Chapter 34
"I touch the fire and it freezes me, I look into it and it's black.
Why can't I feel?
My skin should crack and peel, I want the fire back.
Now through the smoke she calls to me, to make my way across the flames.
To save the day, or maybe melt away... I guess it's all the same.
So I will walk through the fire, 'Cause where else can I turn?'
And I will walk through the fire and let it… burn."
Although she couldn't see how soon that fateful call would take place, a terrible urgency filled Alice with impending dread as she closed in on the house. She opened her mouth and shouted as loud as she could, her cry of desperation escaping her panicked throat before she had even cleared the forest.
"ISABELLLA!" She didn't sound human, her vampiric voice shattering the relatively peaceful scene, the grass even bent a little from the force of her cry.
She burst into the clearing, a large stretch of grass separated her from the loose stone gravel of the wrap around driveway leading to the garage. She would've normally admired the structure, the nice lines and good use of materials, but not when so much was on the line.
She noted in the periphery of her vision, a group of Jacob's pack were milling about, but they didn't matter. Only Isabella mattered.
When she was twenty yards away something changed in the air. A split second later the house suddenly exploded. A man who had just appeared at the front door vanished in a ball of fire that bloomed up from below, and out through the open door. Then came a wave of force so intense that it blew her into the air. She flailed in a vain attempt to hold onto her beloved as the ground fell away. Then she landed with a heavy thud thirty yards away in a ditch full of mud, pine needles, and rotting leaves.
The concussive force of the blast was still ringing in Alice's ears as she tumbled awkwardly to her feet again, and propelled herself back towards the house. Only when she cleared the lip of the ditch, she was shocked to discover that most of the structure was gone. The second floor and attic were completely gone, and what remained of the first floor was engulfed in a tower of fire that roared like a thousand angry lions, and belched out enough thick black smoke that it threatened to blot out the sun.
Alice stared wide eyed at the undulating pyre, hoping against hope that Isabella wasn't in there. Then she scanned the area around the house for any sign of her. Her search was cut short by Leah, who started running towards the house in a blind scramble to get to her own beloved.
"ELIZA!" Leah screamed over the lashing and cackling flames, smoke stinging her tear laden eyes, and blackening her tear stained cheeks. Her voice tainted with the same kind of desperation that Alice felt herself.
Foolishly, Leah tried to push closer to the house, but the heat was far too intense, and the smoke seeped into her lungs causing her to choke and cough. Rachel wrapped her arms around Leah and tried to force her back, but she was so insistent on walking into the fire that a still weakened Paul had to help hold her back. Eventually they dragged her far enough away that Leah gave up, falling to the ground utterly defeated.
"No, please! Eliza!" Alice could barely make out Leah's tortured voice, but the words echoed her own despairing wail. "No, please...Eliza you can't be gone... "
Alice stared in shock, Leah's words confirming her worst fears, because if Eliza was in the explosion than so was Isabella. She sank to her knees as a wave of inconsolable grief washed over her. She couldn't move, she could only watch the house burn. The fire consuming everything left in her soul. She just begun to dare to hope again, for the first time in decades… only to lose her again. Forever.
Why did she leave her side, she wasn't fast enough. Alice let the flames burn into her eyes, searing the image into her mind. She wasn't sure she could fight the rising temptation to jump in and join Isabella in the afterlife. The blinding light of the flames even began to dim as despair set in, shadows dancing through the smoke and ash that was falling like snow.
Then something cold spread out from the flames, extinguishing them as if a giant hand had snuffed them out. The cold was followed by a loud crash, which sounded almost like a secondary explosion. The crash was soon joined by a deafening high pitched scream. A scream that sent the shadows into a flurry of chaos, writhing around like arms reaching out desperately to escape the abyss. It was a scream of rage, fear, and an agony that pierced the air like an arrow.
From the wisps of smoke and smoldering debris, a mass of three figures rose up as if they were lifted into the air by a thousand invisible strings. Everyone looked up, their eyes wide with shock and awe.
Eliza and Bree hung in the air, loosely cradled in a set of massive translucent black wing-like shapes jutting out from Isabella's back. Their arms and legs dangled limply from what looked almost like amorphous hands, either unconscious or lifeless Alice couldn't tell. A pure darkness radiated out from Isabella, crackling in a kind of negative energy that seemed to pull in all the light Alice could see in seemingly random pulses. The sphere that extended from her seemed to be almost alive, as it moved and shifted with tendrils that were no longer discernible arms but had become malformed and monstrous, snapping and lashing around aggressively.
As the figures floated closer to the ground, Leah could see that Eliza was badly hurt, covered in third degree burns over half of her face and on both arms. Bree's looked like she had fared much better, with some minor burns on her arms and legs. Most of their clothes were gone, and their skin had split in places. Isabella set them both down, as the waves of darkness around Eliza and Bree dissipated.
Then Isabella collapsed between them. Although it was nearly impossible to be entirely certain it was her. She was unrecognizable, her clothes were gone and only a small patch of chest between her breasts remained un-charred. Large portions of her flesh and muscle was gone, leaving section of her skeleton exposed. Her head and back were the worst, and her arms had tatters of blackened muscle and skin draping off them like tassels from a grotesquely bad country-western outfit.
Shadows of impenetrable black billowed out from her still. Even though she wasn't much more than a skeleton, she was still screaming somehow, a horrible echoing banshee cry filling the night like a terrible nightmare. Then the darkness still surrounding her seemed to surge wildly for just a moment before her voice suddenly stopped, and the last of the living shadows vanished.
Light flooded back into the world, but Alice barely registered it. She could only stare at the body lying in front of her, the bones of her beloved. Not even her face remained. All that she could see were two empty sockets where her beautiful eyes used to be.
Alice wasn't sure if she had just seen a phoenix born from the ashes of their home. Or some kind demonic angel, carrying her daughters on wings breathed from shadow. She did know that it was Isabella, the way she protected Eliza and Bree confirmed that. She moved over to her quickly, ignoring the glacial cold radiating from her bones as she pulled her up into her arms. Careful not to lose any part of her from a careless motion. Smoke still curled off her body, and no sign of life rattled beneath her ruined flesh, until Alice was clutching her closely and Isabella's oddly frigid body seemed to settle closer to her in an almost imperceptible shift. It was just enough to keep Alice's hope alive.
Leah went to Eliza, and Seth went over to Bree who stirred almost immediately, and began to look around groggily. Alice didn't waste any more time, she stood and started towards her house with barely a word thrown back to the wolves to follow her. Not that either of them argued. If she had been paying attention to any of them she would've known from their expressions, they all thought Isabella was dead.
As she ran them away from the smoking ruins of the house, she didn't go full speed, not wanting to jostle Isabella too much, and partially because she didn't want to separate from the Quileute's who had to keep pace in their human forms. Alice wasn't about to leave Isabella's daughter's behind, they needed to stay close no matter how much the slowness of the wolves drove her a little mad.
Alice couldn't help letting her eyes move over her body as she ran, and every inch of damage made her heart hurt. If by some miracle she survived, Isabella would never heal. Vampires who lost limbs, or even their heads, could be put back together if the pieces were reassembled. However, when parts of a vampire are destroyed by fire, there was no regeneration. The damage was permanent.
If somehow Isabella survived, she would be permanently and horribly disfigured, and Alice didn't care.
The loss of Isabella's beauty didn't even register as important, even though it was a traumatic blow. She would love her no matter what, she wouldn't abandon her even if she rejected her. With her help maybe Isabella could survive this. Alice wasn't going to give her up, not when she just got her back.
They arrived at the Cullen's house like an elephant crashing into a glass house. The stares of shock as Alice kicked in the back door without warning or preamble, carrying the charred remains of Isabella through the living room past everyone gathered. She was about to set her down, ignoring the bouts of panicked shouting, when she changed her mind and decided to take her up the back stairs to Carlisle's office rather than leave her out on display for everyone to gawk at.
"What in god's name happened?" Carlisle asked as he followed Alice up to his office, Leah right on his heels carrying Eliza who was still unconscious. Then Seth was right behind her, carrying Bree who was curled up and looking a little ashamed that she needed to be carried. Esme, Eleazar, Rosalie and Tanya were all hot on his heels.
Alice set Isabella's body on the couch where Bree had been just few days before. She crouched down trying to will Isabella to respond, but the body just lay there. She wrapped her hand carefully around one of her skeletal hands, wincing at the pain she might be causing her.
Leah saved her from having to answer by speaking up first, after laying Eliza down on the chair. "Their house blew up."
"What?" Carlisle was already crouched down next to Eliza to examine her. Eliza's heavy burns were a bit worse than Alice originally realized. Although they were focused mostly on one side of her body, they were full thickness and in several places, large cracks split the black to reveal a glossy red underneath. The burns started at the top of her head and stretched all the way down her legs. Leah, in an attempt to comfort her, was hovering on her untouched side, caressing her forehead with a look of total helplessness. Esme took one look at the injuries left the room without a word.
"Are they going to be okay?" Bree began to push at Seth's chest to stand on her own two feet, her voice wavered on the verge of full blown panic as she stared unblinking at her newly adopted family. Alice sort of noticed when she finally managed to push away from Seth to fall on her knees next to Leah.
Carlisle had stopped examining Eliza and was now looking at Isabella. Alice hadn't seen that look on his very often, he was at a complete loss for words. He gently checked her as best he could, but it was clear to her that he had never seen any vampire in such bad shape before.
"I… don't know. They're going to need as much blood as possible." Alice watched as Carlisle stood and left the room. She guessed he was going to get blood from the hospital, and she wasn't sure if she cared if they noticed the large quantities missing. Preserving a life in Forks was secondary to bringing back Isabella.
Bree let out a small sob, "It should've been me!" She threw herself onto her side, curled up, and started whimpering. "I should've protected..." A set of arms wrapped around the girl, and pull her into a tight motherly embrace. Everyone conscious was shocked to see that Rosalie was the owner of those arms. Even through the haze of Alice's despair, she felt a little bit of shock at Rosalie's sudden inexplicable compassion. She started murmuring comforting words into the girl's ear, trying to ease her survivor's guilt. No one really noticed Seth stiffen when Rose grabbed Bree, he had tensed as if he wanted to do something but he couldn't figure what to do.
Bree didn't hold back, sobbing tearlessly into Rosalie's shoulder. Esme came back into the room carrying four bags of blood. They were from the emergency stores that Carlisle had kept out of habit ever since Bella had entered their lives all those years ago.
"Bree do you need one yet, or can you wait for little while?" Esme asked softly, Bree looked up with an expression that was unmistakable to everyone, even Alice, that her injuries were not a priority. Without another second of hesitation Esme tossed two bags to Alice, and the other two to Leah. Alice immediately pried Isabella's mouth open and ripped off the feed plug, pouring the contents in a steady stream down Isabella's practically fleshless throat.
Alice saw Esme crouch down next to Leah who seemed a bit lost with the blood bags, and asked her to open Eliza's mouth so she could feed her properly. Alice sighed a little bit in relief when Isabella accepted the blood without choking or spiting it back up, neither was it just pooling in her mouth. Even if she didn't notice any sort of change in Isabella's consciousness level, it was a sign that she was at least alive. Alice finished feeding her the first bag, tossing it aside carelessly before ripping open the second one and almost squeezing it down Isabella's throat.
Rosalie was still attempting to calm Bree down enough to talk, she only kept wailing again and again, "My fault, should've protected them, my fault, should've been me." Rosalie's attempts to reassure her were getting nowhere, when Bree suddenly stiffened up and whirled her head towards Eliza.
"I'm alive, stop. It's okay... I'm fine... Or I will be... Don't mention the Volturi." Eliza managed to finally relate through the connection, it was more than she wanted to commit to, her focus was almost entirely on the silence where her mother should've been.
"It's my fault though, I should've protected you!" Bree replied plaintively.
"No! It was our job to protect you. Look I'm fading quickly, I need to heal... just promise to keep quiet about the Volturi, please." Eliza used the last of the strength she got from the blood to respond, before slipping back into her own regeneration coma. Bree wanted to respond, but felt a strange sense of patience and hope from just knowing that Eliza was going to be alright.
"I promise." Bree said, standing up and disentangling herself from Rosalie, before moving over to Eliza. She blinked back the sting of absent tears and leaned forward to kiss her new sister on the forehead. "Come back to me, I need you."
Everyone stared at her curiously, questions held at the tips of their tongues. Bree just turned and sat next to Alice, staring at Isabella with an intensity that made everyone a little uncomfortable. Alice stared at the girl for a long moment, desperate to ask what had just happened and whether she knew if Isabella was going to wake up.
Then everyone's attention was drawn as Eliza shifted slightly on her own merit as the last of her second blood bag disappeared down her throat. It was a brief distraction though, because she didn't open her eyes or make any other sign that she was regaining consciousness.
Bree shifted slightly and though still focused on Isabella, she nodded slowly absorbing the room's curiosity. "Sorry… Eliza shielded my body with hers, and… Mother shielded both of us with hers." There were more than a few raised eyebrows in response to her comment, but no one spoke.
Alice almost managed a slight smile when Bree lifted her chin, openly defying everyone in the room to question the validity of her statement or her stated relationship with the two unconscious women. With her chin still lifted she continued, "Eliza says that she'll be okay in a while, when she heals up."
Alice turned to give Bree her full attention, but it was Leah that spoke first. "You can still hear her?"
Alice watched Bree nod, until she realized that everyone's attention was suddenly trained on her, so she began to shrink back into herself a little. Rosalie moved over to offer the same comfort as before, and Bree accepted her without complaint.
"She's real quiet now, like she's sleeping or something." Bree said clearly unsure of how to explain things properly.
Alice immediately spoke up, "Can you hear Isabella?" her voice weak and trembling, her plea coming out with more desperation than she had wanted to reveal.
"I've been trying, but she's... it's not like Eliza I can't feel anything from her." Alice watched Bree frown as she looked back towards Isabella with that same intense concentration. Bree shook her head slowly. "I... I can't tell... I... I don't know. I'm sorry." Bree broke her stare at Isabella and looked down with a discouraged look on her face.
Alice turned to look back at Isabella feeling the last shred of hope disappear, and couldn't help sinking into a pit despair even deeper than the one she had fallen into the first time she'd lost her.
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Alice kept up her vigil as time passed. She sat perfectly still, hardly aware of anything beyond her constant focus on Isabella. Sometime later, maybe minutes, probably hours, Carlisle brought blood. She fed Isabella mechanically, even though he had tried to talk to her at some point, she barely even acknowledged his existence. She heard shouting and anger at one point, but it was all so far away.
Alice still wasn't aware of time and had no idea how much had passed, a day… maybe two, before Alice began to notice slight changes. Isabella's body seemed to be repairing itself, but the repairs were microscopic at first. Still, muscle was definitely returning to bone, which had slowly changed from black to white again. The muscles inched up those renewed bones like snakes, slithering towards prey. At first Alice thought she was hallucinating the changes, fooling herself into believing that it was actually happening. Then after a while it was undeniable, especially when the skin on her face started to reform layer by layer, until her alabaster skin was whole again. She held off for a long time, but as soon as she was certain, she let the hope for recovery sink in for the first time and called out frantically for Carlisle.
He rushed up from downstairs, and gasped before leaning in to examine Isabella closely. His expression was absolutely baffled at the level of regeneration. He started to open his mouth to express his confused opinion when something else drew their attention.
"M…ther…se" Eliza groaned loudly and seemed to shudder.
"Eliza's waking up!" Bree said excitedly. Alice hadn't even been aware anyone else was in the room. Most weren't focused on Isabella though, Alice guessed it was because no one wanted to see that level of horrific damage.
Alice was glad that Eliza was awake, Isabella would need her when she finally woke up. She sighed once, before turning back to Isabella. She was beautiful again, her face looked almost untouched even though that was the only part of her that had really recovered. She smiled and caressed her cheek without thinking, before pulling her hand away self-consciously.
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More time passed. Alice knew this time it was days, not that time mattered. She was captivated watching the slow but steady regeneration of Isabella's body. As more of her skin replaced itself, Alice forced herself to leave her side once to go get some clothing to preserve Isabella's modesty. She returned with shorts and a tanktop, taking care dress her to quickly and efficiently, but with an eye on her remaining injuries.
She wasn't alone in her vigil. Carlisle was there most of the time consumed by fascination and wonder. The more Isabella healed the better Alice felt, until her body showed no signs of damage at all and even her hair had grown back to its full length. That's when she noticed that Carlisle kept repeating 'remarkable' and 'unbelievable', obnoxiously overusing the words in his awed bewilderment.
He wasn't the only one sitting next to her. From the moment Eliza woke up, she refused to leave the her mother's side, refused to shower, refused to change into anything but a pair of jeans and a shirt that Leah provided. She barely spoke at all, except for a few murmured conversations with Leah each time she stopped to visit. Eliza didn't really react much to their short conversations, but she seemed pleased that Leah understood her needs without having to explain them. The entire time by her mother's side, Eliza had the same level of concentration on her face that Bree had on hers when she was trying to re-establish the connection to Isabella. That more than anything else worried Alice.
Others seemed to come and go. Bree visited every few hours but seemed too antsy and nervous to stick around for long, especially once Eliza was up. Alice couldn't blame her, since she was still basically a newborn, being able to sit down for long periods wasn't going to be one of her strong suits.
After a long time Alice and Eliza were alone with Isabella. Carlisle was out talking to the family, Leah was with the pack on patrol around the property, and Bree was off with Rosalie doing something to distract her. Eliza turned to look at Alice and murmured quietly. "Are they coming for us yet?"
Alice turned and looked at Eliza for a long moment before closing her eyes and reaching out with her vision. She knew what Eliza wanted. It was several minutes later before Alice opened her eyes again and looked at Eliza.
"They'll be here Saturday. They're not after you though, they're after the wolves. They think you're dead. They've made some side trips to check on other 'disturbances' and 'uprisings' as well, so I guess Joham is still causing trouble too." Alice answered her inquiry honestly, she made sure to check Aro's future closely while she did so she hoped for no more surprises.
Eliza nodded a little bit and then turned her attention back to her mother. Alice, thinking the conversation was over turned back to look at Isabella as well, before Eliza's voice intruded again.
"How long?" Eliza asked.
Alice tilted her head curiously, but didn't bother looking over at Eliza, "How long what?"
"How long have you been in love with her?" Eliza asked, her voice remaining quiet but her tone was demanding an answer.
"I've loved her since before I met her. Before I first laid eyes on her." Alice replied without taking her eyes off of Isabella's unmoving frame.
"Then why…?" Eliza asked but let the question trail off.
"Because I made a mistake, I made a stupid assumption about Edward. It's something I'll never let happen again." Alice answered honestly.
"If you hurt her like that again, I'll kill you." Eliza said. Her tone wasn't playful, nor was it aggressive, it was more a statement of simple fact rather than a threat. Based on her tone she could have been commenting on the weather.
"I know. If she comes out of this, I'll never hurt her. Never again. I'd rather die than cause her more pain." Alice responded so quietly that even Eliza could barely make out her words. "I don't know if she'll recover though, I can't help thinking that she's going to die." Alice added in a whisper... obviously afraid to speak too loudly and force fate's hand.
"Mom will come out of this. She's not going to leave me alone. Not when I still need her, while Bree still needs her." She looked over at Alice finally before continuing, "She won't leave us, because she has something to live for." Eliza's sounded resolute. She wasn't speaking in empty platitudes, she didn't sound hopeful or wishful, it was as if she were stating an indisputable fact.
Alice nodded slowly, her attention still riveted on Isabella, waiting for any twitch, any sign. "Please… Isabella. I can't lose you again. Please… please come back to me."
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"Wh.. god..?"
"T.. hou.. blew.."
".. they.. go.. okay?"
"I… need.. blood.. as poss.."
"It should've been me... I should've protected..."
The indistinct voices floated whisper soft through Isabella's senses. Isabella's eyes snapped open, and she sat up, looking around. She had been leaning against the trunk of a tree and woke to the sounds of a strange forest around her. It was night time, and the sounds of wildlife were springing up everywhere. She looked down to find herself clad in a pair of blue jeans, and a plain grey tee-shirt. Isabella groggily tried to piece together where she was, and how she had gotten there.
"I was beginning to wonder if you were going to sleep the night away." A pleasant female voice said.
Isabella slowly stood up, looking around to find the source of the voice. It took her several seconds to realize the voice came from the tree above her. Isabella looked up and saw a figure sitting on a large thick branch directly above her. All she could see of the figure, was her black jeans and black boots that were dangling from the branch and swinging gently back and forth. Isabella took several steps backward to get a better angle, curious who this mysterious stranger was.
Curiosity, what was odd she was never really curious about anything anymore.
Isabella found that the voice belonged to a girl, her view was of her left profile and she looked to be approximately the same age as Isabella, at least superficially. She had very dark black hair, that fell thick and lush below her shoulders. The black jeans and boots were topped with a black spaghetti strap shirt, which showed ample amounts of the girl's very pale nearly chalk white skin. In her black gloved hands, she held a thick book, that she seemed to be paging through slowly.
"Who are you? Where am I?" Isabella half asked, half demanded, trying to get the feeling of fuzziness out of her head. Though she was surprised that her voice wasn't filled with her usual anger.
The girl sighed a little bit and snapped the book she was reading shut with a thud, muttering under her breath. "Never liked how it finished anyway. Always thought Harry should've ended up with Hermione. Ron's such a twit." The girl sighed again and looked up into the grey sky for a moment.
Then she turned to face Isabella and hopped off the branch to land a few feet away. She smiled pleasantly and held out her free hand in greeting. "Well, in answer to the where, I would say that you're here for now. As to my identity, how about you just call me... Dee, for now at least." Her pitch black eyes had no irises, but somehow they didn't seem creepy as Isabella met her gaze.
Now that Isabella had a better look at this odd girl, she was a little taken aback by the fact she was easily one of the most beautiful people she'd ever seen. Her almost ethereal appearance confirmed what Isabella suspected, that Dee wasn't human. Her pale skin, the grace and ease with which she moved, on top of her inhuman beauty was a dead giveaway. She was very slender, almost waifish. At the corner of her right eye, she had a small tattoo that looked like a spiral. Around her neck, she wore a large silver Ankh. She had an odd, but friendly smile on her face as Isabella refused the greeting.
"M..ther… se"
"Eliza's waking up!"
The voices echoed around indistinctly for several moments before fading. As soon as her head began to clear, she tried to reach out through her link to Eliza. She was met with silence, but the chaotic and frightened emotions coming from both Eliza and Bree drove her into a slight frenzy.
"Where is here!? Where are my daughters!?" Isabella narrowed her eyes. She could feel them; their fear, worry, and the pain Eliza felt as she mended the last of her wounds, but it was all strangely muffled.
"Bree is being cared for, and Eliza is fine, or rather she will be." Dee responded with a comforting smile, without any hint of malice or deception in her voice. "Do you remember what happened?"
Isabella frowned slowly as the memories trickled in slowly for a few moments, and then everything came back in a rush. "We were… talking to Aro, and then he called someone… and…" Isabella faltered a little bit as her eyes widened. "and then….fire?"
Dee nodded slowly her tone one of encouragement, "That's right."
"But… why… how did…. who told him about…" Isabella started to ask before she could stop herself, the questions welling up all at once before trailing off in the least subtle way possible. She didn't want to give anything further away to this stranger.
"I'm so glad you're okay."
"I'm not... not until Mom…"
"She's looking better. Her body is repairing itself."
"I'm not just worried about her body"
Isabella looked around, the voices were slightly more distinct now, but before she could ask about them, Dee caught her attention.
"Eliza and Leah? I know! They're sickeningly cute." Dee giggled and rocked forward on her toes a little bit. Then she sobered up, and an almost sad expression crossed her face. "Fate did good with that match up."
"How do you know about that? Who are you?" Isabella frowned. Somehow the first time her daughter had any sort of private life, it had become public knowledge. That didn't sit well with her. "You're not one of the Volturi, nor from any other vampire coven I've ever come across."
"Are they coming for us yet?"
"They'll be here Saturday..."
Dee's somber mood seemed to pass like quicksilver as she laughed, as if Isabella had told a great joke. "No... I'm not part of any coven, and I know a lot of things."
Her evasive non-answers irritated Isabella more than the news that the Volturi were on their way. So she decided to switch tacks and go with some of her other questions. "Well then, are you the one that told Aro about everything?" Her voice held a challenge and her anger began to return to her like a security blanket. Her fists clenched. If Dee had been the one to inform on them over something that small, especially if she'd hoped to hurt Eliza, Isabella would end her right there.
Dee actually laughed and shook her head. "No, I did no such thing." Once again her voice rang with such truth that even Isabella couldn't doubt her.
"Then who!?" Isabella demanded, her face contorting into a scowl and her voice almost coming out as a furious yell.
Dee hesitated a moment, her face going strangely blank. "I can't tell you that." She paused and then cocked her head with a slight smile, "I can tell you, that you have all the information you need to figure it out."
"Are you purposefully going for the mysterious angle here?" Isabella sighed with irritation,
"How long?"
Isabella looked around sharply, trying to determine the genesis of the voices. They were barely whispers, as faint as if they had been carried in on the wind from a great distance "Where are those voices coming from?"
Dee shook her head a little bit, "They're..." She smirked slightly, "The are telling me that our time is limited, but not over yet. Do you recognize where you are?"
Isabella looked around, and then frowned in annoyance. "I already asked that question. You didn't give me a straight answer."
Dee didn't look abashed in the slightest, but she nodded, "That's true! Come with me!" Without waiting for a response, she took off into the darkness.
"I've loved her since before I met her."
Isabella hesitated and followed her cautiously, and then faster needing to keep pace with Dee's incredible speed, she noted that her body felt oddly stiff as she moved. However the run was a short one, over almost as soon as they started. Dee came to a stop next to a seemingly random tree and leaned against it casually, she pointed down to the ground in front of her.
Isabella looked to where Dee was pointing and her jaw dropped. There, on the ground curled up in a ball on her side lay... a form that was unmistakably her, only human.
She sank to her knees and reached out to the unmoving girl only to have her hands pass right through her. "What… I don't understand." Yet even as the words left Isabella's mouth, she did understand. She remembered this night so long ago. She looked up at Dee. "My past... am I dead?"
Dee chuckled softly, "No, not yet, but I have to hand it to you sweetheart. I've seen more than one close call… but I believe you've set a new record. I can honestly say I've never seen anyone come that close without crossing the line before."
"Why did you bring me here?" Isabella asked with a scowl, her heart lurching at the emptiness she saw reflected on her own face. She knew that pain intimately, she'd lived through it when Edward had left her in this forest. Alone, helpless. She shuddered a little bit, in many ways it was like looking in a mirror. She wore that same look nearly a century later.
Dee shrugged a little bit, "I didn't bring us here. You did. In some ways a part of you has never really left this place."
"...hurt her like that again, I'll kill..."
"If she comes out of this..."
"...she's going to die."
Isabella frowned at Dee for several long seconds, "Wait… if I'm… are you…." looking skeptical.
Dee sighed and rolled her eyes, putting her hand on her hip. "Go ahead and say it."
"Aren't you supposed to be some cloaked skeletal guy that carries around a giant scythe?" Isabella blurted out.
Dee rolled her eyes. "Me skeletal, you... oh never mind. I swear, I go to ONE fucking Halloween party dressed like that, and that's the image Morpheus starts sticking in everyone's nightmares. His version of revenge because I said his cake tasted like sugary dirt."
Isabella blinked, not quite sure how to respond to that.
"She won't leave us, because she has something to live for."
Though they were still faint like whispers, the voices came through much more clearly this time. Isabella blinked as she realized a fog was beginning to roll in, drifting through the woods, obscuring the trees one by one, creating the illusion that they were disappearing into a grey nothingness.
"Any other questions?" Death asked with a raised eyebrow.
"Am I dreaming this?" Isabella frowned.
"Does it really matter?" Death looked thoughtful for a moment and shrugged, her face turning serious. "One thing before you go. I have watched you for years. I was there at your birth. I was there at… your rebirth... Both times. You have only now begun to heal. You cannot face what is to come if you aren't whole. And you're not. The pieces must be reassembled. There are such powers at play here that I have been forced to take an active hand in things once more. I have a vested interest in you. Represent me well."
Isabella frowned in confusion as the forest seemed to become more and more indistinct, even Dee seemed to becoming more and more hazy. "Wait, what are you talking about? Represent you how?" Her confusion only deepening. The space between them seemed to fill with fog, completely obscuring Isabella's view of Death. The voices on the air were becoming more and more distinct, as the world around her seemed to fade more and more.
"Mother, please don't leave me." Eliza finally broke through the connection.
"Mom, please… we both need you" Bree added emphatically.
"Please… Isabella. I can't lose you again. Please… please come back to me." The last voice seemed further away than the other two, but at the same time it rung deeply in Isabella's soul and exerted a pull even stronger than the pleas of her daughters. She couldn't fathom who could exert more influence on her than Eliza and Bree, except maybe... no she couldn't accept that.
Dee's voice came one final time. "Remember well Isabella, the song never changes, only the players. Death and Fate are like two dancers spinning endlessly across an infinite stage, moving to the same melody... forever inseparable, forever intertwined. If you don't embrace your Fate, you'll be dooming yourself and the world to a destiny far worse than death, where you will dwell in shadow and darkness forever..."
Then the thick grey fog engulfed her completely.
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Author's note: DISCLAIMER: O_O I totally used Neil Gaiman's version of DEATH. I don't own it or have rights to it! Just like i don't own twilight :P
1) Wooohooo! Alot of people were kinda miffed at the whole cliffhanger thing! So I hope this helped!
2) I originally wrote a totally separate direction at this point in the story. I originally wrote that when Aro initially dialed the phone. Nothing happened. Then he tried again, and nothing happened. (Eliza was going to crack a joke. "Can you hear me now?" or "Wow. let me guess, AT&T?" Then Henry stepped forward with. "Um. Sorry... personal quirk. I don't much enjoy sleeping surrounded by C4. So I took all that of it out and buried it"
From there it became a different disagreement with the Volturi. This was really the first significant FORK in the story that was directly influenced by Samantha Minuet. She has had lots of edits and even wrote the Edward part. But this is the first MAJOR story shift she influenced. And I got so psyched from it. It fits the story so much better. She's awesome!
3) The Harry Potter reference in there is because Samantha and I are batting ideas around for a Harry Potter fanfiction as well. I'd like to write it but have to get an idea like this one that really takes a hold and takes off. The comment Death makes is totes my opinion. I prefer Harry and Hermione together. (Totally think that was JKR's original intention, then she decided not to kill Ron.) If you like this story, I'd hope you'd be willing to read something else we wrote. If we can find something we like well enough to really inspire us, we will. (Feel free to offer ideas :D )
4) Sharp Eyed Shout Out goes to BubblyBlue for being the first reviewer to guess Bella's power had something to do with darkness, BoroBred was the second. And the first person to guess obtenebration was Merkarion. It's not JUST like obtenebration, but that's what gave me the initial idea. I modified it from there.
5) Samantha Minuet's Co-Author's Note: Death is a lot nicer than I would've expected. Seriously though, Kathryn always seems to have a trick up her sleeve to surprise me with a direction I'd never have expected. Even knowing what's coming in the next few chapters, I'm still awed by her ability to keep me guessing. Also I wanted to personally thank all of you guys for your wonderful feedback!
6) Please Read and Review! We do appreciate it!
Next Chapter- A Coven Rises.
