CHAPTER FOURTEEN

DESIREE

I didn’t expect Savanna to show up to class today, but she proved me wrong. She was sitting in her seat by the window when Edward and I walked into our math class. She didn’t move a muscle, continuing to star blankly out the window as we took to our own seats. When the bell rang for lunch she was the first to leave the room.

           

“Have you two seen Eric today?” Edward asked Renesmee and Jacob when we were all gathered round the corner table in the cafeteria.

           

“Yeah,” Jacob muffled through his mouthful of food, “he was in class today, seemed the same as yesterday.”

           

“Ahh – yeah,” Renesmee added, with a slight smirk of amusement on her face from Jacob, “he was the only one to actually say hello again.”

           

“That’s weird,” Edward said, “Savanna was the complete opposite, completely hostile.”

            

Everyone was silent for a moment.

            

“I hope Savanna didn’t get in any type of trouble,” Rosalie said, breaking the silent thoughts from everyone at our table.

            

“Ahh,” Edward said. I guessed that he had heard something more interesting from Rosalie than what she had just said aloud. “Of course!”

            

“What!?” Alice asked in a demanding tone.

            

“Savanna was awfully hostile when she left last night, and she seemed to be in a hurry,” Edward answered.

            

“So….” Alice encouraged, wanting him to explain more.

            

“Maybe the rest of her family don’t know about it?” I guessed.

           

“Exactly,” Edward said.

            

“Oh,” Alice chimed, “well that means our costumes won’t be wasted then! I thought we may not have been going with what happened last night; but if the rest of them don’t know then it wouldn’t look good if we didn’t turn up.”

            

We all laughed at this. Alice was right, but the tone of her voice and the ‘pointing-out-the-obvious’ nature of her remark showed that she was more interested in the fact that she was still able to dress us all up!

            

“And –“ Edward added, “we can try and get some answers out of Savanna. We have the upper hand here, if she’s worried about her family finding out what happened last night –”

            

He was going to continue but was interrupted when his phone vibrated. We all barley used our cell phones, as our few contacts were mainly each other; so it was rare for it to go off.

            

“Its Carlisle,” Edward said, the tone of his voice expressing surprise, “he’s found some more information relating to the samples he took; he’s also arranged the flights for Jacob and Nessie to Forks in about an hour.”

            

“Uhh –“ Renesmee piped up, “I kinda – want to stay here.”

            

My body froze at this, I didn’t want her to be near any danger; and I could tell that Edward felt the same way – his perfectly sculpted face became my serious statue again, a sight I had strangely missed and felt like I had not seen lately.

            

“If Savanna is hiding last night from her family then we have nothing to worry about!” she added.

            

Edward and I looked at each other, but I just nodded slightly. She did make a fair point – and we couldn’t force her to go.

            

“Sure,” Edward said, a little reluctantly.

            

When the bell rang for the end of lunch Jacob, Nessie, Edward and I went to the office to sign out – Edward was his charming self, so there were no issues with the receptionist about leaving school early. We got inside the Volvo and drove home so that Jacob could pack a few things, and Carlisle could shear what he had found. We were silent for the duration; probably from anticipation to see what Carlisle had found out – when we reached our narrow driveway Edward barley slowed down.

            

“In the study,” Edward murmured as we entered the front door. Carlisle was at his desk surrounded with stacks of papers, and old books.

            

“Your’ve been busy,” Jacob said, seeming to be in awe over the amount of reading Carlisle had clearly done.

            

“I’ve been looking through the towns archives to see if I can make any connections,” he replied. Edward was nodding, always one step ahead. “Around 1940 there are reports of river contamination, high acid levels which as the main source of water to the Beer Creek area at the time, killed a significant number of the population,” he continued.

            

“I took a sample from the lake outback, which is connected to the river, and the acid levels are much higher than they should be – something we would never notice but if a human swam there then their skin would burn slightly,” he said.

            

“But how does this relate to last night?” I asked.

            

“Bella,” Carlisle said, “the bear that Emmett was hunting had been poisoned with the same form of acid, just in a much higher concentration to that in the lake.”

            

“And Savanna?” I asked.

            

“I’m not sure,” he replied, “but she clearly knows something about how this bear was poisoned to being with, and possibly something about the 1940’s river contamination. The acid is not like anything I’ve ever seen before either, it feeds off of blood which is why Emmett’s skin turned so grey last night; the acid turns the blood into a stronger form of acid – “

            

“Which explains why the bear wasn’t dead,” Edward interrupted, “Emmett said that it was one of the angriest bears he had ever seen, all the more appealing at the time.”

            

“Yes,” Carlisle said, “the bear was actually in distress from the acid taking over and contaminating it’s blood. I mixed the a sample of water with blood from an Elk and, its taken a while, but has had the same reaction – I would show you but I had to get rid of it before it became too acidic and ruined more of my equipment.”

            

“So – “ Nessie began, but was interrupted by Edward.

            

“Yes! It has to be witchcraft,” he said, his voice was filled with more passion than before – Edward had been guessing that witchcraft was involved the entire time.

           

“Well it’s a high possibility,” Carlisle said, “it could be something else too, but I have no other ideas.”

            

“Guess we’ll find out tonight,” I said. The others nodded slightly, and we stood in silence for a moment.

            

“Okay guys,” Esme said, breaking the silence as she walked into the room. She had been keeping a very ‘back-row’ position in all of this; she hated situations like this. “We need to get Jacob to the airport. I’ve already packed your bag”

           

Esme had a real soft spot for Jacob as in a way he was the closest to a real child than all of us were, particularly with his nutritional needs – Esme loved mothering us all, but particularly Jacob.

            

“Gee thanks,” Jacob said, with a huge grin on face. He totally knew about this soft spot!

            

I drove Jacob to the airport with Nessie. Edward and Carlisle stayed behind as Carlisle was going to show Edward more specifics on his findings – data that would have been completely over my head as I didn’t have multiple science degrees like them. Esme stayed back at the house too. 

            

Jacob was excited to be seeing his Dad for a few days, we had had a really full-on week, a new school, new house, new town, and to top it all off, mystery witches or some other type of creatures living near by.

           

Nessie and I saw Jacob to the entranceway for his plane, “contact us if you need anything,” I said, as I gave him a hug goodbye.

            

“Sure,” he grinned. He had probably noticed the worry I was feeling on my face.

            

“See ya later Ness,” he said, giving her a light and playful punch on her arm.

            

“Have fun with your Dad,” she replied, and poked her tongue at him.

            

He laughed, then turned around and showed his ticket to the flight attendant at the entrance of the gate to his plane. She quickly checked it and he continued walking down the gate turning a corner and becoming out of sight to us.

           

We sat in silence whilst we drove home, I wasn’t really thinking about anything in particular, but seemed to be worrying about everything at once.

“Stop worrying Mom,” Nessie said as I stopped outside our house; she gently grabbed my left hand from the steering wheel. The word ‘Mom’ had taken me by surprise as she usually called me Bella. “Close your eyes,” she said.

            

I did as she told me, and found myself surrounded in our small, cozey cottage in Forks. I had forgotten about Renesmee’s gift, as she had been using it less and less as she grew older.

            

I opened my eyes again, “thankyou,” I said to her. She knew how much I loved that house, and it worked in calming my worrying down.

            

“No problem,” she said, smiling at me. “Lets have fun tonight! Maybe we can actually scare some people if Alice’s costumes are that good.”

            

I laughed, “I’m sure they will be, its Alice!”

            

I jumped as my door opened behind me, and turned around to find that it was Alice. “Did I hear my name mentioned,” she chimed, “time to get you two into your costumes!”           

*****

“And three, two, one,” Alice clicked the shutter on the camera, and ran back to where we were standing for our photograph. Alice was living the dream with this opportunity to dress us all up so much, we looked as though we had just came off of a Hollywood movie set. “Pose everybody,” Alice added, and the flashing on the camera’s self-timer became more intense, indicating that it was about to take the photo.            

            

We looked just like a real coven of vampires were supposed to look like – in the everyday human’s eyes that was. Alice had whitened our faces ever more than what they were already, she made us all wear thick black eyeliner, and had painted us girls’ lips a bloody red colour. We each had a drip or two of fake-blood running from the corner of our mouths to suggest that we had just finished drinking from a human. I always loathed being dressed up by Alice, but was surprisingly grateful this time as it seemed to offer a distraction from fear and worry.

           

Edward took Nessie, Alice, Jasper and I in the Volvo, whilst Emmett and Rosalie went with Carlisle and Esme in Carlisle’s Mercedes.

            

As we entered the more residential part of Beer Creek I started to notice the odd person or group of people dressed up in Halloween costumes. They all seemed to be heading in the same direction as we were too. We made our way through a few small streets and the amount of fellow Halloween – goers began to grow in size; as I looked ahead in the street that seemed to be the busiest, I could see that they all seemed to be going down a particular driveway a few metres from where we were. “It must be there,” I pointed out, knowing that my statement was probably obvious.

            

“Looks like it,” Edward replied. A sense of nervousness seemed to fill the car as we drew closer to the entrance.

            

There was a sign taped onto a lamppost near the entrance that had an arrow pointing towards the house, and read “PARKING” in capitals. The house was two storied, and seemed to be rather large. It appeared dated, and slightly tired in areas; which was in keeping with the surrounding houses. The house had a large porch which was lined with people, and from what I could see through the windows, it looked as though the inside of the house was the same, if not more crowded. “They’re clearly popular,” I said, stating the obvious again. No one responded to my nervous remark, except for Jasper, as he used his gift to ease my nerves. “Thanks Jasper,” I added quietly.

            

They had a relatively large front section, where we parked, joining Carlisle and the others in the developing few rows of cars.

            

“Glad you were able to make it!” a woman dressed as a witch who came out of the front door to the house, greeted us as we were close to reaching the porch. “You and your family all look fantastic!” she said. I realised that she was directing this to Esme – I guessed that she was Savanna’s Mom who had introduced herself to Esme at the supermarket yesterday.

            

“Why thankyou,” Esme said, her voice sounding genuine and convincing. “I love your costume too!” She was wearing all black, with a pointed hat and witches broom in one hand. She was pretty, and her hair was long and black. She gave off a certain feeling of confidence too, which was different to how Savanna came across, sweet and somewhat shy. “This is my husband, Carlisle, and our children, Rosalie, Emmett, Edward, Bella, Renesmee, Alice and Jasper.”

            

“Lovely,” she replied, “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you all. I’m Desiree, I’ll introduce you to my lot soon, but first, come inside and I’ll get you all something to drink.”

            

We followed her as she went back through the front door; I glanced back at Jasper, giving him a sheepish smile, grateful that he was still controlling my nerves.

           

© Copyright to Jonathan Cameron 2010