Chapter 10: Secrecy

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Alice

I definitely felt much safer here than outside Heidi, Corin and Afton had led us to a discrete cave that was underneath the ground. We were all slouched against the walls of the small cave some of us looking truly exhausted.

"How did you come across this cave?" Carlisle asked Heidi

"The Voltri have had hideouts for centuries now all over the world this was the only place we knew of"

"Did Aro know this was going to happen?"

Heidi just simply shrugged her shoulders and at Carlisle and looked away effectively ending the conversation and we all lapsed back into silence.

Hours passed by and still nothing happened, Esme began to pace the cave but gave up soon after settling for Carlisle arms instead I could tell she was getting stressed over Bella because she couldn't do anything for her. Now I had time to think I realised I felt the same way I had that useless, empty feeling in the pit of my stomach but what could we do now? Nothing. We just had to sit here and wait for something to happen….

…. Days had passed, but still we did nothing. Nobody had even stepped outside the cave to hunt for the fear of being caught. We were all on edge because of the intense hunger but I we couldn't complain only God knows what starvation the vampires in imprisonment were suffering, but weren't we suffering just as much? I think a couple more days in this cave and Emmet is going to be a quivering wreck in the corner of the room. The three Italians were also getting very agitated it was easy to tell by the annoyed look in all of their still red eyes. However something was not right with them they kept looking at us almost in a disappointed and frustrated way. Also sometimes I swear I saw Afton rallying himself up to say something numerous times but always failed to open his mouth. Either something was going on or I was starting the descent towards madness.

Edward

After the days had passed I felt more confident around Bella instead of standing in the corner of the room where I was supposed to be I sat beside her, to keep her company and made conversation about what vampire's could do and liked to do. This stuff was pretty interesting everybody thought vampires were bad I think I must be the only human to think they were amazing creatures.

At first Bella was reluctant to speak or be near to be kind of like I smelt really bad but after a while she stopped speaking when spoken to and got used to me being this friendly when other people weren't.

The general called Bella to his office quite frequently which got me worried about what was going on in there because every time she came back she was even more upset then the last time. Also it was making it more difficult for Bella and I to talk, as we had to be on guard 24/7. After another trip to see the general I decided to ask Bella what was going on.

"Bella can I ask you something?"

"You just did" she smiled up at me but frowned as she realised I was serious

"What do you do in the general's office?" I asked cautiously. She looked down at her hands at first I thought I offended her but she started to talk slowly

"The general, he wants to know where my family are,"

"And you know, but you just want to keep them safe and hidden"

"That's exactly what the general thinks, but the problem is I actually don't know where they are,"

"What is he doing to try to get you to talk," I asked

"Nothing I can't handle" I put my arm around her and gave her a gentle squeeze and said I was sorry and she just chuckled in response.

Bella

It felt good to confide in somebody, to tell them what was going on. Edward had really surprised me over the last few days at first it was hard to be that close to him but after a while I got used to it and it was nice to have a friend around here and Edward was really a great friend. I even missed him when he goes off to sleep and eat and the other quiet guy takes over.

I was so grateful that he was here to comfort me and having his arm around me felt so nice and comforting that I didn't even hear the slow footsteps approaching the door. Edward's arm didn't withdraw from my shoulders as another soldier burst through the door all of us were frozen with shock. The soldier at the door had a look of utter disbelief on his face, as did Edward and I.

"Cole" Edward muttered the name feebly as his arm slowly dropped from around my shoulders.