He stood against the wall to my right in all his beautiful glory. I was sure that my heart was racing at 100 miles per hour. He looked slightly more….rough than the last time I saw him. His bronze hair was messy and fell loosely over his right eye. He wore a navy blue button up shirt that was slightly open, revealing that perfectly sculpted marble chest that I adored. Faded jeans hung loosely from his hips. His butterscotch eyes stared straight through me, disbelieving and hopeful. I stood, gaining the confidence to make the first move. "Edward," I whispered, walking to stand a few feet away from them with my arms open. He closed the distance between us and wrapped his cold, strong arms around my waist. His grip was tight and I was worried that he wouldn't let me go. I pulled away slightly to smile up at him, letting his beauty dazzle me. I realized then that his family was still in the room and I reluctantly returned to my seat next to a bouncing Alice. Edward followed, sitting on the arm of the couch beside me.
"Bella, you look AMAZING!" she squealed once more. I blushed only slightly at this.
"Don't give me any credit. That goes to Vivian and Pat. My stylist," I replied with a slight laugh. "So what have you all been up to over the last five years?"
"The same old things," Emmett answered, still grinning at me. "But we want to hear about the big star."
"Oh please. I am far from a big star. More like a tiny speck in the sky."
"Nonsense, Bella," Esme scolded. "We see you all the time on t.v and we all are a fan of your music." The whole family shook their heads in agreement. Edward smiled down at me.
"Umm alright. Well I moved to New York City immediately after leaving. I enrolled at Metropolitan College of N.Y. I was so loss and had pretty much nowhere to go until I seen an ad for a desperate roommate. I lived there for a year with my best friend Arianna. One night, she dragged me to a karaoke bar and forced me on stage to sing 'I love Rock and Roll'." I laughed at the memory. There were seven pairs of butterscotch colored eyes on me. I sighed. "That's where I met Levi Murandi. My agent. Next thing you know he was booking things for me left and right. He suggested I get a band and I suggested a friend who I had met in my literature class. It was soon me and him and then he pulled his cousin into it as well."
"Isn't there another member of your band?" Jasper questioned. I smiled and nodded. "Yes, my other half." I saw Edward stiffen at this out of the corner of my eye. "I met him one day while I had tried to escape a concert. It was the stupidest idea I had thought of since going to New York. I snuck out onto the balcony of my hotel the night of my performance and tried to climb down the fire escape. Being me I slipped and fell."
Everyone was intense and so focused on my story. I looked up at Edward who looked frantic with worry.
"Come on! Don't leave us hangin'!" Emmett shouted. I laughed at this before continuing.
"I thought I was going to die or break thousands of bones. Instead I fell into someone's arms." Once again, Edward stiffened. "That's where my third band member came in. He just happened to be there to see me trying to escape foolishly through my hotel window."
It was silent after awhile. They seemed to all be trying to soak my story in. It was a lot to consider. Even I couldn't believe that all of these turn of events had happened in only five measly years. "Bella?" Alice called. I turned to meet her topaz eyes.
"Yeah, Alice?"
"Why couldn't I see your future when you ran away?"
This was something I wasn't prepared for. I would have to come clean. I would have to spill a secret to it's very depth; a secret that my band members didn't know the full story of. The Cullens would never believe a lie if I did indeed try to tell them. They would see right through me like they always have. I was going to have to come clean.
"The same day that I left, I was attacked," I began. I stood up, catching them all off guard. I ignored their baffled reactions and pulled my shirt up to reveal a deep scar a few inches underneath my breast. They all gasped and then snarls rippled through the room. "It was definitely unexpected. In the sense of timing as well as my attacker."
"What do you mean, Bella?" Carlisle questioned, his eyes filled with worry and curiosity. It was so hard to try to explain something that even I was so unsure of. What would they think of me? Would they run? Would they see me as a possible threat?
"My attacker was neither vampire nor werewolf."
Once again silence filled the room. I risked a glance at all of their expressions. Esme and Alice's were ones of fear, Rosalie's was more of shock, while the boys seemed down right murderous. I realized why. They thought a human had been the one to hurt me. It would definitely be a more normal encounter than the usual threats. "There are some things in the world, a little more mythical and unreal even in comparison to vampires and werewolves," I continued in a low whisper even though I was sure they still heard me. Their eyes narrowed and I could see them all physically tense up.
I sighed. "His name was Damien. My plane had just arrived in New York and I was sitting at the terminal trying to figure out my next move. It was pretty late at night and there weren't that many people around. I decided to take a taxi to the nearest hotel. I was so stupid to sit on a bench in the darkest corner outside the airport to wait for a cab. He came up to me and asked if he could take a seat. Something inside of me went off like an alarm telling me that this--this man was not your usual airplane passengers just waiting for a ride. I knew it and I was too distraught to care!" I was so into my story as I tried to remember every element of that horrid night that I didn't notice the intense and pained eyes of the family I loved all on me. Edward's hand was rubbing circles on my back while he tried to study my face.
"He tried to make conversation. I hadn't even noticed when he pulled it out and before I--I could blink, I felt the sharpness of a blade below my heart! It twisted around a couple of times, causing the worse pain I had ever felt in my life. But I couldn't scream. I literally could not get a sound out. I was forced to look into these
glowing red eyes as we were both surrounded by darkness. He told me that now I would know what darkness was made of. And that the biggest thing I needed to fear was… myself."
I couldn't help but feel Edward's trembling form or see Emmett and Jasper's frightening faces. I even looked on as Alice sobbed painful, tearless cries in Jasper's arms. They still cared for me; even after I had hurt them. "Now I know."
"You know what, dear?" Esme asked, her voice trembling.
"What it's like to have your soul be damned. To have no soul but still feel human nonetheless, knowing that you will NEVER be fully human ever again. To watch as your body gets waves of unexplained energy spasms and to have to control your emotions or else something extremely regretful could take place."
They all just stared at me, shocked. Their topaz eyes almost fell out of their sockets. I stood up and walked to the window, my eyes peering into the moon. I hadn't even noticed it was night now. "Bella?" someone once again called. I turned to see Jasper a few feet away from me.
I gave him a look that I hoped was reassuring before he asked his next question. "What are you?"
I surveyed all of them, seeing if they could handle all of this. I knew if I weren't so use to the supernatural and weirdos popping into my life, I would have freaked and passed out minutes ago. But these were century old vampires who had seen and heard it all. "Damien was a demon. I am not," I began. "It would seem fitting seeing as he was a heartless satanic outcast that had in someway wanted to sacrifice me or recreate me. But he hadn't gotten very far. Instead I inhabited some of his "gifts". Gifts some demons possess and gifts no one possesses."
"If you aren't a demon, then what should we call you?" Emmett asked. I shifted uncomfortably from one foot to another now.
"The most suitable term would be a witch," I whispered, my eyes casted downwards in shame. As I had expected, gasps went around the room like a chorus of singers right on cue. After a while, I decided to answer the first question they had asked me. The one leading into this story. "The reason you can't see my future Alice…is because I technically don't have one. My future is so unclear and invalid. And I hadn't planned on running away exactly. It came to me after I had decided to meet Angela and Ben in Seattle. I did exactly what your vision pictured. You can only see things that are going to happen right that moment. Things that are close to inevitable. Of course I could try to open up my future for a seer like yourself to see, but it's really freakin' hard! Especially when I'm so lost myself."
"What gifts do you possess?" Carlisle spoke. He looked so thoughtful as he paced around the room. I decided to show them some of my unusual talents. They were a little easier to show than explain. Most of them had limits that I was still curious about. I conjured fire in my hands and moved objects around the room with my mind. Those were the easier gifts. It then came down to weird gifts like sucking physical energy out of a room or manipulating another person's mind into doing what I wanted them too. The Cullen's were all surprisingly impressed. To be honest, up until today, I had hated my powers because they
fault heavily dark and sinful. The only one I appreciated at times, was the force field. It made me feel safe when danger felt present. Like my invisible Edward or Jake. Other than that gift, I hardly ever used any of my active powers.
As much as I had wanted to be immortal for Edward, I savored what was left of my humanity now. That mostly had to do with the fact that immortality was one of my gifts. I would forever look eighteen. However, unlike the Cullens, I had a choice to remove my immortality so that I could physically appear as if I had aged. I left this from them, not wanting to get into a whole other story.
It was late. I kissed and hugged them all goodbye, promising them of my return the next day. Edward had almost seemed like he was longing for me to stay, but I brushed it off.
He couldn't want me. Not after what I had done. Not after what I had become.
A/N: Did you guys like this? Yay or Nay? I hope it's a little more informative now that you know what Bella is. It might still seem too much or too confusing. If it is, please let me know! Review please, for me!
I'm still topsy turvy on the whole Edward/Bella/Jacob thing!