Choosing

"Hello." Caro said sweetly. I got the feeling that she had been partnered up with Avaria to balance out Avaria's inability to do anything that wasn't cold.

"Hello." Carlisle said, skipping the energetic sweetness but adding calm warmth.

"So, just sit tight while we look around."

Caro immediately went up the stairs to view the rest of the house. Avaria went over to the Carlisle. She looked him up and down, frowned and then moved onto Esme. I tensed. She was seeing if the people were better than the objects. Luckily Avaria showed little interest in any of the Cullens, until she got to Alice. She looked Alice up and down for a while. So long that Caro came back into the room, having finished looking at the inanimate portion of the Cullen's belongings. She smiled reassuringly. I had to work to calm myself down, because the stress of the situation was affecting my ability to sense the things around me. Jasper eventually noticed this and sent some calm toward me. That made Avaria's attention snap from Alice and onto him. She walked over to him and looked him over, not as long she looked at Alice, but longer than most of the Cullens. That wasn't the hardest part. She spent even longer looking Edward over.

But when she got to me she stopped, looking shocked.

"Look into my eyes." I raised my eyes to hers. It was a useless exercise for me, since I could also sense someone's eyes, whether or not my good-for-nothing eyes were boring into theirs.

"What is your name?"

"Bella." She continued looking into my eyes, the look of confusion replaced with wonder and curiosity.

"Avaria?" Caro asked. Avaria answered her in a language that was most defiantly not English. Not even the Cullens seemed to understand the words that were spilling out of Avaria's mouth. When Avaria was silent Caro thought for a moment and then nodded.

"Come on Bella." Caro said.

"What?" Edward asked.

"We get to take one thing that belongs to you. We are choosing to take her. You have ten minutes."

Avaria left the house. Caro leaned against the wall and waited.

"Bella, I'm so sorry I didn't think that they-"

I silenced him with a kiss. I tried to imprint the feel of his lips in my mind.

I hugged him tighter, smelling his sweet scent.

"I love you." I said.

"As I love you."

We stayed like that for a while, until Caro kindly said that we needed to go. I untangled myself from my angel.

"Good-bye." I said softly.

"Good-bye." The pain was clear on his face. I ignored Caro ushering me outside and walked over to Jasper.

"Please, help him." I said simply and left. Avaria was leaned against a black and red car that screamed expensive.

I got into the backseat, lay my head on the seat and cried all the way there.