees were dark, but no longer so reassuring. Despite myself, I couldn’t help but feel better that Jasper was beside me; he could at least scare any random people coming by with a death glare.
“One of them is called James. He has a unique gift: no other vampire that I know of is quite like him,” Jasper said, in a way that made me feel like I should be completely used to the idea of vampires. I wasn’t. The information flowed over me, not quite sinking in. “We’re all predators,” he smiled, his lips parting to reveal those slightly-longer-than-normal canines. “But James enjoys the hunt more than anything and has the senses necessary for it. Enhanced beyond anyone else’s. He chooses his victims at random: he’s targeted old men to the smallest infant girl. And you’re his current victim.”
I raised an eyebrow. “Edward tried to negotiate your...release from your victim status,” Jasper said. “It might have worked. Might have. Mostly about how the Quiliete tribe was so close and that a human death would destroy us all. We were close...”
Jasper tucked the pen back into his jean pockets, his face twisted in a grimace. “Then he saw Alice.”
“Alice?”
“He never forgets his prey. Alice long ago was a young teenager assigned to an asylum. James apparently thought it’d be funny to target somebody who was allegedly mentally unstable. A vampire in the asylum discovered James’ intent and transformed Alice before James could...well,
do something worse.”
There was something about the way he said that...I couldn’t look at his face. I was afraid to.
“That sealed it. Seeing that Alice was part of our family, he swore that he would finish off the job; he would kill a human related to our coven. Seeing that Edward was already protective of you, he’s not going to change his mind. No matter what, he said he’s going to find you.”
We were on the main path now. I looked up at Jasper, who must have seen my terrified face; he patted my back awkwardly. “It’s all right, Bella. His coven is weak. We’ll make sure he doesn’t come near you.”
I bit my lip. “But...what did I do wrong?”
“Nothing. You crossed paths with him,” and now his voice was hard, “That’s all it takes when you meet an animal.”
AN: Urgh, still cutting. YES, this indeed is my replacement for the infamous sparkling scene. Just a bunch of guys being stupid. I rather like it. I'm just sad I haven't found a way to incorporate Alice and Rosalie as much; those two would be fun to write.
At this point, it's blatantly obvious that while I'm an anti, I'm a Jasper fangirl. He has an interesting history (I barely read anything other than historical fiction these days, and I LOVE the Civil War and Revolutionary War when I do choose to read about America) and he wanted to eat Bella. I was cheering for the guy through the beginning of New Moon. And then I fell asleep once I realized that Jasper had left and nobody was going to be eaten anytime soon.
I wrote the last line for my own vampire canon, but realized it worked quite well here. So I put it in.
Chapter 11