A Love Nightmare
Bella's POV:
It started out being a great night; Edward and I were lying on my bed in each others arms. We weren't speaking, just lying there thinking, and I was thinking about Edward, of course. He was always on my mind. So I was obviously thinking of him as I feel asleep.
My dream started out peaceful; we were sitting in the meadow just watching the clouds. Well, I was watching the clouds whereas Edward was watching me. Edward reached over and kissed my forehead gently, and my eyes automatically closed in response. That was when everything changed.
My eyes snapped open, and I saw that we were no longer in the colorful meadow. Instead we were in a wan city. Edward was there, but he wasn't by me.
He was no longer smiling blissfully; he was glaring at nothing in particular. He tilted his head up to catch a whiff of the air. His eyes snapped open, and he stalked forward. My heart nearly stopped when I realized he was hunting . . . in a city . . . where people were.
I was running to keep up with him. I tried to yell at him, tried to get him to stop, but it was no use. My voice was silent and my body invisible.
There was also something off about Edward. It wasn't his murderous expression but his . . . eyes! His eyes were dark with thirst, but not black. Instead of having a gold tint to his dark eyes, they were in fact a burgundy . . . red from human blood. I was shaking. I was more frightened of him than I had ever been. My beloved vampire was here, trying to kill innocent humans.
Eventually, we reached a deserted alley where an old man was currently cleaning a bloody knife. I remembered Edward telling me that all the people he had killed were bad; they were monsters in every sense of the word. Even knowing this, I was trying to scream at the man to get him to run, though it would be a worthless effort to fight the death that this beautiful predator would bring.
For the third time my dream changed. The setting was still the same, and my beloved was still hunting, but I was the man, the human who killed another human . . . The human about to be killed by his unknown superior.
I dropped the knife and turned to run away, but Edward was in front of me. He smiled menacingly and threw me backwards. I hit the wall of the alley, and my breath flew out of my lungs and into the air around me.
I was on my hands and knees crawling to the entryway of the alley when I felt something cold and hard grab me by the back of my neck. A strong sense of deja vu swept over me. The only difference between this time and the last time was Edward didn't snap my leg under his foot.
Edward had me pressed against the wall with his arm against my throat choking me. It was hard to breath. I tried to speak, and I managed this time.
"Edward, please! It's me, Bella!" His arm pressed harder against my throat, and I could only choke out the next words. "You know, Isabella Marie Swan. I . . . I love you. Please, don't do this!"
He gave no hint that he had heard a word I said. His lips pulled back across his glistening teeth as he prepared to bite me, to suck the life out of me. I looked into his coal black eyes and saw no compassion or curtsey, only anger, hatred, and hunger. I could see the disgust in his features.
Before I could say another word, his arm had dropped from my throat to place his hand on the side of my head. He tilted my head to the side to expose my throat to him, and he sunk his teeth into it.
I couldn't hold back my scream of agony as the man I loved started to kill me slowly and agonizingly. He was enjoying my slow, painful death that was giving him one of the greatest pleasures a vampire could have.
My head started to feel foggy as I was losing too much blood. I started to choke and could taste the metallic flavor in my mouth that could only be my blood. I was starting to lose consciousness, but I had one last thing to say before I was forever separated from Edward.
"I love you," I whispered as a single tear fell down my face. "I have always loved you and . . . I always will." Then I awoke from my nightmare with a gasp, aware that I wasn't alone.
"Edward?" I asked and saw his face right next to mine, his eyes dark with thirst as it had been a week and a half since he last hunted. Given the dream I had just been subject to, I reacted the only way that could have been expected: I threw myself in the opposite direction. I was filled with fear and was desperate to get away. As I fell off the bed, I hit my head against the cool, wooden floor and became enveloped in darkness.
Edward's POV:
Bella had finally fallen asleep. We were lying in comfortable silence a minute before her breathing evened out. As I waited to hear her beautiful mind be spoken though her mouth unknowingly, I pondered our relationship.
We loved each other, that much was certain. We proved it time and time again. I proved it every second I'm by her. I longed to reach out and suck her dry because of what I am. My body craves for her blood, but it also has another craving. I wanted her like a normal man wants a normal woman. My mind is stronger than my body, but barely. It was hard to ignore the burning pain in the back of my throat that her scent caused me. It was hard to ignore, but well worth the pain if I got to be with her.
I felt my love stir slightly. I looked down and stared at her with a smile on my face. Ah, my favorite part of the night was about to begin.
"Edward," Bella sighed. I smiled even wider. "Edward, don't. Please, no."
The smile fell from my face and I froze. She was having a nightmare about me. She finally realized I was a monster. My heart clenched. I was going to lose her.
"Don't . . . kill . . . human . . ." she murmured, her eyebrows puckering.
What was she dreaming about exactly. I knew I was in it as well as another human. She said something about killing . . . Was she dreaming of me killing a human? I instantly felt regret, regret for ever telling her about that part of my life. If I knew that it would give her nightmares . . .
"Don't kill me," she whispered, fear leaking into her voice. I felt a serge of sudden anger. That human must be trying to kill her because I would never do such a thing. "Edward," she barely whispered, "I love you."
She suddenly gasped as her eyes snapped open. I leaned towards her until our faces were less than two inches apart. I wanted to make sure she was alright, but I wasn't prepared for her reaction.
Her eyes widened, and he flung herself backwards right off the bed with a gasp. I was so shocked by her response that I didn't move to catch her and heard a loud sound that could only be her head hitting the floor. The sound jarred me out of my shock, and I was by her side in less than a second.
"Bella!" I said in a voice barely loader than a whisper. She was unconscious, but there was no blood. I quickly checked her neck before gently scooping her up in my arms. I jumped out of her window and ran to my house. "Carlisle," I yelled when I got near the house.
"Bring her up into your room," Carlisle spoke in a calm voice that held no hesitation. Alice probably told him what happened.
I put Bella gently on my couch and Carlisle immediately started to check her out. I listened to his thoughts as he examined her.
No neck damage, no contusions. Has a concussion, though. She should be monitored for a few days. There shouldn't be any lasting damage. She's fine, Son. She should be home when she wakes up. That could take a few minutes to an hour. Why don't you take her home. She's going to be fine.
I nodded and quickly brought her back into my arms. I was careful not to jerk her around; she had enough damage done already.
I gently sat her on her bed and laid down next to her as I waited for her to awake. I kept my eyes on her. Carlisle said it wasn't that bad of a concussion, but I wanted to be sure. I always had to be sure she was alright.
About half an hour later, she started to stir. "Ow," I heard her mutter. "What hit me?"
"The floor," I answered and her eyes flew open to meet mine. "I think you damaged the floor. Lucky for you, you have a hard head." I smirked at her, and she scowled. The smile quickly fell from my face and was replaced with a frown. "Are you alright, love?"
"Yeah," she answered slowly. "What happened?"
"You were having a bad dream, and when you woke up you flew backward and hit your head to the floor. You have a concussion, but no serious damage was done. You'll have a headache for a while. Do you care to tell me about your dream?"
She shook her head. "It was nothing." Her voice was quivering slightly.
"It was something if you reacted like that. I heard you say don't kill me, and then you said you loved me. Please, what happened?"
She sighed. "I . . . was dreaming about your history. You . . . were hunting in a city and your eyes were red. I was somehow able to keep up with you . . . like I was a ghost. You couldn't hear me or see me. Then a man killed a girl with a knife." She was confirming my fear of someone killing her. "Suddenly I was in the man's place, I was the murderer holding a bloody knife over a dead girl's body. You suddenly pushed me ten feet back in the air." My mouth dropped at this amount of information. Her eyes had fear in them, she was reliving her nightmare. "You pinned me against the wall and sunk your teeth into my neck. No matter how much I pleaded, you didn't stop. I was close to death so I told you that I loved you and would always love you. Right before I died, I woke up." She turned to stare at me with sad eyes. "That's all."
I quickly grabbed her and crushed her to me. I was shaking with sadness and regret. I should never have told her about my past. I felt ultimately hurt that she thought I could ever hurt her.
"Bella, I'm so sorry. I promise I will never hurt you. I will sing to you all night if it keeps the dreams away."
She sighed. "It's fine, Edward. I know you will never harm me. I don't know where the dream came from." She reached up and gently kissed me. "I love you and I always will." She yawned. "Goodnight, Edward."
"Sweet dreams, my love. May you have pleasant dreams," I whispered. I saw her smile slightly.
"Dork," she said in a tired voice.
I chuckled quietly and watched her fall into a hopefully peaceful slumber. I watched over her the whole night making sure nothing was harming her. I smiled into the night as she cuddled closer to me. I leant down and kissed her forehead lightly before I returned to singing to her.
A/N: Thank you for reading. Please comment about what you like in this one-shot. Any constructive criticism in appreciated. I hope you all have a great day or night depending on where you are. ~JerinAnn