Mortality

Homeward Bound

"Can I ask one more?" Edward accelerates much too quickly down the quiet street. His eyes are forward, his body rigid, but I get the feeling his attention is far from the road. With an exaggerated sigh and a roll of his eyes, he nods.

"One."

"How does it work—the mind-reading thing? Like, how does it feel when it works?" I bounce a bit in my seat, hoping he will give me a straight answer. He has no reason not to, all things considered. Hearing all this from the source is ... ah, it's thrilling. I wish I had my notebook with me right now.

"That's more than one," he says with a snort. I intertwine my fingers and stare at him, waiting. "You really want to know? Heh, alright, but it's boring, fair warning." He pauses thoughtfully, clicking his tongue.

"It's like being stuck in a small room, and everyone is talking full volume. But if I pay more attention to one particular person or group, they're all I take in. It's easier to appear normal," — he frowns as he spits the word out — "when I'm not accidentally answering someone's thoughts rather than their words."

"And my thoughts?"

"You're on a totally different frequency than everyone else."

"That would explain the static I feel."

"You get it too?" He laughs, rubbing his eye. "Then I'm sticking with it. I'm an FM Brain and you're an AM Brain. Or would you prefer to be a Satellite and me be Bunny Ears?"

"Hell yeah, Satellite Brain."

"Makes me Bunny Boy Ed. And that brings us back to you. No more stalling. Spill. Tell me the entire process of going from 'Wow, this dude is weird' to 'he's a vampire'."

"Well, the van was a huge tell," he laughs and nods his head, accepting that as truth. My eye happens to catch the speedometer and I freeze. "Whoa!"

"What? What's wrong?" He jumps, looking at me with gigantic eyes. But he doesn't slow.

"You're going over a hundred, slow down!" I shout. I look out the window in panic, but it's too dark to see much. The road is only visible in the long patch of bluish brightness from the headlights, and the forest along both sides of the road melts into a solid black wall.

"Just relax, Bella. We aren't going to crash, I promise. Besides, I pick up on everything before any human could, including speed traps in the distance." He slows down just in time to get past a cop hidden in the bushes, and speeds up once at a safe distance. "Case, and point."

"Alright, alright. You got me there. But if we turn into a car-pretzel, you're the only one of us who has the ability to walk away."

"... dammit, you've got a point." He sighs, and I watch with relief as the needle gradually drifts to eighty. Still way too fast for this road, but enough for me to lay back into my seat and relax. "Happy?"

"Getting there."

"I hate driving slow," he pouts.

"This is slow?"

"Can we move on to the topic at hand, please?" He snaps, eyes threatening to roll from his skull. For all his annoyance, his eyes are gentle, wanting. "I promise not to laugh at the thought process."

"I don't know how to start," I admit, leaning back.

"Why don't you start at the beginning... you said my eyes were the first clue."

"Yes. But I really didn't consider them as a factor for a bit."

"So, what was the ultimate hint?"