Child of the Moon

I had run for hours on end, only giving into my exhaustion when I couldn’t walk straight. But I wasn’t quite sure if it was the exhaustion or the fact that I couldn’t see a thing because of the tears that seemed to never stop pouring down my face.

I stumbled to a stop and caught a tree for support. I leaned against it and sobbed my eyes out. This time I couldn’t blame the vampires for breaking my heart. It was my own stupid fault. For being such a freak that would jump anyone who had the slightest scent of a demon. Obviously this Volturi that they had met up with were real vampires, or at least mostly vampires. I sank to the ground wishing more than anything that I could go back in time and stop myself. It would have been nice to have friends… or maybe even a family.

“My heart starts to heal, and I know this is real. This is how it must feel, to have a home…” I sang wildly as I curled up and laughed through my tears. Humans had such a funny interpretation of our world, but this lyric seemed to have more meaning all of a sudden. Gryffindor! Gryffindor! Gryffindor! I thought to myself with a small smile.

I breathed deeply, seeing my surroundings for the first time. I could hear the beating hearts of animals that had gathered around me curiously. I never seemed to scare any wild creature off… maybe it was because our souls were so similar, and they could feel that with their heightened senses.

A young fox approached me, licking away the salty tears about to freeze on my cheeks. I clung to the pups’ fur for support as another wave of tears came. I never knew my soul was so broken until now. Occasionally a sad song lyric would pass though my mind, which would bring another few minutes of tears.

It could have been hours, or minutes, or even a day before anything changed. I wasn’t paying any attention. The young fox was still with me when all the other animals ran away, although there had been no disturbance in the air.

I turned and sniffed the air as the fox inched away, looking at my curiously. Why wasn’t I running too? I didn’t care at the moment, that’s why. If there was a group of vampires here to kill me, there was nothing I could do about it. I was too tired and upset to do anything at the moment.

It eventually ran away, and I turned to face the not-so-bad-smell-anymore of the vampire. But instead of an angry leech, Edward was standing behind me.
“I followed you here right after you left,” he said after reading my jumbled thoughts.

“Took you a little while,” I said with a small smile.

“Well I couldn’t help but watch you sing for a while,” he said with a real smile. Singing? Had I been singing out loud?

He nodded, his smile widening. “You’re very talented, you know.”

I blushed and looked down. “I think… I think I liked to sing in my first life.” My smile turned sad. “But I can't remember.”

He nodded sadly. “It would be nice to know exactly where you came from, wouldn’t it?”

I nodded back, and the movement of my head sent me into another dizzy spell. I stumbled and clutched whatever was closest to me, which happened to be Edward. I guess he had moved over to catch me that instant.

I leaned my head on his chest, taking deep breaths. It had been over three days since I had had much of any sleep, so I seriously needed some.
Edward sat on the dirt and pulled me into him. No one needed to tell me to sleep, because I was out in seconds.

I woke up to find myself in between Edwards’s legs and leaning against his chest, who was leaning on a tree while playing with my hair absentmindedly. Of course, my face turned bright red at the situation, and Edward chuckled.

I pulled myself up before anything got anymore awkward. Of course it had to.
“Did you know that you cuddle in your sleep?” Edward said with a smirk. “It’s adorable.” He added, brushing the hair from my face and resting his palm on my cheek.

He bent forward, his lips inches from mine. I leaned up, about to get rid of the distance between us before I suddenly pulled away.

“Bella,” I reminded the both of us. “Bella. Bella.” I repeated to myself, trying to get it through my head that Edward was very off limits at the moment.

Before anything could get anymore awkward, my nose twitched instinctively. “Demons,” I growled, facing the south, where we had come from. “Only a few miles away.”

Edward faced the south as well, and closed his eyes. “It’s the Volturi. They smelled you when you left, right before I came after you, and now they’re trying to track you,” he paused. “You covered your tracks well until recently. It took them hours to get here.”

He grabbed my hand and started running. I stumbled for a moment before matching his pace. I didn’t need to know why the Volturi was tracking me to know that they were bad news. They were the ones I had smelled on the Cullens a few nights ago that made me think that they were demons. I sped up thinking about what they would do to me if they caught me, and what they would do to the Cullens since they hid me from them. For I was, in reality, the reason many of their cousins were dead.

“We’re a few miles from a local airport, where we can blend in. The Volturi wouldn’t dare come into a town in their war robes,” Edward said quickly, picking up his pace. I took a breath and pushed myself to match it.

In a few moments we broke out of the forest and into a neighborhood under construction. By now we were running too fast for any of the workers to see us, and we didn’t slow down until we came to a crowded part of town. No one seemed to notice us appear out of no where, and we power walked through the crowd until we caught a taxi to the airport.

“They lost out scent a mile back or so,” Edward said, too fast for the taxi driver to be able to hear anything. I nodded, but the weight of anxiety wasn’t lifted. And I knew it wouldn’t until I got very far away from this Volturi.

“You can't run from them,” Edward said. “They have a tracker, who will follow you until the ends of the earth if he has to. But if you aren’t running, then there’s no trail to follow. You’re going to have to live with us for a while.”
I stared up at him with wide eyes. Are you crazy? They think I tried to kill you! They want to kill me! I can’t go back there!

“Alice would have already seen what’s happening; otherwise they would have followed me here. She’s probably already told the others that it was just a misunderstanding, and by the time you decide to come home with me, she’ll know that too. So that’s not going to be a problem at all.” Edward explained as we jumped out of the taxi and ran into the airport.

“Can human’s see your ears? Or your tail?” Edward asked quickly, glancing around at the people around who paid no attention to us.

“Nope. They’re covered by a glamour.” I answered as we started to run through the airport; too fast for anyone to see us, and onto the plane. We slowed to a normal human walk just as the flight attendant checked our tickets… Now I started to wonder how he knew that he would need those tickets.

“Alice,” he said simply, and I nodded, and we slipped into our first class seats.
I just now realized that I was in an airplane, and that we would be flying. I swallowed, trying to think of other things, but it wasn’t working. I gripped the arm rest, but it crumpled under the pressure in a moment.

“Shit,” I growled, glancing around. No one was looking at me.

Edward glanced around as well, and when he saw no one was looking as well he ripped the whole armrest off in one fluid motion. I stared at him wide eyed for a moment before bursting out in a fit of giggles.

“You,” I laughed, “are so dead if they find that.”

Edward chuckled and stuffed the armrest in between our chairs so no one could see it but us. “I don’t think they’ll find it.”

But I wasn’t listening. With a jolt, the airplane had started moving. My toes and fingers got tense and curled themselves into tight fists. I knew that I couldn’t try gripping anything on the plane for fear that someone would see us for what we were.

Edward looked down at me sympathetically and offered me his hand. I took it in an instant, gripping it as hard as I could, which I knew wouldn’t break the vampire unless I was in wolf form. And then the plane took off to begin a horribly long flight.