CHAPTER 12 – FOLLOWER
We were all sitting in the main room, chatting about the most random subjects. I glanced out the window and saw the field again. The baseball things were still set up and I suddenly had the urge to play again.
“Edward” I said with my puppy dog face he just couldn’t resist.
“Yes my love?” he replied.
“Can we please play baseball again? All the things are still set up and I had so much fun. Please?” I pleaded. I worked double time on my puppy dog face. I knew he wouldn’t be able to resist.
“I’m not sure” he replied in a voice that already sounded defeated.
“Please?” I pleaded.
I first found out that I could win him over and get what I wanted when I was human. All I would have to say was one word. Please. I found out this when Victoria had created the army of newborn vampires and Edward was holding me hostage in the big, white Cullen house – which I would have let him do forever if it hadn’t have been for Charlie. I had made him stay back with me, and I had felt horrible. The rest of his family were hunting for the fight, so we had the house to ourselves. I had asked to make love to him and at first he said no. Then I pleaded and he agreed to try. I also became engaged that night.
Edward sighed in defeat, bringing me back to the present. In some ways I miss the old days when I was still human, but I enjoyed this life much more. Every day I would get at least one flash back from my human life. It was a nice thing to have.
“Would you care to join us?” Edward asked the rest of them.
They all agreed and followed us outside. We arranged ourselves into teams again. Edward and I had to be on different teams, or the other team would have no chance. We were too good for them all.
I thought about how funny it would be to be a professional player. Now, as a vampire. Playing with all the human professionals. We would run at unsuspecting speed, but we would hit it hard, getting a home run every time. Like now, the other team would have no chance of winning, unless another vampire was on the other team.
I eventually ended up in a team with Carlisle, Jasper and Alice. There were 9 of us now, rather than 14, and Senna was refereeing again. Huilen was playing to even up the numbers. In the other team there was Edward, Zafrina, Kachiri, and Huilen. This time, my team was fielding first. I didn’t mind this. I went to stand in the far left corner as the rest of my team took their places.
The other team were saving Edward until last. The saying ‘save the best til last’ popped into my head when I heard this.
Kachiri and Huilen hit the ball the exact same way straight into Jasper’s waiting hands. They were out on their first shot. Zafrina was out on her third shot when Jasper raced her to the home base and beat her there. Now it was Edward.
He picked up the bat from the ground and stood up to the base. Alice threw the ball and Edward quickly turned round and hit it in the opposite direction. The ball was now coming in my direction.
I was the only person who had a chance of catching it. The others were too far away and they weren’t fast enough to reach. Edward was almost at the second base already. I had to do it.
I ran forward, never looking away from the ball once. It was like slow motion, it was so easy to see the ball, even though I was about ten meters away. I could hear Edward was approaching the third base, and the ball was about to land on the ground, so I threw myself into a dive. I crashed to the ground with my arms straight in front of me with my hands cupped. The ball landed.
It was quite rough. It had landed quite neatly – but hard – into my hands a few seconds before Edward reached the home base. I had caught it.
Everyone started clapping and cheering then. I was so embarrassed. I still hated a lot of attention, even though I wasn’t a clumsy person anymore. If I could have blushed, I would have. I hated this.
Even though I hated the attention, I still wanted to brag. Edward knew me too well, so he was expecting what was coming. I lifted my shield, and he didn’t get a fright. I knew he wouldn’t. He just smiled at me.
Ha ha! I thought to him. I replayed the scene of me catching the ball in my head for him to watch. I played it over and over again to show him how proud I was of myself. After a few seconds I let my shield close up again to keep my thoughts private.
The next thing I knew I was flying through the air at a very high speed in Edward’s arms. He had appeared from nowhere and scooped me up into his arms and launching us both into the air. I could easily free myself from his grasp, but I didn’t want to. Edward’s arms were the comfiest places on earth.
I craned my neck to see the perfect features of his face. He looked down to make it easier for me. He was smiling smugly, probably a mirror image to what mine had been ten seconds ago.
I completely forgot that we were travelling at high speed through the air. I only just remembered when we crashed to the forest ground together. I landed on top of him as we skidded to a halt. We both burst out laughing.
“You’re..........out!” I told him between my giggles.
“Whatever...........you..........say” he replied in between his.
I rolled off and got to my feet. I stretched my arms out and shook my legs. I did this a lot. I would usually do it when I was human, and I guess it struck with me.
Edward suddenly went from happy and laughing to serious and growling. He jumped up and looked all around us. He took up a protective stance in front of me. I was about to ask what was wrong but then it hit me like a slap in the face. The scent was sweet and very strong, only one minute old. Someone was spying on us.
“Is it the same one as earlier? In the ocean I mean, yesterday” I asked him.
He nodded. I automatically stretched out my shield to cover Edward and everyone else back on the baseball field. As I was doing this, I thought of something. If the trail was only a minute old, they couldn’t have got that far.
“Can’t you hear their mind? I mean, it’s only a minute old, then they can’t have got any more than three miles. You should be able to hear” I stated.
“I know. But I can’t hear them” he spat.
The others had joined us in the woods and caught on to the scent. Carlisle put his hand on Edward’s shoulder to calm him just as Huilen gasped.
Everyone turned to stare at her. “It’s Joham” she breathed shyly.
This was a little bit relieving. I thought it could have been someone actually spying on us like a Volturi member. Although we had not recognised the scent, and we had met every member of the Volturi before, they could have either sent someone to do it or got a new member. But that doesn’t matter anymore, as we knew it was Joham. He probably just wanted to see his kids. It was odd that Edward could smell him earlier, but that was probably just bad timing.
Apparently, the Volturi made him give up his children or “inventions” as he had called them. They had also made him swear that he would never create another half breed again. Sareeca had said that it was very hard for him in the end. Even though he treated his kids like a new invention, and it looked like he didn’t care, I think he did love them deep down. Who can’t love their own kids?
It must just have been coincidence that we were visiting Zafrina and her family at the time he did. Edward had also calmed down a little bit. It still confused me a little bit why Edward couldn’t read his mind. Maybe he had a shield like mine.
“Huilen? Do you know if he has any abilities? Like a shield like mine?” I asked her.
“I don’t know. I only ever met him once. He seemed like a nice man and he didn’t say much, just the usual hello, but that’s it. He didn’t mention any abilities and Nahuel, Sareeca or Táchira have never mentioned any either” she answered honestly.
“Oh well. Let’s get back to the game. You’re out” I reminded Edward with a smug grin.
He sighed then chuckled as he followed me back to the field. It was one of my favourite sounds in the world. His chuckle. Only when it was with humour though. When it wasn’t with humour I didn’t like it. I was happy when he was happy. When he was sad or angry, I was sad, or angry at whoever made him sad or angry.
We continued our game from where we left off. We quickly got Zafrina, Huilen and Kachiri out and then it was our turn. We were unstoppable. I was the star player, of course. It was such a weird feeling, being the best at something, especially sport. I had never been best at anything, except from being clumsy.
I never expected in my human years that I would be brilliant at baseball. I probable didn’t expect to be playing any kind o sport in my human years. I also never thought that I would be married, have a daughter and be a vampire at the small age of 18 either.
I imagined what life would be like if Edwards and the Cullens didn’t exist. Or I had never met them. It was extremely hard to do. And also painful. It brought back memories of when Edward left me so I stopped thinking about it.
After a while everyone was getting bored. Even though we swapped round every 10 minutes, I always got the most runs. My team smashed the other team, and we started heading in after we had our last shot. The kids would be waking soon.
I froze. Everyone froze. We all smelled Joham again, and the scent was leading to the house. Nothing looked different from when we came out. I walked quickly in front everyone else and opened the front door. There were two paths now. One was leading up the stairs and the other was leading out the back door. I chose the one leading up the stairs. Edward, Carlisle, Jasper and Alice followed me whilst Zafrina, Senna, Kachiri and Huilen followed the one out the backdoor.
I followed his scent into all of them, and then screamed. The rooms were empty. They kids were gone. He had taken them.