The Haunting of Bella Swan
Chapter Twenty-Eight
Edward helped his aunt with cleaning up after Bella, all the while his eternal lover apologized.
"Stop, considering how low your blood pressure is and your dizziness, I'm not surprised you became ill." Carlisle helped her lay back on the table and continued to examine her, though Edward knew he probably had a lot of questions. "Why don't we start with a possible reason you're feeling this way? Is pregnancy a possibility?"
It happened as it often did in the movies. Everything slowed down. The last few seconds replayed in their heads as Carlisle's questions triggered something in Edward and Bella.
Suddenly, Bella sat up at the same time Edward's knees threatened to buckle, each bombarded with a horde of memories from the past lives. "Oh my God," she whispered, shaking her head as tears filled her eyes.
Edward forced himself to look at her and could see her heart breaking. Her aura was reflecting a tremendous loss, the darkness engulfing the kaleidoscope of colors. "No, she's on the pill and that's not why we're feeling this horrible," he said, forcing the words through his clenched jaw. "We'll explain once I help her wash up."
Edward and Bella didn't exchange one word as he helped her wash out her mouth and brush her teeth, making sure she drank a full glass of water. He seemed to be going through the motions, and she couldn't blame him. Not after those memories.
Bella bit her lip as she tugged on her hair, still reeling from the fact that they learned something new about their shared pasts. Edward's aura changed from a radiating bright mix of colors to a devastating black—his grief as palpable as her own.
She'd been pregnant in one of their pasts lives in the late 60s, at least eight months along. Had their curse killed their child? Was he or she still among the living? Armed with all the information and what they'd learned in their past lives and yet, they had little answers.
Why them? What presumed grievances did they afflict to deserve this kind of punishment?
Edward led her toward his family, who had converged back into the living room. He gently guided her onto a plush couch and grabbed a throw to cover her. He purposely avoided everyone's eyes as he started to explain. "We just left the property of one confirmed serial murderer, that we can now say once belonged to another killer. We had to help their victims' spirits cross over and send a couple of vile ones to hell."
Bella winced at the almost robotic tone of his voice but understood that explaining this to his family had to be strange. She couldn't forget about the paranormal investigation team currently watching and listening to them a little too closely. However, they'd already decided not to hide any longer. If they wanted to record and put them up on their websites, they would get no argument from them. They only had to stay the hell out of their way.
"James and the rest of his friends were helping us," she said, hoping a hole would appear to swallow her up—they wouldn't stop staring. "Which is why you've had zero activity here tonight. They probably only come to visit here whenever Edward and I are uh…asleep."
Edward snorted.
"Shut up, I can't actually say that they probably come by here when we're doing the dirty."
His aunt, a beautiful woman in her early fifties, blushed a little, but Bella didn't miss the small smile on her lips.
"Why did you lie to us?" The few precious moments of levity disappeared with the seriousness of Carlisle's tone. "You told us that you could only sense them, but if they're helping you, then it stands to reason that you can do a lot more than that."
"You never told us that you sensed our son, your cousin." Esme had to look away, tears slowly spilling down her cheeks. "Why tell us certain aspects, but keep something so vital from us?"
Edward jumped up and erupted. "Because I wanted someone who loved me to not see someone like me as a fucking freak, all right! There I said it."
Bella barely managed to contain her gasp, her hand falling away from Edward's back. She leaned back against the couch and stared at some random point in the wall. As her vision started to cloud, their voices sounded distant, even as they seemed to rise in volume. Her chest ached as it burst open, her heart tumbling on the fancy Berber carpet, bloody and useless.
Absently, she stood and walked into the foyer, maneuvering with ease, yet unseeing. Her black tipped fingers stole life from anything it could find, from the termites in the cellar to the rats making a nest under the porch. It gave her the energy she needed to get as far as possible from them all as she could. A glimpse in the mirror indicated that the edge she stood on could crumble at any moment, her eyes nearly black.
Fucking freak.
Fucking freak.
Someone like me…a fucking freak.
For years, she had to endure the constant name calling from children and adults alike, the look of fear on their faces, but to hear it from someone she loved, broke her.
"Bella!"
She heard Edward shout and the running footsteps behind her. He would not touch her, she determined, willing her body to phase. His distressed-filled cry almost brought her back from the ledge, but it wasn't enough. She turned back to him and hissed, smirking when she saw his family and the misguided crew standing there with their mouths gaping wide open.
"Sorry, but this fucking..." She couldn't throw back his words to him. Couldn't hurt him like that. "I need space, please."
Edward's eyes widened, his head shaking. "Bella, no, not you, baby. Don't do this."
She knew in her heart, he didn't mean it, but it was too late. Something dark had been building up since they left the Lexington Property, and Edward could not help her. Not without risking his life. Yet, she looked at him and saw his sincerity, the love that never wavered through the centuries, the grief from the news that they had once lost a child. Every emotion played on his beautiful face, one she had to protect.
"Goodbye, Edward."
Edward screamed her name the moment she simply disappeared, vanished before their very eyes. He noticed her need to purge the negative energy she had consumed, something he usually had the ability to temper with his mere presence. However, his outburst must've triggered something. He realized she had walked out of the living room, thanks to the worried look on his aunt's face. One glimpse at her and he knew they were in trouble.
His mind went over the scene and realized he basically called someone like him a fucking freak and considering how much more powerful Bella was, what would that make her in his eyes? That was the only thing he could think of that made her so hurt and angry.
"This can't be happening!" Edward swirled around, looking at the troubled faces of his aunt and uncle, the gleam in the eyes of the investigators.
"You're fucking a ghost," one of them said, a sound guy.
Edward lunged and punched him in the nose, not giving a fuck about the expensive mike the idiot dropped. His uncle grabbed from behind, stopping him from pounding the asshole's face in. "Okay, okay!" He threw Carlisle off. "James, Janes, Shelley, I need you now!"
A shimmer appeared over his uncle's shoulder. "Where is she?"
James fully materialized and waved at his parents, his mother fainting into the arms of one of the investigation team. His uncle simply gaped, while Jane took the point and indicated that Bella had gone home and erected a powerful spell to keep them all out.
Edward ran to the car and didn't bother following traffic laws. Her spell kept out the dead, but fuck if he'd let it keep him from her.
She'd listen to everything he had to say.
She'd let him help her with the heavy burden she had to carry.
She'd let him love her.
Together was the only way they'd be able to face their uncertain future.
AN: Thanks to kyla713 for her help with the chapter xoxo
