Hawthorne and Amelie glanced at each other then back at Jasper. "Yes?" Amelie asked.
"I was wondering if I could talk to you?" He asked as he glanced around.
"Well this is my cue to go woo the ladies." Hawk walked away and Jasper glanced at him for a moment before his attention once again was on Amelie. His eyes were intense as he stood there rigid.
"Um, yeah.. What's up?" Amelie asked awkwardly.
"I'm sorry for the way I acted earlier.. I uh.. was feeling ill." He explained as Amelie gave him a once over, the smell of death hitting her nose again. It was like these kids were dead or something.
"It's fine, I didn't take any offense.." She drifted off as not too far behind Jasper, stood a mangled body. Amelie's eyes widened a fraction as her heart started palpating in her chest. Her hands started twitching, tendrils of black surrounding her fingers. "Fuck." She muttered as she squeezed her hands shut, eyes closing for a moment in concentration.
"You. Can. See. Me." Amelie opened her eyes and the mangled figure stood in front of her. Her eyes turned into saucers as she tried not to scream.
"Amelie?" Jasper asked but his voice was just a background as the mangled body in front of her suddenly opened its mouth and out poured dark red blood and suddenly Amelie's mouth was hanging open, a shriek coming out of her mouth as she threw herself away from the blood, falling onto her ass on the floor. She scrambled back as it laughed, a sadistic noise.
"Amelie!" Yelled Hawk, running from across the gym towards her as Jasper backed up just as Alice came fluttering over, asking him questions frantically.
"Magic! You're magic!" It taunted. Suddenly Hawthorne was beside her, grabbing her arm and holding it as she squeezed him and put her face into his arm sobbing.
"Amelie! Amelie, what's going on?" Hawthorne whispered to her fervently.
"Somethings wrong, the spirits are sick here." Amelie whispered harshly to him. "I have to get out of here." She told him, her voice shaking. He helped her up quickly as everyone looked at her as if she was insane.
"She's fine! Stomach cramps.. really intense.." Hawthorne didn't even try to put on any charm as he rushed her out of the gym. "What do you mean the spirits are sick?" He asked her as they got out of the gym.
"There was a spirit.. it was like.. a demon but it wasn't. It's body was mangled to pieces and it opened its mouth and blood poured out. It kept laughing and laughing, the stench was overwhelming.. Jesus Christ." Amelie put her hand over her mouth, her body shaking like a leaf.
"Well having a normal first day went down the drain.." Hawk muttered. "We have to go back in, if only for you to grab our clothes and.. and then I don't know but if that thing is back in there, I need you to show me what you see."
"Hawthorne, somethings wrong in this town. I felt it the moment we got here. First it was that ghost in the basement, then the Cullens, and now this. We should just pack up and leave again. It was a mistake coming here."
"We got here yesterday Mel." He tried to reason with her. "You're telling me we should just pack up and leave again because of some spooky stuff?"
"Not spooky stuff, things that could get us killed!" She seethed. "It's not good, the only thing I even have any certainty in is that the Cullens aren't evil but that doesn't mean something isn't wrong with them just the same."
Hawthorne sighed and ran his fingers through his hair. "Look, I know things are weird here but we can't just leave again. It costs money to leave and as much as I was complaining yesterday, I know that we can't just up and go. We'll get this figured out but right now, we have to go back in and at least get our clothes. Can you do that with me? I'll be at your side the entire time and if it's still in there, grab my hand and show me so I can see what you're talking about."
Hawthorne was always good at inspiring people and as much as Amelie hated to admit it, it worked on her. "Fine but.. let's get in and out." She told him as he nodded.
"Fine by me, trust me. They're gonna think we're nuts." And then they walked back in and Amelie went stiff as it still stood in the middle of the gym, it's head watching people but as soon as they walked back in, it's head swiveled towards them.
"You're back." It grinned, it's teeth sharp and rotting. Amelie grabbed Hawthorne's arm and spoke low under her breath, projecting the thought into his head with a casting spell. As he saw it, his body stiffened a fraction and he blinked rapidly.
"Good God, Amelie." He whispered roughly as the coach walked over to them.
"You two are the new kids, right? What's wrong with you kid? I heard your brother say something about stomach cramps?" He asked as Amelie tried to focus on him as she slowly nodded, pale and queasy.
"I-I'm not feeling so good." Amelie muttered, the ghost now standing behind the coach, towering over him and she could see its head, it's mouth opening as blood dripped out of it's mouth.
"I can tell, you don't look so good." He sounded concerned as he looked Amelie over. His name tag said 'Mr. Lewis.' He was in his late 40's, wearing a grey gym shirt and blue mismatching gym shorts with a varsity jacket. He had brown hair and a brown goatee, and somewhat of a beer gut. "You don't look so great either, son. You two think maybe you got a bug? Maybe your dinner last night gave you food poisoning?" He asked as Hawthorne nodded rapidly.
"Yeah, I think you're right Mr. Lewis. I'm not feeling on my A game right now either." Hawthorne tried to be as charming as he could, his eyes quickly glancing to the spirit standing over Mr. Lewis's shoulder before training his eyes back on his face with concentration. "I'm Hawthorne Dakwood and this is my sister, Amelie. I hate to ask sir but do you think we could be excused from gym? I'd like to make sure my sister is okay, I think maybe we'll go to the nurses office and get her and I a pepper mint for our queasy stomachs."
Hawthorne tried to flash him a charming smile but it fell flat with the nerves. Amelie squeezed his arm reassuringly but stiffened as it spoke again, Hawthorne stiffening too. "You witches and warlocks were silly to come here. You seeeeeee me? He did this to me, that monster in the basement. You know what I'm speaking of, don't you girl? All witches and warlocks live at that house."
Suddenly Amelie was listening closely to it, a bad feeling settling in her gut. "Yeah you guys can go to the nurses office. I normally wouldn't allow it but you two are new and I can clearly tell you both aren't feeling very well. Sorry that's how your first day is turning out but hopefully things go smoothly the rest of this week. Go ahead and grab your clothes and get changed."
With that, Mr. Lewis turned around and saw every other student staring them down and blew his whistle. "Grab your clothes right now Amelie, I'll grab mine. Get information from that thing." Hawthorne told her seriously as she nodded, the fear ebbing away.
"Will do." She told him as she let go of his arm and he breathed in relief about not having to see it anymore. Hawthorne then jogged over to the boys changing room. "Follow me please." She whispered as she walked to the girls changing room. Once she got there, she turned to the mangled spirit.
"You are strong, aren't you?" It hissed out and Amelie's skin prickled, trying not to have a complete freak out. "I can feel it, why else could you see me?"
"I want to discuss about the spirit in the basement. You said he did this to you, why? How?"
"Him.. That rat evil bastard." It growled out. "He's been chained to that basement for as long as I could remember, but he's sneaky and strong. At any point if anyone in your family feels the strong urge to go down to the basement, fight it. He is the one creating that urge, trying to lure you down there. He will control whoever's body he can and kill as many as he can before returning to the basement."
As it explained, the blood dripped from its mouth and down its chin. Amelie looked at it's grotesque features over, it didn't have any hair, it's features were too unrecognizable to say if it was even a woman or a man, it's skin slightly purple in hue as it's veins protruded from its skin. "How did he do this to you? Make you look this way?" Amelie asked.
It's mangled head sagged in an almost sad manner and suddenly Amelie felt bad for screaming earlier. "He took control of my cousin who's powers were strong. So, so strong. She had the power of configuration but she didn't use it for bad, never for bad. When he took control, he did this to me. He has killed every single person that has lived in that house, don't become the next ones. You have the advantage, being able to see him, to see us."
"So he used your cousin to turn you this way and murder you? Why aren't you attached to the house like the rest of them?"
"He murdered me outside the house. I can wonder around this town but I cannot leave. He didn't mean to, but I figured it out and ran so he had to improvise. He murders them in the house to keep them trapped there and disposes of the bodies to make it seem like they've left on their own accord while he possess his victim and then he makes them kill themselves too. I don't know where they kill themselves and I don't know where their bodies are."
Amelie was horrified by the information she was receiving from it, her blood cold in her veins as she contemplated everything it was saying. "Do you know his name? How he's chained to the basement? Why he just kills everyone?" She had to rapid fire these questions because she was sure Hawk was waiting on her.
"I don't know. He's been there for a long time, before I moved in with my family. All I know is someone magically bound him to the basement, probably to keep others safe but he figured out a loophole to it. I don't know his name, but I know he kills to quell his animalistic urge for bloodshed. He's a warlock and even in death his magic makes him powerful enough to lure people down to the basement."
"Thank you for this information. I'm sorry I screamed, you frightened me." The figure hung its head seeming sad once again.
"At least I can talk to someone. Go now, we will speak again another time." And suddenly it disappeared. Amelie quickly changed into her clothes and went back out into the gym. She saw Hawk standing at the door waiting, and also saw Jasper and Alice huddled next to each other, whispering as they glanced to her then back to one another.
She glanced back to Hawk who had seen them looking and made a face at her then motioned for her to hurry. She sped up, jogging over to him then out the gym door. "This has been the worst first day ever." Hawthorne told her as she sighed.
"Trust me, I know. This was not how I wanted this to go."
"Well what did that disgusting thing say to you?" Hawk asked and so she explained to him what the spirit had said. Hawthorne looked to be contemplating this information for a moment before speaking.
"So he was able to escape the house before being killed? And he can roam around town?" Amelie nodded at him, confirming. "But it's safe to say that he can't move on because of whatever spell has been casted on all the victims?"
"Yeah basically. He doesn't know why the spirit is down there, what its motives are, or anything else about it. I didn't get a chance to ask what his cousin looks like or what his name or the cousins was. Next time I see him I'll have to ask." Amelie muttered to him.
"Alright, sounds good. So we have a spirit problem that needs fixing then." Hawk spoke, his hand on his chin. "Let's go sit outside and talk." They walked to some of the out door tables and sat, breathing in the cool air. "This is pretty serious." He finally spoke again.
"Yeah it is. He has to have some pretty serious magic to be doing all this from beyond the grave." Amelie said as she sighed. "Extra problems to deal with.." She muttered as Hawk reached out and patted her hand.
"We'll get it figured out." He told her and when she didn't respond, he turned more towards her. "Look, I know things have been hard without Mom and Dad here but we can get this figured out together. And when Mom and Dad do come back, we can tell them all about it." Hawk's eyes didn't waver as he stared at her and Amelie gulped, looking down.
"I miss them, this is all so hard.." She buried her face into her hand for a moment before raising her head to look at Hawthorne. "Alright. Let's do this." Amelie spoke firmly, the waver to her voice now gone.
"Glad you have your courage back, now let's have lunch." Hawk told her as he got up just as the bell rung.
"How'd you know the bell was about to ring? Theirs no clocks." Amelie pointed out as he shrugged with a half smile.
"Good internal clock, call it a silly ability. I'm just glad it's not yours." Amelie rolled her eyes at that.
"Thanks Hawthorne."
"Couldn't be more welcome little sis, now come on! We have to get in line before everyone else does." He told her chipperly as he dragged her inside as she just groaned at him but grinned despite her irritation. As they made it to the lunch line, Leo and Theo intercepted them quickly, having came out of nowhere.
"Are you okay?" They asked at the same time then glanced at each other in annoyance.
"We felt some type of panic from across the school coming from you." Leo explained as he looked her over for any marks. "Show me." He spoke quietly and reached out his hand for Amelie to grab. With a quick glance around, she took his hand and he stared blankly for a second before frowning as Theo kept blinking rapidly.
"What the hell is that? " Theo whispered in shock as she relayed the scene that was playing inside Leo's head. Finally Leo let go and stared down at the ground for a second before finally looking back up.
"Shit."
"Oh you got that right, Leo." Hawk said as he started grabbing items for his lunch. "Stop holding up the line and come on." He motioned for all of them to grab their food. They all quickly did so then and followed Hawthorne over to an empty table.
"So that spirit you saw in the basement the other night is way more insidious then what we had previously assumed." Theo said as Amelie nodded.
"Much more. I'd like to get this settled as fast as possible before something happens, so when we get home I'm going to speak with grandpa and see what he thinks we should do." As soon as she said this, Bella sat down at the table with a hesitant smile.
"Hey guys, I was wondering if I and the rest of the Cullens can sit with you all?" She asked as Hawthorne furrowed his eyebrows for a moment and the twins glanced to each other again.
"Sure Bella, of course!" Amelie tried to respond as enthusiastically as possible but it fell somewhat flat. Just as she said it, Jasper sat down across from her. Once again she was caught in his gaze and something about it made Amelie's skin burn. Edward sat down next by Bella then Alice with Leon, and two others that she wasn't familiar with.
Amelie inspected the beautiful blonde with a face that looked like if she caught you in her gaze for too long, you might drop dead. She then looked to the built bear of a guy with dark brown hair. "This is Leon, Rosalie, and Emmett. Guys this is Amelie, Hawthorne, Leonardo and Theodora." Edward introduced them to each other and Leo and Theo winced.
"We don't really-"
"Like being called our full names."
"Leo and Theo will do." They finished together and Theo groaned then and buried her face in her hands.
"Wow you guys really do have the twin thing!" Emmett exclaimed excitedly as Hawthorne chuckled but tried to pretend it was a cough as a scathing glance from Leo sent him looking down sheepishly.
"Unfortunately.." Leo muttered. "We just are together a lot so sometimes we're on the same wavelength, that's all." He explained and as Rosalie looked at him, he nervously looked at his tray and ate his apple.
"So my siblings told me that there was an incident during gym?" Rosalie asked as they all stiffened.
"Yeah I think Amelie has like ovarian cysts or something, she's gonna have to go to a doctor." Hawthorne explained quickly as he patted Amelie's back with mock sympathy. Amelie glanced to him, trying not to roll her eyes as she did so.
"You'll have to go see our Dad at the hospital! He's a doctor." Alice told them as Theo just sunk farther in her seat.
"That's so great." She muttered, her hands folded together as she put them under the table. Leo leaned in towards Amelie then, whispering in her ear.
"You're losing control of your powers, what's going on?" His voice was sharp as he glanced down to her hands that hid under the table. Meanwhile Amelie was squeezing her hands together so hard under the table that she was afraid her fingernails were going to draw blood. The magic swirling at her fingertips was waiting excitedly to be used, full of energy.
"It's them, I don't know what it is but my powers are reacting as if we're in a cemetery or something." She whispered back into his ear before pulling back, realizing that if she didn't get the hell out of there that she was going to slip up. She then stood up abruptly, her chair scraping from the force.
"I'm so sorry, I think I'm going to go home. I'm still not feeling well." And swiftly she started walking away before she heard a scrape from a chair and Jasper was suddenly walking beside her.
"I'll take you home." He told her as she blinked in surprise.
"Oh um, thanks."
"No problem, missy." His slight accent came out again and Amelie blushed.
"Let me go to the office and let them know."
"Sounds good to me." He followed her to the office and as she walked in, the office lady looked at her sympathetically.
"Sweetie I already heard, you can go home. I figured you were gonna be coming in here soon, good for you for trying to stick it out a little bit longer."
"Oh thank you." Amelie gave her a genuine smile and she smiled back.
"You are so welcome. I hope you get feeling better." She told her sweetly before waving bye to her. As Amelie walked out, she saw a patiently waiting Jasper.
"Ready to go?" He asked and Amelie nodded, her eyes carefully assessing him.
"Yeah I'm ready. Thanks for giving me a ride, I appreciate it." She thanked him again as he simply shrugged.
"Not a problem." He then walked towards the entrance as she followed him, putting a slight distance between them. As they made their way outside and crossed the parking lot, Amelie sensed she was being watched. Pausing, she stopped dead center of the parking lot and looked around. "What's wrong?" Jasper asked, turning to her as he noticed she wasn't following anymore.
"I don't know." She muttered as she looked around. Jasper then looked around too, cocking his head before his eyes got dark.
"Someone is watching us." He told her as her head snapped to him.
"You can feel it too?" Amelie asked, perplexed. Jasper simply nodded and then grabbed her hand.
"Come on, we shouldn't be standing out here." He practically pulled her to the car and when they were in, she looked at him. He didn't even glance at her as he turned on the car and peeled out of the parking lot.
"What are you?" Amelie asked, not being able to control her mouth. His hands gripped the steering wheel before finally turning his head to look her dead in the eyes as he remained driving flawlessly.
"What are you?" He asked back. Amelie stiffened at the question.
"I can't answer that." She muttered, looking away.
"I can't either then." It was silent after that, both of them thinking.
"What happened in gym?" He suddenly asked.
"I had stomach pains-"
"That's bullshit. We both know it wasn't that."
"I can't answer your questions." Silence again for a moment.
"What can you answer?" He asked.
"Probably about as much as you can." She told him, her hands entwined.
"I heard all of your conversations today."
"How?" Amelie asked in shock, the blood draining from her face as she went back through everything she told her siblings.
"This is me giving you information, give me something back." Jasper told her, glancing at her.
"I saw something." Amelie spoke, nerves on fire as she said it. Jasper didn't say anything for a second.
"Can you.. see ghosts?" He asked her, her body going rigid.
"If you heard all of my conversations then you can put the context clues together." Amelie murmured. "You have the upper hand here, you know more than I'd ever like and that puts my family in danger." Jasper's gaze softened as he sighed.
"I can tell you I'm not human."
"Are you one of us?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper.
"No.. I don't even know what you are.." As soon as he said this, Amelie's phone started ringing. It was Leo.
"Hello?" She asked.
"The spiky haired one can read minds. I was able to skim his thoughts and he was trying to get inside our heads but was having trouble. As soon as I was able to read him he was able to read me too. You're with one of them right now, you're in danger."
"No you're not." Jasper said as she looked at him with wide eyes. "Look we obviously need to all sit down and talk. Bring your siblings to my house after school."
"Did you hear that Leo?" Amelie asked as silence was heard over the line.
"How do we know it's safe?" He asked as she sighed.
"We don't but unless we want to move the day after we got here, then this is the only thing we can do. Don't tell Grandpa though, not until we know what we're dealing with and what we should say. Let Theo and Hawk know and have Hawk drive you guys to there house after school get's out."
"What about Helena?" He asked her.
"Not even Helena can know, not yet. Keep it between us right now and once we know more, we'll assess the situation and figure out what to do."
"This is going to be fun." Leo muttered sarcastically.
"You're telling me."