Chapter Eighteen


The wind picked up, sending dirt and leaves in every direction. Debris swirled around Bella and Edward, riding a particularly ice cold blast of air. Every instinct had alarms banging around in his head, and the need to throw Bella over his shoulder to run started to grow. He grabbed her arm, intending to do that, only for him to touch nothing but icy air.

His eyes snapped toward her, half her body shifting from flesh and bone to spiritual. "Bella!" He stood in front of her, capturing her face in his hands. Her eyes were nearly completely black, and though he didn't know what it meant, he knew it was dangerous.

"Come back, Bella."

"Fucking hell," Jasper hissed, his knees giving out and sent him sprawling backward. Others shouted as the earth beneath the gravesites started to rumble under their feet. Bella ran toward the yellow-taped area, Edward right beside her, and they watched helplessly as the bones in each marked grave started to sink further into the dirt.

"What the fucking hell?" Biers roared, scrambling toward one and trying to grab hold of a femur. He screamed, his other hand holding his wrist, his palm red with blisters.

"Fuck it!" Edward turned to Bella, threw her over his shoulder, pulled Jasper to his feet, and ran away from the scene. The others weren't too far behind, the scent of death and decay following them along with an unearthly wail of terror and anger.

Too curious for his own fucking good, Edward made the mistake of looking back. His mouth opened as a silent scream caught in his throat.

"Go! Go!" Jasper hissed, pulling Edward along.

Behind them, a scene that not even horror movie makers had been able to achieve was a wave of mangled bones and dirt, reaching ten feet high. It ran down tree samplings like twigs, uprooted trees with ease, and was growing. Superimposed over the skulls were the faces of the victims, silently screaming their horrific tales.

The main house loomed ahead, but Edward ran past it and nearly threw Bella in the cab of his truck, Jasper and a few others jumped into the back. The remaining forensic crew and officers climbed into other vehicles as he sped out down the gravel driveway.

Bella's black gaze burned the side of his face, but he refused to look at her until they reached safety. Adrenaline spiked his blood for miles, until Jasper knocked on the window and asked for him to pull over. The moment his truck came to a stop, Bella shot out of the truck and promptly threw up by some bushes. She wasn't the only one. For several minutes, everyone just stopped and tried to calm down.

Bella thanked Edward for holding up her hair while she was sick and handing her a bottle of water after. She looked up at him with her whiskey gaze and frowned. "I think they're pissed I sent their son to hell."

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They reached Edward's place on the outskirts of the city, all the way across from where Bella was staying, hours later. They tried to return to the property only for the same thing to happen the moment someone stepped on the property. Most of those involved refused to believe it was anything but an aftershock, rather than believe there was something supernatural about the tremors.

"Anything?" Edward asked, helping Bella out of the truck.

"Nothing, I can still feel that they're there, but their voices have been silenced."

They lost communication with all the spirits after the incident, even their friends. He understood why the killers had some control over their victims, but James, Shelley, and Jane were not a part of any of that.

"I can't sense them," he said softly, unlocking his door and immediately realizing they were alone. "Let me shower and get some shit together, and we can head back to the Williams' house."

"Maybe we should take some time off," she said, not meeting his eyes. He said nothing. "I don't want that, but just in case you might want some time away."

He tugged her closer, hating the distance between them. "I'm a stubborn person, and if I want something, very little will stop me from having and keeping it. I want you. If I say I want to spend time with you, it's the truth." He held her gaze, tipping his face down to kiss her. A breath away, he whispered, "We're in this together." Their lips met, but it was harder than either expected. It was what they needed though, stripping each other of clothes and stepping into the shower. Bruises were left behind, fear and desire fueling their passion. It was okay though, Edward realized, because she was starting to heal the other battered parts of him.

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For the next two days, they remained at the Williams' house, waiting by their phones for any news about Jane's case and the Lexington property. Bella's duties of house sitting were ending earlier than expected, and they were both happy about it, the owner's sister was taking over.

Though the house was fun to share, it didn't feel like their space. They kept their activities to the guest bedroom, and they were too close to Alec and Tanya's house. The day before, their driveway was filled with cars from family members and friends coming to pay their condolences, the police confirming that the body they found was Jane's that morning. Worse yet, their spiritual companions had yet to return.

"She'll be here soon," Bella said, watching as Edward packed his things. They agreed to meet at his place later that night. "Should I bring something by to eat?"

"Sounds good, I haven't bought groceries in like a week." He grimaced and shuddered. "My fridge is probably hazardous at this point." She poked his side, hoping to catch a smile.

Since they returned from the horrific scene days earlier, they had avoided the subject. The thing was, that it haunted their nightmares. Twice they'd wake up to each other's screams, fear clinging to their skin in the form of sweat and tears.

"Edward, look at me."

He let the shirt he had in his hands drop into his bag before turning to face her. "What is it?"

"We need to go over the videos."

"Do you think I don't know that?" His words were harsh, as was the twist in his lips, almost cruel.

"You can still walk away, you know."

"Yeah, I'm aware." He zipped up his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "I'll see you later." Taking the stairs two at a time, he reached the front door before she was midway down. His hand clung to the doorknob. He looked over his shoulder and tried to smile. "I don't like this. It's not you…"

"I swear if you finish that with 'it's me' you'll regret it."

He groaned and faced her. "I mean that shit you always do and say! You're always expecting me to leave to run away. There's only so many times I can hear that shit and wonder, if maybe that's what you want!"

She descended another few stairs, still too far away. "I don't, but I want you safe."

He understood that, because he wanted that for her, too. "And that's not with you, is it?"

"Everything I touch dies."

Disappointment felt like a knife through his chest. "Well, newsflash Bella, since I've met you I haven't felt this alive in over five years." He stepped onto the porch and didn't look back. By the time he reached the end of the driveway, it was clear she wasn't coming after him.

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Bella crumbled the moment the door slammed behind him. For days she had held it in, but she couldn't any more. Through her blurry vision she saw her fingertips bleed black, she rubbed her eyes with the palms of her hands, only to find them wet with more black blood. It wasn't real she told herself, a mantra on her cracked lips. She screamed as it started to build up in her gut, she struggled to her feet and stumbled her way to the basement.

Kate didn't have a sister, Bella needed Edward gone and safe. She knew whatever it was that happened almost every night, except for the last few, would explode out of her at any moment. Her stomach rolled as well as the room around her. The chair and the handcuffs stood in plain view, if Edward had every wandered there she would have had to explain.

She wasn't going to make it to the only thing that would keep her from hurting herself. Her hand slipped into her jacket pocket, the bottle of pills shaking the only salvation. The number didn't matter as she swallowed them dry.

A nearby mirror alerted her how close she was to losing it. She had only minutes before the darkness would take over. Her cell phone was too bright for her painful eyes, but she ignored it and typed out a message to Edward. She dropped it, sat down, and tried to slip the cuffs on, but it was too late.

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For thirty minutes Edward watched the house, waiting for Kate's sister to arrive so he could make sure Bella was all right. She had sent him a text minutes after he left, one he had yet to answer.

I feel alive and good when I'm with you.

Something didn't feel right, so Edward called Alec and asked if either Garrett or Kate had a sister. He wasn't surprised to find that Bella had lied. She was trying to get him out of the house, the question was why. Then he heard it, an unearthly wail coming from inside the house. He was charging down the driveway in seconds, his mind refusing to dwell on the fact that the scream was not human.


AN: Sorry, I literally wrote this today and posted. There's probably a huge list of mistakes, SORRY. My internet is spotty and this may be my only chance this week.