Two vampires made a stop before leaving Forks.
Charlie answered the door, letting Edward and Alice in from the rain.
"I had heard you were leaving," Charlie said while they stood at the foot of the stairs. He didn't feel comfortable sitting in either the living room or the kitchen – that was too casual.
It had been over a month since Bella had run away, and no one had heard from her. Charlie knew the statistics, knew that Bella had left behind everything she cared about. She wouldn't have disappeared if she'd had a choice… and if she hadn't had a choice, there was no way she could have survived this long.
"We are," Edward said, but he wasn't looking at Charlie, he was staring up the stairs. His eyes flickered to the chief, but didn't meet his gaze before staring back upstairs. "Chief Swan, do you mind if I…?"
Charlie closed his eyes. "Go ahead," he said gruffly.
Edward walked up the stairs slowly, while behind him Alice pulled Charlie into the kitchen. Edward went up her stairs, and into her room. He stood right beside her bed, staring around and memorizing her room. He took a deep breath, catching her scent on everything, letting it burn its way down his throat. He fell to his knees, laying his head on her bed and just breathing.
He would never smell her again. He would never need to worry about the burn as she tore down his throat, never need to restrain himself from her again. Already her scent in this room was old; not faint, because it had saturated everything in the past few months… but not fresh. Eventually it would be gone completely, and there would be nothing left in the world that could cause him so much pain and pleasure in equal measures.
He doubted, truly, that anything could cause him pleasure again, beyond the dull satisfaction of the revenge he would exact.
Downstairs, his sister was sitting across the table from the lonely man who owned the house.
"He wants to go to Phoenix." Alice said solemnly, watching the rain through the window.
"…She never made it to Phoenix. There's nothing there." Charlie's voice was bitter.
"We know. He just… He wants to drive it. Go the way she went. I think he thinks…" Her lips pressed tightly together.
"What?"
She sighed. "I think he wants to find something. I think he thinks that if he follows her trail, he'll find some clue… maybe find the guy that took her."
Charlie laughed without humor. "He won't. There's officers and detectives all up and down the highway looking for clues."
"I know that."
"So what does he expect?" Charlie demanded, angry suddenly.
Alice sighed again. "We don't expect anything, Charlie. But we loved her, too. It's hard to give up, even though we know she's…" She couldn't get out the last word. "I don't think he'll ever really stop looking for her."
Charlie closed his eyes. He could understand that.
"I'm going to go with him, you know," Alice said softly. "Even if it's just driving back and forth between Forks and Phoenix…"
Charlie looked over at her then. She looked so old in that instant, but he knew she was only 17, just like… "You kids need to stay in school."
Alice shrugged. "He's going. He doesn't care about anything else. And I'm not going to let him go alone."
"She wouldn't want you guys to throw away your lives just because – "
"She would understand." Edward's voice was soft. Charlie turned to see him standing just outside the kitchen, and it was so surreal. His dark eyes were full of a pain that made Charlie's pale in comparison, but he didn't look broken. He looked as though he'd been frozen in that instant when he'd realized Bella was gone. He wasn't a boy anymore; he was a man of ice. "She would not like it. She would fight me every step, like she always does, I know that…" and a faint hint of a pained smirk floated over his face for an instant, "…but she would understand. I am the cause of all of this." He closed his eyes against the pain.
"Edward…" Alice said softly, standing.
"It wasn't you, Edward," Charlie said uncomfortably, knowing it was true. "It wasn't you, it was this place… She loved you," he bit out. He didn't like it, but that hardly mattered now.
"I know," Edward said without opening his eyes. Alice took his hand in her tiny one, and he squeezed it like it was the only thing to hold on to.
After a long moment of silence, it was too much for Charlie. "So you're leaving."
"Yes." His eyes opened, and he stared intensely at Charlie. "I want you to know, that if I somehow find him, if I find the bastard that took her from me…"
"Don't tell me what you'd do," Charlie cut in. "I'm still the chief of police here, Cullen. I'd hate to have to help put you away for something I'd have done myself."
Edward smiled, a pained grimace to let Charlie know he understood. "Goodbye, then, Charlie…"
Charlie nodded, leading them to the door. He paused before opening it. "Edward… Don't let this consume you."
For a moment, Edward's resolve flickered, and Alice saw the future he'd choose if he didn't chase after James. That is, she saw that he didn't have a future. But it was only for a moment, and then their path was set again to seek revenge.
"I have already been consumed, Chief Swan," he said gravely. "I have no purpose without Bella. If I do not do this, I have nothing left."
Charlie did not know what he could say to this devoted boy. It wasn't healthy, he knew, to be so committed to someone who was no longer there. But this was how his love for Bella manifested, and it made Charlie's heart ache in a bittersweet way to see this proof that his daughter was loved in return.
"Goodbye, then, Edward."
He opened the door, and the vampires left to exact revenge.
