Well...it's been a long time and I owe you all a great big apology for that...So besides this chapter, I hope to upload another one later tonight or sometime tomorrow. Please take time afterwords to read the info at the bottom of the page.

The blood from the deer, coursing like a delicate river of rubies, spilled onto the grass, tinting it with brown hues as it began to dry. This was evident to me, as was the burning ache in my throat, but both were profusely ignored. My shoulders stiffened, bearing a sudden force of overpowering weight that I couldn't uphold. Pain seared itself within the fiery depths of my soul. My hands gripped at my sides, as though they were the only things capable of holding me together; as though, pending their removal, I'd be shredded into a thousand fragments of gleaming diamonds.

Quick, bursting figments of visions flashed before my eyes. I assumed this was much as a human would expect in their last moments. The time in which it it said that their lives flash before their very eyes. I almost wished that this was the case. It would have been the end of myself, but it wouldn't have had to have been the end for everyone else.

Vision:

"Bella?" Trevor called.

"I was not pouting!"

Paper, etched with with the rough fast strokes of a pen, "-Forever yours, Bella"

Cauis, flamboyant in his putrid mightiness stood in the shadows of the trees around him.

"Darling Bella!" He cooed.

Demetri stood with a glimmer of a smile on his face, Felix standing at his side, ever loyal.

Bella shook, fear stuck, Trevor just behind her.

Blackness.

Flames. Death. The Volturi. Jane. Alec. The wolves.

"No!" Edward roared, coming to life. He was the first to react and would very possibly be the last. I dimly heard the snapping of a branch near by. As loud as I knew Edward should have been, I could hardly hear him over the piercing pleas going on inside of my head, as well as those coming from beside me.

"Alice! Alice, what did you see? What is it?" Jasper was yelling. His hands rubbed up and down the contours of my back. It was not soothing, nor as sensual as I had usually regarded it as being. It made me more uneasy.

"Bella...I...She's-," I faltered as more images overtook me and I cradled my head in my hands. Jasper pulled me into his chest, holding me tightly.

"Damn him," Edward snarled, "Trevor took her out. Cauis found them, or at least he will. I have to get there. I have to save her."

"Son, you can't go by yourself. You'll make matters worse." Carlisle argued. I groaned. The outcome of this dispute would be in no way, good.

"I'm hardly going to ask you all to come, though I'm sure you would anyway. Carlisle, I'm not asking much. Imagine if this were Esme we were talking about. You would stop at nothing to protect her and now this is my turn."

"Edward, we're not talking about Esme."

Edward's jaw clenched, his teeth grinding together fiercely as he considered what he would say next. I wanted to interject, to stop him from making his biggest mistake yet, but I couldn't bring myself out of my visions quick enough; they were too overpowering to escape.

"You're right, Carlisle. It isn't Esme. It's Bella. And I'll be damned if I let anything happen to her. You may not love her as much as I do, or even feel the need to protect her quite as much, but Carlisle this is my Bella. I won't let her face that alone. You can go to hell if try and stop me."

An uproar of gasps seemed to erupt and now it was Carlisle's turn for anger.

"Then I'll do just that. Son, I do love her. I see her as my own daughter, just as you my own son. But I will not rush in there without the slightest idea of self-preservation. We don't know what they want, or why they've come now. I'm not rushing in until Alice can pull herself together long enough to tell us what is going on. We'll all likely die if we go in without our heads."

"Then you can wait, but I'm not going to. I'm sorry, father," Edward bowed his head in Esme's direction, "And...I'm sorry, Mom. But I can't knowingly stay here while Bella's in danger and I think if the situation were between you and Carlisle, it would fair the same way. I'm willing to live with my decision; are you?"

With those being his parting words, Edward turned his back on our family, chasing after the one love of his life. Carlisle was placing too much on me. With all the pain surging through my body, racking me relentlessly, I didn't know that I would ever be brought back to them in time to explain. I only hoped that someone would understand what I was trying to get through.

"Jazz-,"

"Shh, Baby, it's alright."

I sobbed as though my very life depended on it, but at the same time I knew what I had to say to get them into action. At least...I hoped I was right.

"No...Jazz, leave. You and Emmett, go. You have to go with Edward." I breathed raggedly, "I'll come when I can..."

I knew with every fiber of my being how reluctant Jasper felt and how much he felt he needed to be at my side. I knew just how much I was asking him, but I needed him to do this to save our family; to save Bella. I also knew that Jasper was not one to bet against me. If this was what I wanted, he would do it.

With a gentle brush of his lips against my forehead, he left me to face my grief alone. He and Emmett were gone.

Carlisle's POV:

I couldn't very well stay. I knew I had hurt Edward deeper than I had ever meant to and I knew that I now had to atone for them. Alice had asked Emmett and Jasper to leave. This meant that she knew Edward couldn't go alone and though she didn't ask me to go, I felt that it was in every way my obligation. I was tied to them each, as a father to his children, and I couldn't leave them be while looking danger in the eye. Acting on impulse I ran fervently, exerting all the energy that I possessed to keep up with the pace that Emmett had already set. He was racing for his little sister. He loved her and though I couldn't quite understand, his desire to protect her was almost identical to that of Edward's.

We ran until we were met with a clearing. The sun was just overhead, casting diamond like glimmers of light across the grass. Following them with my eyes, I saw one of the most heart-rendering scenes. Not once in my immortality had I ever faced a scene so drastically compelling, so utterly wretched as the one we now faced.

Edward lay on the ground, his fingers ripping at the grass, uprooting every last bit of it. His body racked with sobs I had never once witnessed coming from him. He stood pensively, looking haggard as a corpse might have, had it been standing on its' own two feet.

"I'm too late." He moaned sadly, to no one but himself.

I stepped forward instinctively, looking to comfort him in what was surely his darkest hour.

His features stiffened as he snarled, "Don't. Touch. Me. You're the reason why I wasn't there when she needed me. You're the reason why she's gone; why Trevor's gone. Don't touch me."

I stepped back, putting my hands in front of me in a sign of resignation. In that moment, I had come to regret my previous argument with him. He was, in every way, right. I had kept him from coming. I had made him stay with us far longer than he should have been. If I hadn't of argued with him, he would have been there to defend them. I believed that Trevor would defend Bella, but he was a new vampire. There wasn't much he knew about when it came to fighting. We hadn't trained him, nor had we ever prepared for the Volturi's reappearance in our lives.

We had been expecting a sign. We had been waiting for Alice's trained eye to tell us when they decided to come back. We hadn't seen one, therefore we were left entirely unprepared.

"Dude, calm down." Emmett tried.

I could see, as plainly as I could my own hand outstretched in front of me, that coaxing Edward out of his current mood would not be easy. He would be furious with me until we found Bella again, and of that I was sure.

Yeah, I know...This sucks and I likely could have slowed it down a bit...It would seem that with me being away from writing for so long, I've seemed to have lost my touch...Hopefully I'll brush up on that really soon, because I know exactly how I want the rest of the chapters to pan out from now on. To those who have reviewed: Thanks so much for all of your support and kind words, I love you all so much! If there is any confusion or grammatical errors, please feel free to notify me; I'd be happy to fix any mistakes I might have missed.

Thanks for your time,

-Jenny xoxo

Side Note: If you're interested in an even better read, please check out RandomPerson87's "Blinding Light." She deserves way more attention than she currently has-way more than even I have. She's such an excellent writer and I'm so proud to call her my best friend. Just search her user-name as I have it typed below :)

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