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ITHACA, NEW YORK
WHEN AUGUSTINE GOT THE CHANCE TO LEAVE ALASKA FOR NEW YORK, SHE OBVIOUSLY TOOK IT.
As much as she loved catching up with the Denalis, truly revelling in Carmen's everlasting affections, it was New York. When she was little, the idea of even travelling out of state seemed like such a far-fetched dream, but New York had been the biggest dream of them all.
Augustine had such a fascination with the state as a whole, but more-so the inner city; she'd always wondered why it was called The Big Apple, why they decided to put Lady Liberty there as opposed to somewhere else, and why Daniella McAdams from her freshman year history section said they made the best bagels of all time. Sure, she couldn't eat said bagels anymore, but it wouldn't hurt to just smell them, right?
So, she packed up her things and ventured to New York with the rest of her family— with the exception of Edward, who had already gone off on his own to who-knows-where. The last she'd heard from him was the night after Bella's birthday, the car ride to the airport the following day being silent until he spoke up. "I don't blame you," he had said, but somehow she still felt like he did. Why else would he then proceed to go no-contact with the rest of them? Rosalie was lucky she even got an occasional message from him, which soon became their only way of knowing he was still alive(ish).
Ithaca was no New York City, but it would certainly do. It wasn't as dreary as Forks or even Northern Alaska, but it was refreshing— serene in some strange way. And as of late, Augustine needed all the serenity she could get.
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It started the day after she mailed off her letter to Bella Swan.
Though she kept it cool, Augustine's emotions were fried— in an ever constant state of flux. During the day, whilst in the comfort of the rest of the coven, she was as normal as any teenage vampire could be. It was at night, however, that Augustine felt every negative emotion she could have bubble to the surface.
Jasper was always alerted at the sudden change, and Augustine grew to expect a series of faint knocks on her bedroom door between the hours of 12AM and 5AM. He'd always use those peculiar calming abilities of his on her if she ever got too upset too fast, but it was something that grew to be a nightly routine between the two.
Once, when he returned from a late night Philosophy lecture, he had jokingly asked if her frenzied mood had anything to do with leaving her mate back in Forks, and she had to hold back the urge to throw him into the floorboards.
Yeah, she was going through Paul withdrawals.
She'd gladly suffer through such withdrawals if it meant she never had to see him again, if it meant she never had to have him lift her hopes up minutely before stomping on them.
Leech. The word, his stupidly gorgeous face that she wanted to punch... it all just made her want to vomit.
In her whirlwind of constantly changing feelings, the following few weeks consisted of the ravenette misplacing things.
She'd been drawing a lot lately to ignore the millions of pings from her phone, many of which belonged to the Dilaurentis boy that she also left behind without a word. Still, she'd always see his name pop up, signalling he hadn't given up on her just yet.
Augustine was fiddling with her pencil as she scanned through the endless messages Will had sent her way when she felt suddenly felt something rough graze her fingers. Looking at her hand that was supposed to be holding the pencil, she found that she had a literal piece of bark in her grasp.
Glancing around the room, realizing that surely she would've seen a member of the family try to prank her, she was completely alone. Putting her phone down hastily, she scoured the entire room for that stupid pencil. The dullness of it would've stood out among the rest that she had which were always kept sharp after usage.
"I'm going crazy," she'd said to Carlisle, immediately seeking him out in his office. "I think I'm fully losing it— can vampires even experience hallucinations, or am I just that special?"
She was seriously freaking out. After the incident of the rock that turned into a pen in the woods, the weird strawberry appearance, and now a whole debacle over a piece of tree bark, Augustine had zero fucking clue what was going on. But, she knew that all these instances were related because how could they not be?
Carlisle even looked stumped, eyes glancing between the bark she was waving around in her hand and the girl herself with a pinched look on his face. "I don't even know what to say."
Augustine grew even more anxious. "Oh, the all mighty Doctor Cullen has no answer?" she asked, throwing the piece of bark onto the floor with exasperation. "So I'm a freak of nature, is that what you're saying? That's fantastic."
"I'm not saying that at all," he reassured her, the girl always one to jump to the worst conclusions. "I'm just— at a loss. I've never seen someone be able to do something like this."
"Something like this?" she parroted back, instantly perking up with sheer desperation. "You said something like this. Please tell me you have a theory!"
Carlisle nodded before he rounded over to the small couch in his new office. "I might have a theory," came his simple reply watching as the girl's shoulders nearly sank in relief. He handed her a pillow and gestured for her to have a seat, which she did. She held the pillow in her lap, watching as Carlisle pulled up a chair in front of her. "So, tell me about Paul."
Her optimism instantly faded, her face settling into a deadpan look as she stared at the blond across from her. "We don't have time for this, Carlisle."
"Surely if you told Emmett what happened, you can also tell me." Carlisle's grin was kind, but his eyes were indicative to the fact that he was presently plotting.
Augustine instantly gripped the pillow tighter, almost leaning forward as a spurt of anger surged within her. "He's a snitch, and whatever he said was obviously a lie, so—"
"Augustine," the man chided, observing the way her whole body was now much tenser than it was before. "What's got you so upset?"
For the first time since she'd met him, Carlisle was being pushy— and that was seriously saying something considering the rest of the family was always pushy about something or another. For Alice, she was pushy about planning the perfect party. For Rosalie, she was pushy about them having too much human contact. And even Esme could be pushy; like when Augustine first arrived, she'd been pushy to include her in their family activities.
"What are you so afraid of?"
Augustine blanched for but a second before she had to hold herself back from surging forward. "I'm not afraid of shit!" she scowled, could feel her nails digging into the pillow.
"I beg to differ," he responded, subtly leaning back in the chair he pulled up. He seemed calm, collected, and right now it was making Augustine want to scream. All her energy was focused on him, how he was making her feel, and had hardly noticed that the pillow in her grip seemed firmer than it was before.
"You wanna hear about how I'm afraid of being vulnerable? That's tough because being vulnerable is for the weak. That's what my—" her angered spiel fizzled out when the next words had to practically punch their way out of her throat, "s'what my mom used to say."
Carlisle hummed, but remained quiet. When she didn't hear him say anything else, she followed his gaze that settled on her lap. Looking down, she shouldn't have been surprised when the pillow was gone. In its place? A piece of fucking rock.
"You see this too, right?" she murmured, lifting the pillow-sized rock away from her lap. She set it down beside him, looking at it like it would suddenly sprout teeth and start chomping in her direction. "What's wrong with me?"
"Matter manipulation— if I had to take a guess," he responded, a ghost of a smile on his face. Getting her angry was just a test, one she passed with flying colours. He'd only heard of one other vampire with the ability to do so, though he hadn't heard from him in well over a century. "It's quite remarkable, August."
Her shoulders slumped. "I don't feel remarkable," she quipped in return, biting the inside of her cheek anxiously. She cursed whatever higher power granted her with an ability like this. In theory, manipulating the matter of objects around her seemed cool, but she'd lost one too many granite pencils to start celebrating.
Carlisle merely stood, placing a gentle hand on her shoulder. "Nothing a little bit of practice can't fix, right?"
Augustine willfully nodded, squeezing the hand on her shoulder. "I'll try; I won't like it, but I'll try."
"And that's all I ask."
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[ wyn's note ]
power alert power alert!!
a brief note on matter manipulation:
"one with this ability can manipulate matter to transform and revamp the composition of an object from solid, to liquid, to gas, they can change its size from microscopic to building-sized, or they can even disfigure and reassemble an object's matter into another form."
augustine's cool so she needed an equally as cool power (+ you guys will freak when you find out why this power will be so important to her)
thank you guys for 10k reads on KILLER!! i love getting ur comments and i appreciate each and every one of you! all love xx