A/N: Hey everyone! It's been a while. A long while. I'm really sorry about that. There's been a lot happening and I won't spend a lot of time getting into details, but long story short, I just really really needed a break. Thank you all for being so patient. I do have some good news though. The fic is finished and I'll be posting the last few chapters tonight as a thank you. So, without further ado, here are the last remaining chapters.
I'll see you guys at the end :)
"Not another step!"
Alice's bell-like voice has a way of sounding entirely unthreatening, even when she growls. Along with her girlish pixie cut and tiny frame, it's hard to find her menacing at all. While I know what she's capable of, I can't say for sure it matters to James.
He takes another step forward, despite Alice's warning. His blood-red eyes flicker to me for only a second, but it's enough to speed my already racing heart.
I know he hears it. The pounding. The blood pumping in my veins. That unnerving smile that pulls at his lips tells me he does. The satisfaction it brings him absolutely vexes me. But to be honest, seeing the way he's stalking around me, he's earned it.
Before, it had been seven against three. Now, as I shuffle to stay behind Alice as she pivots to stay directly in front of me, the odds didn't seem to be so evidently in our favor. Just in terms of basic math, there's a fifty-fifty chance of either one of them killing the other.
If vampires are anything like humans, would that change anything? Alice is significantly smaller. Does that also make her weaker? Slower? That brings it down to what—? Sixty-forty? Seventy-thirty?
"What are your plans for her?" It's the second time James has asked that. Even amidst the panic, it doesn't go unnoticed.
Alice doesn't respond. She only continues to mirror his moves, blocking him from me. I feel my cheeks begin to heat up and the muscles in my torso tighten in anticipation. Someone has to make a move. The question is, who will go first?
This must be the fight or flight kicking in, I mentally note to myself. I'll need to make a decision soon or my body will make one for me. Fight or flight, Bella? Fight or flight?
James glares at me again. "You aren't going to let her talents go to waste?"
Fight?
"Shut up," she jeers at him.
Flight?
"Isabella." My name on his tongue makes my stomach drop. I have to swallow multiple times to keep the bile from rising into my throat. "What has she told you?"
I would've shot Alice a questioning glance if I weren't afraid to look away from him. Like the small spider that stays just out of reach, I keep my eyes glued to him in fear that he'd scurry away the moment I take my eyes away.
James takes yet another step, nearly completing a full circle around us.
The anxiety builds in my gut and a cold sweat begins to bead up in tiny droplets on my forehead. Aside from my unsteady breathing, James's boots hitting the old floorboards are the only sound in the room. Heavy and spine-chilling with every reverberation.
Meanwhile, the two options weigh heavily on either side of the scale and James continues to circle us, ready to pounce at any moment.
"Told me about what?" I blurt out, finally. My hope is to keep him talking. Keep him distracted until I can decide.
Alice stiffens in protest. She doesn't voice her reaction, instead focusing on the vampire that hunts us.
Decide, Bella. Fight or flight?
"Well, her human life, of course." His voice is as smooth as silk. Almost innocently, until he chuckles deeply in his throat. A sound so gravelly and harsh as that, I don't know how anyone can't sense the peril in it. "She was like you once. Special."
"Like me?" I repeat, feigning ignorance.
This time Alice hisses at me quietly. I suspect there are words hidden underneath that my human ears can't interpret, but I don't give myself time to worry about it as she huddles closer to me.
"What does that even mean?" I ask. Though I'm generally curious as to what he means by special, it's mostly an effort to keep him busy until I can decide.
Fight?
"Come, now, Isabella." He pauses to swipe his tongue under the top row of his teeth. "Don't lie to me now."
I swallow thickly.
Flight?
"The empathy, the mind control and the telekinesis," James lists off to himself aloud, "is just...well, what else can you do?"
I clench my teeth, chancing a moment's glimpse at Alice before returning my focus to James. "What do you want from me?"
Suddenly, he stills. This action sends chills up my spine, turning my blood ice cold. I know he's made his decision. It's time I've made mine.
Fight or flight? Fight or flight?!
"Well, why don't you ask Alice?" he suggests calmly. "She'll tell you her experience. Remember, Ali-cat?"
Still stubbornly quiet, Alice stands defensively in front of me. No one has to answer it aloud. We all know what he did. He had turned her.
Now, he wants to turn me.
"Bella?" Alice's voice is so tiny compared to James's. After her being so silent for what felt like an eternity, it almost takes me by surprise. Then, firmly she says, "Run."
Flight, it is.
James is first to spring toward me, but Alice tackles him before he can get to me. Underneath this newly kicked in survival mode of mine, I'm relieved that Alice had made the decision for me.
My heart races in my chest and I can feel the adrenaline pumping through my body, moving my feet faster than I'd ever been able to before. It's amazing what the human body can do under immense amounts of pressure. If only Angela were here to see it.
The thought of Angela brings me to a skidding halt. Adrenaline still pumps through me, causing my muscles to tremble slightly and my breath shudders. Suddenly, all I hear is her voice echoing through my ears.
Do what's right, she says. You have to do what's right.
Peeking cautiously over my shoulder, I see two blurry figures dancing around each other. The smaller one, Alice, dodges James's throws and punches while desperately trying to land a few of her own.
There are loud bouts of frustration from James as she continues to evade every grab. I almost leave, thinking Alice will be fine on her own as I hear a painful cry and a demeaning sound as James's huge frame falls dramatically to the floor in a body slam.
Some of the wooden planks crack where he falls. It takes him a moment to gather his bearings and Alice uses the opportune moment to bore her black eyes into me.
"Go, now!" she shouts.
With as much confidence I'll ever get from her, I turn back toward the exit, ready to resume my escape. It's exactly that moment when James rises from the floor, taking advantage of a distracted Alice.
I watch horrified as he swerves one of her blows and sneaks behind her, gripping her tiny neck into the crook of his elbow and squeezes tight into his chest.
With the sizable height he has over her, the motion lifts her slightly off the ground, just enough that her feet dangle above the floor. Alice kicks and scratches as aggressively as she can, earning a few yelps from him. But it's not enough for him to loosen his grip.
She squeezes her eyes shut right before I hear a sickening crack. Not one of bones breaking. No, the sound more resembles a slab of concrete breaking apart as the earth splits in two.
"No!" I can hardly hear my own voice over the pounding of my heart.
James continues to squeeze as the cracks multiply. As he struggles against her, totally focused on killing her, I can only find one defining factor that shines in my favor.
He is not watching me.
While I have the element of surprise, I do the only thing I can. I reach out my hand, feeling the tugging sensation in my belly. I let it rush up through my chest and out of me in one big push.
The force is enough to knock James off his balance. He brings Alice down with him, but he has at least lost his grip on her.
Alice recovers quicker, rolling away from him toward the other side of the room. As she cradles her throat, I scramble to imagine what kind of damage he'd done to her. Vampires don't need to breathe, so it can't be the lack of oxygen that's got to her. But, is there even a major difference between a human's pain and a vampire's?
While James still lies on the floor, staring at me in bewilderment, I run to Alice's side.
With strain and obvious pain in her face, she reaches her hand out. At first, I think she's asking for help, so I extend my arm to her. Then, she screams so loudly, it makes my ears ring.
"Look out!"
Before I can process her words, something hits me with the force of a freight train. As my body flies just above the floor, I feel strangely like I'm floating outside of my body. With no control over myself, there's a odd sense of calm that takes over me as I wait for the fall to bring me to a stop.
When the base of my skull, along with my shoulder blades and lower back smash into a hard wall behind me, I feel something snap and crash into the hardwood flooring. Watching through squinted lids, I raise my hands to my face to prevent the sudden onslaught of icy rain from cutting me.
My chest collapses with the force of the fall and the wind escapes me. It feels as if my lungs are empty toothpaste tubes that may never be filled again.
A blurry figure appears through the fuzzy black spots in my vision. It's so dark suddenly, it's hard to make out the features. Though, the height alone rules out Alice, I search up and down for any distinct attribute that might tell me who exactly this is.
Blinking slowly, I can pick out the squared shoulders. Shoulders so broad, it can only belong to a man. Considering my surroundings and the predicament I've found myself in, a sane and uncompromised version of myself would see that all arrows point to James. But half delirious and judgment clouded by the obvious concussion splitting my skull in two, I allow myself to be swept up in the more appealing fantasies.
Coughing deeply, I take as big a breath as my shuddering lungs allow. "Edward?"
My bronze-haired angel crouches down. It must be him. The way his cold fingers caress my chin and trace my bottom lip...it must be.
"I hate to disappoint." James's slimy tone poisons the image of my angel, rippling the image until his pointed nose and burgundy eyes take over. "But your sweetheart's long gone."
I flinch away from him, whimpering pathetically when something sharp pricks me on my side.
Broken pieces of reflective glass swim in a small puddle of something dark and sticky with the scent of wet pennies. Shimmering in the dim light of the room, it nearly reminds me of Edward's skin in the sun. It's then, that I realize the sudden hailstorm I'd thought passed was actually falling glass. I must have crashed into the mirrors.
James leans in closer. Instinctively, I raise my leg to kick him, but a shooting pain stops me in my tracks. I fight to keep the cry of pain from escaping my throat, but the sound doesn't go unnoticed by him and I watch angrily as he grins.
He lifts my hand up and I'm too busy trying to work through the pulsing ache that throbs all the way up to my hip bone to even think about what he's doing. Before I know it, he's brought my hand to his mouth and bites.
His jaw clamps down so tight, it blurs my vision again. I'm sure the agonizing screech that escapes my lips brings the utmost delight to him, but it is all I can do as his teeth sink into my skin.
I begin to feel woozy and nauseous. The tension in my diaphragm as I scream is the only thing that keeps me from vomiting right there.
The dark spots take over my vision completely and I almost let myself sink into the black waters of nothing. Though, as I float in the stream between awake and asleep, I feel the waters growing higher. It wets my pants and then my shirt.
The water is warm and thick and the smell triggers something in my memory that I can't quite remember. Something I'd been trying hard not to remember.
A rainy night. A totaled truck. A lifeless young girl, drowning in her own blood.
"Bella!"
The voice calls to me, but it sounds as if my ears have been stuffed with cotton. My eyes are heavy, and it's difficult to open them as I feel the familiar sense of weightlessness pulling at my sense of gravity. Through long lashes and foggy vision, I see a familiar silhouette of a person.
Cold fingers slip under my hair, cradling the back of my neck. Having learned from my mistake, I try to shake the cold hands away from me, but it seems I'm not strong enough. I can only moan in protest.
"I'm here, love," the voice speaks again. This time, more clearly. I'm not sure exactly when James had left and this new being had taken his place, but I'm not entirely certain I believe it's real.
"It's not you," I half whisper. "Not really."
"Oh, please, Bella, please." I'm able to see his eyes more distinctly as he comes closer. Their vibrant golden color shines in the darkness. "Please, be alright."
It's him. Of course, it is. The relief his presence gives me only makes the weightlessness stronger. It's almost impossible to resist. Why should I? Now that he's here, I can rest. I can finally sleep.
"No, no, Bella!" Edward's thumbs brush away more glass that had gotten tangled in my hair. "Stay with me! I'm here!"
The sharp pains in my back and my leg start to fade as a new pain consumes me. A scalding hot pain that overshadows everything else.
Let me go, I say silently. Let me fly.
A second set of cold hands cradle my once throbbing leg. The sensation is nearly drowned out by the burning that seems to be anchoring me here in my body.
Let me go! I want to scream. I don't want to feel this part.
"Carlisle!" Edward's intense voice informs me of the new set of hands I feel inspecting my body. "Do something!"
"She's lost some blood." Carlisle is calm and soft as always. "The head wound isn't too deep, but watch her leg. It's broken."
"I know."
My eyes flicker toward the new voice. Even with spotty vision, I don't have to guess to know it's Alice.
Her hand rests on my shoulder, hesitantly. I can almost feel it trembling against my skin. "Hang in there, Bella."
"I want to fly," I try to say, but I can't get my vocal chords to make any sound.
"What?"
"I want to fly," I say again, louder, though something in my side protests when I force the sound out. "Let me fly."
"I think she hit her head harder than we think," Alice tells Carlisle. "There's a lot of blood here."
"Try holding your breath," Carlisle responds. "It'll help."
The blood. That's the smell. It's not a pool of water at all. It's my blood. It's easy to forget the memories the scent brings as the searing heat grows in my wrist. I try to flex my fingers, but it doesn't help.
"It hurts." My voice is tiny, and I can hardly hear it. But, I know they can.
"I know, sweetheart." It gets harder and harder to hear Carlisle's mellowed tone over the pain that eats away at the skin of my arm. "Give me your belt, Alice. I need to stop the bleeding."
"No…" I try to lift my head, show them what hurts so badly, but Edward pushes me back down. He braces me against the floor, firmly but gentle.
"Don't move yet," he says sternly. "Carlisle's going to take care of you."
At this angle, with my head braced between his steeled forearms, my head spins as it tries to make sense of the upside down images of two large figures I later make out to be Emmett and Jasper as they pull and tear at giant lump on the floor.
The more I squint, the more the lump seems to resemble a person. Not a person. A vampire.
James.
A revolting sound resonates in the room as Emmett pulls an arm clean off of the lifeless figure on the ground. The noise reminds me of bricks crashing together. Or like a slab of granite falling on concrete. However baffling the sound, it hadn't been what I'd imagined tearing a person limb from limb should sound like.
There's a loud popping sound, bringing my attention to the fire I'm only now noticing burns in the broken floorboards. Suddenly, the burning in my hand makes sense. I must've gotten caught in the flames.
Can't they see the fire? I think to myself. Can't they see it consuming my arm?
The burns intensify. It awakens something in me. No longer exhausted, I find myself thrown harshly back into painful reality as a blood-curdling scream escapes me, taking everyone by surprise.
Edward mistakes my outburst for fear of Jasper and Emmett, taking my face and redirecting it to face him. "Don't watch. Just look at me. You'll be okay, Bella. You have to be!"
"No, no, no, my hand!" I'm writhing under Carlisle's firm grip as he holds my broken leg steady. "It's burning! Put it out, put it out!"
"Edward, her hand." For the first time, Carlisle is not calm. He is shocked. "He bit her."
"What?!" Edward's icy hands gently lift my arm, but the coolness of his touch is not enough to subside the agony. "Oh, God, Bella. Oh, no."
"She's going to turn, Edward." Alice's voice is low and filled with remorse. "I'm sorry."
Hissing at her, he drops my hand suddenly, letting it drop to the floor. The pain is nothing compared to the blistering heat that spreads over my arm. "You knew!"
"I saw it from the beginning," she confirms.
"No." He cradles my arm again. "There has to be a way to save her. Tell me there's a way!"
"Maybe," Carlisle answers. "You can try to suck the venom out. It'll have to be you, Edward."
"Don't be ridiculous!" he snaps. "You know I can't!"
"I have to tend to her leg," he responds calmly. "If you'll be taking more blood from her there, I'll need to stop the bleeding. You can do this, Edward. Stay focused."
"Carlisle!"
Unbothered by his anger, he continues to encourage him. "You have to hurry. Before the venom reaches her heart."
Edward lifts my arm just under his chin. Even through the bleariness, I can see the fear swimming behind pools of amber. His lips move with words I can't hear before bringing them down to my wrist.
At first, the pain is worse. I can feel the fire burn hotter as it back peddles through my forearm and out through my hand. Feeling the poison flowing through my veins is nearly unbearable. But soon, the sensation fades into nothing but a slight tingling in my fingertips.
"The blood's clean," I hear Carlisle say. "Stop now, Edward."
His cold hands grip my arm tighter. Though he doesn't speak, the internal struggle is apparent as I watch Edward's eyes darken with every swallow of my blood.
"You're killing her," Carlisle warns. "You have to stop."
As my eyesight begins to tunnel, I feel the weightlessness pulling at me again. The tether has been cut. I'm finally free.
I allow myself to float slowly and easily out of my body. My vision is clear now and I can see everything in this room as I rise higher and higher toward the ceiling. Edward, Alice and Carlisle hunched over my small and bloody frame. Emmett and Jasper escorting themselves out of the room, most likely due to all of my blood. And a burning heap of what once was James in the center of the room, casting a golden glow over everything.
If it weren't so sadistic and horrible, it might actually be a beautiful sight to see. The warm color of the room tints their skin with a false tan. I have to wonder if this is anything like the way they looked before when they were still human.
A small pang of guilt in my chest makes me pause. One last glance at Edward brings me to think about every fight we'd ever had. Every time Edward had tried to tell me how dangerous this life is. How easy it is for him to take my life away.
And here we are, me lying on the floor and Edward gulping down my blood like it's juice. And though he had warned me every chance he could and I shot him down every time, I find I don't regret it. Any of it.
Every moment, every second, every interaction we'd ever had together. It had been worth it. Edward was worth it. My only regret, if I can even call it that, is that I can't tell him what I was afraid to in Forks.
As I stare down at him from above, it's apparent to me that these may very well be my last moments with him. And even though he can't hear me, I let myself say it aloud to feel how the words sit on my tongue. To hear how they sound to my own ears.
"I love you too, Edward."
I continue to rise higher and higher, Edward and his family still crouched around my lifeless body. The words had been said for my own benefit, but I hope that wherever I end up next, he'll somehow understand. Wishful thinking maybe, but it is this idea that allows me to soar through the ceiling and turn my back on the Cullens.
It's very bittersweet. The love I had—have—for that family, even though my time on this Earth seemed to be over, had been the most magnificent experience I'd ever had. It was that experience that made leaving so hard. So painful. I know full well that watching them hurt—watching Edward hurt—would in turn hurt me ten times more. Is there anything I can do to make it less harsh? Would I even be able to see them? Or will my soul be recycled into a new body? A new life?
I anxiously await the answers to life's biggest questions as I take in my new surroundings.
A thick, white blanket of snow covered the floor in one evenly spread layer, only interrupted by the familiar cluttering of trees behind it. The trees stand tall as white fairytale beings in that wintry landscape, only allowing a sliver of space between them to see further into the forest.
A subtle flame dances deep within the darkness. Something about the way the light flickers, has me anticipating the moment it would flow outside into the clearing.
As it moves closer and closer, I realize again that I cannot shake this uncanny feeling of familiarity. It is more than a flame. There is a shape to this figure. Lean and feline like.
Then, as she approaches closer and closer, it hits me. The unusual shape of the line of trees, the startling figure racing fast toward the clearing.
Quickly turning around to confirm my suspicions, I feel the dread drop its weight on my shoulders as heavy as I imagined the world that I'd just turned my back on must feel.
Angela's house stares back at me. And in case I wasn't sure, my vision focuses in on the girl's small frame through the window. She's laughing at something, the smile lines on her face, lifting her glasses slightly. She is completely unaware of the danger that is coming.
Facing forward again, I'm just in time to see Victoria emerging from the darkness of the forest. Her blood red eyes are locked on the girl in the window and her intent is practically written on her forehead.
Suddenly, I feel as though I can't move. I'd felt as if I had been flying—now, it is as if my feet are trapped in cement. I'm hopelessly stuck in my spot with nothing to do but watch the horror of what's to come.
"Bella!" a voice calls from a distance. "Bella, it's me!"
The voice is so beautiful and so angelic, I almost shrink away from it. Something so divine didn't belong in a place like this. This must be Hell. All the lies and deception must have caught up to me.
"No, Bella!" my angel calls again. "You're alive! You just need to wake up."
But this feels so much more than just a nightmare. I'd left my body behind in Phoenix. I feel cold to my very core, as if all the blood had been drained from me. Edward had been the one to take my life away in the end, but it was what I'd wanted him to do. If there'd been anything I could've possibly offered him to make up for all of the wonderful things he'd done for me, allowing him to finish what James had started was the very least I could do.
"Wake up, Bella. You can do it."
Victoria takes another stride toward the house, crouching as she closes in. She's ready to pounce and I squeeze my eyes shut, unable to watch what happens next.
"Wake up, Bella." My angel. My Edward. "Wake up."
