The Girl Who Was Taken (Renesme Cullens Twin Sister)

Six

Stormy Overlord of Everything 

Time flew by as we ran from city to town and farther. I kept growing and growing. The dress I was wearing was already a half inch shorter on me, above my knees. But I was focusing on driving. I was just tall enough that if I stood on my tippy toes, I could reach the peddles and see through the steering wheel.

We just jumped this car, and Daddy was shoving the previous passengers into the backseat, arranging them as if they were just sleeping. Soon they'd start smelling, but it would be a couple hours before then. We could get far before then. I sped up as I entered the highway, easing in between a freight truck and a minivan. Snow flakes smashed into the windshield as if they were stars zooming past a spaceship. And I imagined driving my way into the stars, visiting mars like on that cartoon show I watched through a window last week. It was too cloudy to see the moon right now, but Christmas lights twinkle down bellow on many houses and trees.

"Where are we going again, Daddy?" I asked even though he's told me a thousand times already. I just wanted him to tell me again so I could imagine it because he made it sound so pretty.

"The Christmas tree," he said. "Come on, I've already told you about this, don't you need to pay attention to the road?"

"Just once more--" I said, but my vision flickered, and for a moment, instead of driving, I was looking up at a frosted house window that was gathering snow flakes. As soon as it happened I was back. I jerked the steering wheel straight to keep the car from swerving.

Dad fell backwards before he could climb back into his seat. "See, you're already dreaming enough, almost ran the car right off the road." He hopped into the passenger seat and nudged my head. Despite me freaking out, I smiled over at him, so he wouldn't freak out. This hasn't happened for a while. Whatever this was. I just wished it wasn't happening now. I started asking Daddy if he wanted to drive instead, but as soon as I opened my mouth, I wasn't in the car.

I sat up fast. I was in a bed. For the first time in a long time, I couldn't see my breath. The air was warm. The room was dark, but I could see lots of ribbons and dolls. I was in a little girls room, with every frill and lace imaginable. I crawled out of the bed, walked around the room, fluttering my finger tips above every surface to see if it really was real. Everything seemed solid enough. Maybe I had teleported. I found the door knob and opened it as quietly as I could. The hall way was dim with flickering candle light. there were picture frames of happy smiling people, but it was just dark enough that I couldn't really tell who they were. The hallway led into a living room with a magnificent Christmas tree. Not as amazing as the one Daddy described, but prettier than most of the ones I saw in peoples windows. And I had been looking in a lot of windows, making a list of the best ones.

I bypassed the tree though, brushing up against the pine needles as I walked towards what really caught my eye. The glow of the fire place was breath taking. Crackling and dancing, almost as if it were alive. I reached out to feel the warmth. The flames caressed my fingers, biting them as if they were food. I pulled them back to see my hand completely red. It stung, but in a nice tingly way.

I narrowed my eyes back at the fire. It was growing weaker. Dying. Just like the humans. But it was so pretty, with reds and oranges, I couldn't let it die. I wouldn't. I looked around, I had to feed it quickly or it would be gone forever. There weren't any logs near by, not even twigs.

But the Christmas tree was very full and almost touched the ceiling. No one would miss a couple branches. It's going to die eventually. They'd chopped it down at the base. I broke some branches off the back, and quickly brought them to the dying light. I watched as they caught fire, turning red and orange, and shriveling up into nothing. The fire was greedy though, and ate them faster than I anticipated. I jumped up and got some more, but those were gone and dead in moments too. The fire was still dwindling.

How could I make it come back? When I first entered the room it was roaring like a lion, and now the embers were all that was left and cold air started drifting down the chimney. I looked over at the Christmas tree, and admired how it's prettiness. But it definitely was nowhere near as pretty as the tree Daddy described, and not even half as wonderful as the fire.

I yanked on the branches to bring it closer to the fire, but the needles started falling off and the branch snapped and the tree didn't even move an inch. I ran around to the back and started to push. Using all my strength the tree still wouldn't budge, the fire was almost dead, I didn't know what to do. But the fire needed my help. I was Stormy Overlord of Everything, and that includes Christmas trees. If this Christmas tree didn't obey, it was going to pay.

I walked back a couple paces, crouched down, and took a deep breath to calm myself before I flew. I did a running jump at the tree, sending it crashing into the fireplace. I rolled off and smiled gleefully when the pine started to crackle and pop, sparks of orange shot out. Ornaments littered the ground around it, broken and as dead as the tree was going to be.

"Ness?!" I heard a women scream. The flames had erupted and the tree was convulsing in ripples. "What are you doing?" She was by my side, panicking. I saw that she had brown hair and golden eyes and seemed familiar. And she definitely smelled like a vampire.

The fire was so bright now, our shadows that were already tall kept growing across the floor. I didn't know who she was, but I wanted her to see what I saw. I wanted her to appreciate it's beauty. I had found the best thing in the world, and she was acting like it was bad.

"Don't you think it's pret-" I was cut off by pain. I keeled over grabbing my stomach. Coughing uncontrollably, it felt like I was spitting out blood. I was in the women's arms, she was trying to hold me still but I was shaking. I could feel snow flakes melting on my cheeks. The fire was burning so bright, but everywhere was so dark at the same time. "Nessie," someone was saying while another person was shouting, "Stormy."

I was laying in the snow below the highway. There were sirens and flashing lights taking the place of the firelight. My Daddy was at my side. There was blood everywhere and I realized the blood belonged to me. His eyes grew dark.