A/N: Here is chapter 4! As always I have no Beta so any mistakes are mine. This chapter is rated M for language, innuendo, and violence.
Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended.
Chapter 4: The Monster
When Alice and I got to the ladies room she swiftly locked the door. I raised my eyebrow at her.
"The bathroom is empty, and I don't want anyone coming in. We don't need any interruptions while I try to fix this fashion catastrophe!" she exclaimed. She pulled me toward the row of sinks, and stepped back contemplating.
Then she stepped forward, and promptly reached her hands up my skirt. "Alice," I squeaked jumping back. "What are you doing?"
She sniffed haughtily at me. "Please, it's not like I was trying to cop a feel!" she said. "Just hold still, and I'll have this over with as quickly as possible. Trust me."
"That's what he said," I snarked. I think I may have been hanging out with teenage werewolves too much. Their crude was rubbing off on me. Alice raised an un-amused eyebrow at me. I sighed, and nodded. Alice stepped forward, and stuck her hands up under my skirt again. I held still, and was rewarded when her hands stopped on my waist, where the abundance of tulle was attached to the dress. She gripped some fabric firmly, and tugged. There was a flurry of ripping fabric, and blurring Vampire.
When Alice stepped back her arms were full of pink and cream ruffles, and my dress was laying flat against my legs. She stuffed the scraps into the trash, and regarded me again. "These 'flowers' should go as well," she said complete with hand quotes. She stepped forward, and using her nails as a seem ripper, unraveled the horrendous decorations.
When she was finished, and had disposed of these scraps as well, I turned to the mirror. My dress looked way better. The color was still awful, but I no longer looked like a float at the Macy's Day Parade circa 1952. From the neck down at least. I grimaced at my reflection.
Alice came up from rummaging in her purse, and produced a brush and a small squeeze bottle. "Here, I was going to give this to you after dinner," she said as she handed me the bottle. "It's maximum strength make up remover."
I turned on the sink, and washed my hands as Alice pulled down my hair, and brushed it out. It looked like a fight with Wylie Coyote, and The Tasmanian Devil as she moved around my head at lightning speed. When she finished my hair looked better, but it was still frizzy and uncooperative. I squeezed some face cleanser into my hand, and Alice held my hair for me before I could even ask her. Just a perk of having a psychic best friend!
After I washed my face, Alice had me wet down my hair. I dried off my face while she squeezed the excess water out of my hair, and then brushed through it again. She finally decided to brush it straight back, and let it hang down my back.
"There!" Alice exclaimed happily. "It's not perfect, but it's the best I can do with what we were given." She handed me some light pink lip gloss, and I dabbed some on. I looked simple but elegant. Good enough. As I stood there looking into the mirror I felt like a weight had been lifted from my shoulders. I noticed I was rubbing my left ring finger. My hand didn't feel naked, or empty without Edward's ring. It felt warm, and alive. I felt alive for the first time in too long.
"Oh!" said Alice. She grabbed my shoes from where I had placed them next to the sink, and broke the heels off. "That's the best I can do with these. Here," she said and held them out for me to put on. They still looked ugly, and felt weird, but I found I could balance a lot better in them now.
I smiled at Alice, and took a deep breath. "Let's get back out there." I said.
We walked back into the private dinning room, and everything went quiet when we entered. It looked like tempers were still high. My dad's face was magenta by this point. Edward narrowed his eyes as he looked at me.
"What have you done to your dress, Bella?" he hissed. If he was gonna start up with his bullshit again, I was going to leave altogether.
"Nothing," said Alice. "I'm the one who tried to fix it, but as you can see it was pretty much unsalvageable." She huffed.
"But oh so much better than it was before," drawled Rosalie.
Edward growled made an aggressive move toward Alice, and the next thing I knew Jasper had him pinned to the wall by his throat. The most frightening sound I had ever heard came from Jasper's chest. It was like the growling I had heard from the family before, but it was louder, deeper and more feral. My dad looked somewhat bewildered, but moved to stand behind Jasper anyways. He loved Alice like a second daughter, and was just about as happy about Edward's aggression toward her as he was about Edward's disrespect towards me.
When Jasper spoke it was a low growl, and there was nothing human about it. "You even think of touching my wife again, boy, and I'll rip off your useless dick and shove it straight up your uptight pansy ass."
I blushed at the disturbing visual, and I'm sure there was a moue of distaste on my face.
At this point the whole family started squabbling like a group of tweens over a pair of Justin Beiber's underwear. Yeah, it was that ugly. No one was paying attention to me anymore. I decided I had had enough drama, and quietly slipped out of the room.
At this point I think what I really needed was some fresh air, so I headed to the exit I had seen near the ladies room. As I stepped out into the cold I took a deep breath. I smelled chill, rain, and green. It soothed me, and I decided to take a walk. Maybe I could make it most of the way home before anyone noticed I was missing. I stepped into the woods behind the restaurant, and started a slow stroll toward, what I hoped was, home.
It must have been only five or so minutes later that Edward popped up in front of me. I squeaked and jumped back. "What are you doing here Edward?" I asked. "Just leave me alone, I've had enough!"
I stepped around him to keep walking, but I heard him turn and come after me. He grabbed my right arm and pulled me around to face him. His grip was too tight, and I knew I would have some spectacularly ugly bruises come morning. He looked truly freighting there in the moonlight. His eyes were black and narrowed, his lips that used to give me his special smirk that made me melt, was drawn into an ugly snarl. There was venom dripping out of his mouth and down from his chin, and to me he had never looked more like a Vampire. A monster. I was truly frightened of him for the first time ever.
"I will tell you when you've had enough! You are mine, and you will do what I say! If you won't obey me then you aren't good for anything!" Edward hissed in my face. His eyes diverted to my neck. "Well, maybe one thing. If I can't have you like I want you, then I can at least have your blood." His words were slurred with the amount of venom foaming out of his mouth. Suddenly rabies was looking more and more likely. He released my arm to gently caress the pulse points in my neck.
I turned and bolted like a scared rabbit. Even though part of me knew it wouldn't do any good, I couldn't help it. So this was the fabled survival instinct. I guess I have some sense of self preservation after all! I heard a low menacing laugh from where I had left Edward behind me.
"Run all you want!" he called after me. "It will just make your blood taste sweeter." He cooed.
I felt like I had fallen down a rabbit hole, or into The Twilight Zone. Who was this crazy freak behind me? It couldn't be Edward! Had he changed so very much since he left me? Or has he been like this, under the surface, all along? I knew I would never know the truth. I would be dead very shortly.
Suddenly, I felt a vice close on my right arm and wrench me violently backwards, and around. I heard the *crack* of breaking bone, and heard what had to be the tearing of flesh. The pain in my arm crashed into me at the same time Edward lunged for my neck. Then everything was pain.