Authors Note- Hi guys, thanks for reading. This fic was initally on hiatus so I will be completing this one at my leisure, Dine and Dash utilizes most of my free time. I went a completely different route in this one. Info on this fic? AU, Vampire/Human pairing, Darkward, Possessward, vampire characteristics are more traditional it just went better with the storyline, I think that covers all bases but if I missed anything feel free to ask any questions. I'm uploading these stories on TWCS so I spruced it up a little just with regards to writing and format and replaced the chapters now in August 2012. Initially I had her younger but I bumped it up a year so Bella is seventeen. Bella's abilities will be more understood via Edward as the story progresses. Hope all is well with you, take care, love Kat.
Disclaimer:All publicly recognizable characters, quotes, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners and are simply used under 'fair use'. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended, this story is written for the legally recognized adult population.
Crossfire's of Heaven and Hell
*~*~* Chapter One – Fate Woven In Darkness *~*~*
Bella sat cross legged staring at the gravestone. It was where she spent almost all her time when she wasn't at school. It didn't matter that it was cold, murky and raining. It was always cold, murky and raining in Forks. It never deterred her. She watched as the droplets of water dipped into the chipped letters in the stone that read 'Angela Swan' in finality, filling it before rapidly leaking out when the burden became too heavy. It gave the imagery of tears, like it was actually her sister that was crying in front of her instead of the headstone marking her final resting place.
Angela was the perfect name for her. She was sweet and mischievous just like the angels.
Everyone said that they were perfectly named, 'Isabella is truly beautiful' they would say and someone would add, 'and that sweet Angela is a perfect angel'. The Little Angel was what her twin baby sister had been dubbed as they grew. Her heart still ached every time she thought of the sibling she loved so fiercely, more friends than mere sisters.
She remembered as they lowered Angela's coffin the day of her funeral. It was the one day that the sun shone brightly in Forks, creating a halo on the white casket that would forever hold her most dearest Angel.
She'd fallen to the ground and screamed her throat raw as the tears wracked her body. And her best friend wrapped strong yet trembling comforting arms around her in vain as someone in the distance choked out in a sob, 'Now she truly is a Little Angel'.
Life held no meaning now. Everything changed with Angela. She was alone despite being surrounded by a swarm of people. No one understood. How could they? To them she was Bella, the girl who fell into 'depression' when the heavens welcomed home their angel. It had been a year, by social standards 'enough time' for her to get over it. They didn't understand why she stopped going out, why she was still so reserved, why they hardly ever saw her or why she never spoke when they did see her. Why she was a shadow of her former social self. Eventually though the world stopped caring. Stopped grieving with her. They moved on. But she was stuck. Stuck here at her sister's grave exactly one year later.
No tears fell as she stared at her sister's headstone. She just sat there, mind and body numb, recalling every detail of the accident.
Angela shouldn't have been driving. Bella knew better than to let her drive back from Jessica's party. She knew her sister couldn't handle even as small a dose of alcohol as what she had consumed. She had said no repeatedly but Angela had the keys and insisted on driving. She whined and pouted until laughing lightly Bella gave in not realizing it wouldn't be as harmless as her sister had said it would be.
They strapped their seatbelts and Bella made sure Angela adjusted all the mirrors, which was something her sister always neglected to do. They were almost home, all-bloody-most. The car radio was blasting Aretha Franklin's Respect, and they were singing the words at the top of their lungs, belting out the words in higher and higher notes determined to push to the unreachable despite their giggles. Home was within sight. So close but so far… Only one sister would reach it alive again… Only one sister would survive when the car slammed into them from behind.
She remembered the loud thunder of metal on metal that almost completely drowned out their screams as they veered off the road, it was still deafening to her ears. She could still feel the strain in her fingers when she remembered how she had clutched desperately at the wheel when Angela screamed for her having lost control of the car. She had yanked hard, trying in vain to stop them before they collided with the tree.
She was bleeding, her head was pounding so painfully and she was completely confused. Bella couldn't see, the blood dripped down her wounded head into her eyes blurring her vision, all she knew was she could hear her twin crying. Reaching blindly her hands searched for her sister. Warm liquid met her touch, Angela was bleeding...
Bella had screamed and poured out reassurances, telling her sister it would be okay, not to be scared, that she was going to fix it. She rubbed desperately at her eyes, her tears and blood mixing with that of her little sister's. She didn't pay heed to the protests of her own battered and bruised body as she picked herself out of her seat. All she saw was Angela crying out piercingly in pain.
She didn't look away when her door was ripped open, detached clean off the body of the car. Emerald orbs flashed before her eyes soothing her somehow, and she heard the buckle trapping Angela's belt being crushed, freeing her sister. She looked away from the safe soothing green and concentrated on the brutal red tainting her sister instead.
Her sister was the only thing she concentrated on. All that mattered was Angela, she had to get her out. The pain that tore open her heart with every cry of her twin was more than she could bear, it hurt more than the physical injuries she'd sustained.
Angela was coated in dark crimson through her entire left side, a fountain of life gushing out the gaping wound she'd sustained. Bella clutched tightly at Angel's torn open chest trying to keep the blood loss from consuming her. Scarlet marred her hands, mixing her own blood with her sister's as she cried and told her to hold on. She could see the broken trunk of the tree that had sliced open Angel lying on her lap just as she heard the ambulance arrive.
The paramedics easily got into the car deeming it a miracle that the door was open and the Jaws of Life weren't needed. The sight of sister when they had pulled her out and laid her on the stretcher still replayed vividly, hauntingly in her mind. Bella had refused to be looked at, ignoring her bodily pain she stumbled quickly to the ambulance that Angela was taken in to.
Sixteen minutes it took to get to the entrance of Forks Hospital. For those sixteen minutes Angela held on to life. For sixteen minutes she fought for it. Through sixteen minutes Bella held Angels hands tightly between hers and begged her to fight, not to let go, not to leave her. At minute sixteen Angela smiled at her one last time before shutting her eyes in endless sleep…
Sixteen minutes and Angela was gone without even getting to the operating room.
Sixteen minutes and sixteen-year-old Bella lost her right at being the older twin by sixteen minutes... Sixteen minutes in life, sixteen minutes in death, Angela was gone…
"You really should get out of the rain. You're so pale you're looking more dead than I am." A musical voice called her attention.
"I missed you, Little Angel." Bella whispered in return.
Her gaze moved to the top of the gravestone to see her sister. Angela was kneeling behind it hiding her body from view, with her chin resting on her folded hands atop the headstone.
"Next time try knocking. I'll be here sooner." She laughed melodiously and tapped her headstone with the knuckle of her index finger.
Of course the rest of the world would never understand Bella. She was different. The once popular, social butterfly that had the school running in circles was a freak of nature ever since the night she lost everything. Some of them acknowledged that the former queen was empty and broken but no one could guess she was here, talking to her dead twin sister.
It was just after the paramedics had come by to drop off some of Angela's belongings, a personal favor to the house they knew well. Imagine Bella's utter shock when she lay in bed overtaken by gut wrenching sobs as she clutched her sister's glasses tightly to her heart and willed the pain to go away, the pain that was so overwhelming it felt like a physical knife had been wedged into her heart, and Angela sat beside her on the bed and brushed back her hair in a cold breeze. Shushing her, consoling her, a week after her funeral.
Bella was convinced she was either crazy or in heaven. In haste she tried to clutch her twin, anchor her, but all she was met with in her desperation was ice air.
Angela shrugged apologetically, "You can't really touch me. It comes and goes. I'm not sure how to control it yet," she had said.
She had been overwhelmed at first seeing her dead twin but then she had found that it wasn't the only thing that had changed. Since the accident Bella had lost all semblance of her old self. Not only did she see Angela but she could see the dead in general… on the corner of the park sitting on the bench was Grandpa Wilber the old man who died in the 1920's, inside Newton's Sport Shop, Lucy Simpson the rafter who drowned a year ago walked aisle number 8. She'd barely come to terms with the craziness of it all before the shocking flashes began, small snippets of something that she'd later see come to realization in life. It took a while and intense suffering longer for her to understand that she could feel the pain of those around her. Any emotion they projected onto her coupled with her own grief was killing her in the long months that followed her Little Angels death.
She dropped out of the public eye as much as she could to avoid it, try as hard as possible to hold on to her sanity. It became more and more impossible a feat to accomplish as time passed. She sat away from her former friends and though most of them hid it she could feel their relief that they didn't have to be around her. At first, most of them were scared not knowing how to comfort her right after the accident, funerals weren't fun for teens. Eventually the reason for relief changed though to just not wanting to sit with the strange antisocial girl that resembled their friend Bella.
Very few people outside of home spoke to her at all now, save one. Her best friend was the only person who had stuck around, refusing point blank to be pushed away. Aside from her God-parents and their son, who had fought for custody of Angela and Bella when they were babies stopping them from going into foster care after the death of their parents, she had no family left now with Little Angel gone.
She walked out the graveyard feeling slightly better with Angela at her side. Even though no one could see her sister beside her as they walked home she was as close to content as she could ever hope to be anymore so she walked slowly.
It was getting dark out by now but she didn't care, she'd envision if something was going to happen and feel the emotions if someone was around her. She was alone, she knew it.
It was a false belief.
Unknown to her there was another that walked with her tonight. Someone she couldn't feel even as he had watched her the entire time in the graveyard. Someone who could see Angela walking beside her. He walked silently dressed in dark denim and a black shirt, hidden yards away in the dark forest as he watched her with deep green eyes making sure she got home safely.
~.~.~COHAH~.~.~
He wasn't sure why he came back. It wasn't in the nature of his kind to show compassion. But he remembered her. Something made him come back on this the day that he knew to be the anniversary of her sister's death.
Exactly one year before, on this very night, he had heard her anguished scream cut through the forest as he hunted. He hadn't been able to control his actions that night. He wasn't sure why he had heard only her scream not those of her sister's or the driver of the other car. Her cry had been relatively lower than those of the others and yet he had heard it well out of his range even with his enhanced hearing.
The usual bloodlust that drowned out all other senses had not kept him from responding to her. His head snapped in the direction of her voice, away from the succulent camper he was advancing on like neither the man or his thirst had ever existed, and he had run.
The trees all blended into a dark blur as he sped through the cold night using his heightened senses to find his way to her.
Then he found her. A bloodied mess in a crumpled car. She was in pain, he could sense it but he didn't know why or how. He watched her make grief-stricken pleas for her sister to hold on, false promises that she'd be okay. He knew better, she wasn't going to last long and neither was the girl he'd heard.
His body propelled itself forward and he tore open the door hearing the sirens in the distance as they entered the neighboring street. There wasn't going to be enough time to save them if the door was jammed. Her sister's heartbeat was already too slow. Her own heartbeat was teetering as well.
He leaned into the car wanting to pull her out, she didn't stand a much better chance than her sibling but he still had the strong desire to save her. His dormant heart controlled his actions. In 109 years he'd never once done anything like that. Attempted to or craved to save a human.
The exposed blood was overwhelming, none more than hers. Hers sang to him. His nocturnal eyes locked with brown pools filled with pain. He was mesmerized. Her heartbreak and desperation destroyed him. He didn't pull her out. Instead he reached for the seatbelt of her sister, finding the buckle and crushing it within his fist.
His logic as a creature of the night mocked his attempt. He could hear the ever decreasing pulse of the other girl, he knew her sister wouldn't live but still her desperation for her sibling made him want to try. Every second he saved the paramedics from wasting trying to free her sister gave her a better chance of making it than what she was working with without his help.
He watched as she tore her gaze from his even though he was engulfed by the darkness. She turned to face her sister, the headlights of the car that had collided with them illuminated the driver's side the dying girl lay on. His severe eyes watched her scream with tears streaming down her face as she clutched at her sister's wound, trying in vain to stop the blood, yelling reassurances to the whimpering girl. Only he knew those words were futile.
He didn't know what came over him as he watched her in her pain but he reached out to grab the both of them this time. He wanted to save her sister, for her. Turn them both. He halted himself at the last second realizing the ambulance was too close. They were already pulling up. He wouldn't make it to get away with them both in time.
Not having a choice, he ran from the car to the one pressed into it instead. He glared down at the driver, a low feral growl rumbling deep in his chest. He could smell the LSD in running through his system. Blinding anger filled him rapidly, his pale fist reached into the car wrapping around the man's neck and snapping it clean and sharply without a trace of regret.
'One more second saved,' he thought to himself with a cold smirk at the lifeless human, 'the paramedics could now concentrate solely on the two girls'. He gazed back one last time at her, the brown haired girl who he'd heard, before he disappeared into the forest.
Hidden in the shadows he had followed her that night, too. A silent predator in the distance, he watched as she held onto her sister's hand till the very last breath, ignoring how close to death she was herself due to the way she exerted herself for her sibling.
He had seen them as they sedated her, forcefully having to pull her away from her sister's corpse, before rushing her into the hospital to operate. He'd been there still when her family arrived. A man, woman and boy. From his perch outside he'd heard their distraught pained weeping, when they learnt the younger sister of the fraternal twins, 'Angela', hadn't made it and their desperate prayers for her, 'Isabella', to come back to them as they sat through the night waiting for her to come out of surgery.
It was at the stroke of midnight that she'd been wheeled into room 19-01. He had distinctly heard the surgeon tell her adoptive family she was going to be okay and yet still he waited in the shadows and watched. Her mind was troubled, even in her deep slumber she was in immense emotional agony.
He'd snuck in the window and only spared a curious glance at the broken mother who had cried herself to sleep at the blanket covered feet of her adoptive daughter before turning his attention to Isabella.
He reached out and stroked her face, a gesture so uncommon, unnatural for him. His knuckles brushed her bruised paper like skin, calming her down like he had been able to do in the car. He could sense it inside him that it was working, he delved her mind, she was comforted, her body finally began to relax.
He'd only left when he himself heard her heart rate begin to stabilize, his ears becoming attune with the sound, predicting the next beat like a mastermind. Unwilling to stop the action he'd leaned down to the human and placed a light kiss to her forehead before disappearing into the dark night… only to return a year later and seek her out…
~.~.~ Thanks for reading. Love Kat;) ~.~.~