FINALE PART ONE

(SHORT)


-*-/BPOV\-*-

My eyes swung open and scanned the darkness.

The pain on the top of my head throbbed, obscuring my vision and making my surroundings blurry. I heard a slight humming sound coming from in front of me as I tried to get into a sitting position.

"I wouldn't do that if I were you," a voice called from somewhere in the shadows. "Keep still."

A clicking sound, followed by a small, round beam of light illuminated the dirty, ragged floor on which I lay sprawled out. I shifted my eyes to where the beam of light was originating, but I could see nothing distinguishable or familiar.

"You've been out for quite some time," the voice said coldly. "I didn't think you would ever wake. Not that I particularly care," the voice laughed.

"Edward," I managed to wheeze out, grasping at the dirty, hay-filled floor with my dirty hands.

I was still disoriented. Calling his name was merely a desperate attempt for me to hold out hope that wherever I was-whatever was happening to me-he would come. Maybe the voice belonged to him? I could not distinguish the voice as belonging to a male or a female, I only could hear it fleetingly through the ringing in my ears.

"Edward can't help you, Bella, so there's not use calling for him."

I put my hand up to shield the beam of light from my face.

"Who are you?" I whispered, barely raising it over the hum in the distance.

I heard a faint sound of footsteps coming closer, and then the lights overhead switched on, illuminating the room in which I was laying.

The room was small; dirt and smoke filled the putrid air as I looked around. The floor was made of dirt with straw lining the top. I tried to move my hands, but they were bound together with a bit of rope.

"What did you do to me?" My hoarse voice echoed in the tiny room, and I could hear the fear and desperation in my voice.

"What was necessary," the cold, malicious voice answered. "You were fucking things up for me."

The figure walked into the light where I was, showing me the full profile of whom the voice belonged to.

"Rose?" I gasped, looking upon her disfigured face and the anger in her eyes.

"Who else?" She smiled, the deformed part of her face curving upward. "Carlisle? Edward? Carlisle is a mean fucker, but he sure the hell would never hurt you. I, on the other hand, would do much, much worse than hurt you, Bella," she said, bending down in front of my sprawled out body.

"Edward," I whispered again, looking up at the blonde evil, who was now staring at me.

"Liar, liar, pants on fire," she sang, laughing as she moved a stray strand of hair from my eyes. "Oh, I'm sorry. Edward can't help you, honey."

"Why are you doing this, Rose? What did you do to Edward?"

"Simple. I needed you. You were a pawn piece in all of this. I strived on the convenience of your arrival to the orchard. I waited for Edward to find you; it was only a matter of time." She stood and walked around me until she was at my back. "I watched as he would watch you in the orchard at night."

I trembled as I felt her bend down and touch my back, the coldness of her skin causing me to shiver slightly in the damp, smoke filled room.

"You used your own brother to get to me?" Disbelief made a hard edge to my voice. "Why?"

"Who else would I have to bring me such a pretty, young face? He was so easy to convince," she laughed as if remembering some funny joke. "I told him to go talk to you that day, after he came to me and told me about you. But, you see, I already knew. I didn't expect it to be so easy, mind you, but I knew he was in love with you for months," she said, standing again and walking back in front of me.

"Months?" I repeated in a whispered hoarse voice, watching as she paced in front of me.

Rose nodded her head. "Months. I watched from my bedroom window as he snuck in between those fucking trees and watched you as you sleepwalked your way through them. You know, his fascination with you really, really confused me, but then I didn't care, because it fell right into place for me," Rose explained.

"But Carlisle…he-he…" I struggled to say the words. They fumbled on my tongue and never made it out.

"Carlisle tried to see that you got away from danger; from me! He begged Edward to not see you anymore! He figured out what was going on that night he caught you with Edward. He wasn't supposed to come back so fucking soon! He saved you that night. I was going to wait until Edward let you go at dawn to get to you, but Carlisle fucked it all up. " She slammed her hand into her palm and then placed her hand on her forehead. I watched her pace again, the light casting shadows on her burned skin with each pass. She was quiet for a few minutes. Then she turned to smile at me. "Edward had to be used as bait, you see. I do regret using him…" she trailed off.

"But what's done is done, right? Carlisle is still downstairs trying to concoct a magic formula that will never exist. That means it's still girl time between you and me," she said. "He doesn't know you came back for Edward. Oh! That's right, Bella! I forgot to tell you," she laughed again. "And this really is the best part…Edward never wanted you back. I took the dream catcher, neatly copied the note, and slipped it onto the table for you to find. Isn't that just the best part? He never wanted to see you again, Bella," she sneered, anger flashing across her face.

I didn't reply. There was nothing I could say that would contradict her. The note had been a forgery. She was probably right; he never wanted me back. I came back to falsehoods and he was probably not even around anywhere. He probably didn't even realize something was wrong; that I was not in Eden tonight.

My heart shrunk when the realization hit me. Edward had moved on and accepted what I'd told him.

"Please let me go," I begged. "What can you gain from this? Edward doesn't want me, you said it yourself…"

"This has nothing to do with Edward, you stupid bitch!" She shoved me, walked over and then bent down to pull my hair so that my head lifted off the floor. "It was you the whole time!"

"What are you going to do to me?"

She laughed softly.

"I plan to take your pretty face, Bella," she explained.

"You can't. Edward said you have to be sick before you can heal," I countered.

"Edward said, Edward said," she taunted. "You are sick. How fucking dumb are you? Goddamn it," she shook her head in disapproval. "Sleepwalking is a sickness. But if it gives me your pretty, unburned skin with it, who am I to judge?"

"You can't reverse the healing! You can't give me your burns!"

At least Edward never mentioned that to me.

"Oh, but you are severely wrong, my friend."

"Huh?"

"The story I told Edward-"

"You made it up?"

"Nope. Just left a few things out. Couldn't give my plot away, my dear," Rose said, placing her hands on her hips and smirking. "When Edward was unconscious on the floor during the fire, I had to turn him over. I reached over and was stopped by pain on my left side. I looked down, and I saw that I was burned near my rib cage," she told me, her eyes distant as if reliving that moment again in her mind.

"Edward has burns on his ribs…" I trailed off, realization washing over me for a second time tonight. "You accidentally transferred the burns to him turning him over! You reversed the healing!" I accused her.

"Bingo. Imagine my surprise as well," she lifted her right hand and smiled.

My eyes darted to her hand immediately. The change was so noticeable, that I didn't need to wonder why she was showing me it.

The hand that once lay bare to burns and disfigurement was now white, smooth and without burns or any signs that it had ever been injured. "Works like a charm."

If her hand was fully healed, it had to mean that she had to transfer it to someone else. My heart sank as I caught her expression.

"What did you do to Edward?" I demanded. "Where the fuck is he?" I yelled at her.

"He won't be joining us tonight, I'm afraid. He's a bit hot under the collar," she laughed, lifting her hand.

In the light that lit the room, I could see the blue stretch down her fingertips and the hum grow louder and louder as the blue light engulfed the entire room, making me shield my eyes. She moved toward me with her hand raised.

"What are you doing?" I tried to back away, but could not.

"First, I am going to steal your unflawed, unburned skin," she replied, holding her hand even higher as the humming continued. "And then I am going to light the hay around you on fire and watch you fucking burn."

I watched the blue light approach, and I knew I was helpless. I braced for it.

I repeated the only words I wanted to hear when her hand touched my skin; when she stole the beauty, and when she looked me in the eyes as she burned the hay and watched it engulf me; swallow me whole:

"Edward, I'm sorry."


-*-/EPOV\-*-

I watched in harrowing desperation as the flames licked up my knees. I rolled around frantically, letting the twigs, bark and rocks dig into my legs and my lower back. The orange-yellow flicks climbed slowly as I tugged on my belt buckle furiously. The flames made the metal of the silver buckle hot.

Rose had left me there to burn away into ash, but not before she had reached her glowing hand down and clenched mine; the humming had drowned out the painful screams as I felt the licking of each burn scar, as each tightening of my fingers and dips and crevices transferred to my hand. My hand curved into my palm, much like hers had, and then she was gone. She left me on fire, and in pain, as my hand was now a burned, scarred deformity, in the middle of the orchard.

I looked at my now-deformed right hand and pulled it over to my waist to unclasp the belt buckle. I felt the heat as I painfully, and frantically, pulled the belt free of my pants, which remained engulfed in flames. I quickly unzipped my zipper with my good hand, and kicked the pants off my legs, the flames going with them as they slid to the dirty orchard ground.

As I stood in my boxers, my legs completely red and slightly burned, a scream rang out off in the shadowy distance. The long, drawn out scream echoed in the stillness of the night.

"Bella!" I screamed as I took off running in the direction of the scream, leaving the burning pants behind. "Bella!"

I ran through the dense trees as the screaming ceased. I gasped as my lungs began to hurt as I got deeper and deeper into the orchard. I had no idea where Rose had taken Bella. I could only run until I found her. I needed her, and I would find her, would do whatever it took to find her. I circled around the outside of the orchard as I emerged from the trees, desperately looking around for any sign that she had been that way.

"BELLA!" I screamed out again, turning quickly to the left and right on the small path I was standing on.

I continued to run. As I passed my house, which lay dormant and shrouded in darkness, I glanced up at the window that Rose always occupied, but it was empty. My heart beat faster as I turned back and ran behind the house to head back into the trees to search some more. That is when I saw the blue light jutting out from the bottom of the old barn where Carlisle housed the apple picking machines in the winter, to keep them from thieves. It was no more than ten feet from me.

"I'm coming, Bella," I shouted, running to the double barn doors.

I got to the double barn doors and tried to open them quickly, but they were barricaded shut from the inside.

"BELLA!" I sobbed, pounding on the door with my good fist.

I ran around the side of the barn, looking for a way in. Up at the very top of the barn, stood an open window in an area that was once used as a loft.

"Fuck," I breathe out.

I needed a ladder or something. That window was at least fifteen feet above me. As another scream rang out, this one of pain and torture, I ran beyond the path I had just taken and back into the orchard, to retrieve the ladder I used when trimming off wayward tree limbs.

One way or another, I was going to rescue her, no matter the cost. No matter of my own life. Her life was the only thing that I was concerned with, and whatever happened to me in the process would be worth it.

Nobody was going to take Bella from me.

I would die first.

I would prepare for it, in fact. Deep in my heart, I knew that there was a good chance I would not make it out of that barn…

I was banking on it.


-*-/RPOV\-*-

She lay on the barn floor, her chestnut hair flowing around her burned face. I turned her on her back so that I could admire what I once looked like on someone else.

"Jesus Christ, I was one ugly bitch," I laughed, looking at the burned remains of the unconscious girl's face. "Pity, you were so pretty."

I could hear Edward rattling the doors to the barn as I stood and touched my now-perfect, flawless face. It was too little, too late; Bella lay motionless, the pain of the searing burning too much to handle. I smiled as I righted myself to a standing position and walked around her.

"Your job is done here, Bella," I said, not caring if she could hear me or not. "You have to die, now. Thank you for the beautiful skin. I love it," I taunted, laughing as I reached up to touch the smoothness between my fingers.

I brought my hand back down and fixed my gaze on the dirty, yellow straws that lay underneath her head. I could feel the pressure of my gaze start to heat the straw; small smoke plums rose from the hay. As the smoke got thicker, a sound up at the barn ceiling broke my concentration. My eyes wandered up to the clanking sound now pouring into the whole barn. I didn't see the metal pulley swinging toward my face until it was too late.

The heavy, metal hay pulley crashed into my newly-perfect face with a slight cracking sound. I could feel the pain rush to the surface as I gasped and fell to my knees, holding my face with my hands.

"Bella," I heard Edward whisper from across the barn as he jumped from the loft, down to where Bella lay. "Bella, honey? Can you hear me?"

I moved my hands away from my damaged face and saw just his shadow pull her hands free from the rope I had bound her with. I saw nothing else however, as my eyes fixed upon the hay near her feet this time. With a slight sizzle, the hay caught fire.

"What the-" Edward gasped as the fire spread quickly around them; encircling them.

Trapping them.

"Oh, my god," Edward breathed as the hay bales behind him caught fire, sending falling embers over the two of them.

One of the embers landed in Bella's hair…

...And ignited…


A/N:

Michael Jackson moment alert! Poor Bella!

The next chapter will be the FINALE part deux, followed by the epilogue. It has been one fine journey to bring you this far, but you will never guess what this story actually is…You will find out the secret to this great big secret in the epilogue.

Next chapter, there will be a death. But who will it be? It may not be who you expect ;)

CLIFFHANGER REVEALED SOON…..


Review, my lovelies…


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