Hi, hello, bonjour :)
I'm confused about a few reviews I received about the POVs. It's a third person narrative so there is no Bella POV or Angie POV. I realize it might be confusing to understand who I'm talking about in some parts so I hope you won't be too confused in the next parts! I'm very sorry it wasn't clear enough and I will do my best to make it clearer in the future :D
All your reviews were very encouraging! Thank you so much for the follows!
I apologize in advance for any mistakes!
I hope you like it!
Enjoy!
Angie's head was about to explode.
The voices were getting louder and louder. People were calling her name, screaming, picturing what was going to happen. As all the images struck her, she saw all the different ways she was going to die. She felt like she was going to pass out.
Something hit both girls, hard, but not from the direction they were expecting. Bella's head cracked against the icy blacktop, and she felt something solid and cold pinning her to the ground. She was lying on the pavement behind the tan car she had parked next to. A low oath made her aware that someone else than her sister was with her, and the voice was impossible not to recognize. Two long, white hands shot out protectively in front of her, and the van shuddered to a stop a foot from her face, the large hands leaving a deep dent in the side of the van's body.
At the same time, Angie felt two hands on her arms. It all happened very fast. She was lifted off her feet and pulled away from the danger. A second later, she was sitting on the ground, unharmed and breathless. She looked up to see Alice Cullen crouched down just in front of her, a worried look on her face.
Angie was speechless. She was feeling the panic of all the people in the parking lot. All the noise, the real screams and the voices in her head, gave her a strong headache. She couldn't tell anything apart. Nothing was clear, nothing made sense.
But out of all the different emotions overwhelming her she discerned another sensation; a strange, and unusual feeling. It reminded her of what Edward had felt in the reception the week before; frustration, restraint and, above all else, hunger. She turned her head to the right to see Edward holding her sister protectively.
As his own feelings echoed through Angie's mind, his attention fell on her. Confusion was clear on her face. She could feel how hard it was for him to be around Bella, but she couldn't understand why.
"Are you all right?" Alice asked.
Angie turned her attention back to Alice. She breathed out, both relieved and shocked.
"Bella? Are you alright?" Edward asked. He sounded frantic.
"I'm fine," she answered. She quickly looked up to make sure her sister was safe. That's when she saw Alice.
"Be careful," Edward warned her when she tried to sit up. "I think you hit your head pretty hard."
"Are you okay?" Bella asked her sister, ignoring Edward.
Angie nodded wordlessly.
"Ow," Bella suddenly said, surprised. She became aware of a throbbing ache centered above her left ear.
"That's what I thought," Edward sighed.
"How in the…" she started to say. "How did you two get over here so fast?"
"We were standing right next to you, Bella," Edward said in a serious tone. The lie obvious to Angie.
Bella sat up, Edward released his hold around her waist and slid as far from her as he could in the limited space. They were trapped between the three cars.
Bella looked at his concerned, innocent expression and she was disoriented again by the force of his gold-colored eyes. For a second, she completely forgot her question. The crowd of people shouting at them made it difficult for her to focus.
"Don't move," someone instructed.
"Get Dean out of the van!" someone else shouted.
Bella tried to get up but Edward stopped her.
"Just stay put for now."
"But it's cold," she complained. Edward chuckled.
"You were over there," she suddenly remembered, and his chuckle stopped short. "You were by your car," she said, looking at Alice and then back at Edward.
His expression turned hard. "No, I wasn't."
"I saw you," she insisted.
"Bella, we were standing right next to you, and we pulled you out of the way."
"No," Bella couldn't be convinced.
The gold of his eyes blazed. "Please, Bella."
"Why?" she demanded.
"Trust me," he pleaded, his soft voice overwhelming.
They could hear the sirens getting closer.
"Will you promise to explain everything later?"
"Fine," he snapped, abruptly exasperated.
"Fine," she repeated angrily.
Angie didn't hear a word of their argument. She couldn't hear anything anymore. Only a loud buzzing sound in her head. She was about to pass out when she tried, in her last second of consciousness, to press on her wounds as hard as she could. The pain made her cry out. Bella and both their saviors looked at her. The pain helped her focus on her quiet sister. And silence echoed in her head. Finally, the only voice she could hear was her own.
"Angie?" Alice frowned.
"Are you okay?" Bella asked.
Angie nodded. She moved away from Alice and leaned back against the truck. She closed her eyes, still pressing on her cuts, focusing on the pain. Silence didn't last long, it never did. She started to hear voices again. She focused on the two closest. Edward's and Alice's. The first one was angry. Angry at himself for putting his family in jeopardy. Angry at Bella for asking the questions he dreaded. Angry at her for smelling the way she did. Alice wasn't angry. She was just a little worried. But she had this comforting feeling that no matter how hard it was going to be today, all will be better in the future.
It took six EMTs and two teachers – Mr. Varner and Coach Clapp – to shift the van far enough away to bring the stretchers in. Alice and Edward vehemently refused theirs. Bella tried to do the same but Edward blabbered she had hit her head and probably had a concussion. Angie was too weak and too much in shock to protest in anyway.
"Did you hurt your wrist?" an EMT asked Angie.
"No," she said. She grabbed onto the end of her sleeves and looked away.
"She always does that," Bella told him. The EMT nodded and walked away.
It looked like the entire school was there, watching soberly as they loaded the two sisters in the back of the ambulances. Edward and Alice got to ride in the front, which infuriated Bella.
To make matters worse, Charlie arrived before they were taken to the hospital.
"Angie!" he yelled in panic when he recognized her on the stretcher.
She jumped, startled, his screaming would only make her headache worse.
"I'm fine, Dad," she said, her voice weak. "Bella is the one who hurt her head."
Bella gave an angry look to her sister.
"Are you okay," Charlie asked his eldest.
"I'm fine," she mumbled. He turned to the closest EMT for a second opinion.
Bella spotted the rest of Alice and Edward's siblings, looking on from the distance, with expressions that ranged from disapproval to fury but held no hint of concern for their siblings' safety.
Bella tried to think of a logical solution that could explain what she had just witnessed – a solution that excluded the assumption that she was insane. She kept glancing at her sister, wondering why she wasn't asking the same questions.
Angie couldn't be thinking about it. She had to stay focus or the voices would take over her mind.
Once in the hospital, Bella was surprised and infuriated that Edward and Alice hadn't been compelled to be checked out by a doctor. The two sisters were put in a small room filled with beds separated by pastel-patterned curtains. Angie was on the bed to her sister's left. She enjoyed the silence of the room. There was only one nurse with them and she was busy doing her job.
But after she was done examining the girls, another stretcher was brought to the bed next to Bella's.
Angie recognized Dean from her Trigonometry class beneath the bloodstained bandages wrapped tightly around his head. He looked a hundred times worse than she or Bella felt. But he was staring anxiously at them.
"I'm so sorry!" he kept repeating.
"We're fine," Bella assured him. She felt like she should be angry at him, he had almost killed her and her sister, but she wasn't. She was just annoyed he wouldn't stop apologizing.
"I thought I was going to kill you! I was going too fast, and I hit the ice wrong…"
"Don't worry about it; you missed us."
"How did you get out of the way so fast? You were there, and then you were gone…"
"Umm…Edward and Alice pulled us out of the way."
He looked confused. "Who?"
"Edward and Alice Cullen – they were standing next to us." Bella had always been a bad liar. She didn't sound convincing at all.
"The Cullens? I didn't see them…wow, it was all so fast I guess…Are they okay?"
"I think so. They're here somewhere, but they didn't make them use a stretcher."
Dean had confirmed Bella's doubts. He hadn't seen them either.
Angie was left alone with Dean when they wheeled Bella away, to X-ray her head. He kept apologizing no matter how many times she would tell him to stop. Her fading headache came back. She had to press on her cuts again to chase Dean's guilt away from her head. They had given him medication for the pain which made it easier for Angie to block his thoughts.
When Bella came back, she was told that she was fine and that her X-rays looked good but when she asked if they could leave, the nurse told her they had to talk to a doctor first. So they were trapped in the hospital, waiting, harassed by Dean's constant apologies and promises to make it up to both of them.
Angie couldn't bear it anymore, she took her iPod out of her bag and put her headphones on. She turned the volume up so she couldn't hear Dean anymore. She sat on the bed, cross legged, and took out her notebook and started drawing.
Bella laid down on her bed and closed her eyes in an attempt to ignore Dean, who kept a remorseful mumbling.
"Is she sleeping?" a musical voice asked. Bella's eyes flew open.
Edward was standing at the foot of her bed, smirking. Bella glared at him.
"Hey, Edward, I'm really sorry…" Dean began. Edward lifted a hand to stop him.
"No blood, no foul," he said, flashing his brilliant teeth. He moved to sit on the edge of Dean's bed, facing Bella. He smirked again.
"So, what's the verdict?" he asked, glancing at Angie.
"There's nothing wrong with us at all, but they won't let us go," she complained. "How come you aren't strapped to a gurney like the rest of us?"
"It's all about who you know," he answered.
Then a doctor walked in the room and Bella's mouth fell open. He was young, he was blond, he was pale and he was handsomer than any movie star she had ever seen. From her father's description, this had to be Edward's father.
"I heard the Chief's daughters were here," he said with a bright smile.
A strong and painful sensation abruptly struck Angie. She looked up and saw Edward, sitting on Dean's bed, and a doctor, whom she instantly knew to be his father, standing at the foot of her sister's bed. She quickly stopped the music and removed her headphones. The sensation instantly became stronger. She felt it from both Dr. Cullen and Edward. Though Edward was only echoing what his father was feeling.
It was a similar sensation like the one she had sensed from Edward in the reception on their first day. It resembled what Edward would feel every time he was near Bella. The call of a dangerous, insatiable hunger.
The most exquisite, the most savory scent hit Dr. Cullen. As if he was starving and he was smelling food for the first time in days. He discerned the caressing smell of vanilla off Angie's skin and the tempting fragrance of cherry off her hair. She smelled like dessert. But under these artificial, yet delicious smells, was the strong smell of sugar. It was like being in a room filled with candy.
She gasped as fear seized her. It was obvious Dr. Cullen had more restraint than his son. When all Edward had been able to do was panic and run as far away from Bella as possible, Dr. Cullen stopped breathing and tried to focus on anything else than her scent. He picked up the documents on the table next to Bella's bed where the nurse had left the X-rays.
"So, Miss Swan," Dr. Cullen said in a remarkably appealing voice, "how are you feeling?"
"I'm fine."
"You X-rays look good," he said. "Does your head hurt? Edward said you hit it pretty hard."
"It's fine," she repeated with a sigh, throwing a quick scowl toward Edward. The doctor's cool fingers probed lightly along her skull. He noticed when she winced.
"Tender?" he asked.
"Not really."
Dr. Cullen nodded.
Angie stared at him, stunned and confused. She could hear him battle in his mind. Battle over her. Over her blood. Her overwhelming sweet and sugary blood. His voice didn't betray him. If she hadn't been able to read his mind she would have never known how hard it was for him at this moment.
"Evangeline," he said, looking through the clipboard.
"Angie," it took her a second to correct him.
"Well, Angie, looks like you were very lucky," he said, keeping his eyes on the clipboard. "How do you feel?"
"Good," she eventually managed to say in a murmur. It wasn't true but she didn't even know how she felt anymore.
"She has a headache," Edward said. Bella frowned. She looked up at him but he was looking away. How would he know that?
"Really? How bad is it?"
A thought crossed his mind, was she the telepath his children had told him about? He looked up from the papers to meet her eyes. He saw she was terrified but she could only see curiosity on his face. What she was seeing and what she was hearing were two very different things.
"Pretty bad," she answered in a whisper, her blue eyes trapped in his beautiful gold ones.
He stayed quiet for a moment, staring at her. She could see in his eyes now that it was harder and harder for him to ignore the smell. Her smell. It was pure perfection. Delicious and appealing. He could say the same about what he was seeing. He tried to remember if he had ever seen anyone more beautiful than Angie in his long life. His thoughts made her blush like never before. She looked away as she saw herself turn red through his eyes.
Bella watched as they silently looked at each other. She had never been more uncomfortable. She arched an eyebrow, more confused than ever, when she saw her sister turn bright red.
Something became clearer to Angie. It was a thought she hadn't noticed before yet she had a feeling it had always been there; he was in control. He was strong enough to resist the appeal of her blood, no matter how good it smelled, no matter how bad he wanted to taste it.
The doctor cleared his throat. "You might experience some post-traumatic stress but your vitals look good," he said. "Alice said you didn't fall. I think you should be fine," he smiled. He looked sincere.
She was too confused to smile back. She couldn't understand anything she was hearing from him. His thoughts, his feelings, his thirst didn't make any sense to her.
"Did you hurt your wrist?" he asked, looking at her hands. She had been pressing on her wounds as hard as she could but it was barely working. It was like he was screaming at her that he wanted nothing more than to dig his teeth into her neck. She grabbed onto the end of her sleeves and shook her head.
"No."
"I noticed you keep rubbing them," he said.
"She always does that," Bella said.
"All right," Dr. Cullen nodded. "Take some pain medicine for your headache," he suggested. "Your father is in the waiting room – you can go home with him now," he said. "But come back if you feel dizzy or have trouble with your eyesight at all," he told Bella.
"Can I go back to school?" she asked.
"Maybe you should take it easy today," he said. "Both of you," he glanced at Angie who thought her shoes were more interesting than the handsome doctor.
Bella glanced at Edward. "Does he get to go to school?"
"Someone has to spread the good news that we survived," he said smugly.
"Actually," Dr. Cullen corrected, "most of the school seems to be in the waiting room."
"Oh no," Bella moaned, covering her face with her hands.
Dr. Cullen raised his eyebrows. "Do you want to stay?"
"No, no!" Bella insisted, throwing her legs over the side of the bed and hopping down quickly. She staggered and Dr. Cullen caught her. He looked concerned.
"She's fine," Angie said. She put her things back in her bag quickly before she got off the bed. Dr. Cullen looked up at her. Her voice was like music to him. "She has terrible balance," she explained. She couldn't take the risk of having to stay in the hospital any longer. Bella rolled her eyes, annoyed at her blabbering little sister.
Dr. Cullen nodded and looked away, suddenly occupied with the papers in front of him. Angie could see through him, he was trying to focus on anything else but her. "I'm afraid that you'll have to stay with us just a little bit longer," he said to Dean, and began checking his cuts.
As soon as the doctor's back was turned, Bella moved to Edward's side.
"Can I talk to you for a minute?" she hissed under her breath. He took a step back from her, his jaw suddenly clenched.
"Your father is waiting for you," he said through his teeth.
"I'd like to speak with you alone, if you don't mind," Bella pressed.
He glared, and then turned his back and walked away. Bella took her sister's hand and dragged her out of the room.
Angie looked back at Dr. Cullen. He glanced at her. Their eyes met for a brief moment. She saw worry in his golden eyes. He gave her a small smile he wanted reassuring. Angie wasn't looking where she was going and her sister almost led her into a wall. She was sure she heard the doctor laugh.
The two sisters nearly had to run to keep up with Edward. As soon as they turned the corner into a short hallway, he spun around to face them.
"What do you want?" he asked, sounding annoyed. His eyes were cold.
His unfriendliness intimidated Bella. But Angie knew how he was really feeling. He was trying to protect her. He was afraid she'd figure out the truth. He was scared she'd tell people what she saw.
"You owe me an explanation," she reminded him.
"I saved your life – I don't owe you anything."
Bella flinched back from the resentment in his voice.
"You promised," she insisted.
"Bella, you hit your head, you don't know what you're talking about." His tone was cutting.
Bella was fed up and glared defiantly at him. "There's nothing wrong with my head."
He glared back. "What do you want from me?"
"I want to know the truth," she said.
"What do you think happened?" he snapped.
It came out in a rush. "All I know is that you and your sister weren't anywhere near us – Dean didn't see you, either, so don't tell me I hit my head too hard. Angie didn't hit her head at all," she said, and then turned toward her sister. "What did you see, Angie?" she asked.
"I…" Angie was taken aback by her angry tone. She didn't know what to say. She was even more confused than her sister. Sure, she had more elements, and the biggest clue was right in front of her. Edward was craving for Bella's blood just like Dr. Cullen was craving for hers. But the only explanation she could come up with was ridiculous and she was too shy and not confident enough in herself to say anything. "I don't know," she mumbled, looking down, trying to avoid Edward's gaze. She let go of her sister's hand and started pressing on her cuts again.
"That van was going to crush us – and it didn't, and your hands left dents in the side of it – and your sister pulled Angie away, she doesn't even have a scratch on her, and you're not hurt at all…" Bella could hear how crazy she sounded, and she couldn't continue.
Edward was staring at her incredulously. But his face was tense, defensive.
"You think I stopped a van with my hands?" His tone questioned her sanity, but it only made her more suspicious. It was like a perfectly delivered line by a skilled actor. "Nobody will believe that, you know."
"I'm not going to tell anybody." She said each word slowly, carefully controlling her anger.
Surprise flitted across his face. "Then why does it matter?"
"It matters to me," she insisted.
"Can't you just thank me and get over it?"
"Thank you." She waited, fuming and expectant.
"You're not going to let it go, are you?"
"No."
"In that case…I hope you enjoy disappointment," he said before he walked away.
Bella frowned and glared at his back, furious. After a minute of complete silence, she turned toward her sister, angry.
"Aren't you even just a little bit curious?" she yelled at her sister.
Angie stared wordlessly at her with her round blue eyes. She didn't find the courage to answer. She was afraid she'd make her angrier.
Bella sighed, and then made her way to the exit at the end of the hallway. Angie didn't follow her right away. She was afraid to go to the waiting room, filled of worried and gossiping students. But she had no other choice. She couldn't hide in the hallway forever.
The waiting room was worse than she'd feared. Dr. Cullen hadn't lied, the entire school was there. She kept pressing on her wrist the whole time, but she couldn't stop the voices in her head.
"Are you okay?" her father asked.
"Yes," she lied, staring at her feet.
"What did the doctor say?"
"He said we were fine and we could go home," Bella answered. "Let's go," she urged.
Charlie led them to the glass doors of the exit. Bella waved sheepishly at her friends, hoping to convey that they didn't need to worry anymore.
They drove in silence. Bella was so wrapped up in her thoughts she forgot the presence of her father and sister. Angie had taken her headphones out. She was trying not to think, but failed to clear her head.
The bizarre, yet powerful sensation she had felt from Dr. Cullen had stuck with her. She went through moments of total confusion followed by total certainty. The speed in which Alice had caught her and the strength with which Edward had stopped the van were proofs they weren't human, and the smell of blood that tempted both Edward and his father gave her the final clue. There was no other explanation. Angie had no doubt about it.
The good news was, now, she knew she wasn't the strangest person on Earth. The bad news; it terrified her.