CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
(BPOV)
I had never known pain like this. Never knew it could exist. When James had tracked me down and lured me into his twisted game at the ballet studio, I had tasted the least of it, not believing that even then it could possibly get any worse. How foolish and wrong I had been. This kind of pain tore anything and everything away from you in an instant.
It stole every tangible thing away from me and left me unable to even think for myself. Blazing fire streamed down through my shoulder, the intensity of it's burn making me fall to the floor in a heap of screaming. Like an infernus that raged just under my skin. I stared wide eyed, as the blood dripped down my neck and fell in heavy drops below me. My vision blurred and I curled in on myself. Everything around me felt as if it had vanished and I was left alone in my own personal burning hell.
No...
No...
I tried to move, but couldn't force myself upright as the pain ripped through me and left me helplessly at it's mercy. I let out another scream that didn't sound human at all. I could hear nothing and see nothing. The pain stole my breath away and made me wish I was dead. It was all consuming and spread into my fingers and hastily down through the rest of my body before I could drag in another lungful of air. I struggled against a force I couldn't visibly see as the heaviness of it pinned me to the floor. My fight against it was futile and as the scorching fire wrapped itself around my chest, I was certain that no part of me but ashes would remain.
I couldn't stop the liquid glass feeling that raged on in my throat as I screamed into the blackness that engulfed me then. It was suffocating. I had to fight for my life, but I didn't know how. My thoughts were filled with so much agony that I was terrified I would drown in it. Never to resurface.
I felt my body shift suddenly and something touched me, but I couldn't form words. The only sound that I could hear was my own blood curdling screams. I wanted to run from the pain, wanted to crawl out of my own skin. I felt as if I was being burned alive from the inside out.
It wasn't supposed to end like this.
This wasn't supposed to happen.
I hadn't had enough time.
Somewhere in the back of my mind, my own thoughts began to break through the pain and I desperately tried to cling to the image of Jacob that my brain shoved to the forefront. The sound of his voice and the feel of his hand taking mine. I wanted to run to him but the flames that had engulfed me, kept me hostage to them and refused to set me free.
I couldn't breathe...
Someone help me...
Anyone...
The darkness was disorienting and it felt never ending, but the sound of a voice I hadn't heard in months suddenly rang out clear around me and I stopped screaming long enough to recognize it's sing song tone. There was the sound of crashing then, loud and booming, followed by a hiss. It filled my ears, reminding me of what crumbling concrete would sound like if it were forcefully smashed together.
"How long has she-?"
Alice...
"It just happened. He-" Billy brokenly replied.
"What can we do! We have to do something!" Sue cried out, from somewhere that sounded too far away from me now.
My screaming didn't return as the madness around me started to unfold.
"Please. Save her." Billy begged.
The voices I recognized forced me to keep my mouth closed, my adrenaline kicking in ten fold as I laid there thrashing against the invisible burn that was trying to suffocate the very air from my lungs. Minute by minute, and second by second, I was plunged further into the dark depths of a terrorizing emptiness I could not describe. My chest heaved and I swore that this must truly be what hell is like. A never ending burn that eats away at you until only ash and charcoal remain.
I'm not ready...
I don't want to leave him...
Fix me...
Cold hands touched my bare skin then and I forced my eyes to open against the heavy weight that protested it.
Alice's face was mere inches from mine. She had pulled me into her lap, her fingertips covered in my blood as she shook her head to regain her focus.
"I'm going to help you. I have to suck the venom out. It's our only chance. It's spreading rapidly."
I was in too much pain to even form a single word response or nod for her. My body continued to convulse, making me feel as if I was no longer in control.
"Do it!" Sue hedged, dropping down on the floor beside me, her face full of an agony I'd never seen.
"There's a chance I can't-" Alice warned.
"I know the damn chances. Just do it!" Sue snapped, as another whaling cry left Doris. My eyes tried to focus long enough to find her, but failed to do so.
My limbs felt like they were being pulled down by quicksand into the fire I couldn't see, but knew was raging on within me.
"I'll take the pain away, Bella." Alice whispered, her tone soft before I felt her mouth crest over the the punctured skin from Damiens bite... "He's coming, Bella. Jacob is coming. Please hold on. Please fight."
Hearing her say his name caused the hold I had on whatever was left of my resolve to slip, and I let out another scream.
He wouldn't get here before it was too late...
Was it already too late...
Edward saved me last time. Could Alice do it again? Could I really beat this?
"Don't be afraid, Bella. It's gonna be okay." Sue frantically stated, her face now pale of all the warm color I was so used to seeing with her.
I felt the heavy darkness start to steadily pull at me one again as Alice began to suck out the venom that was trying to erase every part of who I was.
My eyes rolled back and I could no longer fight the darkness. It took me under like a mighty wave, crashing over me and trapping me helplessly under the power of its forceful tide. I tried to hold on to the one image and memory that my mind refused to relinquish to the potent fire my body was trying to overcome.
"Bells..."
His voice rang so clear in my mind that it sounded as if I could reach out and touch him.
Jacob...
A/N: I know this chapter is short but forgive me. More is coming tomorrow! Thank you for following this story! Till next time...