When Edythe arrived that night, she told about Bella separating from Angela and Jessica to go to a bookstore and her getting lost when trying to regroup with them. My stomach sank when she told that Bella had co across a group of drunks that were wandering the area and how they had started to corner her. She didn't hide anything from , telling about the group and their past deeds.
Luckily, Edward was near enough to intervene. That was when I learned that Edythe's brother had a bit of a stalker side to him. My mind went back to the night I slled sothing in Bella's room. {Looks like I needed to have so words with him and set so ground rules.} I ntioned this to Edythe, and she asked to go easy on him and explained that his true reason for being in her room was to desensitize himself from her scent, not to get his rocks off as a voyeur.
I didn't know if I fully believed her on that point, being a guy and all, but I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt until we talked. The fact that Bella was Edward's singer and all that ant, had ready to move her back to Phoenix at first, but I knew it was far too late to try and avoid it. I tried to dampen my big brother feelings and partially succeeded, for now.
"So, what does it an that she knows about Vampires now? I rember Carlisle saying being a human and knowing of the supernatural was dangerous."
Edythe sighed, "For now, we are in a bit of a grey area. We can claim that she will be turned, but at a later date, to prevent there being issues with us living here. That will work on everyone but Aro of the Volturi. He has an ability like Edward and , but much stronger. He can read every thought you have ever had with a touch."
"Wow, that's got to be a jarring experience. It's our mories that make us who we are. I wonder if he changes a little every ti he does that?
Edythe shook her head, "From what we have heard, he started with his ability just like us, but as he aged, he got stronger, which is how our abilities usually work. If he were old enough, his own personality would remain supre. Unless he tried it on soone much older than himself, I would imagine. But as I was saying, if he touched Edward and saw how against he would be in turning Bella, then it would take a lot of convincing to make him believe she would, in the end, beco a Vampire."
We talked a little bit more about inconsequential things, but eventually I fell asleep in her arms. The dream started in a spot I hadn't seen in a long ti. I was excitedly getting dressed because today, we were going to the mall. When I went downstairs to eat breakfast, my least favorite person was sitting at the table. Johnny, mom's boyfriend. He always looked at with an expression of ridicule when we were alone. The many tis I had heard him tell my mom all about the things they could do and the places they could go if it weren't for .
When she found out that I had heard them one ti, she went ballistic on Johnny. It took him weeks to worm his way back into the house with all kinds of promises to change and be better. But his idea of being better to was to tell how I could be better, eat less, exercise more, and find friends that I could stay with. I secretly, in my heart, hated her a little bit for letting him co back.
The drive to the mall was filled with my mother questioning on why I wanted to go today so badly, but I refused to tell her. It was my secret, and I really didn't want to say. But when we got to the mall and parked, I had a feeling of dread and tried to run away from the entrance. No matter what I did though, the automatic doors kept getting closer, and they would slide open and closed like the mouth of so hungry beast waiting for us to enter and be eaten. In my dream, I begged my mom to let us leave, but it was like she was hearing the opposite of what I was saying, smiling and holding my hand as we entered the mouth-like doors.
I was pulled from my dream by soone gently shaking and whispering words I didn't understand, but the tone was loving and worried. I opened my eyes and saw Edythe was there, holding my head to her chest and rocking back and forth, trying to soothe . I clung to her with all my strength, and to my childish sha, I started crying in short broken sobs, unable to stop.
I was just making it worse. What kind of girl wants a nightmare-riddled crybaby for her boyfriend? Even with all the muscle I had now, I was still the little fat crybaby inside, begging for his mommy to get up off the ground and comfort him. To make matters worse, apparently, I had made enough noise that Bella heard and opened the door. I couldn't see her, but I bet she was surprised to see Edythe there holding as I cried like a child.
Edythe spoke over my sobs, "I got him tonight, Bella. But you are welco to stay until it passes."
I felt her co closer, "No, if you are here, he will be okay." She then kissed my head and whispered, "I love you, Thomas." Then returned to her room.
It felt like hours before I was able to pull myself together and stop crying. But now I was emotionally drained and scared that I had just ruined my relationship with Edythe. I was trying to think of a way to tell her I would understand if she wanted to leave .
Edythe was still holding when she spoke, "You know, even with your mind shielded in your natural form, I can still hear your thoughts if they are loud enough. This doesn't make think any less of you. It does hurt to see you hurt so badly, but I know it isn't because you are weak, it's because what you went through was so horrible. Losing my parents to a sickness took 30 years to get over, and to this day, I still hate hospitals. Maybe that's why I never took an interest in dicine like Edward."
Hearing this, combined with my emotional exhaustion, I started talking. "It was my idea to go to the mall that day. My mom was very hardworking, and she always felt guilty that she didn't spend enough ti with . So, she made a personal ritual for herself. My birthday would be the only ti she would completely block the rest of the world out. No matter what, she would take a week off work for my birthday. She always told that for that whole week, she worked for and no one else. No emails, no phone calls, not even any side projects, just her family."
"She made an exception when she fell in love with a man nad Johnny, she wanted him to join us and be together as a family. He was nice enough at first, but as ti went by, it seed like I beca a bother to him. Competition for my mother's attention. He would ridicule about my weight, about my clothes, that I liked playing video gas, anything he could. When mom found out, she blew up about it and made him leave, even though I could see that it made her unhappy to not have him around anymore."
I swallowed and continued, "He found one day walking ho from school, and told that I was the reason she was unhappy now, that if I asked her to let him co back it would be all better again, so I told her that it would be okay even though I still hated him. My plan that year was to make her so happy that she wouldn't be sad if Johnny left again. I saved up 500 dollars, including my birthday money, and begged her to take to the mall. I planned to ditch them and go to a Jewelry store to buy a heart-shaped locket with our birthstones combined as the front and a picture of and her etched inside."
"I had called for it to be made, but I needed to go there in person to give them the picture and pay for it. I left them in a clothes store looking at ties for Johnny and made it to the Jewelry store and almost got back before they noticed. I t them outside the clothes store when they ca out looking for . I told them I got bored and just ca out here to people-watch. The store was on the second level of the mall, and the Jewelry store I went to was on the third. We decided to leave not long after that, and just got off the escalator to the first floor when we heard the popping sound. Right after that, people started to scream and run. Johnny was ex-military and said it sounded like gunfire."
"We were huddled around one of the small shops in the middle of the aisle when we made a run for it. Johnny was pulling , and I couldn't keep up because I really was very overweight for my age. When he saw people start to pass us, he kicked my leg out from under , causing to make everyone near fall to the ground or slow down. I was hurt pretty badly by the crowd. I had a broken leg, a broken arm, and 3 broken ribs. One had almost punctured my lung. I don't know how, but my mom managed to find shortly after that, and was trying to help hide when she was shot three tis by one of the shooters. He was about to kill when he was killed by a responding police officer. I later found out that it was the police officer's 3rd day on the job."
"I had been in the hospital for almost a week before my statent was taken, and I told them that Johnny tripped . Unfortunate for , Johnny had happened to have his picture taken as he carried an old lady out of the mall on his back. The papers had dubbed him a hero for taking the ti to help a stranger. And just my word that he tripped wasn't enough to charge him with anything. I asked them to look at the caras, but they said it would look bad if he were a hero and rewarded by the police, and then later found to be responsible for my injuries. The detective told to keep it to myself for the sake of everyone."
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