Eclipse chapter 25:

I regained consciousness in a burst of fire under my skin that was over before I could even open my mouth to scream. I squeezed my eyes more tightly shut to try to remember what had happened to me and where exactly I was, but my mind seemed to be shielded against me; I couldn't remember anything that had happened after I had been bitten. I could feel that I was drenched in sweat that made me feel as though I was sticking to the leather of Edward's couch…

Edward! I had nearly forgotten, after he bit I died and then I had seen my body…and there was someone else who hadn't been there before. She had stood on the other side of the couch looking at Edward holding my body that no longer bore me and then at myself. I hadn't fully understood until she looked at me and I saw the incredible shade of blue of her eyes. The woman was dead, which meant I was too. I remember clasping my hands over my mouth and collapsing to my knees as muffled cries ripped from my soul. I couldn't believe this, I refused to. Maybe if I didn't believe, then it wouldn't be true and I would wake up in Edward's arms again with nothing more than a frightening nightmare. It had to be a nightmare…because we couldn't just end. No ceremony, no goodbyes…it was just over.

"You are in quite the extraordinary situation, Mrs. Cullen." The lady said, stepping around the couch to stand between Edward and me. She wasn't dressed how I had expected a dead woman to look. She wore faded blue jeans and a white tank top accessorized with a gold key necklace and a leather wristband on her right arm with a peace symbol on it. She had skin as pale Edward's and her features were every bit as flawless. Her mass of frizzy blonde hair was pulled into a low ponytail and it seemed to reflect its own light. But her face was all business. She looked down upon me, in this room filled with pain, without any pity or compassion. She was here for a reason, for her job, and she couldn't care less about me.

"This is because I loved him, isn't it?" I accused, still weeping. "No one can be that happy without having to pay some horrid price."

"No, Bella." She replied. I waited for her to continue, but she remained silent.

"Then why?" I prompted, angry now.

"'Why' doesn't matter now." She stopped again and turned her head to look at Edward.

"Then what does?!" I demanded, standing up.

"Your choice." She said simply looking back at me, her face still stone. Her nonchalant tone and expression made me angrier than before and I felt my face growing hot. It was like talking to a robot! She would only reply when asked a specific question and she refused to elaborate.

"What choice?" I spat through clenched teeth.

"He's praying for you. He wants you. So you have the rare opportunity of a choice. You may either remain here with Edward or-"

"Edward." I answered, interrupting. I didn't even care what the other option was. If I could stay with him, I would without a second thought. And I would never regret it.

"Or, you may go to heaven with myself. It is your decision."

"Why would I choose anything besides Edward?" I asked, smiling slightly. The concept seemed impossible to me.

"Well If I were you, I would at least consider the other option. A lifetime of darkness or an eternity in paradise, which do you really want? Is some guy really worth giving up heaven for?" She raised an eyebrow at me and I paused a moment. I turned my face away from her not to think, really…but to remember.

You are my life now. You are the most important thing to me ever. Enough for forever. So the lion fell in love with the lamb. Be Safe. Mind over matter…

"Please, Bella, come back." Edward whispered.

That was the only motivation I needed. Without hesitation, I walked around the dead woman and laid a hand cautiously on his shoulder.

"This is my choice." I answered the woman without looking away from Edward.

After a moment I glanced back at her, and her face was entirely different. Her eyes were soft now and she was smiling at me with an air of compassion and …loss? She stepped forward and took my chin in one hand, coaxing my face upward to see her eyes.

"You are not damned, Bella, for what you are or what you have chosen to become. None of you are. Remember that."

And that was the last thing that I remembered before waking up in Edward's room days later. I peeled back my eyelids and looked around the bright room with my new vampire eyes. Everything was so defined, and the sun only added to the details that I saw as I looked around the room, like a child after they move to a place completely new to them. I tried to absorb everything at once and I found I was actually process all the new information entering my brain and at the same time, I could search for Edward.

He sat against the window pane, my sparkling angel in the sun. He was lost in thought and didn't notice that I was awake on the couch; he just stared deep into the woods. He looked tired (I know that he doesn't sleep, but he still looked drawn). He was still wearing his suit from the wedding. He probably hadn't moved from his position by the window for the past three days. I felt incredibly guilty, but I didn't want to move just yet. With my new sight it was as if I had never seen him before.

"I love you." I said quietly. Edward's face shot up at the sound of my voice and he was at my side a fraction of a second. His face was a mixture of utter shock and relief as he took me into his arms. He buried his face in my hair and pressed me against him. I smiled a little to myself and wrapped my arms around his neck. I kissed his shoulder and stroked his bronze hair, trying to calm him. "I love you." I said again.

He pushed away from me slightly and brushed the hair out of my eyes so that he could stare into my face in disbelief. "I thought I'd lost you." He murmured his voice barely audible.

"You will never lose me." I promised. There was no way that he could doubt the conviction in my voice. He smiled shakily and stroked my face. He kissed my forehead before helping me to my feet. I clung to his arms for support as my legs still felt a little unstable, but I soon recovered myself and I released him reluctantly.

"Where are the others?" I asked.

"They went to stay in Seattle for a while, but if I know Alice they'll be here in a few minutes."

Actually it turned out to be a few seconds. Almost exactly after he'd finished his sentence, I heard the car heading up the driveway. From the sound of the tires, they must have been moving up the road at at LEAST 80 miles per hour. The tires screeched to a stop in front of the house and I heard someone burst through the door.

"Bella!!!!" She yelled loud as she could. I looked at the door and then back to Edward; I didn't want to move quite yet. I wasn't even sure if I should go to Alice, or if I should wait and let her come to us. Edward stroked my face with the back of his hand one more time before taking my hand in his and leading me downstairs.

I hadn't even reached the top of the stairs before I was locked into Alice's embrace. She slammed into me hard enough to take down a wall, but I found that I was barely shook. Her choke hold around my neck would have killed me in less than a second three days ago, but it felt normal to me now and her arms-her arms were warm to my skin.

"It's good to see you too, Alice" I said, patting her back twice. This was the generally accepted 'end hug' symbol, but she didn't budge. I tried again. Still no result, just a vampire midget clinging to my as if for dear life. "Okay, Alice, really." I reached my hands behind me and (gently) pried her fingers loose.

She took a step back and looked at me with pride and sheer adoration. I smiled back timidly, not really used to getting such approval from her. Rosalie and the others reached the top of the stairs at that time and was passed around, hugging each, before I was returned to Edward who wrapped his arm protectively around my waist. I was feeling more like a toy than a human, but hey, whatcha gonna do?

"SO, what'd I miss?" I asked the circle. They looked uncertainly at each other before all eyes turned to Edward. Okay…so I'd missed a lot. I turned my face to him as well. He took a deep breath but said nothing.

"Well?" I prompted. He opened his mouth to reply, but then shut it again as he couldn't figure out how to phrase his thoughts.

"Just spit it out, Edward." I said.

"You two are dead." Rosalie blurted from across the hall. I stared at her with blank incomprehension.

"Yeah…and? I'd kinda already assessed the 'dead' concept."

"No, not that!" She backtracked, waving her hands in front of her to cancel out what she had said. She interlocked her fingers and pressed her hands to her lips as she thought of how to say whatever it was correctly.

"Okay." She said starting over. She took two steps forward so that she stood directly in front of me. She dropped her hands back down to her sides and stared me directly in the eyes. "Charlie and all the others think that you're human and you're dead. Your and Edward's funeral is next week. They thought that a joint service would be best."

I felt like someone had slapped me across the face with enough force to knock me over. Charlie thought I was dead? I mean, I knew we were going to have to come up with something at some point, but so soon? He had just seen me get married and now he'd lost me. I didn't even get to send him a letter from some far off place telling him how much I loved him. I didn't get to say goodbye. I nodded once stiffly and Rosalie backed up a few paces. My lip quivered and I tried desperately to stay upright, but my knees gave out from my and I collapsed. Edward caught me before I hit the floor and I clung to his shoulder and wept.

Wait…wept? I brought my fingers up to my face and sure enough when I pulled them away, they were wet with tears. I loosed my hold on Edward and leaned back from him slightly. Everyone's eyes grew wide as they looked at me and Edward's hand passed across my cheek. Apparently my face was red from crying.

After that the Cullens and I (well technically I was a Cullen at this point) spent about three hours trying to figure out what else I could do. But that time period was so epically boring for anyone observing that I will not torture you by describing it in detail. Instead I will simply depict what we discovered. Firstly this: That even though I was a vampire and could not be injured or die, I still maintained human qualities like blushing and crying and I would never thirst for blood (though I still needed it to survive). Secondly we found my very complex vampiric ability. My mental shield could be lifted or extended at will and I had control over other vampire's powers which I could do with what I pleased. I could borrow another vamp's powers or give them (temporarily) to another vampire within a certain distance. I could also remove someone else's powers from them for a little over an hour without doing anything with said power. This required a lot of strength and concentration, but it was a lot of fun to mess around with (though Carlisle scolded me for doing so). This proved to be a happy compromise for Edward and me; now he could read my mind, but only when I wanted him to. And whenever his gif caused him…vexation…I could shield him from the thoughts around him. We were all very happy.

And that's the way it continued to be, for a while anyway. But eventually, problems did arise. When Lisa and Jake started getting serious, she discovered his secret and mine along with it. She met me again for the first time about a year after my supposed death. She was furious that I had done that, beside herself with grief that I hadn't told her, and euphoric that I hadn't died and she could hold me again and I could cry with her. After that first meeting she had given me 5 separate long lectures and at the end she made me visit my father. She knew that I couldn't let him know everything, but she insisted that I talked to him, even if he had to think it was an illusion. He hadn't been the same since my death, she'd told.

This, of course, I already knew. Edward had warned me of the dangers of staying too close to Charlie, but I couldn't help myself. Almost everyday I had gone to my old house and watched my father grieve and everyday that I went I just wanted to burst out of the woods and hug him and tell him that everything was okay. But I couldn't; I just kept watch over him. When he had gotten in a car crash about six months ago, he didn't know that I had been the one who had pulled him, unconscious, from the cruiser and phoned the ambulance. He couldn't know.

And he couldn't now either. So when I went to my house that night at midnight with Lisa standing beside me, I knew the rules. I would have to lie; tell him I WAS dead and in heaven and that I missed him and I was with Edward and I was happy. And that I loved him. Above all else, that I loved him.

Lisa walked right past the front door and stood with her arms crossed beside the big oak tree that stood in the front yard by my old window that led to my old room, my old life. I lagged a few steps behind her and she tapped her foot with impatience. When I reached her she raised one eyebrow at my and pointed up at my window. I opened my mouth to make a final protest-

"Go." She ordered. I shut my mouth again and wordlessly leaped up the tree and slid open my bedroom window. I looked around me and stopped. Everything in my room-everything- was exactly as I'd left it. The computer sat idle on the desk, my bed was made, and my copy of Jane Austen's Complete Works sat on the nightstand. I walked silently over to it and stroked my finger once along the binding. I smiled sadly at the familiar feel of the broken fabric binding.

Charlie snored in the next room and broke me out of my dreamland. My head snapped up in alarm at the sound and I knocked the book off the table. I caught it a second before it hit the ground and I sighed in relief and placed the book back carefully. Then I straightened my back and walked boldly, but stealthily, into Charlie's room.

I sat down on the edge of the bed beside Charlie and looked at my sleeping father. Ha had aged so much in the past year. I had aged him…The guilt of what I had done and of what I was about to do crushed my heart inside of me, but like Edward had said to me countless times before "This was the best way." I straightened the white cloth of the dress I was wearing (to further convince him of the lie) and cleared my throat, hoping the sound would wake him. No response. I coughed loudly. No response. With a roll of my eyes I leaned over and shook his arm gently and whispered "Dad? Dad?" until he sat bolt upright in bed and stared at me like I was the ghost of Christmas yet to come.

"Hey, Dad." I said, smiling slightly. His breathing was hard and labored and I could hear his pulse accelerating. He didn't blink. My smile faded as my expression turned to worry. I didn't want him to have a heart attack or nervous breakdown because of this. After a second his pulse slowed and he looked me up and down a few times. Then with a shaky hand he reached out and laid his hand on the side of my face in wonderment. I smiled again and leaned into his touch as one tear of joy ran down my face.

"Bella?" He asked in disbelief. He ran his hand through my hair once, checking to see if the rest of me was real too.

"Hi." I replied. I didn't have a chance to say anything more as he threw his arms around me and patted my head as he cried and muttered "My baby girl. My baby girl." Over and over. After an hour he let me go and just kept watching my face as I smiled.

"I missed you." He said.

"I missed you too, dad."

"But…How're you-"

"I'm not. I just thought that I was long overdue for a visit." I saw the disappointment in his face when he realized that I wasn't still alive and home to stay.

"How long will you be here?"

"I figured about until sunrise." His eyes grew wide with alarm.

"No, you can't go. Not just like that. Will I never get to see you again? You just disappear with the sun and that's it?"

"No! No, not like that at all." I assured hurriedly, patting his hands to comfort him. "I'll come back. I promise! I can only stay for the night this time, but I'll be back again. This isn't just a one time deal. You won't lose me forever." He clutched my hands in his and looked at them as he spoke.

"I thought I already had." He said in little more than a whisper. "Doesn't death mean forever? No going back." I stayed silent. How could I ever answer to that? "Your hands are cold." He added as an off-comment.

"They tend to be nowadays." I said with a nervous laugh, pulling my hands away.

I was careful after that and I stayed talking with Charlie for the entire night. In the morning I left using my vampire speed so it appeared to him that I departed with the first touch of daylight. The next morning I stayed and watched from the woods as he left for work and he had a smile on his face for the first time in recent memory. After that I stopped at Charlie's once every month or as needed, as well as the holidays that he had to spend alone, like Christmas Eve. Sometimes Edward came with me. And gradually Charlie moved on until he didn't need my night time visits anymore. He was learning to let me go. I told him on my last visit that he wouldn't be seeing me anymore, though I would always be watching him. He seemed sad, but the next day he went to the graveyard and laid my favorite flowers on my grave. He sighed and looked up at the sky with a resolute nod and he walked away. I didn't see him again after that. But I always had Alice keep a close eye on him.

Edward and I live and love to this day. We've never lived apart from each other, though occasionally we do branch off from the other Cullens and live on our own as a married couple (Rosalie gave us the idea). I never have a day where I don't smile or where I regret what I chose, because I know in my heart that this was the fate that I was chosen to have. I watch over the ones I love and their descendants and I help them whenever the opportunity presents itself. Like giving Muses to Steph in dreams whenever she hits a dry spot in her writing. And I always learn every day, which I hope you all will too. So let me tell you the most important lesson that I have learned before I say goodbye.

Happily Ever After…is only the beginning.

000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000

Well…that's it guys. It's finally finished. Thank you all for staying with me and actually spending the time to actually read my writings. I owe you all so much. I spent a month staring at this chapter and not publishing it just because I didn't want it to end.

And I know that this sounds so weird coming from me because I've never met you, spoken to you, or anything, but I love you all so much because you all gave me a reason for self betterment. And now I think I have the confidence to write my own work rather than feed off another author's ideas. Thank you and goodbye.