What if nothing ever happened to Bella and Edward? James, Victoria and Laurent never came to the field that day. Bella never cut her finger on her birthday. No Volturi, no Newborn Army. None of it happened. Edward and Bella have a totally boring relationship, until the end of Junior year, when Edward leaves Bella because he's found someone else.
"Bella, I've been with someone else." Edward said, stone faced. He had walked me out into the woods not far from my house. This was the first time he had spoken since I answered the door.
"What?" I croaked out.
"You heard me, I've been seeing someone else for a while now."
"Who is she?" I asked numbly, though I didn't really want to know, I knew I would hate myself if I didn't ask.
"That's not important," he raised his voice causing the birds in the surrounding area to fly off. "The important thing, is that I can't lead you on anymore Bella, it isn't fair. I've got to end this," the explained with all the softness of a porcupine. Edward had never been so harsh with me, and he hadn't raised his voice, but if he wanted to leave I wouldn't stop him.
"Fine, it's over." I told him, though I was ruined inside I didn't let him see. My stoic demeanor seemed to rile him up, was he wanting me to drop on my knees and beg him to stay? Well that wasn't going to happen, I had learned long ago that if someone doesn't want to be in your life, you should let them leave.
"Fine then," Edward huffed, raising his nose in the air. "We'll be gone by tomorrow, you'll never have to see us again," he said. He had his back almost turned to me when the realization hit.
"Wait! What do you mean, 'you'll never see us again'?"
"My family is going to come with me Bella, you can't really expect them to stay just for you? You were my human, know that I've lost interest, they have as well."
"What?! NO! You can't take them away from me too! Edward please,"
"You have to understand, we need to move on as a family. Without you," Edward said with a smirk on his face. This is what he wanted, to see me hurting. I hadn't seen this side of him before, but now that I had, I was finally beginning to understand him.
"No! I need to hear it from them!" I yelled, tears starting to spill over. After I had lost Renee and Phil, Charlie was the only family I had. When the Cullen's took me in, it was like that broken piece of me had finally been filled in.
"You'll never see any of us again Bella, because that's the way I want it." He said turning his back to me. "Goodbye," he smiled over his shoulder at me, then we were gone.
Without truly thinking about it, I ran in the direction he went.
"Edward! Get back here! You can't take them away from me!" I screamed out to the empty forest, tearing pouring down my cheeks. Edward was long gone, but I kept on running. Fearing if I stopped the reality of it all would hit me. Unfortunately, before the reality could hit me, I caught my toe on an uprooted tree and hit the ground before I could even process falling.
I threw my arms out in front of me causing them to get scratched and covered in dirt. My arms did nothing to cushion my fall, and my head smacked hard against the ground making the world spin around me.
I laid there, with my face in the dirt, for a long moment. Waiting for the world to stop spinning but more than anything, I was waiting to wake from this nightmare I found myself in.
I pushed myself up, off the forest floor, wincing as I ground the scraps on my palms into the dirt. I sat up on my knees, trying to get my bearings. That's when I felt it, the warm wetness falling from the side of my head. I was bleeding
I called the only person I had left, Charlie. I pulled my cell phone out of my pocket and pulled up the number to the station. Praying that I would get a signal out here, I hit 'Call'.
"Forks police, how can I help you?" Margie's voice sounded from the other end of the phone.
"Marg, it's Bella. I need my dad," I said, my voice cracking at the end.
"Of course, sweetie, just one second." She quickly transferred me to his office. I only had to wait about three second but in that time, I lost any control I had left over myself.
"Chief Swan," Charlie answered in a stern tone.
"Daddy," I cried into my phone.
"Bella?! What's wrong? Where are you?" Charlie's voice instantly changed, to a soothing, slightly worried father.
"It's Edward, I'm in the forest. I'm lost Dad, I'm so sorry," I devolved into a puddle of tears. Sobbing uncontrollably into my phone, barely able to hear Charlie on the other end of the phone.
"Bella, take a breath. Tell me where you were when you went into the forest?" He asked me, I could hear him moving things around on the other end.
"O-our h-house," I stuttered between shaky breaths.
"I'm on my way now, I'll find you. Just stay right where you are," Charlie hung up the phone before I could protest. I let go of the phone with it still held up to my ear. It fell down my body and onto the forest floor. I pulled my knees under my chin and wrapped my arms around my legs.
I sat still, in the same spot just as Charlie had told me to. It was nightfall before I even moved an inch. I looked around, shouldn't Charlie have gotten here by now?
I slowly stood, using the tree behind me as support. I had to start moving, it was going to be dark soon and there's no way Charlie could see me huddled down in the dirt. My legs were shaky from being scrunched under me but I forced them to move.
I walked in the direction I thought I had come from, towards the path. The light was fading fast, as the dense trees seemed to get closer together. This wasn't right, had I headed the wrong way?
I stopped walking feeling my fear start to rise. I didn't know what to do, I had gotten myself horrifically lost in the forest on yet another terrible day in my life. I looked all around me, in every direction, trying to make head or tails of the foliage that surrounded me.
"Dad!" I yelled out into the trees. It was quiet, nothing, not even the sounds of nature. The silence scared me more than anything else, so I decided to keep yelling.
I must have been going at it for 10 or 15 minutes when I finally heard the one voice I wanted to.
"Bella?!" Charlie's voice rang out to my right. I turned that way and started yelling.
"Dad! I'm over here!" My heart was pounding, I was so worried I would be out here in the dark all on my own. When I heard him running towards me, I could have cried I was so relieved!
I stood still waiting for Charlie to reach me, I could just make out the shape of him when I heard a twig snap behind me. My whole body tensed, I slowly turned to see the source of the sound.
When I was face to face with the cause I nearly fainted. There was a pale man, with dirty hair that reached down to his shoulders. It was full of twigs and dirt, as was the rest of his clothing. But the part that knocked the wind out of me was his eyes, there were red.
The Cullen's had warned me about other vampires, that those with red eyes were the ones that drank from humans. And by the look in this stranger's eye, I could tell I was the perfect snack.
"Bella? Where did you go?" I heard Charlie call behind me, but I hadn't broken eye contact with the vampire in front of me. Before I could think about it, I turned my back and tried to run.
"Charlie! Run!" I shouted out just as I saw him coming through the trees, I was pushed to the ground from behind. As I looked up I saw the blond vampire reach for Charlie, but he somehow managed to jump out of the way. He pulled his gun from its holster and pointed it at the vampire in front of him.
"Dad it won't do anything," I said dejectedly, there was no way we were getting out of this.
"Bella, I need you to get up! Get up and run!" he yelled pleading with me with his eyes. The look on his face caused me to push myself from the dirt for the second time today. I had to come up with a plan, that's when it clicked. The wolves! I turned away from my father and the vampire and sucked in as much breath as I could.
"JAKE!" I screamed bloody murder, hurting my own ears. "JACOB BLACK!" I heard the vampire curse behind me, I turned to see him looking over his shoulder. Did it work? Could he hear the wolves coming? He flashed his gaze to me, looking at me like a ravenous animal. He turned his body towards me, facing away from Charlie.
That's when Charlie fired the first shot. BANG! The noise reverberated through the trees, the bullet had bounced of the vampire in front of me, doing no harm. Much as I suspected, though he had been caught slightly off guard, the shot did nothing to help our situation. I could see a glint in the vampires' eye before he turned back to face Charlie.
"Damn it Bella! I said run!" Charlie yelled looking frantic but his hands never shook.
"I'm not leaving you! You're all I have left," I cried out. I could see the heartbreak on Charlie's face, we were both aware that either one or both of us weren't going to make it out of this alive.
"How sweet," the vampire spoke for the first time, looking between us. His voice was harsh, and had a slightly deranged tone to it.
"If only we could keep this happy family together," he said with a glint in his eye, a sickening grin spreading across his face. I was terrified of the implications behind that grin. He twisted around to look between me and Charlie, he was trying to decide which one. Either to take or to kill I didn't want to know. I looked around for anything that I could use to protect myself, then I saw a jagged rock.
Looking up to see the vampires back to me, my decision was made. As the blond headed for Charlie I lunged down and snatched the rock from the ground. Without giving myself the change to thinking about it, I took the jagged end and pressed it into the skin of my arm. I looked down to see that the rock hadn't gone into my flesh, only made an angry red mark.
Charlie fired another shot at the vampire, causing me to jump. The shot effect the vampire about as much as a limp water balloon. He was getting closer to Charlie, having chosen who he wanted. I shoved the rock into my skin, crying out as it went in, and ran it down my arm.
As soon as the first drop of blood fell, the vampire had turned around, the red completely gone, now replaced fully with his black pupils. Before I could blink he was right in front of me, his hand whipped out and went around my neck, lifting me a few feet off the ground.
That's when I heard it, the sound of paws. I could have cried I was so relieved, the wolves were here, maybe we could get out of this.
The vampire hissed at the wolves as they grew closer. He looked between Charlie and me several times rapidly. Then suddenly, I fell hard to the ground, looking up I saw he had darted at Charlie. He was on him in the blink of eye, it all happened so fast I almost couldn't see it, but I did. The vampire pulled Charlie toward him, jerking his neck to the side, then he bites down.
"NO!" I screamed, trying to push myself up to run at them. Charlie's face was ghost white, his face a mask of shock. The vampire had lifted Charlie off the ground his feet dangling just above his gun. As I was getting up, I snapped a twig causing the vampire to unlatch from Dad's neck to look at me, blood dripping down his chin. He smiled at me, licking his lips.
"I'll be coming back for you," he said, then, before my eyes, they vanished.
One second they were there, the next they had disappeared; then the wolves were flying around me. I couldn't tell who it was, but at least four of the wolves were going after Charlie and the vampire. I started to run again too trying to keep up, and failing miserably, when a russet colored wolf jumped in front of me.
I ran straight into him, bouncing off and falling to the floor right on my butt. The wolf turned to looked at me and I knew it was Jake. He walked towards me and put his head down in front of me, so low his chin brushed my feet. I used him to get up, wrapping my arms around his neck. He held a lot of my weight as we stood together.
Once we were up he turned he massive head back and pushed me slightly, asking me to get on his back.
"But," I said looking in the direction the wolves had run. He nudged me again, this time harder, knocking me a bit. With tears in my eyes I climbed onto Jake's back, holding on as best I could with one hand, as he took off for La Push.
I replayed the last few seconds in my head, that blond vampire biting Charlie. He was still alive, but he had been bitten.
It was over, even if they found Charlie, he would be turning. They would have to...
I couldn't even think it, I tried by best not to lose it, as I clung to the back of Jake.