The Girl Who Was Taken (Renesme Cullens Twin Sister)

Twenty-five

We ate crumpets and tea. Or, at least I did. They sipped from their tea cups diligently, bemused at the oddness of drinking blood out of delicate china, rather than bodies.

"No, you have to stick your pinky out like this," I raised my pinkie and tipped my cup back to slurp from it like a proper lady. "We need to keep our manners."

"Yes, but you still have not told us of your predicaments since last we met," Vladimir beseeched.

"Three years since the standoff," Stefan said. He held his cup up to the slit in one of our dead hosts' neck, talking as the last drops of blood slithered into his cup. "And you've run away from the Cullen's?"

"And you drink human blood?" Vladimir pointed out. He tickled the neck of who I assumed to be the babysitter. The gagged girl shrunk away from his touch, falling sideway on the couch, not able to support herself due to being bound by rope.

"And you kill without a second thought," Stefan added as we watched his companion snap the girls neck, and scrape open her vein with his nail.

"I'm growing quite fond of this meal arrangement. It takes a skillful grace," Vladimir said. He thrust the half decapitated head over his porcelain teacup. Red splattered the white carpet. The room was rather bare before we came here. Too clean. We were fixing that though.

"We don't mean to be invasive," Stefan said. "But I remember quite vividly, you were the Cullen's little darling, and now you're..."

"A monster?" I asked. They shared a bemused look between themselves, and then turned back to me for further explenations. "Your inquisitions are all. . .very well," I said. "If you must know," and I took a sip of my tea to play up the suspense for them. My tea wasn't blood like theirs, it really was tea. A very strong mint. And then I broke the news. "I am not Renesme." I let my sentence sink in with another gulp of tea. "My name is Stormy."

The room went silent. Stefan had just cracked our last victims neck while I was talking. No gurgling or sobbing. No response to my confessions. The two men looked at each other. And then they laughed.

"I am not making a joke." My voice came out more shrill than I'd have liked.

"And we are King Arthur and Sir Lancelot," Vladimir jested.

"Do you really believe I'm that mumbling dimwit Renesme?"

Stefan cleared his face of laughter. "Renesme, let us be done with this foolishness. Now tell us what has really happened."

"I am Stormy--"

"Renesme--"

"Renesme is my twin sister." They smirked at me, admiring my originality.

"How have we not heard of you before? We spent a week at the Cullen residence and no mention of you. Not once," said Vladimr. At least they were playing along.

"The Cullen's lost me, or gave me away. I was only a baby, how should I know?"

"And they simply. . .forgot about you? That does not sound like the Cullen's, my friend."

I tipped my glass back and forth, watching the mini tsunami. Taking one last big gulp before the tea leaves came into view. I drop the cup onto the carpet in front of me. "Okay then, if you won't believe me, I think our tea party has come to a close." I reached over and take the little boy with the snapped neck from Stefan. "I'll have this." And I began dragging the body out.

"Renesme--"

"It's Stormy."

"If what you tell us is true, prove it."