Chapter 6:
Suspicions Arise
EMERGENCY ROOM. The sign knocked the wind out of her lungs and left her breathless. There were dozens of ambulances parked out front, paramedics rushing in and rushing out. She turned to face forward and nearly slammed into a sobbing woman. She appeared to be a mother as she held the hand of a little six year old boy who seemed confused. The woman had tears flying down her cheeks and frantic eyes, no doubt she had someone important to her wheeled in to those doors.
Edward gently grabbed her hand and led her into the wide entrance, the sliding doors automatically opening upon their arrival. Hunter was too disoriented to snatch her hand away, or to forget about that woman's face. She hadn't been in the vicinity of a hospital since her father and horrid memories were flooding back.
A draft of air hits her face, warm and tinged with the smell of hand sanitizer and bleach. People, families, were sat on the sides, awaiting their name to be called. Some people looked normal, as if this was a regular routine and some people looked like her, adrift and frightened.
"Hello, we're visiting." Edward's voice enters her ears and it was then that she realized that they had reached the front desk. The nurse seemed polite. She bared a smile and her hair was pulled back into a neat ponytail. She asked who they were visiting but Hunter couldn't find it in her to deliver a response. "Where's my dad! I want to see my dad!" Her own voice screamed in her head.
She could remember vividly running into Ocean Shores Hospital and feeling the world crumble underneath her. She had been in a math class when the principal called her out into the hall and told her the information of her father's condition. It didn't take much for her to run out of the school building with the faculty calling after her. All she needed to hear was, "Your father's been in an accident."
"Here to visit Forge." Edward replied, watching Hunter's vision zero out onto the desk between them and the nurse. He wished that he could read her mind again, just so he could help her relax. But he was stuck on the outside. The nurse reached over and pulled out wristbands that had the words, VISITOR printed out in bold. Edward lifted up their still attached hands and let the nurse click the wristbands on.
The nurse, Delany Scott, smiled as she did so, "You guys are cute together." Edward looked at her and smiled sheepishly, "Oh, she's not- we're not together. I'm just her plus one."
Delany sat back in her seat with a chuckle, "Could've had me fooled. Sorry if I offended you." Hunter drifted her eyes to their clasped hands and she didn't mutter a word. It would've bothered her any other time but now she felt like she wasn't alone and she needed that.
Edward shook his head, "No, of course not." Delany finally looked back to Hunter, her smile falling a bit. "Is she okay?"
'No, I'm not' she apprehended, refraining from reaching over and snapping the woman's neck. Now her anger was settling in. She wanted to leave, to go back home and never have to see another hospital again. But she wasn't here for no reason, Winston was waiting for her, he needed her.
"She has a- hard time in hospitals. Bad experiences." Edward briefly explained, desperately wanting to be relieved of this situation. The nurse was awfully chatty, it was putting a strain on Hunter and he could tell. Her grip on his hand tightened more and more as the minutes ticked by. He just wasn't sure if it was because she was afraid or angry. Either way, he had to get her away from everyone before something bad happened.
"I see." Delany studied, finally peering down at the computer and clicking around on the mouse. Edward pulled their hands off the desk and watched Hunter like a hawk, searching for signs of abnormalities. The minute he could see her eyes change or anything remotely supernatural, he wouldn't hesitate to take her back home. "Room 415. It's the third door down the hall when you go through those doors."
"Thank you." Edward said before quickly pulling Hunter away from the desk. She shivered and wobbled as they neared the doors. The fast movement shifted her breathing patterns and her vision. Everything seemed blurry, as if her eyes were a camera out of focus. The walls were a bland white, with some posters decorating it to give off a happy feel, though she felt anything but happy.
She could remember running down the halls of the hospital. The way her feet pounded against the floor and the way the tears blurred her vision, it felt like she was reliving that.
Edward stopped walking and he turned to face her. There were tears in her eyes, but they didn't fall. It was heart wrenching to see her like this and he wanted nothing more than to make her forget about the bad memories.
"I'm scared." She choked out. Her eyes fly up to his and the tears finally fall. It slides down her cheeks and down her chin that wobbled somberly. She was too afraid to sob or do anything, she just stood there like a statue with the memories breaking her apart piece by piece.
Edward's eyes showed sympathy, a look she hated after months of receiving it. But it was gentle enough to keep her anger at bay. He laid his hand lightly on her cheek and rather than recoiling like she usually did, she was soothed by it.
"I know, but you don't have to be." He told her softly as he wiped her tears away. She could feel herself calming down the more he talked, like his words were a summer breeze, refreshing and warm.
Her eyes darted down the hall to see a nurse exiting the room Winston was in and she sucked in a breath before nodding, "I'm gonna go." She told him, pulling his hand away from her face.
His shoulders slumped down but he nodded nonetheless. Winston was her's and he had to accept that, but he couldn't fight the jealousy that was rising exponentially. He wished things weren't so complicated, he wished he never fell for her in the first place. "I'll wait for you." His tone turned from sympathetic, to serious and even a bit angry. "Outside."
Hunter frowned but nodded. She could tell his words had a double meaning but she had no intentions of cracking his code. She was already walking away from him, her feet timidly carrying her further down the brightly lit hall. It was at least eleven o'clock by now and she couldn't help but grow annoyed at that. She would've gotten here earlier had she went alone.
The third door is just steps away and she finally peeled her eyes away from the highly polished linoleum floors. Inhaling deeply, she turned to see Edward still standing at the start of the hall, his eyes unreadable. She figured he was waiting until she went in to leave, so she did.
Stepping into the hospital room hit her hard. She was pushed by a waff of medicine, an IV drip, and blood. Her eyes fell to the hospital bed where William Forge laid unconscious. The heart monitor beeped steadily and loudly in her ears. With her mouth watering, she tightly clenched her jaw along with her fists.
The blood scent was overwhelming and she could feel herself losing control faster than ever before. Her eyes shut and she could see images of her dad motionless, being zipped up in a body bag and taken away from her. "He dropped the shotgun and the trigger went off. The bullet exploded in his chest." The information brought her to her knees. Wails left her throat and she scratched at her face, desperate to wake up and wish for it all to be a bad dream, but she didn't. She had lost her last parent.
"Hunter." Winston spoke.
The heart monitor's volume went back to normal and she opened her eyes to find her boyfriend staring back at her. She opened and closed her mouth but no words came out. The corners of his lips curve upwards and he pulled her into his arms. She instantly wrapped her arms around his neck and inhaled his scent. She was beyond thankful that Winston was alright.
"I'm glad you came." He murmured into her neck, sadness dripping off his words. He had spent the whole day in the waiting room while they wheeled his grandfather into a room to save him, the whole day overthinking and expecting the worse. He felt helpless.
Hunter pulled away and placed her hand on his cheek, giving him a small smile, "Of course I came. Why wouldn't I?" She couldn't imagine why she wouldn't have dropped everything to be here for him.
But Winston seemed to have found a reason. He looked away from her for a second, "Your friends didn't need you this time?" A frown made it's way onto her face again. She knew this would become an issue for him. Her constant disappearances and excuses would eventually give him enough room to theorize.
"No. And even if they did, they could wait." She told him, following him into the seats next to his grandfather. She completely forgot about the heavy scent in this room, but Winston's question caused her emotions to flare up again. Glancing up at the unconscious man, she could hear the blood pumping throughout his body. It was mouth watering.
"They're gonna move him to the ICU in the morning." Winston sighed. He rubbed his palms against his jeans and slowly sat back. "They were able to save him from the heart attack but there's still damage being done to his brain because of it."
Hunter said nothing. What could she say? She knew exactly how he felt, to have one last family member and to be terrified of losing them. She was reliving that feeling now. Winston didn't deserve any of this, he just lost his father, now he had to worry about his grandfather. "That sucks." She croaked, earning a chuckle from him.
"Yeah, it's scary stuff."
The heart monitor continued to fill the air, it's steady beats making the couple all the more anxious. They could tell that something was bothering the other but neither of them wanted to ask. All she could think about was biting into Mr. Forge's neck and draining him of all his blood. The urge was growing stronger by the second but Winston's constant stare helped her hold it back just a bit.
"You know, when we were on the boat, I saw that same woman we saw on our picnic date." Winston informed her whilst staring at his shoes. Her eyes widened and she snapped her head in his direction, "You what? Where?"
When he looked at her, he saw strain. He could vividly remember the day he tried to apologize to Hunter, before they were dating, and seeing a darkness come over her, like something or someone else was taking control of her body. That's what he was seeing now.
His eyebrows raise, "She was standing on the dock— are you okay?" It was like she was changing before his eyes, she quickly drew in breaths and her hands gripped the arm rests so hard that he could hear them cracking under pressure. He was freaking out and either she didn't notice, or she didn't care one bit. "Hunter." He warned, sitting up straight and staring into her eyes.
"Did she talk to you?" She questioned, her tone cold as ice and harsh like rocks. He blinked, frightened, but he replied, "N-no. She was just staring at us. It was like she was waiting for something."
Victoria was studying him, watching, learning. She was waiting for a perfect time to strike. Hunter released her hold on the armrest and grabbed both of Winston's hands anxiously. He flinched but quickly relaxed. "If you ever see her again, you run. You yell for me, I'll hear you and I'll come to you. I don't care where you are."
Looking in his eyes, she saw confusion and fear. She couldn't blame him, she was acting like a lunatic. But she had to get her point through to him, even if she was giving away hints that she wasn't human.
"Hunter, what are you talking about-"
"Promise me." She raised her voice and she instantly regretted it. Winston snatched his hands out of her's and stood up. This was the last straw for him. He had spent the entirety of their relationship in the dark, out of the loop. He was growing tired of her lies and excuses, and there was no doubt in his mind that Jacob, Bella, and Edward were involved with her secrets. Everyone knew everything but him.
Hunter licked her lips and dropped her hands into her lap. Her anger has subsided and she was prepared for Winston's outburts. She shouldn't have come off as strong as she did but it was too late now. She could see the annoyance written all over his face.
"No, Hunter. I won't promise you anything because I have no idea what you're talking about." He hissed, flaring his arms around frantically. "The last time we saw her, you made me go home then you ran away again to freaking Italy. And who knows what happened there."
His hands reached for his curls and he lightly tugged on them, not finding it in him to look at her. Hunter sat still and listened to him as he paced the hospital room. He was growing angrier by the second, the more excuses he remembered, the louder he seemed to get. "I don't want there to be secrets, Hunter. I'm your boyfriend."
"I'm sorry, Winston but it's for your own good. These secrets are not mine to tell." She retorted, getting onto her own feet. She hadn't even realized the small lie that slipped out in her words.
He rubbed his face with his hands, "What do you- what do you mean, it's for my own good? What is for my own good? Hiding secrets from me? Sneaking away with your friends?"
Hunter sighed. There was nothing she could say that would be acceptable for him. If she didn't tell him the truth, she feared he'd do something worse. Before he could continue to pummel her with questions, there was a knock on the door. The doorknob twists and Edward poked his head in, his face as stoic as it always is. He heard Winston yelling from the waiting room and he had to intrude.
"Great." Winston muttered to himself at the sight of the pale man in the door. Edward smirked a bit but he directed his eyes to Hunter, "Sorry to interrupt but, Charlie called, he wants you home now."
Hunter scowled at him, "Go start the car, I'll be right there." Edward nodded, sent a small glare to Winston, and slipped back into the hallway.
"You came here with him?" Winston asked, not bothering to hide the jealousy in his tone. At this point, he let go of any restraint he had on his emotions. He was tired of being second place in Hunter's life.
"He drove me here. Charlie made him." Hunter simply replied, fumbling her fingers around. Winston was almost never mad at her for anything, but the lies piled up and she had no one to blame but herself. She knew the risks of dating a human, she watched it happen with Bella and Edward, what made her think this time it could be different?
Winston landed his hands on his hips and stared down at the shiny tiles, "Just go." Hunter frowned and she took one step closer to him, only to have him jump back, "This was a mistake, calling you here."
Her mouth ran dry, a nauseating bile swirled in her stomach and she could feel the sweat building up in her pores. She did this, she brought him to this point. Where he felt like he had no choice but to send her away from him, to a point where he couldn't even look at her. It made her sick. Without even a mutter of a word, she quickly made her way out of the room.
Her feet carried her away at a pace she was thankful for. If she stayed another minute in this hospital, she wouldn't be able to hold back the vomit that was well on it's way. Her head swarmed with regret, if she had never gave him a chance, he would be safe. It made her heart sting to think of Winston dying because of her. But he couldn't know the truth, it was against the rules.
The heartache she felt, was almost like a raging fire that burned all the oxygen out of her lungs, leaving her breathless and empty. The melancholy feeling loomed over her like a thunder cloud, rumbling lowly and threatening to rain on her parade. But there was no parade, there was only Hunter and her mess of mistakes.
The automatic doors slid open and she ran across the lot to Edward's car. She jumped in and fastened her seatbelt, not muttering a word to him. She wanted to be in her room, locked away like she always was. She wanted to start her new life in Forks all over again and do things differently.
She wanted to find Victoria and kill her for including Winston.
Edward stared at her for a moment. He heard everything and he felt horrible. The way she breathed beside him, it was pained breaths. Going back into the hospital and knocking some sense into the human boy would've been his goal but upsetting Hunter more than she already was, was a death wish. So he started the car and pulled away from the hospital, grateful to watch it disappear in the rear view mirror.
Hunter exhaled shakily. She mentally shoved aside her heartache and made room for the anger that always burned deep inside of her. Turning to Edward, she spoke in a tone that rattled him, "I want to be the one to kill Victoria. I want my face to be the last face she'll ever see again."