CHAPTER THREE

NO TURNING BACK

My head was reeling. The scent of blood was crashing over me like ocean waves in a relentless storm. My arm was wet to the elbow. Blood. Whose blood? What's happening? What have I done? Jacob. Jacob! Oh God…

No. Not Jacob. Sam. Sam had come down from the top of the wall behind me and tackled me as I reached Jacob. Not understanding what was happening, I had grabbed desperately. I had put my hand through Sam's chest, and pulled out his heart. He lay on the ground, in human form, lifeless. I stood over him with his heart in my hand. The heart of the man that once carried me from these woods after Edward left me there alone. That seemed like so long ago.

Not alone now. I looked up.

"No!" Jacob screamed, trying to run for Sam. Edward managed to grab him and held him back, but only just barely. Yes, stay away. Dangerous.

Renesmee and Seth burst through the trees as Jacob struggled in Edward's grip and then folded to the ground in tears. Seth collapsed, howling at the sight of Sam on the ground. Renesmee slipped from his back and stumbled forward a few steps before whispering, "Mom! No!"

Before I could answer, the rest of our family and the packs arrived and stopped dead at the scene, trying to process the visual.

This was it. This was the moment I had feared, the moment I had tried to prevent. Looking at all of their faces, I could see I had lost them all. In one fleeting moment of lost sanity I had laid waste to my entire eternity of happiness and love.

Leah made a move for me, but Seth recovered himself enough to stand in her way. She growled at him, but he stood his ground and growled back. Jacob pushed Edward away as he turned toward Leah, phased, and took a place next to Seth, blocking the advance toward me.

"I'm sorry." I whispered. Drop the heart. Run. Don't stop.

As I ran, I heard Renesmee yell "Stop!"

But I couldn't stop. I had to get away before I hurt someone else.

Must hide. I ran toward the coast where the woods were thicker and the land drops off into the ocean. I ran so hard I thought the ground would catch fire beneath me. As I approached the cliff, I couldn't help but think back to the last time I had dove off of here.

Years ago, when I was still human, Edward had left me, to protect me, but I could not live without him. My mind had been so broken by the loss that I hallucinated his image any time I was in a dangerous situation. But just like any drug. I needed more intense situations every time to bring him into view, to get that high. It eventually led me to jump off of this very cliff.

What am I doing? I thought to myself. I stopped just short of the edge and stood there motionless trying to untangle the cacophony of the brutally vivid vision of pulling out Sam's heart and faded human memories of loss and devastation.

A noise behind me brought me back to reality and I turned to face its source. I expected Edward to be standing there, or possibly one of the wolf pack members, but instead there stood four women. Three of them I had never seen before, but the fourth, she looked very familiar.

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