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𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐄𝐈𝐆𝐇𝐓

"𝐇𝐄𝐘, 𝐁𝐄𝐋𝐋𝐀, 𝐖𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄'𝐒 𝐋𝐈𝐙?" The sound of Angela's voice caused the others to turn their heads upon the arrival of their new brunette friend. Although they found it strange that the two girls were insisted on coming to the beach in Bella's truck rather than in the two vans was a bit odd, but in a way Angela seemed to understand seeing is how Liz's last experience in Tyler's run-down vehicle did not end well for her. But when Bella approached the group as they were all getting out of the vehicle seeing is how they just arrived, the Weber girl became curious when one of her best friends were nowhere to be seen.

    "I swear, if you say she decided to stay home, I will up hold my promise and drag her here by her hair." Jessica hissed, looking over at Bella with a raised brow. The brunette girl just shoved her hands into her jacket pockets as the cold air made her shiver even more.

    "Uh, no - she's back at the truck. She needed a minute." Bella quickly replies, trying not to mention how she left the Chambers' teen puking outside her truck. Luckily Bella decided to park further back then where the others had, as requested from said girl herself.

    Liz was grateful that Bella was so willing to let her stay at her place last night, the blonde had informed Ester of her plans when she went home to retrieve her belongings. Though Ester was worried about her sister when she mentioned going to La Push beach the next day, she was happy Liz was so willing to get into a vehicle without the use of her medication. At least it was some kind of progress.

    The drive wasn't nearly as bad as Liz had expected it to be, as Bella took the back roads most of the way and only drove on the main roads when she really had to. Luckily the curly haired blonde managed to avoid a panic attack, but it was like as soon as Bella pulled up to the beach, a weight was lifted off her shoulders and when she thought she had made it without any problems, she opened the passenger door and vomited on the ground.

    Her nerves had become so racked with an anticipating fear that it physically caused her to become sick to her stomach. It definitely was not pretty, which is why she told Bella to go on ahead so she can recover, completely embarrassed and did not want her new friend witnessing her weakness.

    After finally pulling herself together, she makes sure she straightens herself out before zipping up her long black jacket and wrapped a blue scarf on her neck. If her idiotic friends actually go threw with their plans and surf today, she will literally give them the number for her neurologist so they could get a Head CT, it was that cold outside. Liz was always good at handling the cold, she has lived in this type of weather her whole life, so much that she actually preferred it over the heat, which is why California was a big change for her. Still, there was a difference between cold and dying of hypothermia weather and she knew that her friends are not going to last a minute out there in the ocean.

    Though as she nears her friends, Liz was not surprised to see that Mike, Eric and Jessica were already in the process of putting on their wet suits, while her only two sane friends sat with a blanket over them inside the van. Mike smiled brightly once he saw the light haired blonde approaching. "There she is, what were you doing back there? We were about to send a search team."

    "I was trying to find a good place to bury your body when you fall and break your neck in the waters today, Mikey. Save your parents the funeral cost," Liz bluntly says with a teasing smile, but Mike only rolls his eyes as the others let out a few chuckles. Bella moved over so Liz could squeeze in beside her, offering the girl some licorice and giving her a look as if asking if she was okay. Liz only nodded with a reassuring smile, accepting the delicious candy in hopes it would wash away the taste.

    Tyler jogged past them, surfboard in hand. "Hey, it's freezing. I'm paddling out, Coates."

"I don't know if it's worth it anymore." Eric voices while fixing his collar.

    "We drove all the way out here. I'm at least paddling out." Jessica tells them, trying and failing to tighten the back of her wet suit. She moved over to her blonde friend. "Lizzie, can you help me?"

    Liz stuck the licorice in her mouth to free her hands, reaching up to tighten it for her, patting her back when she was all set and then taking the candy out from between her teeth. "You guys are morons for going out in this weather. Like I would slap each one of you for being this stupid if my hands weren't freezing over."

    "You used to do the same." Mike states, pointing at the girl accusingly.

    The blonde only shook her head, her mouth curved into a smile. "No, I did it once, walk into the water until it reached my knees, before running back like a bat outta hell and shoving your ass into the water to get you out of my way in the process."

    Bella giggles at her comment, as did Angela and Jessica whereas Mike only rolled his eyes and frowned at the memory. Eric smiles brightly at the three in the car. "You guys are babies, it's not even that cold out."

    Bella and Liz shared a look, before both girls grabbed another licorice from the bag and pretended to have a small sword fight with them before eating them, chuckling silently to themselves. Angela nudges Liz with her foot from inside the care, the blonde leaning around Bella so she could see her dark haired friend a bit better. "So, I keep thinking Eric is going to ask me to the prom, and then he just doesn't."

    "Ang, you've been crushing on the guy for two years now and he's still oblivious. How do you expect him to see you as anything other than a friend if you don't tell him how you feel?"

    Angela sighs at her friends words, shaking her head quickly. "I'm just scared he won't feel the same. What if it ruins our friendship?"

    Liz gazed into her brown eyes, shrugging her shoulders nonchalantly. "What if it doesn't?"

    "She's right, Ang," Bella voices, joining in on the conversation. "You should ask him. Take control. You're a strong, independent woman."

    "As well as extremely intelligent and gorgeous as hell. If he can't see what a prize you are, then he really is as dumb as he looks."

    "Really?" asks Angela with a warm heart.

    Both girls nodded. "Yes."

    Jessica came back over to Liz when Eric jokingly undid her zipper and strap just to piss her off, the blonde rolling her eyes and zipped it back up once more, her petite friend blocking her view and not realizing the group of Quileute boys approaching them until she heard a familiar voice. "Bella!"

    "Hi, Jacob. Guys this is Jacob."

    Liz maneuvered herself around Jessica upon hearing the familiar voice, looking up to meet the boy who she hasn't seen since she left for California and smirked when noticing he hasn't changed a bit. "Damn, Black, I thought we discussed getting a haircut. What happened?"

    When brown met blue, a lopsided grin broke out onto the younger boys face, going around the Stanley girl towards the curly haired blonde in the van, giving her a tight hug, basically lifting her from her seat but placed her back down. "So the rumors are true, the great Liz Chambers has finally returned. Gosh I missed you!"

    "Yeah, you missed me so much, I've been back for a month and you nor Billy came to see me."

    Jacob's jaw dropped in shock. "A month? Danny only told us you came back like only two weeks ago."

    "She did, don't listen to her," Jessica tells them, which Liz gave her a surprised look.

    "Has it really only been two weeks?" The red-head nodded and Liz's eyes widened in shock. "Wow, I really need more self-awareness."

    Bella looked between the two in confusion. "How do you guys know each other?"

    "His brother is engaged to my sister."

    Angela smiles at the mention of her sister's extremely handsome fiance. "Your Danny Black's brother?"

    Jacob only let out a stiff laugh, going to hang back with his friends who all remain silent behind him. "Not by choice."

    "At least Ester managed to convince him to cut his hair off, though it was never as long as yours." Liz laughs, reaching out and flicking back a piece of his long hair back that hung in front of his face, knowing it would only annoy him. He playfully brushes her off, laughing at the girl but soon his expression twisted into a sad frown.

    "How are you doing?" The other's winced when hearing his question, as if waiting for an explosion from the Chambers' girl, but Liz only bit her tongue to keep back a chuckle from their sudden nervous expressions. She understands their hesitant reactions, she wasn't exactly the kindest towards her friend clique like she should have been when they would ask about her well-being. She still wasn't, but Liz knew she can't keep chewing people's heads off for caring, regardless of how much it annoyed the crap out of her.

    Which is why she kept her answer short, forcing a smile onto her lips. "I'm as good as I can be."

    "So, what are you doing, stalking me?" Bella, being the understanding saint she is, decided to change the subject when Jacob came and leaned against the van near her.

    The younger teen scoffed. "You're on my rez, remember? Are you surfing?"

    "Definitely not."

    Jacob chuckles softly. "What about you, Liz?"

    "You know I would, but then who would keep my blankie warm?" Liz says in a high baby tone, clutching her nice warm blanket to chest.

    "You guys should keep Bella company. Her date bailed." Jessica randomly brings up, completely causing Bella to turn a shade of red. Liz knows all about her friend's personal invitation towards the one Cullen brother who seemed to be messing with her almost as much as his brother was with Liz. Granted, Liz had no idea Bella also extended the invitation to the youngest Cullen brother like she had, Liz was grateful she did hers in private and out of the earshot of her gossiping friends.

    "What date?" Eric basically jumped in, catching the attention of Mike as well. Liz only shook her head and hoped their little obsession with the new girl in town will die out soon. She just hopes Eric will open his eyes and realize what a great girl Angela is and she also hopes Mike doesn't try to once again to win her over and get back with Jessica, though she was glad to hear that they were going to the Prom together, which was a start.

    "She invited Edward." Both Jessica and Angela laughed, but Liz only gave them both a warning glare.

    "It was to be polite, that's it." Bella mumbles, fiddling with her licorice between her fingers. Jacob looked at Bella with a blank expression, as if he too held a little jealousy along with Mike and Eric upon hearing the news. Bella is becoming very popular among the boys in this area, Liz was sort of impressed but also annoyed at the same time. Not at Bella, but at the fact that she has such overbearing friends.

    "Which is more than you can say, Jess." Liz resorted, trying to get the girl to back off on the topic. Liz tried her best not to think of the Cullen family all day and since she woke up this morning, it was pretty successful. But of course, Jessica had to ruin it and her mood turned sour once a flash of gold orbs appeared in her head and now she couldn't get them out.

    The night prior, Bella and Liz spent most of it talking about possibilities to explain what had happened during the accident at school and also even tried to piece together Liz's memories of the Highway 19 accident. Unfortunately the topic of that day was still too sensitive for the Chambers' girl's brain to handle. It had only been three months, not a lot of time to recover completely despite spending two of those months in California. As expected, the girls had no leads because Liz is still keen on the idea that they are a secret family of superheroes that fights crime in the night. It was a stupid guess, but Liz can't help but think it would be pretty cool if that were true. She really loved the Incredibles movie that came out last year, so that might be playing with her brain just a little bit.

    "I think it's nice that she invited him," Angela voiced. "Nobody ever does."

    "Yeah, 'cause Cullen's a freak." Mike spits with disdain. Liz lowers at him, not knowing why she was angered by his bleak statement but kept her mouth shut.

    "You got that right." One of Jacob's quiet friends agrees.

    "You guys know that the by declaring the Cullen's freaks only makes you pompous assholes that judge others just because they are slightly different, right?" The curly haired blonde only received strange looks, mostly from Jacob's friends and an embarrassed look from Mike, as Liz has had to shut his mouth multiple times whenever his enormous ego got in the way. The other girls only smiled a bit proudly, as Bella was more focused on how the Quileute boys were so quick to agree.

    "Do you guys know him?"

    The angrier looking male didn't really give her an answer, just a blank stare and said words that didn't really make sense. "The Cullen's don't come here."

    Everyone was silent after that, the others finally going out to the water to do what they came here to do, as Angela wanted to go and watch, leaving Liz with Jacob and Bella by the vans. Jacob's friends went to go talk to some other Quileute boys, one who Liz recognized to be Embry Call, as he was one of Jacob's best friends and had joined in on a few dinners Liz would have with Ester at Danny's father's house. She knows he has another friend named Quil whom she's never met, but Embry's mother seemed to work late nights and would go to his friend's house whenever he was sick of take out.

    "You girls care to join me for a walk?" Jacob decides to offer after a while of awkward silence, thinking that it would be better than hanging sitting there the entire beach trip. Liz was on her feet almost immediately, already getting fidgety from sitting still for too long and was going to walk by herself if they didn't want to.

    "I thought you'd never ask. Let's go."

    She didn't bother waiting for the other two, making sure to grab Bella's bag of licorice and wrapping the cotton blanket around her shoulders before taking off. She could hear the two slowly approaching them, and when she noticed they weren't going to pick up their pace anytime soon, she slowed down so they were able to catch up. "You guys walk like snails, and I'm the one limping in a knee brace."

    Bella rolled her eyes, watching as her blonde friend takes another bite of licorice. "If I would of known you'd eat them all, I wouldn't have brought another bag."

    "Oh, you can never bring candy around Liz and expect it not to get hijacked. She has a huge sweet tooth," said Jacob, causing the Chamber's girl to smirk.

    "Sugar is a weakness of mine, I am always happy to admit it and will never apologize for it!"

    Bella snickers in response. "I'll have to remember that next time."

    "So, Jake, are you gonna explain what your weird ass friends were talking about back there?" asked Liz, changing the subject as she knew Bella was itching for her too. As much as she hated to admit it, she was curious too.

    The Quileute boy gave her a peculiar look. "What do you mean?"

    "Don't be daft, Black."

    Bella decided to take over at that point. "What she means is, what did they mean about, you know, 'The Cullen's don't come here'?"

    It seemed to finally click in Jacob's head, nodding his head stiffly. "You guys caught that, huh? I'm not really supposed to say anything about it."

    "Hey, I can keep a secret." Bella smirks, giving him an all too friendly smile. Liz frowned at her brunette friend, noticing how much closer she was leaning towards the boy. Of course she knows exactly what Bella was trying to do, it was as clear as day that Jacob has developed a small crush on the Swan girl, as most boys seem to have. But Liz isn't sure how she feels about Bella flirting with him to get information. She knows Bella probably doesn't mean any harm by it, but Liz considers Jacob to be a friend and hopes he doesn't read too far into harmless flirting.

    So she decided to butt in, but in her usual, snippy Liz way that Jacob was used too. "Yeah, Black, what happened to trust?"

    Blushing slightly at Bella's comment, he gave in, knowing he could trust them. Especially Liz, considering how she already knows some of it. "Really, it's just like an old scary story."

    "Well, we want to know."

    Jacob sighed, but gave in anyway. "Okay, well Liz, do you remember my father talking to you and Ester a while back about how the Quiluetes are supposedly descended from wolves?"

    "Yes, but I also remember Billy also had one to many that day."

    Jacob rolled his eyes. "Yeah, he did but he wasn't making it up. It's an actual legend."

    Bella quirked a brow. "What? Like, wolves? Real wolves?"

    "Yeah. Well, that's the legend of our tribe."

    "Okay," Bella trails off. "So what's the story about the Cullen's?"

    "Well, they're supposedly descended from this from this enemy clan. My great grandfather found them hunting on our land, but they claimed to be something different, so we made a treaty with them. If they promised to stay off Quileute lands, then we wouldn't expose them to the pale faces."

    Liz kicked a petal as she tried to process this information. She doesn't remember anything about Billy mentioning this or the Cullen's. Just the wolves part of the story, something about Ephraim Black protecting his tribe from enemies, which now she is piecing together that it has something to do with the Cullen's, which didn't make any sense.

    "I thought they just moved here," said Bella, who seems almost as confused as the blonde girl.

    "Or just moved back." Jacob replies with a shrug, causing both girls to share a curious look before looking back at the boy.

    "That doesn't make any sense." Liz finally voices, looking over at the younger boy. He only chuckled under his breath.

    "I never said it did."

    A loud scream startled them, the three looking over to see Eric chasing Angela with a large snake he found teasingly. Liz seemed to zone them out, going into a daze and thinking about the new information Jacob just talked to her and then started thinking about Jasper possibly being there at the Highway 19 accident, trying to piece together what all that meant. She hadn't realized Bella and Jacob stopped too far behind her, until she heard an all to familiar voice, that caused a chill to go down her spine.

    "Jared, stop being a pussy and throw the damn ball!"

    Liz's head snapped towards the sound, looking over to see the familiar boy she knew all too well and could recognize anywhere. The boy who she hasn't seen since he told her that they were no longer friends and left her alone during one of the worst moments of her life. One she used to lean on more than anyone, even more the Ester at one point, as he was there during the situation between Ester and their parents. The one who had given her the special charm bracelet she couldn't bare to take off her wrist and the one who she thought was going to be her maid of honor at her wedding despite how much he hated that term, but it was always okay whenever he would say she would be the best man at his. The one person who broke her at the time she thought she couldn't be broken anymore.

    Paul Lahote was different, to say the least. She remembers when she first saw him weeks before the accident, how shocked she had been by his larger stature and fresh new tattoo. His hair was never too long like most Quileute residents, but it still had been cut shorter than usual. He looked the same as when she finally found him after all his time of ghosting her, but somehow seeing him like this was still astounding, especially how much he seemed to like having his shirt off. He has always been a bit egotistical, as most of her male friends were, but he used to be good at knowing when to wear a shirt, especially in this fucking cold ass weather.

    As if noticing eyes on him, Paul looked back when going to throw the football, but paused when his brown eyes met her cold blue ones. Liz's heart suddenly felt heavy and she could feel her throat close up, trying her hardest not to show too much emotion upon seeing him again. His friend Jared, who Liz only knew whenever she would go over to the rez to visit Paul, seemed to notice her as well and went to go grab the infamous Sam Uley. Upon seeing the older male approaching her ex-best friend with determination written all over his face, Liz turned on her heal and passed Bella and Jacob who she hadn't realized were trying to get her attention.

    "Let's get out of here." She breathes out heavily, moving past the two of them and trying her hardest to push herself to go as fast as she can. She could feel the tightness in her knee lock and a little pain started to creep up, but she ignored it, wanting to put as much distance from her and this beach as much as possible.

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𝐓𝐎 𝐒𝐀𝐘 𝐋𝐈𝐙 𝐖𝐀𝐒 tired would be an understatement. Not only did she barely get any sleep the previous night, but it seemed that coffee was on short supply in the Black-Chambers residence this morning, so she was forced to drive her bike to school running on two hours of sleep and zero caffeine in her system. She honestly doesn't know how she managed to make it to school without passing out. She probably would have fallen asleep at one of the stop signs on her way there if a car behind her didn't honk her awake. Unfortunately, she couldn't exactly blame it on any nightmares that could explain why she was up all night. No, this time, it was her own fault. And Bella's too, seeing is how the two girls were on the phone together until midnight, neither one realizing how late it was until Bella's father came into her room and told her to hang up the phone.

    Bella seemed to be very hung up on what Jacob had told them yesterday, wanting Liz's help to try to figure out exactly what he meant. Liz had to push away the part upon seeing her ex-best friend before everything and focus, once again going over everything with Bella and trying to figure out what is the mystery behind the Cullen family. Though, even after the two girls hung up the phone, Liz found herself sitting at the computer, trying to figure things out but then started to remember the drunken story Billy told her years ago, about the wolves legend. It was a tribe secret, one he wasn't supposed to tell anyone, but Billy considered Ester family and figured that Danny would tell her no matter what, if he hadn't already.

    She remembers something about a Third Wife and how she sacrificed herself so her husband could defeat some enemy. Then she remembers Jacob saying how the Cullen's are part of an enemy clan, and she started thinking, what if this was the same clan? Did the Cullen's know something about the Quileute legends? All these questions swarmed inside her head last night and the youngest Chambers girl found herself repeating these same questions over and over again, which is why it made it nearly impossible for her to get any sleep because she couldn't shut her brain up long enough to relax. One question bothered her more than most. What did Billy call the enemy?

    For the life of her, she can recall what he said and she hates how at the time she wished she wasn't all that bored by the story, but that was only because she found the legend comical and absurd. All she could think of was that there was no way anyone could be descendants from freaking wolves, it made no sense and at the time, Liz found it laughable.

    The day seemed to drag for the young blonde, as she barely paid attention in any of her classes, which wasn't anything knew but this was due to her trying but failing not to pass out in them. Luckily, she managed to rest her eyes in study hall, one where she was surprised when Emmett never showed up for their session, but was silently grateful as she was not in the mood for calculations at that precise moment. But it did raise a red flag, as she wondered exactly where he could possibly be, seeing is how he has only been tutoring her for a weeks now and he's never missed a session. But that might have to do with the fact when she walked outside on her way to lunch, she noticed how the sun shined brightly in her eyes, and the once freezing weather was actually much warmer. It all made sense then.

    There were only a few times when the weather would randomly throw the citizens of Forks a bone and give them a nice warm day. Liz only wished she brought her sunglasses, as the sun was much brighter than it was this morning and seeing is how pretty much everyone was spending lunch outside today, she knew she wasn't going to have much choice when she saw Jessica sitting on top of the table, head back as she soaks up the sun and Bella sitting close next to her. Mike and Tyler were playing with a hacky-sack, Angela and Eric were nowhere to be seen.

    "Hey," Liz mutters once reaching the two girls, sitting next to the brunette who gave her a warm but distracting smile. Liz didn't really pay it any mind, turning to her red haired friend who was trying to tan as they don't know when they'll get another beautiful day like this ever again. "Jess, did you bring your sunglasses? The sun is hurting my eyes."

    "Yeah, hang on." She says, reaching to the ground to grab her blue backpack, pulling out her Coach black sunglasses and handing it to the girl. "Please be careful, they are new and very expensive."

    "I'm sure your daddy will buy you a new pair, so stop fussing." Liz resorts, taking the frames and putting them on immediately, finally able to stop squinting and her eyes relaxing. Another side effect that came from the horrible incident, is that the sun is very sensitive to her eyes, which is why she basically wore her sunglasses every single day while in California. She then looked over at Bella who wasn't even paying the girls any mind, clearly distracted and looking around the courtyard absentmindedly. "If you're looking for Eddie, you're wasting your time. He's not here."

    Bella turned her head to the blonde. "What do you mean?"

    "Whenever the weather is nice, the Cullen's disappear," Jessica is the one to answer.

    "What, do they just ditch?"

    Jessica shook her head. "No, Dr. and Mrs. Cullen yank them out for, like, hiking and camping and stuff. I tried that on my parents. Not even close."

    "Because your parents know you'd rather jump off a cliff before staying the night in woods with nature as your restroom and no hairdryer." Liz resorts, causing the red-head to chuckle, nodding in agreement.

    "Touche."

    "Guys!" The sound of Angela's voice caught their attention, said girl moving quickly to sit next to the blonde. "I'm going to the prom with Eric. I just asked him. I took control."

     "Oh my, god, finally!" Liz smiles widely, pulling her dark haired friend into a tight hug. "I'm so happy for you! I knew Eric had some brain cells left in him."

    The girls laughed, Angela leaning over to hug Bella who was just as happy for her as the blonde was. "I told you that would happen."

    "Are you sure you have to go out of town?"

    Liz looks at Bella, remembering the excuse she had told her she made to Mike when he asked her to the prom and how she convinced him to ask Jessica instead. It was also because Edward seemed to be so insistent to know why she was going there during their trip to the plantation. Bella actually does plan on going to Jacksonville to see her mother now that it was a defiant excuse, so she wasn't exactly lying.

    "Oh, yeah, it's a little family thing." Bella mumbles, fiddling with her barely eaten apple.

    Jessica smiles at Angela now that she has a date. "Okay, we should go shopping in Port Angeles before all the good dresses get cleaned out. Liz, I know you want to go to that dress store where your sister got her blue one at, so we'll just hit there first."

    Bella's eyes sparkled with interest. "Port Angeles? Do you mind if I come?"

    "Uh, yeah, I need your opinion." Angela says as if Bella was already going to go no matter what.

    Liz gave a sullen look and tilted her head down. "Actually, I'm not going."

    "I'm sure we can come up with a time that suits us all."

    Liz only shook her head. "I mean, I'm not going to the prom."

    Both Angela and Jessica did a double take, Jessica's jaw dropping and closing repeatedly looking like Liz's old goldfish Dallas, who died within five days of her care due to the fact that she forgot to feed him. "What do you mean you're not going to prom? That's all you've been able to talk about since freshman year."

    Angela grabbed her arm tightly. "Wait, is this because you don't have a date? Cause there is plenty of time for that."

    The curly haired blonde only sighed, brushing her hair over to the right side of her shoulder when it got in her way. "No, it has nothing to do with that."

    "Is it because I asked Eric to go with me and ruined our plans to go together if both of us were left dateless? Cause if that's the case, I'll go tell Eric that I can't go with him."

    "If you do that, I will punch you in the face so hard, you won't be conscious in time for the prom." Liz sarcastically threatens, giving her a playful glare. "Look, I just don't feel the same way about it like I used to, okay? I don't know, maybe it has to do with the accident or the fact that my parents won't be there to see me in my dress like they were supposed too. It just seems pointless to me now, not important. I'll most likely be miserable the entire time, date or no date, and I don't want to bring everyone down with me. So I'm not going, okay? Can we please just drop it?"

    Before the girls could say anymore, the bell rang, ending lunch and Liz was the first to get up and go back towards class. She could hear Jessica calling out to her, something about giving her back her sunglasses, but Liz just pretended not to hear her and go back to class, planning on giving these back to the red-head once the school day was over.

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    𝐋𝐈𝐙 𝐋𝐄𝐓 𝐎𝐔𝐓 𝐀 loud, exaggerated sigh once walking through the front door of her home, dropping her backpack down on the ground and hanging her helmet on the coat rack, knowing Danny was going to lecture her about putting it there once again but she did not care at the moment. The dramatic noise caused the oldest Chambers sister to look up from her textbook, where she sat curled up and her almost equally curly hair like Liz's pulled back into a messy bun, sporting sweats and a large mug what Liz assumes is her favorite mint tea in her grasps.

    "Well that's not a happy sigh," Ester points out, resulting in Liz to chuckle bitterly before plumping down in the recliner across from her. "What to talk about it?'

    Liz only rolled her eyes before looking over at her sister. "Jessica is pissed at me because I told her I wasn't going to prom. That, and I may or may not have bent her new sunglasses."

    "What?" Ester's questions in surprised, sitting up better upon hearing the news.

    "It was an accident! They are totally fixable, just have to be careful not to break them-"

    "Not the damn sunglasses," she waves the younger girl off. "What's this about you not going to prom?"

    Liz only shrugged. "I just don't wanna go anymore. Please don't ask me why, I'm not in the mood."

    Knowing the exact reasons why she was having a sudden change in heart about something she used to be passionate about, Ester did as she asked, though was still quite disappointed at the news. "Alright, but it is a shame. Maybe you'll change your mind later?"

    "Fat chance of that."

    Ester smiles softly. "You never know."

    "Are you off work today?" Liz inquires, completely changing the subject.

    The oldest Chambers' sibling shook her head. "Only at the diner, cause I had classes in the morning. But they called me into the theater tonight, Joanne's kid is sick so she called out."

    Liz has always wondered how Ester is able to go to school, do all this homework and work two jobs all at the same time. Liz was always the one who was better at multitasking, but it seems Ester might be taking that title right from under them.

    Silence consumed the Chambers sisters as Liz started to think about the few days, her mind racing as she recalls the previous night and why she was so exhausted. Then she looks over at Ester, a thought suddenly popped into her head and she wonders why she didn't think to ask her this before. "Hey, can I ask you a weird question?"

    "The weirder the better. Shoot."

    "Do you remember a while back when we were having dinner at Danny's dad's place, and he started talking about the tribes legends and how they were descended from wolves, or something like that?" Liz's blue eyes met her sisters, whose eyebrows furred in thought.

    "Uh, yeah, sort of. What about it?"

    "Do you remember how he was going on about an enemy clan? The ones who killed the members of tribe people?"

    Ester nodded in remembrance. "Oh yeah, the Cold Ones."

    Liz sat up upon hearing what her sister's words. "The Cold Ones? Do you remember what exactly he said about them?"

    "Why the sudden interest in Danny's ancestors?" Ester curiously questions.

    Liz bit her lip, trying to think of a good excuse. "I - uh - I ran into Jacob at the beach yesterday and he was telling Bella and I about the legend, it just didn't make sense."

    Albeit Ester could tell there was something more to the story, she decided it was good enough of an answer. "Um, I don't remember much, he slurred his words the entire time, one of the many reasons Billy hates drinking. But I do remember him saying that they were predators, and monsters. Killed innocents and were abominations."

    Liz's legs shook with anticipation. "Is that it? He didn't say anything else?"

    "It was all a bunch of nonsense, Liz. Even Danny said so himself," said Ester, trying to laugh it off but saw the disappointment in her younger sister's features when her face fell, sighing as she tried to think back. "I think he also said something about them drinking the blood of their enemies, about them being blood drinkers or something - I don't know, Lizzie. It didn't really make any sense."

    Liz took in her words and froze upon realization, her head snapping up until she met her sisters confused gaze as shock started to consume her. "Blood drinkers? You're sure that's what he said?"

    "Yeah, I think so." Ester breathes, for which Liz gets up immediately from her seat and advancing towards the stairs. "What's all this about, Liz?"

    "Nothing. I-I was just curious, is all. Thanks for your help, Est." She calls out in almost a stutter, gripping the railing and using it to pull herself up the stairs as quickly as possible, ignoring the pain in her knee once again begging her to take it easy. She immediately entered her sunkissed orange bedroom, going over towards her computer desk and clicking on her laptop. As she waited for it to load up, her heart and mind raced as she was finally putting the pieces together, even if those pieces sounded absolutely mental and she might even consider checking herself into a psych ward for twenty-four hours just for having this ridiculous thought.

    But it all made sense. About unexplainable speed and strength, cold to the touch, pale skin, gold eyes, strange behavior when around others. This was completely insane, Liz knew how this sounded, but nothing else made sense to her right now. What about the accident? What about seeing Jasper admitting to being in Seattle the day of it? What about his reluctance to answer anything about it in general? What about the flashes? It would all make sense if her theory pans out.

    Brushing away the fact that she was totally freaking out at the moment, Liz immediately went to Google and typed in one word that might explain everything that has been happening recently and will finally answer more questions she has been building in her head, but also knows will only create more as time goes on.

    With a shaking hands, Liz typed the word that caused chills throughout her body.

    Vampires.

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- Omg guys we reached 25.8k reads! I truly can not BELIEVE this, this means the world to me and thank you so much for loving Liz as much as I do and for being so sweet with all the feedback! It is so appreciated! I know I've been terrible with updating this and I'm so so sorry but I have not given up on this story so don't worry!

- This is an extra long chapter, just for you all! A lot has happened in this chapter. Liz isn't as dumb as people thinks, she is good at piecing things together, it's math that really kicks her ass.

- What does everyone think? No Jasper in this chapter, but don't worry because next chapter you'll be seeing plenty of him *insert wicked laugh here*. Please let me know your thoughts? Also, does everyone like the long chapters? I can try to shorten them if they are too much, just let me know.

- Also, I never do this, but attention all Harry Potter fans. If you love that series almost as much as I do, please go check out my new Harry Potter story, 'If Only' and my Remus Lupin fic 'Everlasting'! I normally never promote my other stories on my fics but I'm actually really proud of those two and would love to spread the word. It would be much appreciated if you checked them out, but no hate of you don't, not everyone is a Potterhead like me!

- Other than that, thanks for reading! I love you all! ❤️