Dusk

#26

Bella

"Carlisle was the only son of an Anglican pastor," Rosalie explained. "His mother died giving birth to him, and his father was an intolerant man. As the Protestants came into power, he was enthusiastic in his persecution of Roman Catholics and other religions. He also believed very strongly in the reality of evil. He led hunts for witches, werewolves...and vampires." I hummed at the last words, but let her continue.

"They burned a lot of innocent people-- of course the real creatures that he sought were not so easy to catch.

"When Carlisle's father grew old, he placed him in charge of the raids. At first Carlisle was a disappointed; he wasn't quick to accuse, to see demons where they did not exist. But he was persistent, and more clever than his father. Hr actually discovered a coven of true vampires that lived hidden in the sewers of the city, only coming out by night to hunt. In those days, when monsters weren't just myths and legends, that was the way many lived.

"The people gather their pitchforks and torches, of course--" she chuckled dryly-- "And waited where Carlisle had seen the monsters exit into the street. Eventually one came out."

Rosalie gave me a quick glance, but returned to the story. "He must've been ancient, and weak with hunger. Carlisle heard him call out in Latin to the others when he caught the scent of the mob. He ran through the streets, and Carlisle-- he was thirty-three but very fast-- was in the lead of the pursuit. The creature could have easily outrun them, but Carlisle thinks he was too hungry, so he turned and attacked. He went to Carlisle first, but the others were too close. He killed three men, leaving Carlisle bleeding in the street.

"He was a miracle he stayed quiet," she said, pausing at the door. "The three days are painful."

Rosalie didn't have to knock. A soft "come in" came from the other side when she stopped talking.

We entered to a high-celinged room with tall, west-facing windows. The walls were paneled again, in a darker wood-- were they were visible. Most of the wall space was taken up by towering bookshelves that reached high above my head and held more books than I'd ever seen outside a library.

Carlisle was putting on his doctor coat, giving us a smile when we walked in. "What can I do for you two?"

"Just wanted to show Bella more of our history," she explained. "You leaving?"

"Yes. One of the doctors called off sick." He rubbed Rosalie's shoulder after giving me a wave. "You know everything just as well as I do."

Rosalie then explained the rest of Carlisle's story. How he did everything in his power to end his new life, isolated himself from human civilization so he didn't hurt anyone. How he figured out how vampires can survive another way...how he can help people instead of hurting them. Then she got to the part when he was in Italy.

Carlisle was in a painting with three other men. Aro, Caius, and Marcus is what Rosalie named them. Two of them had black hair while one had snowy white. They had been in Italy for the last few millennia.

When we finally got to the full circle, Rosalie took us to her room. Her room was facing south, with a walled window like the great room below. The whole backside of the house must be glass. Her view looked down on the winding Sol Duc River, across the untouchable forest to the Olympic Mountain range. The mountains were much closer than I would've believed.

Around her room was magazines, those with cars and other things, and CDs. She had a king sized bed pushed up against the wall, and that surprised me.

"I thought you don't sleep."

"We don't," she said, laying on the bed. "But that doesn't mean we don't like relaxing."

I laid down next to her, enjoying the softness of the bed. I felt Rosalie move closer next to me until her head was on my shoulder. She sighed softly before letting out a quiet, "I love you, Bella."

I felt her tense up beside me, waiting for me to answer. I smiled, softly pressing my lips on the top of her head. "I love you, too, Rosie."

She buried her head in my neck, trying to hide her smile. She clutched me tighter, sighing happily.

"Can we come in?" a soft voice sounded from the hall.

Rosalie didn't move us from our position. I could see it was Alice and Jasper behind her in the doorway.

Rosalie only moved her head to see them. "Go ahead."

Alice seemed to find nothing unusual in our embrace; she walked-- almost danced, her movements were so graceful-- to the center of the room, where she folded herself sinuosly to the floor. Jasper, however, was shocked for a moment at our positiom. Though I saw him give Rosalie a slight smirk, making her give him a small, yet semi-playful, growl.

"Alice said there's going to be a real storm tonight, and Emmett wasnt to play ball," Jasper explained, still giving Rosalie a look. "You game?"

The words were all common enough, but the context confused me. I gathered that Alice was a bit more reliable than the weatherman, though.

From the look on Rosalie's face, I could tell she didn't want to. She looked up at me, hesitating.

"Of course you should bring Bella," Alice chirped.

"Do you want to go?" She asked me.

"Sure," I told them. "Uh, where are we going?"

"We have to wait for thunder to play, you'll see why," she promise.

"Great!" Alice said, standing from her spot on the floor. "Let's go see if Carlise will come."

"Like you don't know," Jasper teased, softly closing the door behind him.

"What will we be playing?"

"You will be watching," Rosalie clarified. "We will be playing baseball."

I scoffed. "Vampires like baseball."

"It's the American pastime," she said, rolling her eyes.

___________________

I didn't tell y'all, but my family and I got racially profialed a few days ago at Target. I mean, I suspected this to happen one day but not at Target. Walmart, sure. 

We laughed about it and just went on about our day. We weren't heated about it, but not chill either.

Anyways, don't be a jerk to people guys!

Bye!