Thunderstorm

Cullen Residence... Later that day from "The wilderness".

"Gee... it sure is boring around here!" James exclaimed, before he smelt something familiar. Very familiar, but it made his mouth water. A stench was coming from the distance, but he really liked it.

James flew with unparallel speed down the stairs, stumbling from inexperience at high speed, and making a large racket, but finally he bounded to the front door when he smashed into it. Somehow, the door was able to resist him. If he had wanted to, he'd have broken it, but he didn't apply much force as he wasn't expecting it.

"Gah!" he said angrily as he collided and bounced off the antique woodwork.

Alice emerged from her room, having heard the large noise, "James? Was that you? What's wrong?" she asked, a bit scared. Oh dear God, he's gone rabid again! AHHHH!

"I smell something nice outside! But the door is blocked! Could you help me Alice?" he said, eagerly bouncing up and down in front of the door.

James ran back a little to leave Alice space, but he had gone into a pouncing stance, ready to speed out of the doorway when ready. The smell seemed to be having less of an effect, but his mind taunted at James to quickly chase after it.

Licking his lips, he scratched the floor a little to get ready.

Alice glanced at James, thinking, What's the worse that could happen? It's probably just a deer or something...

Then a vision hit her like a ton of bricks:

"Hi Alice!" Bella said cheerfully, walking up the drive to the Cullens' with Edward in tow.
James snapped, snarling and lunging at her.
"No!" Alice screamed, trying to hold him back.

"Um, maybe I should go check it out," she suggested, opening the front door and flitting through it quickly; it almost seemed instantaneous. She closed the door firmly on James, turning her attention to what was outside.

"Okay..." James said, but he had started to slowly crawl along the ground ready to leap after it.

"IT SMELLS SO GOOD!" James said as he could barely contain himself from his excitement. He lunged forward a little in the air before moving back.

"Is it safe?" James asked, eagerly awaiting Alice's clearance from the door.

The smell seemed to be getting fainter, but James was sweating from resisting the temptation to smash through the door and Alice.

"Bella, I'm telling you this for your own safety. Please go away," Alice told Bella.

"What? Why?" Bella asked worriedly.

"Just go!" she yelled before turning to Edward, "James is back, and he wants Bella."

"Oh..." Edward said quietly, dragging Bella off to his Volvo. "Why's he in the house?"

"He's good now, I'm teaching him how to be a Cullen!" Alice explained hastily. Edward shrugged, determined to ask questions later, and got into his car and sped off.

Sighing in relief, Alice turned to face the door. "Yes, it's safe," she called to James as thunder clapped and the rain began to pour down harder. She waited a few minutes before opening the door and entering the house, just to be safe. "How are you feeling?" she asked James.

"Hmm... the smell is gone... and I have a massive headache because of it!" James moaned, before laying down in his pain, trying to ignore it. A byproduct from not getting what he wants, James squealed as his first-time circumstances of being denied began to make him convulse.

"No..." James resisted, slowly crawling to the carpet to try and rest it off.

"Just calm down, James," Alice said soothingly. "Don't worry about it."

She worried inwardly for Bella's safety. How can I keep her safe and still hang out with her?

"I'll be in my room," she muttered as she walked off to her bedroom, slightly dazed by James' uncontrollability near Bella. "Holler if you need me..."

"Okay..." James said silently as he walked about to the living room and dropped himself on the couch, hitting one of the television remotes, sparkling the wall mounted TV to life.

"Wow..." James said shocked as the television showed the news of a block of flats on fire in the middle of California.

"How does that little box make a portal? And how does it speak? I feel like I'm going to fall into that burning house!" James said, cowering slightly as the camera zoomed in on the fire.

Alice popped her head in, having heard James' questions with her sensitive vampire hearing. "It's called a TV, it uses speaker to make sounds and cameras to make the 'portal'. It's not real," she explained, touching the TV screen to prove her point. "See?"

"Oh... cool!" James said, still watching intently.

"Is that why I cannot smell the smoke?" James asked obliviously, before picking up the object that he had sat on.

"This must therefore be the TV's control device." James said, not experiencing a TV in his previous life.

"Yes, it's called a remote control," Alice clarified. "Anything you want to know?"

Wow, this is like babysitting a three year old. How fun, she thought to herself, wondering how she had gone from powerful vampire to nanny in just a few hours.

"Hmm... and how does it work?" James wondered, clicking a few buttons, changing a few channels and muting the TV.

"Now it's not making any sound!" James said angrily as he bashed the remote control. Soon, it unmuted, but the sound was much louder than before.

"AAH! MAKE IT STOP!" he screamed as he put his head among the pillows to keep the sound away.

"Calm down!" Alice told him as she hit the "Volume Down" button. "Much better," she sighed in relief. "Just um, read the text ABOVE the buttons, okay? They pretty much explain it all."

"Oh... hmm... I don't understand some of these though! What is subtitles? What is interactive? What is input?" James asked, unsure. "I've figured out all of the other buttons!" James said, pressing the channel changing button. "Look... the opening in the TV changes where it is looking!" James stated happily as a wrestling channel displayed a powerful throw by one of the competitiors.

"Hehehe... that doesn't look like it hurt much!" James said with glee.

"Subtitles are words at the bottom of the screen, in case you don't understand what they're saying or deaf," Alice explained. "As for the others? Don't touch them. I don't know what they do, so it's better you just don't mess with them, you don't need them anyway."

Alice watched the TV along with James, "Oh, you have no idea. For a human, I'd imagine that something like that can hurt tremendously, they're not strong like us."

"Hmm... so this is just showing what humans think is tough? That's quite weak... I have to be careful around them." James said.

He watched a few more hits and quickly got bored, and changed the channel to a marine channel, where dolphins were being monitored underwater.

"Ooh... what are they?" James asked Alice.

"They're dolphins, and they live underwater," Alice explained as she watched the aquatic fauna. "I love this channel because it's so interesting to see how they interact with each other, you know? Almost like humans..."

"Except, they cannot speak. They seem to be using their own language. It's like... I know what they're saying." James thought. "I can sense where they are..." James thought. "But they are VERY far from here," he sighed.

An idea popped into his head, but he decided against it.

"There's no way I'll get there that fast..." he blurted.

"What, James?" Alice asked, somewhat concerned by this development. Oh God, he's using his powers...hopefully for the greater good this time around...Please don't attack Bella...or anyone else...

"James, what are you talking about?" she repeated, trying to keep herself calm in case he decided to do something rash.

"The dolphins... they're all the way in the meditarranean sea. I'll not be able to get their that fast. According to the map in my head, I'd have to go for days on end. And I wouldn't be able to last that long without blood!" James explained.

"Unless I brought a mobile source of blood." James thought. "But anyway... I wouldn't want to go away from here. It's a nice house." James said, before laying down on the sofa.

"I like it here..." he noted.

"Mmmm," Alice agreed. "And it's not practical to hunt dolphins anyway, it seems like too much trouble."

"And this map in your head...how detailed is it?" she asked curiously, not just asking to make sure he wasn't going to kill anyone anytime soon.

"It is nice here, but we can't stay here forever, James," Alice told him softly. "The humans would get suspicious."

"Well actually... it's detailed enough to give certain locations by measuring flow of water from the stream and color. I've narrowed it down to some places in the meditarranean sea. But if I had smell and audio quality outside normal hearing range, I'd be able to detect a more precise location. It's like an advanced inbuilt GPS. I have a world map in my head!" James boasted, laughing.

"Dolphins are fast, and I don't think I can swim!" James said sheepishly.

"Hm, how...interesting," Alice made a mental note in her head about all this, just in case she ever needed to know that.

"You probably can swim, James, vampires are good at pretty much everything," she reassured him calmly. "Like Carlisle, he can swim pretty decently," she laughed, thinking of his travels from England to France by swimming. "Maybe he can teach you sometime."

"Oh... okay." James said, watching the dolphins a bit longer as they did circles in the water.

"They look very happy," he commented, almost enviously, although he felt happy too, he felt it was unfair dolphins could be happy with such a simple lifestyle. In fact, he felt it was a good reason to chase after them and end their lives, just to make it fair for him, but of course, that would be a large waste of energy, which James hated.