:D Surprised? This is much earlier than normal! But I've been real sick lately and had nothing better to do(although at first I couldn't type from how bad I was shaking) so I've been writing.
Oh, and I remembered what I forgot last chapter: Can anybody guess where they are? It's a fictional city from one of my favorite books!
PS, sorry for any mistakes. I was listening to Sweeney Todd as I edited this.
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I hesitated with my answer. What did I remember? Finally, I answered, "I… I remember that there was seven of them."
"What do you remember about each of them?" Riley asked with a nod of his head, confirming what I had asked.
"There… there was Carlisle. He was their leader, their father. He was the compassionate one," I said. I stopped, and glanced over at Riley. He nodded, confirming what I had said and encouraging me to go on. "And there was… Esme. She was Carlisle's mate. She was just as sweet as him."
I scrunched my face up, trying to see through the fog that was my human memory. Some things were becoming clearer to me than others were. "Then Emmett and Rosalie, the strong and the beautiful. Alice was my best friend back then. Small and pixie like, she could see the future. And Jasper was her mate. He always had…." My sentence trailed off as I realized something. I turned and clutched at Riley's arm. "Oh God, Riley! It was Jasper who came after me!"
Riley sighed. "I figured that it was one of them. Who else would follow after you like that?"
"Do you think he recognized me?" I asked worriedly.
No," Riley replied with a shake of his head, "I think that you were familiar to him, but that he couldn't quite put a name to you. If he knew it was you, he wouldn't have given up until you led him to me."
"What? Why?"
He shook his head. "That's not important right now, Bella. But tell me, what else do you remember?"
I sighed and hung my head. There was only one other person, the one who I remembered the most about and had the most mixed feelings for. "The last person is… is Edward. He could read minds and he was the fastest."
"Bella, I know that's not all that you remember about him," Riley said softly, turning my face towards him, "Don't be afraid to tell me."
"I… I loved him," I said softly, venom tears that could never fall brimming in my eyes, "He was my everything. He would've killed for me, I'm sure. But… but something happened," I swallowed thickly, "He disappeared."
Riley pulled me closer to him. "He left you, Bells. They all did. He just took you out in the woods, he told you that he didn't love you, and left. None of the others, even Alice who was your 'best friend', said goodbye. They all just left, crushing you. You spiraled down into darkness."
"How do you know?" I questioned, looking up at Riley's face from where my head rested on his chest.
"You told me once," he replied, "When you were still human, I had been asking you about Victoria and the Cullens. It was a snowy night and I sat there and listened as you told me your tale."
"So what happened? I can't remember it all."
"Want me to start at the beginning again?" I nodded. "Okay, well you had just moved to Forks to live with your dad. You managed to figure out what the Cullens were. On your guys' first date you were going to meet his family for the first time and watch them play baseball."
"Baseball?" I asked, surprised.
Riley laughed and nodded. "Yeah, that's exactly what I said. And according to you, it's quite a sight."
I chuckled lightly for a moment. "Go on."
"Well, they had been playing a while when three vampires showed up. It was James, Laurent, and Victoria. James was a tracker and he would do anything to get you. He made a game out of it.
"The Cullens decided that you needed to get out of Forks. So you told your dad that you were going to live with your mom again and flew to Phoenix, Arizona with Alice and Jasper. The others stayed behind to hunt for Victoria and James. Laurent had left, saying he was going to join another coven of vampires that was like the Cullens.
"After having no luck with James, Edward decided that he was going to come and get you. But while you waited, you got a call from James saying that he had your mom. When you went to the airport to meet Edward, you snuck away to meet James.
"When you got there, you found that it was all a trick. He played with you, hurting you, and video taped it. James tried to get you to plead for Edward to come, but you didn't. And right when you were about to get killed, Edward showed up. The others were coming too, but Edward got there first, being the fastest as you said."
As Riley paused, I started talking. "And he bit me, didn't he? James, I mean. Then Edward saved me by sucking the venom out. At least, that's what you said."
Riley nodded. "Yeah, that's exactly what happened. Once you recovered, you went back to Forks with the Cullens and spent the summer with them. You told me that it was the best summer of your life.
"But when September came around, things changed. Your birthday came and passed. Just a couple days after, Edward took you into the woods, told you that he left you. He broke your heart, as I said before. Months went by with no word from them. You started to lose yourself to despair.
"But then you met Jacob Black again."
"I remember Jake," I said with a light smile, "He became the highlight of my day."
"Do you remember what he was?" Riley asked quietly so that there was no chance of any mortals hearing us.
I nodded. "He was a wolf; he was the big russet one."
"Yeah, he was a wolf. And once you found out about the pack, you guys became closer than ever. But one day, Victoria showed up I Forks. The pack had killed Laurent when he encountered you before. You told them of Victoria, giving them the upper hand.
"The day that she returned, you and Jake were supposed to be going cliff diving. Since he couldn't go with you, you decided to go by yourself. If it weren't for your furry friend, you would have drowned in the water that day, or been killed by Victoria, who had fled into the water. But he saved you.
"When you returned to your house, you found Alice there. Jake left you alone with her, hurt that you had chosen her over him. Alice told you that she had seen you jump and thought you to be dead. She told you that Edward had found out and was going to kill himself… out of guilt."
I inhaled softly. As Riley spoke, bits and pieces of things came back to me. I remembered the panic I felt on the plane ride to save Edward. "He went to the Volturi."
"Yes. But you and Alice managed to save him from Aro and the others with the promise that you would be changed one day. He returned to Forks with you. And other than the fact that Victoria was out there searching for you, everything had gone back to normal.
"You eventually learned of Victoria building a newborn army to kill you and the Cullens, which was how I was created. The Cullens put you somewhere in the woods to hopefully keep you safe while they fought. But instead of staying with you himself to make sure that you were safe, Edward left you with a young, inexperienced wolf. I easily got around him and Victoria got to you. She would have had you if Edward hadn't shown up I the nick of time. As they fought, I managed to get you as you collapsed."
"So… so what happened to Edward?" I asked gently.
"He killed Victoria. Other than that, I don't know." Riley replied honestly.
I hesitated before asking my next question. I was afraid of what the answer would bring. "If he didn't love me then why did he come back to Forks with me?"
Riley, too, hesitated before answering. I looked up at his face. He seemed troubled. "Victoria. They knew she was there looking for you. He simply felt as though he had to clean up after himself. They wouldn't want the blood on their hands if you were killed. After all, they did get you into that mess."
I let the answer sink in before asking, "So… so he never loved me?"
"I'm sorry, Bells, but you were never more than a plaything to him. He never loved you."
I clenched my eyes shut and bit my lip back, holding back the sobs that were trying to break out from within me. Somehow, despite the fatct that I could barely remember this, it hurt.
Despite the fact that he was nothing but a faint, painful memory to me, I still loved Edward.
...
Alice's Point of View
We all stood gathered for the first time in a couple weeks in the throne room of the Volturi castle. Most of us had split up and gone looking for those who could be of aid to the Volturi, or simply spreading the word. Jasper had been the last of us to return, and was just now telling of us of what had happened while he was away.
"There was one strange thing that had happened," he said after had finished telling of those he thought he had managed to persuade, "There was one vampire I encountered in the states. I spotted her when she was in the middle of hunting in a small city. There was something familiar about her, but I couldn't quite place it at the time. Before I had a chance to really look at her, she spotted me and fled. I followed her for a time but I eventually lost her in a crowd of people. "
"And what's so odd about that?" Emmett asked, "Maybe it was just someone you encountered back in your early days."
"No, she wasn't. What was so odd about it is that she was a newborn, no more than a couple months old."
"Are you sure? Did you catch the scent of any others around?" Carlisle asked, surprised.
Jasper shook his head. "No, no others. And that was strange too. For one who seemed so young, she was very welled behaved. She acted as though she was several years old, not several months."
"What did she look like?" I asked, moving closer to my mate, "Maybe one of us will know her."
"Like I said, I didn't get a good view of her, "Jasper said, giving me a quick smile, "But, from what I could tell, she was average height and thin. She had brown hair, and seemed to be maybe eighteen."
"Maybe it was Bella," Emmett offered softly.
The room instantly went quite and almost every pair of eyes flicked to Edward. He continued to look out the tall window at the sinking sun, but every muscle in his body seemed to have tensed at Emmett's words.
"Emmett!" I hissed at him, "Why would you say something like that?"
"We don't know that it wasn't her." He argued back.
Edward's soft voice reached my ears. "He's right, Alice. We don't know for certain that it wasn't her."
"Edward," I said, my voice softening, "I hate to have to remind you, but she's dead. I saw it happen."
"Your visions aren't always correct. The future can change." He replied, taking a couple steps toward us. This was the most he had said in a long time.
"She's dead, Edward," I shot back, a little harshly, "I saw her die. Her future is nothing but black to me now. There's nothing left for me to catch of her! Every time I try, I get the same blackness as I do for death!"
His eyes narrowed on me, no doubt searching through my mind. I had never told him that before, not wanting to have himself lose himself to despair again and seek death. We just recently lost one family member. I wasn't sure if we could handle losing another so soon. But there was no point in keeping it from him now.
After another minute of searching through my mind and my visions, he clenched his eyes shut, his face succumbing to pain and grief. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Jasper flinch from what he was feeling from Edward. I placed a comforting hand on his arm.
"I'm so sorry Edward."
"Edward," Carlisle spoke up softly, "I know that this must be hard for you. She was your whole reason for existing. If you… if you wish to join her, all I ask is that you wait until the battle comes. Then you have my blessing to go as you wish."
Edward looked up at Carlisle. This was what he had been waiting for.
It was his blessing of death.
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Please review! I would like to cross the 100 mark with the next chapter!
