I focused back in on the conversation just as James finished up, Isabella still standing across the room, her expression of horror reflected in every mirror.. "-no reason for me to touch her then." He sighed and I was surprised he didn't put a hand to his forehead, like people in old movies. "I destroyed the old one in vengeance."
"Alice." Bella gasped.
"Who the hell is Alice?" I demanded, my voice a garbled mess from my broken jaw. I was standing now, my voice weak with pain but still holding all the irritation I'd meant it to.
James glanced at me with a smile. "You'll understand soon, Genny. Patience. I have to take care of your sister, first."
"You can't—"
"Trust me, dear." James said soothingly. In an instant he was in front of me, breathing in with a smile. "You won't mind losing her. Not after I change you." He gave me a gentle kiss on the forehead, not even noticing as I struggled to break away from him. As he pulled back, his face was thoughtful. "Then again…" He said slowly. "I can't have you ruining my shot."
There was a loud crack and I screamed as I fell back to the ground again, clutching desperately at my second broken leg. James didn't even wait to see me fall, instead turning to my sister as she began to move toward me, yelling my name.
"Gene-!"
He dropped into a crouch and then he was on her, knocking her flying into a wall of glass. There was a sickening crack as she fell to the ground again, as shards exploded across the room. I hid my face behind my arm and felt bits of glass splinter into my flesh. I pulled down my arm to see James circling her like a vulture, admiring the wreckage.
"That's a very nice effect. I thought this room would be visually dramatic for my little film. That's why I picked this place to meet you. It's perfect, isn't it?"
"Bastard!" I yelled. It was all I could get out through the pain and my swelling mouth.
He turned and winked at me.
Then he walked over to my sister and placed a foot on her leg.
"Leave her alone!" I demanded, angry and slowly beginning to realize that if he changed me… if I became… like him… Was I going to be doing these things to someone? This thought was split in half as he stomped down hard and Bella screamed, her voice echoing with the snap of her leg. It was then that I had another thought: my sister was about to die. I was about to lose my sister, my sister who had come here to save me, and I was never going to get her back.
This BASTARD was stealing my family!
Stupidly—I cannot emphasize that word enough—I reached out and grasped a shard of glass, one almost as wide as my fist, and closed my hand around it. I don't know what I planned to do with it—throw it, maybe? And if so, how numb does a brain have to be before it considers throwing a piece of glass at a mad vampire?—but as soon as my hand closed over it, I felt it pierce my skin and I saw James turn and lock in on me like a shark finding a fish.
A drop of blood hit the floor.
I saw his face lose all humanity.
I saw the thirst take over.
I saw him arrive by my side, not caring as he yanked my hand up.
He sunk his teeth into my wrist and I felt the world seeping away.
"Isabella?" I muttered, looking for her. She should run now. This was going to be her only chance.
But when I looked across the room and found her, she was already unconscious.
As something grabbed James and yanked him away, my head hit the floor and I joined her.
And I dreamed of my sister screaming my name and begging for me to stay human.
…
Burning.
My hand was burning.
It hurt so much.
It hurts.
"It hurts."
"It's going to be ok."
Pain explodes and blisters through my shattered body.
Pain begins to fade.
And then I'm lost.
…
I find myself being carried, low voices surrounding me.
I smell smoke.
I smell perfume.
I smell medicine and disinfectant.
I fall away again.
…
The rest of it was all dreams, dreams that never seemed to end.
They were all nightmares.
They were all about James and Victoria.
They were all about blood and death.
I was losing myself, not just my consciousness, but my sanity. It was dripping away with dream after dream of a kind smile beneath red eyes, of a promise that I wouldn't stay human long, of an offering of a world where I would be special and different and there would be no Isabella to take any eyes off of me.
But all I wanted was a world without all this pain.
That was how I knew I was waking up; the pain.
First it was simple, pinpricks, remembering Tyler's backing off and Bella leaving, Dad yelling at me and Mom letting me stay with him. Then I remember Isabella walking into the ballet studio and I saw her about to die. After that I began to feel the physical pain: my legs both ached and itched at the same time. My brain felt like it was melting from the drugs and the concussion. I wrinkled my nose: there was something stuck to it, hard plastic and tape. My right hand itched too, I could feel a wound stretch as I began to lift it toward my chest, realizing I was too hot and suddenly feeling a blanket far too heavy on my struggling chest.
"Gen? Genny?" I blinked open my eyes as someone grabbed my hand and held it far too tightly.
"Geroff." I mumbled, shaking my head slowly as I broke through the fog. I could tell I was in a hospital, now. Weirdly, it just made me think of Bella's accident and then it made me think of Tyler again. I closed my eyes.
"Genny, stay with me." The voice whispered. "Just a little bit, ok? Wait for the doctors?"
I opened my eyes again, letting them focus on a face. "Dad?" I squeaked.
"There you are." He said, smiling. "How you feeling?"
It wasn't a question I could really answer with words, so I avoided it.
"Where's Isabella?" I said, the only question I could think of.
"She's fine. Hurt like you: what were you two thinking? But she woke up two days ago. She'll be ok." Dad smiled at me, his eyes a little too bright. "And she's coming back to Forks. She said you and Edward talked some sense into her."
"That doesn't sound like me." I said, falling back into the easiest kind of lie; the joke.
Dad accepted it, laughing. "Sense? No. I'm assuming Edward did most of the work?" I nodded, just one little movement of my sore head. "But the doctors are here, ok?" I looked over to see people walking in. "I'm gonna go talk to your mom, ok? She'll want to know you're up. She just went for a coffee."
"Mmm." I said noncommittally. I wasn't sure which I wanted less: mom or doctors. As they swarmed around and started asking questions, I began to relax. I had one advantage, you see, and it was an advantage that was going to come in very handy when it came to telling my story.
The advantage? The one thing that came naturally to Genevieve Elizabeth Swan?
I can lie like the dickens.
So I did. I told them I didn't remember. I told them I didn't remember coming to Phoenix and acted surprised that I was even in Phoenix. I said I didn't remember talking to Edward. I said I didn't remember Isabella falling and knocking both of us out a freaking window. I even laughed and made a joke about not being surprised to hear it. And I said all of this so well that I began to believe it, began to understand that maybe my messed up brain had been dreaming just a little bit more then I'd thought. Maybe the idea that James and Victoria were just people who'd seeped into my dreams, maybe that was the truth and everything the doctors were telling me was the truth. I know the mind is a crazy thing. So why shouldn't that be true? Why shouldn't I ignore my nightmares and the memories of red, hungry eyes and go on living as sane individual?
I can lie to my doctors.
Why shouldn't I lie to myself?
…
Mom came in a little after the doctors left. I think she'd been waiting in the hallway for the go ahead because she rushed in and then hovered awkwardly, not knowing how to talk to me. Her eyes were a little teary, which was nice, but she didn't seem to understand that someone who has literally just woken from a coma might not be up for much small talk... though apparently her new husband was now some big athlete, so that was interesting enough. I decided to remember it, just in case I was ever stuck in a room with her again.
Mom finally left after about an hour of this, but only to go fetch my sister. I wondered briefly where Dad had gone off to and then Isabella was wheeled in and found myself trembling as I realized I even now could believe that she was alive. There had been so much blood… and her screams. I screwed my eyes tightly shut and felt Mom take my good hand, giving it a squeeze. I opened my eyes to find teardrops dancing on my eyelashes: one escaped and Mom wiped it away.
"My poor babies." She said. "Do you want more painkillers? I can call the nurse."
I shook my head. "Can… can I just talk to Isabella quick?"
Mom chuckled. "I always forget you call her that." I turned my head away, trying to hide my irritation. "Bella, I'm going to go tell Edward where you are, ok hon?"
"Ok." Bella said quietly. She hadn't looked up from her hands in the entire time she'd been in the room. I smiled at her as Mom left the room.
"Feeling a little guilty, baby sister?" I said weakly. My jaw made it a little hard to talk, the wires in my mouth even more so, but it had healed enough that I was able to pronounce words well enough to be understood.
Isabella looked up and her gaze was tortured. "What do you remember?"
I opened my mouth and then closed it, considering. Then I gave her the answer I was dreading: I held up my hand. She flinched sharply away from me and looked about to cry.
"Hard to forget something like this." I said softly.
That was vague enough, right? If vampires are imaginary she can take that as falling out the window or whatever it was that really happened… Of course, I did know that, once the gauze came off and I got to see whatever mark was on my hand, the truth was going to come bulldozing straight back into my brain but for now I could tell myself that Bella was wincing at the memory of pushing me out a window.
"Well… what do you have to say about it?" I demanded, starting to get angry. My sister still wasn't saying anything.
"That I'm sorry." She said. "I'm so, so sorry, Gen. And it won't happen again."
"Well." I said. I lowered my hand but found myself staring at it, wondering…no! Lie to yourself, Genevieve. Lie as long as your effing can! I ripped my gaze away and glare at Bella. "What won't happen again, Isabella?" My teeth ground together in anger and I saw stars as the pressure flashed through my broken jaw.
Bella opened her mouth, resolve weakened at the pain in my face, but at that moment Edward appeared in the door. If only I'd kept my eyes on her, I might have gotten the truth! But I looked up to give him my fiercest scowl and Bella followed my gaze.
"Edward." She said with a smile, all concern for me flying out a window. Now if only I could figure out if I had done the same.
"Isabella Swan." I called, raising my hand again and seeing Edward's gaze narrow on the bandage. They knew, they both knew, oh, crap, it's true it's true—NO. No. Wait. Just wait, Genevieve. I closed my eyes and focused my will on breathing evenly, knowing I was moments away from hyperventilating myself into a complete meltdown. "Bella." I said slowly and carefully. "You need to tell me."
They watched me for a moment, Isabella's eyes wide and sad and Edward's suspicious and guilty. I don't know what they saw: a girl with crazy eyes? A traumatized victim of their mistakes? But whatever it was, they weren't going to tell me.
Edward slowly shook his head, getting the same old pitying look he'd given me so long ago in Port Angeles.
And Bella bit her lip, reached out a hand for his, and raised the other pleadingly before her.
"I can't, Gen. It's too dangerous." She told me.
She glanced uncertainly up at Edward and I did too, finding him staring at me as though he was trying to see straight into my soul, to find out if I was worthy or not, if I could be trusted.
Dick.
I'll get you yet, I thought, shoving all my hatred for Edward Cullen into one glare.
This was not the best strategy.
"Gen, just forget it." Bella was pleading. "It's better if you just don't think about it."
I turned back to her and stared at her, incredulous and disgusted. "You're keeping secrets, aren't you, Bella?" I raised the hand again, wondering what I was going to find beneath the clean white bandage. The lie was slipping away with everything Bella said. "Edward's secrets."
Isabella stared at me. "Gen…"
"I'm your sister!" I yelled. Pain washed over me, mind blackening pain that made my eyes roll back into my head. When I came back, Edward was beside me, jabbing at the call button.
A nurse ran in and slipped something into my iv and I began to slip away, feeling her check over my injuries, feeling another hand gently tuck a string of hair behind my ear. Bella…
"You're my sister." She whispered. She struggled for words for a moment and when she spoke next she spoke as though her words explained everything…
"But he's Edward."
...
Author's note!
Thanks again for all the great comments. One more chapter for Book 1! Wheeee!
Let me know what ya'll think!
