The Story Of Sarelle (Twilight)

Chapter 29

"Edward, I'm here aren't I? Anyway, he protected me from the other vile treatments Mrs. Mills, the asylum mistress, would have inflicted on me. Mercury poisoning was the worst I ever got, unlike Emily." I shifted my head to rest my cheek on his, showing him the memories I had of the poor timid blonde girl bound in ropes and cuffs 'til her skin purpled and bloated.

"I don't know how, but he became a friend. I knew what he was and what he did to survive, but in that place it didn't matter. Then, he met Mary and I had never seen him so alive. She renewed the life in him, in both of us really. It was hard not to feel full of energy and lust for life when Mary was around. Alice is so similar to her, it's almost unnerving," I said once I had moved away from Edward, regaining the padlock on my mind.

I could tell him about Mary but I couldn't show him. It wasn't right to tell him before Alice.

"She'll be changed by now, he was going to do it as soon after her 18th birthday as possible, he knew the consequences if he didn't."

"I presume it would have only been a matter of time before the Volturi found out," Edward breathed, his own concern lacing his words.

"He told me about the rules, Edward, and the consequences if they're broken. I know it's something we will have to consider, in time." Edward tensed beside me, his jaw clenching shut.

"I'm not saying now, Edward, so you can relax, but it would be stubborn and careless of you to refuse to even talk about it when the time comes." My voice was harsher than I meant it to be. However, as much as Edward could melt my will, I still had a voice and I still had confidence in my mind. When the time came I would make sure he listened to me instead blocking the conversation completely through childlike denial.

"I don't want to think of it now, Sarelle. Not until we have to." He released his jaw with his stiff words, and I sighed before continuing my session of filling in the gaps of my life for him.

"After the asylum there was Texas and then Florida. At first the future didn't suit me, too busy, too cold-natured. But I adapted, I even tried to make friends with a girl, Casey, but she was a little too self centred for any real friendship to develop. However, I did meet the first 'ordinary' person I ever told there, Renée Higgenbottom and her daughter Isabella. She was only two but such a sweet child."

"Why did you tell her, Renée?" Edward asked.

"She had quite a mind for mystery and was also extremely nosy. She rummaged through my bag and found everything." I chuckled, remembering the scene when I had returned from my day out with Casey and her friends.

"She ignored your privacy in such a way and you just told her?"

Edward's reaction was the right one. It was probably the one I should have had, this being irritation and anger that she had invaded my private belongings.

"She was just trying to protect her little girl. We were sharing a room after all. Would you really let someone who had a dress printed with 'Newalk Asylum' live beside you and your child without asking questions?"

"How did she take it?"

"Peculiarly well," I murmured my wonder still present in my voice, even after all the years after the event. I still didn't know how my ability to ease people's opinions about me worked but it had definitely worked wonders on Renée that night.

"Do you think they'll remember you if they ever saw you again, the humans?"

"I would like to think so. I would like to think that even though they can't remember our time together, they still remember what we meant to each other." I sighed, realising that the sky had changed to be bathed in hazy gold rather than the crisp blue it had been before.