My eyes locked with Carlisle's worried eyes. This was infuriating! What is happening? Or what happened?

"Who is Bella?" I cleared the silence.

And at that, all thoughts were flooded with emotions… worry, fright, sadness, alarm, and more.

I was starting to worry myself. Who is Bella?


Chapter 26: You only live twice

Midnight

Atop the building where the bearer of black bells currently resides, I stare at the still street below. It was no use to reason with the fallen anymore.

She asked me to let her talk to the lost boy in their shared dream as "her" and not the persona created for her. I knew that she visited him where he slept and apologized which would seem futile because he cannot hear her. But the immortal doctor saw her. Her plan wouldn't last long.

Failing to convince her of the mistake she's doing, she was given what she asked. And from the moment the boy awoke, the mutual dream created for them was destroyed.

But still.

At the moment…

Only one is awake.

Awake and cheated of remembering. The other asleep but not for long… This time, her slumber is all on her. The moment she is roused, she too will wake remembering nothing.

A clean break is what is intended to happen. But the bond runs deep between the two of them. Too deep. They can't stay apart for that long.

I didn't clue in that a fallen would interfere. Grace was her name. They were able to meet with death's flame…Wicker.

I had an idea as to what end would come. Or rather then ends that might come. I wonder how it came to this…

Hmmm….

I quirked my head. Ah.

"Master." The graying sky suddenly seemed brighter with his glowing presence.

"Walk…with me…Death's flame…or are you…too weary?" I looked at him over my shoulder. The way his glow shadows and lights on his golden mane in the grayish palette of the sky made it look like he was flickering… like a lit wicker.

I grinned sheepishly.

He stood up from his bowed position without breaking contact. He smirked while he nodded. "Where are we going this time, master?"

I turned to face him fully and extended my hand.

"What would…you say…to bringing light…to dreams?"

Wicker in answer lit up a fire on his palm and projected it into mine.

And just…like…that... we were no longer in the waking world.

The world as it was wasn't what it is anymore. Or it is… as it was before. I smiled a little. You might ask, how could something be the same thing as it was when it wasn't before?

"Are we really in the dreaming?" Wicker asked the same as you I would presume.

He asked because we were still in the same place, atop the building with the snow still falling and him still glowing.

Instead of answering, I jumped.

"Midnight--!"

With my eyes closed I held on to my hat. I heard and felt the flap of Wicker's black wings as he swooped in front of me. His cerulean eyes held waves of fright and worry.

"Look…"

And he did. The building was still the building it was as we fell in parallel to it. But the difference was that…

"The construction! It's not yet – but how?"

"It's not yet…finished… yes… in this dream…"

Our free fall seemed to slow or halt that it seemed like we were just suspended, and everything else was moving. As I willed it, everything but us stopped. Our surroundings blurred and spun – scene-changing-scene… the hospital, the park, the meadow and back to the building… landscapes…seascapes…winter….summer…smiles…frowns…faces…promises… doubts…wishes…escapes…everything but real.

My eyes slid slowly to glance at my companion and saw his mouth agape. His face lit like neon lights hit it… or what you would see if you were sitting in front of a television in a dark room. Despite the Technicolor surrealism of the now, one thing remained constant from my will.

I gazed at the flame on my palm. It was still the same and it juxtaposed to a far plane leaving a streak of gold light.

"Wicker…we must…go…"

Transfixed on the shifting dreams… like a moth to a flame… or rather, a flaming moth to a blaze… he didn't hear me.

I placed a hand on his shoulder to which he jerked to my touch. "Master?"

I nodded towards the lit path, "Come."

Dreams still shifted as we walked the path. "Do… not… wander. The dreaming…is…an easy…place…to get…lost in…just as easy… as sleeping…to dream…"

"To sleep: perchance to dream"

"Ahhhh…there's…the rub… Death's flame…I didn't know…you quote…"

"Shakespeare?" He finished while shaking his head. "No… only that one. Just Hamlet."

"You would…remember that…of course…" I stopped walking.

"Yeah…Why did we stop?" His forehead wrinkled. Then he smoothed his expression when he saw her.

"She's one of mine! I can hear the call – I am to –

I nodded. "For in that sleep of death what dreams may come
When we have shuffled off this mortal coil."

He looked at me in disbelief then back at Julianne who was talking animatedly to her dead lover. Dead in real life… yet for now…very much alive in her final dream.

I held Wicker's shoulder back and he looked at me more puzzled than ever.

"I have to take her. She is due."

I shook my head slowly. "Just…wait a…moment…Wicker…"

"I don't understand."

"Just…wait…" I cocked my head to the scene.

Julianne took Andrew's hand in hers and wept. "I've waited for you…" "I know…come here my love…"

"I think…I know what you're doing."

I smiled and tilted my head at him. "Oh?"

He answered not taking his eyes off the dream. "Mercy."

Then slowly he flew over Julianne's head and placed his palm over her eyes after her resolved dream.

I watched as the scene dissipated into another one as there is no quiet place in the dreaming. There is always a dream in place of another. The scene disappeared as did the dreamer.

The flame moved once more on to a different location and this time, Wicker was the one who started towards it.

"Must give us pause: there's the respect
That makes calamity of so long life." He muttered.

And for three more dreamers who were to sleep the silent sleep, we ventured. I shaped their dreams...and Wicker gave them their last grace.

"Now I know why you picked me." He suddenly said while skidding to a stop.

I just smiled and stopped not needing to look at him.

"You want to give dreams of peace to the tortured so they die with resolve…even if it's only in dreams. Even if it's not real. They might not know that because they die in sleep."

"How… do you… know… it's… not… real?"

"How can you ask that? We're not in the waking world!"

"Yet you…take…them…just…as…easily…do…you not? Even…in this…realm?" I look at him then.

He thought about it and grimaced. "I guess, I do. I give their deaths as easily as I do in the real world. But still, it's not real real."

"In…the…waking world…it's not…but here…it is…do not forget… the shadow…of dream… is reality…"

He nodded. "Okay,okay. I get it now. Of course, in this realm, the dreams are reality and reality is the dream. Gotcha."

I nodded then started walking. he isn't following.

"What you're doing now, letting the dying dream resolutions – giving mercy, I get it. And I also get what you're doing for Edward and Bella. It's almost the sa-

I held my hand up to cut him off. "That is…enough. There's…no need…to give…voice…to that…truth...someone…might…hear… It is…enough…that…you understand…thank you…Wicker. You…may go…"

He nodded. "Master?"

I glanced at him from my shoulder once more.

"Will you be keeping that flame?" a question that has a following.

I answered him and with a bow, he was gone. I smiled. No need to give voice to all answers.

To stay at the dreaming or to go to the waking?

I bounced the jolly object in my palm.

"To be… or… not to be?"

Ah.

With a tip of my top hat, I found myself outside the window of the Cullen Manor. I see the doctor, he is trying to come up with better methods of making the boy remember. He after all, saw Bella - the black bells talking to the sleeping lost boy, Edward at the hospital. He knew of Bella's plan. I look at the boy and he is vexed.

He is alone in his room brooding about blacking out and remembering nothing from the past year. Frustrated that his family keeps talking about a girl he was supposed to know very well. If you only knew dear boy, your dead heart would break knowing you forgot her.

I tipped my hat once more and was now beside the sleeping form of Bella. My dear black bells what you did was foolish. One way or another, fate wouldn't keep the two of you apart for long.

These two immortals were foolish. Don't they know that they only live twice?

You only live twice or so it seems,
One life for yourself and one for your dreams.

I went back to the boy who was currently outside the hospital after running an errand for his father. He waits by his father's car, leaning against it with arms crossed and a downcast gaze.

Then one by one, it started snowing again.

I watched as a flake landed on his hand. He reacted.

He drew back as if a sudden shock ran through him as his tawny eyes inspected the white matter.

His face scrunched up as if this was a familiar phenomenon, concentrating, doubting… then he looked up the sky and more fell on his face, his mouth opened slightly with silent questions.

Do you remember now?

Clang! Clang! Clang!

Then the bell tolled once more as it did a year and a month more from an important meeting. He faced the direction of the church bells with the face that seemed to know what it meant to him before. He then looked at his hand more closely before closing it and reverting back to his original position. Shaking his head… shaking his internal battles… grimacing… almost in pain…

And back again with confusion.

So close. So close to a memory…

You drift through the years and life seems tame,
Till one dream appears and love is its name.

…the memory of his first real meeting with death.

That first meeting with love and ultimately… his first meeting with life.

The Black Bells.

Bella.

And love is a stranger who'll beckon you on,

Don't think of the danger or the stranger is gone.

I tipped my hat again and I chanced once more over her sleeping form. The one who thought of the danger… the one who made the hard choice…

I sighed and looked out and watched the sky weep…cold…sharp…ice…

The stranger is almost gone… wavering…

I turn to face the black bells once more and brushed a strand of her off her face. The truth was out there. I cannot say it bluntly. It goes against my rules. There is a reason after all as to why I speak in the manner I speak. So very far different from how my thoughts run freely like rivers as opposed to opaque snow.

"Black bells... your ring… and toll… will still…reach the…lost boy…"

As I've said before, a choice must be made and it will be no matter how long you prevent it. That's the reality to this. I've seen the dreams and it's crossing the threshold. I am the celestial of dream. Reality is my mirror. This persistent choice… is their mutual dream. That is the truth. It will take place.

"For dreams… only come…from reality…"

This dream is for you, so pay the price.
Make one dream come true, you only live twice.

Countless chances don't come with an easy price. To meet once is a blessing, to meet twice…thrice…and on…and on…is it not…fate?

And love is a stranger who'll beckon you on,
Don't think of the danger or the stranger is gone.

And back up the top of the building I go and hear the remaining clangs of the bell.

"This dream is for you, so pay the price.
Make one dream come true, you only live twice."


AN: HOLD IT!! YES, yes it's been awhile. I know. I'm sorry guys. You know my deal with the last announcement of mine. I know most can just skip this note but I hope you won't. Yup, you who's still reading :} I have a few announcements to make. First off, the plagiarism thing is dealt with. Score one for me. I recently just graduated with a degree in Psychology. Another point for me, and I'm very proud to say that I got in Med school. ^^, A big score for me. There were a lot of nice readers here who've been wishing me well in all of these and I'm ever grateful! So thank you! You guys egging me on and wishing me well contributed to all these.

Now about my story announcements… well following my steps to doctorhood, I might not have time to do a lot of writing or maybe it's time I retire my epic-length writing ways or… my fanfic author days entirely. I can't say. I'll be a freshman again on a whole new level so it's going to be crazy. It's too early to tell so let's play it by ear, yes? But don't worry, this summer (it started on April and will end by June here) I will finish "Parachutes" and will do an epilogue for "Silence, The Loudest Sound." And afterwards…we'll see, okay?

There are only 7 more chapters to go and you'll get them weekly so kindly review and let me know what you think. Thank you for those who read and reviewed the last chapter by the way! I really intend to finish this no matter what. I hope you enjoyed Midnight's pov. It wouldn't have been the same if I went with the normal third person pov. Some insight is needed. I know it's all shadowy and weird and confusing, but if you were the celestial of dreams, you're bound for riddles and surrealism.

And yes, those are lines from William Shakespeare's Hamlet. It's only natural that the angels of death know it.

Much love,

Margaux

Next song chapter: Your Love Means Everything. Edward's POV.