Chapter Seven

Bella awoke, opening eyes and blinking slowly, her brain felt thick and sluggish. A light sheet of white covered her. What had happened. The smell of the dead bear was beginning to attract other animals, she could sense them near her, but so far they were staying away.

A sharp stabbing pain penetrated through her thoughts, she looked at her hand, the palm was blistered where the thorn had been, the pain vibrated up her arm and unless her eyes were deceiving her, the skin on her hand changed to a more pinkish hue. Similar to when she was alive, the thought struck as ludicrous but the pain still pulsed slowly moving upwards.

"I'm giving you another chance", it was a man's voice, a familiar voice, one she had not heard in so long.

Edward?. Bella insides began to ache. What chance, what was he talking about?.

Edward stood there, shadowy and filmy, like an old movie from a projector, he was there but the resolution was poor. He was dressed in simple beige garments. Not a designer label anywhere, that's how Bella knew she was dreaming.

The words stumbled out of her, "no chances, go away".

He smiled sympathetically, she hated that smile, she now saw it for it was, patronising and all knowing. "I can't live with the guilt, I am giving you the chance to be human again".

Stupid Edward, with this old fashioned outdated views, why could he not just leave her alone. "I don't want to be human, I was miserable when I was human", she had no idea why she was giving her sense to this apparition but she was. The bear's fur felt comforting under her, she was too weak to move.

"This time you could pick Jacob", Edward winked conspiratorially.

Jake, like that thought had not crossed her mind a zillion times. "Sure okay, ghost of Christmas Edward, can you take me back, show me how things could have been". All the fight went out of her, her head felt heavy and sank into the bear's soft cool fur, she could feel her eyelids closing though she struggled against it.

"Wakie Wakie sleepy head", cooed the little voice.

Bella opened her eyes, a little girl with long dark hair in two braids, two large playful brown eyes, a little cherub's mouth was sitting on top of her. "Mom, it's time to get up".

Slowly Bella sat up, she knew this room, this had been her room in her house on the reservation, it was familiar but everything looked wrong.

The little girl moved her head around so her braids swung through the air, "Do you like my hair, I got dad to braid them for me".

"it's cute", Bella's throat was hoarse and dry, she needed something to drink. She wanted water, she had not drank water in such a long time. The sun beamed through the bedroom windows shining in on top of her, she inhaled deeply, the sun was a welcome sight, for so long it had just been her and the snow living in companiable silence, she realised something was wrong, her skin no longer glittered. Gently she pushed the little girl off her, "Go play", was all about she could manage, what was the kid's name.

"Chloe, go have breakfast with Thomas", Jake stood in the doorway, "Feeling any better?", Jake walked in stockinged feet over to the empty side of the bed, lying beside her, kissing her lightly on the cheek and putting his hand on his forehead, "Temperature is still a little high", he mumbled. She closed her eyes, savouring the light touch of Jacob's lips against her soft skin.

Then it was gone into blackness, she opened her eyes, felt the fur beneath her and the layer of snow covering her. Her insides aching, just a dream or was it a hallucination. She wasn't too sure.

"See it could be like you have imagined it would be?", the taunting in his voice was evident.

Her dead husband had always been an insecure, mind bending control freak. If only she had seen it before everything had happened. How could she be with Jake he had imprinted on Nessie, Edward knew that.

"You are forgetting about Nessie, you know, your daughter", Bella snapped back, her blood boiling.

He appeared to be taken back by the venom in her voice, surely he was well used to it, the last couple of years of their marriage it had been the only solid thing between them. Whoever coined the phrase familiarity breeds contempt, had obviously been married for longer than five minutes.

The guilt twisted in her stomach, that happened a lot, guilt about Edward, guilt about Nessie, Jacob and then Jasper. "Is there something you want, or is this my brain playing tricks on me?".

Edward shook his head, "Nope, this is happening, I have been trying to get your attention for months, but you are so good at cutting yourself off and isolating your thoughts that I had no choice"

She realised she had been set up, he had wanted her out here alone, unable to move or defend herself. Her anger just added to the heat in her feverish body, "Was it the thorn?".

He smirked, he always like to be brightest start, being incorporeal obviously had not changed that, "It was from a garden here, I knew it's purity would pierce your demon skin".

Bella resisted the urge to throw her eyes up to heaven, here we go again, vampires don't have a soul blah blah blah. "Yet here you are, so being demon obviously did not hurt your chances of getting into heaven. Do they look kindly on drugging people up there?", the harshness of her voice, veering on a screeching fishwife, made her head ache even more.

He nodded as if taking her point on board or he was just doing it to borrow time, it was always so hard to decipher him. Not like Jacob, she thought and she caught the sharp look he gave her. Jeez get out of my head, then the realisation hit her, he could hear her thoughts. "How long have you been able to do that?", a horrible feeling overtaking her.

"Since I've been up here", he admitted, he had the grace to look ashamed.

A large knot of guilt twisted in her stomach, he knew her thoughts, all this time she had thought she had been safe, not letting on to anyone her marriage had been a huge failure. "Is that all you've been doing? Hanging around me trying to find out if I was grieving for you or felt guilty or what?".

He shrugged his shoulders, "I just wanted to be around you for a little bit more that's all".

"Edward it's been five years", what the hell had he done to her she could barely move, her mind was willing but her body refused to listen and just stayed where it was, aching and feeling as heavy as some of the boulders she had passed on her way up here.

He ignored her last remark, "Jasper is coming for you".

Bella groaned, as it was not bad enough to be up here with Edward, now Jasper was coming up too. She had it, she was done with vampire males, the whole concept of peace and her own space was alien to them, they all wanted to control her. "Edward, I assume you want to tell me something, otherwise you would not have drugged me".

He came closer to her, his ghostly appearance set her teeth on edge, even now his hair was gelled to within an inch of it's life. Stupid vain Edward. He smiled, "Why hate me so much, you used to love me".

She sighed, she didn't hate him, if she did, it would probably make everything a bit easier. "I still care for you and I do love you just more like a brother", she tried to explain but Edward's eyes darkened. "You are in heaven, yes?".

He said nothing, he was just being petulant, he always was when things were not gong his way.

"Is it pretty? Peaceful? Are they kind to you?", even though she wanted to hurt him right now, she could not bare the thought of anyone else hurting, she still wanted to know that he was okay, that he was being taken care of.

"Very kind, I am in the lower echelons but they say I can work my way up, make up for the wrongs that I have caused".

Bella bit her lip, heaven hadn't changed him, he was still so serious, so apologetic for what he was. "That's good, does it make you happy?".

At that moment, his form became more solid, his colouring clearer, if she had been able to move she would have stretched out her hand to touch his arm. His face now had an urgency to it, "They are calling me back, they say I can't be with you for this".

"For what?",

"Jane is just behind Jasper, she's coming to finish the job, finish you", Edward's voice began to sound far off. He looked at her desperately, he did not want to leave things this way. "You need to kill her once and for all, no mercy, whatever you do make sure you take her heart" with that he faded into nothing, she was left looking at the space where he had been.

With a surging pain filling her body, her screams echoed through the forest.

She had no idea how much time had passed, the sun was up but the trees provided enough coverage so she could run freely without the fear of being seen. Once she realised the sickness had passed, she could move again her legs could hold her up, even though she was weak, she was running at a steady pace, not as fast as she would like but it was better than nothing. She had left the bear were it was, she promised herself that she would come back to it later and make a sacrifice to the earth as thanks for her bounty but right now it just was not her priority. If Jane was coming and Jasper was ahead of her, Jasper was in a lot of danger, she refused to have his death on her conscience as well.