Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.
Author's note: The last scene is rather...disturbing. Don't want to spoil things for you, but seriously...you've been warned.
Bella lay panting, one hand linked firmly with Rosalie's, the other playing with her necklace. They had finally taken a break from that bout of adventurous love-making.
"What the hell is that thing anyway?"
Rosalie chuckled. "I thought you knew everything?" She asked, teasingly. Bella gave her a look and she continued. "It was gonna be a gag birthday gift."
Oh.
"...from Emmett."
"WHAT?"
Oh god. Oh god, oh god, oh god. Bella burned bright red as she curled up into the smallest ball possible. Is it possible to die of embarrassment?
Next to her, Rosalie bit her lip and debated with herself whether to share anymore.
"Does he know you brought it tonight?" Bella mumbled.
"Um," she started. "...no I didn't tell him!" Rosalie added quickly after seeing her face. "But, well...Alice...kinda sorta...saw it."
"Oh. My. God." Bella moaned and hid her face in her pillow.
Rosalie struggled not to laugh out loud at Bella's mortification. Long, long ago she might have felt the same way, but after so many years sharing a house with other vampires...there really was no reason to feel embarrassed. She was very much aware of what went on in their bedrooms too. And with an empath, a psychic, and a mind reader...what was the point?
"Bells." Another idea occurred to Rosalie. "Does it bother you to think of Emmett and me?"
"No," Bella looked up from the pillow. "I know you love each other...but...I guess I don't think too much about you two being physical," she admitted.
Rosalie gently forced her back into her arms. "Think about it now," she whispered. She hesitated, unsure how to phrase what she desperately wanted to say. "There...there might come a time when we're sharing a house...when you...or he might hear..."
Bella's heart pounded in her chest. Don't. Don't. Don't, she silently screamed. Not now. Don't do this now!
She looked up and prayed her mask was good enough for Rosalie. "I can't promise something won't explode the first time it happens," she said. "But we've gotten past so much already...there's no reason to think we won't overcome that."
Rosalie smiled, and Bella, feeling the mask slip a little, smiled back and quickly hid her face again. It wasn't the thought of Emmett with Rosalie that made her feel this despair. Bella knew perfectly well what Rosalie was about to insinuate...and she feared she may have inadvertently given her lover the wrong idea by not asking her for clarity. Sharing a house...able to listen...that was a vampire problem, not a human one.
"I love you," whispered Rosalie.
Bella forced her tears to refrain from falling. "I love you too," she replied with all her heart.
"Ok, Bella. I'd like to change things up today."
Carlisle and Bella walked a few miles north of the house to what had become their usual training spot. Since Bella's trip with Rosalie definitively proved her control over the destructive gift, Carlisle had decreed they could safely continue to practice closer to town and thus, closer to home.
Bella looked at him warily. He looked excited, like a man in the midst of his favorite hobby. Bella could only sigh...Carlisle was still utterly fascinated by Bella's gifts. She suspected that these excursions together were as much about satisfying his limitless curiosity as they were about helping her hone her control.
She glanced at the huge box he effortlessly carried. What was he planning for her?
"What you've accomplished thus far is exemplary, Bella." He set down the box and unlocked the latch. "You've managed to tame the most volatile aspect of your gift. Strong emotions such as stress and excitement, though still capable of making you feel the need to unleash the fire, don't take over anymore. And I understand that even when you call it up on purpose, you still maintain control."
Bella nodded, and knowing Carlisle was eager for a demonstration, rolled her eyes and silently complied. She held out her hand and willed a small fireball to appear there, and of course it did. To the observer it looked to be hovering a few inches above her hand but Bella knew that even if it engulfed her fist nothing would happen to her.
"Very good," Carlisle smiled proudly. "And if you wanted to change its shape, its size, its intensity..."
She followed his cues and did as he suggested. The fireball leveled out into a straight line, then grew to circumscribe them, surrounding them and expanded so it was over five feet tall, then changed color as it burned hotter and hotter.
"Excellent," Carlisle beamed. A second later the fire went out leaving no trace.
"What I'd like for us to work on next is finer control," Carlisle said. "The kind of control you already have over wind...though I suspect even that could use some improvement. With some thinking and practice I think we can find other ways you can use your fire power...and in a manner that isn't so conspicuous..."
Bella grew a little uncomfortable. She knew what Carlisle was talking about. She had already found one such inconspicuous use of her destructive gift...but she didn't think she should share it with him. The small zaps she sent her tormentors in school...when the bullying got too much, especially on sunny days when the Cullens couldn't be there...No, she suspected Carlisle would not approve of the creative ways she fought back.
The box at Carlisle's feet drew her attention once again. Carlisle bend down and retrieved...another box from inside it. He opened that one too and...took out yet another box. Like Russian nesting dolls, each box gave birth to another until Bella was left standing wondering what the hell Carlisle was going to make her do.
After taking out the smallest box, he surprised her and put it right back where it come from. Carlisle took a step back and turned to her. "Bella, I want you to burn this box."
That's it?
"Hang on," he added. "I want you to burn it...without harming the one inside of it."
How the hell was she supposed to do that? Bella's fire, though perfectly in her control now, still had a mind of its own. There's no way she could do as Carlisle asked.
"Try it Bella," he said. "Concentrate on the smallest fire first. Keep it burning low and just on the edge."
Bella looked at the box and did as he suggested. It was easy to concentrate the fire on just one small spot. But when she enveloped the whole box in her flames it was soon clear that the smoldering mess included the inner box as well.
She sighed in frustration. "Try again," Carlisle called out, this time pointing to another set of boxes, one inside the other.
And again, Bella failed.
"Again, Bella."
She rolled her eyes and yet again faced the stupid boxes in front of her. Suddenly an idea came to her. What if she used the air as a barrier between the two? She recalled how lately she'd been able to mold the air as if it were a solid object...mostly in order to trip Jessica and Lauren or send a shove their way. Again, she felt a stab of guilt as she thought of the ways she'd been using her powers lately.
Nothing to do but try it, she thought. Before calling on the spark, this time she first visualized a thick blanket of air in between the two boxes. Then she imagined that blanket into a more solid form. Protect the small box, she ordered it, then lit the fuse.
"Excellent!" Carlisle cried out. There indeed was the small box. Not a scratch on its surface while the bigger box had been reduced to ashes.
"What changed? How did you do it?" Carlisle asked eagerly.
Bella explained, though she left out the bits about Jessica and Lauren. "Marvelous!" He said, before moving on to another set of boxes.
"This time, I want you to burn the smaller box, and the smaller one only."
Is he crazy? If there was one thing Bella knew for sure, is that she had to see the target in order to light it.
"Carlisle, I don't think that's going to work..."
"Why not?" He asked. "When you used to lose control, you never remembered the actual fires, right?" She nodded. "So technically, you, Bella, were never really conscious through it all. You didn't actually see the fires as they happened. It was the monster, as you so often put it. But now you control that 'monster.' What's to say you can't still keep your eyes closed and control it at the same time?"
Bella stared at him and at the box. Fine, she thought angrily. He'll see it won't work.
Five sets of boxes later, Carlisle frowned at her and said, "you're not really trying, Bella..."
"Because it's impossible!"
"Nothing is impossible," he said. "You of all people should know that. Now please set those thoughts aside and try harder."
She bit back a snide remark and glared angrily at the new box in front of her. The solid air barrier was easy and came up quick. But she couldn't for the life of her ignite the hidden box without first consuming the one surrounding it. Concentrate, she told herself. Picture it in your head. It's a red box. The big one is yellow. Burn the red one. Leave the yellow. So what if you can't see it? She thought, sarcastically. You know it's there. It's ten feet away from you, taking up space...displacing air...solid and strong. It wants to be burned...just like everything else...it wants to melt away. You'll feel so good when it explodes inside...when it turns to ashes. Dammit, burn!
Carlisle held out his hand and Bella tore herself away from her runaway thoughts.
"See?" She said. "It's not gonna happen."
But Carlisle wasn't listening to her. He bent down and opened the latch on the big yellow box. Bella's stomach dropped when she saw the inside.
The red box was gone. Ashes lay in its place.
Carlisle beamed. Bella's face remained blank. No, she thought. No, no, no!
"I have one more task for you," Carlisle began. He took something out of his backpack. It looked like a large hunk of metal. "This is a metal called tungsten. It's one of the strongest metals on earth. I don't want you to burn it." He set the metal inside yet another box. "I want you to use your wind power this time to fold the metal in on itself. Reshape it. Flatten it. Do whatever you like as long it looks completely different when you're done with it."
He closed the box and stepped back again.
Bella stared at the box. Gone was the doubt from her mind. Could she do as he wanted? Yes, she believed she could. There was nothing she couldn't do...not anymore.
It only took a second before she nodded to Carlisle. Silently he opened the box. Bella didn't have to peer inside to know that the 20-pound piece of metal was as flat as a piece of paper. It was easy. It was ludicrously easy.
"Are we done?" Bella asked. "I'd like to go for a walk."
"Yes, of course," Carlisle said, still examining the metal. "You did a great job today, Bella."
He smiled warmly at her. She smiled back.
Bella walked on and on. She did not have a destination in mind, nor did she care to keep track of her surroundings. She simply moved her legs back and forth, back and forth until she arbitrarily decided to stop. Her mind was so empty right now. As her eyes traveled over the trees and brush surrounding her, she slowly allowed the thoughts to return. She could burn without seeing...she could destroy without having to witness...she could, she could...
Was there anything she couldn't do? Was the extent of her power only limited by her imagination? By Carlisle's? A large, thick branch dangled precariously from the tree in front of her. Without a thought she brought it down near her face. She stared at it, and a moment later it creaked and groaned as she bent it into all sorts of unnatural angles, not letting it break like it wanted to. The game got boring soon and she incinerated the branch.
A scurrying noise startled her but she calmed when she saw it was just a squirrel. It was running fast up the tree Bella had just defaced...a large gouged hole twenty feet up told her it probably stored food up there. The animal almost made it inside when it suddenly froze. Bella didn't blink, but instead walked forward as the squirrel floated down smoothly until it was level with her face. Its little heart was beating madly in its chest. Its eyes looked every which way but nothing else was going to be able to move until Bella released its body.
Why didn't she have a limit? The squirrel slammed against the tree. Once, twice, three times. Its heart, already deafening, picked up speed as she levitated it close to her face once again. She thought she may have broken one of its ribs. No limit but your imagination...Bella looked up and down the animal's body and cocked her head. She focused on its right paw. Smoke unfurled from it and the animal let out a loud screech, and another, and another as the fur from its paw slowly burned up and melted off. When she stopped, the squirrel's right arm was one big blistering mess.
Oh shut up, she thought. The small animal was screeching and crying incessantly. Shut up! It did. Not because of any effort on its part, but because Bella's invisible hold was tightening around its neck. Its heart sped up even more but still there was nothing it could do. Bella stopped squeezing. This was too easy. Much too easy. Its heart continued to hammer in its chest, a ta-ta-ta-ta-ta fluttering hundreds of beats per minute. She thought back to the hunk of metal. She was so confident of her success even before Carlisle opened the box. It should've required more effort, more trial and error...a lot more error. But it didn't and somehow Bella had sensed it wouldn't. For the first time in her life that power that she'd always felt coursing through her ever since the incident felt...right. It was hers. It was hers to command, hers to enjoy, hers to use. She was able to flatten the metal because...she knew she could. Simple as that. Now that she wasn't limited by what she could see...was there anything she couldn't do?
Ta-ta-ta-ta-ta...the animal still floated in front of her. Its limbs tried and tried to free itself but nothing budged. Nothing would ever budge again. Bella focused on it and listened to its tiny heart...watched the flutters that were visible from its shaking chest. Ta-ta-ta-ta...
A second later, the sounds stopped. The animal floated gently down to the ground and Bella finally released it from her grip. Just like with the metal, Bella did not need additional confirmation to know what had happened. She had wanted it to happen...and so it had.
The animal died because Bella incinerated its heart.
Author's note: No squirrels were harmed during the making of this chapter. Seriously that was kind of tough. I feel...dirty. Is this what it's like to write for a show like Dexter? Reeeeally looking forward to hearing your analysis of this, especially after what you've read in the last few chapters. I will respond to every comment so remember, the more substantial your review, the more substantial my response :)
Oh, and a shout-out to my crazy, crazy, awesome fellow Egyptians. I'm from Egypt (live in the states) and have been pretty distracted this week with the insanity happening over there. Thank god that crazy idiot/terrorist is out of office. Tahia Masr!.