Beauties | Esme Cullen

Chapter Seven

 "I don't think I've ever seen a cabin in the woods that was this fancy-looking," Sarah said as she stood by the front door. "I haven't seen many, but this is probably the first one I've seen that had electricity." 

 "Hmm. I always thought it was a little big to be a cabin," Carlisle replied, glancing around. "Well, anyway, I ought to look around and make sure everything's in good shape. I don't remember when the last time was anyone was here." 

 Sarah was left alone with Esme, who was looking around the living room with a look of distaste. 

 "I'd say it's definitely been a while since anyone was last here," she said. "Everything's so dusty. I know we have a duster somewhere around." 

 Esme walked off in search of the duster, leaving Sarah in the living room by herself. She sat down on the old sofa, which was placed in an awkward angle half-facing the fireplace. There were also a few chairs around the room, two curtain-less windows, and a nature painting hanging on one of the walls.  

 Sarah leaned back on the sofa, staring up at the ceiling. Now that she was here, what was she going to now? Apparently, she was going to be hunting animals with Esme and Carlisle for however long they were planning to stay. It wasn't something she was too looking forward to, but she was willing to try switching to animal blood. Maybe between that and the blood bags Carlisle had given her, she could stop feeding off of people for good. 

 "I found it." Esme returned and began carefully dusting the mantelpiece over the fireplace. "So, what do you think? The house, I mean?" 

 Sarah shrugged. "It's nice. I mean, I haven't seen the rest of it yet, but I'm sure the rest of it is nice, too. Um, do you want any help dusting?" 

 "Oh, thank you, Sarah, but you don't have to. You're our guest. You should look around the rest of the place later. I think you'll like the forest. It's a very peaceful place. We'll just have to watch we don't run into any hikers or campers while we're hunting."  

 Sarah nodded. "Right. Is that usually a problem?" 

 "No, not really. We do our best to be careful about when and where we hunt. Are you going to come with us? We thought it might be best to go at night, but I think we'll wait until tomorrow night." 

 "Yeah, I'll come with you," Sarah answered. "I want to try hunting animals like you and Carlisle do, see if it's something I can cope with." 

 "Well, don't worry. I have faith in you, and I think you'll do just fine. If you think you're better off with human blood, Carlisle has plenty of blood bags stored away should they ever be needed. I don't think he would mind if you took some." 

 Esme dusted as she spoke, and only glanced Sarah's way a few times. Sarah wished she would look at her; it felt harder to have a conversation when one of them was acted so distracted the entire time they were talking. 

 "I'm going to go poke around the rest of the house," she said. "I hate to think of the rest of the place being so dusty." 

 "Okay. I'll catch up with you later." 

 After Esme left, Sarah wondered why she wanted her to go with them on their trip. At first she thought it was because Esme and Carlisle were just kind vampires, which they certainly were. But there was something else going on. Esme just seemed to act...a little odd whenever she was around Sarah, as if she wasn't really sure what to do or say, and she was absolutely insistent on Sarah going with them. If was as if she had some kind of crush on her.

 Sarah suddenly sat up straighter as something came to her, something she couldn't believe she hadn't thought of sooner. 

 She knew why she kept thinking about how beautiful Esme was, and why Esme was acting the way she was.