Hello to my devoted (and patient) readers,

Thank you for coming back after so long without a chapter!

This time it is only partially my fault since I gave this chapter to my Grand Vizier ages ago (but maybe it needed a lot of work so it's possibly a good thing for you that it took so long!)

Anyway I hope you like it!

PS. I own nothing (seriously)!

PPS. I'm Australian and have never been to the US. If I have done something wrong in relation to flight times, etc. don't be pedantic, it has almost no bearing on the story!


The End

"Miss? Miss, is there something I can get you?"

Opening my eyes slowly, I looked up to see a flight attendant looming over me in what I saw as a slightly threatening pose. My opinion was not improved by the slight look of disdain on her face.

I couldn't blame her, of course. She probably thought that I was about to throw up, with my very pale complexion, closed eyes, head resting on my knees and arms wrapped around my knees in a fetal-type position. I had been having a particularly bad moment where I couldn't keep my mind off the tangled mess of darkness I had spent two weeks studiously and desperately ignoring. Unfortunately, a six and a half hour plane trip from Seattle to Florida left a gaping space of time where my mind could wander without my permission.

The flight attendant was still staring at me, as was the guy sitting in the seat next to me. He must have been the one who called the attendant.

"I'm fine," I said, offering my standard response, trying to look like I hadn't been trying to keep my breathing regular and silent, as my ribs seemed to shrink around my lungs only moments ago.

The words had lost all meaning to me, due to overuse, and they just came out whenever anyone looked at me for more than a few moments. It scared me when people looked at me, like, if they looked close enough, they could see the struggle I faced every second of every day, internally, to keep the dark mass of emotions from flooding the small bubble of peace I had managed to cultivate inside my head.

After a final slightly disparaging look, the flight attendant obviously decided that I wasn't going to cause her any trouble and began to move away down the aisle gracefully. However, at that moment, the plane hit an air-pocket causing her to pitch sideways, thwarting her attempt at a smooth escape. In the past, I might have thought it served her right with her haughty attitude, but I was too weary to care.

I wasn't physically tired anymore. After what had happened on the afternoon after my cast came off, I had taken to gratuitous drug use to get me through the nights and kept myself overly busy to get through the days. I had come to think of moments of peace as the enemy. Sitting still for more than a moment caused me to panic and then quickly find something else to do, petrified that the dangerous thoughts would catch me off guard. Charlie's house had never been cleaner and I had broken both the vacuum cleaner and the washing machine from overuse.

But I was mentally exhausted from the constant barrier I had to maintain to those thoughts that I knew were forbidden to think about. My mental weariness had led me to make my current decision. I thought that maybe if I could remove myself from Forks then I could begin to accept that my time in Forks had been tempered by an active imagination - that it had all been a lie. That was the problem. It wasn't that I had lost something I deeply cared about, but that it had all been a figment of my imagination. The feelings of love and belonging that I had thought I had finally found had never really existed, and that meant I was possibly crazy.

So now I was going to Jacksonville to try again… to try to move on. I had told Charlie that it was just for the summer, but I think he knows that I won't be returning to Forks. I had packed up my entire wardrobe and half of my possessions. I had two suitcases with me as well as a large carry-on bag, and Charlie hadn't even questioned it.

When it came to the end of the summer, I would tell Charlie that Renee needed me in Jacksonville - that I was settled in now. I couldn't tell him the truth. I wouldn't be able to tell him why I couldn't go back. It was too painful. I was leaving my old life behind and hopefully starting over, which was why I had left my sketchbook under a loose floorboard in my room. It was of no use to me since I couldn't draw and I had written on the last page last night, one final message:

Dear Edward,

You were never here, were you?

I need to leave, go somewhere where you can't follow me.

I love you. Isn't that ridiculous?

Goodbye.

Bella.

I felt my chest tighten, slightly, as I felt myself moving dangerously close to being consumed by the darkness inside me. Luckily, at that moment, the plane pitched sharply and I was pulled out of my internal struggle to see that the seat belt light had come on and the attendants and passengers alike were going to their seats and strapping themselves in. Following suit, I quickly loosened my grip on my knees and let my feet hit the ground and then I put my seat belt on. Moments after the belt clicked around my thin waist, the plane jerked up and down violently, like a rollercoaster.

"Good afternoon passengers. This is your captain speaking. We are experiencing some technical difficulties and will be making an emergency landing in Lincoln, Nebraska and I must ask that you all remain calm and seated at this point in time. Thank you."

A normal person would have felt comforted by the message. The voice was smooth and calm and, as I looked around, I could see people relaxing as if nothing was wrong. But I had heard the over-calmness in the voice and I could see the way that the flight attendants were keeping their faces carefully blank and neutral. I had perfected the same look in the past few weeks to ensure that no one could see that I could disintegrate at any moment. Things were not good and, as the flight became more jolting and jagged, I knew that there was something seriously wrong and if we did make it to the ground safely it would be a miracle.

The internal lights flickered and people began to catch on that things were not going to end well. Then, with a final huge jolt, the lights went off completely and oxygen masks fell from the ceiling.

People frantically grabbed them, placing them over their faces. A mother in front of me placed one on their young child before securing their own, which everyone knew was not what was supposed to happen, but everyone was too busy with their own business to care. It was interesting to see such selflessness. It was interesting to see someone caring about the safety of another before themself.

Like you did with James? Risking your own life to save Edward and Renee? Asked a small voice in the back of my head.

No! There was no James. Renee wasn't in trouble and there is no Ed...

Before I could finish the thought, a painful nudge came from next to me and I saw the man sitting beside me, oxygen mask on, wildly gesturing to the mask hanging in front of my face. I hadn't put it on yet.

Apparently, the mask was magically going to protect me from dying from the impact of the plane falling out of the sky and crashing to the earth. My thoughts seemed frighteningly clear and cynical and I wasn't sure if it was a good thing or not, but then it occurred to me that when my body was found it would be embarrassing to have others think I was too stupid to put on the mask, or that I had died because I didn't have the mask on.

Slipping the elastic over my head, I secured the mask in place and the guy beside me relaxed – well, as much as you can relax in a plane that is crashing.

The plane was alternating between smoothly falling and jolting, which suggested failed attempts to even out the plane. As a jolting period commenced, the overhead bag storage burst open and medium sized bags began to rain down from above.

I felt the force of something hitting my head and simultaneously felt the barriers that I had kept so carefully in-tact for weeks crumble and fill my head with darkness.

"Bella, you can open your eyes now."

Opening my eyes, I was faced with a beautiful room full of sunlight and a wall of glass showing a picturesque scene of mountains and trees and a river that ran through the forest.

The figure beside me grabbed my hand. His cold fingers intertwined with my warm ones and, looking over, I was momentarily stunned by how close he was standing next to me. His golden eyes surveyed me carefully.

"Can I show you something?" Edward asked softly.

"Ok," I said, knowing that I'd do anything as long as he kept holding my hand, making my heart stutter.

He led me to the far end of the room where a number of easels were set up. There were a number of landscapes set up that could be mistaken for mirrors of the landscape outside the window in watercolours, acrylics, pencils and even one in charcoal.

"Wow, these are amazing!" I said truthfully.

"Thank you, but they aren't what I want to show you."

One of the easels was covered with a cloth and that was the one we stopped in front of.

"Promise me you won't laugh," Edward said nervously as he released my hand.

"Ok" I responded, curious about what he could be nervous about.

Lifting the cloth, I was momentarily stunned. The picture was of a beautiful girl with a heart-shaped face, surrounded by waves of dark hair and large brown eyes. Although the picture was a lead sketch he'd added hints of watercolour, making the picture seem almost lifelike, with the girl cast in shadow making her seem enigmatic and secretive.

"Wow, it's fantastic. Who is she?" I asked, feeling a little jealous of this pretty girl that Edward had drawn.

There was a whole beat of silence. Then, Edward looked at me with a slightly disbelieving look on his face.

"It's you. I know it isn't very good, but I at least thought it was recognisable." Edward looked a little hurt, but he was also trying to hide it. Looking back at the portrait, I searched hard for any sign of me in the picture. Now that I was looking, I could see that there were some similarities between myself and the girl in the picture; her eyes were the same shape, her hair and skin the right shades, her top lip a little unbalanced with the bottom.

"But this girl is a lot prettier than me."

Edward studied my face for a moment and then moved in close, brushing a strand of hair from my cheek.

"You don't see yourself very clearly do you? I didn't change a single thing in this picture and, if I'm being honest with myself, this picture doesn't come close to matching the original in... 'prettiness'."

I blushed and he stood, watching as warmth spread through my body.

"Really?"

He moved in so all I could see were his golden eyes, staring into mine, "Really."

I suddenly realised how close together we were. His nose was almost touching mine. I knew that any moment now he would move away and I didn't want that, but I had no idea how to make him stay.

After a moment, I saw something change in his eyes and I knew that he was going to move away, but he didn't. Instead, I felt his hands as he placed them on my hips, pulling me in closer to him. He paused.

"I don't want to hurt you," he whispered.

I didn't know what to say. I felt that if I said anything or moved at all the moment would shatter, so I said nothing.

He moved in closer so his lips almost met mine. I could feel his cool breath on my skin.

"Do you want me to stop?"

I knew that I was walking a knife's edge and I knew I was going to fall. The only question was whether Edward would catch me. Or maybe I had already fallen and Edward was either going to catch me or let me smash. Either way, I knew that I didn't want him to stop.

"No," I breathed.

Then his lips met mine and everything faded away as my eyes slid shut.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

I paused in my tracks, suddenly lost halfway across the country, searching for something that was no longer there.

Bella, sitting on a plane, an oxygen mask over her face and her eyes closed. She looked pale and thin and there was a dark trail running through her hair that looked like a lot of blood - too much blood. Then everything disappeared, like the TV in my head had suddenly been disconnected and everything went black.

I tried searching for Bella's future, but there was nothing but blackness. Does she no longer have a future?

"Alice, honey, what's wrong?"

Jasper's voice snapped me out of my vision that was still disconcertingly blank. If Bella had no future then...

I turned and began to run, faster than I had ever run before, back towards the house and towards a phone. I tore through the cold forest around me, tearing through plants and trees in my path in an attempt to move faster. I could hear Jasper following me and, after a moment, I felt his arms wrap around me, pulling me to a stop. Turning me around, Jasper bent his body so that his eyes were level with mine.

"What did you see?"

Taking a deep, unnecessary breath realisation hit me in a blinding, painful flash. The event had happened in the time it took me to understand what I was seeing. It's too late, she's already gone.

"Nothing," I whispered, knowing that my eyes would be welling with tears if such things were possible.

Jasper gave me a quizzical look and I knew that he had misunderstood my meaning.

Swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat, I felt myself begin shaking uncontrollably.

"There's nothing to see. Bella is gone."

And I knew that Edward was gone too.


Me again!

Is this the end?

What will happen next?

Let me know what you think!

Please review, I'm close to magic number 10 and I would love it to be reached at this juncture! As those who have reviewed or favourited this story in the past will tell you, I eventually keep to my promise of teasers for reviewers!