Disclaimer: Obviously, I am not Stephenie Meyer since she would never have Aro doing those things to Bella so no more needs to be said about that.
AN~Oh, hey there, guys! Sooo, I've been off working on some original material since the beginning of April. I wrote drafts for three separate novels in that time one of which will hopefully hit the Kindle store sometime in the next few months. I will keep you updated for anyone interested in reading it. It will be cheap because I'm not a capitalist.
Now, I caught a vicious cold this week and my brain is completely plugged with snot making it impossible to continue work on my novels because they require much brain think. But I can't stop working entirely because I'm addicted to making stories. So I dug up some fics and thought I would bring them to you as they take much less concentration to write/edit.
Sorry that this is not a sequel to Sunlight. I wish I could make that happen.
1
Even if Charlie knew I was still alive, it was past the point in which I would ever be able to return to Forks. Charlie knew there was something strange about me but I don't think his vague acceptance of that would extend to me looking like I was eighteen still when I was supposed to be closer to forty-five. I wondered if he had retired yet or intended to work until he died. I think, if he hadn't met Sue, it would have been the latter, but now I wanted to imagine that she had forced him to quit and they spend their time fishing and watching TV together.
There was no one who could tell me what was going on there. Jacob never went back either. Everyone who had known me as a human thought I was dead. All of my high school friends were married. Except for Jessica who died in a car accident during her first year of college. I knew that my immortality would be truly real to me only after people I knew started to die but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly. Even so, I had started searching obituaries ritualistically for the names of anyone I knew early on after we were settled. Aro tried to talk me out of it but I had to know. And I never would have known about Renee's cancer or that she had died the very year after we moved back to American. Aro had looked at me with such a painful depth of pity when I told him that I almost wanted to be mad but I let it go because he didn't try to tell me that he had told me so, he just held me until I stopped shaking and told me he was sorry. I knew he'd told me not to because he didn't want me to hurt and when it happened it was terrible for him to watch.
Renesmee had gone to college in about twelve different cities. She always looked young so nobody questioned her and she had more degrees than I knew existed. Jacob followed her, but as far as I had witnessed, there was never anything romantic between them. They were closer than family though. He was the only one of us who had aged at all, although, much slower, he now looked a lot older than Renesmee and would until he died while she remained young. The relationship would have become untenable at some point and maybe they both knew it and that was why they never acted on any feelings that may have been there after she was older.
Aro and I had kept our Baltimore apartment but we went back less and less. Especially after Jacob and Renesmee moved out and we had our own house finally. But I was thinking about going now. I just wasn't sure how that could happen. There were a million different scenarios but I wasn't sure how safe any of them would be. I felt like if he were somewhere that mattered to us it might change things. It was illogical. But it was my only idea as I couldn't leave him alone.
There was a garden in the back of our house but everything in it had died. It felt like the inside of my soul with its dry ground and the yellowed corpses of dead plants rising from it. I had let it die when Aro started to change and I enjoyed watching it wilt because I had no other outlet for my impotent rage at what was happening.
I heard a footstep but not a heartbeat behind me. I turned around, a fighting stance ready, I knew Vladimir and Stefan would never give up until Aro was dead but we had only seen them twice for a moment since Carcassonne. They were just checking in each time, to make sure I was still around and that we knew they were. As soon as I wasn't, they would swoop in. It was one of the reasons I was afraid to move him and why I couldn't leave.
But it wasn't them. It was something so much more infinitely dangerous that I hadn't let myself think about it. Someone more dangerous. A person who could truly hurt me. Destroy my life. But my life was already destroyed and my reaction to his sudden appearance was so benign that he said my name like a question, as though not sure if it was actually me.
"Hi, Edward," I responded tonelessly. I wasn't even sure if I wanted to know how he was alive. I had thought him dead so long ago and in relation to my life now, I had known him for so short a time, most of it while I was human that I felt only a vague connection to him now.
Neither of us spoke for a minute. What was there to say after twenty-six years?
Finally, he spoke. "I saw Renesmee, she gave me your address."
"Oh." I hadn't even thought about how he had managed to find me. Aro and I lived in seclusion for the most part and when we did interact with the human world, we used different last names in every city. Most of them were inside jokes. Baltimore. Carlisle. Notch. Thinking about our life was so painful I was glad I didn't need to breathe because I couldn't have just then and having Edward standing there staring at me wasn't helping. He was a stranger, I didn't want to tell him anything.
"She wouldn't tell me very much about you. She said I should ask you about your life myself," he looked so sad that I felt the frostiness around me melt a little.
But not much.
"Right. Well, this is a really bad time, actually, Edward—"
"Is there a good time? You're immortal, Bella. You have only time. I understand you've probably moved on after this long, but I think I deserve the truth about it and not to be brushed off."
He was right. This wasn't fair.
"Okay. What do you want to know?" I was irritated but I forced my voice to be calm and nice.
"Well, I assume, if you were alone, she would have just told me instead of being evasive . . ."
Part of me wanted to shout, "You know what, Edward? I thought you were dead. It's been a quarter of a century, this isn't any of your damned business." But that wasn't right. This wasn't his fault. But I still couldn't think about his reaction when he found out who I was married to. He would be disgusted and angry and for the first time I worried that he might become violent. Aro wasn't able to fight anyone right now.
"I'm married."
"Okay," he said, in a slightly choked voice, like he was swallowing a large pill that he'd been carrying around in his hand wondering if he'd have to take. "How long have you been married?"
Damn. I took a breath. It hurt. "Twenty-five years."
The calculation wasn't hard to do. It wasn't difficult to figure out I had gotten married a year after he supposedly died. It wasn't an unreasonable time frame. As long as you ignored how it all happened.
"Twenty-five years. That's . . . um, so you met someone after you and Jacob and Renesmee left Forks?"
I shook my head. "They left before the fighting broke out," I said, not giving any more information than I had to. Maybe if I delayed, something catastrophic would happen and I wouldn't have to confess what I'd done to him. I prayed for an asteroid.
"But you did leave Forks right after?"
"Yeah."
He couldn't read my mind but he had known me well enough to read my face and he knew I was hiding something.
"Alone?" his voice was a little shaky.
I mouthed, 'No.' And he just stared at me swallowing.
"Tell me, Bella."
"Edward, my husband is really sick—"
He looked thrown now, obviously this wasn't going in the direction he thought. "You . . . married a human?"
I shook my head. "He's a vampire."
"Who is it?" he looked a little desperate. He had to have been running through a list of all the male vampires in Forks that day. The nomads, his brothers, his father. I'm certain he did not settle on my actual husband though.
"Edward, please. He's very ill and I don't know what's wrong with him, I've been trying to figure it out but I can't leave him for very long he—he's so weak . . ."
His face softened. "Look, Bella, if it's someone, we know, like Jasper or Emmett . . . or Carlisle?" He looked really skeptical at this last one, "then it's okay, you should just tell me."
Oh. God. If he thought Carlisle was so far-fetched he was going to have the vampire equivalent of a heart attack when he found out who had really been sharing my bed all this time.
"It's not . . . any of them."
He looked relieved. "So, a nomad then? Well, that's not that big of a deal, Bella. You were alone—"
The look on my face cut him off as surely as if I had punched him in the stomach.
"No, Edward. Nobody who came to help us . . . "
I thought this clue was so detail-less that he wouldn't possibly put it together but a sudden and fierce comprehension came over his features, transforming them utterly and turning him from a beautiful teenage boy to a crazed monster in a moment. He shoved past me and went for our door. I tried to block him but we were about evenly matched in strength now and he was able to struggle against me.
"Edward, no! Please, he's sick! He can't defend himself right now and if you insist on fighting, you'll be fighting me. This isn't his fault, it's mine, it was all me!"
He shook my hands off and stepped back. "Was there something going on I didn't know about?" he asked like he had a throat full of nails.
"No! How could there have been? I was with you every second. You know that. How could you even think that?" I was a little insulted. I may have done regrettable things after I thought he was dead but I wasn't an adulterer.
"Because, Bella. You . . . said his name in your sleep. More than once."
I had dreams, I remembered them but I had no idea Edward knew anything about it.
"And don't ask me if I'm sure because it was obvious. And it was pretty obvious you weren't . . . just talking to him in your dream either. You were touching yourself. I woke you up but I didn't say anything because I thought it would upset you. You didn't seem to remember. But you did, didn't you?"
I was looking past him vaguely. I couldn't look at him directly.
"I almost went for him that day on the battlefield because of what he was thinking when we walked up there with Renesmee. He knew I could hear him, Bella. It was sick. And he just smiled at you . . . like that. I should have killed him right then."
"What? You were going to kill someone for thinking something?"
Edward's volatile nature which had attracted me a bit as a teenaged human was just frustrating and exhausting now.
"Maybe it was just thinking then. But you were both just waiting for a chance it looks like . . ."
That. Was crazy.
"That's ridiculous, of course, not! I didn't even know he—"
"Oh, but you knew you did!"
"I didn't know anything, Edward! We were the only people alive! Everyone around us was dead! It was terrifying! He kept me from going insane. He took care of me every second and he's never stopped! He saved my life. And now he might be dying. If he dies, I will die."
He recoiled a little and just shook his head, still looking disgusted. I had imagined this look on his face many times during the nine months Aro and I were on the run. It haunted me then, now though, indignation and rage filled me. How dare he say all of this when I already told him Aro was sick. I wanted to hurt him so badly but right then I heard a weak call from upstairs, we both did.
"I have to go, please just leave. You know where Renesmee is, I don't know what you need from me. Please, go." I opened the door and dashed for the stairs. I could hear Aro calling for me. It tore my heart how thin his voice was. I heard Edward's footsteps on the stairs and I didn't care. If he wanted to come watch me try helplessly to care for my dying husband then fine, if he wanted to suffer, I wouldn't stop him. No one had ever been able to stop Edward from suffering under his own power. Aro had once said he hated a self-loathing vampire and now I knew why. This was ridiculous. He didn't care if Aro was dying or if we loved each other or that we had been married for ten times the amount of time I had even known him, he just wanted to torture himself and I was willing to let him.
I got to the door and slowed. I didn't want to run into the room looking crazed. I made myself open the door carefully. He was where he always was, sitting in a chair by the window, staring outside, his face blank. When I came in, even though I had slowed and tried to calm myself, I knew he must have heard at least some of what was going on. He looked frightened and disoriented. I fought to keep my face neutral. He looked afraid a lot lately and I really didn't know what he was experiencing because he wouldn't tell me. He looked relieved to see me though and that was good. I went to him and knelt in front of the chair. He put his hand on my cheek.
"I heard shouting. Are you okay?" the concern in his voice made me want to go back into the hallway and tear Edward's eyes out of his head. But I wouldn't have needed to go that far, he was standing in the doorway. I stood, my stance became protective and intimidating immediately. I glared at him. If he wanted to invade our privacy, I wasn't going to be friendly with him. I felt Aro tug my hand weakly. I looked down at him.
"I should lay down . . ."
I looked at Edward again, still standing there dumbly, watching me and Aro together. I wanted to shout at him to leave. I didn't want him seeing this, seeing my husband who didn't matter at all to him, in such an undignified state.
I put my forehead on the top of his head for a moment. Then I decided I didn't care what Edward thought. I would just ignore him. I lifted Aro's arm and placed it around my neck and then lifted him easily from the chair. I carried him almost everywhere now. He wore pajamas pretty much all the time now. He didn't go anywhere. I remembered how much he used to make fun of mine and held him a little closer to me. I helped him lay down on the bed and put the blankets over him. They were unnecessary of course but it made me feel better, like the fabric could somehow protect him, like a shield, from what was happening. My shield was useless and it infuriated me irrationally. He touched my face and smiled at me. He never laughed anymore. It was like half of him had already died.
"Thank you, my Isabella." I couldn't stop a dry sob coming from me. His face became worried again and I hated that Edward had come here and upset me because it took everything I had not to be sad in front of Aro on the best days which were getting fewer all the time.
"You should leave me. You shouldn't do this. Go stay with Renesmee and Jacob, you don't have to stay here for me, I hate to see you unhappy." His voice was so sweet it hurt me. This was an Aro only I ever saw. He said this same thing or something similar several times a week now.
"I'm not going anywhere so you can just shut up about it. Sulpicia was right, you are really annoying!" I said, forcing my voice into steadiness again.
He almost laughed and was worse than him not laughing at all. It was soft and lacked substance, not like his old laugh, when I never knew what it would sound like, completely insane most of the time but I loved it. It was him. It now made me feel a sick, cruel moment of hope that he would get better. "I'm sorry," he said and closed his eyes. I kissed his face and and stood. He was holding my hand but squeezed and let go when he felt me rise.
I went back into the hallway. At some point, Edward had retreated away from the open door. I closed it quietly behind me then I looked at him like I was going to rip his heart out of his chest. I might. He'd just seen mine get torn out the same way it did every day now.
"Happy?" I asked, putting as much venom in my voice as I could. I stormed past him and down the stairs again. He followed me meekly.
We got into the kitchen and I yanked open the refrigerator. It was full of IV bags of blood, I pulled one out and emptied it into a cup then set about heating it slowly in the microwave. I had learned exactly how to do it the same way all people with sick family members learn to give medications and operate machines and recognize the signs of death coming for their loved ones so they can call for help. Except there was no help for us. I couldn't leave so I had to just watch him die because I had no idea what was happening to him.
By stopping and starting the microwave and swirling the glass periodically in between to keep it from seizing I got it to the right temperature where it wouldn't cool down enough to be undrinkable by the time I got upstairs. When it was done, I pulled it out and brushed past Edward who was standing in the door to the kitchen with a slightly ashamed look on his face.
"I'll be back. I'd prefer that you not follow me this time. He deserves privacy," I said tightly. "If you want to talk, you can go in there," I nodded to the living room, "and I'll be right back."
I climbed the stairs and back to our room. He looked like he was sleeping, but of course he wasn't. He kept falling into these weird fugue states. They were getting longer but he always came out of them easily so I thought that was good.
I sat down and he opened his eyes. "Hello, pretty Bella." He thought calling me "pretty beautiful" was funny for some reason.
"Drink this," I said, holding the glass out.
He made a face. He hated reheated blood but I didn't care. He couldn't hunt and I wasn't dragging a deer in here. "Do it," I said fiercely. "I'll hold you down."
He took the glass, eyeing me affectionately.
"Maybe that's what I want."
But even his flirting didn't have a lot weight to it.
After he drank it I took the glass. I took a breath and then said, "Someone's here."
He seemed to catch by my tone that it wasn't Jacob or Renesmee.
"It's not them either," I said. Stefan and Vladimir. I hoped everyday that they wouldn't hear of Aro's illness somehow. "It's Edward."
The surprise he exhibited was about what I expected. "How . . . ?
"I don't even know, I haven't had a chance to ask yet. He's downstairs."
"Is this why you were sad? Was he cruel to you?"
"He was Edward."
He nodded. I had slowly shown him bits of my life over the years and he knew my experience with Edward as well as anyone except for select bits of our Honeymoon. But he saw those from Edward anyway so it didn't really matter.
"I could still kill him if it came to that."
I laughed. "I would actually love to see you rip someone's head off right now. But we should probably leave Edward's intact for now. He's in shock. Finding out how much time had passed and then finding Renesmee all grown up and you and me . . . "
"It would be hell to be without you, thinking about you for twenty-six years only to find out you were married to someone so handsome and charming," he said nodding in mock sympathy for Edward.
"You're an idiot." I kissed him and left the room.
Downstairs Edward was walking slowly around the living room. We had been in this house the longest and it looked it. It was obvious that a family lived here. Pictures and keepsakes cluttered every surface.
Several pictures of Aro and me on our wedding day. He'd made me wear an opulent white dress and I was glad later because it looked really nice in the pictures. The largest one was of us sitting on a branch up in a tree, looking at each other and not the camera, smiling like giddy teenagers. I had been almost reluctant to put it up because even though the skirt on my dress hid it, he had been actually pinching me on the butt at the moment the picture was taken. But no one else knew that so I put it up.
There were pictures of Renesmee graduating high schools once she had stopped growing enough to go. There were a few of those. Then the colleges. Accelerated programs at each which she passed with ease, double majoring at most. I wondered if he was looking for wedding pictures. Maybe of her and Jacob. I didn't know what Renesmee had told him.
There was a picture of Aro and Renesmee from when she was still small. They were laughing. That was all, just a close up of their faces together, laughing. It was my favorite picture. I had another print of it upstairs in our bedroom.
He found the few pictures of the Cullen family. The ones I had taken from my room. Then in the back, the large black and white one of himself. Still here among my loved ones. I wondered how he felt about that.
When he got to a picture of Aro and me sitting by each other on a couch he stopped and this was the first time he'd really reacted to any of the images. We weren't doing anything spectacular in it but I knew why it made him pause, it made everyone who saw our pictures do the same. I was reading a book, laying on my side and Aro was sitting on the opposite side of the couch, his hand rested on my ankle and even though he was holding a book, he wasn't looking at it. His head was just barely turned in my direction and the look on his face was so revealing it was actually uncomfortable to look at even for me. If anyone doubted that Aro was a being capable of love, this picture would have erased that idea. The love was so plain on his face it was almost obscene. Many people on visiting our house a second time said they could have sworn the photo wasn't in black and white before and asked if we'd switched it out. Aro's love for me made people see color. We didn't know Renesmee had taken it until she gave it to us in this frame for Christmas one year. Aro glared at it when he saw which made me love it even more. I loved anything that annoyed him because the look on his face was hilarious. I wasn't always able to suppress the amusement that I felt seeing it which usually resulted in him calling me childish and leaving the room in a huff.
Finally, he turned to me. "You had a life . . ." The words "without me" seemed to follow this statement inaudibly and swam through the air between us like a desolate ghost.
"I didn't know you were still alive, Edward. If I had, I would have dug you out with my bare hands."
"What if Alice had shown you this life somehow?"
I couldn't possibly answer this question. What did he want me to say? Yes, I would totally go back? No. It was a terrible question.
"I wouldn't have left you buried . . ."
That was not the best thing to say, he looked angry.
"But you would have gone with him?"
"I didn't say that. It's not fair to be asking me these questions, Edward. If I had dug you out, of course I wouldn't have run away with Aro because I wouldn't have been alone. He would have gone home and," I took a painful breath, "none of this would have happened."
"But you had feelings for him while we were together," he accused.
What was worse: feelings or lust? I went for honesty. "No, not feelings. Of course not, I didn't even know him, Edward. I loved you completely."
"Past tense . . ."
"What?"
"Loved."
"Yes, loved. Do you expect me to tell you I still love you after you've just seen my home," I gestured around at my life with Aro, cataloged in every picture, "And my husband upstairs dying of something we don't understand? Huh, Edward? Are you really that selfish!? Jacob and Renesmee love him too. He's been in our lives for twenty-five years. That's a really long time. What do you want me to say?"
"Why aren't they here then if they love him so much?" he said cruelly.
"Because they don't know!" I was screaming now. "Because I didn't think all of us should have to watch him die! Because they have lives and I'd like them to live those lives!" I was panting, shaking.
He was standing stiffly in place, hands in fists at his sides. He made for the door, brushing past me, then before I could react he grabbed my arm, pulled me to him and kissed me. I reached my hands up and raked my nails down his face as hard as I could.
"Get the fuck out of my house and never come back."
He tried to say something but I just starting screaming obscenities at him and throwing things which did him no harm but made a nice mess on my carpet. All of my fear and frustration about Aro's condition fueling my tantrum. He finally disappeared out the back door, leaving it open.
I stood in the destruction of my living room for a moment and then went and closed the door. I went upstairs and into our bedroom. I undressed completely and got into bed next to him. He opened his eyes and when he saw I was naked, he smiled and pulled me too him with his weakened arms.
"Why am I the one wearing pajamas all the time now?"
"I don't know. I don't know why you're wearing anything while there's a naked girl in bed with you."
"Bella, I'm not . . . I'm so . . . dizzy."
But I silenced and carefully took his clothes off.
"We can just lay here if you want. But I miss your skin . . ."
He sighed, pressing weak kisses to my face and hands. After a few minutes he gently communicated without words for me to move on top of him. I certainly had enough energy and his hands seemed to gain strength as I took him inside of me and moved carefully so I didn't hurt him. All the confusion and pain left his face as we bonded through the perfect connection of our bodies. Like we had always done. He said my name, his voice stronger than it had been in weeks, as he came. I finished then myself to the sound of it, hope I couldn't suppress, flowing through me. I didn't collapse on top of him but rolled slowly to the side and wrapped my arms around him loosely.
"I didn't hurt you did I?"
"No. Not hurt. Whatever is wrong with me, I'm certain you could heal it."
"You think I could fuck you back to life?"
"Maybe."
Then silence. And what he said to break this silence was so unexpected I felt almost betrayed by him even considering it.
"Edward still loves you."
"So?"
"So I might die, Bella. You know it. I'm getting worse every day."
"Shut up." Somehow I kept my voice steady.
"No. It's time to talk about this," he insisted. "What are you going to do when that happens?"
"Nothing. Because it won't. I'll figure this out. You're not going to fucking die on me, Aro."
"You have a very dirty mouth today, my wife." But he was smiling tiredly.
"I swear, Aro. I will figure this out."
"And if you don't and I die. I don't want you to be alone."
"What are you saying? You want me to be with Edward? That's . . . crazy. I don't even know him. That was a million years ago. Plus he just acted like a complete asshole."
"I heard."
"If you heard all of that then you know I love you and I wouldn't give up my life with you."
"I just don't want you to feel guilty if it happens."
"It won't."
"You always think things are so simple." He kissed my forehead. "If you try to accept that I might not be here forever, I promise I'll do everything I can to make sure I am, okay?"
"I"m not ready, we've had so little time. I want more," I said. I was aware I sounded spoiled and I didn't care.
"How much more?"
"I don't know, a few hundred years? I should be ready to kill you myself by then."
"I'll let you if you don't like me anymore. I promise."
"That's . . . very sweet of you. I think." I touched his hair absentmindedly and then did a double take and pulled it out toward me. "Aro," I said, my voice was quavering. "Your hair. There's grey in it."
I lifted it so he could see. He stared at it, his eyes brighter and more lucid than I had seen them in a month. I flew off the bed.
"I'm calling Sulpicia. I don't care what you want."
I ran into the hallway and tried to remember where I had left my cell phone. I heard Aro calling me but I ignored him. I found it on the couch. I was unconscious of the ridiculousness of standing in my living room naked, making a phone call. I scrolled through my numbers, it seemed to take forever to find "S" and then when I did I just stared at her name. What would I say? Aro's dying? Aro's aging somehow? Come quick and . . . do what? But I didn't know what else to do. Humans called 911 and I called the Volturi.
A soft-voiced young male voice answered. Under Sulpicia's rule, the bimbos were out. At least in female form. There was always a beautiful boy working the desk when we went to see her now.
"Hi. Um. This is Isabella . . . Swan. I need to speak with Sulpicia."
"She's in a meeting, can I—"
"This is absolutely an emergency. Life or death. Er, immortality or death. Whatever. I need her help. Now. Please."
"I will . . . see if she's finished."
Silence. Too long. So long I felt like I would crush my phone in my hand before he came back.
I was intensely relieved when I heard Sulpicia's cool, strange voice and not the male secretary.
"Bella? What's going on?" There was a hint of annoyance in her voice, like she suspected this was either me or Aro being melodramatic.
"It's Aro!" I said trying to sound rational and not insane so she would listen to me. "He's dying or something Sulpicia. He's been sick for weeks and he wouldn't let me call you but now it's changed and I had to."
"Sick how?" She sounded concerned at least now. And it relieved me and also worried me. I knew vampire sickness couldn't be common or good.
"He's weak and he has trouble eating and he goes in and out of these weird like mini comas every once in awhile . . . "
"Can you wake him from them?"
"Yes."
"Does he remember you after?"
"Yes, every time."
"How long has this been happening?"
"Three months."
"What didn't you call me sooner?" She sounded a little angry.
"Aro wouldn't let me!"
"So what? Since when do his wives do anything he says?"
She was right, I should have called her.
"Do you have any idea what's going on?" I asked hoping that she knew and also that she didn't if it was bad. Then I could go on hoping.
She was quiet for so long I thought she had hung up but I looked at my phone and the timer for the phone call was still going. I heard a voice and quickly put it back to my ear.
"Bella?"
"Yes?"
"Did you hear what I said?"
"No, sorry, I was . . . nevermind. What was it?"
"I said I might know. But, Bella, it isn't good."
A small, awful noise came out of me.
"Bella? Don't lose me here. It's not absolute so do not freak out and do not tell Aro about this. Just tell him I'm coming. I have meetings today so it will be tomorrow night before I can get there."
"There's something else," I said weakly. "His hair is turning grey."
A pause.
"I'll be there tonight. Do not do anything else and do not move him or feed him anything. Do you understand, Bella?"
"Yes," I said and I heard the tremor in my voice and hated it next to Sulpicia's strong, full tones. But the sudden change in her arrival time filled me with the kind of fear I hadn't felt since I first heard the Volturi were coming to kill Renesmee. Now I was praying they would get here fast enough to save a different loved one.
I hung up and went back upstairs.
"Sulpicia says she'll be here—" I stopped. He was staring at the ceiling but his eyes were glassy and lifeless. There was blood everywhere, bright and horrible against his pale skin, staining the sheets and coating the lower half of his face.
I raced to the bed, yelling his name. I took his hand and it was limp and heavy. I shook his shoulder and his head fell to the side.
"Aro, please," I begged. Not knowing what else to do I just slapped him across the face. He took a gasping breath that gurgled from the blood in his throat but he was conscious again. He looked at the blood and then at me. And for the first time I saw real fear in him. Not the fear or confusion he'd had since the illness started but the real crimson fear of death.
He was the one who needed to accept that he might die. I had already done it and that's why my face looked exactly like his did now whenever I left this room.
"Sulpicia will be here tonight."
"I love you, Isabella." His voice was sort of glow-y. Far away and angelic.
"I know. Just please don't say it like that. You're going to be fine, she said you would."
He knew I was lying but he still looked at me with an expression exactly like the one in the picture of us on the couch. I had never seen it in person. I felt a drop of slow liquid run down my face. I didn't have to touch it to know I was crying blood, like I had in Paris.
The last time I lost him.
We stared at each other, both of our faces streaked with red, just waiting for the sun to go down.
END NOTES: Okay. So this was written about six months ago. I actually started it directly after finishing AYW but never finished it because Sunlight happened. This was at the height of my AroLove and I will admit that I cried so much writing this because I really didn't know what was going to happen and it's Aro being all sick and stuff. So Sad!
There are about six chapters of this so far but I will try to bang out the rest of it because I've already written the ending and I really like it and I'd like you to be able to read it.
Anyway, I hope you liked this, nice to see you all again!
P.S. I actually feel a little bit bad for what I've done to Edward here. Maybe I've gone too far at last . . .