A/N: Wow, people, I'm sorry Edward got killed. But I promise it will be a happy ending. No matter how depressing it may get in the middle, or even right up until the end, there will be a happy ending. No matter what I do, I can't seem to write a sad one for anything. So don't give up on me just because Edward died. I'll make it happy again. I'm not saying how (so don't ask), but I will make it happy. I have a few twists and tricks up my sleeve.
OK, that being said, thanks to all who reviewed for the last chapter. And all the chapters before that... yeah, I don't thank you guys often enough. So thank you for your support and feedback. Heck, I even enjoy getting called evil, because then I know that people are actually reading my stuff. :P So thanks to all of you, even if you hate me, loathe me, want to rip me to shreds and burn the pieces, or would rather that I not kill off beloved characters.
Now, on with chapter 11. :)
Alice's POV
Four days passed. Four days where Bella refused to talk, move, or respond to anything that we said. I took to sitting by her and just talking, but she never responded. She merely stared at the walls. Jasper tried to cheer her up, but it never helped. It was hard on all of us. We knew that she would be upset, but we hoped that she wouldn't curl up in a ball and become unresponsive. Our hopes were in vain.
Jasper told me that Victoria felt extremely guilty. He said that she was almost as sad as the rest of us, and that her guilt was almost as strong as her remorse. As a result, we watched her too, making sure that she wasn't going to try anything stupid.
On the fourth day of Bella's silence I was almost ready to give up talking to her. It obviously wasn't helping. She never responded, and I only had so many things I could say without getting repetitive.
"Do you think it will help her?" I asked Jasper, wanting to know what he thought about me talking to Bella again. I was curled up on the couch with him in the room that Bella wasn't in.
"I'm not the one who can see the future," he teased me, trying to lighten my mood. It didn't work.
"I've already tried seeing it," I sighed, "but I can't see if it will or not. I thought you might know, since you can tell how she is feeling."
"I'm not sure," he admitted. "It might."
"Maybe…" I started, but stopped.
"Maybe what?" Jasper asked.
"Maybe if Victoria apologizes…"
"No," Victoria said from across the room. "She needs to learn that she isn't the only one who's lost an eternal partner. She needs to get over it on her own."
"So much for that idea," Jasper laughed. "Good try."
"How can you laugh?" I asked him sadly. "Don't you feel sad still?"
"Of course," he told me softly, "but I've felt the grief of everyone in the family for four days. Isn't that enough grief for a person to feel? I'll continue to mourn losing Edward for the rest of my existence, but it's time that we all moved on. Wallowing in our grief isn't healthy."
"Try telling that to Bella," Victoria suggested sarcastically.
"Shut up," I told her harshly. "Just shut up. You've created enough trouble for an entire lifetime, and I don't want to hear from you right now."
"Oh, so even you hate me now," she said, throwing her arms in the air. "What did you want me to do differently?"
"Let's go hunting," Carlisle suggested to Victoria. He pulled her out the door, and she didn't protest.
"I'm going to go talk to Bella," I sighed. "Maybe she'll snap out of it today."
"I'll come with you," Jasper announced. "Maybe if we work together we can bring her out of the depression." We went to the other room, and it was Rosalie who let us in. We went over to the couch and sat on the floor.
"Hey," I said, brushing Bella's hair out of her face. "How are you doing?"
She didn't respond. I didn't expect her to.
"I think we're going to try to find a house to move into soon," I said. I knew Carlisle was going to bring it up later in the day. "It's going to be a little smaller than the last one, but it's going to be really pretty. It will be green and have wooden shutters and a wrap around porch, and everybody will get their own rooms."
She blinked. She hadn't blinked in four days. I continued after a glance at Jasper.
"We're going to have to have a room just for Emmett and his electronics," I said, "because he's going to go out and buy every video gaming system he can find. Rosalie's going to have a garage just for her projects. We'll have another garage for all the cars that she's not working on. Jasper and Carlisle are going to share a library, because otherwise they'll have repeats of a lot of books. Esme's going to get her own room just for planning and working on home improvement."
She blinked again, and flicked her gaze towards me for a second before it returned to stare at the wall again.
"And we'll have a room just for rough housing," I said, "Because Emmett and Jasper are going to get in a lot of wrestling matches,"
"What do you want in the house?" Jasper asked Bella. She looked at him, but didn't talk.
"She wants her own walk-in closet full of brand new clothes," I teased her. "All brand name and expensive as they come. She'll spend hours on end in the closet, trying on all the clothes. She'll never wear any of them in public more than once. She'll just save them until the next time the fashions roll around, and then she'll only wear them until she gets all brand new clothes."
The corners of Bella's lips turned up in a sad almost-smile. I smiled at her.
"How are you doing now?" I asked.
"Better," she whispered. "But not much."
"Are you thirsty?" I asked.
"Extremely," she said. "I should have hunted before the firemen even left-" she started sobbing, and I stood up. I helped her sit up and I sat next to her, and Jasper sat on the other side of her. I let her sob into my shoulder.
"Call Carlisle," I told Jasper softly. "Tell him to bring some blood here so that Bella can regain some of her strength. Let him know that she needed to hunt after she called us home, but didn't get a chance to."
Jasper nodded and stood to leave and go back to the other room to get his phone. I cradled Bella in my arms and let her sob, wishing that I could help her more.
Suddenly, I was hit with a vision. I stiffened up and lost all awareness of my surroundings.
"They have had several
days to mourn. It's time to kill
another," a woman said. Her back was to
me, so I couldn't see what she looked like
"Do you not wish to
let them start to get over it before giving them fresh pain?" a man asked
"No," the woman
answered. "Take another from their
presence while the pain is still mostly fresh. It will just make the pain worse that way.
"Whom shall we take?"
the man asked
"The leader. Let the coven mourn the loss of the leader
and try to find a new one. Perhaps they
shall get in a fight over who will lead them.
"And if they don't?
"They will still have
lost the leader," the woman answered with a shrug. "He is the only one besides the girl who is
immune to human blood. The rest can be
tempted into taking a bite of a human if need be.
"Then shall we get rid
of the girl after we take the leader?" the man questioned
"No, save the girl for
last. She is the reason why we lost
James and Luella, and the reason why we were thwarted in our efforts to tempt
Victoria into killing
another innocent child. She can lose her
support one by one, and at the end, we will kill her.
I gasped as the vision ended and looked around fearfully.
"What did you see?" Jasper asked. He was kneeling in front of me, having returned from the other room sometime while I was unaware of everything around me.
" Carlisle," I breathed. "They'll kill Carlisle next."
"He's on his way back with Victoria and blood for Bella," Jasper said. "He'll be here in a few minutes. When will your vision take place?"
"I'm not sure," I said. "I couldn't tell."
"Where did it take place?"
"There was a woman and a man talking in a dark room," I said. "They said to take Carlisle next…" I trialed off, looking at Bella, who was watching me with sad eyes.
"I'm last, aren't I?" she asked.
"I'm sorry," I told her.
"I figured that was what would happen," she sighed. She started to stare at the wall again.
"Don't do that," I begged. "Don't become unresponsive again."
"Why not?" she asked. "You're all going to die soon anyway. It's not like it matters."
"No," I snapped at her. "It does matter. We can stop it. That club may be strong, but they lack that which we have; a bond of love. We can win anything if we work together."
"You're just saying that," Bella said quietly. "You can't see what the future holds."
"Bella, you have to fight them," I begged. "You have to try to win. If we admit defeat before we fight, then we never have a chance to win what could be an easy fight."
"If Jasper got killed, would you want to live for the rest of eternity without him?" Bella questioned without looking at me.
"She would do it," Jasper told her, "because we agreed that if anything happens to either of us, the other won't do anything drastic. We will continue to live for the sake of the family."
"I'm a danger magnet," Bella pointed out. "It would probably benefit the family if I wasn't here anymore."
"No, because you are a member of the family, and if we lose you too, then that will be too much for all of us to handle," I told her. "If we stick together and help each other through our grief, then we will be fine."
"It's all my fault," she continued, ignoring me. "I'm the one who asked Victoria to join us. I'm the reason why we even had issues with James to begin with. I'm the reason why Victoria was mad. I don't do anything except cause problems."
"Never. Ever. Say. That. Again." Esme growled as she entered the room. Apparently she had heard our conversation from the other room, and she had heard enough of Bella's depression.
I was shocked. I had never seen her so mad. Apparently no one else had either, because they all looked just as shocked as I felt. Bella even stopped crying and stared in fear at our mother figure who, apparently, was extremely angry.
"I never want to hear those words out of your mouth again," Esme told her sternly. "Or anyone else's, for that matter," she said, looking each of us in the eye. "I never want to hear any of my children talking about how everything is their fault, or blaming it on anyone else. These things happen. Decisions were made, things have happened, and we need to get over it. No more talking about how any of this is anyone's fault except those who have decided to ruin our lives. Bella, you are not the problem. You do not cause problems. You are more of a blessing in this family than we received for years. You gave one of my sons an experience that he needed, that I wanted him to have. You have brought us joy and we all love you. You are the answer to many prayers from many family members. You will never talk like that again. Do I make myself clear?"
"But I am the reason-" Bella started. She didn't get very far into her sentence because Esme cut her off.
"No," she snarled. "I said you are not to talk like that. Do I make myself clear?"
Bella didn't respond. She just sighed and closed her eyes, leaning her head on my shoulder.
"Gosh, Bella," Emmett sighed from across the room, "You're being stupid, just like Edward was. He always said everything was his fault, when it really wasn't. He was so melodramatic. Don't be like that, please. I miss my brother, but you don't need to take his place."
That wasn't the right thing to say to Bella. She broke down again, crying as hard as she could. I pulled her closer for a hug and glared at Emmett. "That wasn't nice," I told him.
"She's being stupid," Emmett retorted. "She needs to wake up and realize that not everything is her fault."
"Then whose is it?" Bella demanded. "I've brought nothing but pain to this family since Edward first saw me! Just ask your wife over there! She'll tell you!"
"Enough," Carlisle commanded as he slipped in the door. He handed Bella a plastic blood bag full of animal blood. She accepted it with a glare.
Carlisle turned to look at Emmett. "Leave her alone. She's been through a lot, and she needs to hunt because she's weak. She'll be in a better mood once she has hunted."
He looked at me next. "I can tell by the way everyone is looking at me. You saw something. What did you see?"
"They're going after you next," I whispered.
"How?" he asked.
"I'm… I'm not sure," I answered. "I didn't see it happening; I only saw the conversation between a lady and a man. The lady ordered that you should be the next one that they kill."
"The second you see anything else, tell us," he commanded.
"I will," I promised.
"Now, Bella," Carlisle sighed, "I'm glad to see that you're up and responding. We were getting worried about you."
"I know," Bella responded. "I'm sorry."
"Just don't do it again," Carlisle commanded her. Bella nodded meekly.
"As for the rest of you, I think we're ready to look for a house."
" Alice has already seen it," Emmett offered.
"I have," I confirmed when Carlisle looked at me. "I even know where it is."
"Can you give me the address?" Carlisle asked.
I nodded. "I'll write it down for you once we're done talking."
"Thank you," Carlisle said. " Victoria, come in here, please. No hiding in the other room while we're having a family meeting. I don't care how mad you and Bella are at each other."
"Fine," Victoria sighed. She was at the door a second later, and Carlisle let her in. She went to the farthest corner away from Bella that she could.
"Now," Carlisle said, "We need to talk. I know that we're all upset about Edward. But we need to move on and do something. We're not helping anything by staying in these two rooms all day long. If we can, we're going to go to our new house tonight. Everyone is starting school again in a few more days." Bella opened her mouth to protest, but Carlisle cut her off. "Yes, Bella, even you. Wallowing will not help you. We're going to go back to work and school, and we're going to try to get over it. Edward was an important member of the family, but if we allow our grief to rule us, we'll just be an easy target for those who hunt us. We need to work together, forgive each other," he glanced between Victoria and Bella, "and give this club a challenge that they won't soon forget. I refuse to allow them to kill anyone else. The only way to win is through cooperation. Does anyone have any questions?"
"No," we all answered.
"Good," Carlisle said. "Does anyone have anything to add?"
"If they do manage to kill you," I said, and everyone turned to glare at me for even suggesting it, "then we need to know who will take your place as our coven leader. They hope that we'll fight over who gets the position."
"Esme," Carlisle answered. "She is your mother, and she will be in charge, just in case anything should happen. But we won't let anyone else die. Do we all agree on that?"
"Yes," Rosalie answered. "We're all being stupid, with all this fighting."
"Let's go to our new home," Esme suggested. "I think we all need our space and some fresh air."
"I'll go talk to the person who is selling it," Carlisle said. He motioned for me to follow, so I left Bella to lean on Jasper as she drank the blood Carlisle had brought her and I stood up to follow Carlisle into the other room.
A/N 2: Just in case any of you are having problems uploading chapters and are wondering how I'm doing it, send me a message or tell me in your review, and I'll tell you how I'm doing it. It's not too complicated. I just don't want to type it out right now because I'm running late...
Anyway, until the next chapter,
Addie
