Act I
Chapter 9 ━━ The Cold One

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Shelley turns on the light as she hears a snap outside the window. Rising up, goes to the window and looks out expecting any kind of danger. All she sees is the wind blowing hard. But she's rattled. She closes the curtains, then reaches for the book she bought earlier. She thumbs through the cover which says, 'QUILEUTE FOLK STORIES AND ART.'

She looks through to see photos of ancient, carved masks. Comical, menacing, haunting… then she stops on a photo of a white mask with black eyes and a row of sharp teeth. The inscription reads, 'The Cold One.'

She quickly goes to her computer and Google 'Cold One' and several beer ads appear. Frustrated, she closes the pop-ups, revealing a link to: 'The Cold One: Apotamkin.'

Several pictures begin loading: the seductive Apotamkin with his ice-blue skin, devouring his victims in tapestries, engravings, paintings. Creatures beautiful and horrific. Craven, skeletal demons attacking villages; perfectly sculpted predators, luring innocent maidens… it’s all murder, blood, sexuality.

Shelley carefully thinks through all the information she gathered throughout her time getting to know the Cullens. Esdras put down that group of guys only by himself. Then there's Edward who stopped the car, doing a huge amount of damage to the van, but not himself. No human can do such things. Can they?

And finally it landed on a picture of a handsome man biting a woman's neck.

Shelley reels back from the computer in utter disbelief. "It’s not possible…"

She grabs her water bottle to take a sip of water, but a frown appears on her face as she finds it empty. Directing herself out of her room, Shelley straightly walks to the kitchen. She struggles inside her mind to make sense of the only words roaming inside her head. 

Undead. Speed. Strength. Cold-skinned. Immoral. Drink blood. Vampire.

She fills her water bottle with some fresh water before heading back to her bedroom. But then stop right in front of her sister's bedroom as she hears a male voice inside her room. Charlie can't be home this early. He's on the night shift today. Who is it?

"Bella?" She knocks on her door and waits for her sister to open it.

Taking a full ten seconds, Bella finally opens it with a nervous smile.

"What took you so long?" Shelley raises her eyebrow, feeling suspicious.

"I was taking a nap." Bella reasons. "Do you want anything?"

"I heard a male voice from your room." The blonde replies suspiciously taking a tour of her sister's room. She visibly sees her gulping at her actions. She's definitely hiding something from her. Finally arriving at the conclusion that there isn't any guy hiding inside Bella's room, the blonde turns to her sister. "Do you want to say anything to me?" 

"No." Bella shakes her head before handing a pepper spray. "Ahm. One of Charlie's close friends had died from an animal attack. Waylon Forge. You remember him right? It's getting closer to town. He asked both of us to carry these with us."

"Okay." Shelley takes the pepper spray. "Goodnight."

"Goodnight." The elder twin replies, before the blonde walks out of her room.

Next day, Mr. Molina is teaching who knows what for the last forty five minutes and Shelley is sitting next to Esdras, who's staring at her like she's a piece of cake. It seems that he's trying to read her messed up mind.

As every day, the students including Bella and Edward start to clear themselves out of the classroom as the bell rings. Shelley finally decides to look at Esdras who is still staring at her confusedly.

"You alright?" He asks her with a worried expression now.

Without answering his question, she collects her stuff and then his, before grabbing this ice cold hand and dragging him with her towards the car lot. He silently follows her without even trying to question her. She takes out his car keys from his coat and unlocks his BMW. 

"We're ditching school." Shelley announces and gets into the driving seat and he slides into the front seat without arguing. She starts the engine and drives out of the school, then out of the town.

"You're impossibly fast and strong. Your skin is… pale white and ice cold. Your eyes change colour. And sometimes you speak… like you're from a different time. You never eat or drink anything. You don't go out in the sunlight. You can read minds." She rambles putting every together accelerating the car. "I've been researching the information I gathered all this time. Please tell me that I'm wrong. That you're not a-"

"Vampire." He cuts her off and she dramatically breaks the car in the middle of the road and turns to him.

They are now hovering in momentary stasis, him utterly exposed, her reality utterly rocked. She finally speaks. "Spill everything."

Shelley and Esdras are currently sitting on a river bank where he spilled everything about himself. He’s utterly vulnerable as he looks at her, searching her face for clues. 

"Are you afraid?"

"No." 

He smiles, charmed by her. But his smile fades, that torn look returns. 

"What is it?"

"I… don’t have the strength to stay away from you anymore."

She looks at him with her surprised and thrilled expression filled face. "Esdras, you don’t have to."

He’s drawn in by her encouraging gaze… but he closes his eyes, and turns back to the water. "This is wrong." He whispers almost to himself and then looks at her amazed, elated. "You don’t know how long I’ve looked for you."

"What are you talking about?" She asks him. "Is there anything else I need to know?"

He nods. "I think we should save it for another time."

"How long have you been like this?"

"Since nineteen-eighteen. That’s when Carlisle found me and Ed."

Shelley takes that in, it’s a lot. But it strikes her curiosity. "Where’d he find you and Edward?"

"In a hospital, dying of Spanish influenza. My parents had already died. So is Edward's."

"Wait! You two aren't really twins?"

"No, we're cousins." He answers. "But we grew up together, like real brothers with a strong bond. Just like you and Bella."

She feels like he's trying to hint at her more than his and Edward's bromance. But she just ignores it for the time being. "What was it like?"

"The word excruciating comes to mind. But what Carlisle did was much harder… not many of us have the restraint to do that."

"Didn’t he just… bite?"

"Not just. Our bite contains venom. And once we taste blood, a sort of… frenzy begins. It’s almost impossible to stop." 

"But Carlisle did?" 

"First with me and Ed, then with his wife, Esme. He found her in a hospital, as well. The others followed." He explains.

"Does someone have to be dying to become like you…?" She asks him, hungry for answers.

"No, that's just Carlisle. He would never do… this, to someone who had another choice." He replies.

"So Carlisle’s the reason why you hunt animals, instead of people." She asks him.

"Not the only reason." He stops, looks down at her, serious, with emotion. "I don’t want to be a monster."

She nods, understanding, resulting in him smiling.

"We call ourselves vegetarians, by the way... For our kind, hunting animals is like living on tofu. It keeps you strong but isn’t very satisfying."

"Can they all read minds, too?"

"Normally, every vampire has their own unique gift. But Ed and I share the telepathy gift. Unlike Ed, I can control minds too." 

"Cool."

"Yeah. But I don't use it." He says and she nods. "Alice can see the future. But her visions are very subjective. The future can change. Emmett is the strongest and Ed is the fastest."

"Have you been in relationships?" He asks.

"Yes. His name was Riley. Back from Arizona. Nice guy. We broke up. Mostly, I broke up with him. He did nothing wrong. It was my fault. Something came between us and I felt like I couldn't love him back."

Stricken, he sinks gracefully to his knees in the grass. His voice sounds devastated. "Jacob."

Her eyes widened. "How did you?" 

"I may can't immerse deeper into your head. Still I can pick a few things from the surface."

"You love this Jacob guy. Don't you?" He questions. 

She sinks down in front of him. "Esdras-"

"You’re cold. We should go." He walks away before she can say any more…