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CHAPTER SIX - WEATHER BOY

OVER THE NEXT several days, Nathaniel and Edward Cullen were nowhere to be seen. All the other members of the family showed up to school, occasionally talking to Laura, but they never mentioned the two boys. Bella had wanted Laura to ask them when Nathaniel would be coming back because she wanted to confront him. None of the Cullens gave them an answer.

The older twin had never gave it much thought, although she did find it a little strange. The only time that a member of the Cullen family went missing, was when Carlisle took them on camping trips on sunny days.

At the end of the week, she was glad to be able to sit down in the diner and eat some food. She made sure over the week to stay stocked up on brains, and this time made sure that they weren't bulimic. Laura didn't want to throw up again like at school.

Bella had decided to go straight home, so she dropped off Laura on the way and then left claiming that she could pick her up later if she wanted. Laura had denied and said that she could walk home.

Her eyes glanced around her sitting area as she waited for her order's check until they landed on an object that made the teenager furrow her eyebrows. Under the chair next to her was a builder's hat that someone had obviously left behind. Laura reached out to grab it and as soon as she did, her sight went fuzzy and the whole scene in front of her changed.

She was having a vision. One from the brain that she had eaten. It had only happened once or twice before and it was always of the victim's death.

The images were from the victim's own eyes, fast and flashing, Laura couldn't see much except that the victim was running on the pier and past the Grisham factory. What he was running from though, she didn't know.

Whatever things that chased him were fast, too fast to be human. They soon cut him off at the end of the pier and tackled him down, killing him.

"Laura! Laura, hey, snap out of it!" Cora waved her hand in front of the girl's face in hopes to get her out of her trance. The zombie gasped as the vision ended and she blinked rapidly. "You okay? You look petrified."

"Yeah. Yeah, I'm fine." Laura replied, clearing her throat. "Can I have the bill?"

"Sure, hon, here." Cora smiled and passed her the piece of paper.

"Thanks." Laura said, placing down the right amount of money on the table whilst also leaving a tip. She then pointed to the builder's hat, "Hey, uh, whose hat is that?"

"Oh that's Dan's. He left it here a few days ago, haven't seen him since." Cora explained, taking the money. "Why the sudden interest?"

"It's- it's nothing. Listen, I gotta go, the food was great. Thanks!" Laura rushed, hastily collecting her bag and proceeded to leave the diner.

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The blonde walked out the front door the next morning, completely sleep deprived. She had been up all night on her laptop, trying to forget about the vision she had. Charlie pulled into the driveway in their truck and walked up to them.

Just as Laura walked down the steps, her sister slipped on the ice and landed on her ass, making the palest of the two laugh as Charlie rushed to help Bella up.

"You all right?" Charlie asked, gripping onto her elbow.

"Yeah, I'm good." Bella replied and brushed down her trousers. "Ice doesn't really help the uncoordinated."

"Well in that case, I'm surprised it wasn't Laura who slipped instead." Their dad mused. "That's why I had some new tires put on the truck. Old ones were getting pretty bald."

"Thanks, dad." Laura smiled, getting into the passenger seat on the truck and rolled down the window so that she could hear the conversation still.

Charlie smiled at his eldest daughter before turning back to Bella. "Well, probably be late for dinner. I gotta head down to Mason County. Security guard at the Grisham Mill got killed by some sort of animal."

"An animal?" Laura questioned, thinking about her vision and how the things chasing Dan were definitely not animals. She shifted into the driver's seat so that she was still in view when her dad walked toward his cruiser.

"You're not in Phoenix anymore, girls." Charlie stated. "Anyway, I figured I'd lend a hand."

"Be careful." Bella and Laura said simultaneously, glancing at each other with a small smile when they realised what they did. It was a twin thing.

"Always am." Charlie assured them.

"And thanks for the tires."

"Yeah." He quipped, getting into his car. 

Bella turned around and raised a brow at her sister who was still in the driver's seat. "Move over, L."

"Okay, okay." Laura teased, shifting back to her original seat. "What if I wanted to drive?"

"Then we'd both be doomed." Bella laughed, getting in the truck and shut the door. "Close your window, it's freezing in here!"

The two girls drove to school, both separating for their fist class which they were both dreading, Biology. Bella went off with Eric, leaving Laura to wonder if Edward was back yet. She thought that she had seen his car in the car park when she arrived, but put it down to her imagination. The zombie had been seeing all sorts of things lately and she didn't know what to believe. Those brains were making her crazy recently.

Laura walked into her Biology class, her eyes quickly locking on the exact Cullen she was thinking about and sat down in her seat without a word. She didn't want him to think that his absence had got to her in some way and she had also been distract by the vision she had had the day before.

"Hello." Edward greeted, causing Laura to look at him. "I'm sorry, I didn't get a chance to introduce myself last week. I'm Edward Cullen."

"I know who you are Edward. I've been going to this school for years, I just left for a few months." She replied, resting her chin on her hand. "I'm Laura Swan. You might know me from all the gossip going around."

Mr. Molina walked between the desks to get to the front of the class and began the lesson, drawing Laura's attention from Edward for a few seconds, but she could still feel him watching her. "Onion root tip cells, that's what's on your slides right now. Okay? So, separate and label them into the phases of mitosis, and the first partners that get it right are gonna win the Golden Onion."

"Ladies first." Edward addressed and pushed the microscope in front of the zombie.

"How gentlemanly of you." She laughed, grabbing the scope and looked into it. As she did this she spoke to him, "So, you were gone for a week. Carlisle take you out of school for something or what?"

"Yeah. I was out of town for a couple days." He excused, being vague. "Personal reasons."

Laura wasn't sure she believed him, but she let it go and pushed the microscope back to him. "Prophase."

"Do you mind if I look?"

"Go right ahead." She shrugged, "Can't win that fancy onion by myself."

Edward looked down the lens and confirmed Laura's guess, writing it down. "It's prophase."

"Told you so." Laura mused. "I work in a morgue, you shouldn't doubt my area of expertise."

"So are you enjoying the rain?" He asked. Laura scoffed a laugh in reply. "What?"

"I tell you that I work in a morgue, and you ask me about the weather as if it's normal." She laughed quietly.

"Yeah, I uh...I guess I am."

"The rain's awesome. It might sound a little childish, but I love jumping in puddles." Laura informed him. He looked at her, taking in every detail that had changed about her over her absence. "I've always loved the cold, it's like the main reason that I live here other than my dad."

Edward picked up the next slide with a breathless chuckle and replaced the old one in the microscope with it.

"What?"

"Nothing." He laughed and looked into the scope, " It's uh- anaphase."

"Oh, so you don't mind me checking, weather boy?" Laura gave him a teasing grin, grabbing the microscope and looking into before he could answer.

"Sure."

She looked back at him with a nod, "You were right, it was Anaphase."

"Told you so." Edward smiled, repeating what she said with the other slide as he wrote the answer down. "If you love the cold and the rain so much, why did you leave the wettest place in the continental US for a few months and come back completely different?"

"It's very difficult to explain and I can't tell you. If I did, I'd have to kill you."

Edward laughed quietly, knowing that it would be possible. "I'm sure I can keep up."

"Well, to put it simply. I got in an accident that changed my life. Then my mom remarried and I decided it was finally time to come back."

"So you don't like the guy..." He trailed off.

"No, no. Phil's a good guy. My sister Bella and I decided they should have a place of their own so I suggested that Bella could come live back with our dad, Charlie." As Laura explained, Edward grabbed the microscope and it gave Laura the perfect opportunity to look at his face. 

He was pale, not as pale as her, but still paler than most. His features were angelic and if she could, she would look at him all day and marvel at his rare golden eyes. She remembered that some days it would seem as though they changed, but she knew that they didn't. It wasn't possible.

"It's Metaphase. You want to check it?" He asked, snapping her out of her daydream.

"No, I'm sure you're right."

❝I AM ALREADY DEAD.❞