The Doctor

||9||

"Bella, Addy!?" I heard Mom yell. The tone of her voice set me off. It was the same hysterical tone she'd gotten when we'd fall as kids.

Bella and I took off in the direction of her voice. Her frantic cries echoed. We ran into a small room, and my heart dropped. A VCR was playing, and little Bella and I were on the screen. I remembered this day.

We'd gone to visit our grandmother in California, the last trip we'd went on before she passed away. Bella and I had went to the pier, looking onto the water. Then we'd both lost our balance. Mom had seen our feet flailing and panicked.

Mom ran up to us then, and sighed in relief. "Don't scare me like that again, girls." Mom on the VCR said. I felt fear start to close in on me. This was a trap.

I saw Bella realize it the same time I did and we turned at the same time. There James stood, near the back to the room, holding a remote control.

He stared at each of us before walking past us to place the remote control down.

"Sorry about that, but isn't it better that your mother didn't really have to be involved in all this?" James asked, his voice, a mask of kindness.

"Yes." Bella answered him. I knew she was beyond relieved our mother wasn't hurt. I was too, but overtaking that relief was now fear. I was surprised he'd tricked me though, with my ability. I should have been able to tell he was lying. And now Bella and I were going to die.

"You don't sound angry that I tricked you." James said and Bella shook her head. "I'm not."

"How odd. You really mean it." James said, looking over Bella with interest. I saw his eyes looked black. Thirsty.

"I will give your strange coven this much, you humans can be quite interesting. I guess I can see the draw of observing you. It's amazing- some of you seem to have no sense of your own self- interest at all." James remarked.

He seemed to be waiting on us to say something, but I didn't want to give him the satisfaction, no matter how terrified I was.

"I suppose the both of you are going to tell me that your boyfriends will avenge you?" James asked hopefully.

"Why would you think we'd do that?" I asked him harshly.

"You don't want Carlisle to avenge you?" He asked me.

"I hope he doesn't'." I told him.

"Well, our hopes differ then. You see, this was all just a little to easy, too quick. To be quite honest, I'm disappointed. I expected a much greater challenge. And after all, I only needed a little luck." James said.

I glanced to Bella, who was listening in silence. I knew we had to endure hearing him rant, but maybe we could keep him talking long enough to find some way to escape.

"When Victoria couldn't get to your father, I had her find out more about you two. There was no sense in running all over the planet chasing you down when I could comfortably wait for you in a place of my choosing. So after I talked to Victoria, I decided to come to Phoenix and pay your mother a visit. I listened to your message when I got to your mother's house, but of course, I couldn't be sure where you'd called from. Then Edward got on a plane to Phoenix. That let me realize you two had to be here. Very easy, you know and not up to my standards. So, you see, I'm hoping your wrong about Carlisle and Edward." James informed us.

I could sense he was coming to the end of his gloat.

"Would you two mind, very much, if I left a little present for Edward and Carlisle?" James asked, stepping back past us to the television. It was then I saw the video camera. He was recording us.