When Edythe arrived that night, she told me 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 me that Bella had come across a group of drunks that were wandering the area and how they had started to corner her. She didn't hide anything from me, telling me 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 smelled something in Bella's room. {Looks like I needed to have some words with him and set some ground rules.} I mentioned this to Edythe, and she asked me 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, me 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 meant, had me 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 mean that she knows about Vampires now? I remember 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 me, 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 memories that make us who we are. I wonder if he changes a little every time 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 supreme. Unless he tried it on someone 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, become 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 time. 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 me with an expression of ridicule when we were alone. The many times 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 me.
When she found out that I had heard them one time, 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 me was to tell me 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 come back.
The drive to the mall was filled with my mother questioning me 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 some 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 someone gently shaking me 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 me. I clung to her with all my strength, and to my childish shame, 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 me as I cried like a child.
Edythe spoke over my sobs, "I got him tonight, Bella. But you are welcome to stay until it passes."
I felt her come 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 me.
Edythe was still holding me 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 me think any less of you. It does hurt me 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 me 30 years to get over, and to this day, I still hate hospitals. Maybe that's why I never took an interest in medicine 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 time with me. So, she made a personal ritual for herself. My birthday would be the only time 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 me that for that whole week, she worked for me 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 named Johnny, she wanted him to join us and be together as a family. He was nice enough at first, but as time went by, it seemed like I became a bother to him. Competition for my mother's attention. He would ridicule me about my weight, about my clothes, that I liked playing video games, 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 me one day walking home from school, and told me that I was the reason she was unhappy now, that if I asked her to let him come 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 me 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 me 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 met them outside the clothes store when they came out looking for me. I told them I got bored and just came 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 me, 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 me, causing me to make everyone near me 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 me shortly after that, and was trying to help me hide when she was shot three times by one of the shooters. He was about to kill me 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 statement was taken, and I told them that Johnny tripped me. Unfortunate for me, 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 time to help a stranger. And just my word that he tripped me wasn't enough to charge him with anything. I asked them to look at the cameras, 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 me to keep it to myself for the sake of everyone."