!-- page size: 8.5in 11in; margin: 0.79in P margin-bottom: 0.08in --

Chapter Twelve

If I hadn't been wishing so badly that Edward would come back to me, I might have noticed how kind Aunt Sophia was beginning to act toward me. I might have noticed the quiet, whispered exchanges she and Silas had while they thought I slept. I might have noticed that the lustful gleam in Silas's eyes was stronger with each passing day.

If I had noticed any of this, I might have had the sickening feeling of suspicion rise in my stomach. I might have run away, just as I should have a long time ago. I might have heard Edward's voice in my head again, murmuring to me that I was in danger.

But I ignored everything that had nothing to do with Edward. So I didn't notice that on the seventh of December, the house was as silent as the grave once Aunt Sophia, Silas, and I had retired for the night. I was sitting at the window again, hoping to see Edward's ghostly face appear beneath the streetlight once more, when I heard the door creak open behind me.

I turned to see Silas stepping into the room with a leering grin. There was a snarl in my mind, and then Edward's voice demanded, "Emily, tell him to leave."

With all the courage Edward's voice gave me, I said loudly, "Get out of my room!"

Silas just laughed. I got up quickly and tried to put the chair between us, but he stepped forward and knocked it aside easily. He snickered again, then queried, "Did you really think I would listen? Why would I listen to a girl who's been nothing but a thorn in her aunt's side since she moved in?"

"I should have left this place from the minute I saw you!" I cried. "I knew you were no good!" I was trying to edge my way towards the door, but he wasn't allowing it.

He laughed again. He advanced on me, and I shrank back from him in horror until my back found the wall and I could go no further. I closed my eyes as his hand curled around my throat, and he snarled in my ear, "But I'm going to prove to you just how good I am, Emily."

Edward snarled in my mind for a second time and shouted, his voice ringing through my every cell, "Fight! You have to fight him off!"

The scream that echoed through the room was mine. The fingernails clawing at flesh were mine; the panic, fear, and adrenaline were mine; the tears of defeat were mine. But my virtue was Silas's now, and the snarling voice yelling and then sobbing in the back of my mind was Edward's.

When Silas was done, he sneered down at me. "I guess there's just one thing left then," he said, as if to himself. He disappeared from my line of vision, which was blurring around the edges anyway. There was a loud crash of breaking glass, and then he returned and crouched beside me. His rough fingers found my hand, pried apart my clenched fingers, and curled them tightly around a large shard of glass.

I remember crying out as he forced the glass shard's sharp edge to find the soft skin of my wrists. The blackness closed over my vision, and I drifted between this world and the next.

Everything was fading from this world. The only thing that seemed to stay was Edward's beautiful face. I whimpered to see it, especially now, as my strength and willpower faded.

Then suddenly there was a soft cry of anguish that wasn't mine. "Emily!" an angel's voice cried somewhere above me. I managed to open my eyes just far enough to see my brother's face hovering a few inches away, but as close as he seemed, he was still too far away and I was far too weak.

Edward began to sob brokenly, and I waited for his tears to touch my cheek. But all I felt was a cold hand on my cheek. "How could I have let this happen?" he asked quietly to himself in his angel's voice. I had no strength left to tell him anything, to reassure him it wasn't his fault.

I was slipping from this world with every beat of my broken heart, and I would surely die here under this sobbing angel.

But I was swept from my pain into a ring of cold that numbed everything. Edward choked through his sobs, "Emily, please! No, no, oh God, please no!" It was then that my eyes opened again, and I saw the scarlet blood dripping from my fingertips. But I drifted again, wondering if death was this way for everyone.

There was another crashing sound, and glass rained down on my face. I was suddenly falling, although I had no strength to scream. Edward's broken sobbing continued somewhere above me, and light and dark were racing too quickly over my eyes. I closed my eyes and turned away from those nauseating contrasts, hoping everything would end soon.

My heart was slowing in my chest, and my strength was so far gone that I could no longer open my eyes or move of my own free will.

Then the air was warm and the light was dim on my closed eyes. There were voices that seemed very far away; I recognized Edward crying, his voice breaking with more sobs, "Carlisle, please! She's dying!" There was a much softer, calmer voice saying, "Here, give her to me."

These arms were familiar to me; these arms had carried me before. I thought calmly that I would rather die nowhere else than these arms.

But something sharper than the shard of glass pressed lightly against my throat, then sank in. The fire took me, and all feelings of calm fled with the flames.