Catching Renesmee (COMPLETED)

Eleazer

(An extra chapter, just for you!)

***

Leah didn’t argue, nor did she enquire, but instead followed us out with a sort of resignation, her shoulders hunched, her spine loose. When Alice had led us to the beach, we sat nearby a twiggy tree, and Leah plopped herself down on my left side, Alice on my right.

“How do you guys know about him?” Leah began.

“I think we’re the ones who should be asking the questions.” I replied.

Alice shot me a look. I shrugged, mildly apologetic.

“Carl’s younger brother is Thomas’s roommate.” Alice said. “He seems to have an interesting theory as to Carl’s death.”

“Were you guys dating?” I asked Leah.

She nodded. “I guess you could call it that.”

“What do you mean?” Alice asked.

“I mean that I knew I wasn’t a cool girlfriend. My heart wasn’t in it.”

I recalled Alex’s words, about how Leah had been hung over some other guy. I wondered who it was. I opened my mouth to ask, but Alice shook her head a little, as if she had realised what I was about to do.

“How’d you meet?”

“At the community college.” Leah mumbled. “He didn’t like school or authority, and I liked his view on things. He sure as hell wasn’t an optimist.” She chuckled softly.

Since this was a guy related to Alex, I would think so. “How long did you guys date for?”

“A few months.”

“But things turned sour?” I said.

Leah, looking pained, nodded. “I-I knew I didn’t like him, ‘like’ like him, but I swear to god, I was trying! I was forcing myself to love him, to get over....” Leah paused and took a jagged breath. “I knew he liked me, b-but it wasn’t working. I tried to break up with him, but he wouldn’t listen.”

“Really?” Alice asked, interested. “How?”

“Carl was the jealous type. Carl was the clingly type. He was in denial.”

My mouth formed a little ‘o’. “Oh...right.”

“The day after I tried to break up with him, when I had thought he had gotten the message, Carl started stalking me.”

“Stalking you?”

“He’d follow me everywhere. Home. School....Patrol meetings.”

“No” Alice gasped. “He didn’t.”

Leah nodded. “He was everywhere I was. I couldn’t help it, Alice...”

“Why, what is it?”

“He found you were a wolf, didn’t he?” Alice confirmed.

Looking extremely sheepish, Leah said yes.

“Okay, so he knew you morphed into a dog. That still doesn’t explain things.” Then I gave Alice a sidelong glance, as if to say this-still-isn’t-making-any-sense.

Alice only raised a finger and gave a shake of her head. “What happened after that?”

“He confronted me. I told him he couldn’t tell anyone.” She took a deep breath before her next words. “He said he had taken videos....and threatened that he would show everyone if I didn’t become his girlfriend again.”