Chapter 1
Rated M for language and violence
Reviews and favorites are appreciated.
This is a Post-BD AU. It starts in a yet unrevealed time after the end of the book when the Volturi have left the Cullens. WARNING: This has a pretty dark theme. If you're looking for something fuzzy and happy, this isn't it. Sorry. You could try my other story, Broken.
All I could see around me was fire and smoke. I stood there looking in every direction but all I could see was destruction. It looked like an atomic bombed had been dropped. Was this my home? Where was I?
I felt numb inside. I knew I should be feeling something, something besides this nothing. But I didn't. It was a strange feeling.
Slowly, I began to walk and see if I could find anything in the wake of this disaster. I walked for what seemed like hours. I couldn't find a single recognizable thing. I stumbled across a creek mostly covered with rubble and stopped to wash myself. I was covered in blood, scratches and ash.
I wanted to phase but I couldn't. How could I when I knew that I would be alone with my thoughts? There was no way I could go through that right now. I wandered until I found a lone tree trunk. The top half had been ripped and its splintered middle was like a beacon in the clouds. I sat and leaned against it. I closed my eyes and fell into an uneasy sleep.
Slowly, a crunching sound came from behind me and it roused me from my exhausted sleep. My heart started pounding. I thought I was the only one here. Who could be left?
I pulled my body up into a squatting position. My wolf was growling in my chest. I peered around me, straightening my body to my full height. Turning against the rough bark of the tree, I made my way around the tree trunk.
There in the destruction was someone I didn't think I'd ever see again. She was also covered in ashes and looked to be in as much shock as I was. I didn't want to startle her as she didn't really seem to be aware I was here.
"Bella," I called out softly knowing she could hear me without a problem.
"Jake?" she questioned, squinting her eyes as if she couldn't see. "Jake, is that you?"
"Yeah," I sighed before crumpling back down against the tree. I rubbed my hands over my face trying to wipe the horrific images from my memory. Much to my frustration they wouldn't go away. It was like I had watched the scariest movie of my life and the images kept replaying in front of me.
Bella had come closer and stood before me, staring with her head tilted to the side, looking puzzled. "How are you alive?" she asked.
"Well, I don't really know. How are you alive? I thought everyone was destroyed. I mean look around. There is nothing left of this reservation. It's like it never existed. All I can see for miles is smoke and rubble from the fires," I answered her unsure of what she was talking about.
"Where is everybody? Why are you here alone, Bella? Where's Renesmee and Edward?" I asked her as panic started to set in my chest. I suddenly felt like I couldn't take a deep breath, or a shallow breath. I was hyperventilating.
"Jake, calm down. Breathe," Bella said forcefully, placing her freezing hand on my shoulder. It was enough to startle me and make me jerk my shoulder away.
"Jake, I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. They came to our house too. It looks like this," she said as her hand gestured around us.
As her words settled into my mixed up brain, I broke out into sobs. Loud, gut wrenching, heart clenching sobs. Tears gushed down my face and I fell to my side and let the tears come.
"Why was I still alive?" I wondered. She was gone. My imprint was gone, my father was gone, and the entire pack was gone.
The only thing that got me through this fight was the thought that I was going to go home to her after this. I didn't want to live without the rest of them, but I could get through it with Renesmee, my imprint. She was becoming a teenager, getting both sassy and a great sense of humor. She was less stifled, more sure of herself, less prim and proper.
What the fuck was I going to do now? There was no one to consult about the legends. There were no written journals left. I didn't want to be alive anymore. It didn't make one bit of sense. I should be dead.
I stood up and phased. I started running. I ran as fast as I could, trying to escape what was left of my childhood home. Flashes from the fight kept skipping through my brain, unwanted. I remembered watching Seth and Jared attacking one of the Volturi leaders. I saw Brady, Collin and Sam destroy the other two, their translucent skin no match for the wolves' sharp teeth. If there was anything to be thankful for right now, it was that the three assholes of the vampire world were ash.
Now I had to find out who remained. Who left this fight to go and kill the only thing left that meant anything to me? I would find them and I would kill them. I no longer had anything left to live for. Everything was gone.
As I continued running, finally reaching the cover of forest, I could just barely hear the swish of fabric next to me. I realized Bella was running with me and I realized that not everything was gone. I still had my best friend. I realized that she had been the last one alive at Renesmee's home and she might have some useful information. She couldn't talk to me in wolf form, so I stopped and changed back to my human skin.
"I need to talk," I said. "I'm going to find and kill these bastards that killed them. So I need whatever information you can give me."
"Jake, we have no backup to go after them. They're Volturi guard. They're very gifted. How do you think they got away to come after us? Aro didn't escape, but they did," Bella told me.
I huffed in annoyance. Was she really that thick? Did that shield of hers prevent any common sense from trickling into her damn brain?
"Bella, I seriously don't give a damn if I live another day. I am going to hunt their asses down and turn them into fertilizer. Can you give me any useful information or not? Because if not, I'm off to find a trail and then I'm out of here," I snapped at her. She was so dense sometimes it was infuriating. I stood there trembling with my arms crossed over my chest, trying to hold myself together for the last 10 seconds I planned on giving her.
When those 10 seconds were up and no words left her mouth, I stepped back and started to transition into the wolf.
"Wait! Follow me, you impatient little shit," she hissed before darting off through the woods toward her home.
I phased and followed her, just a step behind. I didn't speed up because I was technically following her.