𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐈𝐕𝐄:
Bella's Curiosity

"HEY." Bella greets as she approaches Eloise, who was admiring the trumpet she had just won earlier in her hands. Eloise was beaming her whole face so that her eyes seemed to sparkle.

"Isn't he a beauty?" Eloise asks Bella, with Bella awkwardly agreeing with her with a nod as she shoves but of her hands into her jean pockets.

"I was wondering." Bella starts as Eloise hums, encouraging Bella to continue. "If there is anything I can help with the fight?"

Eloise looks at her curiously with a tilt of her head as she looks back at the trumpet in her hands. Eloise tells her rather bluntly, "Well, to be honest, you cannot help with anything."

Bella then shuffles her feet, rubbing both of her hands together anxiously.

"But I guess your-might I say, the rather appealing scent might distract the newborns. It'll make them clouded with insane thirst."

"Glad I could help in that department." Bella chuckles as Eloise looks at her again and asks, "What is the reason you wanted to talk to me? Surely it wasn't for just that."

The rest of the family, who was currently in the living room, tried not to eavesdrop, keyword: tried.

With enhanced hearing, it was difficult not to listen to Bella and Eloise's conversation in the music room.

So, they went on with what they were doing, with Thalia sitting between Carlisle's legs with a book at hand.

Alice and Rosalie scanned the newly released magazine.

Cordelia was observing the scenery before her from the window.

Edward and Esme play the piano, with Christopher leaning on the side of the piano.

Lastly, Jasper and Emmett are playing chess. With Emmett losing horribly to Jasper, he was getting annoyed.

The family was curious about how the conversation would play through, except for Alice, who had seen it happen. Jasper was just concerned for Eloise.

Bella pursed her lips as she threads carefully on what she was about to ask Eloise.

From the lack of information Jasper gives to his family about Eloise, she concludes that Eloise is a private person.

There was a fifty-fifty percent chance that Eloise wouldn't answer her question.

"When Jasper was turned, you were already there to help him, and I wanted to know if it's alright to ask you, how were you turned?" Bella asks Eloise carefully, as Eloise gives her a grin, "Curious, aren't you?"

"A bit."

"I was turned just like the rest of us were turned. Unexpected, unwilling, and confused." Eloise starts as she places the trumpet back in the glass case, "But for me, turning-I admit, was a fresh breath of air."

Bella furrows her eyebrows, confused. Eloise chuckles as she sits down on the sofa with Bella doing the same. "I'm sure you know how women in the 19th century were treated, yes?"

Bella nodded as she recalled the countless books she read that were set in the 19th century, and she was glad she was not born in that period of time. "Then you know that us women were solely raised to be breeding stock for holier-than-thou men and nothing more."

Rosalie snorts, flipping a magazine page, "Holier-than-thou men, she is right about that."

"Well, there is more to also fulfill their desires for pleasure but not our own."

Bella scrunches her nose in disgust, seemingly uncomfortable, and she'd only read of how women in the 19th century were treated.

Still, for someone alive who experienced and lived it firsthand, Bella is sure it's one of the conversations she'll never forget.

"I was raised to be wed, a wife, a mother, a woman of the house, but I wanted none of that. I'm sure we all did. I guess it was embedded in our minds that it was our only role, the only duty to fulfill to society. That's why women in my time followed through." Eloise tells Bella as the events of her human life are recalled in her mind in a flash.

"I was caged, taught only to speak when spoken to, obey with no questions asked, to know what is only allowed to know, to sit and look pretty for their hungry gazes, and dazzle them with a smile for them to know that you want their attention."

The women in the living room look at each other with saddened eyes. Cordelia sighs heavily. She did not grow up in a household like Eloise's.

Even though they lived in the countryside, far from society's gaze, she knows very well how women in her time were treated.

Eloise narrates as her voice goes higher, her tone getting frustrated with how they were treated. "I was so sick of it all that I wanted to escape." Bella frowns as she hugs both of her legs to her chest.

Jasper stood up from his place. As he walks in the direction of the music room, Eloise hears his upcoming footsteps, then she sees him in the doorway, leaning against the wooden frame.

Eloise then looks at Bella with a chuckle, "I didn't know that wish of mine would be granted so early and horribly. I was about to meet my husband-to-be. My parents and I needed my grandparent's blessing for the holy matrimony."

Then Bella knew where Eloise's narration was heading to. Jasper looked at Eloise with concern in his eyes, yet Eloise dismissed it with a smile.

"We were on the carriage heading towards my grandparent's house; while we were on the road, an Earl who owes a debt to my father-who is a Duke, shot everyone who was in the carriage, including me."

Bella gasps with no sound escaping her lips, too shocked at how Eloise's human life ended. It was tragic.

The whole family admires how strong of a woman Eloise is to endure everything.

"Maria was the one who changed me, seeing my potential for the army she was building. That was how I was changed." Eloise smiles rather bitterly.

"I thought everything was finally alright, that I was free from society's rules. Yet I was too young to realize that vampirism has consequences, so my vampire life started with chaos and bloodshed."

Bella then wipes the tears threatening to fall to her cheek. Jasper sent out waves of calmness as he felt Eloise's and Bella's emotions, his ability affected Bella physically by adjusting her pulse and endorphins to calm her down.

"After decades, Jasper arrived, and everything in my life changed for the better." Eloise's voice sounded sweet Bella smiled at how much Eloise and Jasper loved each other, that after all the things they had gone through, they conquered it together.

Jasper approaches Eloise. He crouches down towards the ground, taking both of her hands in his and placing lingering kisses on her palm.

Eloise smiles at him. Bella shifted in her seat uncomfortably, feeling as if she was intruding on their public display of affection.

"We're here now, and we're never going back, ever again."

"Never again."

Author's Note:
- I created a TikTok account wherein I'll be posting my ship edits there, so please give me a follow. I'll deeply appreciate it🫶🏼

- Happy to share this news. From my last author's note, this is the result.

- Nailed it! And y'all know what this means for you, my readers, that starting from August, a start of a new year and new semester, now that I am part of the executive officers of my organization, updates will be affected, that means I would only be updating once or twice a month, I have a new priority now, academics + my organization.