E D W A R D

Her answer left Malcolm with no words at all. I saw his face at the moment and it seemed like the ground had slipped underneath his feet.

He was surely taken aback by her so calmed outburst. We knew well what she meant behind that sentence. We knew well her intention as we exchanged looks among ourselves.

Malcolm and Rory were the most troubled with Lisa’s new attitude—sure she was a bratty teenager but this sudden change in her way of speech, as if her tone was laced with the venom of her intention but she played it so softly on her lips like there was an angel talking among us.

That wasn’t all. The way she walked, looked, and talked with honey-coated sarcasms in her speech, it made me worry about her, her health. She’d already faced far too complicated and dangerous challenges and what she saw last night must’ve shaken her too much to think straight.

To think that your last moments would be spent by begging your friend to let you live was terrifying and gruesome.

“Fine then.” Malcolm sighed awkwardly standing up on his feet.

I stayed glued to Lisa’s side all the while Malcolm inquired Julie and Martha some more based on the theory he’d been able to get out of Lisa. I stayed by her side because I had this strange feeling in my gut telling me that something was off about her, something had changed about her.

My demon and I, we both were unsatisfied and trying to get a good look of her soul. I wanted to gaze down into her eyes and be able to tell what she was denying to speak up. What could be more terrifying than seeing a pool of water get turned into a gloomy drain?

Oh right! Possession.

That was a new case. I’d never seen a possession in my lifetime and was hoping to never face one again. Though I saw none of it, hearing about it was enough to make me change my mind. Besides, the aftereffects weren’t much pleasant.

When we carried all the girls from the pool to their houses they bled all the way, vomiting blood followed by a nosebleed. However, nothing could compare to what Julie had suffered. She had thrown up blood when her stupor ended, then a nosebleed followed like the rest, then the blackish veins travelling all over her body started to turn to red and then they went back to their blue and violet shades.

Even now she was having a throbbing headache like someone was hammering her brain. I could hear her thoughts right now but I shunned them out as soon as they came inside my head. Her head was drowning in guilt and pain and those were the last two things I’d deliberately want for myself. I wonder how she’d make it up to Lisa for almost killing her.

When I’d first found Lisa, I assumed her to be screaming or running or at least panicking in shock as she usually did but when my eyes found her body sitting tired and silently beneath the tree with its branches and leaves giving her a roof, I knew something was off—or rather had a feeling telling me to hold her closely and comfort her—and I listened to it.

She looked dull and pale and had her head buried under her arms that wrapped around her legs, hugging herself closely. She wasn’t shivering even when she was in nothing but her bra and shorts. She should’ve been frozen by now with this cold but she just sat there, unaffected by it all as if she was lost in another fantasy of hers but it wasn’t a good one either.

I’d craved so much to know what she must’ve be thinking and knowing the thought had to be a painful one, it didn’t stop me from trying. And for once I was able to look into her mind and read her reflections and that brought me a grave relief but it didn’t last forever.

As soon the relief came, it vanished when I saw nothing, I heard nothing. I knew my powers were working and that scared me the most. I realized she wasn’t thinking, she didn’t have any thought nor a feeling I could feel.

She was blank.

And when her eyes met mine, she held no fear in them, no care, no grief, no love, no desire—just a never-ending emptiness.

And even now when I looked at her, it made me bewilder if she was feeling or if she was even breathing. Her breaths were so short and barely alive even if her heart was a jolting mess. Her heartbeat was uneven and might be her breathing too but it took almost all of my concentration to figure out her rate of inhaling and exhaling.

She looked carefree and unbothered on the outside though I believed I felt as if her heart and will to persist living was slowly fading away into a darker part of herself.

It scared me to think what this girl would do if she ever gave in to her demons. She had this spark igniting inside of her, a spark of goodness and compassion, a cure to monstrosity, she had it in her but I feared it wouldn’t last that long than it should be.

I hoped that day wouldn’t come when she had to sacrifice her purity to her demons—I wouldn’t want that. I’d done that myself and I wouldn’t want anyone to go through that pain, the pain of guilt that lingered in the air wherever you went, it wouldn’t leave you until you shut it all off. Until you shut the world off and focused at only one thing, one need.

“Edward.” Malcolm called grasping my attention. “I need a word with you.”

That was all he said before everyone went out of the room leaving Lisa and Julie alone—I didn’t know if it was a bad idea or not but I wasn’t going to leave those two alone with each other for more than five minutes.

I hope Julie gets her guilt out by that time.

“She’s hiding something.” Rory suspected.

What was the point of it all? Hadn’t we agreed that Lisa wouldn’t be pressurized into confessing? I wanted to yell at her face but thinking she was my soon-to-be sister-in-law, I kept shut.

We’d agreed that Malcolm wouldn’t pressurize into sharing any memory she didn’t want to discuss with us or she wasn’t comfortable with. I had asked him to be delicate with her just as much as with Julie. They both were the sufferers of that incident that might’ve left a sensitive spot in both their brains.

I’d told Malcolm I’d let him interrogate Lisa if he accepted my conditions and he was compelled to follow my wishes that was why there was no specific question prepared for her and he just asked her to tell him what she knew—which went absolutely well until he went out of the line and asked her a stupid question. And what did he gain from it?

“She’d been through a catastrophe yet again. I do actually know she’s hiding something and why she’s doing it.” I muttered as anger laced my tone. Malcolm gave me a side-eye telling me to behave and I wouldn’t rather disobey him but she was hitting my nerves.

“All we’re saying is that there’s more to the story than she’s letting on.” Malcolm explained with a soothed tone trying to not evolve some sense of riot.

“I know that and it’s because she’s not ready to speak yet.” I replied in the tone matching the wavelength of his voice.

“In all my life I’ve seen murders, massacres and gruesome doings of Mason’s but never have I even heard let alone see a possession. There is so much we don’t know.” Rory replied and it might’ve been only my imagination but I believed I heard her voice crack. It made me realize just how sensitive the situation had really gotten.

Possession.

This single word now shook my insides and formed nervousness inside my stomach. It was going to leave an impact on me to last for a century as I hadn’t felt like this in a long while and the last time I felt like this I was—I couldn’t walk for two days or eat or drink. If humans were sensitive to some emotions, vampires were twice as sensitive as humans if not more when it came down to feelings such as grief, joy and loss.

“Do you think it was Mason?” I asked and they both abruptly looked at me, clearly shocked at my prediction yet at the same time seeing the possibility of it being true.

“It can’t be.” Malcolm murmured as if more to himself, “He’s not powerful enough.”

“To possess someone you should be at least older than five centuries and we know Mason has been walking this earth for seven centuries now.” I disputed. “Besides, there isn’t anyone more capable or powerful than him.”

“But why Julie? Why not Martha or me or anyone else? He could’ve gotten an advantage if he’d taken over me.” Rory asked now more confused.

“Maybe it was easier for him to take over a weak body? Julie had turned a few years ago and is not as strong as anyone else here.” Malcolm came up.

As minutes passed by we came up with more theories and explanations and a little part of every theory turned out to be true but the most prominent and sought out doubt remained unanswered. If it was Mason who took over Julie then why did he try to kill Lisa and why did he leave her breathing? What was it that he wanted from her?

Before we could discuss any further about the matter I heard a loud thump inside the room. Malcolm and Rory must have sharing worrying glances with each other for I didn’t see them on my way to the room.

After the squeal I waited for no one to stand by my side and ran upstairs of the house to the bedroom. The noise of my feet tapping against the staircase echoed in the empty hall as I headed towards the door and when I found it, it was locked when we had left it open.

I scampered towards the door and tried to undo it but it wouldn’t budge. I couldn’t think of anything else and kicked the door open. It struck the floor with a loud bang and my heart started to beat in a fast, uneven rhythm when my eyes couldn’t perceive her.

I looked over at the empty bed and became more conscious. My hovering sight too quickly rested on the floor where the two girls were perched. Julie was lying in Lisa’s arms and Lisa had her face staring down at the poor girl who was maybe unconscious in her lap.

My heart shook even louder and clearer for my heightened hearing when I saw fresh blood covering Lisa’s hands like colors from paint. She sensed me and turned her head slightly to look up and I didn’t expect to see what I saw when she caught me in her eyes.

I gasped when she looked at my direction with tears flowing down her cheeks.