disclaimer: characters & setting proper of Stephenie Meyer, not mine, yo.
we own the sky by verity
"I gave you plenty of warning," a female voice said.
"If the flight hadn't been late-" This voice was angry, cold.
"The outcome might have been the same, even if we'd had ten minutes, fifteen minutes more." A third speaker.
"And you'll be so happy!" the first voice reassured him.
"But will she?" The cold voice, again.
"I think her eyes are opening," said the third one.
Everything was too bright. The air felt cold but I didn't feel cold. I didn't understand.
"Bella?" The second voice. I struggled to place it. After a long moment, his face appeared before me, and I recognized him.
"Your eyes are the wrong color," I whispered softly.
"I know," he answered me. "Do you know where you are?"
I shook my head.
"What's the last thing you remember?" His tone was gentle, now.
Sorting through the memories in my head, I dimly recalled my living room in the crisp afternoon light. "I was… I was introducing you… to Charlie."
"Yes." The bed shifted under me as he sat beside me. "There's a lot… you don't remember."
.o.o.o.
When I stared at the bird outside the window in Edward's room, I saw its feathers in such minute and exact detail that I could have counted them. Looking away at last, I sighed and stared at the ceiling. I'd been doing a lot of that lately.
The night after I woke up, Edward and Alice had taken me hunting. It had been pretty easy to pretend it was all a dream until I smelled the deer. A few heartbeats later, I was sighing with satisfaction and there was the deer, at my feet, looking confused and lifeless simultaneously. I had gone hunting with Charlie a couple times when I was younger, but the look on the animal's face still startled me.
After that, I went into Edward's room and shut the door.
"Charlie and Renee think that you died in the fire in the ballet studio," he had explained to me gently. "That was the only thing we could tell them. You won't be able to go out among humans for a while – you don't have the strength to resist."
I took in the news dully, leaning against his lean frame for strength. I'd wanted him to turn me just days ago. Suddenly, my dream was all too real.
I liked the Cullens, but I hardly knew them. Alice brought glasses of rabbit's blood and left them lovingly outside the door. Occasionally my dark mood would lift, and I'd know Jasper was passing by. I listened to music intermittently. But mostly I dwelt in silence with my troubled heart. And with Edward.
He barely spoke to me. I could tell he was struggling with a massive burden of guilt that I was ill-prepared to lift. What could I say? The girl he'd loved had died.
Some nights he'd sit next to the sofa and rest his head in my lap, and I'd stroke his hair gently. Even the soft caress of his hair was a delight to my newly-heightened senses, and that was too much after a few minutes. So I'd stop and rest my hand gently on the curve of his neck, marveling at how white and cool it was, all the while thinking of how white and cool mine was, too.
.o.o.o.
Some weeks, maybe months passed this way.
One day, it was bright and sunny outside, a rarity even in the summer. Edward came into the room, his eyes clear and golden, holding the day's contribution from Alice. "Drink up," he told me with a smile that almost reached his eyes. He was trying, at least.
"All right," I answered him, and was startled to find that my voice sounded a little rusty from disuse.
He almost jumped. "Bella?"
"I'm right here." I held my hand out for the glass, which he handed me at last.
Edward gazed at me a long time before he spoke. "You've been so quiet."
"I needed… some time."
He sat next to me on the sofa, and I made no move to stop him. His face was ivory perfection, his clothes immaculate, his hair aflame. I couldn't remember when I'd last changed my clothes, but vampires didn't sweat, I thought, or at least hoped. "I tried…" he whispered. "I tried to give you some space. I didn't want it to happen this way."
"I know." I swallowed involuntarily, old reflexes dying hard. "I remember now."
"Bella…"
Shaking my head, I stood, stretching my legs. "I want to go out. Can we go out?"
The family pretended not to hear us moving through the house, and we made it to the door without interruption. I needed Edward to guide me; I'd only had a proper tour once before.
I ran into the forest, and Edward followed. It was strange to move so gracefully, but it felt natural, as if I'd always been this way. After a while we came to the river behind his house. I looked at Edward, questioning.
"There's no one," he told me. "Not for miles around."
I took off my clothes, then, peeling off first my sweatshirt, then my t-shirt and jeans. Finally, I removed my shoes, before wading into the water.
Vampires do not float, I noted bitterly a few dozen feet out. Instead I stood with my feet firmly planted in the riverbed as water up to my collarbones rushed past me. It felt good. For the first time since my last day in Phoenix, I felt alive.
Edward swam out to me, modestly attired in his briefs.
"Hi," I greeted him awkwardly.
"Bella." He spoke my name for the third time, and took my hand.
That touch broke the last of my reserve, and I wrapped my arms around him. His skin no longer chilled me. I felt strange in my new body, but in his arms everything seemed so familiar and safe, even if it was illusory.