I woke up not without difficulty.
Even opening my eyes seemed trouble. And I didn't even try to get up - the weakness seemed so overwhelming. I looked around, barely turning my head. The light hardly seeped in, but it was clearly not night, rather dim-light, so I concluded that it was, in fact, twilight outside.
I felt the weakness typical for concussion - it's not the first time I've been through one, so to speak. At the same time, I really wanted to smoke, but since I recognized the hospital ambience, it also became clear that I'm not gonna smoke anything in forseeable future. My gaze stopped by itself on a tiny young woman. I did not even think she'd come here, after all it's another state.
She's curled up in a chair.
Tomiko Koyama, my friend, the master of sarcasm, and a little obsessive-compulsive, jealous, but at the same time heterosexual and therefore definitely not into me in a romantic way. And always becomes quite a mean shit for me, because of Lillian's much greater obsession with me and Tomiko's love for cuddles.
I don't know at all why I manage to gather odd people around me, but perhaps the fact is that I try not to feel anything about anyone and it comes off as not caring about any oddities. With varying success, of course. And what I have is clearly an unhealthy mental state, so my oddities are being ignored back. Perhaps the fucked up are gravitating towards each other, fucked if I know?
So, Tomiko Koyama is in Forks, in my hospital room, and at the same time apparently kicked Lillian out just with her presence. It is extremely likely, by the way, that they had some dreadful fight, and in the end Tomiko won. Tomiko always wins, she has more logic in her actions.
"Tom," I called hoarsely and swallowed, but it didn't help my dry throat much. "To-mi-ko! Ko-ya-ma-sa-n!"
"Uh, hmm, mn," the incomprehensible sounds of awakening made me feel warm because of cuteness, but did not suit my goals. The result changed after I repeated my call. "Ah, what?! You okay, dear?"
It sounded exactly like she was asking her beloved hubby about how he's feeling, and since there is no male\female distinction in adjectives in English, I allowed myself a moment of fantasy. If I was a guy in this world, there would be no Lillian, no, sir. Tomiko was my first best friend, and the first girl in this world I allowed myself to fall for in a very childish way.
It was in fact childish, because at the time I was thirteen, and she was fourteen. It's still childhood, if I compare it to the my age of death of course.
When I tried to pull away from her after she explained to me that she doesn't feel that way about girls, and even my jokes about spaghetti couldn't save the situation, she just wouldn't let me. We became close friends even before my confession, and I didn't really know how to approach girls while being a girl. That's actually why we became friends first.
It was also odd, by the way, that she didn't do boyfriends - I asked, but I was disappointed by the answer like "I'm waiting for the one I'd love". That answer made me almost throw up internally, to be honest. Nasty shit, this fatalism of hers. But I knew her tastes - big boys made her drool. Not big like plump, but big, well, like Emmett, for example. When I dared her to adventure a bit, cus we often hung out together in those bars and clubs where I had to work, she just waved me off and said that she would do without meaningless drunk hookups. I didn't understand this girl, I still felt something odd for her. And occasionally wanted to strangle her, of course.
This friendship was doomed to continue and strengthen, if I keep the explanation short.
"I'm not okay, dear," I replied to her with all the sarcasm I could afford in such a state. "How long I been lying here?"
"As I understand you've been sleeping for four hours a week once again, Grapeshot. So you were that fatigued you had to sleep as long as you did. And I don't teleport, so yes, it's the next day already."
"Uh-oh, is everything that bad? You calling me grapeshot again?" I coughed.
"You moron, got hit by a minivan, do you even know how worried your father was?" she came to the bed and without any requests gave me some water in a glass. My hands did surprisingly well, I spilled only a couple of drops. "Do you even know how worried I was?! If not..."
She fell oddly silent and rubbed her closed eyes with the tips of her fingers. This gesture clearly showed her own fatigue, maybe not only mental, but also physical.
For some reason, it bothered me too much - she very rarely showed such emotions, such fragile state. She shouldn't be getting this alarmed. She watched me go to all my sports sections, where I consistently got limb injuries from mild to moderate severity every couple of months - it's not the first time I break my leg, let's face it.
What made her so alarmed?
"What happened to you?" I asked cautiously. "What's the matter?"
"It's these leeches," she muttered, but then her eyes opened in a weird horror at what she said, and my first suspicion crept in. "That is, uh, some kids of the local star doctor are not leaving your Lillian alone, quite a leech-like behavior! And you can't even push'em away properly - this Edward is constantly hanging around, I don't know what's on his mind, but..."
I scratched my neck thoughtfully while she was telling me all this, clearly trying to deflect from the topic of conversation - she always didn't give two shits about Lillian, and here she is, with such a concern in her voice. But I suddenly realized that I didn't feel that medalion she gifted me. The one that - it was hazy, but I still remember - was scorching my skin all the way to the hospital. After it started the burn I felt something entirely new.
And now it seemed I couldn't imagine to forget the scent of that... vampire girl? Twilight is a movie about odd vampires who sparkle in the sun, right? So if she's a Cullen, she's a vampire. After I was reborn in another life, it's hard for me not to believe in the existence of the supernatural if it's this obvious, so let's take it as a fact that the Cullens are indeed the same vampires who don't burn in the sun. So, since the supernatural exists, it is quite likely that I did not simply imagined those oddities either.
"Where's that talisman you gave me?" I said, unexpectedly firm even for myself. "And what did it do to me?"
"What?" Tomiko hesitated and clasped her hands in front of her, which clearly showed her unwillingness to betray her nervousness with her movements. "I don't know, maybe it was removed from you? You're not in the same clothes, Izzy. You were obviously undressed, everything was taken off. They dressed you in a hospital gown."
"It burned unbearably," I stated. "For a few I seemed to get enhanced senses, and there was that scent... The scent I can't seem to forget."
She gasped for a couple of seconds, trying to say something, but then suddenly deflated and covered her face with hands.
I waited a couple of minutes, drilling her with my gaze to convey the seriousness of my intentions, I had to find out everything.
"Well," she started smiling weakly, and this smile made my heart tremble, there was so much pain and peculiar humility in it. "It was to be expected. After all Lillian is..."
"What does Lillian have to do with any of it," I snorted.
Then I put down the empty glass and reached for Tomiko's palms; she was still standing next to the bed, and we were close enough friends that I wanted to shove her out of this painful state somehow, or at least find out what all the fuss is about.
"I'm talking about Rosalie, she was sitting next to me, I started to get sorta high on painkillers, but at the same time when it... that burning started, I couldn't seem to get away from her scent. As if everything focused on her alone. If it wasn't for this... it's like a physical impossibility to forget such a thing. So if it wasn't for this scent, I probably wouldn't remember all this mess. Tomiko, what was that?"
"No, no, no," Tomiko said rapidly, and now her painful expression became even more horrified. "You can't. This is the death of the soul. This... No, no, no. I won't allow you."
"Tomiko, snap out," I squeezed her hand. "In order to not allow something, you need to explain it to me, and be truthful. Tomiko, trust me. It's just a scent and some odd obsession, nothing more. You know me. I can overcome this."
"Yes, yes, yes, it's a surrogate state," she muttered. "It doesn't affect as much, not like that."
"What the hell are you talking about, Tom," I pulled her towards me and forced her to sit next to me, because she clearly wasn't going to wrest herself out. "Some order, okay?"
"Allright."
She stopped avoiding looking me in the eye, but the usual trusting eye-to-eye contact didn't calm me down this time, not in the slightest.
"I'll tell you everything," she firmly said.
Her pupils were elongated vertically.