Hey guys!!! I'm finally updating!!! Before you go on to read the next chapter I'd like to say that if you go to my profile you'll find a link to a poster I created for 1918!!! It'd be awesome if you all could comment on the poster!!! Thanks for reading!!!
Chapter 2: The Vortex
Clarissa was hunched over with her hands on her knees, gasping heavily. This was the first time since her transformation that she was physically exhausted. She still felt the rush of going back through time. She had practiced it and practiced it and now she was sure if she could get Bella back into the early 1900s then Bella would be out of her and Edward's lives forever.
She stood in the woods looking up at the canopy of leaves above. Clarissa laughed as rain dropped on her head. She lifted her head to the sky. Oh Edward, you'll be mine soon enough. You won't even miss Bella. Clarissa stepped out of the woods to find herself looking at Bella's house. She sniffed the air. Charlie wasn't home. Looking at her watch she smiled and took a deep breath in and then exhaled. She could practically hear Bella's screaming now as she was sucked into the vortex that would end her life with Edward. She laughed softly.
Bella snuggled up to Edward on her bed. "I need to e-mail Renee back. She'll freak out if I don't." Bella sighed to Edward.
Edward chortled. "It's getting late, Charlie will be home soon. Do you want me to help you fix dinner for him?"
"No, no I'll go start now. I don't even know what we have. I haven't been to the store since…" Bella's sentence was cut short by a burst of golden light. She felt as though she was being separated from her body. Arms closed around her. She heard Edward crying out her name. Then another strangled cry came from outside the house.
Clarissa held her hands to the house concentrating on sending the residents into the time warp. She had thought Bella had been the only one in the house. Then she heard Edward's voice yell out "Bella!" In her horror and grief she lost focus. She didn't know what year she was sending her victims to. All she thought about was how she had ruined her fairy tale ending with Edward.
"Edward!" she sobbed. Then the golden lights vanished and Clarissa was left standing alone in the damp, darkening forest.
The first thought that came to Bella's mind was that she was dead. The golden light, the screaming, the wind rushing in her ears and closing her lungs preventing her from breathing. Now as she opened her eyes she saw nothing, but darkness. Bella sat up, with difficulty, and coughed into her hand.
"Bella?" a husky voice called to her. It sounded like Edward, but it was rougher, less velvety than usual. Still it was full of anxiety. "Bella? Bella!"
Bella opened her mouth to speak. No words came out. She tried to mouth help, she tried to make her voice come, but it wouldn't. Silence rang in her ears. Everywhere was black; it was cold, and smelled of musk and decay.
Were they both dead? Were they in hell? This certainly couldn't be heaven. Was this some kind of limbo?
Say something. She commanded herself. "E-E" She tried with desperation to fill her lungs with air so she could say Edward's name.
"Bella? Bella, where are you?"
Bella took a breath. "E-Ed-Edw-ard." She coughed. It felt like dust was coming out of her lungs. She coughed a bit more and the bad feeling disappeared. She felt normal so she tried again. "Edward?" Bella sighed in relief.
"Bella?"
"I'm," Bella coughed again, "over here Edward."
A light appeared. Bella smiled as footsteps sounded. Then her smile faltered. Edward was so swift and graceful; you could never hear his footsteps.
"There you are." Bella looked to Edward's voice and let out a bloodcurdling scream. The thing in the doorway looked like Edward, but its skin was a shade darker and its eyes weren't golden, they were the color of emeralds. The thing was breathing hard, like it had run a race. Edward never got tired. Something was wrong. The imposter moved toward her at a human pace.
"Bella? Did I startle you?" His voice was thick with concern.
"Stay away from me!" Bella shrieked.
Edward put his hand to his chest and his face turned horrified. "Bella…something's wrong." He reached for her.
"Don't touch me." She hissed.
"M-my heart. My heart is beating." His usually flawless voice shook. "I-I have to b-breathe." Then his eyes widened again in alarm. "I can't smell you, I-I can't see like normal." He looked at the flashlight. "I didn't think twice…" he murmured.
Bella instantly regretted her snapping at him. His face looked so young and scared in the dull glow of the flashlight. She stepped forward in a daze and wrapped her arms around him. "Where are we?" she whimpered softly as Edward clutched her to him. He shined the flashlight up at the ceiling and let the light slide over the walls.
"It's a basement…"
Bella looked up at his face. "A basement?"
Edward nodded grimly. "I know this place well. I used to be sent down here to get wine for my father." His voice faltered again. "My father…"
Before Bella knew what was happening she was being pulled through the dank, darkness of the basement and up a short flight of steps that moaned as their feet pattered up them. Edward's flung open the door at the top and dragged Bella into a small parlor. His face turned white and his emerald eyes shifted out of focus as though he was going to pass out.
"Edward?" Bella squeaked in horror. "Where are we?"
"In my home." Edward whispered. "Eighty seven years ago." Then his face darkened. "Clarissa…" he hissed.
"Wait what? Edward what does Clarissa have to do with any of this?"
"Bella, she can transport herself and/ or anyone else back to any time period. She sent us back to 1918." Edward shuddered. "This isn't good Bella. We're both human again, there's a deadly flu going around. Bella, you are in just as much danger as anyone else here is."
They stared into each other's eyes for a moment trying to read the other's mind when a loud thump made them both startle and stare toward the doorway. A beautiful woman who looked very much like Edward stood there.
"Edward Anthony Mason! You scared me to death! I had no idea where'd you'd gotten off to for so long and…" The woman's eyes fell on Bella, "you brought a friend home?" she asked raising an eyebrow at Edward.
"Oh right. Mother, I'd like you to meet Bella. Bella, I'd like you to meet my mother."
Bella smiled in what she hoped was a natural, warm fashion. She held out her hand. "Nice to meet you Mrs. Mason."
Mrs. Mason shook it for a second then sighed, "Pleasure."
"What's going on in here? I heard yelling." A man stepped into the room. Catching sight of Edward he grinned. "Son! See Elizabeth? I told you he'd be back! And he's brought home a girl too I see." Bella knew immediately this was Edward's dad. Mr. Mason gave Edward an incredulous look. Bella wondered what the problem was.
"I'm Bella." She said, her cheeks reddening.
"Nice to meet you Miss Bella." He winked at her in a friendly manor. "Why don't you two come into the kitchen and Elizabeth will fix us some tea, eh?"
Edward took Bella's hand and led her into the kitchen after his parents. He pulled out a chair from the tiny table and motioned for Bella to take a seat. She did so and Edward drew up a chair beside her, right as Mr. Mason plopped himself down at the head of the table.
"Charles came by while you were away Edward." Mrs. Mason murmured while setting a kettle on the stove.
Bella noticed Edward's eyes light up at the mention of the name Charles.
"Charles? Really? Did he say what he wanted?"
"No he didn't. He was very worried about your absence. He's not the only one who was though." Mrs. Mason gave Edward a hard look and Bella watched as color once again left his face.
"How long was I gone?" Edward croaked.
"Months! Whole months!" Elizabeth Mason turned to face her son, her face contorted with pain and annoyance. "You leave without telling anyone, you don't call, you don't write, you leave all the people who love you here thinking the worst happened, and then you come back with some girl from out of town! What were you thinking?"
"Mother, please. I needed some time." Bella could almost actually hear the wheels turning in his head as he tried to make up a lie. "I needed to get out of here for a bit and while I was exploring the country I met Bella. She's the most amazing thing. She'd not just 'some girl from out of town' to me. I just wanted to be independent for a while."
Mrs. Mason nodded and began pouring steaming water into mugs. "I guess I should've known. I knew you wouldn't want to be here in Chicago your whole life, but I certainly didn't think you'd run away. I feared you'd gone and signed up for the army without telling me."
"Mother, I'm hardly old enough…"
"You're months away from being seventeen and you've been saying your whole life, despite the fact that you know I disapprove of this dream, you want to join the military."
"I've actually given up that dream. I've decided instead to settle down and have a family with the girl I love." Edward put his arm around Bella as he spoke.
"And have you forgotten about your…other friends?" Mrs. Mason glanced at Bella with a concerned look etched on her pretty face.
"I'll work it out. Some things aren't meant to be anyways." Edward looked uncomfortable and his hand shook a little.
"A girl's heart is a fragile thing," Elizabeth sighed as she set mugs of tea in front of everyone, "be careful when you break one not to get stabbed by one of the broken shards."
Edward nodded. They drank their tea in silence as Mr. Mason read the post. Edward seemed very preoccupied and Bella was fighting tears. She missed her home already and was wondering if she'd never see it again. What seemed like hours passed by, until a knock sounded on the door. Mrs. Mason rushed to answer it.
"Is he home yet Mrs. Mason?" A girl's voice drifted into the kitchen from the foyer. Bella noticed Edward stiffen in his chair.
"Right this way dear." Mrs. Mason sashayed back into the kitchen accompanied by a girl with dark red hair and intense brown eyes. Seeing Edward she smiled.
"Hi Edward. I'm real glad you're home." She cooed.