Friend Of The Dead

The Confusing Mind Part---2

Edited

Meanwhile, at the Cullens table by the grand window, they were discussing some very confusing matters.

"So that's your younger sister? Bella, she looks adorable!" Alice squealed as she grasped Bella's hand.

"Easy, Alice, you don't want to break her hand," Edward warned with a smile.

"Sorry," Alice sheepishly let go of Bella's hand.

"Yes, Alice, that's my sister. And I'm gonna ask you to go easy on her,"

"I wasn't gonna do anything!" Defended Alice, who stayed paused momentarily before she added, "Yet."

"Darlin' Sophie might not have the strength Bella has when it comes to your favourite pass-times." Jasper grinned at his mate.

"She better, I already see it."

"You can see her future?" Bella asked with a raised eyebrow.

"Of course I-" But Alice never finished, instead her gaze became distant and her eyes saw something only she was seeing.

They all leaned in, sharing intrigued gazes. They waited for Alice to come out of her trance, Edward staring at her confusedly.

"What do you mean?" Alice suddenly asked Edward, fixing her golden eyes on him.

"What?"

"Explain what you meant about reading Sophie's mind."

"Can you read her mind?" Bella couldn't help but ask, looking at Edward with a questioning gaze.

Edward looked at her then glanced at Sophie, who was playing with her sloppy spaghetti, her eyes wide and unfocused.

"I - I can. . .but. . .It's hard," He mumbled in confusion, turning back to his family with a serious gaze. 

"Seem it runs in the Swan blood to block me out of their minds, one way or another." He said without humour.

"Explain," Alice demanded.

"I can hear her thoughts, but they're not hers." Cue confused and bewildered gazed from them.

"What are you talking about?"

"I can enter her mind, yes, I can hear her thoughts, yes, but not her own thoughts. When I try to hear her thoughts I hear about a dozen voices, and screams, lots of them. It's actually kind of painful."

"Are they voices of the students here?" Bella asked.

"No, I recognize none of the voices. There are too many of them and they're all saying different stuff like she has a dozen personalities in her mind - No, don't worry, she doesn't - but they're there. Along with screaming. Different voices screaming, in fact, it's actually giving me a headache trying to penetrate past the voices to hear her thoughts."

"What does that mean? Edward, what's wrong with Sophie?"

"Nothing is wrong with her, Bella, you're sister is fine. She just seems to be evading our abilities." Alice reassured Bella, who was very visibly starting to freak out.

"What do you mean, all of our abilities?" Edward suddenly asked. "Didn't you just say you can see her future?" He continued.

Alice got a frustrated expression on her face.

"Her future is unclear."

"Wait, unclear as in she's going to die soon and you can't see her future anymore unclear?" The words came out rushed out of Bella's mouth, she sat up and braced her hands against the table, feeling that maybe this was a tad bit too much information.

"No! Not like that, it's just hard to see what happens to her because she has so many futures. In one she's out of Forks and living in Seattle, in another, she's in Paris, in another she's in England. Her future is filled with possibilities, so it's kind of hard to see what's going to happen to her in a week or so." Bella relaxed, but her heart would not let it go.

"Jazz, can you feel her emotions?"

Her mate obediently focused his gaze on the still blank-faced girl across the room, trying to single her emotions out.

"I can, though barely. But that doesn't have to do with her shielding me, it's just that they're not all that strong. For example, at the moment she's bored, and that's not a really strong emotion. Sometimes a flicker of other emotions would mix with her current one, but I can't detect what they are, they are gone as soon as they appear."

"You're sister's a mystery Bella," Alice lightly teased her, trying to defuse the tension.

"Yeah, even to me," Bella mumbled back.

Who was this confusing girl, with an equally confusing mind, and future? Her mind was complex and her future unclear, her face was always blank. She had that knowing look in her eyes, as if she knew something you didn't. She always wore gloves everywhere, but for what reason? Her mind is full of voices as if she is reading every mind in the building, though the voices belong to none of the students. Who was she? Edward found himself asking as he stared at the girl across the cafeteria, she didn't speak, she was quiet, so quiet and mute as if she feared that if she did talk she'd unintentionally spill a secret. Her mind was like a maze, the deeper you went in, the harder it would be to get out.

Edward couldn't help himself from asking, the words went out of his throat before he knew it.

"Does she always wear gloves?" Bella looked at Sophie's grey wool gloves and sighed.

"Yes, she always has, as far as I can remember she's always had gloves on."

"Why?" Jasper asked.

Bella shrugged.

"We don't know. When she was a baby she only cried when people touched her hands, mom and dad thought something was wrong with the bone structure, so they took her to doctors but there was nothing wrong with her. She just cried when people touched her hands. They couldn't detect anything, her hands were perfectly fine, yet she still shrieked at the touch of human flesh." The Cullens were quick to exchange glances with each other.

"Maybe she was an early developed germophobe?" Alice suggested.

"Thought of that, wasn't it. The number of times her hands came in contact with dirt or mud quickly eradicated that conclusion. She was okay with germs but not humans."

"Didn't your parents get concerned when she started wearing them?"

"She started wearing them at age three, she stopped jerking away and crying so it didn't matter much to them, as long as she was happy. Over the years they tried to get her to quit them but she simply refused. Now they've both given up."

It seemed like all Swan girls were made in a special way just to beguile people. 

"It doesn't matter," Alice said firmly. "Gloves are in this season, and I know just how to make them go with every outfit." Her expression was so determined that they didn't doubt her words.