Author's Note: I don't own Twilight or New Moon.
WARNING: The following chapter contains extreme character angst. Be cautioned that the views and fears of any one particular character do not express either the views of the author or the plotline that is to come.
Song of Choice: "Snow White Queen" on the Evanescence CD The Open Door. I can't help it. The CD is just so appropriate to the storyline. Listening to this song before reading doubles your pleasure.
Freesia Juliet
Part Two: The Queen
Chapter Nine: Entr'acte
(Edward's Point of View)
Stoplight lock the door
Don't look back
Undress in the dark
And hide from you
All of you
My hands were shaking as I re-read the note for the thousandth time in a span of five minutes.
Edward,
I love you with all my heart.
I promise I'll come back to you soon.
Don't try to follow me, please.
Bella
I didn't understand. Was she angry? Was she hurt? Had she been forced to write this by some malicious hand in a cruel attempt to keep me from following?
Ah, yes, the malicious hand of fate.
It was only a matter of time. I had spent a whole month in perpetual bliss, only broken up by the occasional fight over the silliest of things.
Just like newlyweds should. Or so I've been told.
Perhaps she had come to her senses and fled for her life, finally realizing that she had married a monster from the dark whose every longing including tearing her to pieces?
Perhaps she was afraid.
Perhaps she needed to cool off from last night's argument.
Maybe she was hurting.
"Alice?" I asked as my sister stepped into the room. Her face twitched with confusion. "You got a note from Bella, too?"
"Yes," she said, and there was the pain in that one word that I had pushed back from my heart until now. It was wrenching pain. I fought the urge to double over.
You never know the way
Your words have haunted me
I can't believe you'd ask these things of me
You don't know me
"Where is she?" I asked desperately. "Is she safe?"
"I can't…" said Alice with mortification. "I can't see her, Edward! It's like she's dropped off the face of the earth!"
I heard a flickering voice in my head. "Jasper saw her go,' I said briefly as we both tumbled down the stairs after her husband.
"Jasper," I hissed, beating Alice by full bound. "You saw Bella?"
He looked surprised and overwhelmed by the anxiety and pain we both were emitting. "Yeah, what's wrong? I saw her leave in the Audi around three o'clock. She said she was…" He trailed off. I pressed him with my eyes.
"What?!"
"She said she was going to visit colleges. She told me not to tell you because she didn't want you to 'distract'—" It finally sunk in. "She ran, didn't she?"
You belong to me
My snow white queen
There's no where to run, so let's just get it over
Soon I know you'll see
You're just like me
Don't scream anymore my love
Cause all I want is you
Two days. Three days. Where the hell was Bella? How could anyone, especially a human, disappear off the face of the map? I allowed my anger to surge through, because it was less painful than the agony I faced in the dark. It wasn't right. Nothing was right.
Alice was sullen, pacing her room and gritting her teeth. The only thing Alice couldn't 'see' was a werewolf, and we both seriously doubted Bella had become one. So why was her future a blank slate? Why couldn't Alice see my wife's movements the moment she decided to make them?
Had she suddenly developed the ability to block Alice's power? Impossible. Unlikely… Maybe… No! I decided. Even if she could suddenly block Alice's power to see the future, why would she? Unless… Unless she wanted to stay hidden.
Wake up in a dream
Frozen fear
All your hands on me
I can't scream
I can't escape the twisted way you think of me
I feel you in my dreams and I don't sleep
"Anything?" I heard Carlisle say in a frustrated voice as I stumbled down the stairs, feeling more and more like a robot with each passing minute she was gone. Or maybe a zombie. They were walking dead, just like we were…
"I can't find anything," said Emmett with equal frustration, his usually playful face contorted with irritation and confusion. I stopped on the stairs, frozen in place, listening to their conversation. When my own thoughts ended, swarms of voices pounded my skull because I did not have the strength to fight them back.
Why doesn't he call me? We haven't spoken since our date on Friday. Maybe he doesn't love me after all.
Poor Edward. He must just be torn up inside.
Damn summer reading. Who wants to read "Romeo and Juliet" anyway?
I can't believe she'd just leave.
I can't believe I didn't stop her.
I wonder if this skirt goes with Ashley's yellow top.
I'm lost. Stupid, worthless compass.
He got us lost. Idiot!
I wonder how he feels! I wonder how I would feel if Emmett left me.
It took a surge of emotion to silence them. I needed to hear Emmett, and Emmett alone.
"I've went through all the usual mediums. Bus, train, plane… I've looked under 'Bella Cullen' and 'Bella Swan,' but no tickets under her name since last month, from the honeymoon. The credit card we gave her is completely untouched." He stood up and turned the laptop to that Carlisle could see the screen. "The only thing I know is that Bella cleared out her bank account at one thirty, an hour and a half before Jasper saw her leave the house. It wasn't a lot of money- only three thousand dollars."
Emmett dug through his pocket and produced a ticket stub. "Oh, but she probably has more cash than that, because she pawned her engagement ring."
Had I still had a beating heart, it would have exploded at that moment. I collapsed on the stairs, choking back something between a sob and a roar. I'm actually coming unglued, I thought with surprise before the white enveloped my vision. I couldn't see. I wondered for a moment if a vampire could die of shock.
Everything was white and peaceful. However, I could still hear. "Edward!" shouted Carlisle. I think I had fallen down the stairs, but I couldn't feel it.
"I got it back for you," assured Emmett with desperation.
I can't save your life
Though nothing I bleed for is more tormenting
I'm losing my mind and you just stand
There and stare as my world divides
She wanted to leave. She wanted to leave me like this, shattered, broken forever on the bottom of the stairs. She had thrown everything in her mad dash to escape this horror that I was permanently entrapped within.
I began to understand a little how she had felt when I had left her. I began to realize what a broken promise could do to a person.
I promised to give her immortality, after our wedding.
I betrayed her.
She promised to stay with me and love me for all of her days.
She smashed me to smithereens.
You belong to me
My snow white queen
There's nowhere to run, so let's just get it over
Soon I know you'll see
You're just like me
Don't scream anymore my love,
Cause all I want it you
"Bella," I muttered, sinking into the deepest depression I'd ever faced.
P.S. Author's notes: Pulmonary necrosis is a fatal condition in which the cells of the heart tissue decay at a rapid rate. It can be triggered by a heart attack, or in Bella's case, bad genes. Often it leads to a second heart attack or coronary heart failure. I was asked, so I explained.
Please don't take this chapter too harshly. It's basically a filler chapter, but I wanted you to see Edward's reaction to Bella's leaving before I get into the meat of Part Two, which may not feature Edward's POV at all.
