THE REMNANTS

Chapter 5: Bella (Badiyah) Part II

Hot nights turned into cool nights, the moon grew round and then slim again, and rain came from year-to-year and brought temporary life into the desert. Everywhere, change seeped into the cracks and crevices of life as quickly and quietly as the sporadic rains soaked into the thirsty sands.

The camel traders gained wrinkles and gray hairs, which, they told her, was due to age and a natural part of life. Bella's mirror showed the crease between her eyebrows never left her one day and grew only deeper in the days that followed. A few strands of gray disrupted the dark chestnut of her hair, causing her to jump in excitement at the possibility of something new. Edward was less impressed. It seemed to almost cause him to turn inward on himself when she showed him. He disappeared early that month and so she didn't bring it up again.

Edward never aged. On the outside, he never changed, except for his eyes and his moods. His dark red hair never grew in length or marred his youthful face. Cracks and crevices did not shadow his eyes and his cheeks maintained the roundness of a young man. She wondered how long he had been the same and how many hot seasons he'd lived through. He never spoke of his past or his future. He rarely spoke of personal stories at all.

For years, she thought she knew him. When their days were spent as intertwined as the sun and the light, she could recognize each mood, each unspoken thought, each suppressed emotion as it flittered across his face. Now, she knew differently. Now she felt as though she had never known him at all, but instead had communed with a shadow or a fabrication of the "real" Edward.

Edward may not have aged, but he did change. Bella noticed, over the decades, when two dramatic shifts occurred within Edward. She could never tell what caused them, but he was never quite the same after and they left her wearing a cloak of sadness which grew heavier as days slipped through her fingers like sand.

The first shift began so subtly she hardly knew it had started until it engulfed her. Only in retrospect could she tell it began the day she woke to find Edward not only in her room, but in her bed with his body curled around her as he whispered into her ear. She turned to face him, his red eyes so brilliant with passion and heat, and she kissed him. She didn't know why she did it, but her impulses compelled her to pull herself closer to him, weave her fingers through his hair, and deepen the kiss.

His eyes grew wide and he leapt away from her as if she had burned him with fire. He fled the room, knocking over the rocking chair in his hurry, before she could apologize or ask him why he ran.

He sought her out later that day but his explanation hardly comforted her.

"I'm sorry about that, Bella. I was out-of-line. I shouldn't have presumed upon you in such a way," he said as he kissed her hand. He pulled her to sit beside him on the couch in his room. A book lay cast aside on a pillow.

Bella shook her head and bit her lip. She feared meeting his eyes out of embarrassment and her cheeks burned.

"I didn't mind it. I liked having you there," she told him. She ventured a glance at his face only to meet a stone-faced resolve warring with something deeper within him. "What did I do wrong? You gave me a kiss yesterday. I liked it. I wanted to return it."

He groaned and leaned his forehead against hers. He closed his eyes and stayed still for a few moments before answering.

"You didn't do anything wrong…I was simply…unprepared for it. I will work on…preparing…myself so that I can control my reactions better," he said. He opened his eyes to meet hers with a warm smile. They were so close she could feel his breath dance across her nose and they both stared for far longer than her heartbeat could manage without responding.

He shook his head and pulled away. "Come on. Let's go read more of our book," he said and picked up the book from the pillow. "You need to discover what happens to Robinson Crusoe next."

She woke the next morning in his bed to a gentle kiss on her forehead.

"Good morning, sleepyhead," he said with a chuckle.

She yawned and stretched and gave a disoriented glance around the room. Edward set a tray of food in front of her and her eyes grew wide as her stomach grumbled.

"That's what I thought. You were so captivated in the story that you missed dinner completely and you were so excited to hear the last chapter that you fell asleep before I even finished."

She yawned again and picked at the dried fruit and granola on the plate. "It was good. I wanted to hear the rest," she said.

"You eat. I'll pick up where we left off and we should be able to finish it by the time you finish your breakfast." Edward pulled a chair up beside the bed, opened the book, and continued his tale. Bella listened, enraptured both by the story and the beauty with which Edward told it and she felt overcome with a peaceful contentedness and deep affection that she couldn't put into words.

"And that's the end," he said as he closed the book with a resounding paper bang. He smiled. "I don't have to ask you if you enjoyed. I can see you did."

She nodded and let him take her hands to pull her off the bed and to her feet. He pulled her in close and inhaled deeply as he nestled his nose into her hair.

"Bella," he said as he let her go. "I need to go away for a few days."

"Oh, ok," she said. She didn't bother to hide the disappointment in her voice. "You haven't gone away very much lately."

"I know," he said with a sigh. "I haven't wanted to…I haven't wanted to be away from you, but now I need to…take care of some things. It might take a little longer than usual, but it will be…better…for both of us when I return, I hope."

He spoke with uncharacteristic nervousness and as he finished, he pulled her close into his arms and kissed her, so long and deep she could feel it in her toes. Then he vanished.

She was still struggling to catch her breath when she heard the doors to the Research Lab shut. He was right. He was away longer than he had been in years. As they had gradually come to spend more and more of their time together, Edward's absences had grown fewer and shorter. Sometimes he waited until his eyes were so dark and such shadows lay beneath them that she worried he was growing ill. He told her not to worry and he would disappear for at most a day and come back, restored and cheerful, and overflowing with ways to fill their days.

It was ten days before she saw him again and when he emerged, she was surprised that he didn't pull her into his arms and swing her in a circle as he usually did. Instead, he gave her a forced smile, barely met her eyes, and fled into the Generation Lab before she could say a word.

ooooo

It never was the same, not as it had been before. Edward found little time to spare for music or reading, games, or lessons after that. The heat in his eyes simmered and waned and he only rarely sought her company. Even his night visits decreased in frequency.

Bella kept to her tasks and did as she was expected to, though she treasured her supply runs even more now that Edward spent so little time with her. She missed him terribly. Edward's times spent locked in the Research Lab were so long and so frequent, Bella began to worry he was unwell.

"I'm fine," Edward told her, when she asked. "You are sweet to worry, but don't. All is well. We'll be able to spend time again together soon. I have some very important work to do which I think will benefit us both greatly."

He kissed her on the forehead and gave empty promises that he'd play his piano for her again soon. Then he disappeared.

At first she pretended it would all go back to normal soon, but as days turned to weeks and weeks to months, her sense of loss deepened. Then the sadness morphed to a burning anger against the Others. Why did they get so much of his time and attention now instead of her? Her bitterness so engulfed her that she could barely tend to her tasks without gritting her teeth and giving them all glares as she kept them alive.

Why did Edward create so many of them? What did he use them for and why did he spend so much time with them? She asked herself. She had long given up trying to pry any of her answers from him. She sought answers in the Generation Lab when he left it empty, but all it contained were the tanks filled with growing bodies, slowly knitting together in the warm waters. She tried to listen outside the door to the Research Lab, but it was too strong and thick to give her any insights. Then, she thought if she hid in the air vents, she would discover more answers.

She knew Edward's senses were much keener than hers and she would have to tread carefully. On a day he locked himself in his Research Lab, she hid herself in the vent long before he arrived and tried to watch and listen.

The small slats gave her very little perception into events occurring below. She could see a few feet of the tile floor, the leg of a desk, but that was all. However, she could hear well enough to recognize Edward's footsteps crossing the lab. She heard the sound of him placing a body onto sheets and he spoke in a language she couldn't understand. He spoke in a tone she thought reserved only for her and she burned with a jealousy so fierce she thought it would consume her.

It was the next sounds that came as a solid punch to her gut and she had to bite her tongue to keep from crying out in her rage and betrayal. It was a few moments later where he happened to cross into her field of vision and she could see where he lay on the tile floor with one of the Other Bellas within his arms. He trailed kisses up her bare chest and nestled his nose into her neck before he rolled them out of sight again.

She could hear when the silence and lack of movement overcame the sounds and creation of movement. She did not understand fully what it all meant, but it still left her feeling like she had metaphorically eaten sand.

For months, she hated all these Others, almost as much as she hated herself for caring as much as she did. Why were Edward's kisses and caresses reserved only for the Others? Why not for her? Her hatred cooled as she came upon empty bed after empty bed and she realized that she lived to see another day, another year, unlike the Others. Would this Bella weep or scream or laugh when it came her turn to be with Edward and be given to the desert? What would each woman have been like if they were allowed to speak and live?

She thought she knew Edward. She thought of Edward's spontaneous laugh that burst from his chest like warm spiced tea. She thought of the fervor and passion in his eyes as he read Macbeth or recited Longfellow to her. She thought of the gentle kindness with which he spoon fed her and taught her to sit upright. When she thought of the light that poured from his face as he played the music he composed, she broke down into tears. This Edward she knew was beautiful and she cared so deeply for him that her chest physically ached. He was her entire world.

However, there was a side to Edward very different from the one who created music and wove words. It was a side he kept hidden away behind locked doors, reserved only for the Other Bellas, and which he wished her not to know about. This Edward who both filled and emptied beds in the barracks without a second thought. She didn't know that side of him, but the Bellas who saw it didn't live to see the sunrise. It was to that side of Edward that he reserved his kisses and physical affection, not within his room or his music or all the parts of him that made him beautiful. If he loved her at all, it was only with one half of himself and she decided she never wanted to experience the full, deadly culmination of his passion fixed upon her. She didn't believe she could survive it.

Oooooooo

The second shift occurred in Edward a few years after the first. While the first shift made him focused and distracted, he remained warm and kind to her when he saw her. While his time was absorbed by his work, every few months, she could hear strains of music from his piano wisp through the halls. He still ordered books, though he shared fewer and fewer of them with her as time progressed. The second shift lit a fire within him which consumed all his time and focus entirely.

"What's happened to you?" Bella asked him one day, when she could bear it no longer. "You barely come out at all now."

"I've had a new breakthrough in my research," he told her. "It's opened up new avenues of possibilities I never even considered. It's magnificent…and life-changing…and I have to pursue every possible angle!"

The excitement and enthusiasm with which he spoke gave her some hope that this was a positive development, one which would truly benefit him. However, she mourned the shift in his behavior towards her. He barely even noticed her now. He never inquired about her days or her tasks or her well-being. As long as all continued as he expected, and she "performed" as she was ought, he barely even acknowledged her existence.

She had long since ceased to feel pride or self-importance in the work she carried out on Edward's behalf. For a time, she felt sick every time he vanished and she'd cry herself to sleep when he couldn't hear her. Now, she simply felt numb. This "new breakthrough" swallowed up her apathy in curiosity and borderline disgust as Edward's directives evolved and changed.

A few of the Bellas stayed longer, up to a year, and received different care from the rest. Some Edward taught basic movements and others he gave what he called "medicines" to impact different aspects of their physiology. Others morphed in size and grew larger than all the others before them. These ones stayed the longest of all and were taught how to sit upright and feed themselves on the special food Edward gave for them.

Edward watched them all with keen interest. He ran tests on all of them, calculated facts and figures as he did which he eagerly wrote in his notebook, while his eyes glowed with an almost hungry eagerness.

"You are doing quite well, Bella," he told her, without pausing to look her in the face. "Keep it up."

She held her tongue, but inwardly, she recanted her initial hope that this "new breakthrough" was a positive development. The focus with which he poured himself into his tasks was more than single-minded. It was obsessive and she did not believe it would benefit him now.

Ooooo

Some months, her trips to the desert provided her only change from the monotony, the only chance she had to speak with other people and hear other voices. She looked forward to her supply runs as if they alone were her reason to wake each morning and keep eating. At the Temple, months could pass without hearing a word from another person. She had long since come to accept this and no longer mourned the loss of companionship or felt the fires of jealousy burn in her gut.

She grew so thirsty for sound and movement that she'd spend hours watching herself in the mirror, simply to have sight of another person. She flipped through rows of medical books in the Generation Lab or from the shelves in Edward's bedroom. While she could not read the words, she could look at the pictures and she spent hours staring at diagrams and photographs and illustrations of other human beings.

There were all kinds of people in those books. Some with hair as dark as Amir and Omar. Some with hair brown like hers. Some with hair as golden as the desert during midday. They had various eye colors, skin types, shapes, and sizes. She had never known such variety existed and she wondered what they would be like. What stories would they tell? What words could they weave? What songs could they create? She wanted to know them all.

She grew so desperately lonely that she brought her pillow and blanket to the barracks where the Other Bellas lay. She made her bed on the floor and slept there, listening to their soft inhales and exhales of breath. She lay her head upon one's chest to listen to the heartbeat within and to feel the heat of life and she fell asleep there. It was comforting, in a way, to not be so completely alone and it calmed her.

Bella dreaded the days Edward disappeared behind the barred doors of the Research Lab. It wasn't so much that she dreaded his loss of company, as much as she dreaded the consequences of his absence. She refused to listen at the air vents anymore. She could feel in the very marrow of her bones what was occurring and she didn't need to witness it.

She never could quite explain it, but it was as if a deep heaviness fell over the halls of the building and the walls themselves creaked with it whenever Edward entered that Lab. As she walked the lonely, silent, motionless halls, she felt as if invisible eyes followed her movements and, more than once, she thought could hear silent whispers all around her, calling to her and crying to her.

Still, the moon grew round and then slim, the stars shifted overhead, and the heat marched into a lighter coolness and back towards heat again, month after month, year after year, and Bella wished for other ways to fill her life with sound and movement.

Ooooo

The brightest, happiest day during this long, dreary season was the day Fatima gave her the gift of a name of her own.

It was a day that neither Amir nor Omar met her in the desert. Her late night drive through the wild open of the desert brought her to the expected heard of camels. However, the figures beside them proved to be much smaller and slighter and in greater number than normally met her each month.

"I am Fatima, second wife of Amir," came a high pitched voice from one. "Amir is unwell and is staying with the tents to recover. I have come with two of his sisters and some of our children instead."

A woman stepped forward toward Bella and acted as spokesperson for the rest. She wore a bright yellow dress and the red scarf over her head dripped in beads and embroidery. Metal glinted on her arms, her nose, around her neck, and from ornaments in her dark, braided hair.

Bella stared at her from petite head-to-toe. She was not like anyone else she'd ever met. Fatima was so much smaller than Omar, Amir and their sons and cousins. Her chest and hips hinted at soft curves beneath her loose, lovely clothes and her face held a graceful, light elegance to its features that was highlighted by the scarf draped around her face. Bella gaped. She had never seen a woman who didn't look like her, except in the illustrations in Edward's books.

She nearly shouted in shock at what she saw next. Figures not even as high as Fatima's waist slipped forward from the shadows, all tiny limbs and miniature faces.

"I don't understand!" Bella exclaimed, forgetting to properly introduce herself entirely and instead pointing at the small creatures. "What are they?"

Fatima gave her a curious look. "Our children? You mean who? Well, this one is Abdi and that one is Muhammad, and over there is Sharifa…," she began but did not finish because Bella interrupted her.

"No, no. I mean what are they? They are so very small and each is so different from the other. Where are they grown this way?" Bella asked.

Fatima exchanged glances with the other women behind her. "I do not understand," Fatima said. "We grow our children in our wombs and raise them to adulthood here in Borkou."

"Oh! I have heard of children. I did not know they were so small," Bella exclaimed, nearly rocking on her toes in her curiosity. She drew closer to one to investigate more closely.

"Ah, my husband warned you could sometimes ask strange questions, but these? These I did not expect," Fatima said with a light laugh. "You must have seen a child before."

"No! Never!" Bella said. "Is this as small as they come?" She pointed to the girl before her who stood not quite as high as her waist.

Fatima laughed again. "Daania, bring your lastborn," she called behind her.

A taller, leaner woman in a light blue dress pulled a small bundle from her back and into her arms. Within was something very small with eyes and a nose and a mouth, but all so very tiny and condensed together.

"Is that a kind of animal?" Bella asked, peering with wide eyes into the face.

All the women and children laughed. "No, it is a baby, a very young baby. This one, we call her Na'ilah, she was born three full moons past. She will grow and become tall like her brothers and sisters here and someday, she will grow to be of age as we are," Fatima said, humor dancing in her eyes.

"They….grow?" Bella asked. "They all start this size and then change size?"

"You are a strange one," she said and she peered closer at Bella's face with her keen dark eyes. "You are my elder in body, but in knowledge I am yours. How is it you came of age without knowing of children? Or perhaps you wish to tease us."

"No! No!" Bella said hurriedly. "I have never seen anything like them. Where I stay, there is only Edward, the one you call Bran, and he never changes. Then there are the Other Bellas. They all look exactly like me and come in the same size, though some may grow softer or wider with different care. I have never seen a woman who doesn't look like me. They really will grow?"

"Of course! They cannot stay babies forever or where would the people be? We all start this size and then grow taller and stronger each season till we come of age and then it is our turn to tend to the next."

"I didn't," Bella said. "I came the size you see me now, though I couldn't walk or talk for long. My hair hadn't grown and I was very weak, but I was never that small. None of the others start that small either."

Fatima and her sisters-in-law clicked their tongues and said some words in a language Bella didn't understand. Then Fatima asked her many questions about things she knew very little about, except from books-things like fathers and mothers and brothers and sisters and families and peoples. She knew nothing of what Fatima called, "the people you belong to whose blood and history you share."

"Who is it you made you?" Fatima asked. "Who are your father and mother?"

"Edward made me," Bella answered, relieved to finally have one. "But he is not my father. I do not have a father."

"Who bore you in their womb?" Fatima said and pointed to her stomach. Bella shook her head, confused.

"Who? Edward made me in a container of water using lots of machines and wires."

"By Amir's camels, has this woman grown away from all life?" Fatima hissed. She shook her head and tried another line of questioning.

"You wear no bangles on your arms or braids in your hair. To our people, these are signs of marriage. Are you unmarried?" she asked as she motioned to her own decorations.

"Yes. I am unmarried. I am a virgin like in the story-like the ones King Shahriyár married each night and put to death each morning to revenge against his unfaithful wife," Bella supplied, confident in knowing her answer.

Fatima tsked her tongue and whispered to Daania. Both women exchanged wary glances.

"Can I see them?" Bella asked and pointed at the children.

"Of course," Fatima said. She called the children to come closer and introduced each to Bella. She stared at them-their tiny fingers and toes, listened to their small voices and young stories, and she laughed as she hadn't laughed in a very long time.

Before she said farewell, Fatima looked at her with one eyebrow raised. "You said this Bran keeps many Bellas that you help tend, but you are also Bella. To us, you will have your own name. I will call you 'Badiyah' because you stay in the desert."

Bella gave her a genuine smile.

"I would like to have my own name very much," she said. She felt a warmth and happiness she had not felt in many seasons at the gift of her own name. This name set her apart from all the others in the same way she felt she was set apart from them.

"Another thing," Fatima said. She gave a wary look around her and dropped her voice to a whisper. "If you ever need assistance or a place or people to come to, you tell Amir and he will help you. I will make sure of it."

Ooooo

Edward's room sat empty, his piano gathered dust, his music never pierced the silence, and shipments of new books never came. Actually, the shipments of supplies, in general, were lacking. Bella kept lists of supplies they required and gave them to him each month for the next order. She thought at first the shipments were delayed because of an error on the side of the companies they ordered from. Still, they didn't come.

Edward never forgot things…at least, he never used to forget things. Impeccably clean, organized, and in control of everything was the Edward she'd known for well over a decade. However, of late, Edward had grown uncharacteristically forgetful. He'd forgotten to change the tubes in the Generation Lab, which led to a violent outburst of temper when she reminded him. He forgot to place tools back in their proper place or sterilize his instruments after use and she wasn't sure if he remembered to bathe or wash his hands anymore.

Bella's indifference was thawing into genuine concern as she noticed these little things grow. She listened to the halls for weeks until she finally heard the metal doors creak open.

"Edward," Bella called to him where he sat in the Generation Lab. He poured his attention into his computer where words she could not read flooded down the screen at a mind-spinning speed.

He swung around, surprise on his face. "Oh, it's you," he said and the surprise evaporated. He turned to face his screen again with an impassive, almost irritated expression.

She looked him over carefully. His face was smudged with dirt and his hair unkempt. He seemed distracted and kept fiddling with a pen in his hands.

"Edward, did you order blood storage bags like I asked you to?" she said as she moved to stand in his line of vision.

His red eyes swung to her again, this time growing even wider. "More bags?" he asked.

"Yeah. Our supplies are nearly out-don't you remember? I asked you to order more two months ago. If these five in your tanks continue to progress as they are, they will need the blood transfusions within a few weeks," she said with a sigh.

She'd never seen him so scattered. He spun on his chair and stood in a rush.

"I should teach you how to do the orders," he said. "Then you won't have to worry about it. Come here and look at this computer here."

He pulled up his screen to show her and a series of letters, boxes, and pictures popped up. She gave him an incredulous expression.

"Edward, you never taught me how to read," she said. "Even if I could read, this is in a language I do not speak."

"What do you mean I never taught you to read? I used to read to you all the time," he said, his eyebrows pursed together.

"You read to me," she responded. "You told me I didn't need to know how."

"That was foolish of me," he said. His hand fell over his forehead and he looked at the screen again. He entered a series of numbers into boxes.

"Is there anything else I should order?" he asked.

Her mouth fell open again. He'd never asked her for a list of supplies twice. He always remembered.

"IV drips, anesthetic, hospital gowns, and new tubing for the Generator tanks. Also, I could use some more peanut butter and powdered milk," she said. "And Edward, you should order some new clothes for yourself as well. Your shirts are looking worn."

He clicked buttons until she mentioned his shirts. He stopped and looked at his shirt and looked up at her again and made a grunt.

"Done," he said.

"Thanks," she replied.

"Oh, and Bella," he added in as an afterthought. "I enjoyed our time together last night."

She startled and stared at him. "Our time together?"

"Yes. Listening to music."

"Edward, we didn't listen to music together last night," she responded. It was her turn to look incredulous. "I haven't seen you in weeks."

"Don't be shy about it," he said with a cocky smirk and he ran a finger down her cheek. "It was a good night."

She shifted uncomfortably on her feet. She debated internally for a moment before she decided to speak. She met his eyes and placed a hand on his cool arm.

"Edward, I'm worried about you," she said. "You aren't acting normal. You've been spending so much time locked away in your Research Lab, I think it's making you act strangely."

His smile fell away and storm clouds brewed in their place across his forehead. "How I spend my time is no concern of yours," he replied, rather tersely.

"Edward, don't get angry. I am not telling you what to do. I'm telling you that I do not think you are well. Edward, you've been forgetting things. You never forget things. You only emerge from that lab a few times a month. You never play your piano or listen to music or read anymore. You love those things, but you haven't done them in years. I think you need a break."

"NO!" he shouted. His entire body grew tense and he backed away from her as if she were about to attack him. "I WILL NOT! You think you can make me, but you can't! You think I have to choose between them and you and I won't! Not even for you! You don't have any power over me!"

Bella rose both of her hands in a gesture of surrender. "Edward, calm down. I don't even know what you are talking about. I'm going now."

She left him where he sat, but not before she heard him pick up a wrench and throw it across the room and crash into the wall. She jumped at that and ran to her own room where she tried in vain to catch her breath and still her beating heart.

Oooooo

A few months later, Bella came back from her supply run at the usual time. Dawn was only hinted at in the deep gray of the eternal desert horizon. She pulled the truck through the massive walls surrounding their compound and up to the garage and, to her surprise, found it closed. She creaked open the door, jumped down into the sand, and checked it with her hands. Sure enough, it was locked and bolted.

She walked around the compound, checking all the other doors. Each were locked. She placed a hand on her hip and stared out over the desert to see the last twinkling remnants of stars.

Edward always opened the garage for her. Even on months when she hadn't seen him once, he still remembered to open the garage for her. He'd never, ever forgotten.

She went to the front door call button and pressed it. She received no response. She tried the button on the outer wall as well. No answer again. She called his name as she walked around the compound another time.

By this time, golden rays of the sun cracked over the distant mountains and bathed the sand in warm light. She knew enough of life in the desert now to know that the sun itself would not kill her if she stayed out into the "day," but she also knew that the heat could if she was left outside for too long. She was grateful for the fresh supplies she carried in the van which could keep her for many days if needed, but she did not think she could stay cool that long without shelter.

For many days? What had happened? How long before Edward would remember her out here? She thought to herself as panic edged and gnawed onto the corners of her rational mind.

She tried another idea and honked the truck horn again and again. She tried calling him on his phone. Nothing worked.

As the heat began to call trickles of sweat down her forehead, she realized she needed to come up with another solution. She dug through the tool box in the truck to gather anything she thought could be useful. She tried to pry open the garage door and, when that failed, she tried to trick open the front door.

Then she went to all the air vents she knew of that could possibly bring her inside. The first two she tried wouldn't budge. Between a crow bar, a screwdriver, and a hammer, she managed to pry the third one open and squeezed into it.

She crawled through the vents and emerged in the main corridor outside the Research Lab. She meant to quickly open the garage and unload supplies but stopped frozen as her eyes fell upon a prone, unmoving body lying face down in the hallway. She gasped and knelt on the floor to turn him over. It took all her strength to turn him on his back.

"Edward, what's wrong? What's happened? Are you injured?" she asked. "Say something if you can hear me."

A light gurgle came from his throat and lazy, unfocused eyes fell on her. His mouth broke into the widest, crookedest smile she had ever seen on his usually proud face. His teeth were stained red and a small trickle of blood slipped down his chin. When he spoke, his words were slurred and nonsensical.

"Heeeeyyyy, s'you...was coming...forgot...mmmmm...speriment... such a sussessful speriment...," he said then he fell into a set of giggles and closed his eyes. His cracked his eyes just slightly and his nostrils flared before he spoke next. "S'you...real you...most butiful scent of all. Dint know could be better but you are. Always better."

She shook him as he closed his eyes and fell silent again.

"Edward, you aren't making any sense. Are you sick?"

He laughed but his eyes stayed closed. He gave a lazy shake of his head. "Naaaaa. Never sick. Just happy. S'happy. You make me s'happy...Paris was fun. Dint you love it? I saw you. You did, you did. Yer hair, s'perty in the city lights. S'much. It'll be better fer real. A'most ready. You...me ..we gonna see the world. Just you'n'me."

"Edward, you're scaring me. Let's get you off the floor. Can you get up?"

"Have I told you how...love blue dress...Soooo perty...your skin...just glows...can't take eyes from you…, " he garbled and he made a half-hearted attempt to place his head on her lap where she knelt.

She flushed, even more so as her panic subsided enough for her to realize what she hadn't registered at first. He was completely naked. She averted her eyes and struggled with what to do. He was only a few feet from the door of the Research Lab which, she now noticed, was slightly ajar. She thought she could find a blanket or towel or something useful in that room so she pushed him back to the floor and entered the "forbidden" space.

She froze when saw two female figures mottled with bruises and laying at unnatural angles on the floor. The brightly lit lab was pungent with an unwashed, stagnant scent and clothes, books, and random objects were strewn haphazardly all over the room in uncharacteristic messiness.

"Oh, Edward," she said and she covered her hand with her mouth to bite on her knuckles to hold in her gasp. She found a sheet crumpled in a pile on the floor that appeared at least minimally clean. She covered Edward with it and tried to use it to pull him back into the lab. He was entirely unresponsive by the time she managed it. It took all her strength to transport him from the hall to the lab.

She debated whether to leave all as she found it or to gather cleaning supplies and tend to it when her eyes fell on the women who would soon be given as offerings to the desert. Tears streamed down Bella's cheeks as she shook her head and slowly backed out of the room. She couldn't do it. She fled as fast as she could back to her room as soon as she'd closed the lab door.

ooooo

When she next saw him, four days later, he was meticulously clean and had a somber, proud look on his face. He barely acknowledged her entrance.

"You look better," she said as she entered the Generation Lab and placed a few boxes from the supply room on a counter. He raised an eyebrow in question.

"What happened to you the other day? You weren't yourself. You really scared me," she said. This caught his attention and he pushed away from his computer to face her with a look of confusion.

"What do you mean?" he asked.

"Four days ago-you were lying on the floor in the hallway talking nonsense until you went to sleep," she said. "Don't you remember?"

His nostrils flared slightly and he pursed his lips. "Impossible. I don't sleep. Besides, I was in the lab the whole time. You must have dreamt it," he said in a tone dripping with dismissiveness, as if the very confidence with which he spoke could wipe away her memories from that day.

She crossed her arms on her chest and stared at him. Then she shook her head. It wasn't worth the fight. Besides, she didn't really want to admit to having seen the inside of that room. That was a conversation she preferred never to have. She changed tactics.

"You forgot to open the garage."

He opened his mouth and closed it again. His hands began to tap a rhythm on the desk in front of him and he failed to meet her eyes. "It appears you found your own way in."

"I'm sure that was a dream too," she responded.

"Must have been," he said with a half-smirk on his face.

"Make sure I don't have that dream again," she said. "Either of them."

Ooooooo

Ever since that day, her sleep was plagued with twisted, dark images of what she'd seen. This night, she dreamt of Edward. Initially it paralleled her usual dreams of Edward from days past. He sat in her rocking chair and his fixated gaze fell upon her as she slept. In this dream, however, she noticed a change. Instead of the handsome, warm face of the Edward of Before, this was the cold, half-crazed Edward of a few weeks ago. He slowly crept up to run his nose along her neck and arms, whispering gentle words into her ear. It was only then that she saw the trickle of blood, her blood, flowing down his chin as he gazed upon her helpless form.

She bolted upright and screamed. She had nearly calmed herself when she caught the slight movement of the rocking chair and the lingering sweetness in the air.

She couldn't sleep again for days.

oooo

It was a week later when she was woken late in the night by unusual sounds and movement. She cracked open her door just enough to see Edward literally climbing the walls of the hallway. His eyes glowed red in the dim light and his teeth glinted as he snarled and pounced at a shadow. He prowled through the hallway as if he were a leopard stalking his prey and he paid no heed to the paintings or lamps he disrupted as he prowled. He moved through the halls so fast she could barely see him, though she could easily hear his shouts, mutterings, and growls reverberate through the halls. She could see just enough to notice that he was, again, completely nude.

"You can't have them they are mine. I won't let you take them. I'll kill you first. I'll kill you first. They are mine," he shouted as he pounced on a chair and tore it to pieces. An antique vase was next. He pulverized it with his teeth until it was a fine powder. He attacked a corner of a wall next, up so high she couldn't have reached his feet if she'd stood on her tip toes. He sent his nails through it, digging into it and leaving long, gaping stripes in each wall before he growled and bit into it with his teeth. Plaster, rock, and metal showered down on the ground beneath him.

Bella shuddered and placed her hand over her mouth to hold in her scream. She closed the door to her room as cautiously as she could and collapsed to the floor in frightened tears.

About three things she was absolutely positive. First, Edward not only killed, he consumed the Others. Second, there was a part of him-and she didn't know how potent that part might be-that thirsted for her blood. And third, no matter how unconditionally and irrevocably in love with him she was, if she wanted to live, she could not stay.

Ooooooo

Fatima stoked the coals of the fire till they sparked and flared up. The orange glow lit up her face. Above them, a canopy of stars so dense it resembled a flowing river of lights. She turned to face Badiyah again, laughter in her eyes.

"You know very strange tales, Badiyah," she said. "I have not heard such tales before. So, in this story, the man-what is his name again?"

"Romeo," she responded.

"Yes. That one. He would rather die than be parted from the woman."

"Juliet."

Fatima shook her head. "They chose to dishonor their families, cause such grief to their kin, and wed alone? They behaved very foolishly. My mother liked to say to me, when I was still young, that the reason our parents help us choose our first spouse is because the young are as wise as she-camels in heat. These two you spoke of-they thought they had passion and love. They were fools who would not survive long in the desert. Who would be there to share in the tasks of camel-herding or come to their aid in case of attack? Who would aid them in the birth of their first child or stay at their tents to tend them in case of illness?

"No. This love they thought they had, it is like a flash of lightning during a storm. It is bright and blinding and beautiful, but only for a moment. Then it is gone and there is nothing left. I will take the steady embers of a cooking fire over that. It may not be as bright or as powerful, but it will cook my food, warm my children, and be with me long into the cold nights."

Fatima paused from her speech to take Badiyah's cup from her and refill it with porridge. She handed it back and cocked her head back towards the fire and sighed.

"I met a man once who was too beautiful and he spoke such pretty words to me and my heart yearned for him above all others. I could have chosen to stay with him, but at what cost? I loved my sons and daughters too much to leave them behind. Children are worth more than many husbands for they will be with you to tend to you long after your husband is toothless and gray. And Amir, he is not so beautiful or so clever with his words, but he is an honorable man. My children will never go hungry and he has never raised a fist at me in anger. That is more than most can boast of and I would be a fool to throw it away for a flash of lightning. That other story you shared two nights ago, that one I understand better," she continued.

"You mean the tale of Shahrazád?"

"Yes. In that tale, the brave, clever woman spared the life of her father and sisters by wedding the evil man herself. That woman, she understood love. She knew she would most likely die at his hands, but still agreed to be his bride. She teaches us that through wisdom, reliance on kin, and bravery, a woman can protect those she cares about and bring good even from the most trying of situations. She gave her life for her sisters, brought honor to her father, and she showed a love to be proud of," Fatima said with a confident nod of her head. "In reward for her self-sacrifice, her life was spared and she was given children to fill her days with joy, despite her loathsome husband."

"I hadn't thought of it that way," Badiyah responded. She stared at the flames herself, lost in her own faraway thoughts.

Fatima shrugged. "Eh, sister, this is life for a woman. There are days of desert heat and days of rain. There are days we must mourn and days we must laugh. If I turn my camels to the east, then I cannot go to the west. If I pitch my tent at the oasis, then I am not staying in the town. Some days, I must go hungry so my children are fed and sometimes I must weep so that they can laugh. We make our choices and then we live with them and we pray to Allah that we will be shown mercy for it all."

As she lay in her tent that night, Badiyah thought over those words again and again and wondered what choice she would make in Shahrazád's place. She hoped she wouldn't ever have to find out.

Oooooo

Author's note: In case you aren't familiar with it, Shahrazád (sometimes spelled Scheherazade depending on the translation) and King Shahriyár come from A Thousand and One Nights (sometimes referred to as Arabian Nights). This is a collection of folktales from across Asia and North Africa which uses the story of Shahrazád to frame the stories.

Thanks so much for all the favorites, follows, and reviews. I love hearing your thoughts and responses. This ends the two chapters that accidentally happened and shifted around the the chapters that followed. I'd say, "I hope you enjoyed," but this chapter gets a little dark so I don't think that's quite the right sentiment. Anyhow, the next chapter gets into Edward's POV.