Disclaimer: I do not own the Twilight Saga, or any recognizable characters/elements.
The woman picked her way delicately through the rubble on the street. She was just a wavering shadow, walking under streetlights that hadn't shed light in ages, wrapped in a long black jacket.
She stopped at a derelict two-story. Some walls were missing, but the second story still had three walls and a roof- it would keep out the worst of the elements. Her nostrils flared, and she thought the barest hint of a human lingered. Glancing around to make sure no one was watching, she gathered herself and leaped to the second story, landing gracefully. Then she turned and looked into the gloom.
A small figure huddled in the darkest corner, behind a crude wall of loose bricks. The woman walked to the shape and knelt down besides it, using a pale hand to check the pulse.
"Nothing," she sighed, frustrated. She took off her jacket and covered the body, shaking with unshed tears. "You were late again, Bella. What are you going to do with yourself?" She had passed the building a few days ago, but she hadn't stopped to check. If she had, a life might've been saved….
She sank into another corner of the building, and covered her face. What a hellhole her life was. The brief high she received when she found someone alive and took them to safety barely masked her despair; days like this-when all she found was bodies- made her wish she'd drop dead.
Not that that was likely.
She stayed in the corner, shaking, reliving everything. A voice in her head yelled at her: Bella, don't stay here and mope! Go try to help someone while the night is young.
But the voice was easily shoved into a corner of her head, and forgotten.
All her miseries fought their way to the surface of her mind…
The day he left; the endless, numbing pain; her painful change at the hands of a random vampire in Seattle, with no one to hold her hand and tell her the pain would end soon; the grief for the dead humans she'd sucked dry when no one was there to guard her against instincts; and now, all the people she hadn't been able to help in this distopian world…
Eventually, she had relived everything, and she just crouched in the corner, trying to feel and think nothing.
That changed when a scent drifted up to her, and her body immediately became alert. She turned to face the opening that she had come through a few hours ago, and bent her knees a bit, waiting for the intruder.
It was as if her sorrows had whipped up their prime maker.
He stood there, even more beautiful than she remembered. Of course, all she had was old human memories of him. His skin was as pale as hers, and his auburn hair was still messy. How she'd always longed to run her fingers through it, to fix it…
His face was still beautiful, still set with topaz eyes. They seemed duller than they had before, not as alive…
And his face wore a look of confusion, which quickly turned to shock.
"Bella," he whispered. His voice was as sweet as ever.
"Edward," she managed to croak out, relaxing her posture a bit. The word felt odd on her tongue- she hadn't used it in so long.
"Bella," he repeated again, as if he were in a trance. He stepped closer, and then lifted a hand, as if to touch her face. Then, thinking better of it, he dropped it back to his side.
"So, is my mind still closed to you?" Bella said, trying to keep her voice light.
A ghost of her favorite crooked smile played on his lips. "It is. Do you mind telling me what you're doing here?"
She gestured around. "I just wander around the city when I'm not hunting. I try to find people who need help. I know a small refuge outside the city, and I take them there. I was trying to help this one, but it was too late…" She trailed off.
"You could come back with me, Bella," he said, going to look at the body. His voice was hopeful. "Carlisle has a small, hidden hospital set up…we do much the same thing as you are."
She ignored the offer. "How is everyone?"
"We've all survived." He chuckled darkly. "Not much has changed…no one new, everyone has the same powers. Alice foresaw the wars coming, but we couldn't do much to stop them." He touched the body hesitantly. "You know, he feels a bit warm. Maybe he's still alive?"
Bella snorted. "He has no pulse Edward. And we're vampires. The damned. Just about everything can feel warm to us."
He stood up, looking at her. "Bella, you were always so eager to become one of us. And now you call yourself the damned? What happened?"
She looked at him, anguish and love and hate mixed up in her gaze. "You happened, Edward Cullen. Ever since you left, I've been the damned. Becoming a leech just cemented it." With that, she strode to the opening in the wall and leaped out. As soon as she hit the ground, she started to run.
"Bella! Wait!" Edward called out. He ran to the edge, and tried to look for her. "I love you! I always have!" he yelled out.
But it was too late. She was gone, as if she had never existed, blended into the wavering shadows.