Penname: blueeyedlamb

Original or Derivative: Derivative

Prompt: Pretend

Date: June 1st, 2011

Rating: PG

Genre: Romance/Drama

Warning(s): Unedited

Note(s): Some things feel too real…

Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns the rights to these characters.

XX

My reason for being…gone.

My sense of self-preservation…gone.

The one person that mattered most to me…gone.

Edward uttered those final words of not wanting me. Then he vanished just as quickly as he'd entered my life.

"I don't want you."

"I don't want you."

He didn't want me…or need me.

Just like that tiny voice of doubt always said in the back of my mind.

We never made sense. A distraction. A passing fancy for someone who had no foreseeable expiration date.

And now I was left standing in this vast, wet, dark forest without him.

I'd gone further then I should have alone. He'd left me close to my house after all.

But he ran the opposite direction…deeper and away from me.

There was a small part of me still left that clung desperately to him. Every step forward was a step closer to him. I couldn't stop.

I kept thinking and hoping that he'd enjoyed our time together. Our short blimp in his eternity.

The pain of this loss shouldn't be felt by a simple human being. But I was feeling it.

I couldn't even cry anymore.

He'd left me when there was a stead fall of rain. Now the trees were so thick barely any rain seeped through. The last rays of daylight peeking through every other tree branch.

I knew he was long gone yet I couldn't bring myself to stop moving forward. Every step…closer to him.

Before I could blink I was on my stomach – the muddy ground soaking through my clothes.

I rolled onto my side, too exhausted to pick myself up again.

Curling into myself, the tears came again.

"Edward….please come back…please want me…"

XX

"Bella…Bella…"

I was being jostled. My face was damp with something and I felt coolness on my shoulder.

"Bella please open your eyes for me," a whisper came from above my ear.

My eyes opened slowly, before blinking rapidly in the sudden daylight. Slowly a concerned looking Edward appeared before me, taking his hand from my shoulder and placing it on my cheek.

"What has you crying? I've been trying to wake you for ten minutes. You were beginning to scare me."

My heartbeat began to pick up at the realization that he was here in my bedroom. In Forks. Not anywhere else.

I sat up and threw my arms around his neck, pulling myself into his arms.

"You're here…you didn't leave…" I murmured.

"Leave? Where would I go?" he asked, once again looking confused.

"I had a dream…or a nightmare…that you had left me in the middle of the woods. I got lost and couldn't find you." My eyes stung with fresh tears. "It felt so real."

He guided my head to lie back on his shoulder as he began rocking us back and forth.

"It was only a dream, love. I wouldn't be anywhere else…couldn't be. It was just pretend," he said before placing a soft kissing behind my ear.

Only pretend…