A/N All characters belong to Stephenie Meyer and I am not her…
BELLA POV
"I don't want you anymore." He said. His topaz eyes were dull as he shrugged. I felt a searing pain, a burning slowly seeping from the center of my chest. I couldn't speak. My breath was labored.
"Wh-what?" I asked. As though, I hadn't heard it before. As if the damage wasn't already done.
He sighed impatiently. "Bella, I don't want you anymore. I don't want this."
I was silent. The burning intensified. I tasted salt on my tongue. My vision blurred.
"I'm tired of pretending I'm something I'm not. I mean, God, Bella. I spend half the time having to protect you from things. From life? And for what? For love? So you can get mixed up in something else that I'll have to save you from?"
"I- You… I don't understand." I stammered. Everything around me seemed to slow down. The words felt like marbles, hard in my mouth, hard to form. My thoughts… there weren't any.
"Look, what is there to understand. I'm not human. You're a nice girl. Fragile. Innocent. And not of my world. And I can't deal with that."
"But you said you l-loved me… you said…"
"How can I love something I want to kill half the time? That's just stupidity. And I'm not stupid. Neither are you. Its better for everyone involved if we part ways." His eyes were fixed on mine.
"I don't love you." His brow furrowed briefly and something flickered behind his gaze and then was gone. "I'm sorry if I led you to believe that I did. You were an amusement. A distraction. That's all."
My tears hadn't broken their reservoirs. Yet. The burning that escaped from my chest and traveled throughout my body turned into a coldness. A chill. Like my blood had just been turned to ice and my muscles to stone. No breath came in or out but stayed stagnant, suspended in my lungs.
"Alright." I said. There was a calm vacancy behind the voice that came from me. And it didn't sound like my own, but still came tumbling from my lips.
My voice was low and monotone. "Alright." I repeated.
"We're leaving. All of us. And don't worry. It will be as though we never existed."
My lips, my throat felt dry and salty. I felt sick. I didn't dare move.
"Bella."
I took in a slow breath. My chest hurt. I felt dizzy. Edward snapped his fingers in front of my face.
"Bella! Look at me."
I hadn't realized that my gaze had moved down to the base of a dead tree a few feet away. I looked back to Edward's face quickly. It was like seeing it for the first time. It was so beautiful, it made me sick. His eyes, so haunting, so dull, they were grotesque. A sound escaped my mouth. A moan.
"Do you understand?" Edward asked me. Pronouncing the words slowly. Like I was a child.
"Yes. Perfectly" The other voice escaped my lips. Cooly. Calmly.
"Promise me you'll take care of yourself. And I promise to make this as painless as possible. You fall, I won't be there to catch you, remember." He spoke quickly now.
I nodded. He held out his hand in front of me. I stared at it dumbly. Then looked back to his face.
"Goodbye" he prompted. I felt the chill in my body go from cold, to hot, back to cold again. A new burn flowed up my throat. Somehow, I saw my arm raise to meet his. Numb. Limp. His icy hand shook mine in cold irreverence.
"Goodbye" I mumbled.
And just like that he was gone. Nothing left. But the absence of air. Of wind. Of feeling. I took a few steps forward and began to run. Tripping over tree stumps, bushes, and branches. Scraping my face against thorny vines and creeping shrubs. I ran wildly. Tripping. Falling. Weaving.
Finally the ground found me. The pain found me. The sound found me. And suddenly, it felt as though the vacuum became a wind tunnel. Everything spun. I vomited. Sobs shot through my throat as I dry heaved. Pain shot through all my new cuts and bruises and my wrist no longer took my weight. Parts of me, I never knew were possible, were breaking. Soft tissue, ripping, inside. I could feel it. I felt myself bleeding in all the places that housed him. Edward. His name tore through me with each stroke of pain. Shredding every part of me. I began to scream. The sound seemed foreign. Like the voice I had answered him in. It was a scream of agony, of grief, of loss, of death. And I kept screaming until everything around me went black.
EDWARD'S POV
I lied.
I blasphemed.
I had spoken the words of devils and became the monster that I feared I was.
All in those final moments.
"Goodbye" I said curtly. Everything in me shook against the grief of it. The pain of letting her go. Of seeing something in her dissolve in front of me, knowing that I was the cause of it. Her heartbeat had sped up and was now unbearably slow. She was pale. Entranced. I had to keep my distance.
I wanted to run to her.
Gather her in my arms.
Crush her to my body.
Tell her that my eternal soul was hers.
To tell her I was wrong.
To stroke her hair.
To kiss her lips and take it all back again.
But her eyes…
Her eyes…
They were…
Heat lifted off of her in waves.
I had to leave.
Leave now.
Or I would never go.
I would not keep my promise.
To leave.
To keep her safe.
I extended my hand to her.
I cringed at my malicious gesture.
As if the words were not enough…
She stiffly raised a shaking arm to deposit her, now, cold hand into mine.
As soon as we touched, I didn't want to let her go.
We touched and I felt as though I was going to break.
"Goodbye" came from her lips. But it was someone, something else that spoke. Something deeper. A woman's voice. A voice that sat in the center of her. A voice that came from a place so deep, that she had not even discovered it yet…
I couldn't read her thoughts… but there was a numbness behind her eyes that shimmered with tears that were unwilling to spill.
Brimming with betrayal. With disbelief. With pain.
I had to leave now, or else I wouldn't.
I turned away and ran as fast as I could.
Unable to look back.
As I felt myself tear into pieces.
I heard a sound.
A sound that froze me solid.
A scream that wasn't a scream.
A wail.
That pierced my senses.
That wasn't the sound of a human being.
But a soul being ripped from a body. Broken.
Empty. In Agony.
I opened my mouth. Nothing came out.
Doubling over in pain that was not just my own.