CHAPTER SEVEN: Amnesia
As I lay sleeping comfortably and peacefully, a voice broke through my dream and I found myself slowly transitioning into a half awake but still half asleep state. "Bella love, can you hear me?" His voice was as smooth as silk and as calm and gentle as a midsummer breeze. I must be dreaming again, I thought to myself. He had such a soothing voice, surely it must be a dream. No voice could possibly sound so perfect and beautiful, so controlled. Regardless of whether it was real or fake, it had broken through my deep sleep state of consciousness and I couldn't relax enough to drift back there so I allowed my waking mind and thought process take over. "Ah, Bella, you are waking up now, I can hear it in your breathing and in your heartbeat. I've missed you my love," that perfect voice again, I was becoming more alert now which made the voice sound even more clear and precise. At that point, I yawned, stretched my arms over my head and opened my eyes to find out who the owner of this voice was, if I had actually heard the voice and had not just imagined it. After all I thought, the voice seemed almost unreal to me in the first place.
Once my eyes were open I looked to my left and there was nothing, but then I turned to my right and there he was. The beautiful stranger from my dreams, Edward Cullen. I blinked several times, confused as to where I was and how I got there. "Edward?" I asked to be sure I had it right, that he was the one from my dream.
"Yes Bella?" he replied, obviously thinking I wanted to ask him a question rather than realizing I was making sure that Edward was in fact his name.
"I dreamed of you, it was so strange, and when I went to bed I was in my house in La Push, but how did I end up here? And where am I, to be more exact?" I quizzed him, so many questions that needed answering. And yet he stared at me as if he knew me, as if he had known me for years, and worse than that, as if I should know him. I would almost say that he looked a bit hurt by the fact that I had no idea what was going on. For some reason, he seemed to think we knew each other. I figured he must have had me mixed up with somebody else, but somebody else named Bella? That was highly unlikely. I couldn't say that I ever knew anyone else named Bella.
"Bella, you know who I am don't you? I mean, you know who we are to each other, right?" he asked with his voice full of concern and maybe a tinge of pain. It made me wince to hear the sadness in his otherwise perfect voice. I honestly had no idea though, so I couldn't even pretend to know what on earth he was talking about.
"I-I'm sorry Edward, but I don't know-or, I guess I don't remember. I can't imagine how I could possibly forget someone like you, but no matter how hard I try to figure it out, I'm just not getting anything," I explained. "Please don't take it personally!"
He looked as though he was processing what I had just explained to him, or what I had tried to explain to him and then all of a sudden, the hurt and pain began to wash away from his flawless facial features and a new look began to take over. It was sort of like confusion and concern, with a little bit of fear thrown in for good measure. He then spoke up again and said, "Bella, I'm going to have Carlisle come home immediately to check you out, you were running a high fever and you passed out several days ago. You've been unconscious ever since."
It wasn't until then that I noticed I was in a hospital style bed and had needles in me everywhere, I was on an IV and heart rate monitors and the whole nine yards. I didn't understand what was going on and I was becoming a bit nervous about the whole situation. My mind started to wander and I thought about stories I had heard in the past about people who end up in a shady hospital bed or worse, a bathtub with their organs missing. Renee had made mention of stuff like this in the past, something about the black market. I shuddered at the thought of it. At that moment, Edward said "Stay here Bella, I've got to make a phone call and then we can get to the bottom of this memory loss," and then in a flash he was outside of the room, barely within earshot, in the hallway.
I could hear his muffled voice saying, "Carlisle? I need you here right away, Bella is awake and-and I think she has a case of amnesia or something." Then complete silence as whoever this Carlisle person was obviously must have been saying something to Edward on the phone, so I couldn't hear what he had to say. And then Edward spoke again, "Okay, I'll see you when you arrive, thank you," and then I could hear him sigh loudly. I thought I could hear faint footsteps walking back and forth, back and forth, pacing outside the door. He was apparantly quite concerned about me. Perhaps I was getting a little bit carried away with myself on the whole black market organ thieving worries.
The pacing went on for a while and then there was a new voice, a female, this one soft and high pitched, like wind chimes. I remembered this voice also from my dream. "Edward!" sung the high voice in a concerned tone. "Is it true? She's finally woken up? I had a vision that she couldn't remember any of us, oh Edward, it's horrible and I'm so sorry. I can't imagine how difficult this must be for you!"
"Yes Alice, it's true," he responded in a somber and sullen manner. "She doesn't remember anything. She doesn't even know where she is, and I really hate to say this, but perhaps it's really in the best interests of Bella if we leave it that way."
"Oh Edward," Alice cried. "Don't say that. How could you say that? You certainly can't mean it, you'd be miserable for all eternity."
Edward then went into a long sorrowful explanation of exactly how serious he was, "Well Alice, if it's good for her, then that's what I want. Her well being and happiness means more to me than my own well being could ever matter. If she simply doesn't remember, it will be easier on her to go back to her normal life, one without vampires and monsters. I will stand back in the shadows watching over her, making sure she stays safe until the day she dies, when she's an old woman who has lived a long happy life. Only then I will, I don't know, I'll disappear into an oblivion. It will be as if I never existed, the way it was always intended to be."
"Well I know that can't be what you truly want, but you're a thick headed one Edward and there's no changing your mind once you've made it up," Alice retorted angrily. "But whatever, I'm going to talk to her right this instant. She is my best friend, she's practically my sister. And honestly Edward, I don't believe that she is better off without us in her life. Deep down, I don't know how you could believe that either, but no matter, I'm going in there now whether you like it or not!"
No sooner than she had uttered the words, she was opening the door and walking in the room. She was petite, stunning, and pixie like. When she walked it was as if she was dancing. I admired her beauty and grace which I personally lacked. I'm clumsy and rather plain in comparison. She sashayed and pirouetted her way across the room in my direction and then stopped at the foot of my bed. "Hi Bella! It's so wonderful to see you awake again. I was worried sick about you when I couldn't see anything else in your future for a while there. I hope you'll try not to scare us all like that again," she teased, although the concern in her voice was apparant as was the obvious joy at seeing me among the living again. Or perhaps in this case, among the undead or whatever you'd like to call it.
"Alice? Is that your name?" I asked, to be sure that I had heard Edward correctly in the hallway.
"Yes that's right Bella. I know, you don't remember us right now, but I promise you will before you know it. We all love you so much Bella and we're gonna get you back into tip-top shape, you'll see," she assured me in her sing-songy voice.
"I'm sorry I can't remember anything, I wish I could. I'm sure I'm not worth being so upset over though, I hate to think that I've caused you or Edward any worry," I apologized abashedly.
"Oh it's not your fault Bella, please don't apologize to us. You didn't do anything wrong at all, you just got really sick and gave us a pretty big scare. You're with us again now though and we're gonna make sure you get all better," she proclaimed reassuringly.
Just then the door opened abruptly and in walked a man in a doctor's lab coat followed by Edward. "Well hello Bella! Edward says that you are experiencing some memory loss, so in case you are wondering, I'm Carlisle-otherwise known as Dr. Carlisle Cullen. I'm Edward and Alice' father and I am here to see if we can find out what might be causing the loss of memory, okay?" he explained in his wise, kind and gentle voice.
"O-kay," I responded tentatively. "What do I need to do then?"
"Just lay as still as possible while I check your vitals and then I'm going to want to do a vision and hearing screening, to start out with, things like that," he instructed me. "I also would like to see if we can get some food and water into you without the help of the feeding tubes and IV's now that you are awake."
He then proceeded to check my pulse, blood pressure, temperature and everything else under the sun. Once he had assured that everything was as it should be he began to remove the needles from my arms one by one. The only machine he left hooked up to me was the heart monitor whose steady beep chimed every few seconds while Carlisle commenced with the hearing and vision tests. All seemed to be going well and as it should and then in the middle of the vision test, as he was checking my pupils, I felt a sharp pain shoot through my entire body. At the same moment, the light shining in my eye caused a feeling a blindness. I started to panic and as I did I could hear the beeping of the heart rate monitor going into hyperspeed. I tried to control the anxiety but the fear took over and there was no stopping it. The beeping of the monitor got faster and faster and as it did, everything went darker and darker until I was shrouded in blackness and sinking deeper and deeper into my pillows, or so it seemed. I felt another convulsion of pain lash throughout my body and then the monitor suddenly flatlined and I was immersed in nothingness. It was pitch black and I was screaming inside my mind for someone to pull me out of this dark hole. But I only fell deeper into the black pit of emptiness......
***I hope you are enjoying the story so far, feedback is greatly appreciated! Thank you!!!***
