This is the last chapter with only three "voices". From the next, we have four narrators.

The parts in italic are memories, as usual.

English is not my mother-language, so, maybe, I made some mistake. Don't fear to point them out: I'll be grateful.

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight. Only Laguna.

11

Laguna

Edward brought Bella in his room, to lay her on the couch. The girl had been brave, and remained impassible through all my story, only to faint at his death.

Had it been too much? Did I want to hurt her? Perhaps. But, if I really wanted to hurt her, I would have shown her something else. I would have shown her why I had been a stranger to my own family for the last ten years. I would have shown her what happened that night between me and her beloved vampire.

I had been right thinking that I shouldn't have left Edward touch my scars. I knew where it would have lead us. Six hundred years alone are too much.

I shook my head, with no intentions of thinking about it. Not now.

Especially not now that Edward was coming in my room, face hard, furious for what I did to his Bella.

"She wanted it, Edward." I said, without turning towards him, still leaning to the window.

"How can you say that? You unleashed your worst memory on her!" he grabbed my shoulders, forcing me to face him. Furious was an understatement. If he could, he would have beheaded me bite after bite. "A memory that is too painful even for you..." he said, lowering his voice.

I couldn't live again that night without feeling too much pain, either. He was right.

"Thank your God I wasn't too angry, kid. Or else I would have shown her something else..." I said, freeing from his grip.

Edward sighed. "The memory was incomplete, wasn't it? You didn't show her when you ran from the inn, when you found the Moons waiting for you... why?" he asked, serious, a muscle twitching in his face. Was he trying not to punch me? Who was I to say I didn't deserve it?

"It's none of your business, Edward." I said, voice dry, passing him. "Leave me alone!" I left the room, going for the stairs. I expected him to follow me, but I managed to reach the empty first floor. Everybody must have been with Bella. For the first time in my life with them, I felt like a monster.

I checked my shoelaces, not wanting to trip by accident, opened the door and started to run.

Running was all that mattered.

Get as far away as possible.

Away from everything and everyone.

"Will you run again?" he asks, laying beside me.

"I don't know". I sigh, trying to turn in a bed that is too little for two people. I am able to find what seems to be a comfortable position and look at him. The candle is almost consumed, and the trembling flame makes every shadow in the room seem bigger with her feeble light, caressing his body, covered only by a sheet, shining in his long dark hair.

"I ask this one more time... will you run again?" he asks again, looking at me, serious.

"No."

He turns and blows out the candle.

I continued running, without knowing where I was going. Without wanting to stop. Running to the end of the world. Just running.

Running away.

I stopped suddenly. I was in the middle of nowhere. There were trees everywhere. I made a few more steps and then I let myself fall on my back on the grass, eyes to the green ceiling made of branches and leaves.

"Stop it!" I laugh, laying on the grass.

"Why should I?" he's laughing, too, laying on his side beside me. "Does it annoy you?" he asks, still laughing and moving a flower up and down my nose.

"Yes!" I protest, still laughing.

"Sorry to hear it." He answers, dropping the flower on the grass. "Better?" he asks, touching lightly my cheek with his fingers.

"Much better..." I smile.

Gone are the days when I thought my world was in those eyes.

Gone are the days when I thought everything would end up well.

Now, my world had ended. The certainty that everything will end up well was gone. Everything was gone that night...

His heart will be the lullaby of my sleepless nights no more.

Sophia is still beside the bed, crying. She doesn't know how much I envy her for this. She doesn't know how much I wish I was able to cry.

I stand. She turns towards me, looking at me, tears running down her face.

"What... what are you going to do, Lagu?" she asks, her voice shaking.

"I'm going to find them, Sophia. They will pay for it." Contrary to Sophia's voice, mine isn't shaking. I clench my fists and turn away. "I want to ask you a favor. Take care of everything. I won't be back." my words sound like a prophecy.

Sophia knows I am serious. I had two reasons for not coming back: the first is that my existence has no meaning anymore, the second is that, maybe, I would have died that night. For real.

My friend doesn't stop me. She lets me leave the room. Strangely, she still has some faith in me.

Almost running, I leave the inn, and then I run to the dock.

I know, or maybe I just hope, that I'll find them there.

I am not disappointed.

In the dark, I can see them.

"Poor child... he is dead, isn't he?" the first voice seems sad.

"Poor, poor child..." the second seems to make fun of me.

"All that blood... it's a waste. Why didn't you drink it? What is sweetest for a vampire that the blood of her beloved?" the third is really making fun of me.

"You... you'll pay for it!" I grow. The dock is desert. No couples for a moonlit stroll, nobody trying to commit suicide by jumping in the river, no traffic, no guards. Just us.

The Moons laugh. And it creeps me.

"And... how do you think you can avenge your lost love?" the first asks.

"You think you can kill us?" the second says.

"You're just a child, comparing to us." The third concludes.

It doesn't matter for me. It doesn't matter that I have just turned twenty and they are at least four hundred. They have to pay for killing him. He was all I had.

I dash towards them, seeking vengeance for his death. Or, maybe, seeking only my own death.

I stood. I had decided.

Six hundred years ago.

xXx

Edward

We were in my room.

Bella was on the couch, still unconscious. The memory Laguna unleashed to her was the worst, and I didn't hesitate to tell her.

I thought about the time when she made me see it. I didn't react well either, but not having the possibility to faint...

Esme was sitting beside Bella, holding her hand. I was still wondering why Laguna didn't make Bella see the fight with the Moons.

Then I remembered: the fight almost got her killed.

Bella started moving: she was waking.

xXx

Bella

I blinked a few times. I could still see those images, that pain... so strong... the feeling of being just an empty shell as soon as I heard his heart stop beating... Laguna was right. My sorrow was a joke in comparison.

Slowly, I sat up. I was in Edward's room and all the family was there. Esme was the closest.

"You are awake." She smiled. "Are you OK?"

I nodded. "It was..." I started. Edward silenced me.

"We know it. We know the story... even details she didn't show you..." he said.

"Why did she do it? Why was she so angry at me? Have I done something wrong?" I asked, looking at each of them. They were all looking at the floor. "Edward..."

"Laguna doesn't want people to pity her for her story." Carlisle said. "You said you were sorry, and we've seen how she reacted."

I lowered my eyes. I hadn't had the slightest intention to unnerve her.

"Where is she, now? Still in her room?" I asked.

Edward shook his head. "No. She left, but don't ask me where..." he didn't end his sentence, but turn to look at Alice, who had her mouth covered with both her hands.

"She... she has decided..." she stammered, eyes open wide.

I didn't even notice Carlisle leaving. I just heard the door of Edward's room slamming, followed, not long after, by another door, maybe his study.

"She told me she would have thought about it... that she wouldn't do it..." Alice protested, half-whispering.

"She may have changed her mind." Edward answered to her ramblings.

"What's going on? What has she decided, and why did Carlisle..." Esme inquired.

"Laguna wants to die." I answered.

The decision was made.