Chapter 10-Oceans of Venus

I was flying, or at least that's what it felt like. The wonderful warm summer breeze was blowing against my face and body as I walked toward the sound of crashing waves. The sun was shining down brightly and danced in the sky. The waves crashed gently against the beach. The sand looked so warm and soft. I walked forward and bent over to pull off my socks and shoes. To my surprise, I wasn't wearing any shoes. I looked to see what I was wearing; a long deep blue dress that seemed to be made of the lightest cloth on earth. It hung down to my mid-thigh and looked as if it'd been ripped apart. Each torn piece floated down to my knees and swished whenever I walked. The top was off the shoulder and had a couple layers of the thin fabric. The dress reminded me of a mermaid. I had two thin blue satin ribbons tied around each of my wrists. They reminded me of hospital bracelets. The same type of ribbons were tied around my ankles.

"Bella?" Someone called from behind me. Startled, I turned around. Charlie was walking towards me with a sad look on his face.

"Gosh Bella, what happened to you?" He asked.

"Dad, dad, I'm okay really." But he just put his head in his hands. Charlie had never been very good with expressing his emotions. He was probably having trouble with that now.

I tried to walk over to him, but something was restraining me. One of the blue ribbons around my wrist was tied around a metal pole on the beach.

"Hey dad do you know where we are?" I asked, trying to keep the conversation light and easy.

"I'm so sorry I wanted to stay in La Push, Bella. I should've driven home with you. That would've been so much better than this." He said, and looked at me longingly.

Huh, so I was in La Push. This looked nothing like La Push. It looked like summer, but I could've sworn it was February. Hadn't Charlie said that the La Push beach was covered in rocks? This beach was all sand and shells. Well, I must've been mistaken.

"Chief Swan, would you like to know what happened to Bella?" a new voice asked.

I looked up. A tall man with blond hair was standing next to Charlie. He looked to be in his twenties, maybe thirties. He's a doctor? He looks like a movie star or a model.

"Y-yes." Charlie choked out. He was crying now and trying to hide it. That wasn't working so well.

"She was in a car accident on the highway. The ambulance was called, but had some trouble because of the rain and wind. By the time they got there, there were some people from La Push helping to clear up some of the wreckage. Bella was removed from the car and the paramedics were able to stop the worst bleeding by the time she came to the hospital. We stopped all of the external bleeding and found some internal bleeding, but that can be fixed. She broke her arm and a couple of ribs. All of that can be fixed too, but there is a major complication. When the paramedics were trying to remove Bella, the car became unstable and collapsed. She was hit in the head and combined with the force and pressure, well, her middle cerebral artery hemorrhaged causing a swelling of the parietal and temporal lobes of the brain leading to a coma. To sum it up, she's bleeding into her brain and is now in a coma. In some cases it can be fixed with surgery, but Bella is a very severe case. If you would like us to perform all of the surgery possible, the nurses will come in to prepare her. If not, we can keep her here until you're ready," the doctor explained.

Charlie had started sobbing in the middle of his speech, and came over to clutch my hand. I could feel him shaking and trying to stifle his sobs.

"Thank you Dr. Cullen." Charlie said around his cries.

"Please, call me Carlisle." The doctor asked kindly.

"Well, Carlisle, I'm going to have to think about it. But I'll tell you soon."

"Of course Chief Sw-" Carlisle was cut off.

"Charlie, please."

"Okay Charlie. I'll leave you to your thoughts." Carlisle said. He turned around, and quietly walked from the beach.

Oh, that was Carlisle, Edward's father. He perfectly matched the description that Jessica had given me.

"Charlie, I'm okay, really. Don't worry about me." I said smiling at him. I patted his shoulder and hugged him.

"Oh Bella, oh Bella." Charlie said crying and holding both my hands. He lifted his head and looked at my face. His tear-glazed eyes watched me carefully.

I looked away and blinked. When I turned around I was in the kitchen of my house in Phoenix. Renée walked in and hugged me so hard I couldn't breath.

"Gosh mom, what's wrong?" I asked.

"Bella, Bella. Oh my god, Bella!" She whisper screamed.

"Okay mom calm down. Everything's okay with me, did something happen to you? Is everything okay?" I asked in my best soothing voice. I rubbed her back and tried to comfort her. I closed my eyes and leaned back, getting ready to go into full calming mode since Renée had fallen to the floor.

When I opened my eyes again I was standing in the middle of a forest, my feet bare and covered in cuts. My arms were curled tightly around my torso, and my mermaid's dress was ripped to shreds. The swishy bottom pieces were ripped up and tied around my arms and legs. The cloth around my stomach had a huge rip going most of the way around. My body was grey and sallow through the rip, with huge bruises randomly decorating my skin.

Something cracked over to my left so I started running as fast as I could. The forest and trees flew past me at an astonishing speed. I never tripped or made a sound. I skidded to a halt when I'd broken through the edge of the forest.

I stepped out onto the beach. The sky was dark and ominous; the rain clouds were flying in at a super fast speed. The sand was courser and the waves were harsh and rougher than the last time I'd been here. I stepped forward and the rain clouds opened up and released their storm. As the drops hit my neck, they burned and stung. The hot drops dripped down my neck and arms and stung my wrists. The water turned red and slowly dripped down, staining my dress and hitting the sand and my ankles.

The burning sensation dulled, but then came back with a roar. I felt the burn in my arms slowly pulsating throughout my body.

I looked around trying to find someway to stop the burning. The ocean, rough and harsh, was the perfect way to cool down.

I ran for the ocean as fast as I possibly could. The water enveloped me and saturated my clothes. The rough waves pulled me under tossing me violently and dragging me deeper and deeper until the blackness covered my eyes like a blanket. My lungs were begging for air and my head was spinning and foggy. I opened my mouth and the salty water poured in and tumbled down my dry throat.

I kept drifting farther down, and the farther down I got, the hotter the water became. I hit the dark sandy bottom and the water swirled around me filling my mouth and nose. Quiet voices started talking to me, mumbling and whispering. I tried to ignore them but they got louder and louder.

I shut my eyes and grabbed my ears trying to block out the voices that were screaming at me.

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!" I screamed scratching at my ears whishing them to fall off. "STOP TALKING TO ME!" I yelled, kicking and thrashing.

Something large and cold grabbed my arms and covered my mouth. I forced my eyes open and saw nothing except for the moon bright and shining above. The water lowered around me and was sucked into the sand.

I quieted and the heat and flames replaced the heavy coldness. I moved my arm up to my eyes and heard a breaking snap while the pain shot through me. I turned my head to the side and a cracking sound came from my neck sending pain through my back. I pulled my legs up to my chest and sat up, resting my head on my knees. The snapping and cracking came from my whole body and I convulsed violently, causing more cracking and pain.

The voices were still talking, but I could drown them out with my humming. I couldn't find any more random sounds to distract myself so I started humming the last song I'd heard on the radio. It was some crappy pop song. The notes didn't distract me from the new wave of pain flowing through me. I screamed, but the breath flew from my lungs and knifes started pricking every surface of my skin.

The dark ground around me turned a deep red and started hissing and spitting. The heat started blowing over me, which made the pins and knifes pulsate in pain.

I closed my eyes and tried to ignore the heat. I rolled over and rubbed my face in the cold dirt. I dug my nails into the ground, trying to dig my way away from the heat. The dirt fell on my back and cooled my skin until it got so hot it felt like flames.

Something rolled me over and let me see the land around me. Everything was glowing red and orange from the flames that had now consumed everything in sight. Slowly the fire crept towards me, causing me to scream in terror.

I closed my eyes and covered them with my hands humming as loud as I could as the voices started screaming again.

The flames crept closer and started licking at my feet. I pulled them up to my chest and screamed into my arms. The rage and anger and terror and pain swept me up and caused me to start cringing away from the heat.

I sobbed, trying to release all my terror, but no tears came. I cried harder and rolled over not realizing that I'd fallen into the flames.

I relaxed, finally giving in to the pain and waited for the storm to end.