Dark Connections: The Other Half

Disclaimer: This is an original story, all characters have been made up by me and in no way represent any people that are alive or dead. This is my story, I created it and have not ripped it off of anyone.

Warnings: Angst, Death, Language, MC,N/C, OC, Tort, UST, WIP

Chapter 1

Edward shot straight up in his bed, clutching the blanket that surrounded him. He had never had such a strong surge of emotion from anyone in his life. What made him so confused was that this set of emotions was blind. It hadn't come from anyone in the house. The emotions were so strong and raw that he could feel them as if they were his. He had never felt so terrified, so confused by emotions.

He felt his sister before he heard her running up the steps. She bounded into his room in a moment that wasn't so graceful. "Edward, are you alright?"

"Yeah, I'm fine, Jaicyn. Why do you ask?" he asked running a hand through his reddish blond hair.

"You were screaming in your sleep. You haven't screamed in your sleep in years. Not since-"

"I know. But I'm over that. We all are. That was years ago. Today was...I don't know. I'm fine." Jaicyn crossed her arms and raised her brows.

"No, you're not. This isn't the first time recently that you've screamed while sleeping. But this is the first time you've used your mouth. Usually you just scream in your head, like you have all week." she was quiet for a minute. "Who's the girl with long dark hair?" she asked cautiously. Edward looked at her for a moment before answering.

"I don't know anyone with long dark hair." he said, rolling out of bed. He picke dup a pair of faded jeans from the floor and pulled them on.

"I keep seeing her in your head. She's the only thing that's been in your mind this week." Jaicyn said to him. Edward covered his face with his hands, fighting not to yell at her.

"It's nothing. Only a person in a dream. Now could you please go so I can finish getting dressed?" he asked with his hands still over his face. He heard Jaicyn storm out of his room and slam the door. His hands dropped slowly from his face and he let out a long sigh. He knew that he had hurt her. It was all he seemed to be doing lately.

Ever since the nightmares had started he had been more closed off to her. And he knew how much it irritated her. Jaicyn was so used to reading his thoughts that he had become white noise to her. A constant buzz inside her head. Since he had learned to block his thoughts from her, she had become paranoid. Always needing to know where he was, what he was doing. Edward couldn't blame his sister for acting that way. How could he feel if he couldn't sense emotions anymore? probably just like she was feeling now. Scared, confused, worried. None of those emotions ever came around to Jaicyn. She was a very controlled person. But there were good reasons as to why he was hiding his thoughts: he didn't want Jaicyn to know how obsessed with the girl as he was.

This girl was all he could think about, dream about, and feel about. Her emotions were so fierce that he could feel every emotion she possessed. They had become so strong that his dreams were being consumed by her. All he wanted was to find her and figure out what she meant to him. What frustrated him the most was that he didn't know whether or not she was human.

Edward sighed again and moved to his closet. Every shirt was either black, red or white. He wasn't too fond on colors. He put on a white shirt and slid a black long sleeve silk shirt over that, leaving it unbuttoned. He could feel the night pressing on him like a blanket. There were times he wished that he wasn't so connected to the night. He was forced to live by it as he was made to die by it all those years ago.

He pushed that memory aside. It was one thing he tried very hard not to think about. Absently he rubbed his neck with his fingers as he looked for a pair of black shoes. Once finding and putting them on, he headed downstairs.

The entire house was empty except for himself and Jaicyn. The others were probably already hunting. It sickened him. Feeding off humans was only going to get them all caught. Besides that, he and Jaicyn had learned to survive off of animal blood. They had made an arrangement with the local butch to send the left over blood from slaughters to their house. They paid a good price for him not to ask why they needed the blood. Granted that Edward and Jaicyn were the leaders of their kiss, they were not going to force any of the others to drink animal blood. The las thing they wanted was a division in the kiss. What they had done was convince the younger, newer members to not hunt humans. Edward was very proud of them.

Jaicyn bounced into the kitchen after Edward, a little too happy considering how Edward had just acted. She had her red hair pulled back with a headband. The bottom of her hair was curled and bounced as she skipped into the room. She had on a red tank top with a low cut neck. Black fishnet arm warmers stretched from her fingers to her elbows. The black skirt was short, complete with lime green fishnet hose. A pair of black knee high leather boots with four buckles and a zipper from ankle to knee topped off the outfit. She also had on dark green eye shadow that made her green cat eyes stand out. Jaicyn didn't need make up to pale out her skin. She was naturally pale anyway.

"Why are you in such a good mood tonight?" Edward asked, opening the refrigerator and pulling out a bag of blood. He reached into the nearest cabinet and grabbed a tall glass. Pouring the blood into the glass, he looked up at Jaicyn, waiting for her answer.

"It's Halloween. What other reason do I need?" Jaicyn replied, stealing the glass from Edward and taking a long drink. When she handed it back to Edward he tapped his head.

"You forget. I know just how excited you are about tonight. Who is the lucky guy who gets you tonight?" he asked with a grin. Jaicyn's face blanked a moment before she returned a grin.

"Still Seth." She told him. Edward looked away before sitting his glass on the counter. When he looked back up, Jaicyn had moved to the kitchen table.

"You know what I'm about to stay, but I'm still going to say it. I don't approve of you hanging around Seth. You know that it's forbidden. The council could have your head if they found out."

"Which is why," Jaicyn said moving back towards him, "I am not in a relationship with Seth. We're just friends. I promise." Edward took a long look at her.

"For your sake I hope you're right. I don't want anything to happen to you. Not after...last time." Edward shuddered in remembering. He had almost lost his sister once. He wasn't going to let it happen again. Jaicyn embraced her brother and held him tightly. He was her strength as she was his. They needed each other to survive.

"You promise?" Jaicyn whispered into his ear.

"I promise." Edward told her. The promise. It was the one thing that could never be broken. For a vampire to promise safety and protection to another meant more to them than almost anything else. After Jaicyn had almost been killed, Edward had vowed never to let any harm come to her, and if it somehow did, he would find who hurt her and make sure that the last thing they saw was his face. There were certain times that Jaicyn needed to hear Edward say the promise in full. Now was not one of those times. She just needed to know he would come running when she called. Especially tonight. She had faith that Edward would give his life for her. That's how much she meant to him.

Jaicyn pulled away from him and gave a smile. "So what are you going to do tonight?" she asked.

"Probably just to out and make sure that none of ours get into too much trouble. You know, the usual." he smirked.

"You really need to have some fun every now and again." Jaicyn told him. Before he could say anything, Jaicyn fled from the room. First she was standing there and then she wasn't.

Edward downed the last of the blood, threw the bag away and left the house.

Miranda walked quietly down the streets of her town. She had to admit, Astoria was a very beautiful place. When she had first been left here, she had hated everything about it.

Her parents had died when she was very young, leaving her to go back and forth between foster homes. Her last move happened when she was fifteen. For the first time she had been happy in a foster home. Her foster parents were wonderful, treating her like one of their own. But when she turned sixteen, she had her first premonition. At first her foster parents thought she was trying to get attention. But when they didn't stop, they became scared.

The premonitions were never good either. They dealt with death and pain. Her head felt like it was splitting every time she had one. It was when she saw the death of her foster mother that they decided to get rid of her. They hired two men to kidnap her and take her anywhere they wanted as long as they didn't kill her. They wound up taking her to Oregon and leaving her in this town.

That was a year ago. A year ago tonight. On Halloween, go figure.

Randi continued to walk. Usually she liked to be left alone. But after the incident she had earlier that day with Daniel, she didn't want to be left alone. Daniel had had to leave an hour after that because of a family emergency. Daniel had a lot of those. But Randi didn't pressure him to tell her what all he was doing. He was one of her only friends and she didn't want to jeopardize that.

Randi looked down the street. It was completely absent of people. She stopped walking. It was Halloween, there should be tons of kids running around in costumes, trick-or-treating, and bugging their parents with a sugar high. But here on this street there were no children, no parents. There were no lights on at any of the houses. None of them. The hair on the back of her neck stood up and she felt instantly paranoid.

She could hear footsteps behind her. Or was she just imagining it? She couldn't be sure. Randi, using all of her will power, began to walk forward again. The steps behind her picked up pace. Randi walked ever faster. Then suddenly they stopped. Randi's heart was beating fast in her chest. Slowly she turned around to find that no one was behind her. She out out a shaky sigh and smiled to herself.

"You have got to be going crazy." she said. Someone jumped behind her and grabbed her arms. Randi screamed and twisted in the hands that held her. She recognized the face instantly. "Phillip! You know better than to sneak up on me like that!" She yelled. She leaned forward, putting her hands on her knees and trying to relearn how to breathe.

"I'm sorry, Randi." Phillip said laughing, "But you looked so wound up that I had to do something."

"You could have tried letting me know you were behind me." she said, lifting her head up just enough to look at him. The look on her face was enough to make him drop his smile.

"Daniel told me what happened earlier and I know that this is your first Halloween and I didn't want you to go all by yourself. With it being an important night and all." Phillip was the first person who had ever spoke to her. Which was only because he found her passed out along side the main highway leading into Astoria.

Miranda stood back up and linked her arm through Phillip's. "Thanks, Lip. I really didn't want to be alone tonight anyway."

"Anything for my girl." he said with a grin. "By the way, I like the outfit." he complimented, looking her up and down. Randi had on a white skirt with a white shirt, red thigh high tights and black shoes. A red cloak was tied around her neck with the hood drawn up over her head. "You look absolutely delicious as Little Red Riding Hood. But you're missing one thing."

"And that is?" Randi questioned cocking an eyebrow.

"The basket." His grin spread wider and Randi couldn't help but laugh.

"Well you look pretty spiffy yourself, Lip." Randi eyed him and took in his outfit. He was dressed as a traditional vampire. Black jeans and a black shirt, a black cape with white make up to make his face three times paler than it should have been. He had blood running from the corner of his mouth down to his chin. There were teeth extensions in his mouth to finish off the look. Seeing the teeth brought back a flash of her premonition from earlier. She stumbled over her feet and almost hit the ground. Phillip grabbed her elbow as she was inches above the pavement.

"Hey, easy now." He said pulling her back to her feet. "Are you alright?" he asked. Randi shook her head.

"Yeah, I think so." she made a death grip on his arm and realized again how empty the street was. It was helping. "just get me off this street. And please, no running." she added. Randi knew just how fast Phillip could run and she didn't want to throw up all over him.

He nodded and scooped her up into his arms like she weighed nothing. He walked fast enough to almost be jogging but doing like she asked, didn't run. Randi draped her arms around his neck and buried her head into his shoulder. It didn't take very long until they were on a bright, crowded street. Phillip let her back down but still kept an arm around her waist just in case.

"Do you want to explain what just happened?"

"I just had a weak spell. I'll be alright."

"You sure? 'Cause I can take you to a hospital." Phillip suggested.

"No, I'll be fine. Promises." she told him with the best smile she could muster. Randi looked down the street just in time to see a couple running towards them. The girl collided with Randi and took her to the ground.

"I'm so sorry! I wasn't paying attention." the girl said, helping Randi back to her feet. Randi nodded and looked at who had knocked her down. Her entire body froze. Randi had seen this woman before. She had been lying dead in a pool of her own blood, but it was the woman from her vision.

Jaicyn couldn't move either. Her hands were locked onto the arms in front of her. This was the girl! The one she had been seeing inside Edwards mind.

"You," they both whispered together.