『 CHAPTER x: THE GOSPEL TRUTH ! 』

MONSTERS ARE REAL. VAMPIRES ARE, TOO. Two things that June Swan was absolutely sure about, the two things she spent the entire night fussing over once she grabbed that book that Bella had gotten in Port Angeles while her older sister was asleep. Those two things she knew for a fact. The third was still a bit fuzzy, she was working on it, at length. Edward Cullen and his family were vampires; their ages varying, but all older than what they claim to be. The legends weren't legends and the tall tales and scary stories she heard as a little girl on the Reservation about the stone people who slaughtered tribes and tore families apart wasn't so fictional or tall in the least bit. June felt a digging desire to understand more, she needed to know more. It finally made sense. If she hadn't been slowly losing her mind in the past month, she would've thought the word vampires was just some form of goth expression ( no offense to the goths ) or something like that. She would've laughed and told herself, okay June, take a nap you maniac. She would've never believed her own mind. She still doesn't, but this conclusion was summed up with every single fact she had — why the weren't in school on sunny days, why they usually missed blood typing labs, why they were so cold to the touch. Stone-like. June wondered what the tribe thought of her then. Did they know about the Cullen's? Was that why they wanted her to stay away from them?

Her palms her glowed more times in that night of her unrest than ever before; she painted and painted, only coming up with the same things: golden eyes and red eyes and black eyes, all murderous, all hungry and all out for the hunt. June didn't know why her mind told her hands to paint what it saw, she wondered where she'd ever seen those eyes before ... she didn't like the realization.

              June had a headache of unanswered questions and she was going to have them answered one way or another. After waking up earlier than usual, she rushed for a shower and then proceeded to be dressed in her cheer outfit, the Friday cheer off's coming quicker than they usually do, and pulled her think dirty blonde hair into a high ponytail, slapping the large navy blue and gold bow on top. She was out the door before anyone was even awake in the neighborhood it seemed; she checked her phone and the time on it. 6:32.

                  She immediately typed in the number she already remembered so easily, waiting for the line to pick up. "Hey. It's me. You up?" She says in the phone. A confirmation from the other person has her nodding. "The park near Sully's. I'll be there in ten."

June's mind was racing with paranoia the entire way to Sully's, the animal that killed Waylon was still loose and she'd be grounded until her death took her if Charlie knew she was walking out alone. It was a ten minuet walk there — until she saw it, the familiar brush of the park caved into an opened area where a Shiny Volvo was parked and its owner leaning on the side of it. Edward looked like some model as he always did, his strange colored bronze hair tousled in a way no normal person could it in a matter of ten minuets. His arms were crossed, and his eyes ... eyes she had been staring at all night in her painting stared right back at her.

"Juniper." Edward greeted immediately.

     "Edward." June replied, looking at his face and not as surprised as she would've been before her knowledge on how he looked so beautiful. "Another morning person."

Edward furrowed his brows together, reading her thoughts. "You haven't talked to Bella." He says factually.

"No," June shakes her head. "I wanted to hear your side. Before I made conclusions."

"And what are you conclusions, Juniper?" Edward asks softly, standing straight.

June shrugged. "I've let the van thing to rest," She told him. "I never believed you could've stopped it with your bare hands. But Bella was convinced ..."

Edward blinked at her, his eyes searching for any truth. "And you?" He asked.

"I thought it was an adrenaline rush," June told him softly, a light breath leaving her lips. "What else could've it had been? And I never would've thought twice about it has you not continued to push Bella and pull her into whatever mysterious mask you put on."

    "I told Bella it was best if I stay away from both of you," Edward relayed the words she already knew.

"But you didn't," June says. "You stayed. Which I was fine with, I wanted to be friends ... if that's even what we are. Bella might dig this bad-boy streak you've got, but if your gonna continue something with her, I need to make sure you won't screw with her emotions anymore. You need to prove you're worth it."

"How am I doing so far?" Edward humored her.

June gave him a look. "Not so good, Casanova." She replied dully.

Edward this time, sighed. "I wasn't lying. It is better for the both of you if your keep your distances. For both of your sakes."

"You don't get those choices for us," June said defiantly. "We make our decisions. I respect Bella's. She respects mine. You should start."

"Did you really come on your sister behalf?" Edward questions, his eyes darkening. "Or is there something else you want to know, something that's been eating at your thoughts?"

   Something told June to walk away. That she didn't need to hear it; she was better oblivious. Because she had to know that those words would change her life, what was left it anyway, forever. June might've been better off turning around and walking away, continuing to live her life as if she never even had a single thought about what she consciously knew already.

"You're different." June says. "You're not ..."

"Human?" Edward finished for her.

June shook her head, she could barely speak. "No."

"Bella figured it out," Edward said more to himself than to her. "Your sister is intrepid. She confronted me more strongly than you are."

"Because if you are what I know you are," June says lowly, her eyes never leaving his. "I don't think the smart thing to do, would be to confront you on anything."

"You've always been the smarter one," Edward says to her, the corner of his lips lifting.

June shakes her head. "Not now, I'm not."

"You agree then? That your sister and you should stay away for good?" Edward presses.

"I think you should tell me, the truth." June says defiantly. "Bella's not gonna stay away from you. I see the way she looks at you ... the way you look at her. People don't get chances like that, if ever. But she's my sister, she's all I have. I need to know you won't—"

"Kill her?" Edward prompts stiffly.

There it was. That was the fear; if he was what June knew he was, the fear wasn't towards him, but of what he could do with what he was. He could kill Bella, then she'd die. Or maybe he'd kill her ... maybe he'd kill her and this was how she's die.

"I'd never hurt you, nor Bella." Edward speaks up, as if reading her thoughts. She frowns. "If you spent half as much time paying attention to Bella than you do obsessing over what isn't real ... you'd know reading thoughts is my forte."

June paled, trying to have her mind blank. "You read minds?" She asks stiffly.

"A natural born gift," Edward smiles as if there's some secret joke she doesn't know. "When I was human ... I had the impeccable ability to, read people. Now, it's amplified. Yours is like a broken radio, you can hear some bits, but it's static otherwise. And I can't read your sisters mind, its complete silence."

June tried not to dwell on the when I was human part of his sentence. "When you were human ..." She repeated, glad to know he couldn't fully read her mind, she would get over the fact that she even had to think those words later.

"The word means nothing." Edward tells her, her blue eyes so much like the ghost he hasn't been able to bury. "Say it, Juniper."

"You can't be," June shakes her head, tears escaping her eyes. "I'm just losing my mind. I'm gonna die insane ..."

Edward frowned at her reaction and began to walk closer. "You're not dying. You're not insane, either." He tells her, his hold hand reaching out to touch her cheek, a face that haunts his mind every waking moment he's alive. "I am a vampire."

June couldn't live obliviously anymore. She wasn't blinded to what others were; she wasn't normal herself either, to be fair. She lived in a world where those scary stories were the gospel truth. There was nothing closer to extraordinary than the being standing in front of her, the sun speaking out slowly through the cracks of the brush and falling upon his skin, which she would've thought burned, but instead casted an ethereal glow that had every fiber of his body sparkling like he was the most precious diamond in the possession of the wealthy. June stared in tender awe, reaching to touch his hand and feeling the terrible chill it had to it. It sent a rocket of shivers down her spine. Edward pulled away softly, smiling down at the familiar awe her sister had given him when she saw for the first time too. The sunlight went as soon as it came.

June looked at up him through thick, dark lashes. "How old are you?" She asks, her curiosity was going to be the death of her.

Edward smiles, "I've been on this earth for one-hundred and eight years, Juniper."

June blinked at the answer. He was the epitome of eternal and she ... she was the definition of not enough time. Long after she would be buried Edward Cullen would be alive. He'd live and see more than she ever would. But maybe, only maybe, he could turn someone like him? An immortal making another just as endless as he was. June wondered what the outcome of her sanity would turn out to be if she knew she didn't have to die— she had spent so long craving it, wishing for it, the only doubt she ever had in her mind was a boy as young as her with infinite amount of possibilities, with skin russet toned and eyes toffee. She'd live forever to see those eyes and yet, he wouldn't, and she'd never have a life worth living.

June stared at him, thoughts rushing around her mind, "I need to hear you tell me one thing," She says to him. "Then all my doubts will be gone."

"Anything."

"Do you love my sister?" June asks firmly.

Edward didn't hesitate, "I love her."

June smiles. It was a nice sentiment to hear. "Now I need you to promise me something else." She goes on. "Give me your word that Bella won't ever be in danger because of you. You don't understand how much she means to me, how much she means to our dad. If anything happens to her ... I'll blame you."

"Bella's life is my purpose," Edward vows with his pretty words. "I give you my word."

June Swan doesn't know whether to believe a monster. But she does anyway. She trusts a blood drinker, a cold one. An enemy of her tribe, the reason for such malice and hate towards his family his because of what they are but June doubts any of the people on the Reservation would be so bold in their prejudice if they knew exactly what the Cullen's were. Bella didn't care, June knew. June knows how much Edward means to her, he had embedded himself in the deepest crevice of her being and it would take a lot to scrape him away. Edward tells her more as they walk through the park; how his family are vegetarians. How they don't sustain themselves with human blood but animals rather. It keeps them sated well enough but the desire for human blood was always there.

"Why do my people hate your family?" June asks after a moment of silence. They're still walking and her hands are in her windbreaker pocket. "Do they know what—"

"Some of them think they do," Edward says to her. "They believe the stories and their ancestors. It makes them convinced they know, when they've never seen one of us to fully convince them. Faith is powerful for your tribe."

"I've heard the legends," June says. "It's why I figured it out; because of the stories. What they say, what they mean ... I put it together. They say they hate your family because you took something from them, more specifically, the old Tribe Leader Ephraim Black."

Edward pauses at the words, his eyes glancing to hers and she nods. "Took something?" He says, smiling humorlessly. "I never took anything from Ephraim Black."

"They're convinced you did." June says. "Or that your family did."

"What I supposedly took was not Ephraim's to own," Edward says through clenched teeth. His eyes were more golden as they looked upon her. "She was never something that could be taken. Your tribes silly stories twist what history was, what truly happened."

June stilled, his words filling her ears. "She?"

"Her name was Melanie Capote," Edward says the name and it looks like it physically drains him to say. His golden eyes meet hers and he looks on the verge of ripping something apart. "A Quileute girl, she lived on the Reservation. She was engaged to the Chief, to Ephraim."

"A Quileute girl ... and you took her?" June breathed out, her brows furrowed in confused as she tried to piece together what she remembers.

"Melanie wasn't stolen. She came to us, my family, on her own accord," Edward says stiffly.

"She came to you?" June asked dubiously.

      Edward smiles, his eyes a million miles away as if the past was so hard to remember. "When my family and I first came to Forks, I met her. She was ... she was beautiful. But sad. Very, very sad. But she accepted us wholly, she didn't care what we were she never let herself be indulged with the stories the tribe shoved at her."

"She knew what you were," June realized. "She wasn't ... she wasn't scared? Why would she run to you—"

           "Melanie didn't want to marry Ephraim, she said they were making her. She ran away from them and begged for sanctuary with my family and myself." Edward explains and his eyes are hard with the words.

"Why didn't she want to marry him?" June frowned.

Edward looks at her, probably thinking how naive she was. June was so young, only fifteen. "She was sixteen. She didn't want to marry anyone," He explains reasonably. "She was scared; people run away when they're scared."

Melanie Capote. June never heard that name before. She wondered why. Such a scandal, a stolen Quileute girl and the stone cold boy sweeping up and saving her from someone she didn't want. If there was anything her people were good at, it was telling stories. She never heard it and apparently no one else had either, because at La Push, when Jacob and she were telling Bella about the ( once ) absurd stories that were in fact real, he had no recollection of what was stolen from Ephraim, his great-grandfather. She couldn't wrap her mind around what would make a girl not want to marry someone that the tribe that set her up with, her grandmother Iris had always told her that the fates knew what they were doing and to go against them was the ultimate death wish.

"But why would she go to you?" June pressed, uncaring of how insensitive she sounded. "I mean, no offense. You're great and all but — she could've gone anywhere else in the world. Why did to go to you?"

"That's the question isn't it?" Edward's lips quirk softly. "Melanie wanted to become one of us. She begged Carlisle to turn her so that Ephraim wouldn't want her anymore. My father wouldn't. She begged me but ... but not all of us have the strength that my father does. I wasn't going to make her suffer the life I had to. She let it go, so we thought. And we became close friends and nothing more, but Rosalie loved her very much, they were sisters in everything but blood. But your ancestors found out and thought we, the cold ones, had stolen Melanie away as a slight to them."

It made June wonder, "So then what happened to her?" She asked lowly. "What did the tribe do?"

Edward stopped walking and picked at a tree, he didn't face her. "Eventually she went back. There was a war brewing between my family and the tribe ... she knew what would happen."

"And she married Ephraim," June guessed.

"No, that might've been a better fate," Edward hums to himself and shakes his head. He meets her eyes when he says, in the softest voice she had ever him use. "But she didn't think so. Melanie ate some poison berries on her last night. I saw the funeral from afar ... saw the gown they put her in, saw the pyre they lit for her."

She killed herself. Maybe that was why Melanie Capote was never a name to be heard; such a tragic life people would think of if they knew the story. Maybe she'd visit her grandmother and ask what she knew of it, if she knew anything. But there was always the question Iris might ask, where did you hear this from? And that was another case and another secret that June couldn't divulge.

"I'm sorry." June tells him. "You should like you cared for her a lot."

"She was my best friend," Edward says simply. "I always hated myself before her ... after her I've learned to somewhat accept what I am. She showed me my worth, if I have any."

For the first time since her realization of what Edward Cullen was, this was the first she ever thought about what being a vampire might've been like. Loneliness and self hatred. Hating what you are and the monster you believe yourself to be, how easily it is for you to take a life of another and suffer zero mortal consequences except for that of your sanity. June never pitied Edward Cullen more in that moment.

"I think you're pretty great," June smiles. "I mean, you love my sister so ... you're already great in my book. I don't think you're a monster at all."

Edward stares at her, the blue in her irises piercing his soul, or the whole where it should've been, "Your kindness is above me." He tells her. "Thank you, Juniper."

June smiles genuinely, "It's really no problem. You make Bella happy. If she accepts you, you gotta let her." She says with a sigh. "Otherwise, how can you live so long and never have a life to cherish?"

"Until Bella tells me she no longer loves me, I'll never have to know," Edward says.

June hopes she doesn't ever know either, but her life so far has been inanely slow. She'll die knowing that she got to know a world she never would've known otherwise, had she not learned the truth. But she won't die not knowing. Maybe there was a silver lining in that.

•—•—•—•

JUNE WAS FUSSY ONLY BECAUSE BELLA woke her up on the only day that she could sleep in. The reason, was because Edward had invited Bella to meet his family and by extension, herself. June was quite indifferent about meeting the entire family, even though she had met the Cullen siblings, their mother and father would be there all together and they were all fucking vampires that would be housing a guest party for two humans. There was a joke in there somewhere. She had got ready and slid on a yellow sundress, her dirty black converse making her look like DIY Halloween costume for a sunflower or something but June wasn't in the trying kind of mood, not when she was so mentally exhausted. She still had questions about herself; about the strange happenings that we're going on with her. She didn't want to burden anyone, particularly her grandmother, who would just tell her it was apart of her surefire death that was awaiting.

A knock on her door sounded, "June, Edward's here."

June brushed through the last bit of her hair before opening the door, gesturing for Bella to go in. "Nervous?" She looked at her big sister.

Bella looked like she was going to be sick, but she smiles as best as she could. "Is it obvious?" She answers back with a groan. "He told me we had nothing to worry about but what if they don't like me? I mean, I already get that vibe with Rosalie—"

"Wait, what the fuck," June laughs. "You're nervous about if they like you, not the fact that we're two humans that will be in a home of vampires? I hope you got your Buffy Summers game face on if this thing goes sour—"

"June, no, I'm not worried about that." Bella shakes her head. "I trust them. I trust Edward, I mean, I love him. He wouldn't bring us into danger."

June narrows her eyes playfully, "Sure, Jan." She grabs her bag and nods to the door. "Just know that if I become a happy meal for Dracula and his family, I'm haunting your ass because for some reason I'm starting to think you attract death. Like, literally."

Bella smirks, "My boyfriend is, well, dead."

June laughs again, "Nice. Classy. Buffy Summers is shaking in her boots at the thought."

Their dad was still at the station, working harder than ever to investigate Waylon's death. June couldn't help the pain in her chest when she noticed her dad favorite chair empty and all the beers in the fridge untouched because he hadn't even been home long enough to drink one. Her dad had lost his best friend; she understood. But she hoped he didn't, to all the spirits that listened, from the teen ones to the elderly, that Charlie didn't sink into a further hole when her death came knocking.

When they got out of the house, they saw Edward waiting by his car. He subtlety greeted June, more enamored by Bella, kissing her cheek and she saw her older sister blush ten shades of crimson. June waggled her brows and Bella looked away. They got into his shiny Volvo, and headed to a part of town June would've probably never known about had she not come after all. Bella and Edward mumbled amongst each other in the front as June sat in the back, admiring the forestry that they passed, thinking how minuscule her problems were compared to the wide world she lived in, the world that had only gotten larger with this knowledge of a hidden world within theirs. The Cullen house came into view, Edward parked the car and got off, opening the door for Bella in a blur that had June's palms feeling warm.

  Before she could open the door, Edward had done it already, and June mumbled her thanks before she caught sight of the home, "On this episode of MTV's cribs, we've got a rich vampire who's been holding out on his future sister in law." She looked at him accusingly.

    Edward chuckled lightly. "Well, what were you expecting? Coffins, dungeons, and moats?" He asked the Swan girls who were in awe over the house.

The house was not a specific color, it just had more neutral theme to it. Large, see through, floor to ceiling windows — and from the view, June could tell it was beautifully furnished. She turned back to Edward and shrugged and they walked up the steps to the house.

     "Not the moats." The swan girls said in unison, making Edward let out an amused sigh.

     "Not the moats," He repeated with a smile, opening the door for them to step inside the house.

June shrugged off her jacket, tossing it where Edward put Bella's. June suddenly felt like the ultimate third wheeler, the epitome of the fifteen year old tag along little sister when she saw Edward slip his hand into Bella's, leading her away as he looked back to her, gesturing him to follow her. Once they got in, June was hypnotized by an amazing smell. Only when they entered the room did June realize they emerged the kitchen — her favorite room of any house. June caught sight of Dr. Cullen and a beautiful woman, who smiled at her warmly as they chopped slices of chicken and tossed them into the pan.

A flash of blonde flooded their vision and June immediately recognized the statuesque figure as Rosalie; who gave her a large, brilliant smile. "June," The blonde excitedly greeted, noticing she was holding a bowl of salad. "You're here."

"Hey, Rose," June greeted back, her blue eyes shining but her expression hesitant. She saw Rosalie's face fall and decided then, "Hey, look I understood why you couldn't tell me what you were, why you acted that way. I'm not mad, really, it wasn't a secret I should've known anyway."

"Really?" Rosalie smiles beautifully.

"Truly." June humored her. "You're forgiven."

    "Does that include me, Junie?" Emmett smirked as he waltzed out from behind June, going to Rosalie's side as he kissed the blondes temple.

   "And us?" A melodic voice chimed, Alice walking towards them as Jasper held his hand, posture tight as he smiled. Alice looked to both June and Bella. "We're all sorry from keeping it from you both, it was ... necessary. But, it looks like you figured out yourselves."

    "Very smart girls." Carlisle grinned, nodding to them.

June smiles to the doctor, "Hey, Mr. Cullen."

"Oh, please, call him Carlisle," A woman's voice said lightly, her tone warm. The stunning woman beside Dr. Cullen came out from behind the island in the kitchen and smiled brightly. "Now, let me meet the two girls who've been such a topic lately." The woman said lightly, her tone warm, her eyes transfixed on hers. "You must be Juniper." Then she looks to her sister. "And Bella."

"Girls, this is Esme, my mother for all intents and purposes," Edward introduces kindly.

    The woman, Esme, beams. "I hope you're hungry." She tells them.

"You girls have given us an excuse to use the kitchen for the first time." Carlisle told them, preparing the food.

June nodded at that, her stomach growling by the smell of the food. Edward told Bella something about vampires not being able to survive off of human food — obviously — and that they rarely needed to eat. June shuddered at the thought of never eating again, the horror.

"I'm starving," June says honestly. "And if Bella is gonna spend some time here, a lot time, then so am I and you can be sure that this kitchen will be used profusely." June said, only half joking, but it made the Cullen's smile widely nonetheless.

"Oh, we'd love that. Today we made Italiano." Esme excitedly told them, wiping her hands on her apron. She gestured to the table. "Come and sit."

June thanked her and passed Rosalie who was holding the bowl of salad as Emmett cut up some tomatoes and whatnot. June gestured for Bella to sit down beside her as well.

Esme chuckled with a nod, looking back to Bella with an awaiting smile. "Bella?"

Bella went to say something but Edward cut her off. "She already ate." He explained.

There was a silence. June felt the tension suddenly. Why didn't Bella give her food at home, then? "It's because I know you guys don't eat anything so —" Bella explained lamely.

June turned her head, jumping slightly at the sound of glass breaking. She looked over to Rosalie, who was shaking with anger as lettuce and glass surrounded her heeled shoes. "Great." Rosalie scoffed, eyes blazing as she looked to Bella. "Perfect."

"Rose." Carlisle warned.

"Just ignore Rosalie, I do." Edward says to Bella, his eyes darkened when they meet his adopted sisters'.

"No, Edward, you're right," Rosalie spoke sarcastically, eyeing Edward as if June and Bella weren't even in the room. "Let's not pretend like this is dangerous for all of us."

June furrowed her brows, wondering what could possible be dangerous for a family of vampires that we're all incredibly capable of defending themselves.

"We would never, tell anyone—" Bella began, in defense for June and herself.

"Rosalie knows that," Carlisle assured.

The blonde beauty nods slowly, her eyes flickering to June and for a painful moment, it was like remembering the ghost she couldn't seem to bury was really there again. "Yeah, I do."

     "Juniper, Esme will make you a plate to take home," Edward says and nods to his mother who gives her son an assuring smile. "Let me show you and Bella around."

June watches as Rosalie stares at her for a moment longer and nods to Edward, taking Bella's hand who had outstretched it for her. June looks back at Rosalie only once more to see Esme telling her to clean up the mess she made. June's walks further up the steps, drowning out Edward explaining the ridiculous amount of graduation caps they have hung on the wall, when she feels her palms begin to glow. She balls them into fists.

"June?" She hears Bella's voice from the top of the stairs.

June catches her reflection in the mirror on the wall. Her face almost doesn't seem like her face— the reflection is older and her hair is longer and darker, her skin more rich, russet almost. June blinks and it's back to normal again.

Thankfully, her eyes are blue.

"Going."

note: 👀👀📝📝📝🔍🔍🔍🔍 soooo june knows about vamps & melanie capote ... mentioned before by rosalie ... 🌚🌚🌚 you'll learn more about it within the next part. can twilight finish already :----//// if it feels like I'm rushing thru this, but i am, lmao I want new moon to start and my crossover with my girl chelsea to start, want my wolf pack to come in more :))