AN: Thank you to everyone who reviewed, favorite, and alerted my story.
As always I own nothing; the characters that we all love belong to S.M.
~Chapter 6~
Edward POV-
Darkness, that's all I could see.
Suddenly a voice spoke.
"You must choose Edward."
Choose? Choose what? I thought.
Suddenly the darkness started to pull back letting me view a beautiful garden on the other side of a bridge; I noticed that where I stood was still covered in darkness.
"You must choose Edward Cullen." The voice said again.
Choose? Why is this voice so cryptic? I thought to myself.
"What must I choose?" I said looking around for the voice.
"Life or Death…" I voice calmly said.
Life or death, was this a trick? I asked myself.
"What game are you playing?" I said waiting for a reply.
"You must choose. You can leave earth and all its pain behind; all you would have to do is cross the bridge. If you choose to live you will wake on earth and your life will continue as it was. But you must choose now." The voice demanded.
I had a choice and I wasn't sure what to do. I hardly knew my father and Esme and their two children. I could hardly stand the nightmares that haunted me every night about what Elizabeth and Phil did to me. I was afraid to live, how was I going to cope with everything, how would I go back to "normal"? But to die, I don't know if I could do that. It was just a few weeks ago that I overheard Carlisle talking to Esme saying how he didn't want to lose me, saying how he loved me. I knew the two choices I had gave me an easy way and a hard way. The hard way made me wonder if I could actually survive and learn to love and trust. The easy way let me into the great unknown, a place I know nothing about.
I made a step towards the bridge leading to the beautifully enchanted garden.
"Edward?" a man voice with me. I turned to see a man. My angel with blonde hair and eyes so blue I was almost sure he could see into my soul. "Edward, please don't leave me." He said when I was fully facing him and the darkness, turning my back from the garden.
Slowly he started to fade. "Angel come back." I found myself saying as I ran towards him, deciding to face the darkness and my unknown future.
I eyes suddenly opened and I found myself staring at the four white walls that I have become use to. The light was dim and looking around I saw Esme asleep on the couch and Carlisle was asleep in the chair next to my bed, his head laying on the bed and one of his hands were gently clutching my own, as if that would keep me here, with him.
"Dad?" I whispered, I received no reply from his sleeping form.
"Dad?" I said a little louder this time slightly squeezing his hand.
This must have woken him because his hand twitched and his head lifted. He still had a sleepy look in his eyes as he woke up, he also looked slightly confused.
"Dad?" I softly said. "I want to go home, please can't we go home?" I stopped as I notice a tear forming in one of his eyes.
He softly smiled, as he began to cry.
"Dad, why are you crying?" I asked, afraid that I had done something wrong.
"You called me dad; it's been so long since I have heard you call me that." He explained as he whipped his tears with a hand. It was then that I noticed he was still holding my hand. He must have noticed at the same time as I because he started to move it. I quickly tightened my grip on his hand. Slowly I looked up from our joining hands and into his watchful eyes and gave him the best smile I could muster, and with my still healing face I'm sure the smile didn't look too great.
"We can go home first thing in the morning, if that is what you want." He said as he in turn smiled.
"Ok dad, goodnight." I said as I went back to sleep, knowing that I will wake up and go to my new home.
"Wake up boy!" My mother's voice said. I woke up with a start; she was standing right over me and glaring down at me. I shied away from her, curling into an even tighter ball. "Get your lazy self off the floor and clean up the filthy mess you made upstairs." She yelled, then she turned on her heal and marched out. I cringed as I moved, my body was overly sore from last night's beating. I sat for a moment trying to remember everything that had happened, I remember getting the usual hit and kicks. Slowly the memory started to flood back as I remember dropping one of the dishes I was washing.
Phil had pushed me, hard causing me to drop and break a dish. "You stupid worthless piece of trash." My mother's voice came from behind Phil. "We house you and cloth you and feed you and THIS is how you repay us?" she yelled stepping in front of Phil and turning her back to me. I dint move as I kept my eyes on the ground. I could hear Elizabeth whispering something to Phil as she undid his belt, pulling it out of his pant loops and handing it to him. "The boy needs another lesson." She sneered before moving away from us and taking a seat at the table and started to finish off her beer.
"Turn around BOY." Phil yelled, he didn't even give me any response time as he stepped forward and spun me around forcing me to have my back to him. My hands automatically went to the edge of the counter in attempt to steady myself. My body tensed as I waited for the first blow to my bare back.
I cried out in pain as the belt met my back again and again. I lost track of time and was thankful when he finally stopped.
Falling to the floor I coughed, wincing when I saw blood splatter from my mouth, I fainted seconds later.
I woke up, thankful that my nightmare was over. But my heart was still pounding, my hands were now shaking and I could feel something wet falling down my face.
"Edward?" Carlisle said as his head popped into the room. "Good you're awake. Are you ready to go home? If not you can stay here, you don't have to leave before you are ready."
"I want to leave. I don't want to be in the hospital anymore." I said my voice quivering a little. I guess it would be a lie if I said I wasn't afraid of stepping out of these four walls that I have become so accustom to and felt safe within.
An hour later I found myself in a wheel chair with Carlisle and Esme on our way to their car so that we could go home. I was slightly shaking as I remembered that Alice and Emmett would be there, waiting to meet me.
The drive there was quiet. I sat in back looking out the window at the rain falling down around us. I kept biting my bottom lip out of nervousness. I could help the doubts of what would happen if they didn't like me and all I kept thinking about is how many ways I could mess up. Before I knew it we were pulling up to a beautiful house, surrounded by the forest.
"Welcome home Edward." Esme said twisting in her seat so that she could smile at me.
"Relax son, everything will be ok." Carlisle said as we pulled into the garage and him and Esme got out of the car.
Taking a deep breath I allowed Carlisle to help me into a wheelchair. The three of us entered the house and I could faintly hear two people talking and their voices where getting louder.
"Edward!" I heard a joyful voice say and before I could even blink the young girl I had seen with short black hair was hugging me. I froze, unsure of what to do as I looked at her. Hearing someone else come into the room my head whipped up to see Emmett. He smiled at me and stopped where he was, a good distance away from me. Alice finally finished with her hug backed up. "I'm so glad you came home." She said bouncing in place.
"Edward, this is Alice your sister and that is Emmett your brother." Esme said pointing to both in turn.
"Hey." Emmett said nodding his head in a hello fashion.
"Um… Hello." I said choosing to look everywhere but their faces.
"Why don't we show you to your room so you can rest some?" Carlisle said.
I nodded not knowing how to reply.
AN: Please review they make me happy. On a side note, I don't have a beta and am trying to go without one, that way I can post faster and not have to wait on anyone. So I'm sorry for any mistakes you may find.
