Here's a little bit of something, something to see what Edward is up to while he's in a coma.
No copy right infringement is intended. SM owns all the characters I borrowed. All mistakes are my own.
3/4/2018
Ghostly Double
Chapter 52
EPOV
I couldn't tell you the first thing about where I was. One minute I was having fabulous sex with my wife, then the next, I was in a dark room. I was on something soft, that was for sure, but I had no clue where I was.
I could see light coming from underneath a door, so I reached around to see if there was a bedside table with a lamp on it. And there was.
Miraculously I had sleep pants on which the last I remembered, I was completely naked, so where ever I was, at least I wouldn't be wondering around nude.
I made my way to the door and strained my ears to see if I could hear anything or if this was all a figment of my imagination.
The faint strains of music was coming from somewhere and when I looked around I could see some stairs at the end of the hallway from where I was standing.
This had to be a dream. Bella was probably downstairs, in this dream, making us breakfast or even dinner. I wasn't sure what time it was, but from the smells floating through the air, it was definitely something delicious.
"Bella?" I yelled out and waited for her to answer, but she probably didn't hear me over the music. It wasn't even her kind of music. It was some kind of techno crap that Bella would never be caught dead listening to.
As I followed the music I made my way down the stairs. They ended in a foyer by a door that looked like it lead to the outside. Everything was so unfamiliar.
Where the hell was I?
"Bella?" I called out, again, and headed for the noise. It was getting louder the further I went through the house.
I found the source of the music when I entered the kitchen, so I looked around. "Bella?"
"Well, good morning, sunshine."
That wasn't the voice of my wife. "What the fuck?"
Standing before me was none other than Anthony. "I said good morning. That wasn't a very nice greeting."
"Where the hell am I?" If I was confused before, I was even more confused, now. "I thought you were shrinking to nothing in some Vervain cell?"
Anthony chuckled. "Well, you see, that's not entirely true. I'm stuck in this In-between world."
"And? What's that have to do with me ?" I walked closer to the counter and watched him pour some batter into a frying pan. It looked like he was making pancakes and there was bacon frying in the pan next to it.
"It has everything to do with you." He flipped a different pancake then switched to the bacon. "You see, you and I are connected. It's definitely something that neither of us want, but there's nothing that can be done about it. We share the same blood; we're within the same bloodline; we share DNA."
I rolled my eyes. "Can you please get to the point?"
"I'm hungry. Are you hungry?" He started taking the cooked food over to the table where there was syrup, butter and some orange juice waiting. There was even a carafe of coffee with creamer and sugar sitting next to it.
I folded my arms over my chest. I was getting frustrated and the more he dodged the questions, the more irritated I got. "Tell me what's going ON!"
"Hey now. We don't need any bitterness. Sit down, have some breakfast and I'll explain."
I huffed and dropped down into a chair at the table and watched as he started putting loads of food on his plate. He used more syrup than there was pancakes to eat. "Dude, how about some pancakes with your syrup?"
"Syrup is like a fine woman; you can never get enough."
That was the stupidest saying I've ever heard. "Whatever."
"Put some food on your plate and we'll talk."
The food did smell delicious, so I took a couple of pancakes, some bacon and poured a generous amount of syrup over them. I didn't use as much as him, but I used a lot.
Then I poured some coffee and fixed it up the way I liked it. The moment my mouth touched the cup, my stomach growled viciously.
As soon as I started eating, Anthony finally started talking. "You see..." He started but then gave me a sideways glance. "You know all this already, though, don't you?"
"Know what? Just freakin tell me." I shoved a huge bite of pancakes in my mouth. "As much as I can't stand you, these are good."
"Thank you," he replied. "Okay, fine. You're a descendant of my sister which means you're a great, great, great nephew of some sorts. Somewhere along the way to your birth..." Then he shook his head. "Well, that's not really important. The important part is, you and I are pretty much one in the same. Our DNA is pretty much the same although mine is over a hundred years older than yours. So, when you came into your Warlock genes, our DNA opened up to be susceptible to each other. Which means that if something happens to me, then you're more than likely to feel it or if something happens to you, then I'll probably feel it." He shoved a bite into his mouth and chewed for a few seconds. Then he so rudely started talking with his mouth full. "Do you get the gist of all this?"
"Unfortunately," I replied. "So why are we here?"
He gave me a devious smile. "That's what I've been trying to tell you. When I decided not to eat or even drink any blood my body started to dry up which led to my body becoming mummified. So, when I became completely immobile, that affected you as well, and now we're both stuck in the In-between world."
"How do we get out?" I took a drink of coffee and started on my bacon. "I can't stay in here with you. I have a wife and daughter I need to get back to."
He tossed his cloth napkin on the table. "That all depends on your buddies; if they figure out what's really going on and what they need to do to fix it."
"Shouldn't it be obvious?"
"Not exactly," he said. "My body's been a little on the stiff side for more than a week."
"A week? Have I been down here for that long?"
"You sure have, but I couldn't get you to wake up. You've been getting your beauty sleep the whole time. Don't you feel rested up?"
I finished my food and made myself another cup of coffee. "That's beside the point. We need to figure out a way to get out of here."
"We have to wait."
And wait was what we did.
I wasn't exactly sure how long we've been in this world, but the days seemed to be getting longer and longer. We were actually getting along with each other; telling jokes and watching movies together. He told me about when he was growing up and the stuff he's seen over his lifetime. We even got into some serious conversations.
One of which was Bella.
We got into a few yelling matches too, which led to Anthony pouring drink after drink of the whiskey that was in the bar. I joined him and had a few myself. "You don't know how bad I wanted to kill you, but I knew I couldn't do it because of her. I knew it would tear her world apart and I loved her; I love her still, but I know she's not meant for me," he said drunkenly. "You're the winner; the…the taker of all my heart."
I chuckled and looked over at him. He was fuzzy from all the alcohol running through me. "Your heart? How could I have your…your…your heart?"
"Bella's had my entire heart since the moment we laid eyes on each other and when she gave you hers, mine went with it." He shook his head and made a sour face. "And no, that doesn't mean I'm in love with you, either. It just means that where ever Bella's heart goes, mine goes with hers. She'll always have it as far as I'm concerned, but over the last couple of years, I've lessoned my feelings for her."
"That doesn't even sound right." I tried to stand from the couch and stumbled back, dropping my glass on the floor. "Damn."
"Dude," Anthony laughed. "You can't even stand up." Then he tried and fell, also. "Okay, maybe I can't either."
We laughed together then finally stood to refill our drinks. "How can you lesson your feelings for someone?"
His brows rose. "Oh, don't get me wrong, I still love her, but not the way you love her. I'll always care for her." Then he got a sad face. "I was her first," he said. "That was special and that's something I'll cherish forever."
"Dude, don't remind me," I said with a growl. "I should've been her first."
"Sorry, bro. Can't take it back now, but look at it this way, you got to marry her and have a baby with her."
We made our way back to the couch and brought the bottle with us this time. "If I would've known things were gonna turn out this way, I would've knocked her up myself."
I backhanded him in the chest. "Don't say shit like that, man; that's not cool at all. That's my wife you're talking about."
"I know and we're having a heart to heart; a bonding moment. Take it how you'd like, but I'm jealous of you, man. Look at us; we're sexy has hell and can have any woman we want. Sucks for you, though, you're tied down and if I'm correct on this, you'll never stick your dick in another chick as long as you're married to Bella."
"That'll never change," I clarified and glanced over at him. "If you would have never fucked up, then you'd know what I'm talking about."
"Hey, I'll never settle down," he said drunkenly.
"Not if you stay all shriveled up," I said, laughing. "Does that mean your dick is all shriveled, too?"
Anthony growled, "Fuck off."
"So it is?" I laughed harder than I had in a long time. "That's just...I don't know man; I'm sorry for your short comings."
I was the only one laughing at my joke as Anthony gave me a killing look. "And you won't be getting a hard-on anymore if your buddies don't figure out how to wake me up."
I shut up real quick. A picture of me lying in a bed and Bella sitting next to me reading a book. Arlo was with her and a little older than she is now. She looked to be about two years old.
"Dude." It was Anthony's turn to backhand me. "Snap out of it. I'm sure somebody will figure it out."
"Do you wanna wake up? I mean, you did this to yourself on purpose. What if they figure out what happened and you just do it again because you're all depressed and down on yourself?"
Anthony sat up and propped his elbows on his knees before pressing his face into his hands. I heard him take in a deep breath and then sigh loudly. "I won't."
"How can I believe you? When you do this shit to yourself, you're doing it to me, now. You can't do that. You have to see that not only is my life worth something, but so is yours. I live, you live; you live, I live. That's the way it has to be." I sat up and scooted closer to him. "Do you have the least bit of remorse in you about all the stuff you did? All those people you killed? Kidnapping my wife which led to her giving birth to our daughter in a dirty basement and early on top of that?"
He growled. "I am; I'm sorry about all of it. I can't take it back; I was never shown the right way to deal with magic the way I was supposed to be; that's why I hated it so much. My father tried to teach me the wrong way; I got hurt because he was teaching me wrong." He shook his head. "From all that shit, I ended up becoming a vampire and that made my hatred worse." He took a few more deep breaths and glanced up at me. He had tears in his eyes. "I started hating him; I hated all of it; I hated anything that had to do with magic and I wanted it all gone out of this world. When I found out your sister was a witch, I did more digging into your mom's past and my past. That's how I found everything out; that's when I found out that if Bella had a baby boy, he was sure to be another Warlock I didn't want on this earth and when she gave birth to a girl, everything I thought was the truth just wasn't. That's when I was hit in the face with all the wrongs I did and I couldn't live with myself because of it."
I didn't know what to say. I was so drunk that I wasn't sure I was hearing him correctly. "If you mean what you say, then show that you're a changed man when they wake you up. Prove to all of us that you can be who you're meant to be. You never know, you may actually become a part of a family that actually means something."
He wasn't saying anything and my head was all woozy. I wasn't in the mood to joke around anymore or talk. I was frustrated because it seemed like everything I was saying to him was going in one ear and out the other. "I'm going to bed."
I got up and started stumbling toward the room that had become mine the moment I woke up in it more than a month ago. Something had to give. Bella had to figure out how to wake Anthony. I needed to get back to her and Arlo. They needed me just as much as I needed them.
*SIGH* Bonding is a good thing, right?
RTB
