Inspired by: New Moon.

Song that inspired me to write this: 'What Hurts the Most' by Rascal Flatts.

Pen Name: SelflessProtector

PoV: Edward.

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"Goodbye, Bella," I said this in the same quiet, peaceful voice. The only one I could choke out. I was leaving the love of my life, running from her, trying to make her safe again.

"Wait!" I heard Bella choke out, and I knew I was going well on my charade. The charade that I didn't love her anymore. So I could leave without any questioning. I could tell she was reaching for me, as was I, yet I locked my hands on her wrists and pinned them to her sides. I had to give her some idea that I actually loved her, even though she truly believed everything I had said within the past two minutes was true, I had to show her that I loved her. I closed the large distance and kissed her forehead for the briefest of moments, and I saw her eyes close…

"Take care of yourself," I breathed, my breath cool against her skin. I tucked her hair out of her face and behind her ear, took one last brief glance at her, and ran, not willing to look back. Not willing to look back at the angel faced woman I had just left. The only one I knew I would ever love. I had left her, broken her heart, hurt her so many ways. I tried to convince myself that this is precisely the reason why I had left her.

I was watching the forest fly by with every running bound I took. I saw everything in complete detail. It all reminded me too much of what I had left just six short miles behind me. Her words still echoed in my head.

"You… Don't… Want me?" I had made an internal battle with myself at that instant. What should I say? That, and why should I say something false? So I told her something that was half-truth, half a lie. No, I didn't want her around me anymore. I didn't need her to get hurt because of me. It was a horrible thing to say, I admit. Yet she let me leave without any questions. Of course, this was exactly what I needed, to be asked why without any questions whatsoever.

I caught the thoughts of my family, the thought of Alice telling me to turn around and run back. I could see her latest vision of Bella trying to follow me into the woods, and her face looked as empty as my mind. Nothing processed, I didn't know where I was going, nor why I was going for that matter. All I knew was I had to get away from Forks or the continental United States of America. I was useless here, and I would be too easily tracked. So I had a new plot. To go to Africa and waste away where I could waste and not be asked why, or how, I could waste away so easily.

Africa was usually a place of depression… And I was flat-out depressed at the moment… And Africa seemed the place to go. I was hitting the border of Washington now, spilling out into Idaho. The very tip of Idaho would be easy to go through if I just went straight through it. I was more worried about the light in Montana, wondering if I would be killed then.

I had also wondered if I would ever go back to see Bella again. If I ever did, I started to wonder how, and possibly why, thus, what I would ever say to her.