His Hermosa, Paul Lahote

21

"it's all my fault" Bella claimed, unable to raise her eyes from the floor for more than a second.
"what do you mean? What's all you're fault?" Alyssa asked, her eyebrows furrowed in confusion. "Is this something to do with that vampire guy?" Bella nodded her head slowly.
"laurent" she said the name with such distaste, like acid in the tip of her tongue.
"you know him?" she asked, even more confused than before.
"kind of, his friend tried to kill me last year" Bella said without humour, Alyssa caught herself laughing before she could stop herself.
"your serious?" she asked, her mouth falling open.
"yeah" Bella laughed humourlessly.
"shit" Alyssa said "so what- is that what you had to tell me?"
"god I wish" she said glumly "it's about you're dad"
Alyssa raised her head slowly, even the thought of him ripped open her chest, leaving a wound, where her dad used to insist on patching it up with a cherry sundae from the cafe.
"okay" she said slowly.
"he didn't kill himself" Bella said, finally looking into Alyssas eyes.
"what?" Alyssa sqeaked through the stone in her throat.
"he didn't kill himself, it was laurent, he came here looking for me and found him in the motel and...he-" bella couldn't say anymore, the stone in Alyssas throat grew to the size of a boulder as she tried to speak, her mouth opened but no words came out, she felt herself slipping, finding herself in the familiar water by her fathers ankles, his hand came down to pull her back to the surface,just like he had before, his eyes creased at the corners as he smiled with relief.
"I thought I'd lost you" he chuckled, the deep noise melting in Alyssas ears.
"I'm right here silly" the words came out of her mouth before she could stop them but she wished she could cram them back into her mouth, anything to stop her from seeing what would come next, all of a sudden her fathers cheeks sunk inwards, his eye sockets black and his dry, split lips hung open, clotted blood spilling from the corners, a single bite mark tore through the flesh on his throat, his brittle, blood-less arms dropped from alyssas small body but instead of feeling the cold water biting at her skin she saw her father  below the surface. Sinking. She screamed and tried to reach for him as he had done for her, but she couldn't move, all she could do was watch his blurred figure merge deeper and deeper into the chilling waters that held him.

Alyssas scream became louder and louder until she snapped back to reality, not a moment had passed, Bella was looking worriedly into Alyssas eyes.
"Ally I'm so sorry" Bella said, guilt ridden, "Alyssa?" she called, growing worried as Alyssa was unable to reply.
"no, it's fine" Alyssa said suddenly, assembling her features. "we need to head to Emily's, Kim's already there"
"are you sure you don't want to talk about this?" Bella asked, reaching for alyssas arm.
"did he suffer?" she asked looking to Bella, her eyes feeling ten times heavier than they did before.
"laurent said it was quick but -"
"well then that's better than him hanging for 5 minutes" Alyssa said. Bella didn't say anything after that, neither did Alyssa.

"I think we should start by figuring out why he was here and if he brought others, Bella did he tell you anything?" Bella looked uncomfortable with all of the eyes that were suddenly on her, she looked at Alyssa, who tried to smile as much as she could.
"tell them everything" she nodded once before sinking back into Paul's arms. Paul knew something wasn't right, he had that horrible pain In his heart that he had everytime Alyssa woke up in the night with sweat dripping from her forehead. He squeezed her shoulders tightly, rubbing circles over her hand with his thumb.  The whole pack sat in Emily's living room, the atmosphere stale as they awaited the information.
"I was in the clearing, hiking and then laurent came he told me that he had come here a few times for Victoria and the last time he came he" Bella took a deep breath "he killed Alyssas father-"
"what?!" Paul exclaimed.
"she already told me" she responded to the faces of people waiting for her reaction.
"you knew?" Sam asked
"yeah" she said, chuckling humourlessly.
"baby I'm so sorry" Paul whispered in her ear, so quiet she doubted any human could hear it. Alyssa squeezed his hand tightly.
"Alyssa, I'd like you to know that we killed that monster,and he was in pain the entire time" Jake said, a smile on his face.
"Jacob!" Sam scolded before Alyssa interrupted.
"no its fine, that helps a lot" Alyssa chuckled, Paul kissed her the top of her head.
"keep going Bella" Alyssa urged.
"right - he told me Victoria had sent him, he said he was going to kill me and that, he was doing me a favour, that's all I remember" Bella said, her hands knotting themselves in her lap.
"thank you Bella, for you're acceptance and understanding" Sam assured. "jake, why don't you take her home, I'm sure cheif Swan is wondering where she is" Sam ordered. Jake nodded, hugging Alyssa tightly and kissing her forehead before he left.