Cold fingers gripped her wrist that following morning. It felt comfortable. Familiar.
The doctor huffed, checked the chart, then huffed again. Chilled fingertips caressed her throat. Pulse points. They wanted to see if she was still alive. If she could speak, she'd tell them not to bother. She was dead already. At least on the inside.
"Bella, please...please...wake up."
This voice was different. She knew this voice. Her heart shattered and she screamed. She screamed until the bliss of artificial chemicals lulled her into complacency.
"So sorry...if I had known...never would have..."
The chemicals jumbled her brain, making her believe he was really there. A cruel joke to punish her for whatever sins she had committed.
"Please, come back to me. I'll never leave you. Never again."
She wanted to believe it. To believe him. She couldn't. She mustn't. Tears leaked from her eyes nonetheless.
Sleep claimed her for a time, but the screams woke her up again. Chemical bliss filtered into her veins once more and the cool fingertips returned to stroke her cheek.
"So sorry...never hurt you...please...I love you..."
The pretty packaging surrounding that gift of a confession wasn't enough. The paper would cut, she would bleed, and her world would be no more once again.
"Come back, Bella. I need you. I love you."
The words became less disjointed, more coherent.
Her eyes blinked. She felt it. Open. Shut. She still didn't see, but she felt the whisper of skin against skin before her eyes.
"That's it. I'm here, baby. Come back."
A puff of air escaped her lips, a long forgotten word attempting to break free. A name. Her mouth couldn't form it. It was just air. Too much effort. She sank back into the darkness.
Her hand was freezing, trapped between two blocks of ice. She wanted to pull away, but she was too weak. A whimper of protest grunted quietly and the ice moved to caress her forehead.
"Good morning, sweetheart. I'm so happy you're awake. Did you sleep well?"
She stared blankly ahead. Silent. Unmoving.
"Your eyelids look less purple today. You're doing so well."
She didn't want to do well. She didn't want to do anything.
"Alice says you'll be fine. You'll come back to me. Won't you come back to me, love?"
No. It couldn't be him. NotHimNotHimNotHim...
Tears pooled in her eyes and spilled over her cheeks. Snot ran down her lip and it was quickly swiped away by a soft tissue.
"Don't cry, sweetheart. It'll be okay. I'm not going anywhere. Not ever again."
But he would. She would trip on air, cut herself, bruise herself.
And then he would be gone. Again.
"No, Bella. I'm yours. Forever."
Satan's lies and promises always sounded good on paper before you made a deal with him that took your soul forevermore. She would not budge. Unmoving. Unmoved. The tears betrayed her as they sprang forth once more.
"I've been so stupid. I thought I could protect you. Instead, I broke you."
She wanted to scream at him, telling him he hurt her more than anyone ever had. But it didn't matter.
It DIDN'T!
"Please, I'd die without you. You're my only reason to stay alive, if that's what I am."
Hatred seared through her chest and her eyes shifted towards the voice, now seeing the amber glow of his haunted eyes. Black rimmed his pupils in hunger. She didn't want to see, but his declarations of death haunted her like an old Shakespeare play.
Their eyes locked in silent confrontation, her mouth unable to produce words or sounds from lack of use. The fiend had the audacity to smile and kiss her fragile hand.
"You came back."