I just typed up a brilliant chapter and was about to click Save when Internet Explorer closed with a message - Not Responding.
Pure brilliance. Heartbreaking. All the works. I'm devastated. This chapter will never be half the genius level I had strangely achieved.
:( Fail computer.
EDWARD POV
"What do you plan to do with Bella?" I demanded.
"I told you. I am simply testing her abilities.. When she wakes she will be made one of us, son."
"But why?"
"It's a test of Zaphrina's loyalty and abilities as much as it is Bella's." He pursed his lips.
Another vague answer.
I had been getting them all week.
"But Bella can never wake under such stress. She's in a coma because of you.
You may not have done it personally. You did however order the torture itself,
you issued it. I saw you watch. You enjoyed it, too.
Because of you, bastard. She had to retreat deep within her mind to escape the trauma you bestowed on her.
Now she's god knows where. And still you see this as a chance to torture her further. Mentally.
How could you be so cruel?" My voice dripped with loathing and obvious disgust.
I watched Aro digest this accusation. He tried to remain civil, keep up the act.
"Edward-"
"Fix her. Stop this madness. This cruelty."
"You forget who you're talking to." He snapped
It was like a slap in the face.
An insult.
Under his instruction my wife is tortured for hours upon hours until she is so traumatised and broken. She is forced to find reprieve
in a coma. Where for his own entertainment he forces a family friend to use her gift to fabricate a world where she is tortured and
eventually will be turned mad. It's too much for one human.
As if I need to be reminded of his power, his authority.
A growl ripped through my chest. Feral and gaining volume.
I sounded like a furious mountain lion.
Good.
"Fu-"
"Edward!" The voice startled me as Alice skipped to my side.
Her eyes wide, disbelieving. Anxious.
"Alice! What an extraordinary pleasure. How was your flight? No trouble I hope."
He smiled at her warmly, once again with the facade.
The furious glint in his eye disappeared as he turned on her with a mega-watt smile.
I had crossed him and he would make me pay.
With what? I have nothing in this world I could give him he doesn't already have.
I focused on his thoughts but he was completely absorbed, already consumed by Alice. Finally, a complete collection.
Aro escorted us to the suite Alice would be staying in until a more permanent fixture was ready.
Alice carted along her suitcases easily and chatted with Aro, excitedly and pleasantly.
She act was flawless.
Aro promised to be back in a few hours after dinner and business had been attended to, very boring.
Would we like to have dinner with him or would we be continuing with our unusual diet of swine? We enquired.
We declined politely and then he was gone, shutting the door behind him.
I watched Alice unpack as I fiddled absentmindedly with a button on my white Italian silk shirt.
A soft sigh escaped my lips. Alice stood in front of me.
I watched her face contort with love, pity, understanding and misery. Internally she was a mess.
Then she did something unexpected.
She slapped me. Anger thickened the air as she stared at me. I felt as if I should be on fire under her wrathful gaze.
A furious screech spat at me, her voice rose a few octaves.
She didn't talk. Her thoughts were already screaming at me.
Idiot.
Slap.
Did you even think of your family? How about Esme?
Slap.
How could you almost..
Slap.
Did you think of Bella?! Huh?
Slap.
She paused, unmoving - overcome with unbearable rage.
He could kill her. Easily. Without repercussions. What could we do?!
Slap.
My cheek felt like it should be burning.
I was impressed, she was giving it everything she had.
HOW COULD YOU?
Slap.
Do you want us to lose you too?
Slap.
She gave up with the slapping and began hitting me with her fists, hard.
Bella needs us. We need you. You decide to be her protector, now?!
It's a little late for that, don't you think?
The girl is in a coma.
If you push him enough he'll kill her. Take away any life support.
Nor Emmett. Carlisle, Rose, Esme, Jasper, the Denali's, the wolves, even me - all-seeing Alice could do a thing to stop him.
I didn't need Jasper's gift to feel the pain coming off her in ripples.
She pushed me away suddenly, turning her back on me.
I couldn't bear the pain she was feeling, alone.
I spun her around to look in her eyes.
Her eyes sparkled with tears that could never fall.
She looked so fragile.
Heart-broken.
A little girl who had just been told Santa was made-up.
I crushed her to me in a tight, protective hug.
"Where is she?" She whispered, her voice muffled by my shirt.
Her voice was pleading, small. As if asking me to make sense of this devastating situation.
Helplessness invaded me.
She looked up at me. Her rhetorical question hanging in the air.
I enveloped her in another hug, holding my little sister to me desperately.
"Hush. Bella will wake and then we'll go home. It's just a matter of time... You'll see."
I murmured in a sad, small voice.
Alice hid her face in my shirt, heaving with unshed tears.
I smoothed her hair and hummed a few bars of Bella's lullaby wishing she could hear me and wake up.
Ridiculously, yet not. I felt envious and wistful of the fairytale prince who could awaken his lost love with a tender, human kiss and a few
magical words.
The only kiss I could give my love to save her now would be a painful kiss of death.
I felt Alice's body shudder and fell unconsciously into her vision, remembering. A past vision.
Bella as a glorious and eternal vampire. Mine forever.
This vision would disappear soon forever. Alice and I would forever have it etched in our memory. Wistful.
A mere memory, out of my lovers grasp.
"Charlie." She breathed.
Pain, a terrible pain attacked my insides. I knew it was all emotional but it was so concentrated
I could have doubled over but I would never do that to Alice.
I couldn't. It would break her further.
My heart, unbeating and cold, still present. Why? Bella needs it more than I ever will.
She needs it NOW and I can't help her.
The thought of my mortal father in law brought on another flood of hysteria and regret.
What would we tell him?
The man put on a brave face and a gruff voice but Bella - she is and always will be his world.
If she mysteriously disappeared or died, he would die inside. I knew that.
His world is about to be trampled and obscured and the man has no idea...
I wish I had that ignorance.
Brother and sister. Alice and I clung to each other, both aching to hold Bella in our arms.
"Knock, knock." Aro called pleasantly outside the door.
We untangled from each other and stood side by side, brave faces on.
"Come in, Aro." Alice beamed at him in a musical voice.
He was about to speak but she cut him off sweetly.
"Before we get down to business. May we visit Bella? I miss her so."
He smiled at her, "understanding".
"Of course Alice, dear. I would be concerned if you hadn't asked." He sounded almost genuine, fatherly.
His tone perfected but his power hungry thoughts broke the illusion for me.
Alice grabbed my hand. We were inseparable right now and probably would be a long time... after.
"Jane?" Aro called softly, staring at our joined hands.
"Aro, I will take them to see their human." She smiled before snickering at our display of affection.
Weakness. She thought.
Aro excused himself and Jane led the way to corridor which now held painful memories for me.
I tightened my grip on Alice's hand and she looked at me sideways.
"I'll be right outside." The warning was evident in her soprano voice. She smiled sweetly
and opened the door for us.
Alice noticed Zafrina sitting with Bella and holding her hand but didn't comment.
We walked to the other side of Bella's bed and dropped to our knees next to her, ignoring Zafrina.
Alice bit back a gasp.
Bella looked horrible.
I ached to hold her.
She looked at pale as us and the effects of the dreadful hours of torture was evident all over her skin.
Cuts, burns, bruises. You name it and she had it.
I took in the needle marks on her arms. They had been rough and bruised the skin.
"Hello, Bella" Alice smiled warmly as if we were talking to her normally, conscious.
"The room is a bit drab, I suppose. Clerically, obsessively white. I don't like it. Could do with a touch of paint..."
Her nose wrinkled.
She smelled it too.
Bella smelled wrong from the tubes of thick liquid in her body and the needles they had stuck in her.
"Sweetheart, we're both here. I need you. Please come back to me, love."
Her hand flew up and grasped mine which had been hovering above hers, cautiously inching to touch her cold hand.
"Bella?" I whispered frozen in my cautious and dangerously hopeful state.
I looked sideways at Alice, her eyes filled once again with the treacherous impossible tears and shook her head.
She's not waking, Edward.
People in comas sometimes move. Remember? She's not here with us."
She hugged me, our eyes locked on Bella's motionless form.
A ridiculous thought came to me. It had lingered before.
An unrestrained impulse and two seconds later my lips were on hers.
Urgent. Denial. Pleading. Finally, hopeless.
I kissed her forehead before straightening up. I longed for her to open those beautiful
chocolate doe eyes. Breathtaking.
It hadn't worked, of course.
Vampires don't belong in fairy tales.
Nightmares, perhaps.
Alice tried to smile, make better of the situation but I saw her lips tremble and pull downwards again.
How could we ever smile again?
Without this beautiful, stubborn creature we were broken.