Disclaimer: I don't own anything.
I shut my eyes and ran down the narrow hallway, praying that he would be safe, that he would be alive. Without him I couldn't live. Without him there was no reason to live.
I burst through the large doors at the end of the hallway, both terrified of what I might see and also knowing I would have to find out. The rest of the Cullens followed slowly behind me, more terrified than I was of what we might find behind those doors.
"Edward!" I screamed, falling to my knees and crawling over to the barely recognizable form of my angel, my universe. He was still alive, but for how long?
He was lying in a pool of his own blood. Alice was right-he was human. What she hadn't seen was this, her brother, on the verge of death. There were several angry cries and moans of despair as the Cullens leaped into the room.
"Bella," Edward rasped.
"Edward, please don't die. I can't live without you," I begged him, knowing he had no control over it and yet wishing that wishing with all my heart and soul would save his life.
"I'm going to kill every one of them!" Emmet screamed.
Edward's eyes fluttered open. They were clouded with pain. Agony. "Bella, I won't die. I promise." He could barely say those few words.
"Sh…. Please don't talk."
"I'm not going to agree to that," he whispered hoarsely.
"You're such an idiot," I sighed.
"It doesn't matter…" he moaned. I brushed away some of the blood on his arm while Carlisle recovered from his shock and quickly went to work stitching up the huge gashes in Edward's legs.
He tried to pull his arm away. "Don't look at that, love. Of all of my… scars, those are what I least want you to see." He was gasping for breath when he finished talking.
I continued to brush away the blood, struggling not to be nauseated. "Don't be ridiculous. You can't hide scars from me forever."
He sighed, wincing when the action hurt him. "Bella…." His voice trailed off. He was too weak to continue.
I brushed away enough blood to see his bare skin and gasped. "Edward, what did they do to you?" I asked in a strangled voice. I already knew.
He smiled my favorite crooked smile. "Bella, I'm fine. It was just a way of torturing me. They always sucked it out before doing it again."
"That doesn't make it better," I sobbed. He tried to sit up and put his arm around me. He succeeded after several painful attempts. I stared at his skin, now riddled with at least a hundred crescent scars like the one on my hand.
