Disclaimer: I own nothing in this story except for my own little plot line and any characters you may not recognize. Everything else is property of the genius Stephenie Meyer.
A/N: I just want to say THANK YOU for the hugimous (I know that's not a word, don't judge) response that you all have given me for the last chapter. You all are truly amazing and I can't thank you enough for sticking with this story. As a little personal gift, I have made a new video for the story and it is in my profile titled, "Secret Prophecies Trailer 3." Alright, enough of that. I'll let you get to reading ;)
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Bella's POV:
There is a world of green where the trees stretch up to the sky and the grass coats the ground like a thick, emerald blanket. Where the average rainfall every year is over one hundred inches. It is a place where the sun barely exposes its burning rays. There is no heat, no endless summer days – only clouds, moisture, and pain. I felt the tears obscure my sight as a familiar white mansion appeared in my mind.
Forks.
Did I really want to go back there?
Gabriel sat across from me, his eyes like two glistening amethyst crystals. The facets sparked tiny rays of light in the darkness.
"What you're asking of me," I breathed, hugging my knees tighter to my chest. "Is something that I promised myself I would never do. Ever."
"Not even to see your father?" he mused.
I glanced up at him, recalling the conversation that I had with Charlie a few months ago.
The Seattle Airport was more crowded than usual. Businessmen in designer suits briskly walked down the terminal, speaking on their phones and haphazardly pulling their suitcases behind them. A little boy squealed as he ran past, being chased by his mother as she yelled, "Andy, stop this right now!" Two teenage girls stood off by the women's restroom, popping their bright pink gum and staring at the passerbys as if to size them up, no doubt commenting on how much better they looked. Several passengers sat in their different sections, waiting for the flights and downing massive amounts of overly priced caffeine while typing away on their blackberries or laptops. The place was full of life.
And yet I wasn't. My body, my mind, my soul was gone. Obliterated. I was an empty shell maneuvering through the masses, wondering if anyone seemed to notice me or truly even cared.
"Now Bells," Charlie insisted, taking my carryon bag from my hand. "If you want to come back, all you have to do is call."
"I'll be fine in Jacksonville," I assured him. "Trust me."
"Well, just keep the idea in mind, alright?"
I nodded, keeping my eyes straight ahead, scanning the overhead signs for gate B20. I cautiously moved aside as a family of five went running past us, probably late for their flight.
"I wish you would stay," Charlie continued, desperately trying to get me to turn around and leave the airport with him. "Billy and Jake hate to see you leave. And Sue was planning on having a barbeque tonight with everyone on the rez. You'll be missing out on a lot of fun – "
"Dad." I sighed, stopping in the middle of the terminal to face Charlie's forlorn gaze. "I need to do this. I can't stay in Forks with you anymore. There're just… too many bad memories."
"Oh…" His face fell even further and I hurriedly covered my misuse of words.
"Not with you," I whispered. "You know why I can't be there right now."
Charlie nodded, forcing a small grin for me. "Alright, Bells."
We stood there, looking everywhere but at each other. I hated to leave him but it just didn't feel right to expose him to my downfall, for however long that may be.
"Delta Airlines flight 1668 departing for Jacksonville, Florida at eleven a.m. is now boarding." The feminine voice echoed throughout the area and I watched as people began shuffling towards the sound.
With a heavy sigh, Charlie placed his hand on my shoulder and steered me in the direction of my gate. "Let's get you back home."
The sound of the fire crackling in the background slowly brought me out of my daze. "It was just always understood that if I were to see him, he'd come to visit me here. At least… until I was ready."
"Ready for what?" Gabriel asked quietly, though he already knew the answer to his question.
"Ready for me to face my past. To finally be over it." Finally was such a definite term. It made my stomach churn.
"You'll never be over it, Bella. Everything we go through in life happens for a reason," he murmured. "The good times, the bad… the days that you feel the most alive and the days that you wish you could die. Every little thread in our lives weaves a million emotions that you elicit every moment. They'll never be forgotten. And no matter how much you wish that you would never think of him again, you always will."
A stray tear slid down my face as his words began to sink in.
"Edward Cullen will always be apart of you, dear one. Just as you will always be apart of him."
"You're not good for me, Bella," Edward whispered in my mind, taunting me with his words that fateful day. I could still feel the soft cool breeze sweeping past me as he left.
I shut my eyes tightly, releasing a few more tears to stream down my face. "You're wrong," I whimpered.
A sudden tingling sensation began to work its way up my arms, dancing over my skin. I glanced up at Gabriel questioningly.
"You'll always know when one of our kind is drawing near," he answered, a knowing smile gracing his stoic features.
The sound of rushing footsteps met my ears as I turned to see the rest of the Rigas family making their way towards me.
"He's not wrong," Verrin told me as she walked over to the couch. "You're the wrong one." She shot me a pointed glance but I chose to ignore it, knowing full well what she was talking about.
"Are you going to go to Forks?" Damian asked, walking over to lean against the fireplace.
It was a question that was on everyone's mind, with an answer that I was far too reluctant to unleash. Ever since the day that I watched Edward leave... the day where I just let him go, haunted me. Every minute of every day, every nightmare in my mind, was all centered around the icy coldness of his words. "It will be as if I'd never existed." I didn't want to go back to Forks and I'm sure I'd be saying the same thing twenty years from now... if life had decided to not play such a cruel game with me. I sighed, wishing that if I just closed my eyes everything would disappear. "I guess I don't have a choice."
Alex scoffed from across the room and I turned, taken aback by his reaction. "How do we even know that she's the one?" he asked, directing his question to Gabriel. "She's so damned ignorant about all of this! This mission means everything to our kind and here she is too scared to go through with this because of a broken heart."
I was on my feet and stalking over to him before he could even blink. "You self righteous bastard! What is it about me that you hate? Huh? Ever since we first met in the library, you didn't like me. God, you remind me of Rosalie," I huffed, crossing my arms defiantly.
His violet eyes lit with pure anger and if I wasn't feeling the same fury, I might have been frightened. "How dare you compare me to that!" he spat. "To even think that I would stoop so low as to behave like that demon – that disgusting filth."
The back of my hand connected with the side of his face, extracting a deafening slap that echoed around the room as he was flung to the ground. Rosalie certainly was not the first person I ever thought to defend, but she was part of the Cullen family. And all of them were family to me.
"Get up," I growled, feeling the rage bubbling inside of me. The fact that I seemed to obviously be ten times stronger hadn't even fazed me. I could only focus on how wonderful it would feel to punch his face in. "I said, get up."
"Well, well," Catherine mused, her eyes dancing with delight as she walked to Gabriel's side. "We finally meet the true Isabella."
"Get up!" I commanded again; my gaze fixed on the man whose cut lip had instantly scabbed over before my eyes. It only made me want to inflict more scars upon his skin. Never in my life had I been able to feel so much rage and actually be able to release it. It was invigorating.
Alex was on his feet quickly, readying himself for my next attack. "Are you just going to let her do this to me?" he demanded of his family all while keeping his eyes trained on my livid form.
"Why not?" Damian asked lazily, watching the event unfold in amusement. "You've deserved this from the beginning, brother. I'll do nothing but watch."
"Should I make some popcorn?" Verrin chirped.
Alex growled in frustration, causing his sister to turn to him. "Is that a yes?"
"Verrin," Gabriel muttered warningly, but I could hear the bemused tone that hid within the depths of his voice. "Don't make me remind you to put butter on it this time."
"What is wrong with you all!" Alex roared, looking at each member of his family as if they had grown a second head. Which at this rate wouldn't surprise me. Still, I kept my ground.
"What's wrong," Gabriel countered, his voice equally as challenging as he strode briskly towards Alex. "Is that you have been blind to everything that has been happening. You chose to not see the path that is in front of us."
"I see nothing but a normal girl, who is – "
"She is our path!" Gabriel thundered, stepping forward until his face was inches away from Alex. "We follow her! She is the one who will help us win this war!"
Gee guys, no pressure or anything. I began to back up, idly wondering if what Alex was saying was right. I was normal, plain, and…
"I'll prove it," Gabriel sneered, stalking off to the darkest corner of the room. "Everyone follow me!"
"Come on, Bella," Verrin whispered in my ear as she hooked her arm with mine. She still wore the Alice façade and I couldn't find it in my heart to have her change. I think she always knew that too. It was evident in her wink as we moved to a long wooden staircase that wound up to the upper level.
It was black as pitch in the narrow stairwell and yet I could still see every minute detail around me as we neared a large, heavy oak door that led to the first floor of their home. With a wave of his hand, Gabriel sent the door flying open, causing it to crash against the wall loudly. The sound seemed to reverberate throughout the house, gently shaking the floor beneath our feet.
The five of us followed him through a small corridor before entering a large dining area. I only had seconds to gaze in awe at the fresco decorating the ceiling before Verrin shoved me into the next largest room. The living room – the place where I was told of my fate.
Gabriel moved quickly, his stride determined. "She who is born a mortal but who does not belong to that world," he stated, reciting part of the prophecy. "Will show her true self when Twilight taints the sky." Instantly, he grabbed the two cream-colored drapes that covered one of the many windows in the room, yanking them open to expose the setting sun. The brilliancy of the different hues that painted the sky startled me and I gasped as I felt my body begin to tremble.
"Close your eyes, Isabella," he ordered me. "And no matter what happens, do not open them until I say so."
I shut my eyes, a sense of foreboding thick in the air. A sharp whistling noise sounded off ahead of me. I could hear it getting closer, louder. Whatever was causing the noise was moving faster, cutting through the air. There was no time to think, I had to stop whatever this thing was. It was as if my body had given itself over to instinct. For in that moment, I reached both arms up to block the object in a blindingly fast motion. My hands clapped on either side of a thin, metal entity and as fast as I had caught it, I let my right hand throw it back from where it came, all while keeping my eyes tightly shut.
Silence seemed to engulf me and for a while I wondered if I was the only one left in the room.
"Bella," Gabriel's soft voice called. "You can open your eyes now."
Blinking rapidly, I scanned the room until I found Gabriel standing between two floor-length windows. To his right was the handle of a blade - a blade that I had thrown which now pierced the wall inches away from his head. He grinned proudly in my direction. "Well done."
I gaped at him for several minutes, trying to absorb what I was seeing. What the hell did I just do?
Alex staggered forward, his mouth slack as he violet eyes grew wide. "She's it..." he murmured.
"You see this dagger, Bella?" Gabriel questioned as he grabbed a hold of the handle, setting the blade free. With another wave of his hand, the indentation in the wall was no more. "This belonged to Lukas. It has been passed down from leader to leader for as long as the Guardiani de Trevia has existed."
"But I don't understand," I breathed, nervously running a hand through my hair. "How does that explain that I'm different from the rest of you? I mean… I threw a blade… with my eyes closed. I – Oh my God, I threw a blade with my eyes closed!"
Gabriel chuckled at my reaction but I couldn't find anything funny in it at all. I almost killed him! "I think I need to sit."
Catherine walked up swiftly behind me; directing me to the rich, velvet couch I had sat on once before during Gabriel's ominous discussions.
He crouched down before me, a few strands of onyx hair falling over his shimmering gaze. And for a moment I thought I saw a little bit of Carlisle shining through his eyes. "What makes you different is that you touched this dagger."
I stared at him, bewildered.
"Only a leader can touch this, Bella. Not a single person in the order can touch this but me… and you."
"Which means that you really are the chosen one," Damian breathed, his voice thick with emotion as he kneeled before me.
"What, so you doubted me too?" I screeched, becoming suddenly overwhelmed and waiting any minute for the room to start spinning.
Verrin was pulling me up by her side within seconds. "Ok, that's enough. I think we've exposed Bella to far more than need be for one day. Let's just take one thing at a time, alright? I'm going to take her up to my room and go over the details of Forks."
Forks. I had forgotten about that already.
"Yes, that's a good idea," Gabriel agreed, shooting a glance to Catherine. She nodded and turned towards me, a soft smile gracing her full lips.
"Bella," she called sweetly. "I'm just going to phone your mother and tell her that you'll be spending the night here with Verrin. Is that okay?"
Somehow, I was able to respond to her but I'm sure it wasn't very coherent in the slightest. Alex's wide violet eyes caught my sight and the absolute regret that was there tugged at my heart. In that moment, I realized that he was silently making his apology. It startled me.
"Come on, Bella." Verrin tugged me back down the hallway, breaking my gaze with her brother, and again I was met with the ornately decorated dining area whose glittering ceiling shone down over us.
"Where are we going again?" I questioned, trying to catch a glimpse of the elaborate fresco.
"My room."
Two feminine figures stood facing each other across the ceiling. One holding a torch, the other holding what looked to be a cornucopia. I tugged back on Verrin's hand, stepping further into the dining room. "Who are they?" I asked, pointing towards the figures high above.
Verrin stood beside of me, mirroring my gaze. "Well, I assume you know which one is Hekate. The other one is Demeter, the Goddess of Agriculture and the Guardian of Marriage. Have you heard of the story of her daughter, Persephone?"
Somewhere, in the back of my mind, I knew that I had heard of that name before, probably in some class that didn't keep my attention. "Maybe, but I don't remember."
"Persephone is the Goddess of Fertility. She was out in the field one day, picking flowers. Hades, the God of the Underworld, saw her and became entranced by her. He stole her away, taking her to the depths of his world. Determined to find her daughter, Demeter set out in search for her. There are many versions of the story, one portraying Hermes as the rescuer of Persephone, but in this version," she said, gesturing towards the painting. "Hekate guided Demeter with the light of her torches. She was the one who brought Persephone back from the Underworld."
"So, she was free?"
"No," Verrin sighed. "Persephone had become Queen of the Underworld when Hades kidnapped her. Again, there are many versions, some containing this whole thing where she ate pomegranate seeds, but the point is," she spoke quickly. "Is that Persephone was allowed to be on Earth for a certain amount of time and then she went back down to the Underworld for a certain amount of time. Hekate is the one who guides her through her journey there and back again."
I stared in wonder at the forlorn figure of Demeter searching Hekate's knowing gaze desperately, begging for her help.
"In a way, we're guiding you too, Bella."
Her gaze was sincere as I turned to her. Every insecurity that I had felt for the past eighteen years seemed bubble to the surface, humming beneath my skin. And in that moment, the uncertainty of myself became evident in my voice. "But can I guide you?" I whispered, fearful of the challenges that faced me.
Verrin smiled, her violet gaze shimmering. "I have faith that you can," she murmured. "Now come on."
Her hand was on mine instantly and again I was whisked off through the house as she led me to her room.
Verrin stayed on the fourth level, the highest floor in the mansion. Her room was probably the size of all of the Cullens' bedrooms combined. Pale blue walls enclosed the large area. A four-poster bed ordained with a white fishnet canopy sat on the far end. Like the rest of the rooms in the house, a marble fireplace was already alight with a burning glow, warming the room from the other side of her bed. Shelves upon shelves of books covered the opposite end of the room, the majority of the bindings unlabeled. I stared at them quizzically, about to ask her what sort of books those were when I saw her walk across the way to retrieve the diary that I had found in my room. She took it out of her bag and placed it in the bookshelf.
"Those are your diaries," I whispered.
"Over a thousand of them." She sighed, staring at the forgotten books longingly. It made me wonder if I would ever fill as many pages as she did. "You will," she responded, turning to me with a small smile.
"You heard me?"
"I choose to hear what I want, Bella. As of late, I've been hearing you."
She walked over to her bed and allowed her body to collapse across the pillowy, white duvet. I watched as she patted the spot beside of her and quickly leapt up onto the mattress, already feeling sleep consume my mind.
Verrin sat up, crossing her legs, and gazed down at me – a forlorn expression on her pixie-like face. "I know you're afraid to go back, Bella."
Groaning, I flung my arm over my face, hiding my eyes in a shadow of night. "Do we have to talk about this?" I huffed.
"Yes," she muttered.
"But why so soon?"
When she didn't answer me right away, I lifted my arm away from my eyes. Her gaze was both anxious and worried. It made me feel uneasy. "Why do we need to talk about it so soon, Verrin?"
"Because," she sighed. "Before the week is up, you're going to be enrolled in Forks High School."
I darted up into a sitting position, my back straight as I felt my muscles tense. "What?"
"Things have already been set in motion, Bella. The Cullens are on their way back to Forks. From what Gabriel can tell, Aro has given them time to decide on whether or not they will help them in this fight. What we need you to do right now is to watch them."
"You want me to spy on the Cullens?"
"Yes."
A loud maniacal laugh erupted from my lips. Verrin's eyes were wide with alarm as I continued to giggle uncontrollably. "You think that's going to work, do you?" I questioned, getting up from the bed. My mind was already in overdrive as I began to pace the floor.
"Alice will know that I'll be coming, not to mention I can't exactly spy on them looking like this. And if that's not a big enough problem, I still have my scent. They'll all smell me as soon as I walk on the school grounds."
Verrin nodded, but never moved from her position on the bed. "True, but your scent is different now. I mean, you still smell like you did when you were human, but it's a dramatically toned down version of it. Basically, it's enough to get them to pay attention to you, which is what we want."
"And Alice?" I blurted out, already horrified that they would know I was there by my scent. What if they didn't want anything to do with me?
"Alice can't really see you, Bella."
This halted my pacing. I felt as if all of the muscles in my body constricted as a unit, freezing me in time. "What do you mean?" I breathed, my gaze fixed to the floor.
"As soon as you changed, your future to her had gone fuzzy. She won't be able to be as in tune with you as she once was."
I felt my heart begin to shred ever so slowly and the pain did little to ease the suffering of being separated from this family that I had loved so dearly.
"Bella, I'm sorry," Verrin murmured. "In any case, to answer your question on your appearance, you're going to change like me. You'll have to disguise yourself. But that means…" She bit her lip hesitantly, and the overwhelming silence seemed to engulf my mind. Deep down, I knew what she was about to say next. I held up a hand, stopping her from opening her mouth once more. "Don't," I pleaded.
"Bella..."
"Don't tell me."
"Bella, you can't stay with Charlie."
I spun around to her quickly, the ends of my hair feathering across my face. "Dammit, Verrin."
"You're apart of us now. And to be apart of us, Bella, is to be a secret. No one is to know of your true identity. Not Charlie or Renee. Not even Phil." She heaved a heavy sigh, pinching the bridge of her noise tightly. "Bella, you're immortal now. You can't stay with them anymore."
The rapid beating of my heart was deafening to my ears as I stared at her; bewildered, lost. Yet, somehow it all seemed unavoidable.
"It would have been the same if Edward had changed you," she reasoned.
"But I would have been prepared!" I cried out, feeling hot tears cloud my sight. "I would have had time! You're telling me that I have to virtually say goodbye to my family within the next few days? I'm not ready yet!"
"You'll never be ready!" Verrin yelled back, her eyes pleading as she got up and walked towards me, gripping my arms. "You will never be ready for this moment, Bella." And the emotion that echoed in her voice as her fingers pressed tightly against my skin told me that she had been ripped away from her family as well. We stood staring at each other for what felt like hours while the warm fluid continued to stream down my cheeks.
"I wish you didn't look like her so damn much," I muttered, pulling free of Verrin's grasp. "But, I'm glad that you do. You remind me so much of her."
She smiled sadly as I dropped to the floor, leaning my head up against the wall and allowing the last of my tears to escape. "I used to know Alice Cullen," she said, lowering herself to the floor as well.
"You did?"
She nodded, resting her chin in her hand. "Back when she was known as Mary Alice Brandon."
My eyes widened as I lifted my head away from the wall. "You knew her as a human?"
"Before she was even put in the asylum," Verrin answered. "Her family lived beside of us. She knew we were different but never said anything about it to anyone. I used to go out and walk with her in the woods behind our home." Her gaze locked onto mine and for a moment I truly thought I was looking at Alice for the first time in what felt like years. "She had a vision about you, you know. She never knew when she'd meet you but it was "destiny" as she liked to call it. It was during the same time that she started to get bits and pieces of the Cullens in her visions. Not that she really knew it was them. They were blurry to her at the time, but she saw you clear as day with them. She actually helped us in looking out for you, Bella."
I let out a breath that I hadn't realized I had been holding. Verrin knew Alice? And Alice knew as a human that she would be meeting me? It was all too much to add on top of the very insane and possibly imaginary day that my brain just decided to create from my inevitable lunacy.
"I feel like I'm losing my mind," I muttered, burying my face in my hands. Yet the pain was still there in my chest and was very, undeniably real. I sighed, leaning back up against the wall and allowing my gaze to settle on the many journals that sat across the room. "When does it go away?"
"What?" she asked softly.
"The pain. The hell that I've been living through for my entire life."
She watched me for several minutes before finally answering; her voice was low - almost a whisper. "Eventually, it will fade with time. The heartache you feel now will diminish as years go by, but I can assure you, Bella, that you won't feel this way for long."
I scoffed but made no move to verbally respond to her statement, because every fiber of my being hoped that the last part of it was true. But for now, I allowed myself to retreat into the recesses of my mind, where everything was dark and void of the thousands of emotions that fought to break free. For now, I let myself become a dormant shell, waiting for the sun to finally rise over the horizon as I slowly closed my eyes.
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A/N #2: So... possible Forks in the next update? Perhaps? Maybe? ;) I'm evil, I know... lol. More will be explained on the Forks plan, Bella saying goodbye to her family, and all that jazz in the next chapter as well. AND, a certain someone (and no, I'm not giving you a clue as to who it is) will be making an appearance. Hmmmm.... ;)
Anyway, I hope you all enjoyed the update. It's certainly not the best thing I've written, but I hope it was still readable. Again, thank you for all of the reviews! :D
Also, and I don't ever do this, but I've got to rec a few fics from some amazingly talented writers.
"Bloodlust" by kalejay - For those of you who read "Out of My Mind," she's my co-author ;) So, go read it. :P
"Collide" by twi-ction - Brilliant plot! It's all human and entirely enjoyable to read :D
"The Life and Death of Edward Masen" by Obsessively-Infatuated - Definitely different from any Edward story I've read before. It's her first multi-chaptered fic and it's incredibly well written for a beginning writer.
Mkay, enough of that. I'll try to update soon, guys! ;)