Chapter One
Try
Silence. Undisturbed by the light footfalls of my feet as I walked through the snowy banks; a pure white blanket of snow covering the forest in a still silence that seemed too fragile to break. Where would he appear? Behind me or next to me like he did Esme? Did she escape his ambush? Chewing my bottom lip, I ducked out of view, pressing my back against the slick surface of a bare tree and tucking my body in between the bristles of two bushes. Tilting my head upward, I gazed at the sterling grey sky, staring upward silently as soft drifts of white fell from above toward the already concealed soil. Dammit, dammit, dammit! A deep voice growled. For a moment, I caught a flash of a frozen over lake; it’s blackened waves, glazed with a thick layer of ice, gave the impression of being ominous. She almost found me that time…lucky little shrimp…where the hell did she go?! So he didn’t find me yet. I thought with a smile and I inhaled the crisp air a final time, before scooping a large pat of snow into my gloved hands. Ducking out of my hiding place, I pressed my body into the darkness of the forest shadows; my pulse jumping in my veins at a faint glimmer of deep gold, and I ducked back under the insufficient cover of a tree.
Licking my chapped lips, I leaned to one side of the tree, resting half of my body on my elbow.
“Emmett!” I called out into the still emptiness, “You can give up whenever you want to, bud.” I giggled, stretching the word ‘whenever’ just to annoy him.
Although I knew little about Emmett, I could understand a lot through facial expressions. Whenever Alice hums an endlessly repeated and annoying tune, he would clamp both of his hands over his ears, close his eyes, and his face would be screwed up. Annoyance, exasperation, and a tiny slip of anger.
A grimace.
When either Edward or I accidentally invade his space by reading his thoughts, he would threaten us with: “The next time you two decide to play mental probation, I’m going to think very disturbing thoughts.”
What disturbing thoughts, you ask? I wouldn’t know, the Cullen’s got the routine that I could only listen in when it’s intensely silent. And I suppose with the thought of a telekinetic telepath who could only listen when it was silent, was not only a salvation for them but a job as well to keep the house loud and their mental privacy intact. After a while, I guess that they found it silly; no one compete with the volume of my original home. So, of course, this only lasted for less than a month, and they let it pass with no exception.
Edward on the other hand continued to grumble darkly underneath his breath and kept me close to him as Emmett grinned ear-to-ear, triumphant.
Clenching my teeth, I leaned forward on the balls of my heels and peered over the snow dusted bristles.
Suspiciously, I put one hand down to balance myself and leaned farther out, biting down on my bottom lip to stop myself from laughing out loud.
Something flashed out of the darkness, and I stared at his muscular hand raised, aimed directly at my arm.
“Gotcha!” We cried out simultaneously. Automatically, I chucked my snowball out as quickly as I could and ducked out of the way, hiding behind a tree for protection, waiting for a soft thump of snow to hit it’s trunk. When nothing happened, I panicked and scooped up another pile of snow, pressing it together in an uneven ball.
“Hey short-stuff.”
I dropped the ball I was holding and cringed away, barely getting a few inches ahead before his cold arms wrapped around my waist.
I was so wound-up that I shrieked; I was too terrified to do that much so my shriek came out in a breathless squeak. I felt his arms tighten around my waist like an unbreakable vice and I struggled, kicking my legs uselessly in the air as he lifted me up with ease.
Emmett seemed to notice my struggle, probably even felt that I accidentally kicked his shin with the back of my snow-boots heel, because he grunted and for a second his body went rigid from astonishment. Without words, or a fathomable reason, he dropped his snowball and hitched me onto his hip, making me gasp in disbelief.
Emmett just dropped his snowball.
His chance to finally to win the title of snow-ball champion just evaporated.
I furrowed my eyebrows.
Less than a week ago he was bragging to Jasper and I about how he would win the snow-ball champion title. Why was he surrendering now? Or was he surrendering at all?
I didn’t fight, but I allowed him to carry me like a sack of potatoes; hopelessly listening to his thoughts. You know what I just thought of? His thoughts were taunting, mischievous, and the least bit, devilish.
I gulped.
Emmett is like a mixture of Lilly and Nathan, but five times taller and paler. Just as devious, reckless, and mischief making as Nathan, and also as thoughtful, troublesome, and energetic as Lilly. Two very different people, mixed into one is one hell of a bad idea. After a year I’ve known Lilly and realized that she was falling in love with Nathan, I told her that if she decided to get married with him, I wouldn’t mind. Although I also told her that I wouldn’t baby-sit because her children might be the next little tyrants of society.
She only laughed and left the kitchen with the last cup of Golden Oreos that I was after.
After a moment of silence, I sighed, receiving no forewarning from him. “No,” I replied out loud, “I don’t know what you just realized.” He seemed triumphant in the matter, but I continued, “Although, from the Cold Case opening music, I’m guessing it’s something very…uh…dramatic.”
He chuckled once, “Something like that.”
Before he could stop himself, I saw his entire plot through his thoughts.
Tightly squeezing me to his chest in a protective manner and mocking him in the most strangest voice possible…Edward’s. Emmett was making a convincing mock voice of Edward’s.
I frowned when he picked up from where the music left off, but I pried and pulled through the distraction, getting a more visual detail of it.
We were in Team Blue’s part of the forest, Edward, Emmett and I the only ones there because we got out early. The only thing I found strange about it was because Emmett belonged to the Red Team; their base was half-way across the lake…
I furrowed my eyebrows against Emmett’s new song, something that I realized was by one of my favorite bands, Evanescence. My temptation to listen to the song other than listening to his thoughts made me sway between the two, my energy getting the worst outcome…
His voice was taunting, faint in my ears, because of the song that he was thinking of (getting louder and louder with each passing moment) drowned out most of his words.
The only thing that I could realize before I succumbed completely into the song was the feeling of crushing lips…..
Realization hit home quickly, breaking the spell he had me wound in, and I felt an immediate wave of terror. “What!” I cried, “Emmett--don’t do that! Are you insane!?”
He ignored me, and continued to walk through the forest, stepping over the rows of dead vines with ease, lurching me around on his hip. Furious, I tried to kick at the back of his leg, only succeeding in stretching my leg muscles.
“What do you think your thinking?!”
“A way to keep Edward away for a bit.” His voice was smooth, flawless, and undetectable of any lie that could be there. I was practically hyperventilating when I saw the deep, circular snow bunk that rested as Team Blue’s base.
Just like he thought, Edward was standing alone in the circle; a bronze spec amongst a sea of white.
My breathing hitched when I saw him, and for a moment I was blinded by my luck that he was mine…for now. What Emmett was planning was suicidal in the extreme! Not only would he get in a dilemma with both Rosalie and Edward, but I would feel heart-stricken that I…I…
“No--you’re thinking of a way to make Edward pissed off for a bit!” My face was blazing warmth and I struggled against his grip, trying to slide away or fall out. But Emmett kept me there tightly, his face forward and stoic.
“Please, Emmett,” I pleaded, “Don’t do that.”
“Don’t do what?”
I froze at the velvety voice that seemed less that an inch from my ear, my eyes widened as I stared up into Edward’s face. His expression went from calm to concerned so quickly that I felt hesitant that it was calm at all in the first place.
His hands replaced Emmett’s and I was dazed by the motion, my mind blank at the closeness of our faces.
“Alison, what’s wrong?” Edward’s voice was thick with worry, his breath fanning my face and blocking out all thought again.
“ ‘Alison, what’s wrong?’” My back stiffened at the taunting voice, my eyes locked at Edward’s lips for a moment before I realized that it wasn’t him speaking at all. It fell silent for a second, and Edward’s grip tightened around me, his eyes exasperated as they locked with Emmett’s.
“I’m going to give you two privacy.” Emmett grinned, his voice suggestive as he left; a blur of deep gold against a white canopy.
heart I do not own any of Stephanie Meyer's characters from the best-selling novel Twilight. The characters used above were simply used in action of a feeble fan-fiction. No copy-infringment or copy-right laws were broken in the creation of this story.
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