I don't own Twilight. I do own the rest.
5.
The fog coats my face in light, wet droplets as I lay on my stomach watching the dawn rise progressively through the trees and behind the edges of clouds. It seems as though its been ages since I last experienced this. A shard of a ray touches a flower in front of me and I catch a glimpse of the opening bud breaking forth to reveal its inside pollen.
Confetti lays next to me, fast asleep. He had spent the whole night bragging about how he could stay up all night. He seems so peaceful as though nothing in the world can touch him and for just a moment, I envy him for the shroud of darkness and ease that surrounds him - cutting everything away. It's as if nothing and no one can touch him.
But I know better. People hide themselves away for protection, to guard the scars on their own souls. Could you bring yourself back after losing a loved one, or is it selfish to want to move on? Renee's face comes into view and a wetness fills my eyes. Wiping it away, my eyes land on a small leaf in the distance that's covered with dew. One tiny spec glides to the brink and teeters there, as if asking permission to drop to the ground below.
"How long was I out?" Confetti speaks up beside me.
"About two hours," I turn back to the leaf. The drip of water is still teetering on the edge. "Did you ever cry over the person who died?"
"No," his voice is like steel.
"Why not?"
His eyes bore into mine and his answer breaks my heart just a little more. "Because I don't want him to see me cry."
Already, I know who he's talking about. In the corner of my eye, the water drops to the dirt below.
Alice's POV
"When he gets here, I'm going to kill him myself," I tell Carlisle, who has just gotten off the phone with Edward. I can't remember the last time I was this angry, this shaken. And we had allowed this. We had let Edward dictate all our actions concerning Bella for the last year.
Jasper sends me calming waves but it's not really helping. Instead it feeds as fuel to my fire. Carlisle looks at me, sad and just...defeated. Esme has been leaning against him, sobbing dryly for the last hour, and Rose has yet to say anything. Emmett stands outside, still as stone.
"Honey, you need to relax -blaming Edward isn't going to help anything," Jasper says soothingly in my ear. But I snap.
"Jazz, she's in a mental institution - I can't just let him off the hook, not for this one. He may not have put her there but its cause and effect. The doctors there are abusing her," my voice breaks and Jasper growls, rubbing circles on my back. My eyes dart to another sobbing noise in the corner, Rose.
Emmett suddenly comes stomping into the house, "When's the self-righteous prick going to be here?"
"He's catching the next flight out, he should be here in about 3 hours."
"What did you tell him, Carlisle? Did you tell him?" Esme murmurs into his shirt.
"I didn't tell him anything. We don't even know why she's there to begin with - I just told him that this was a matter of family emergency."
Exactly three hours later, Edward steps into the room. He looks like hell - good. "What is it this time?" He glares at Carlisle who is rehearsing something in his head along with the rest of us. Edward turns to me and snarls. "Alice."
"Try me - you're lucky I haven't ripped you into shreds yet, Edward," I hiss back, my voice breaking.
"I told you not to look!"
"I don't give a god-damn thing about what you might have told me anymore! I didn't look, it seeped through and we should all be grateful that it did," I leap to my feet, shooting daggers into his eyes. "Do you wish to know what happened since we left? Did you think by killing Victoria, she would be safe and nothing else would come into play? No, Edward. I'm done obeying your wishes - as soon as we're done here, I'm flying to Seattle. We might already be too late to fix what you insisted we toss aside."
Edward snarls again, "Leave her, Alice. I'll force you to stay if I have to."
Jasper abruptly is in front of me. "The hell you will. If you stop Alice now, you'll have proven that you never loved Bella to begin with."
Edward resists, and I stop chanting the rhymes in my head, conjuring up the image to him. He's on the floor in seconds choking out her name, shrieking, "Bella," as he tears and scrapes at the floorboards below him.
