EPOV

It was all my fault. Bella shouldn't be tortured. Bella shouldn't be trapped into a soulless future. I wouldn't take the purity of her soul to inject my black demons into it.

I couldn't do that.

But what I wanted, was to be with her forever. I knew this was all I wanted. But to do so, I would have to change her. Which…..it was wrong, but it sounded so right.

Well, what I wanted was to spend eternity with her, that was wrong. But, to be right, I would leave, leave Forks forever, without even thinking twice about it. But I knew that Bella was too important for right and wrong.

I would have to face it sooner or later. I had to leave. I couldn't put her through this ever again. She didn't deserve this, she didn't deserve me. She could do better, so much better.

So, to complicate this situation, Bella had been so persistent on my being in her bedroom at night. I shouldn't be there. Who knows, I could put her in danger one night, not be able to help myself, and….

No. No. No.

I couldn't think that. Obviously, Bella felt safe when I was in her room at night, so why did I refuse her offer earlier.

I always felt better when I watched her, looked over her to make sure she was safe. Maybe, I could just leave tonight…not even tell Bella….that way I wouldn't see her tortured face….

"Edward! Edward! Edward!" Alice's constant screaming. Her voice was filled with fear, complete fear. She ran into my room, where I had been sitting on the leather couch.

"Edward! Edward! Edward! Edw-"

"I heard you, Alice. Who didn't?" I asked, rolling my eyes. Though, deep down, I was sort of worried. Seriously, when did Alice get scared? And….She never….

"Alice, weren't you supposed to be hunting? Nothing ever takes you from hunting!" Now I was really scared. Alice was never interrupted from her hunting time, unless it was really important.

"Nothing but my best friend's future going black!" She screamed - no, that was an earsplitting screech.

"Wait, what?" I asked. I felt my brow furrow, as it always did when I was confused. Surely Bella couldn't be in trouble. Why would her future go black? Was she….was she…

I couldn't even think the last word.

"Bella's future went black about a half an hour ago, Edward!" She was still screaming.

"Wait…no….Bella….No!" I jumped up, causing the couch to hit the floor, and skid back. I ran out of the room.

I continued out the house into the dark wilderness. Surely Bella was alright. She was left peacefully in her house, not too long ago. Wait, no, it was 5 hours ago. She….her future went black. How could that happen?

I felt like my mind was broken. Bella….black…no, no, no.

Why?

My mind just kept making strange patterns of stuttering words with those words Alice had just used. It couldn't happen.

BPOV

Edward was different right now. These past few days he's been odd. Ever since that damned birthday party. He refused my offer to stay tonight. Something was wrong.

Change was coming, change was coming. It was definite. He couldn't stop me from loving him, he should've learned that from spending almost a year with me.

I lay in my bed, tossing and turning, trying to sleep. It seemed these few days I'd been having trouble sleeping. What a coincidence.

Well, I was just about to drift to sleep when I heard a squeal on my window. It was awful, nails-on-the-chalkboard squealing. I wanted it to go away.

I cupped my ears with my hands, and realized something. It wasn't Edward. Edward would've opened it with ease. I felt all hope drain out of my body, lifelessly. But who would it be?

Any of the Cullens would open it without a sound, trying not to wake Charlie. Squeals came repeatedly, and I walked to the window with caution.

I looked out the window trying to see who it was. There seemed to be a dog, a wolf, standing on the ground, staring up at her. The eye contact frightened me, mostly because of the yellow eyes.

Then, coming into my sight was amazingly bright red…hair.

Victoria.

She had been with James, when Edward killed him. I should have known that she would come back for me. James was her mate. She would want to kill me, the weaker link in our relationship.

I went back to my bed, trying to go back to sleep, when she managed to open the window, and slip into my room.

"Finally." She growled. The only word she said.

She lunged toward me. And me, Bella - oh Bella - frozen with shock didn't try to dodge, like I could've had a chance.

Her claws brushed my like finger tips on a perfectly manicured girl. I didn't feel anything at first, but then the pain flooded in. It was unbearable. The pain sank harder and deeper into my veins. Not like being bit. Oh god, not like being bit, but pretty damn close.

She stared at me - imagining torture plans, I can imagine - her red eyes sparkling, her teeth glimmering from the moonlight shone through my one window.

The moonlit window was walled off, completely darkened. No witnessing light now. I shuddered. She seemed to like that.

There was a shadow, a shadow that jumped in my window. God, my room was filled with mythical creatures. It was probably her partner in crime.

My heaven was gone. My heaven was changing. My heaven was probably going to leave. My heaven had refused my offer to stay tonight. My heaven didn't care. Maybe when he saw my corpse he'd be sorry.

I didn't have a heaven when Edward wasn't here.

Suddenly, the moonlight shone back in my room when the shadow jumped in the window. It shined on his face.

My heaven was here. My heaven was here to save me.

EPOV

I saw it clearly after I'd heaved my full body through the window. I saw Bella look from Victoria, in the corner, to me, with a look of triumph. I smiled crookedly at her, knowing she loved it, and her reluctant stare broke through to a grin.

Victoria was still staring at Bella, her mouth visibly watering. Wow. I saw blood coming from Bella's arm. Then, as I stepped closer, I saw the slashes.

I was worried. She couldn't lose too much blood of just that, could she? I wasn't the doctor, that was Carlisle.

My worry was overcome by my rage. I turned to Victoria. She made no note of my rage, or anger. She didn't even notice I was there. I bet she didn't even know I was there.

I took Victoria by the ear, feeling like a mother, punishing her child. I dragged her to the window, then tossed her out. It was almost like one of those comics you used to see in the papers.

I looked down the window, surprised to see that she was gone. I heard a partial scream stop, and turned back to Bella.

Bella was bleeding. She was holding her arm, cradling it. I felt so bad. It was all because I hadn't stayed with her tonight. I would never do that again.

I couldn't believe I had ever thought of leaving Bella, leaving her here alone. She's not protected without me. She had already been hurt when I ignored her invitation today, but now…now…

I can't leave her. It's not an option. She can't be without me. She causes too much trouble. Without me, she would've already been dead.

I looked at her face. Tears were streaming down her face uncontrollably. She was sobbing, breathlessly. She was gripping her arm, hurting, without a doubt.

"It's okay." I soothed, hopelessly. I grabbed her left arm and pulled it away from her wound. She winced as I touched it. As the blood soaked her arm, I realized I wasn't trying to resist it.

I had been through too much, thinking she was dead, to think about doing it myself. I was proud of myself, and Carlisle would be too.

I looked more closely at the wound. When I got the blood out of the way, I saw the cuts more closely. They were pretty deep, and pretty wide. She was still crying.

I took my shirt off and handed it to her. She sobbed and cried uncontrollably as I dabbed at the wound. As soon as it was cleaned, it looked less brutal, less like she had been through a war. She pretty much had been. She had been through a lot, being in love with a vampire.

The puss was filling the hole, but I knew it now, by the time I saw she was bleeding.

She was scarred for life. She had another scar to go with her bite on her wrist.

BPOV

Edward looked at me, dazzling, and smiled crookedly, like he was glad he got here, like he was glad that he cared after all.

I smiled back, and for a minute he froze. No reason at all, but he just froze.

Then, he walked over to Victoria, he picked her up by her ear. I thought he was going to just rip her ear off so I closed my eyes, not capable of watching that yet.

But when I heard a quiet thump, it was distant, outside.

Thank you, God.

I opened my eyes just enough to see where Edward was. I searched for him and found him at my window. He must've thrown Victoria out the window.

Suddenly, I felt a throb, a pain, a slash, in my arm. I screamed. I was about to let out a full scream when I remembered Charlie was in the house. This all went on with barely any noise. I shut my mouth, hurting my teeth in the process.

Edward turned to me, and stood. Just stood there. It seemed like he stood there forever. Then he walked over to me, and mumbled, helping me, "It's okay," Though I continued to cry. I cried and cried. I'd never cried so much in my life.

Finally, after I cried enough, he gave me his shirt and I cried some more. Why did he have to be so considerate?

While he was working on my wound, I noticed something about him. His eyes - gold from his recent hunting trip - were warm, friendly, not that they weren't before.

It's just that, since the party, his eyes had been empty, flat, emotionless. And this was such a difference, and an attractive difference, from what I remembered. It felt like centuries since he had smiled, showed some emotion.

I had a feeling that - for now - this change that had been coming, had halted. It was stopped, for now.

My heaven was staying with me.