Okay... hello and welcome to my first attempt at public posting of Twilight fan fiction. I wrote this story in November 2008 for National Novel Writing Month, long before I had heard of fanfiction dot net!! Since my discovery, I've been doing a LOT of reading and think I'm finally ready to bare my own small talent and large love of writing.
So here goes! Reviews are very much welcome!! the story is already 'in the can' so to speak but I may tweak it depending on the type of feedback I get...
The first chapter is pretty much a rehashing of chapter 23 from Twilight, with necessary differences... as we progress further along the story will follow roughly the Twilight timeline until graduation, then jump a century ahead... that's right, I said a century...
Chapter 23 The Angel
As I drifted, I dreamed.
Where I floated, under the dark water, I heard the happiest sound my mind could conjure up – as beautiful, as uplifting, as it was ghastly. It was another snarl; a deeper, wilder roar that rang with fury.
I was brought back, almost to the surface, by a sharp pain slashing my upraised hand, but I couldn't find my way back far enough to open my eyes.
And then I knew I was dead.
Because, through the heavy water, I heard the sound of an angel calling my name, calling me to the only heaven I wanted.
"Oh, no, Bella, no!" the angel's voice cried in horror.
Behind that longed-for sound was another noise – an awful tumult that my mind shied away from. A vicious bass growling, a shocking snapping sound, and a high keening, suddenly breaking off…
I tried to concentrate on the angel's voice instead.
"Bella, please! Bella, listen to me, please, please, Bella, please!" he begged.
Yes, I wanted to say. Anything. But I couldn't find my lips.
"Carlisle!" the angel called, agony in his perfect voice. "Bella, Bella, no, oh please, no, no!" And the angel was sobbing tearless, broken sobs.
The angel shouldn't weep, it was wrong. I tried to find him, to tell him everything was fine, but the water was so deep, it was pressing on me, and I couldn't breathe.
There was a point of pressure against my head. It hurt. Then, as that pain broke through the darkness to me, other pains came, stronger pains. I cried out, gasping, breaking through the dark pool.
"Bella!" the angel cried.
"She's lost some blood, but the head wound isn't deep," a calm voice informed me. "Watch out for her leg, it's broken."
A howl of rage strangled on the angel's lips.
I felt a sharp stab in my side. This couldn't be heaven, could it? There was too much pain for that.
"Some ribs, too, I think," the methodical voice continued.
But the sharp pains were fading. There was a new pain, a scalding pain in my hand that was overshadowing everything else.
Someone was burning me.
My eyes flew open and locked, unseeing, straight ahead. "It hurts, oh, it hurts," my voice came as a strangled whimper.
"Bella, can you hear me? I love you!" The angel's voice was anguished, so close I thought I could feel his cool breath on my face. Then the voice turned away. "Can't you do anything?"
"My bag, please…" Carlisle asked calmly. Painful moments passed, and then I could feel a new weight bearing down on me. So heavy. My eyes slipped closed again. The scalding pain was still there. I could not move, could not speak, could barely breathe. "I've given her morphine. That should take away the pain."
Then why did I continue to burn alive? The sensation was starting to spread to my arm, enveloping me as I lay there, unable to fight against it, to let anyone know the agony I was in. I couldn't even open my eyes again.
I could feel more pressure on my head, something poking and pulling at my scalp. Carlisle was continuing to work on me. Could he not see that something was horribly wrong? He was distracting the angel from focusing on my quiet, broken form, asking him to get something to brace my leg, having him wrap my ribs securely. Meanwhile, the fire climbed up my arm, entered my chest, spread throughout my whole body, consuming me utterly in its inexorable grip. I was trapped above the dark water, chained to the pyre of my body, sharply aware of every sensation within, every sound around me.
Suddenly, the angel's breath caught sharply. "Carlisle, her hand!" His voice was horrified.
"He bit her." Carlisle's voice was no longer calm, it was appalled.
The angel drew a ragged, terrible breath. "Is it – ?"
Cool fingers felt the pulse by the side of my neck. "Yes, I believe it's already spread too far."
"No!" The howl was piercing. Then the angel was sobbing again, brokenly whispering, "Too late. I was too late."
Carlisle's voice, calm again. "Alice saw this coming. Perhaps it was inevitable."
"I never wanted this for her."
"I know you didn't, son. But it's not the end of the world. We'll get her through this."
"To what end? Her life as she knows it is over. This will kill her family. Not to mention that she will likely hate me for doing this to her."
"You didn't do this. You can't blame yourself."
"If I had not exposed her to that monster in the first place, this never would have happened. I am surely as guilty as if I had done this to her myself."
"Edward, son…" Carlisle voice was anguished now, too. "Don't do this to yourself, please. She's going to need you now more than ever."
"She must be in agony."
"We can't know that for sure. I'm going to try to keep the morphine going in her system to minimize that chance as much as possible. Son..." Carlisle hesitated.
Silence, as wordless communication passed between them. Then, a ragged whisper broke from Edward. "Carlisle, I don't know if I can do that…"
"You know what you can bear, son. I need to finish patching her up. If you can find it in yourself to do it, it may well shorten the time she would otherwise spend in such pain. I don't know how long the morphine can hold her."
A long silence again. A flurry of movement. Then a sharp stab in my chest, releasing fire there; followed by cool lips at my throat, slashing fresh swaths of burning flame. Once, twice. Then more slashes at my arms, my wrists. The burning intensified unbelievably with the multiple points of entry, shutting down my other senses. I burned alone, no longer aware of what was going on around me…
Time seemed to stretch endlessly in my private Hell. For a long time, there was only the pain, the most excruciating pain I had ever experienced, licking like icy flames over my entire body. I was paralyzed, unable to speak, unable to see or hear, unable to imagine life beyond that pain. I could only lay imprisoned within my body, praying for death's release. Help me, someone. Help me die.
Eventually, the morphine began to lose its hold, the paralysis to fade. At the same time I felt myself getting stronger. Long before I could begin to scream for someone to take my life, I remembered why I shouldn't. I remembered that I had actually wanted this to happen, if not perhaps this way, and if I could just hold on, I could make it through this. To scream now would not save me from what was to be, and would only add to others' pain. I reached somewhere deep within, and found the control necessary to remain still and silent in my agony. Lock down.
The only thing that got me through this time was focusing on the slow, quiet sound of Edward's breathing as he sat by the bedside, keeping vigil over my transformation from human to monster. Not that it was always quiet breathing. He continued to torture himself from time to time, alternating between what he imagined my pain to be and what the depth of my hatred would be for him once I recovered. He never left my side…
So there you have it... what do you think so far? Hit that green button and let me know!