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CHAPTER TEN - THE TRUTH IS OUT

EDWARD SOON SUGGESTED that he should take Laura home because it was getting darker by the minute. She agreed easily wit the idea, she knew how much her dad worried when she was out at night. As they were driving back through the quiet town, a large truck drove by carrying a very familiar boat strapped onto the trailer. It triggered a vision almost instantly.

Waylon was listening to his Walkman from his headphones, singing along happily as he tinkered with his boat. He jumped from a sudden noise.

"Hello?" Waylon called out cautiously, scratching his nose. He looked around and pulled his headphones down onto his neck to listen better. "Joe?"

Waylon leaned down and started the engine to his boat, quickly detaching the rope from to dock. A red headed woman appeared out of nowhere and grabbed the boat, pulling it back with strength that wasn't humanly possible. Laura couldn't believe what she was seeing.

"Oh, hello." Waylon greeted with a smirk, looking at the woman. 

A blonde man soon jumped from the beams on the ceiling and into the boat, his body language threatening. "Nice jacket."

"Who are you?"

"It's always the same inane questions." The blonde said eerily with a creepy head tilt. "Who are you?"

"What you want?" The red head added.

"Why are you doing this?" The blonde continued. A dark skinned man appeared on the boat in a blur, sitting down calmly. Laura could see now that they all had hungry red eyes, but nothing like the ones that she had in zombie mode. somehow, she found theirs much more frightening.

"James, let's not play with our food." He tutted. The red head kicked Waylon, forcing him to fall backwards before the three of them pounced on him, biting into his flesh and draining him of all his blood. This led Laura to believe that they were vampires. If they were zombies, they would have cracked his skull open.

Laura gasped as she finally came to her senses, her surroundings going back to normal. Edward had stopped the car on the side of the road and was looking at her worriedly, it was obvious that he had tried to snap her out of her daze by shaking her shoulders as his hands were still gripping them. She barely even registered how cold they were.

"Laura? Are you alright? You've been staring into space for about five minutes." Edward asked, concerned for his blood singer. She had the same look on her face as Alice did when she got visions, but Edward shot the thought down. Laura was human, she couldn't have visions to that extent.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Just uh- had a really strange déjà vu. That's all, nothing to worry about." She lied. Edward nodded not quite sure he believed her and then started the car again, taking her home.

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Monday came around in all it's sunny glory, a rare occasion to the residents of Forks. Laura loved the cold, but she was thankful that the sky had cleared up and allowed students to have a break from the constant gloomy weather.

Bella and Laura were sat with Jessica on a bench outside, who was leaning back with her eyes closed as she took in the sun's warm rays. Bella looked around, searching for any sight of Nathan. However, Laura wasn't looking for Edward, she knew he wouldn't be there. He never was when the sun came out.

Bella had ran into Jacob in La Push on Friday and he had told her the Quileute legends and the cold ones.  As a result, Bella had told Laura.

"He's not here." Jessica announced, breaking the comfortable silence. "Whenever the weather's nice, the Cullens disappear."

"What do they just ditch?" Bella asked, playing with the apple in her hands.

"No. Carlisle and his wife take them on camping trips and all that other stuff." Laura replied, eating some homemade spaghetti with her secret meatballs (they were brains).

"Tried that on my parents. Not even close." Jessica sulked, throwing her head back with her eyes closed.

Angela came running over with a large grin on her face. "Guys! I'm going to the prom with Eric. I just asked him and I took control."

"That's great Ange!" Laura smiled.

"I told you that would happen." Bella said, caught in a hug with Angela.

"Are you sure the both of you have to go out of town?" Angela asked in a sad tone.

"Yeah. It's a family thing." The zombie lied smoothly before Bella could open her mouth and say the wrong thing.

"Okay, we need go shopping in Port Angeles before all the good dresses get cleaned out." Jessica advised Angela. Bella's ears perked up at the name and Laura knew why. The brunette wanted to buy a book from there about the Quileutes.

The bell rang and Bella quickly asked, "Port Angeles? You mind if I come?" 

"I'll go too. I like looking at dresses, it's a guilty pleasure." Laura spoke up. It was a lie, she just wanted to keep an eye on her sister who she knew was bound to get into trouble in a place they'd never been before by themselves.

"Yeah! I need your opinion." Angela said like it was obvious.

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"I like this one." Jessica announced, holding up a light pink dress with a flowing fabric. "But I don't know about the one shoulder thing."

"I like this one."

"Yeah I like the beading."

Both Bella and Laura had zoned out, the latter thinking about Waylon's death. She just had a feeling that those people that killed him were somehow connected to the Cullen family. 

Nathan's strength and speed were similar, if not the same as the three things that killed the fisherman, which probably meant that the rest of Nate's family, including Edward, most likely had the same abilities. But what were they? Surely something supernatural like her. Or vampires like the red head and her two companions.

Laura returned to the real world when Jessica said, "Okay, I like this one. It makes my boobs look good."

A group of four boys walked passed, tapping and wolf whistling at them through the window. Laura glared at them before rolling her eyes and ignoring them all together.

"Oh my god." Angela scoffed.

"That is uncomfortable." Jess mumbled.

"Oh that's disgusting." Bella said quietly.

"Bella, Laura, what do you think?" The peppy brunette asked, trying to gain their attention. The two Swan siblings looked up from their seats.

"It looks great."

"They suit you." Laura complimented.

"You said that about like the last five dresses." Jessica retorted, looking in the mirror.

"We thought they were all pretty good." Bella laughed softly.

"You're not really into this are you. Even though you said you were." Angela directed her last sentence to the platinum blonde.

"I just really wanna go to this bookstore and Laura wanted to come with me." Bella addressed. "We'll meet you guys at the restaurant?"

"You sure?" Jess asked.

"Yeah. We'll see you later." Laura assured, picking up her bag with Bella trailing behind as they left the dress shop.

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They made it to the bookstore and Bella bought the book she wanted, promising to let Laura read it after she was done. Laura had always had a thing for myths and legends, they fascinated her. She figured that if zombies were real, maybe other supernatural beings were as well.

The sky was now pitch black as the two girls walked down the street and into a narrow alleyway. It was creepy and Laura was on high alert, ready to protect Bella if anything happened.

Her senses went crazy when she realised they were being followed by a group of drunk men, probably the same ones that whistled at them outside the dress shop and she pulled Bella's hand to make her walk faster in the opposite direction that they were going.

"Saw you two in the dress store."

"Hey! Where are you running to?"

Bella and Laura were cut off in an empty parking lot, the men surrounding them.

"Hey, hey, hey. Where are you going?" One asked, grabbing a hold of Laura and pulling her to his chest. Another did the same to Bella.

"Come on, hang out with us." A man said in Laura's ear. She could smell the alcohol in his breath and she almost gagged.

"Let go of me!" Laura shouted, knocking her head back and hitting the man square in the face.

"Don't touch me." Bella pleaded as she was pushed around

The man that Laura had headbutted glared at the blonde and punched her face, knocking Laura to the ground. He climbed on top of her, retrieving a knife and grinned down at the disoriented girl. Bella saw what was happening and began shouting in hopes that someone would hear.

The man on top of Laura grinna, leaning down closer to her and running the edge of the blade across her cheek, moving it closer towards the top of her jeans. Rage began to course through her veins at the realisation of what was about to happen, her eyes transitioning into a horrifying red. His eyes widened when she grabbed the blade with her bare hand, her own blood now coating it as she ripped it from his grasp with an inhuman strength and threw it aside.

She flipped them over with ease and now she was the one pinning him to the floor. He cried out in agony, his pleas for help going unaided as she began to slam his head against the ground by his hair repeatedly until his head cracked open. When Laura was sure he was dead, she grabbed a handful of his brain and feasted like a rabid animal, she couldn't stop even if she wanted to.

The sound of Edward's car pulling up beside her and Nathan Cullen compelling the frightened men to forget what happened and leave went unnoticed by the ravenous zombie as she dug into her meal.

"Laura?" Bella asked shakily, slowly approaching her sister who was still leaned over the dead man, digging into his skull and shoving handfuls of brains in her mouth. Blood was surrounding the blonde, some of it was hers.

Edward stared at the scene with wide eyes, never in his life had he seen such rage come from someone who was seemingly defenceless. He had seen it all from reading the dunken mens' minds, though it had been a bit hazy. He'd seen her overpower the man, impale her own hand with a knife without any sign of pain and smash his brains. The vampire honestly didn't know what to think. How could Laura be capable of something like that?

He could hear Laura's heavy breathing as she stayed facing away from them, she was trying very hard not to attack them. It would kill her if she ever hurt her sister. Bella called her name again, and this time Laura turned around slowly, her eyes still red and full of hunger.

Edward's eyes widened at the sight of his blood singer. Her pale face covered in thick red blood, her platinum hair a mess, the palm of her hand had a slit through it that he could see straight through. Blood was dripping down her chin with little pieces of brain matter carelessly dangling from her bloodstained lips. She looked like she had bathed in a bath filled with blood and he was surprised that he and Nathan hadn't frenzied with so much human blood around them.

Laura regained control at the sight of her sister's frightened state and the arrival of the Cullen boys, her eyes returning to their original hazel. She wiped her mouth with her sleeve in an attempt to look less savage, but it hadn't done much in the slightest to make her look normal.

"Bella." Laura breathed, taking a step forward. Bella backed away, scared of her very own sister who had just killed someone.

Laura's barely beating heart sank at the realisation. The truth was out. After months of trying to hide it to keep Bella safe, she knew. And now she was scared to death by her own family.  

Seeing the way the brunette sister was reacting, Nathan took action, "Bella, get in the car. Edward will stay with Laura."

Bella got into the car, trying to get away from the scene and her sister as fast as possible. Nathan soon joined and they drove off with a screech of tires, leaving the mind reader and the brain eater alone with a mangled dead body.

❝I AM ALREADY DEAD.❞