Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

A Different Change - Verity's POV

THE PARTY WAS ONLY JUST STARTING WHEN ESME AND I ARRIVED, the band was playing and students, teachers, families, everyone was still arriving.
     "Mr Roberts!" I shouted and ran over to the school principal.
     "Ah, Miss Cullen, lovely to see you here. Can we expect a visit from the night surgeon today?" he asked.
     "He's on-call today," I lied. "So maybe later tonight if he isn't forced into the Hospital."
     "Mr Roberts," Esme said. "You probably don't remember me-"
     "Miss Platt! How lovely of you to join us!" Mr Roberts said. "You know our Verity Cullen?"
     "I, um..." she looked at me, smiles in her eyes. "I went to school with her Uncle."
     "Yeah, they dated for a few years, can you believe that?" I laughed.
     "It's a small world, isn't it?" Mr Roberts laughed.
     "It sure is," Esme nodded.
     We walked in and the scent of sweat and drugs immediately was pushed into me.
     "Wow," I had to shake my head clear as it immediately became foggy.
     "Are you okay?" Esme asked, putting a supportive hand under my elbow.
     "Yeah, I'll be fine. Let's mingle."
     And we did. We drank punch, Esme got talking with other teachers and she even found her neighbour at the party so she started talking to them. And as I knew would happen, the moment the drugs and the lights and the party took over, none of those who considered me a friend during school hours, even approached me during the songs. And when I approached them, you could practically smell fear radiating off them.
     So I sat down and watched Esme talk to Mr Houser, one of the science teachers.
     At one point she was mid laughter when she looked over to me and her face fell.
     "Excuse me," she said and began walking over to me.
     "You look like you're having fun," I stated.
     "You don't."
     "I knew it was going to happen... what?" She held her hand out to me as the new song started.
     "Come dance with me, Verity," she said with a smile.
     Dancing with Esme was different, she wasn't overly familiar with the modern moves, but neither was I. So, for the most part, we were just moving around, having fun. Laughing at one another.
     The party went on for hours, people from all over town came, from nurses to the mayor, to emergency services. Everyone came to support the schools' fundraiser. There were stalls filled with projects from the students, for people to purchase if they wanted, more money for the school. Nothing of mine was up for sale though. My art projects had mysteriously broken after they were graded.
     There were drinks, legal and spiked. There were drugs being used, and everyone was having fun for the hours on end. Esme and I would occasionally take breaks and step outside of the party, only to go in because that's where all the food was. Food that was constantly being topped up by the catering team the school had hired for the day.
     Esme and I were dancing again when the future very suddenly, very violently shifted. And not just Esme's, who was so close she was the first scent I caught, but everyone else's.
     My head began pounding, the room and walls spinning.
     "Verity?" Esme asked, stopping me from falling as I gripped my head.
     I couldn't make sense, all the changed futures were blurring together. Everything coming at me at once.
    "Let's get you outside, come on. Come on," she helped me stand and walk through the crowd to outside. We walked to the other side of the school courtyard before we reached a bench and I sat down, she knelt in front of me. "What's going on?"
     "Everyone's futures, they all just changed. I can't... I can't make sense of anything..." I groaned. "It hurts."
     "I'll go get you a drink, I'll be quick okay. Try focusing on one person's future, and not all of them at once," she suggested then kissed my head and ran off back to the dance.
     Focus on one future... easier said than done when a thousand books of their futures suddenly started being read to you at once.
     I closed my eyes and tried to focus. Tried to sort through the hundreds of futures I had just picked up, hundreds of new futures.
     I went to lay down, the wood of the bench was cold enough to not feel humanly warm against my skin, it was relaxing and helped my head as it continued to spin under pressure.
     "Come on, Verity, focus on one future," I repeated to myself.
     I was still sorting through the futures when I found the only future I really cared about, Esme's.
     She'd be at the table, filling a cup of water, or what she would hope was water. The power would be cut and hell would break loose. Esme won't be able to see... all she can hear are screams and Mr Roberts trying to shout over everyone saying to calm down. Then the gunfire would start. Esme would drop to the ground with everyone else, fear coursing through her veins, but worry. Worry for the students, worried for her peers, worried for me. She'd try and reach the back door, try and get back outside, to me... and then she'd...
     I opened my eyes when the power inside the gymnasium suddenly cut off, followed by the screams of the people.
     "No," I gasped. I was still dizzy but was recovered enough to be able to start getting back to the gym. I couldn't run though, I wasn't fast enough.
     I flinched when I heard the gunshots. More screams, people started trying to run out of the gym.
     "Esme!" I cried for her. "Esme!"
     She'd still be inside, not close enough to a door for an easy escape like the others.
     I had to think quick. I knew I had to stop the shooter first. Couldn't have him shooting me and the bullet bouncing off to hit someone else. So while people were running scared, I ran at my own pace to behind the shooter. An older man... probably a veteran with some depression after the war. But I didn't have time to think about specifics.
     I felt guilty, but I couldn't think of any other way to stop him. Couldn't think of what to do without endangering people's lives even more, so, at my speed, I ran up to behind him and snapped his neck.
     His body dropped limply to my feet and I looked around. There were... so many unmoving... so many bodies without heartbeats, or with heartbeats starting to fail. The pain of it hit me but I knew I couldn't breathe, after all, in one of the futures of a kid surviving, his blood... His blood got me.
     So I stopped breathing and focused on finding Esme.
     I found her exactly where she was in my vision, near the table, but facing the door.
     "Esme!" I cried and ran up to her. She had three bullet wounds, her shoulder, her chest and her stomach. She was struggling to breathe when I reached her. "I'm sorry. I'm so sorry."
      Her grey eyes looked at me and smiled.
      "Not... y-your... fault," she choked and weakly raised a hand. I held it to my face. "I'm... too... young," she struggled. "This isn't... h-ow, I'm me-ant, to g-go."