Title: Dead Scream

Disclaimer: I do not own any of the characters.

Thanks: To everyone that has reviewed and added this story to their alerts lists. It really means a lot to me!

Rating: Teen

Author: Dani Meows

Pairing: Bella/Edward

Genre: Angst/Romance

Notes: This chapter was fiendishly difficult to write, because I'm trying to balance the line between angst over kill and unbelievable suicide attempt. I hate it when characters are like I'm going to kill myself, oh wait I'm happy again without a believable progression so I hope that I'm not making that mistake here. Let me know what you think!

Chapter two: Awakenings and phone calls

Bella's eyelids fluttered open slowly, and her brown eyes met Alice's dark gold ones. Bella stared at her friend in shock, as her heart raced and her breathing became very erratic. Was Alice really her? Or had her descent into suicidal thoughts led her to imagining her friends near her?

Alice placed a soothing hand on her cheek, "Bella?" she asked softly. Her hand was ice cold, and should have had Bella flinching away from both the temperature and the reminder of another pair of ice cold hands; but she leaned into the touch.

Alice felt real, she looked real, as stunningly beautiful as always, but her eyes were so very sad. 'Of course they're sad, Bella, she found you in the bathtub trying to kill yourself you idiot!' her mind yelled at her.

"Alice?" Bella questioned before she sat up and launched herself into her friends cold arms. Alice smelled the same beautiful scent that was better than perfume, and Bella found herself feeling soothed with idea that her best friend, at least, still seemed to care for her despite leaving so suddenly two months ago.

She began to cry. To sob out all of the grief and pain that she'd been through in the last two months; suddenly unable to keep it all in and hidden from everyone any longer. Her friends hard, stone like body, was soothing and cold as she was tightly held, making it feel as Alice was holding her together despite her breaking.

Alice held Bella tightly, making sure that she didn't squeeze her too tightly as it wouldn't be hard for Alice to hurt her friend. It made her feel horrible as her friend's tears, warm just like the rest of her, soaked her shirt. She didn't try to stop Bella from crying, as she thought that the act of crying it all out could be healing for Bella.

Once Bella's sobs had quieted down to whimpers, they sat for a few moments in silence. Her voice shaky and hoarse from her tears, Bella apologized, "I'm sorry to drag you away from your life to save me."

"Oh Bella, I wanted to save you. And I'm glad I came down here." Alice began, slightly angry although managing not to show it that her brother had so damaged not just his relationship with the girl, but everyone's relationship with Bella.

"I'm just sorry that I didn't see your suffering sooner!" Alice exclaimed, "He made me promise not to look, so I didn't but this one came through... and I'm so glad because even with the vision I was almost to late!"

Bella looked at Alice in confusion, "Y-You still care about me?" she asked.

"Of course I care, why would you think that I didn't-" Alice trailed off as she realized why Bella would feel that she didn't care.

"He said that he didn't want me and that he was tired of pretending to be human. And then he said that you were all gone. So I thought that maybe I hadn't mattered to any of you and that all of you were just pretending." Bella explained.

Despite knowing that her brother was curled up in his room in their house in Alaska in a complete state of misery and despair, Alice really hated her brother at that moment.

"He-" Alice tried to think of the best way to explain her actions and the actions of the rest of her family, "I didn't want to leave. I refused to leave. He and I fought for hours, but in the end he insisted that if I truly loved you, if I really cared about your safety, I'd leave and let you get on with your life. A life without the danger that being near a family of vampires poses. I decided to leave, then, even though it felt like I was leaving a much beloved sister behind."

Sister? Bella felt warmth spread through her at those words from Alice. "I missed you," was all she said in response to Alice's confession though. She was tired and she felt herself drift into sleep as she reclined on her bed against Alice.

Listening to Bella's breathing and heart rate as they reached a slow and steady rhythm, Alice wondered what exactly she should do next.

Some members of her family that she always knew what to do thanks to her gift, and her tendency to live in both the future and the current moment at any given time. What they never seemed to realize is that she wasn't all seeing or all knowing and that she too could fall victim to indecision.

She had to call Jasper, who'd been with her when she'd had the vision and let her know that she hadn't been to late. To also let him know that she hadn't lost control around Bella's blood and drained her dry. She didn't know if she could call Edward.

He'd lied to Bella, but would it do Bella more harm than good to know that her heartbreak was caused by a lie? Would Edward's reaction be beneficial to Bella or harmful?

A vision pushed at her then, and Alice allowed it to take her away:

She saw Rosalie, smirking, as Jasper told her about Alice's vision of Bella's death. Rosalie was happy. She ran up stairs, to Edward's room, gaining her brother's attention and telling them of her death. Edward, who hadn't exactly looked good before became even more haggard and drawn as he collapsed on the floor in grief, screaming, "NO!" over and over again.

She had no choice now, she had to reach Edward and tell him before Rose did. Picking up her cellphone, she dialed her brother's number quickly.

"What is it Alice?" he growled into the phone.

Speaking quietly so as to not wake up the sleeping girl next to her she began, "Edward in about a minute, Rose will call you telling you that Bella is dead. She isn't I got to her just in time."

Edward let out an agonized cry, "What happened?" He pictured Bella, clumsy as always, falling down, and felt further pain as he realized that he hadn't been their to protect her. It was for her own good though, she would be better off without him. No matter how much it hurt him not to be there with her he had to let her go, he had to stay away. No matter how badly he wanted to go to her...

"She slit her wrists in the bathtub," Alice said, bluntly.

"What? She promised not to do anything stupid!" he said as shock coursed through him. His Bella, slitting her wrists in the bathtub, bleeding to death, committing suicide, was it because of him? "Why did she..?" he trailed off unable to bring himself to say the words to describe her actions.

"She wants to die because she doesn't feel that she has anything to live for when the one that she loves doesn't love her." Alice was blunt and he could feel her anger over the phone. He deserved her anger though, now as he began to see all the damage that his decision had done, he realized just how stupid he'd been for the past two months.

"How is she?" he asked. Alice wanted to rage at him. How was she? How was SHE? How the hell did he think she was. She'd tried to kill herself for crying out loud! Did he think she'd be well suddenly afterwards.

"Physically?" Alice began, deciding that she'd rage at her brother through her thoughts unless he came to see Bella and was properly apologetic for what he'd done. "She's fine, her arm is bandaged up, pretty tightly and the bleeding has stopped but... she's lost a lot of weight since we've left, she has circles under her eyes worse than yours, and she's paler than we are."

Edward let out a sharp needless breath, and made another tortured cry. She could hear him begin to shudder with dry sobs, as he ground out his questions for her.

"How is she mentally? Should I stay away or go to her?" Alice pondered his questions for a few minutes.

"Mentally, I don't know. She's so lost and confused right now, she broke down crying when she saw me and seemed surprised that I cared for what happened to her." Alice suppressed a growl, "When she wakes up, I think I'll try and get her to talk about what she's gone through since we've left."

"Don't come to us yet, let me talk to her and see how she feels about it. I think I'm going to ask her if she would like to visit our house in Alaska for a little while." she explained.

"I think being away from Forks for a little while will help her mental state a lot." she continued, "and Jasper could really help her with her feelings."

Edward nodded, he couldn't get words past the choked feeling in his throat as he shook with sobs. He wanted to go to Bella but he knew that now more than ever he needed to do what was best for Bella.

This incident had shown that he didn't have the best grasp of what was best for Bella though. He'd left thinking it would be for the best and it had been the worst thing he could have done.

Alice hung up, promising that she'd let him know her progress. After he tossed away the phone and tried to get a grip on his grief and guilt, he was bombarded with Rosalie's thoughts.

So the little human plaything of Edward's is dead. How wonderful. Then maybe this family can get back to normal. I can't wait to tell Edward, it's not like he loved the toy anyways.

Edward growled and opened the door to glare at her.

"Alice called, she managed to save Bella, not that you care." Edward felt rage bubble through him as his sister's thoughts replayed in his head. "Don't you ever call her my plaything again! She's the only person, I've ever loved or ever will loved!"

Rose opened her mouth to speak but Edward cut her off, "Don't bother. You're a vain bitch and you've always been a vain bitch, so I wouldn't expect you to know love if it bit you on the face." He stormed off.

He had to go hunt. He had to make sure that if he did see Bella soon, he wouldn't give into his blood lust and attack her.

Bella's dreams were peaceful for once. Her and Alice were shopping at the mall, and Bella was complaining at Alice for spending to much money, and telling her how she couldn't possible wear those heels, they were death traps.

She woke up to see Alice's very amused eyes on her. "We'll have to take a real shopping trip soon."

They shared a smile, but Bella could tell by Alice's expression that soon they would be having a more serious discussion.

"Bella will you tell me exactly what has gone on with you since we've left?" she asked.

Bella took a shaky breath and then began to explain exactly how broken up the break up had left her.

"After he left, I broke down in the woods, I was found hours later by someone, a Sam Uley I think. I kept repeating he's gone, and Dr. Grenady treated me for shock. I remember hearing that you all had moved to LA, and I knew that was a lie, and I remember going upstairs and finding my birthday presents, and the picture I had taken of Edward gone. I don't remember the next few days, I remember hearing Charlie talk about me being catatonic, but I don't remember anything but the blackness I felt inside me that threatened to swallow me whole. My mom came from Florida to try and get me to go with her and I lost it, I didn't want to leave. I think I felt that if I stayed if Forks there was always a chance that he would come back..."

Bella took a breath to gather up her energy for the rest of the explanation, as Alice reeled from the words Bella had spoken already. Catatonia, shock in the woods, guilt was going to eat them all alive.

"After that I knew that I had to pretend to go on about my daily life, so as to not upset my father further so that it what I did. If it reminded me of him, I avoided it. I didn't spoke unless I was spoken to and I spoke only what I could get away with. I went to school, came home, got dinner together but I felt so empty inside. I just wanted it all to end, so I tried to end it and you know what has happened since then."

Alice shuddered as her mind conjured up the images that Bella's words evoked... wrapping her arms around Bella once more she whispered her apologies against her hair, as Bella struggled not to cry.

Struggling to speak lightly, Alice asked, "How would you like to get away from Forks for a while? You and I could go to my house in Alaska, meet up with Jasper, and any other members of the family you feel comfortable around, that way you could recover without having to pretend to feel things you aren't?"