Ten Lives Tristan Has Never Lived (And Some He Could Have Lived Too)1. "Tristan, baby," his mother says to him, stroking his cheek gently. "You have to hide now and promise not to come out until I'm finished talking with the men in the other room. I promise I'll be back, but you cannot come out no matter what."
She kisses his forehead firmly and ruffles his hair, but underneath it all he can hear that waver of fear in her voice, a sense of foreboding and a tremor she is trying to hide.
"Mommy, don't go," he cries, clutching to the ends of her shirt. They're not always so well off and sometimes the people she sees don't treat her well. His grandpa is usually here, but today he's not. Today he was playing cards. Tristan once tried the game, but the cards were too big for his small hands and he didn't get why he couldn't put down more than one.
He's a clingy child, but his mother indulges him because she loves him more than anything.
"Five minutes," she says, holding up his hand to touch all five of his tiny fingers. "Count to sixty on each of these fingers and I bet I'll be back before you're even done."
They both know he doesn't know how to count to sixty, but he likes to try to please her, so he stars. "One," he says, and it makes her smile even though there are thick big fat tears running down his chubby cheeks. She kisses his head again and he says "Two" as she slips out the door.
He gives up counting around the number "Nineteen" because he can't remember the order of the rest of them. He sits still and he can't hear what's going on in the next room. It's forever and all he hears is silence so he goes to see what's keeping her. It has to be over five minutes. It's too long.
"Mommy," he calls, but there's no answer and there's no one in the room. "Mommy!" Tristan calls louder. He's going to keep doing it until she hears him.
He thinks maybe she's in the kitchen. He's hungry and maybe she's hungry too, but when he looks there, she's not there, but maybe she's tired? The bedroom. She wouldn't just go.
That's when he hears the crash.
There's a puppy outside of her bedroom door and he smiles a little, briefly forgetting about the noise. "Mommy, a puppy!" he squeals in joy and tugs at the ears of the big doggie. It snaps briefly at him and he pets it's dark reddish fur. The puppy pushes him away with his cold wet nose when he tries to take it inside the room. He even giggles when the dog pushes him down on the floor and pins him with his paws against the hard wood.
"Let's go see mommy," he says stubbornly, pushing the dog's legs off of him and getting up.
There's another crash from the room and this time Tristan pouts, tears coming to his eyes. "Mommy," he wails and the dog looks around for danger, but Tristan pushes through the door anyway. Mommy is slumped against the bed frame, the mirror above her dresser crashed across the floor. There are doggies everywhere, but they look mean. There's blood between her thighs and there's a gaping space where her throat used to be. She tries to speak and she gurgles, red spilling in buckets over the bed sheets.
One of the dogs, at the head of the bed, changes into a man - the one he saw Mommy talking to earlier - and he speaks to the puppy Tristan found.
"Excellent, Jaccob," he says. "We'll make this a family event."
2. His grandfather takes him in when his mother is killed. He still can't look at Tristan, but - as Tristan learns later - it's better than anything else.
When he is fifteen, they move to Michigan. It has bitter winters and Tristan likes it better than the sun in California. They've barely traveled so the difference makes everything - even if they're moving to this place because he has an attitude and managed to get himself thrown out of every single school he's been in - including military school.
He attends a Catholic private school where most of the other kids come from families of alcoholics and those so well off that they can afford to abandon their child and a year's salary. He doesn't care very much. His grandfather does it because he's from good breeding and to rebel he dates a girl attending the local public school. He makes her do things like rob gas stations and have unprotected sex.
Michigan really isn't much better than California, it turns out. His grandfather still hates him, his girlfriend hates him and doesn't know it, and he spends his time trying to make everyone else hate him.
His teacher, Mr. Waters, never gets angry. He smiles sometimes and hands him detention slips like candy, but he's never managed to get under his skin. He will, one day.
3. He marries Bella in Montreal. It's a simple wedding and they can't afford the rings that they will get eventually, but they live in a place that's nicer than any place he's been in before - other than his house with his mother.
For just a moment, Tristan believes that everything will be alright.
4. When he sees his son for the first time, he's too angry to speak. He knows he can't kill Bella, but at least he knocks her unconscious before taking their two year old.
He hates her and she hates him because years ago he took off a finger as a souvenir for Jaccob. Jaccob had loved it and kept it on a string around his neck. For the first time in years, Tristan couldn't look at Jaccob without anything but disgust.
But at this moment, as he loads Tane into the passenger's seat of a car he got for cheap, it's not about Bella or Jaccob. Neither of them equate into this situation. It's just going to be him and his son from now on.
It's the way it should be.
5. Some kid walks up to him and asks for his autograph calling him "Logan."
It's all about this Logan Echolls guy and Tristan doesn't really get it, but,
hey, he thinks.
Fame has free treats.
6. The tiny heartbeats of his unborn children lulls and pounds a song that not a single animal or person can hear but him. These, he is sure, will be their last children with three previous. Ophelia is barely four years old, while Leto and Tane are six and eight. He never imagined his life like that, but he wouldn't trade any of it.
Jaccob is dead, the older version of Tane and Ophelia made sure of that, but they don't have any less problems. Considering the fact that they form their own pack, their children become a great interest to many hunters. Still, he looks forward to the new additions.
His ear pressed against Bella's rounded stomach, Ophelia is asleep against her mother's side and the other two kids are playing in the other room.
He runs his palm and fingers flat against her belly and she rouses herself.
"You're doing that again," Bella says lightly and runs her fingers through his hair.
"I just want to know that I put something good out there," he replies softly, closing his eyes.
7. They meet on a bridge. "We're together," Bella says, though she has tears in her eyes as she speaks. It feels like a sharp knife slicing and twisting in his heart. He doesn't believe her and the way her voice trembles tells him that it's a good instinct.
"I don't believe you," he says simply.
Bella swallows hards and holds herself. "It's true, Tristan." She tries to be stronger this time. "I'm in love with Jaccob. We'll be going off together." She hitches over the word 'love'.
He grabs her arm, pulling her closer to him and he can smell the scent of Jaccob all over her. Jaccob and blood.
"Did he hurt you?" he accuses. "Is that it? He forced you."
"Don't make this harder than it has to be," she begs him, shutting her eyes.
He blinks back something in his eye. "You don't love him! You love me. I chose you and
you chose
me. Not him. Not
him."
"I will
always love you," she breathes as he holds her cheeks. "Don't do this."
"Fuck you, Bella," he says as he pushes her back against the railing. It makes her start crying harder and at this point he's glad. He wants her to hurt. He doesn't understand why she's doing it and he knows it's Jaccob's fault, but he needs to hurt her.
She clutches at his shirt, tears streaming down her cheeks, and he grabs her wrists to push her off of him. "Fuck you," he says again.
"Kill me, just kill me," Bella begs. He's surprised how much he wants to.
"You slept with him!" he smells the sex on her. "He made it hurt, isn't that enough?" But she doesn't stop begging him to kill her. He shakes her and holds her as if he'll push her over the railing of the bridge.
"Tristan, I'm sorry," she chokes. "Kill me."
The moment he meets Bella's eyes, he can feel Jaccob's watching the quaint scene they make on this bridge. He doesn't push her over, he simply takes her left hand and bites her ring finger clear off. The amount of her blood chokes him and as she howls and instinctively jerks her hand back, his grip on her breaks two other fingers.
He leaves with the knowledge that she'll never draw again. For now, that's enough.
8. "I love you," Tristan says to Jaccob, one day.
"You're idiotic," Jaccob replies.
9. One day he tracks down his father and finds a family with two children - a brother and a sister he never knew. He decides to kill them all, but not before telling them who he is. All of them but his father welcomes him. That's why he ends up only killing him.
Making it look like an accident, he comforts the grieving family. He's found a place in which he fits. It's perfect.
10. There's a bartender in Hubbard Lake whom which he meets. She's pretty and she has a darkness in her eyes that sparks his curiosity. He thinks for a moment that maybe he could learn more about her - delve into that darkness he desires - but then he thinks about Jaccob and how he will be coming back for him soon.
As she walks home from the bar one late night, he takes her into the nearby alleyway and, against the dumpster, he kills her.
She probably wasn't anyone special.
Muse: Tristan Chase
Fandom: Original Character
Word Count: 2242
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