User blog:Ha-Za/Shayla's New Moon: Chapter 3.

Chapter 3: Alaska

Alice’s POV

“Where’s she going?” Rosalie asked with hurt in her voice as we watched Shayla run away from us. Well, not running exactly, but more like climbing and swinging through the trees. Though a noisier way to travel, it made her virtually untraceable.

“I don’t know,” I answered sadly. “Her decision of where she is going hasn’t been made. I’ll go after her when I know.”

I turned to Jasper who looked downright pitiful as Esme and Rosalie consulted him. Despite Rosalie’s cold nature, when it came to her and her ‘twin’, they cared for each other deeply. They were really close, like Edward and I but their love of cars fuelled their relationship rather then I and Edward’s bonding of abilities.

I bent down to Jasper’s level. Ironically enough, it was usually him that had to bend down to reach me. “Jazz, its okay,” I whispered, cupping his face with one of my hands and brushing my thumb gently over his cheek. “Really, it’s all going to be okay.”

“Alice… no, not now,” he murmured before standing and running away into the woods in the opposite direction, just like his sister had moments ago. I only sighed just as I saw Edward in a vision, running after him. So he had decided to listen to Bella, Carlisle and I.

“Go after Shayla Alice,” Esme urged. “I’ll run ahead to home and try to get the scent out. I will send Carlisle out here as well. It’ll be best for him to talk to her as well.” She began to dart off. “Emmett, Rosalie!” she called over her shoulder and the two ran after her.

I turned and followed where Shayla had fled beforehand. Even though she had attempted to make herself untraceable, my gift was lending me a hand as I saw her in a vision.

''She was up at a cliffy area, up in the mountains, by a waterfall. She was kneeling down with her eyes closed, her hands clasped like she was in prayer. She was mumbling words and was then silence for a moment. She then lifted her head and focused her golden-toned gaze on the glittering night sky.''

''“Amen. I love you Ma, I love you Pa,” she whispered.''

I ran to where I saw her. Her scent grew stronger as it suddenly dipped from the tress and her footprints appeared on the ground, further apart then what they usually would be. Ah, she was running at her full speed, that is, in her hunting run. She rarely ran like that anymore, only when she wanted to get somewhere fast.

And then there she was, sitting right on the cliff edge on her knees, praying.

She lifted her gaze to the sky. “Amen,” she then whispered. “I love you Ma, I love you Pa.”

‘Ma’ and ‘Pa’ where not referring to Esme and Carlisle. They were referring to her deceased parents; one whom had died when she was only a baby, the other one was murdered – by her. Her father had been in the woods near our old home and had accidently shot himself. He wandered too close to the house when Shayla was only just a newborn. She had drained him instantly and, once she had realised what she had done, she had felt utterly helpless and sick with grief. She had even tried to kill herself by starvation. But the attempt was unsuccessful.

She had managed to hunt again and then move one, but her grief and guiltiness always remained. The only person that was allowed to talk about her father and mother was Carlisle. Sometimes, they would pray together.

Shayla wasn’t very religious but rather spiritual. She believed that we had souls and that we had an afterlife. She believed in ghosts and spiritual beings, and even aliens. She annoyed the hell out of Edward with her beliefs but, he put up with her. We all did, even if she was our little sister. And a little sister is designed to be irritating; Emmett teased me about that for months.

“Shayla,” I whispered and I saw her swivel her head around before rising to her feet.

“Hey Alice. How’s Jazz holding up? He should know that it isn’t his fault – It is my own.” She spoke quickly and without attention, proceeding to stare out across the open land.

“He’s fine – And it’s no one’s fault, especially not yours.”

She made a noise of disbelief. “Did you miss the part where I let go of Jasper and tried to bite Bella’s hand off?”

I flinched at her suddenly harsh voice, an effect of her short temper. “I don’t miss things Shayla,” I eventually replied dryly. “But I’m going to say this one more time and you better get it this time. It is NOT your fault. We’re vampires, it’s to be expected, and it was only an accident. It was no one’s fault. Listen to me!” She had turned her head away and closed her eyes, trying to avoid looking me in the eye. “There is no way in hell that this is your fault!”

She let out a breath and sighed. “If it’s not my fault then why do I feel so guilty?”

“You might be a vampire with your instincts but you’re still got human emotions and feelings,” I explained. “That is why we are different from the others. A normal vampire wouldn’t feel guilty for nearly killing a human. Hell, they wouldn’t feel guilty if they did kill.”

“Hmm,” Shayla mused turning her face back to me and opening her eyes. “I suppose you’re right… But I have made up my mind about something…”

I instantly scanned her future, looking to see what she had decided.

''She sat in a wooden cabin while a blizzard raged outside with a chess board in front of her. On the opposite side of the board, a beautiful girl, about two or three years older then her, with long, pale blond hair sat concentrating hard as she scanned the pieces. She picked up one and moved it but then groaned as Shayla moved another piece forward and laughed.''

''“That’s checkmate Kate,” she chuckled. Kate scowled before standing up.''

''“It’s your turn Tanya!” she called out to another girl sitting in the corner. “I can’t beat her!” Kate then darted from the room and outside.''

''Tanya, a kinda-short girl with strawberry-blonde hair sniggered as she put down her book and walked over to Shayla. “C’mon Shayla, we’ve had enough chess for today. Let’s go outside and see if we can have some real fun!” She giggled and Shayla joined in before they both ran outside.''

My vision ended and I glanced at Shayla. “You’re leaving?”

She nodded. “It’s for the best Alice.”

I let out a sad whimper. “But… But you don’t need to leave… What if something big comes up?”

She moved towards me and hugged me. “Hey, it’ll only be for a day or two. It’ll be nice to see them all again, Kate, Irina, Tanya, Eleazar and Carmen… They are almost like family, our cousins remember?”

I hugged her back sadly. “Call us when you get there?”

She laughed and kissed my forehead. “I will.”

I shut my eyes and watched a vision of her running there. All would go well even though it was a vicious blizzard and it would take her a good half a day to reach there, but she would be fine. I did worry about her, because she was the youngest, but not the weakest, and we protected her. Not that she needed it. It was time for me to let her go where she needed to be.

“Bye Shayla, I love you,” I whispered but as I opened my eyes, she was already gone.

Shayla’s POV

I had taken off as soon as she finished speaking but I had not missed her ‘Bye Shayla. I love you’. I didn’t think that she would let me go – Esme certainly wouldn’t and nor would my brothers have.

I kept heading north, running at full speed and then I hit the snowy region of Alaska, USA. There was a blizzard, a ferocious thing, but my keens eyes could see through it easily and my powerful leg muscles could thrust me through the foot-deep snow like it was nothing.

But I grew weak from my diminishing thirst. I had hunted four days before but I needed to hunt at least every five to remain at a controlled level. I had been travelling for many hours, at least six or more, the sun was rising above the horizon, and I needed to reach the Denali’s territory before I lost control.

I manage to get to Denali in the nick of time, and headed to their home, a medium-sized cabin buried deep in the forest when I saw an unknown man leaving there. He looked familiar, with olive-toned skin and dark, dreadlocked hair. His eyes were golden-toned but still held a hint of scarlet.

Laurent.

He was once the coven member of James and Victoria, but he had blabbed about them to us after he accepted Carlisle’s invitation to come back to our home. He wasn’t the kindest person in the world then, but he had mentioned heading here¸ to try out their diet. But I was still trying to figure out why they’d accept him. He was a two-faced, backstabbing low-life.

I darted over to where he exited the cabin and called out to him, against my better judgement. “Laurent?”

He turned and smiled a small smile. “Hello there. It was Sasha, right?”

“Shayla,” I corrected in a hard-voice. “Is Kate in?” Kate was my favourite, followed by Tanya. Kate was spunky and tough, not afraid to show off who she was, personality-wise. She loved to play-fight and wrestle but I was the only one who could almost withstand her gift. She could ‘taser’ a person just by touching them. It stunned them temporarily, giving her enough time to deal some real damage. She could adjust how much damage she could do by having a ‘setting’, as she called them. Usually her ‘low setting’ just stung just a small past of your body and made you wince in pain, but her ‘high setting’ could wipe you off your feet if she tried hard enough. But she didn’t use it sadistically, only in self-defence. Not that she needed to do so up here, it was too quiet and no other vampires other then her family and mine ventured up her.

“Um, yes, she is. I’ll just go get her…” Laurent managed to stammer out before he turned and re-entered the cabin.

I waited patiently outside for a few moments before I heard a scream of my name in a high-pitched squeal, “SHAYLA!”

And then I was tackled in a hug by Kate, who was almost like a sister to me, as she refused to let go of me. God, had it been that long since I’ve seen her?

“Ugh, Kate! Get off me!” I yelled to her, shoving her off me easily. “I know it’s been long but, damn it you didn’t need to tackle me!”

She grinned up at me from the ground, with snow all caught in her clothes and golden hair. “But I missed you, it’s been ages! Come inside, and see the rest of them!”

She dragged me into the cabin and announced me. “Hey, look who showed up! It’s our baby cousin!” I glared at her. I was no baby.

Carmen and Eleazar were in front of me in a flash. “Well, if it isn’t the poco bebé of the Cullens!” Carmen said excitedly. “How are you, primo?”

I nodded my head politely, “Could be better I suppose.” I added a shrug to my remark.

“Well, c’mon dish it out!” I looked up to see Tanya darting in, her strawberry-blonde hair flaring out behind her. She twirled to a stop in front of me and grinned. “C’mon, tell us!”

I sighed and then I told them. Everything. About Bella, my bloodlust for her, the party… They didn’t speak during my story, instead listening intently until I was done talking.

“So I told Alice that if it would be best if I came up here,” I finished. “So here I am. You don’t mind, do you? I hate to be a bother…”

“Oh, no, no it is fine Shayla.” Eleazar beamed at me. “Have you met our latest coven member before, Shayla? Laurent burst in here saying that you wanted to see Kate and he seemed to recognise you.”

I scratched the back of my hand with the other before speaking. “Well, around a few months ago, when Bella and Edward first started being together, we went out for a game of baseball. This was all very well and good until…” I hesitated as I saw Laurent enter the room, with Irina almost hanging off his arm, but I turned my back to them and continued talking to Kate, Tanya, Carmen and Eleazar. “Laurent was a part of another coven, nomads, with two vampires named Victoria and James. James was a tracker. He decided to hunt Bella and we raced to protect her and her father from him and Victoria who wanted to help him. Laurent didn’t. Carlisle invited him back home and we explained our lifestyle to him, mentioning your family. After he told us everything that he knew about James, he left. We managed to end James and cause his friend to run off but we never saw Laurent again. Personally, I hoped we wouldn’t.”

“And what is wrong with that?” Irina suddenly growled at me.

I resisted the urge to hiss back at her but I was perplexed. Why did Irina care so much about him? Irina was always serious all the time and we never really talked. But she was nice enough to me, just being polite I guessed. But now she wasn’t being polite.

“Well, seeing as he wanted to feed from my sister and how loyalty isn’t high on his list or priorities, I thought it wouldn’t be the best idea for us to run into him.”

Irina curled her lips back into a growl, and this time, I returned the gesture and snarled right back at her. She lent down into a crouch and I copied her but made mine defensive, to counter back from her offensive stance.

I expected Kate or Tanya to step in between us. Or even Carmen or Eleazar. But to my great surprise, it was Laurent, the former friend of an enemy to my family.

“Please, stop it you two,” he pleaded with us both before he turned his gaze towards mine. It was obvious that he had changed his feeding ways as his eyes were mostly golden, but they were darker, with a small hint of scarlet in them.

“I am no longer like that. I have found peace here with Irina and her family and I have changed my ways. Even though I sometimes find it hard to stick to my new diet, I know that with the love Irina gives to me and that I give back to her, we can overcome it.” He turned to gaze misty-eyed at Irina while I resisted the urge to barf. I hated all of that lovey-dovey couple shit. It drove me insane at home, now being the only ‘single one’. Most of them tried to save it for when I wasn’t around and arrange ‘date nights’ that I could get out of the house for and leave them in peace.

I readjusted my posture, so that I was in a normal standing position and smiled a little at Laurent. “Well… okay. I believe you. I’m sorry for jumping to conclusions.” I bowed my head a little and gave him a sincere smile this time.

He dipped his head back at me and moved forward. “Apology accepted. I can understand why you and your family would think that and I can’t possibly blame you.” He offered me his hand and I shook it, as a sign of respect between the two of us.

And that was the day, that I become friends with my former enemy, Laurent and his mate, Irina. He dipped his head back at me and moved forward. “Apology accepted. I can understand why you and your family would think that and I can’t possibly blame you.” He offered me his hand and I shook it, as a sign of respect between the two of us.And that was the day, that I become friends with my former enemy, Laurent and his mate, Irina.