If they would've known it would end like this, they never would have done it.
A scream erupts from Emmett's throat as he is stabbed in the gut, body falling to the ground silently as the killer disappears into the darkness. A small chuckle comes from Lyra as her screen changes to display the word 'Victory' as her mini astronaut character stands underneath it.
"Aw! Not again!" Seth screeches. He flops forward on the banshee's bed near Eris' lap and pouts.
"Why do you keep getting Imposter?!" Embry whines, glaring at Lyra.
Elliot screams as he suddenly tries to lunge at her but Emmett wraps an arm around his waist to pull him down. This is the fourth time in a row she's been imposter in this server of Among Us. Funny thing is, they've only played four rounds. For some reason, she's always elected imposter and she's won every single time.
Trust has been betrayed too many times and the group now refuses to travel with her and avoids her blue character like the plague. Lyra can't help that she keeps getting the same role and that she always targets Elliot first to piss them off. It's just too funny.
To be honest, this is all Eris' fault. They invited the group over to Lyra's house for a day full of gaming and fun and Lyra had to come as it was in fact her house. But, when they decided to play Among Us, who was Lyra to deny.
"You're cheating!" Eris exclaims, glaring at Lyra like an angry kitten. She could never take them seriously. The others complain as well, telling her to share the killer role.
Another light chuckle escapes her at the 'threatening' look on their faces. "I can't help it." Lyra claims, smirking mischievously as the next round starts and she is once again the imposter. The game has to be bugged in her favor and she was going to enjoy it while it lasts.
Lyra immediately plasters an innocent look on her face, furrowing her brows as she pretends to scan her task list. "Where is card swipe again?" She asks, trying to sound genuinely confused. Eris looks at her suspiciously from her right and she keeps up the innocent act.
"You're not imposter this time?" Eris asks hesitantly, trying to read the banshee's expression.
"Five times in a row? No, can you help me?" Lyra asks her and they flop to sit a little closer to her. Eris starts to explain the formula for getting the perfect card swipe as she does the task herself and the copper-haired girl pretends to do it as well. Luckily, Eris is a true player and doesn't look at Lyra's screen. On the couch across from them, Elliot curses up a storm as he fails over and over again to do the card swipe task, doing it too fast.
Lyra chuckles at their failure, him screaming at her to shut up. Eris ignores their bickering as she leads Lyra to Electrical to 'do wires.' As soon as they start the task, her attention drawn elsewhere, Lyra jumps in the nearby vent and goes to medbay. She finds and kills Embry before going back to electrical just as Eris finishes, looking as if she was there all along. Lyra sees Embry pout across the room near Elliot, giving Lyra a sad look but staying silent as he waits to be found.
"Where is your next wires task?" Eris asks innocently, leading the banshee to storage.
"O2." She responds, "How about we both finish our wires then meet up in the cafeteria?"
"Sounds like a plan."
Lyra splits off, heading the opposite way as Eris' pink character turns towards the left side of the map. Lyra smiles as she finds Seth in the Navigation area, quickly killing him before going over to O2. Suddenly, a loud screech erupts from Emmett as Embry's body is reported. Lyra is pulled away from her 'task' to a meeting, waiting to see what's going to happen.
"Seth is dead too?!" Emmett shouts.
"Status report, Emmett." Eris demands, cutting off the brunette's panicked state.
"Red body found in medbay, brown's body location is unknown." Emmett states, voice turning robotic as he talks like he's solving a crime.
"It's fucking Lyra." Elliot growls, looking over at the copper-haired girl with daggers in their eyes. He was sick of his best friend being the imposter and they just knew it was her again.
"What proof do you have? I was with Eris for most of the round, Emmett is the one who found the body, which leaves you, Ellie."
"It isn't me!"
"What's your alibi then?"
Elliot exclaims, "I was in weapons!"
"That's not far from medbay." Eris jumps in, going along with Lyra's accusation. The banshee smirks and turns her head to Emmett. Might as well take out two birds with one stone.
"Though it could be Emmett." She states, smiling evilly at him, "He was traveling with Seth at the beginning of the game, who is now dead and he could have killed Embry and immediately reported the body to get some of the suspicion off of himself."
Elliot narrows his eyes at the brunette vampire as he sweats, trying to think of an alibi but she cornered him. Elliot glances back at Lyra, trying to tell if she's lying or not, She seems genuine, but she seemed that way every other time too, and managed to trick everybody with that act of hers.
"Vote Emmett." He whispers, clicking the black player.
"Wait, no! It's not me, I promise! Vote Elliot, they're sus!"
"It isn't me, you bloodsucker!"
"Yeah, it's definitely Emmett since he was with Seth at the beginning—" Eris starts.
"We split off!"
"Sure. Anyway, I was with Lyra almost the whole time so I can confirm she's innocent this time." Eris states. As soon as discussion time almost ran out, the all vote for Emmett, who is released into space, silence falling on the room as it reveals he's innocent.
"Oh no..." Eris mumbles, looking up worriedly at Elliot.
"It's not me!"
"It's Ellie, trust Eris." Lyra says, riling the purple-haired boy up as he starts to yell insults at her.
The three run around the central table, waiting to be able to use the button to call the meeting. Lyra and Elliot continue bickering as he tries to find a reason that proves she's the killer but Eris believes she's too innocent. As soon as she manages to press the button and they are pulled into the meeting, Lyra votes for the purple player and pleads for Eris to do the same.
"I'm sorry, Elliot, but I was with Lyra! She couldn't have done it!" Eris says, also placing their vote.
"It's not me!!"
The votes are tallied, two for the purple astronaut and one for the blue. Elliot screams as his character is ejected, the screen changes to reveal the other's defeat as Lyra laughs in victory once again.
"WHAT!?"
"I TOLD YOU FUCKERS!!"
"I TRUSTED YOU!" Eris shouts, pushing Lyra off the bed as she struggles to breathe through her laughter.
As anger faded, Emmett began laughing too, slowly dragging the others into laughter. Seth collapsed into Eris' lap as the pink-haired Fae guffawed and Emmett fell to the floor beside his girlfriend, meanwhile Elliot and Embry leaned against each other for support. Today was a good day...
***
...Or at least it was until everyone left and Lyra heard a commotion outside her window. "If you ever touch her against her will again—" Edward growled loudly, grabbing Jacob by his collar as Lyra jumped out her window and ran over to them.
"Edward!" Bella exclaimed, reaching for him, but Lyra pulled her back so she didn't get hurt as the brunette pleaded, "Don't do this here! Don't do this here!"
"She's not sure what she wants." Jacob hissed at the vampire, his body beginning to tremble in anger.
"Well let me give you a clue!" Edward said, his voice dripping with hatred as he glared at the wolf shifter fiercely, "Wait for her to say the words."
"Fine! And, she will!"
This pissed Edward off, and the two went at each other again, but Lyra stepped between the two, pushing them apart. "Knock it off." She commanded, annoyed by the situation already as she moved in front of her cousin, "What happened?"
"I'll tell you what happened." Edward snapped, "This asshole kissed Bella without her consent." Edward moved to push at Jacob again but Lyra pushed back, not allowing her surprise at Edward swearing to prevent her from stopping this fight.
She then turned to her cousin and said, "You and I both know that was the wrong move."
"Stay out of this, Lyra." Jacob growled, "Just because Bella had a crush on you once upon a time, doesn't mean you get a say on this."
Lyra stepped closer to her cousin, getting fired up too, "Actually, I do because you assaulted my best fucking friend on this damn planet."
Bella grabbed Lyra's hand and pulled her back towards the human, "Jacob, just go, okay?" Bella interrupted him, her eyes pleading as she cradled her throbbing hand.
"Hey hey hey," Charlie called out, running out of the house as he must have seen something going on out of the window. "Easy guys, easy. Let's take it down a notch, alright?" He moved in between Edward and Jacob, "What's going on?"
Bella, Lyra, and Edward all looked at Jacob pointedly. Edward and Lyra were too pissed to speak and Bella felt awkward telling her father Jake kissed her. Jake's nostrils flared as he let out a deep breath. "I kissed Bella." He muttered, "And she broke her hand. Punching my face." Charlie's surprise was evident as he glanced between Jake, to Edward, to Jake, and then to Bella; more specifically, down at the hand she was cradling. "Total misunderstanding."
"We will talk about this later." Charlie told Jacob before turning to Bella, "We should get you to the hospital."
"I can take her to Carlisle." Edward jumped in, gently grabbing Bella's uninjured hand and pulled her to his Volvo without another word.
"I'm gonna go before I end up murdering someone." Lyra said, turning away from Jacob and Charlie and walking back towards the woods as Edward sped off.
"Lyra—" Jacob said, grabbing the girl's wrist. Lyra ripped her wrist from his grasp and spun around. Jacob stumbled back as the banshee's fist connected with his face.
"Lyra!" Charlie shouted in shock as he heard how hard that punch was.
"That was for Bella!" Lyra shouted before pushing the wolf shifter away from her hard enough for him to fall backwards, landing on his ass. She stomped away from him, into the woods, where she took off running towards the Cullens.
***
"It's not broken." Carlisle said as he began wrapping up Bella's wrist, "It's just a sprain. It should heal fairly quickly." Bella nodded, glancing at her best friend, who was sitting quietly on the edge of the table next to them. Edward was hovering behind his mate, his expression still livid as he watched his father work.
"Trying to walk and chew gum at the same time again, Bella?" Emmett teased with an impish grin as he and Jasper entered the room, the former jumping onto the table next to Lyra. Lyra huffed in amusement at the jab, her somber mood from earlier washing away. She met Emmett's gaze and he smiled at her.
Bella laughed slightly, then shook her head. "I punched a werewolf in the face." she told him.
"No way." Emmett looked to Lyra with wide eyes, "Is she being serious?"
"Dead." Lyra confirmed with a nod before scowling, "I punched him, too. I love him, but he deserved it."
Emmett laughed before he ruffled his girlfriend's hair. He turned to Bella, clearly impressed. "Badass!" Emmett told Bella, "You're gonna be one tough little newborn."
She smirked, "Tough enough to take you on."
Behind them, Rosalie threw down the newspaper she'd been reading on the couch as she stood and stormed out of the room. Lyra watched her leave, frowning slightly. Bella visibly shrunk in on herself, still not understanding why the blonde held so much hatred for her. "Don't worry about it." Emmett assured her.
"Any leads?" Edward asked Jasper, changing the subject.
"No sign of the intruder." he informed his brother, "Though Victoria keeps making appearances."
Lyra pushed herself off of the table, nodding to Bella as she made her way toward the door Rosalie had exited. Lyra worried about her friend and wanted to make sure she was okay. Bella, seeing what she was up to, quickly got up and followed.
They found her standing outside, her back to the door as she looked out into the night. She knew they were there, of course, and she wasn't particularly pleased with the fact that Bella had followed Lyra. If it had been just the Faerie, she wouldn't have been bothered. "Go blather to someone else about the joys of becoming a vampire, Bella." Rosalie snapped.
The human flinched, but held her ground. "Okay... Rosalie, I don't know what I did to make you hate me so much." she said.
"Hate." Rose scoffed lightly, seeming amused at the word, "I don't hate you." she paused, glancing over her shoulder at Bella, "I don't particularly like you, but..." Rosalie swallowed, "Bella, I envy you."
Bella was shocked, "What? That's ridiculous." Bella shook her head.
"No it's not." Rosalie responded, turning to face them, "You have a choice, Bella. But I didn't... None of us did, and you're choosing wrong." She turned away from them again, "I don't care how miserable your human life is."
"My life is not miserable." Bella said as they walked closer to her, each standing at her side, "But it's not perfect... I mean, nobody's life is perfect."
"Mine was." Rosalie responded, "Absolutely perfect. There were things I still wanted. To be married with a nice house and a husband to kiss me when he came home. A family of my own." Lyra noticed a slight sadness in Rosalie's voice, so she took the vampire's hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. Rosalie gave her a small smile before she continued speaking, "Royce King was the most eligible bachelor in town. I barely knew him, but I was young. I was in love with the idea of love." Rosalie took a deep, unnecessary breath as she recalled her human years, "On the last night of my life, I left a friend's house late- I wasn't far from home."
Lyra's eyes filled with tears as Rose recounted what Royce and his drunken friends had done to her. How they undressed her, touched her in ways she should have never been touched, and then beat her senseless. "They left me in the street thinking I was dead..." Rose said quietly, "Carlisle found me; he smelled all the blood."
"I'm so sorry." Bella whispered, Lyra nodding as her eyes reflected sympathy.
Rosalie smiled bitterly. "I got my revenge on them, one at a time." she said, a small twinge of pride in her voice, "Saved Royce for last, so he knew that I was coming." A slight, breathy chuckle escaped her lips as she recalled wearing her wedding dress to see him, "I was a bit theatrical back then."
"They deserved it." Lyra mumbled.
Rosalie glanced at her, squeezing her hand before releasing it and resting her arms on the banister in front of them. "Things got better after I found Emmett. Even more so after finding Elliot." she admitted softly, "But we'll always be this. Frozen. Never moving forward. That's what I miss most... possibilities." Her voice was honest and raw with emotion as she spoke, "Sitting on a porch somewhere; Elliot, gray-haired, sitting by my side; surrounded by our grandchildren and their laughter..."
"I understand that's what you want." Bella told her, "But... there's nothing I'm ever gonna want more than being with Edward."
"You're wrong again." Rosalie said, "After you've been changed, there's one thing you'll want more. One thing you'll kill for." Rosalie paused to look at Bella, "Blood."