Sorrysorrysorrysorrysorrysor rysorrysorrysorrysorrysorrys orrysorrysorrysorrysorry!
I'm been busier than I could believe.
Chapter 9
Sweet Songs
The night saw me restless and unable to sleep. Every time I closed my eyes, I kept seeing Isabella's face, pale and frightened, her features twisted in fear at some unknown monster I could not see.
Once again, I saw Edward Cullen, looming over my daughter's sleeping form, gazing at her with a terrible sort of hunger.
Suddenly, I am no longer seeing Isabella in my mind's eye, her face ages, morphs into Reneé's. Instead of fear, rage shows on her face, and it is no longer Edward Cullen that she is looking at.
It's me.
Suddenly I was back in that terrible, terrible night when Reneé left me. Tears were streaking down her face and I was helpless to stop them. I could not even find the strength to embrace her, whisper words of comfort in her ears, the way I used to do back before everything went wrong.
My arms felt leaden at my sides.
She was saying something. "I don't want to end up trapped in this stupid, boring town!" She was obviously trying hard to keep her voice from cracking.
You know how in those romantic chick flick movies, someone pulls a line like this and suddenly, you found the film unbearably cheesy?
Do you remember how you laughed at your friends for hastily trying to wipe away the tears that were building up in their eyes?
I do.
But when Reneé said it, it was as if she had taken a sledgehammer to my heart, my life. She had meant so much more than just not wanting to be trapped in a stupid, boring town.
She didn't want to be trapped with me.
Forks was…is so much more to me than just a rainy town. I am its Chief, the people in Forks were my charge.
Reneé knew that, and accepted it. It was just that she didn't want Forks to be her charge as well.
In my mind's eye, I saw my wife turning her back on me forever, eager to be away from Forks, away from me.
My eyes snapped open and I found myself sitting up on my bed, with my heart beating dully in my chest. Beads of sweat coated my face and my shirt was soaking wet.
It looks like sleep was not going to be an option for me tonight. I stood up with every intention to go to the bathroom and wash my face, only to sit back down once I realized that I was shaking.
I held my hand up for inspection and watched in astonishment at the way my fingers shook uncontrollably. I quickly clenched it into a fist, not wanting to see it anymore.
I need a drink, I decided.
An opened bottle of beer was already in my hand before I realized what I was doing. Isabella, you idiot, Isabella, an annoying, whiny voice spoke in my head. Think of her.
But every time I tried to conjure Isabella's face in my mind, all I saw was Reneé's. That definitely did not make it easier.
"Just this once," I found myself muttering to some unseen judge. "Please, just this once. I need it." Need being the keyword here. Still, the fact that Isabella was sleeping upstairs deterred me from drowning myself in drink.
Once I took a swig, however, the taste of the liquor felt like an old friend, welcoming me back into oblivion.
I don't know how many bottles I went through, or even if I went through them at all. All I know was that I somehow ended up drunk and lying on the couch.
My head was pounding dully and my breathing was coming in shallow gasps.
"Well, well," I heard someone say. "What have we here…drowning in drink again?"
I suddenly shot up from the couch, expecting Isabella looming over me with a hurt, puppy-dog expression on her face.
But the house was as dark and lonely as it had ever been.
So where did the voice come from?
I swallowed, feeling the bitter aftertaste of beer cloying against my tongue.
"Who's there?" I tried to say, but it came out more as "Whozer?"
No one answered.
Fear made my stomach clench painfully. I knew that voice. It wasn't Edward Cullen's, certainly it wasn't Isabella's.
It was the Siren's.
My goal is to turn Charlie from wuss to badass by the end of this.