Time Stood Still

Chapter 5: You’re Trapped In The Past, Like It’s Six Feet Under.

Oliver's P.O.V

I gripped the steering wheel and put my foot down, speeding away into the darkness like a mad man and before I knew it, I was outside my house within seconds.

I was standing in front of my sister in less than a second of leaving my car, she saw me coming of course. She was in her own little world, doodling into her sketch book completely ignoring my intense state, she didn’t even feel the need to look up at me, she knew I’d be demanding questions.

“Josh is the baby in the window?” I demanded.
“Yes.” She finally spoke, still not giving me the satisfaction of her full attention.
“You knew?”
“Not until recently.”
“You’re lying! Hannah why didn’t you tell me it was him?!” I growled, banging my fist down on the table, knocking everything over on her desk, wanting her full attention as my tempter took over me.
“You out of all people would have known if I kept any information from you.” She spat, finally taking her eyes away from her painting and looking straight into my eyes through those long lashes of hers, raising her eyes brows as I read her mind.
She wasn’t impressed at my behaviour, but what was she really expecting?!

I’ve always been able to read minds, since the day I woke after my transformation my head were filled with voices; at first, I thought my transformation had turned me insane, but soon after I figured out I was able to hear what other people where thinking, my father had told me I was gifted with the ability to read minds. A rare wonderful talent for a creature like me to be gifted with, only certain individuals of our kind are fortunate enough to gain a gift after our transformations. My family being one of the most talented of our kind that we know, as I’m not the only one who’s been blessed with a rare talent. My twin sister on the other hand, is gifted with one of the rarest gifts of them all, she can see the future.
Hannah is special. That’s why she’s so secretive and hidden, not many vampires know of her talent, if they did we fear our kind would so desperately do anything to be able to have that sort of power under their control and use it to their own selfish desires. So we stay hidden from most of our kind, we only communicate with close friends who have also decided to live along the lines of human life and feed on the blood of animals to try and keep the peace of the sanity which is left.

I threw myself down on to her sofa with my fingers pressed tight against my temples, trying to let all this new information sink into my mind.
I let out a frustrated sigh, before confirming Hannah’s thoughts out loud.
“He’s my future mate?”
“Yes.”
“How could you keep that from me?”
“Oliver, what exactly did I tell you?”
Hannah complained, she knew I knew more than I was letting on.
I sighed before answering her, I hated being put in the wrong and she knew it.
“That I wouldn’t be able to read the persons mind.”
“That’s right.”
I glared at her, she still knew though.
"You knew the only mind I couldn't read was that child's and you still kept that from me."
"No Oliver, you kept that to yourself."

Fourteen years ago, I decided to take a walk along the beach in the moon light alone, something I often did when I had nothing better to do and found it somewhat calming. I decided to walk along a beach I haven't often walked along before and stumbled across a house at the end of the beach; something about the house drew me closer to it, which I found a baby stood up in its cot staring out the window at me.
Well baby is the wrong word, toddler would be correct, and for the first time in all my vampire years, I couldn’t read a mind. This frustrated me greatly; I couldn’t get my head around why I couldn’t read his mind. When it comes to reading minds, babies are different, at first you can’t hear any of their thoughts, but by the time they reach about 3 years, I could read the babbly nonsense which goes on inside their little heads, but with this child I couldn’t. I thought maybe it was down to slow development on the child’s behalf and maybe if I watched the child closely enough, I would start to read his mind over time, but it never happened. I only got more and more frustrated with the circumstances and watch that child like a hawk then on. I must have watched him for about a year or two and still there was no improvement of me being able to read his mind. I don’t know why I watched him for so long, I kept my distance though but I watched him everyday, and I heard him speak, laugh, cry, sleep, I saw him learn new things, I saw him adapt to everyday life, I saw him grow into this perfect little boy, I was actually became quite fond of the child but still no thoughts were readable. I guess it was down to frustration and curiosity why I watched this child; I suppose I became in someway fascinated that I couldn’t read his mind… I started to get used to it and it didn’t seem to frustrate so much anymore, so I just decided to watch the child as some sort of enjoyment on my end, being immortal got kind of boring sometimes and this child was making the dull days much more bearable and entertaining.

When the child was around the age of 5 years, something happened to the him, I was the only one who was aware of the danger he was in and I was put in the position where I couldn’t stop myself from inferring because if I didn’t, he would have died.
My natural instincts would have told me he was one less human to worry about, and getting involved in human life was only the risk of revealing our secret.
But there was no way on this god for saken earth I was going to let that child die because of the lack of attention his human love one's gave him.
Something inside of me changed that day.
I’m still not sure what exactly… but when I held that child in my arms, felt his tiny little faint heart beating, knowing I saved him, I couldn’t help but feel something for him… I've grown so attached to this innocent little human and I almost just witness him die...the feeling was unbearable. I promised myself then on, that I would never let anything happen to him, I would protect him from the dangers of this human world and my world for that matter. And that’s when I knew, this child was going to have me running around after him, watching him get up to all sorts of mischief which I knew I’ll be the one getting him out of, seeing as he leaves me no choice.

After the accident, I left for a few hours for the humans to discover him and deal with the situation but when I came back to the house to check up on the child, he and his family seemed to have disappeared, the house was empty and the child was gone, I never saw him again. I demanded Hannah to tell me if she saw any vision of the child’s future but she swore she hadn’t seen anything.
But she did tell me something, she didn’t mention anything about the child like I asked, but she did confess she saw a vision of me meeting my future mate.
I would have been intrigued to know more of her vision, but my mind was too busy caught up in losing the child I have watched and cared for, for the last two years to even bat an eyelid at the thought of meeting my mate. A creature I have no knowledge of, no feelings, no connection, nothing, I wasn’t interested in the slightest of my sisters vision, all I wanted was to find that lost child.

I was still angry with my sister, and adamant she was the blame for all this, she had all this time to tell me but yet she decided to keep it from me. I don't understand why she would do that, what was in it for her? We’re extremely close, so she knew how much this would affect me, I could only assume this was just another one of her annoying mind games, which I was in no mood for.
I snapped at her yet again, blaming the situation all on her.

“But you kept HIM hidden in your thoughts though didn’t you?”
“I thought it was best you found out on your own…”
“You didn’t think that would be important information?!”
“Oh calm down.”
“Calm down? Hannah you knew how I felt about that child, you didn’t even warn me in the slightest, I’ve had no time to prepare myself for all of this... to prepare myself for... Josh.” I chocked out his name.
“You’re not going to walk away now just because he’s male.”

Our eyes met, letting silence fall and only allowing our thoughts do the talking.
The thought of fallen for a male hadn't even cross my mind until now... I was more bothered about the fact that Josh was the long lost child I had searched for and most importantly... a human.
But now that Hannah had pointed out the obvious, it only made me more disgusted with the whole situation, it was wrong.

“It’s wrong.”
“Oh get over yourself Oliver, two of our dearest friends are male mates.”
“They’re different.”
“No they’re not.”
“Well at least both of them are the same kind.”
"Stop trying to find excuses." Hannah said, getting up from her seat and picking up the mess I made.
“Fine, whatever! But you still should have told me... I want you to tell me out loud why you refuse to tell me about him!”
I still hadn’t been able to control my temper, I was furious but Hannah held her ground, she knew I would never lay a finger on her no matter the situation and she was also the only one who wasn’t scared of me. I read her thoughts loud and clear though and I knew why she didn’t tell me about Josh, but I just wanted to hear her say it.
She stood till, dropping her eyes to the floor as she spoke.
“I didn’t want to get involve because I thought if I told you what I knew, you would have tried to changed my vision.”

There, she finally admitted it.
She knew if she told me about this sooner, I would try and change her vision, and right now that doesn’t seem like a bad idea.
I should have know she meant that same baby, but all grown up, a teenager, a human, a male… Josh.

For the last twelve years I’ve been searching for that child, curious to know what that child had become, curious to know if I could read his mind or not, and this whole time that very child is only Josh Franceschi himself. It all explains why I can’t read his mind; it would only be coincidence if there was yet another human a mind I couldn’t read.
Worse of all, Hannah knew this whole time, she knew that baby was him, it explains all her stupid little annoy stunts she's be pulling the last two months, it was all because she saw a vision of Josh moving back into town. Her stupid irritating childish smiling, the “I know something you don’t know” looks, the giggles, the little comments, the non stop talking and hints about/towards Josh. It was all because she some how manage to hide this vision from me… well, she did mention that I wouldn't be able to read my future mates mind, which I chose to not believe... and honestly, I was expecting something along the lines of a blonde female vampire or something, not Josh.

I was going out of my mind, I didn’t know which was worse, Hannah knowing the whole time or finally knowing Josh is the long lost child I searched for.
My mind kept replaying over todays event with Josh, watching him all day, watching him in the water, watching him eat his cake and run his fingers through his messy curls, finally talking to him like I was his friend, looking into those beautiful eyes I’d missed so much.
Ugh no.
No I don’t believe it, It can’t, it's just wrong.
I refuse to believe that Josh is my future mate, I refuse to believe that I will fall madly deeply in love with him as my sisters visions read, the future can always change and I am pretty damn certain I will change mine and Josh's future.

“It sounds like Oliver has discovered his human mate.”
My mother was now sat on Hannah’s sofa behind me, joining the conversation.
I shot a look at my mother in disbelief and then back at Hannah, furious once again.
“You told her?!”
I growled at Hannah, reading both hers and my mothers mind.
They both giggled.
“How could I not? She wanted to know why you’ve been acting "off" the past week.”
“Its my business!”
My hands curled into fists, my eyes not leaving Hannah’s, please tell me this isn’t happening.
“Oh Oliver, I think it's lovely that you’re finally going to have a mate.” My mother’s voice was soft and gentle, most of the time it would calm me down but I wasn’t buying it this time, I was too worked up.
“Has Hannah told you about the human?” I gritted through my teeth at her, still refusing to take my eyes off Hannah.
“That the human is a male? Yes she has.”
I clenched my jaw.
“Of course she has.”
“Oliver theres nothing wrong with that, we are living in the modern world after all.”
My mother was now standing by my side, rubbing me gentling on the shoulder and smiling at me, a sign of some sort of reassurement towards the situation.

She thought I was over reacting and that I should simply give into the boy. I didnt know what was worse, listening to my mother and sister gossip or hearing it all in their minds, which they both knew I could hear perfectly clear! Couldn’t they see what this was doing to me?!

“I can’t wait to meet him honey.” My mother beamed in excitment, which made me snap.
“Well you’ll be waiting a very long time because he’s not going to be my mate!” I snarled at her, my tone only making Hannah bite back.
“Well, If hes not going to be your mate then why have you been watching him all day?”
I glared at Hannah, she knew she over stepped the mark then, as well as know that her vision of my future wasn’t going to change, no matter how hard I tried.
"And you will continue to watch him..." she confirmed.
I couldn’t take anymore of this, they were doing my head in and I had to escape.
I ran out into the dead of night, running through the trees at my abnormally fast speed, I did the only thing which I knew could calm me and release my anger, I needed to feed, I needed blood, now.