(A/N): I'm sooooo sorry that it took me so long. My excuse is that I had a paper due every single school day last week and I didn't have the time to actually sit down and write. My other excuse is that I had made the biggest mistake of my life (not really...more like the two months that I've written this story). I started to write the last chapter. That is a bad thing because I basically already finished the very last chapter, and because I did that and I like it very much, I started to procrastinate on the other chapters. As a result, I got a writer's block that only partly lifted. Anyways, here's the next chapter. As I said, I had a writer's block, and I don't think this is too well-written...and I'll try to get the next chapter out sooner than it took for me to write this one. Summer break started for me (yay!)!! No more papers!!! (lol)

Disclaimer: All familiar names, dates, places, and ideas belong to their rightful owners. I am merely a writer who manipulates these things.

Chapter 24

The next two weeks were tension-filled. It was as if I was trying to run away from a cliff, yet a string was pulling me tighter and tighter towards the drop-off. I tried to hang on to everything I could, but even with Edward – my godly anchor – it seemed inevitable that I would one day be pulled off the cliff.

It was harder and harder to stay on my feet. It was harder and harder to do anything right. Just the other night, I somehow managed to use my fork to catapult my spoon into the air, knocking off a candle, and nearly set the entire dinner table on fire. It was only Edward and his reflexes as well as a miracle that saved the fire from even starting.

A few days ago, Edward was escorting me down the central stairs when a sudden wind seemed to blow out of nowhere, catching tendrils of my hair and somehow fasten it around one of the smooth paintings lining the wall. My hair caught me and I stumbled and slipped on the stairs. Edward, always my savior, managed to hold me tight as he unfastened my hair and set me on my feet again.

Time and time, over and over, these things never stopped. They were not the normal clumsiness either. I estimated that I would have died at least fifty times over in the past two weeks had not Edward always been there. It made me feel so helpless. Nowadays, I trip an average of one hundred times for every four hundred steps I take. Do the math. By my opinion, I could do less damage on a wheelchair, but the royal physician said would not even stand such an idea.

"Let ya sit in a wheelchair'n'what? See yer skinny arms become skinnier than they are? Good grief, no! We'd rather see ya do some walkin' on yerself rather'n see ya sittin' ther' skinny'n'helpless!" he claimed.

And so time flowed on with the string pulling tighter and tighter by day until it was even hard for my anchor to save me. The curse seemed to take a will of its own – acting when and where it chose. The nights that Edward had to hunt were the hardest. I often fell out of bed at least seven times per night. My maidservants were so tired of waking up to hear me scream in fright that they placed my bed on the floor and littered the ground with blankets, leaving my room looking like a gigantic crib.

When the Cullens came about half a month before my sixteenth birthday, I barely managed to make my way down the stairs alive.

The minute I saw Alice, she engulfed me in a hug that made it extremely difficult to breathe. "You might not need air, but I do," I managed as she released me with a smile and a mumbled 'sorry'.

As if hearing inaudible footsteps, Alice's head suddenly snapped up, her eyes glazed over as if seeing something that was neither here nor anywhere. She stood still, motionless, for an immeasurable moment. A sudden shudder ran through her body as she swayed and started to fall, as if in slow motion. I had not noticed Jasper standing right beside Alice to catch her as her balance ran away.

Slowly, her eyes cleared. She looked directly behind me where Edward was, and gave him a long and cold stare. She seemed to be speaking to him silently though her apparent anger made me feel as if Edward was not getting the usual "I've missed you, brother" comment…nor anything very nice either.

Edward did not like what she was saying either. He slipped his hands around my waist and held me tightly to him, as if never letting me go. I half-turned in his tight embrace and pressed a chaste kiss to his neck, feeling him relax a little.

"I can't do it, Alice," he whispered, almost too soft for me to hear. "I can't take that away from her."

"She is willing for you to take that away from her. One day, you will find that you will not have that choice. It is either you or heaven now…but the time will come when you do not even have this choice anymore." Alice sighed and walked away, the other Cullens following.

"You know, it's not as if I can't hear what you are saying. You might as well tell say it straight out instead of pretending I'm not here," I mumbled, fiddling with my fingers. "If it's the same argument as last time, you might as well tell me. You do owe me the explanation."

"You heard that?" Edward asked, his voice raising in disbelief. "We weren't supposed to be speaking at an understandable pace…"

"You guys were speaking at a normal pace as far as I could tell." I paused for a moment. "You need to stop changing the topic. What was that about?"

"Walk with me," was all he said as he slipped his arm around my waist and headed toward the doors.

A long period of silence ensued until it seemed like tension was building. Something was wrong – something was bothering him. I was just about to break the deafening silence when he beat me to it. " Alice can see the future, and the images she gets are haunting her, making it very hard for her to do anything. They were about the same thing every single time." He stopped walking. I looked up to see his golden eyes – the pain and torture they held, and most of all, the love.

"It's about me and all the ways that I could die, isn't it?" I whispered. He slowly nodded his head. " Alice wants these images to stop, so she figured the only way is to change me into a vampire?" Again, a nod. "Change me, then." I mentally kicked myself for being so blunt – for speaking without thinking – for putting Edward in such a situation.

"I can't, Bella. Humanity is a precious thing – it's more precious than almost anything in this world, and I can't take that from you and leave a monster behind." His voice was so soft in the end that it was hard for me to hear him.

"You are not a monster. You and your family are the last on the list of people anyone would call a monster. Victoria is a monster even if she is listed among the faeries; James is a monster. You are not. You love and experience emotions and you try for the best for what you are given. No monster would be willing to even consider being good…do you hear me?" I surprised myself with the amount of emotion I poured out.

"But…I still can't take away your humanity. There are no pills for regrets, Bella, and it will be too late once you realize that you valued humanity more than anything else in the world." He stared at me as if pleading me to understand.

"I care not about humanity. I'm just about to loose it anyway. Can't you see? My curse is pulling tighter on me to that cliff I'm to fall off of, and there is nothing I can do about it. I don't care if I die or not…but…I've only just seen love, felt love, and I want to glory in it for a much longer time. I want to spend the rest of eternity with you…" I sighed, mentally kicking myself again for sounding so selfish. I cleared my head, dropping my voice so low I could barely hear it myself. "Yet, if you don't want me by your side for eternity, I understand. Just know that I love you, wherever you are, and be safe…and…" He cut off my words with a kiss that immediately made my legs turn to pudding. When he broke away, I tried very hard to keep tears in, but a few still escaped. I felt cold thumbs brushing them away.

"Never ever say that. Never say that…" he trailed off. I watched in curiosity as Edward suddenly seemed very nervous. He took several deep breaths; his brows were furrowed as he seemed to be thinking very hard.

Just as he was about to say something, Sophie burst through a side passage laughing and screaming bloody murder. She suddenly noticed that she had company, and tried very hard to compose her face while trying to hurry away at the same time. A moment later, Jacob burst through the same passage. Oblivious of his audience, he caught up to Sophie and began a tickling attack on a very horrified-looking Sophie.

I giggled at the scene while Edward chuckled. Deciding that I had enough amusement for the day, I tried cleared my throat but ended up with an unladylike snort when I could not control my giggles. This made Edward lose all control and laugh, which made me laugh too. The combined volume of our laughter made Jacob suddenly realize that he had an audience. The looks on their faces made be bend over and lean heavily on Edward to prevent from falling. The trouble was, he was half-depending on my support to stay on his feet, and we ended up in an unceremonious heap on the ground, still laughing. Jacob and Sophie's faces were very red with embarrassment.

When we finally caught our breaths, Jacob and Sophie were quite pale in anticipation. With one look at each other, we waved them off (after thanking them for a good laugh) and continued our stroll. Not a mention of our previous conversation was mentioned again.

The entire months of August and September were the busiest months of my life. It seemed as if the whole kingdom was both holding its breath until the fated day as well as trying to make merry these last two months and prepare for the big festival. I could have sworn that preparation for this took longer than it takes to prepare a wedding. Colors and flowers had to be hand-chosen and hand-picked. Menus for the guests were prepared and edited over and over again. Robes and dresses had to be dyed and made and then cut.

I was amazed that I actually made through the two busy months without so much as a scratch…even if it was due to the fact that I had twenty-four-hour vampire 'guards' to catch me and move me out of the way. However, that did not spare me from wasting countless amounts of money because the damage I had done.

On the day that I wore a red skirt, I happened to pass a bull. Although Alice dragged me away in the nick of time, the bull destroyed a cheap jewelry shop and I had to pay for all the jewelry that was in the shop – a whopping total of 2,500 gold coins. There was another day when I knocked into a beer barrel that was used as a stopper for a cart of full beer barrels, and the cart would have knocked me over and gave me a good concussion had not Emmett noticed in time. The result was that it tipped over a market stall full of fabrics, which meant another grand total of 4,500 coins to 'buy' the beer-stained fabrics and 700 coins to repair the stall.

As the day drew nearer and nearer, the entire palace went into a frenzy of weaving, cooking, cleaning, decorating, and whatnot. I only stayed with Edward in the garden, library or in either of our rooms, trying hard not to break anything. Edward was always there with me – at night to hum my lullaby so I could sleep and during the day to save me.

The night before my birthday, I was informed by a too-excited-for-her-own-good Alice that Edward was taken by his brothers to prepare for something and to hunt, and that she was to stay by my side and help me make preparations for the grand day tomorrow.

Sure enough, I was awoken before the sun awoke, almost thrown into a bath tub and was scrubbed until I was sure I would sparkle if I could. Over the next four hours, I met with hair-stylists, make up specialists, tailors, shoemakers, and whatnot. I lost track of how many 'specialists' I met after fifteen in the first hour. The ladies-in-waiting hurried in and out of the room nonstop. If I didn't know better, I would have thought everyone was trying to bring gifts to some sort of fae who had made his or her appearance known.

By the time everyone had done their work, the celebrations had already started in the city. Before I left, a floor-length mirror was brought in. The color theme this year seemed to be red. The entire dress was red with a light pink underskirt. The outer layer was arranged in three flounces that revealed the embroidered underskirt hem. The top had a built-in corset with thin see-through red fabric. The sleeves, of the same material, were a lighter red and flowed out.

My hair was brought up in a messy-looking bun set with pink carnations braided with fresh jasmines. According to the hair-stylist, the jasmines and carnations were specially treated to be fresh the entire day.

Just then, Flora, Fauna, and Periwinkle arrived in three swirls of faerie dust. I was, at the time, bare of any jewelry. They took one look at me before they took their wands out. Flora conjured a pink-tainted gold tiara set with rubies (A/N: there is such a thing as natural pink-tainted gold. All gold from the Black Hills are more pink in color than gold…just a random fact out there…lol). Fauna grabbed a thin rose quartz beaded necklace with a silver-lined heart-shaped ruby pendant. Periwinkle waved her wand, and light pink gloves slid onto my hands.

"Hello dear!" they shouted at the same time once they were finished. "It's been so long since we last seen you. You were so small then…but…oh! Have you grown! How are you?"

"Never better, Flora, Fauna, and Peri!" I replied cheerfully. "Thank you!"

"Not a problem, dear. Now, we're off to the festivities and you take care of yourself!" A wave of their wands and they disappeared as quickly as they came, leaving me struggling in a shower of faerie dust.

Alice dragged Sophie in the room with her the next moment, a box of accessories in tow. She gasped when she saw me. "I guess the faeries had paid their visit early," she stated in a tone that sent me into a fit of giggles. "These aren't needed then…" Her eyes brightened and her shock seemed to go down the drain. "And oh! I should have thought to ask them faeries earlier. Their selections are always so…surreal and heavenly. Look at you! Edward would have a heart attack!"

I blushed scarlet at the last comment. "I don't want him to have a heart attack," I mumbled, hiding my face.

Rosalie came in calling Alice. As soon as she saw me, she gaped, which did not help the blushing. If anything, I blushed harder. She shook her head fiercely as if suddenly remembering her task. " Alice, Edward said he'd murder you if you don't bring Bella down…something about not seeing her for too long…"

"Come then."

Alice helped me slip into red slippers that, to my relief, were not as high as the one she was wearing – only nearing two inches. She half carried, half walked me towards the central staircase. Before we turned the corner to the stairs, she yelled out, "Edward, I'm bringing her down, but you better stay out of my head and turn around if you want to live until tomorrow!"

She peeked around the wall. Satisfied, she carried me down the stairs, setting me in front of Edward whose back was turned. Immediately, he twirled around and seemed to be stunned. He made hesitant steps towards me as if he did not recognize me anymore. My cheeks heated under his shocked stare.

"Bella?" he questioned, his golden eyes pouring into mine.

"Do I look that bad?"

"Not bad…you look gorgeous…more than gorgeous. Magnificent…beautiful…heavenly…" he breathed as he neared me, his sweet breath blowing in my face. Swiftly, he leaned in and kissed me slow and long – a kiss that left both of us breathing heavily and ignoring Alice's protests of 'watch the lipstick!' "Happy Birthday, Bella," he grinned.

I grinned back at him, practically beaming. "Thank you."

Please drop a review. I think I really need encouragement and/or constructive criticism. There's roughly two chapters before my final chapter (plus/minus an epilogue) starts and it will take some effort...

--Cathy