Reality

Whacked by a Manga (Chapter 21)

The silence in the room was deafening. The tension was so thick Alex would need a machete to slice through it. All these thoughts crossed her mind as she tried to gather a hold of what to say next. She almost considered knocking Bella and Caleb unconscious, but quickly scrapped the idea as that would only complicate things. Instead she stayed quiet and tried to read the look on Caleb's face. It was clear he was considering the thought, and that scared Alex. A lot.

"Yeah, she's right. That's why I'm here. I hunt monsters for a living since my mother was killed by one," is what Alex wanted to say. It would be so easy. But the risks were too high. Last thing she needed was Bella becoming a hunter. Or going after the Cullens. She'd be crushed in a second. As for Caleb, he'd probably never speak to Alex again after he found out she'd been lying. And so Alex pushed the sentence deep inside, despite the wave of nausea it brought on. Instead she watched as Caleb's mouth opened and closed, trying to say something, but clearly failing.

"Please... Please tell me this is some kind of joke. A prank! That's it. Jessica put this rumor in your head, and now you're trying to freak us out. Yeah." Caleb forced a laugh, but quickly cleared his throat and swallowed, trying to cover it up with a cough.

Bella's usually pale self was even paler, something Alex thought was impossible for the girl. She shook her head slowly, playing with her fingers in an attempt to avoid saying anymore.

"Bella, what happened? You can't possibly be serious..." Alex finally pressed. She figured her best option would be to play along, at least for the time being.

The frail girl stared up at the ceiling, not wanting to sit up and look at their faces. "I- I know it sounds insane. Trust me. But if I wasn't absolutely sure of this I would not be telling you guys."

Alex racked her brain, trying to figure out just how Bella had come to this conclusion. Then again, she thought, they are spectacularly bad actors. It's a wonder no one else in this town has figured it out. She looked up again and noticed Caleb watching her closely, almost as though he were suspicious of Alex's quiet. And Alex couldn't blame him - she wasn't acting like herself. The normal Alex would be practically screeching with excitement, wanting to go find the Cullens. Which, she did. She just didn't want to end up hurting her friends. Or worse. She swallowed on that last thought and decided she'd better come up with something to say.

"Okay. Let's think rationally. What convinced you that the Cullens were vampires? Did one of them tell you?" Alex hoped that was enough that they'd stop being suspicious of her.

It was silent for a moment before Bella finally spoke again. "One of the Quileute boys. My friend Jacob. He told me this supposed scary story. But- all his descriptions of the Cullens matched perfectly. So perfectly that that was the scary part."

"Well what did he tell you? What were his exact words?" Caleb sat further forward in the rocking chair, and Alex couldn't tell if he was fascinated or thought Bella was crazy.

"He told me that their tribe was supposedly descended from- from wolves."

"What, like werewolves?" This interested Alex. A werewolf pack would certainly spice things up. However, she was slightly suspicious of this. There was no record of a werewolf pack anywhere around here. And even if there had been, there was nothing indicating that they were killing humans and devouring their hearts. There weren't even any animal deaths, at least, not enough to bring attention to humans.

"I'm- I'm not sure... He just said wolves. But it wasn't just that that he said. He also- he also mentioned that his ancestors made a treaty. They had apparently caught 'the cold ones' hunting on their land. And so they bargained a treaty. Instead, the tribe would keep the secrets of 'the cold ones'."