The True History of the Cullen Family

Human Behavior

While Jacquelyn Claire Ulrich was fighting to save her sanity, Leah Clearwater was fighting to save her own humanity.

Leah had been banished from La Push several hours before, and she was sure that she was losing her mind. After all, no Quileute had ever stepped out of the reservation and survived.

She was walking along in the woods when she heard a voice. "Leah."

"Dad?" she asked, afraid of what she knew. Her father was dead.

"Leah."

"Who are you?" she cried out as she turned to face the person.

"Why do you abandon your people?" asked the voice.

"Why do they cast me out?" Leah cried out in turn.

Something wasn't right; disembodied voices don't just come out and talk to people, Leah thought to herself as she ran.

"Leah," said the voice. "There is trouble in La Push. Something that has happened that should not have happened, and something that should have happened that did not happen."

"What are you talking about?" Leah cried out.

"There is trouble brewing in La Push," said the voice, "trouble that escaped the Elders' reproach. It must be punished. You must return."

"If I return, then they will kill me on sight," Leah protested. "I must flee while I can still run."

"I will correct their mistakes," said the voice. "Now GO!"

*****

Jasper sat there, staring into space. A bath had been drawn and Jacquelyn was nowhere to be found.

Minerva had convinced her to sit in a warm tub full of healing oils in the hopes that she could speed her recovery. Gus was hunting for their meal.

At length, Jacquelyn said to Minerva, "Don't you miss being a human?"

Minerva said, "I would, if only I could remember what it was like to be human. The last thing I can recall was mother whispering an incantation as the snake killed her..."

"Can't Gus reverse the spell?" Jacquelyn cut in.

"He's not advanced enough," said Minerva. "He too was turned into a snake. Only an advanced sorcerer can break the spell."

"There must be books in this place that are dedicated to spells and such," said Jacquelyn. "You and Gus could sneak into the library and find them."

"We could," said Minerva. "They will never notice two snakes crawling around here. But first, you must recover."

Jacquelyn sighed and stepped out the tub. A glance into the mirror showed that she was so pale that her skin was even whiter than milk. She seemed to resemble a vampire. How ironic, she thought to herself. I become obsessed with vampires and now I end up living in a vampire's castle. I even look like one. Life sure has a funny way of irony.

But then again, she knew that come what may, she would have to submit to being an actual vampire.

She reached for her dressing gown and walked out the bathroom.

*****

Old Quil Ataera knew something was wrong when Leah walked into the woods and did not return.

He was among the oldest in the Quileute population, and he had certainly seen better days. This was not one of them. "There is something wrong," he muttered to himself.

Sitting beside him was his grandson, Quil Ataera III. Quil frowned, not approving of Jacob's handling of Leah Clearwater's situation. Something had to be done about that.

Just then, a huge black wolf lunged towards them. Old Quil screamed and clutched his grandson as the wolf growled at them. It stared at them for a moment, then bounded towards Emily's house.

Emily!

Quil Junior quickly helped his grandfather into their house and ran towards Emily's house. Emily had no idea about the wolves existing, nor did she know about the Quileutes' connection to the wolves. She was in grave danger...

*****

Jasper was very excited when he saw his pet step out of the bathroom wearing little more than a dressing robe. He said, "Well, little lass, I take it you are healed?"

"Only in body; her mind has a long way to go," said Minerva.

"I see," said Jasper. "Now where did your brother get off to? He said he was to fetch you some snacks, but he hasn't showed up yet."

"I'm here now," said Gus as he crawled into the room. He dropped a huge rat in front of Minerva and said, "If only more vampires ate rats than humans, then this castle wouldn't have such an infestation."

"I see," said Jasper. He stood up and said, "You mind giving her some space?"

"Yes, but we'll be watching you," said Minerva as she pounced on the rat. "She's still fragile."

Jasper sighed and led Jacquelyn back to the bed. Hopefully a prolonged sleep would do her some good.

*****

Emily smiled as her tiny children ran around the house playing. There was nothing to disturb them.

But for her, a huge wolf growled as soon as it spotted her.

None of the children noticed the wolf as it lunged at Emily. She took off for the gardens, screaming her head off...

Paul heard Emily's screams and rushed towards Emily's house. Quil had already reached the house and was blocking the doorway so that the children could not get out.

Sam said, "Emily? Where is she?"

"I found her!" Jared yelled as he rushed back to the house with Emily. She was badly hurt.

"What happened?" Sam cried out.

"I heard her screaming and rushed here," said Paul.

"Does anyone know who caused this?" Jared cried out.

"What happened?" Sue cried out as she came to the house with Seth.

"Emily's been attacked," Sam said with a sad look on his face.

*****

Leah saw the wolf and yelled, "Why did you attack my cousin? She did nothing wrong!"

The wolf said, "Sam devoted himself more to her than to his own wife. She had to pay for his sins of abandoning you."

"Who are you?" Leah snapped. "Why are you doing this?"

"I am Taha Aki," said the wolf. "My children have forgotten about their legacy. They have forgotten about me. This is not good. I will make them learn."

Billy saw the wolf talking to Leah. He stood up and shouted, "Leah, run! I'll hold him off..."

But the wolf pounced on him and he screamed in horror...

*****

Jasper inspected Jacquelyn's arms and concluded that there were no carvings or whatnot on her body.

But that didn't mean she wasn't still hurting.

"You all right, little lass?" he asked as Jacquelyn wrapped herself into the robe. She shook her head. Jasper frowned as he clutched to the girl before she could turn away. Jacquelyn struggled a bit before relaxing, but she still did NOT know what a pet does.

At length, what she needed to do now was to save herself.