Friday, June 17, 2005
(Mike)
Something unexpected happened today.
I was in the middle of doing absolutely nothing, one of those rare, quiet stretches where the world isn't actively trying to explode, when my phone rang.
Emmett Cullen's name lit up the screen.
I blinked at it for a second, just to make sure I wasn't hallucinating.
Emmett… calling me.
That was new.
I answered before my brain could overthink it. "Hey. Everything okay?"
His laugh boomed through the speaker, loud enough that I instinctively pulled the phone a little away from my ear. "Yeah, yeah. Nothing dramatic. I was just wondering if you wanted to hang out."
I paused.
Not because I didn't like Emmett. He was actually pretty fun in a chaotic, human-sized-grizzly-bear kind of way, but because this wasn't how my interactions with the Cullens usually went.
Most of my contact with them happened through Edward. Occasionally Bella, when she was involved. The conversations were almost always practical, careful, focused.
Victoria.
That was the unspoken reason behind most of it.
"I'm free," I said slowly. "What did you have in mind?"
"Honestly?" he said. "Anything that doesn't involve standing around waiting for redheaded psychos to show up."
Fair.
We set something up for later, and after I hung up, I leaned back and stared at the ceiling for a moment, thoughts already shifting gears.
I'd been keeping tabs on the Cullens deliberately. Not hovering, not intruding, but staying close enough to stay informed. If Victoria made a move, I wanted to know about it before things went sideways.
The problem was… nothing was happening.
At least, not the way I remembered.
I knew from my previous life that this was around the time things in Seattle started going wrong. People started disappearing because Victoria wanted a Newborn army.
Except now?
Nothing.
I'd checked. More than once.
No unusual disappearance reports. No unexplained attacks. No spike in missing persons that couldn't be accounted for by normal, tragic human reasons. Seattle was… disturbingly normal.
Which meant one of two things.
Either Victoria wasn't acting yet.
Or she was being smart.
I'd already warned the Cullens about it. Told them to keep an eye on disappearance reports, not just deaths.
But if Victoria, or whoever she was working with, had a functioning brain, they wouldn't grab people whose absence would raise alarms.
They'd pick the ones no one was really looking for.
Runaways. Drifters. People on the margins. The kind whose disappearance wouldn't make the news, wouldn't get a task force, wouldn't even get a second glance most of the time.
Which made the waiting worse.
Because hunting a monster that isn't moving yet is a special kind of frustrating. You know it's out there. You know what it can do. You just don't know when it's going to decide to start.
I rubbed a hand over my face and exhaled slowly.
And now Emmett wanted to hang out.
On the surface, it was nothing. Just Emmett being Emmett; bored, restless, looking for entertainment.
But with the Cullens, nothing was ever just nothing.
Still… if nothing else, it might be a good way to gauge things. See how tense they really were. See if anyone else felt that same uneasy quiet before the storm.
I grabbed my keys and headed for the door.
If Emmett wanted to hang out, I'd go.
And while we were at it, I'd keep listening.
Because silence like this never lasted forever.
…
When I pulled up to the Cullen house, I was half-expecting… something.
A tense atmosphere. Guarded looks. Edward quietly listening to my thoughts with that distant expression of his. Maybe Carlisle offering an update on Victoria.
Instead, the front door flew open before I'd even finished turning off the engine.
"Mike!" Emmett boomed, already grinning. "You made it."
That alone should've tipped me off.
Inside, the house was exactly as ridiculous as ever, immaculate, bright, expensive in a way that made my wallet feel personally offended. Emmett led me straight past the living room and down toward his room like this was the most natural thing in the world.
No warnings. No vampire politics. No apocalypse talk.
Just vibes.
"So," he said, dropping onto his bed and grabbing a controller, "you play?"
I blinked. "…Call of Duty?"
He tossed me a controller without ceremony. "Obviously."
I hesitated for maybe half a second, then shrugged and sat down.
You know what? Fine. If the world wasn't ending right now, I could afford to pretend I was a normal guy for a few hours.
We played.
And by played, I mean Emmett trash-talked like it was an Olympic sport, laughed every time he died, and celebrated every kill like he'd personally invented gunpowder.
A couple of hours passed before something finally clicked in my head.
"Hey," I said, squinting at the screen as another match loaded. "Isn't this console supposed to come out in, like… November?"
Emmett paused, controller still in hand, and slowly turned to me with the most smug expression I'd ever seen.
"Oh," he said casually, "yeah. It is."
I stared at him. "Then how…"
"We've got contacts."
That was it. That was all he said.
I let my head fall back against the bed dramatically. "That's so not fair. You're telling me you live in a mansion, don't age, don't need to sleep, and now you're playing games that haven't even been released yet?"
Emmett grinned wider. "Jealous?"
"Absolutely," I said without hesitation. "Meanwhile, I'm over here barely able to afford food. I've had to go fishing lately, man. Fishing. I was dangerously close to bankrupting my parents."
That finally got a full laugh out of him, deep and booming.
"Hey," he said, waving a hand, "that's all thanks to Alice."
I frowned. "Alice?"
"Yeah," he said easily. "Seeing the future has its perks. Maybe you could ask her for help."
I stared at him for a second longer, then sat up straighter. "Wait. Are you saying she could help me… like, financially?"
Emmett nodded like it was obvious. "Of course. She could help you invest. She could multiply your money without breaking a sweat."
Hope hit me so fast it almost hurt.
"…You really think she'd agree?"
He snorted. "Mike, she'd probably already agreed."
As if summoned by the universe, Emmett grabbed his phone and started to write a text. [Hey, Alice…]
"I heard everything."
Alice appeared in the doorway like a jump scare, hands on her hips, eyes already sparkling with interest.
I yelped. "Do you ever announce yourself?"
"Nope," she said cheerfully, then turned her full attention on me. "Okay, so! Investing."
And then she started talking. She didn't even give me time to sit properly before she launched into it.
"Okay," she said, clapping her hands once like she was starting a presentation only she could see. "First things first: we're not gambling. That's important. What we're doing is positioning."
I nodded immediately.
I had no idea what that meant, but it sounded reassuring.
"Think of the market like a really long story," she continued, pacing in front of us. "Most people only see the chapter they're in. I see the whole book."
Emmett snorted. "Show-off."
She ignored him. "Prices move based on expectations. Fear, confidence, panic, hype. Humans are predictable when you zoom out."
I blinked. "That feels… slightly insulting."
"It's accurate," she replied sweetly.
She grabbed a piece of paper from Emmett's desk and started sketching lines and arrows with supernatural speed.
"Okay. This line is a stock. Today, it's here." She tapped the paper. "Tomorrow, a company announces record earnings. The price jumps."
"That makes sense," I said cautiously.
"But before that announcement," she went on, "there are signs. Hiring patterns. Supply chain movement. Insider behavior. Public sentiment shifts."
She smiled at me, eyes glowing. "I see all of that before it happens."
My brain tried to process that.
"So… you buy before the jump."
"Exactly," she said, pleased. "And you sell right before the drop."
Emmett leaned over. "She once sold a stock three minutes before a CEO got arrested."
I stared. "…That's terrifying."
"Efficient," Alice corrected.
She continued, clearly enjoying herself now. "Now, leverage."
My spine stiffened. That word sounded dangerous.
"Leverage," she explained, "is using borrowed capital to increase exposure. You put in a small amount, but control a larger position."
"That sounds like debt," I said immediately. "I don't like debt."
"Normally, you'd be right," she said. "But when the outcome is guaranteed, it's just acceleration."
She drew another diagram. Numbers multiplied. Arrows exploded outward.
"If you invest one thousand dollars without leverage, maybe you turn it into ten thousand over time. With leverage, used carefully, that same thousand can become hundreds of thousands. Then millions."
I swallowed and stared at the paper, which stared right back at me.
And nothing clicked.
I looked up at her slowly. "I'm gonna be honest with you. I think my brain just blue-screened."
Emmett burst out laughing, slapping his knee. "Called it!"
I blinked and looked at him. "You understood this?"
"Not even a little." he said proudly.
Alice huffed, folding her arms, but she was smiling anyway. "Honestly, both of you are hopeless."
Then she sighed dramatically. "You're not even trying."
"I am trying," I protested. "It's just that you're explaining this like I didn't grow up worrying about overdraft fees."
Her expression softened at that.
"Okay," she said gently. "Let me simplify."
She took the paper and folded it away.
"You give me money," she said plainly. "I use future knowledge to make perfect investments. You don't touch it. You don't stress about it. And in a few years, you never worry about money again."
I blinked.
"…That's it?"
She nodded. "That's it."
Emmett leaned back on the bed, hands behind his head. "Told you she'd get there eventually."
I hesitated, then asked quietly, "There's no catch?"
Alice met my eyes, completely serious. "The only catch is that you have to trust me."
I thought about fishing to afford groceries. About watching my parents pretend not to notice. About calculating meals like they were luxury items.
Then I nodded.
"Okay," I said. "I trust you."
Her smile was instant and radiant. "Good. Then congratulations, Mike Newton. You're officially terrible at money, but not for long."
Emmett clapped. "Welcome to the rich side."
My head was still spinning.
But for the first time in a long while, the future didn't feel like something I had to survive.
It felt… handled.
Then Alice asked. "How much money do you have available to invest?"
I hesitated, suddenly embarrassed. "…I used to have more. But food happened. So… about two thousand left."
She waved it off like I'd said I had pocket change. "That's more than enough. Give me a thousand and I'll multiply it until you've got enough to last a few lifetimes."
I froze.
"…Wait," I said slowly. "You mean like… a million?"
Alice sniffed. "Just a million? Mike, I was talking about billions."
My brain shut down.
Completely.
I'm pretty sure my mouth opened and no sound came out.
Emmett clapped a hand on my shoulder. "Yeah, that happens."
Before I could recover, Emmett was already on his feet, eyes bright with excitement. "Alright. Enough sitting around. Let's spar."
I raised an eyebrow. "You sure?"
"Oh, absolutely," he said, cracking his knuckles. "I've been dying to see what you can do in wolf form."
Outside, the forest didn't stand a chance.
I shifted, muscles surging, senses sharpening, and the moment we clashed, it was over.
Trees snapped. The ground tore up beneath us. Emmett flew into a trunk hard enough to splinter it.
And he laughed.
"Again!"
I didn't hold back… well, I did, I had to be careful not to break Emmett in half, but I didn't try to make it easy for him at any time.
So I knocked him down again. And again. And again.
By the end of it, the clearing looked like a hurricane had passed through, and Emmett was sprawled on the ground, grinning like a maniac.
"Okay," he said, sitting up. "One more."
I shook my head, laughing despite myself.
Yeah.
For the first time in a while, I wasn't thinking about Victoria. Or newborn armies. Or fate pulling people together in ways I didn't fully understand.
I was just… having fun.
And honestly?
I'd forgotten how much I needed that.
…
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