Disclaimer: SOOOOOO, how about that weather? O really, yes you're right, it is much more interesting than this disclaimer...even if you do live in an underground box...with no light...O ya know what? Why don't you just shut your pie hole!

Jeeze...I was surprised by the intense reaction...I apologize for the tears. Hope I didn't ruin anyone's shirt/get anybody electricuted...maybe I should have you sign a waiver. :

Manja: Don't die...please don't die...but if, on the off chance, you do die, kindly leave it in your will not to sue me...here's a pen.

ThrushflightEdward'sStalker: Wow...you're review this time certainly made up for the ember. I cried for weeks, not, but you were right. I seem to have trouble starting out, so things come out all unorganized and jumbled.

Kersicca: I'm writing this from a prison cell that I share with a lonely guy name Fred...Because of you and your accursed itch voodoo, I ran to CVS and held the cashier at gunpt for antiitch cream. HA! I wish you went mad in your class. Revenge sweet revenge...No, Bob. Down boy. Bob DON"T TOUCH THAT! IT WAS A GIFT FROM MY UNCLE FRANNY!...Fine, bob, uuuuuu don't get to read the rest of my story. Oh, you can't read...o and hAHAHAHA. Bananas are just classic humor. I'm eating one right now, but im having lots of trouble because I can't eat it while looking at it or ill laugh. So, neways, maybe Pjotter, if hehasn't been eaten by dogs, will rescue me from this illiterate, slaking, banana theif named bob.

Nobodyparticular: thnx...glad I could cause a revolution. Makes me feel all warm and tingly inside.

Jinxed.Cherries: THANKS...that's a new smiley, i've never seen that one before. Well, I guess you learn something every day.

Melody Cullen: Join the club. We're making tshirts on Saturday. Wanna club. Our anagram is KJWAC! (kill josius with a continent). THANKS for agreeing on the Pluto thing. Let's make picket signs.

Emmi: Cliffhangers have a mind of their own, and you just happen o be in their destructive path. I shall now pull you back up...some of the way.

MeyaRose: My. You have such a way with words and emoticons. (rubs crystal ball) I foresee great speeches in your future. Lol jk. Ly

SS...K: THOSE DARNED JAPANESE...no offense to any who are japanese. WHY can't they just say vampire. But no? They had to be like, well we're all better than everyone else because we have sesame chicken and kimonos, so we can just make our words SUPER big to get on Lily Turtle's nerves. LeGASP. NOOO not the evil minions!

Easily-dazzled: read review above yours. Thanks

Thefuturemrs.edwardcullen: I'll be sure to buy you kangaroo repellent for christmas. YOU RUINED MY HAPPY HAPPY IDENTITY CRISIS jerk! Stupid, nice reviewing jerk!

Ms.Veronica Cullen: Hmmm, strokes chin and pets fuzzy cat, would I? Would I indeed?

Albnal33: SORRY, have a tissue. And a cookie cake. And some ben and jerry's

XCullenloveX: that's because i AM STEPHENIE MEYER. MWUHAHAHA. Jk. Thank you.

INVX: LOLOLOLOLOL. Interactive sex...you crack me up. The table does need to sue jake, for every penny he's got...and he actually was, but then Billy got cold and set poor tabley ablaze. Moment of silence please. Sorry bout the drama.

Mattbabe: Yay your'e in China, whihc is mucho better than this fanfic. The land of rice and funny hats and MULAN! I shall never forget you.

Em: Green flying llamas are such an excellent idea. Why haven't i thought of this!

Chapter 13

The moment seemed to drag on for an eternity.

Josius was silent with a disturbing eagerness that I could practically feel in the air. It was dampening it, burdening it down so that it weighed on my shoulders. Edward was breathing unnecessary breaths hard.

Strangely I, the one about to meet her Maker, was the only calm one in the room.Funny, I thought, as Edward's frigid hands tightened their grip just a little more, people always said that your life flashes before your eyes.

It wasn't anything like that, but maybe that was because my life physically was in front of my eyes. My whole life wrapped up in one stubborn vampire.

Oddly enough, I felt...ready. The only thing I wasn't ready for was the blazing guilt I was positive Edward would experience.

Suddenly, Edward snatched his hands back.

"No," he weakly murmured, "NO!"

I opened one eye, then the other. Like a TV that's channels were being flipped hurriedly by an impatient old man, emotions were flitting across Edward's face.

No matter, what was written there though, his eyes remained tortured. No matter how valiant his efforts, this was a lost cause – no fairytale endings for me. But before I died, I had to make sure he knew I didn't blame him.

"Edward," I began.

He grimaced.

"Please, one last thing," I begged.

His head sharply turned away when I uttered 'last', and he held up a trembling hand to stop me.

I reached up and placed my palm on the side of his perfect face. He recoiled from my touch, but I followed him.

"Edward," I began again, "Please – don't blame yourself, okay?"

His entire body was shaking now with his efforts of restraint.

"I TOLD YOU TO KILL HER!" Josius bellowed, his voice drowning out the sounds of the thunderstorm, ricocheting off the walls of this makeshift torture chamber.

"I...Bella, I..." Edward began, then squinted his eyes tightly together. His head was violently whipping back and forth, every muscle in his body tense. "I...I...love," he gasped, "love you."

My heart soared when he said that, and I knew that I'd never get tired of hearing those words from him for as long as I lived – if I had gotten the chance to live long.

Those words were apparently the end of his rope, for his hands swiftly clasped around my throat again, his expression clouded over and murky again.

Josius was tired of his little game.

What madness made me do it, I didn't know, maybe just the overwhelming urge to be in contact with him, but I reached my hands up to close around his forearms. Surely, I was the only person in the world who wanted to be nearer to their murderer.

His hands tightened their grip, as did mine. So, Josius wanted my strangled, no broken neck.

I realized then that I couldn't breathe. I couldn't breathe at all.

Choking and sputtering, I looked up into Edward's eyes, but he wasn't there, just that cold, mindless substitute Josius had created.

Spots were blurring my vision. The edges were going all hazy. My head felt huge, swollen. I tried to inhale, to get precious oxygen to my lungs, but his ever-tightening grip was restricting its passage.

I'd read somewhere that after a minute or two, you'd eventually pass out. I wanted that moment now. The panic and complete awareness was excruciating. I could feel my fingers growing numb, and then feel that numbness slowly start to expand upward. This was better, much better.

Things were beginning to dim.

Vaguely, somewhere in the distance, I thought I could hear a tearing sound, but it was like listening to something through a pillow. My mind hardly acknowledged it.

Most everything was dark now, and quiet, my own personal bubble. I couldn't even hear the rain.

I did notice, however, something cold against my right cheek. Edward? No, not Edward – too rough to be his smooth skin.

I felt discombobulated. If this was the heaven, I was going to ask God for some serious improvements. I never even got a white light to follow.

Trying to twist my head, I felt something rough, that same cold whatever-it-was scraping my skin. Maybe something wasn't touching my face. Maybe my face was touching something.

My eyes opened, and I tried to force them into focus, but the corners were still blurry. White shapes were darting around in front of me. Angels? – Now this was more like my idea of an afterlife, if only Edward were here.

I attempted to bend my face towards the divine figures, but closed my eyes in – pain? There was pain in heaven? Well, God certainly failed to mention this part.

Gradually, my hearing returned, and my ears picked up on the sound of rain – Rain and pain...two rhyming words that were not supposed to be in the Great Beyond.

So, maybe, my heart hoped, maybe this wasn't death...

Yells and shouts and ripping sounds were coming from the angels now. I didn't recall from Sunday School that angels were so violent – if they were angels, which they weren't because I wasn't dead. Was I?

My senses were coming back clearer. The white masses I had seen were still there, moving quickly around one another.

Another ripping sound, and a shout.

Slowly, things clinked back into place one by one.

One of those white shapes, I was sure, was Edward.

My body getting ahead of my abilities, I sat up straight, but fell to the floor again from the dizziness and pounding in my head. I'd try again, I decided, but this time, I twisted my face, steeling myself against the pain. When the adrenaline kicked in, I stood, but my legs were Jell-O, and threatened to give way underneath me.

Quick as a flash, one of the white shapes broke from the mass and barreled towards me.

I cringed, preparing myself for Josius' revenge for my failing to expire. Instead, I was swept up and carried outside. I was sitting on the wet ground, rain drizzling over me, before I could even blink.

This insanely fast motion was more than my nerves or throbbing head could take. Darkness enveloped me.

A/N: Not my worst cliffy, by far. Did you actually think I was just going to let Bella croak? Hahaha...Tricked ya.