Hilo! I kept putting this off all week (-mutters- stupid AP bio test) and I was DYING to finish this chapter today! Hope ya like it!
DISCLAIMER: DO NOT OWN TWILIGHT.
It felt like I was floating. I was at the bottom at a pond, weightless and serene. I started drifting closer to the shore, but strangely, I didn't want to float up.
I was close enough to reality that I could hear the muffled voices of the people in the living room, but not actually respond.
"What the hell is wrong with you Emmett?"
"What? You wanted her to wake up, right?"
"You're an idiot."
"Pipe down guys! Bella will wake up in ten seconds!"
I started to flutter my eyelids open, adjusting my focus to the bright room.
I was on the couch in the living room, with all the Cullens huddled around me, even Rosalie. Edward, the closest one to me, was glaring at Emmett, whose expression ranged from impishness to bemusement. When I started shifting around, Edward moved his gaze towards me on the couch. He looked outraged and worried at the same time, which was uplifted with sheer joy when I sat up. As I sat up I noticed Edward's brown suede jacket that he was wearing was wrapped around my shoulders, but yet I still had goose bumps.
Confused, I shrugged off the jacket.
My white, button down, long-sleeved shirt, was drenched. I noticed my hair was also wet to the scalp, plastered to my head.
I looked around the huddle and found the suspect. Emmett was holding a crystal pitcher that was nicely set on the dining table just moments ago and was now empty.
I glared at him. He took a big gulp and attempted to hide the pitcher behind his back, as if I already hadn't seen it.
After a fruitless staring contest with Emmett, I bit the bullet. "Okay, why am I drenched?" I asked wearily with an edge of unease.
Alice danced up next to me, commanding my attention before Edward could get a word in edge-wise.
"Edward starting freaking out about you fainting, so Emmett decided to take things into his own hands and splashed some water on you. Of course, I think he did this for his own amusement rather than for your welfare," she explained, rolling her eyes at Emmett. I looked from behind Alice to give Emmett an inquisitive look.
"What? They do it on General Hospital," he expanded, as if it were a well-known fact. Nobody chose to comment on this; it was way too easy. Though I did see out of the corner of my eye Jasper restraining cackles and Rosalie shake her head.
Edward hadn't said anything throughout the whole exchange. Instead, he was curiously looking at anywhere but me. My eyebrows furrowed in confusion. Why didn't he look directly at me? I was sure I didn't look out of the ordinary, aside from I'm all wet…
Oh wait, I'm wet. And wearing a white shirt.
If I could blush a deeper shade of red, I would've done so. My royal blue bra that Alice bought for me was clearly present through my shirt, and how my shirt was clinging to me wasn't helping a bit. How embarrassing.
"Eeep!" I squeaked, startled, and pulled the jacket back over my shoulders, trying to cover up as much skin as possible. Rosalie snickered. Esme gave me a sympathetic look. Carlisle looked amused.
There was a tap on the doorway of the living room that caused everyone to turn around suddenly.
So it wasn't a dream. The image of the goddess-like woman appeared in the room, looking at us questionably. When she caught all of our attention, she smiled.
"Did I frighten you? I'm terribly sorry," she said, dripping sincerity, meeting my startled gaze. I gave her weak smile, appreciating her apology, no matter how confused I was still. My gaze lingered on her pinkish wings with silver sparkles. They were almost as tall as her, but were like that of a butterfly: graceful and humble, but yet majestic, which was an oxymoron in itself.
She followed my gaze and laughed a sing-song laugh that resembled the chime of wind chimes.
"I suppose these must have given you such a fright when you came in. I forgot to take these off before meeting the human," she admitted and closed her eyes. Her subtle glow grew brighter and the wings slowly retracted into her back. Her glow diminished. She looked as close to human I think she could possibly ever look. Carlisle was the first one to recover.
"Please have a seat. We should be able to talk better in the dining room," he said politely, at the woman's side in a second, leading her back into the room with a sweep of his hand. Everyone trailed in after him. The woman resumed her position at the head of the table, and everyone sat accordingly next to their respectable partners.
"Would you like some more tea?" Esme asked the woman hospitably.
"Yes, thank you love," the woman replied with a dazzling smile. If I had not known better, I would have assumed she were a vampire.
Esme got up out of her seat to boil more water for fresh tea. Carlisle then cleared his throat unnecessarily.
"Would you like to tell us why you do us the great pleasure of your visit today?" he asked, trying to start up conversation. The woman took the bait.
"Titania told me of some interesting news. She told me that Edward and a human girl got engaged, no? I just wanted to come and wish best wishes to the happy couple," she said cheerfully. Beside me Edward's chest rumbled from a barely retained growl in his chest. I looked up at his face. His smooth posterior betrayed nothing, but I knew better to know something was brewing beneath the surface. And how did Titania sound so familiar?
Esme returned with the tea and poured the woman a cup. The woman exclaimed her thanks and continued to add honey and sugar to her drink. Her eyes suddenly brightened and then flashed contritely.
"How rude of me, I forgot to introduce myself! The girl probably doesn't even know what I am," she announced and turned her full attention towards me now.
"My name is Mab, well, at least my nickname. I am a fairy. Really, to be technical, Queen of the Fairies and the Fairy of Dreams. Every night you dream is my doing. Sometimes I am trying to tell you something important, but other times they are for my own amusement," she explained as if she were talking to a five-year old. I didn't take too much offense in her condescendingly polite tone; I was thinking too much.
Something clicked in my mind. I remember in Mercutio's monologue in Romeo and Juliet. While teasing Romeo, he mentioned a Queen Mab, fairy of dreams. Titania also reminds me of A Midsummer's Night Dream. Apparently, she was supposedly the Queen of the fairies, but I could be wrong. When was that? The Golden Age, maybe?
Queen Mab had to be pretty old. I wonder how old her Greek-like garb is.
She unfocused her attention from me and continued to look down at her tea cup as she stirred its contents.
"It is very uncommon, even rare for a vampire to marry a human. You two must really love each other-," she mused, as she continued stirred the condiments into her drink. Edward clenched his teeth noticeably, but kept his face smooth anyways.
"I love Bella very much," Edward interrupted, and made sure to emphasize every syllable. To prove his point, he kissed me on the forehead.
I'm sure out of the corner of my eye I saw her cringe slightly.
She continued as if she hadn't been interrupted. "It is even less common for a fairy to marry a fairy, but still plausible," she added and raised the teacup to her lips with a sly smile. Edward's hand that wasn't entwined with mine was clenched in a ball next to his thigh under the table.
"Yes, plausible, but highly unlikely," Edward stated calmly through his façade, with a bit of plain insinuation laced in.
Mab's bright smile wavered, but came back strong, if not brighter.
"But you must admit, darling, it would work out so much better! Imagine: a fairy and a vampire are two members of the ever-growing mythological world. No secrets, no ever holding back-," she winked at me, to which I flushed bright red, "-why, it would be perfect!" she ranted. Then, she sighed disappointedly.
"If only some people weren't quite so stubborn to see something that's there, then everything would be perfect, wouldn't it?" she concluded bitterly, no longer talking to everyone in a group, but singling out Edward, and looked at him with such intensity I was taken aback.
A realization dawned on me. 'She's another one of the many girls rejected by Edward Cullen!'
Edward leaned back into his chair, a frown finally appearing to his lips. Carlisle looked mildly alarmed and was becoming frantic to the situation to the situation at hand. Should he intervene, he might offend our guest. Should Edward have his way, he would most likely offend her. He was in a stale mate. Esme looked concerned and had her hand at her mouth in shock. Alice looked very worried, her eyebrows knitted together. Jasper had to get up and leave the room from the anger and tension in the air. Rosalie and Emmett just looked extremely shocked.
"So this is the real reason why you've come. When Titania told you I was soon to be 'taken off the market', you thought that this would be the perfect time to come and take another shot. In the process, you have bullied my family to your whimsical demands and insulted my fiancé and our intelligence on more than one occasion. So to answer your question, no, everything would not be perfect," Edward spat back at Mab.
Mab's face twisted from shock, to disbelief, to rage. She started trembling slightly, verbatim to that of werewolves when they were about to transform. The blood rushed to her face. She got out of her chair suddenly and the chair tipped over backwards to her movement. She poked a finger in our direction scathingly.
"You! Your insolence! How deep your arrogance does run to make these assumptions! How DARE you! I came here out of sole good intentions today and you do nothing but insult me? I offered you everything and you throw it all away for a human girl? She has out won your affections even when she wasn't even alive yet? You are unbelievable. Absolutely unbelievable!" she ranted on a tirade.
She makes a move for the door in a whirlwind of fury and all the Cullens follow her, dumbstruck. Edward got up last, skepticism starting to break his façade. Although he was still obviously angry, he looked slightly worried now.
"I am sorry for my son's blatant disrespect. Please don't take any offense to his words! He-," Carlisle apologized, but was cut off by Mab's piercing words.
"Don't. Please. He is obviously not sorry. Both you and I know it. He knows the rules. He must pay. Sorry to ruin your perfectly good day. Goodbye!" she said with a small wistful smile on her lips, tears flashing to her eyes, but as soon as they appeared they were gone. She turned around and walked out the door, into the woods.
When she left, everything became a blur. Carlisle dashed to his study. Esme was on the verge of dry sobbing. Alice went to sit in a corner, eyes unfocused sifting through the future. Rosalie looked genuinely worried, taking every opportunity to glare at me with more malice than before. Emmett was talking to Jasper in hushed tones. Edward simply looked blank, staring at nothing.
"Edward, what's happening?" I asked in a whisper.
Edward looked down at me and was about to open his mouth to answer, but a scream of agony tore out.
Everyone snapped their heads to look at Edward. He was on the ground, curled up in a ball, withering in pain. Carlisle was there in a matter of seconds. His eyes have popped wider than they already were.
"No, it can't be. There can only be one thing as painful as this," he muttered cryptically to himself. Carlisle started issuing orders calmly, probably due to all his training in the ER, at vampire speed. Emmett and Rosalie already had Edward off the ground while he tried to thrash vehemently out of their grasp. He kept screaming as if he were being burned alive. They rushed Edward up to his room with Esme and Alice quickly on their heels. Jasper couldn't help; there was only so much he could take before he snapped.
I followed clumsily up the stairs behind them, tripping more often because I tried to run faster. Soon enough, I ended up in Edward's room. Carlisle already had medical equipment set up. Rosalie and Emmett were working to tie Edward down to the bed with steel chains enforced with diamonds and alloys, for he was thrashing uncontrollably and would break through anything else. I didn't know I was crying silently until Alice flitted next to me with a handkerchief.
"It's okay. He'll be fine," she promised soothingly. But I knew she didn't know herself; she was wrong. He wasn't going to be fine.
Carlisle rushed over to us. "He's not calming down. If he doesn't stop thrashing, he won't survive he transformation. Bella, could you try to soothe him?" he asked pleadingly.
What did he mean by transformation? Deciding that now was not the time or place for this discussion, I nodded. He didn't need to ask twice. As I started walking towards Edward, Carlisle stood cautiously by me.
"You can't touch him. He still has his vampire strength. If he were to reach for you he would surely crush you. Just speak to him," he explained encouragingly. I dabbed the handkerchief at my eyes again, tears still spilling like a dam. I nodded understandingly, not trusting my own voice, and continued to walk over to Edward's side at his bed. I stopped three feet in front of him. Edward's face was contorted in sheer pain. I began to speak.
"Edward! Please stay still! You have to conserve your energy! Please!" I begged, my voice rising dangerously high with panic.
Edward considerably relaxed, but continued to move.
"Please!? You're not going to live through this if you don't try and be still! Don't leave me alone Edward. I want to marry you and live the rest of my life with you! I want to hear you laugh and be happy. Please EDWARD!" I sobbed, so close to going to reach his hand if it were not for Alice's hands around my waist restraining me.
He still continued to thrash, but a couple seconds later the thrashes became less dramatic and more like twitches.
I sank back to the floor, sobbing. I sat next to Edward's bed for the next day in a little ball. Carlisle said he was going to get through this, and I refused to leave the room until he did. Alice tried to sway me, but my stubbornness won in the end.
Just after the beginning of the first day, Alice and the rest of the Cullens came in.
"The transformation will stop in a couple minutes," she informed me and helped me stagger to my feet. We all waited impatiently, which seemed like forever. Finally Edward's breathing calmed down and he became still.
His bright green eyes opened and observed his surroundings. His milky complexion was now bronze, my complexion pale in comparison for once.
What happened?
A/N: Was this confusing? I think it was. Don't worry, all questions will be answered! (eventually muahahahaha). I lowered my rank from M to T because when I rethought it, it really is T, but for later chapters it might run along the fuzzy line between T and M. I'll put an advance warning for those chapters.
Just a reminder: this fic is not to be influenced by Breaking Dawn in any way, shape, or form. This chapter was a little angsty for Romance/Humor but if I had it my way it would be Romance/Humor/Drama. –rant over-
Oh, and, ya know, I never knew Mab was so famous! Apparently, she is some really famous fairy in England (coincidentally enough what I concocted to be her native land). I only really heard about her in Romeo and Juliet (hahaha –sigh-Mercutio).
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-The Pink Panda 17
