Chapter 6: The Light: BELLA

As soon as I saw the massive ice spike I knew that it was the place that Edward's note hinted at. He must have seen it in the thoughts of the Kolfinnas, and I guessed that he didn't know exactly where it was or even what it was, for that matter. The ice spire did look like a huge white tower, with its rough silhouette hanging over the black Arctic water and the green Aurora Borealis pulsating in the backlit sky.

I'm not sure how Alice knew that she had to walk off the end of the glacier, but somehow she did. Her eyes lit up right before she hugged Jasper, and she seemed to be remembering another part of her vision. It was unsettling that Alice couldn't remember the details of the apparitions that she had seen when she was convulsing at Charlie's house. She couldn't remember the women's voices until Esme described them to us; it was like she had completely forgotten about them. Although her memories did seem to be in the back of her head somewhere, they were buried deep in her subconscious and they only came to life when something reminded her of them.

I knew that this was a bad sign. It meant that Alice would not be able to help us avoid danger because she wouldn't remember the situation early enough to warn us.

Something else about Alice's crippled memory was eating away at me - Alice would often see a variety of outcomes of any one situation. Depending on the different choices that people made, her choose-your-own-adventure mind would show many different futures. It was a huge responsibility for my poor sister to bear, and she would always search for alternatives to protect any one of us from harm. Sometimes, Alice herself would consciously make the decision to interfere in order to change the outcome. She would change her own plans as many times as she had to until she found one happy ending that worked for everyone. But right now, her memory was so fragmented….

What if her memory of jumping into the orange abyss was a part of the wrong ending, the one that would expose us to a danger that we couldn't handle?

I pushed the thoughts aside and tried not to think about what had happened to Alice. The blinding control that these creatures had on her mind was paralyzing me with fear. I pulled my shield around myself protectively, and then slowly extended it to the right and left so that it would encompass Esme and Jake as we entered the orange light. We held hands, and we all took a step forward as the same time. There was no turning back, and with fear for where we were going and hope that we could save our family we all stepped off the edge.

I gasped, and looked below and watched the water as I raced towards it.

We were falling quickly into the ocean. This wasn't supposed to happen. We had all seen Alice and Jasper step off the ice and disappear, so why on earth were we plummeting towards the dark black sea?

I looked at Jake and he turned to look at me, and in a split second my feet touched the water, but something was odd. I didn't feel the frigid water and the swaying feeling of bobbing up and down in arctic waves. Unexpectedly, I felt a warm, tingling sensation come over my body. It started as my feet entered the water and worked its way up and around my head. My whole body went numb and I felt very soft and fluid. I wasn't sure my muscles would work and I moved my fingers to make sure that I still had control of my limbs. To my surprise, there was no darkness around me; there was only a soft orange glow. I strained my eyes to focus on the peculiar surroundings and I fixated on the lights that were dancing above me. It looked like we were under orange, rippling waves and that a bright yellow sun beamed into the space around us. I couldn't feel any water, but I was definitely floating. Gravity didn't exist in the place, and there was no resistance when I moved my hands around; there was only the light. Everything was warm and numb, and my mind started to feel soft and feathery. My thoughts were vague and distant, and they drifted to Forks and to Charlie. Angela was there, then Jessica. Then I was eating lunch in the sun in Phoenix, and I laughed with Renee in the park. My laughter remained, and I was back in Biology class with Edward.

Edward.

Edward, there was something that I was forgetting.

My mind snapped back to the hazy abyss and my eyes focused on the orange infinity ahead. I couldn't see anything but color. Some areas seemed mistier than others, and some spots looked darker. I couldn't make out any shapes or forms. I turned my head and I saw Jake a few meters away, floating with a calm smile on his face. His eyes were closed and he began to slowly tumble in the tangerine haze. I reached out to approach him, and my hand seemed so far away. As hard as I tried to reach him my arm was not long enough. I tried to call to him, but my voice seemed to bubble away. I kicked my feet in the air below and I began to move closer to him. There was no reason to think that kicking my legs would propel me forward, because when I paddled it felt like I was kicking nothing but air. It was inexplicable, and I couldn't rationalize the physics behind it all; but somehow it worked. I moved like I was stuck in slow motion, and even though there was no friction in the air, I had to force my muscles to move. It was like I weighed thousands of pounds, and when I finally grabbed Jake's arm, he fluttered his eyes open and quickly regained consciousness. He stared at the endless orange mist and opened his mouth to speak, "What is this?"

I had to concentrate on his lips to understand his question. His voice sounded like we were underwater in a noisy pool, and it seemed so far away that I could barely hear it.
I shook my head. I had no explanation for him and I doubted that he could understand me if I tried to speak anyways. I looked up again and the dancing orange lights seemed farther away this time. There were no more ripples that I could see, just beams of light that pierced through the space and lightly touched our skin. I looked at my hand and it looked like the color of a terracotta pot. I moved it under the light and there was no shimmer to it. My diamond skin did not react to this peculiar light at all. Jake tugged on my shirt and pointed at Esme, who was floating just below us. We swam down to grab her without letting go of each other's hands.

It took us longer to wake Esme from her dream. When she finally awoke, she stared at us in both terror and wonder. Her blonde hair looked like fire as it floated freely around her head, and she opened her mouth as if she were trying to taste the air that we were suspended in. She looked at us and shook her head, there was no taste. We were left with no answers to our questions about the place that we were in.

The three of us formed a circle as we hovered motionless. We didn't want to lose each other and our muscles were so heavy here that it would be easier to stay together this way. Slowly, the lights began to brighten. Everything blazed a bright, intense orange. It intensified until it was blinding, and I squinted to see Jake and Esme through the harsh glow. As the light magnified I lost sight of their faces. Luckily, I felt their hands wrapped tightly around mine. I told myself that as long as I could feel them at my side then we would be okay.

My thoughts began to cloud over again, and a feeling of extreme exhaustion saturated my mind. All I wanted to do was sleep.

Sleep – something that I had not done for so long. It was as if all the time I had spent awake as a vampire suddenly caught up to me, and my head nodded and my arms relaxed. I struggled to keep my eyes open, but they were so heavy. I lifted my eyebrows to force my eyes ajar but they were reluctant. If only I could force my eyelashes apart I would be able to open my eyes.

When Jake's grip loosened I realized that we may lose each other here in this drifting nightmare, and the fear forced my eyes to oblige. I shook his hand to wake him up until his grip returned, signaling to me that he was aware again. We looked out for each other in turn, and the bizarre cycle of near sleep and being jolted awake by a panicked hand was making me lose my grip on the situation. I felt delirious for sleep and it was all I could think of. It would be so nice to just close my eyes, just for a second... I drifted off again.

Someone squeezed my hand and the glowing lights began to increase. The blinding orange light was glowing so fiercely now that it began to radiate heat. Hotter and hotter, the temperature soared. It was so blistering that all I could do was close my eyes to protect them from the scalding air, but all desire to sleep had been replaced by an acute awareness of the fiery light that filled around us from all sides. I began to feel a searing pain under the heat, like I was being burnt to a crisp. I screamed out loud, but I heard no voice. I heard nothing at all. It was a vacuum of silence and as I continued my silent scream suddenly we began to spiral downwards and out of control.

We plummeted quickly through the orange sea. We spun and flipped as the space whipped past us. The heat was getting farther and farther away, and the relief that the falling brought was only overshadowed by the thought that we would have to hit bottom soon. The eerie glow changed in seconds from orange to yellow; from yellow to grey, and finally the color cycled back to a murky orange.

We landed with a thud when we hit the bottom. It wasn't pleasant, but it should have been more painful than it was. I realized that my eyes were still shut tight. I opened them slowly, unsure of what to expect when I did. I could make out Jake's silhouette, then Esme's. They were also moving and they seemed to be fine after the fall. I blinked to allow my eyes to adjust to the dimly lit surroundings, and I made out the walls of a strange translucent cavern. The same eerie orange glow came through the ceiling of the cavern, and it looked like there were many layers of ice above and below us. I tried to comprehend how there was a ceiling above us at all, seeing as though we had just fallen from that direction. The wall looked like some type of strange layered ice, but when my fingertips reached out to touch it, it wasn't cold. My body felt normal here; my movements were fluid again and all the heaviness was gone from my limbs.

I put my other hand on the wall, trying to understand where we were, and what it was that I was looking at. The translucent layers of the glowing cave were warm under my palm, and created from a material that I had never seen before. It felt like warm rock, but it looked like ice or crackled glass.

Esme was the first to speak, "Are we between worlds?"

Jake opened his mouth to answer, and before he could respond Kate and Garrett came crashing down on his shoulders. They were there so quickly that I missed where exactly they had fallen from.

"Geez you two," Jake grinned, "I know you were just dying to get up close and personal with a werewolf, but you could have just asked to cuddle." He put his arms around them, and looked genuinely relieved to see them. I turned my head to the side and smiled; only Jake would be able to make me smile at a time like this. Kate hugged him back and looked equally relieved at our presence. Kate shivered for a moment and then she held out her hands and looked at them carefully.

"Garrett, may I?" she asked, holding her hands towards him, palms out. "I will do my best to be very gentle."

Garrett grumbled and put his arm out to her as he agreed to be the guinea pig for her test. He hated getting shocked by her, but it was important to know how her powers would react to this realm.

Kate moved her fingers forwards towards Garrett, and she slowly curled the tips of her fingers. She flicked them quickly, forcing out the electric shock that was her talent. I relaxed when Garrett winced and retracted his hand instinctively. Kate mouthed the word 'sorry' to Garrett, and I interjected, "Try it with me."

I pulled my shield up, and Kate sent her gift furling towards me. I didn't feel the shock, but my mind went soft and hazy for a moment. The shield seemed to work on this plane though - at least we were still in control of our talents.

Esme pointed over to the corner of the glowing cave. The walls parted, and there seemed to be a long tunnel there. All the walls were exactly the same and it was difficult to get any real sense of depth or dimension as we moved towards the hallway.

"Hello?" Jake called tentatively into the glow.

Alice and Jasper came running around a corner that we hadn't seen, and Jasper held his finger to his lips. The urgency in his eyes was more than enough to keep us from talking.

He move close and whispered, "They don't know we're here. Maybe because we managed to stay awake? Or maybe it was the medicine man's secret drink? Whatever the reason, they don't seem to realize that we are here."

"Where are they?" Garrett whispered to Jasper.

Jasper motioned beyond the corner and began walking slowly towards the hallway. I tried my best not to focus too much on the walls because whenever I did I felt slightly light-headed and I had to focus intently to regain my bearings. The glassy surfaces that surrounded us seemed to move slightly when I looked at them, like an optical illusion that strained the eyes to the point of pain. I was blinking quickly so that my stare would not glaze over and be pulled into the mirage walls. I heard Kate whisper that she felt nauseous. I could only assume that the peculiar dizzying effect was a normal one in this bizarre place. Alice answered my unspoken thought when she reached her hand up and pushed her fingers over her eyes. She rubbed her eyes the same way that Edward always did when he was perplexed or worrying about something particularly unpleasant. My thoughts drifted to Edward. Where was he? I remembered the strange voice again.
Edward Cullen is with me.

My temper flared as I thought about the female's assertion and about Chief English's comment about special fathers. I felt my eyes boil red, as I imagined Edward with another woman, or with whatever she was. The fact still remained that someone was trying to steal my family away from me, and I had endured so much just to have them that I would never back down from these creatures.

I remembered James and Laurent, and how vulnerable I was back then; a teenage girl in the world of vampires. I would never have survived if Edward's love for me was not as profound as it was. He protected me relentlessly, and somehow we always made it through. Edward's love kept me safe when I was bitten, just as it kept me out of harm's way on Island Esme. Because of his passion, and against all odds, we had our wonderful daughter Nessie. He stood by me when I insisted on keeping her, never leaving my side even though the pain in his eyes told me that his heart was breaking to watch me suffer. He was there to give me my new life when my body could no longer go on, and he held my hand as I silently withstood the excruciating pain of my transformation. It was always Edward.

I longed to be by his side and in his arms. It felt like we had been apart for months because so much had happened in the past week. My life was spinning violently out of control and I felt so alone without Edward. I was in a half-world that I didn't understand, and the risk that we were taking walking blindly into the unknown left me feeling exposed and vulnerable. Only Edward could make my fears subside. Since the moment that we first returned from Italy there was not a day that we weren't together, and here, in this translucent cavern I felt my isolated heartache take over. Jasper put his hand on my shoulder and looked at me with empathy. "Just breathe Bella," he murmured.

I took a deep breath and my right hand found my wedding band and out of habit I spun it around my finger a few times. I clenched my teeth in determination and vowed to find my husband. I would not let anyone take away everything that we had worked so hard for, and everything that Edward had suffered so much for.

I watched Kate as she walked hand in hand with Garrett, and I silently wished that I had her skill, even if it were just for the exact moment that I found the owner of the seductive voice. I was livid, and I wanted to be able to fight this creature rather than simply defend myself from her attacks. I understood with absolute certainty that I would be fighting to keep my husband, and I curled my lips back at the thought.

Jasper's hand guided me forwards towards the corner, and he pointed past the wall and motioned for me to look.

I cautiously poked my head around the corner, just enough to catch a glimpse of the hallway. It was narrower than I thought it would be, and the cathedral ceiling opened up into a large round chamber at the end of the walkway. The walls in the chamber were not the same as the ones outside. They were creamy and textured, and they reminded me of stone colored stucco. The milky walls lost all of their transparency, and the room was much darker than the hallway leading to it. My eyes followed the lines of the arched ceiling up to some sort of skylight that it housed above. The opening allowed a thin shaft of orange light to penetrate the dark room, and it flickered down onto the stone-like floor and highlighted a very large, very lush plant that sat in the middle of the room. It was dark green with thousands of tiny leaves. It seemed so out of place in the stone room. It was far too alive for its setting. Beyond the plant on the other side was another translucent hallway, this one distinctly ending as it approached a large metal door.

I narrowed my eyes to focus in on the dark shapes that were clustered on the floor. There were three of them, each one spaced out in a different portion of the round room. I tried to make out the exact contours of the dark masses, but I couldn't focus on them from this distance.

Jasper motioned for me to be silent, and we slowly crept down the hallway closer to the room.
I watched the 3 black masses move, breath, and pulsate, but they looked more like dark heaps of blurry velvet than the 3 sisters that I was expecting to find. Even my vampire eyesight couldn't hone in on their exact shapes. The silhouettes were blurred, and inconsistent. I looked around the rest of the room and realized that I saw everything else with crystal clarity. Shifting back to the 3 masses I realized that their shapes were constantly changing; expanding and contracting with each breath. They were softly perched on 3 slabs of a grey marble-like stone, and as we got closer they began to stir, writhing and twisting more freely. We stopped abruptly, and the dark shapes relaxed into their previous modulated rhythm. They appeared to be resting.

We fell back and quickly searched the hallway and cave for another way around their room. We realized in moments that there was no other option but to go through their round chamber and continue through the door in hopes that our families were inside.

We decided that bolting through the room with one long stride would be the best way to pass them undetected. Our lightening passage would arouse the sleeping siblings for a few moments, and we hoped that they would then relax again into the slumber as they done when we approached the room.

Then all eyes went to Jake. We waited in silence and he furled his eyebrows together.

"I'll go last," he muttered, "and I'll wait until you have already passed through that door so that you can keep going," he paused, "in case I'm not quick enough."

"No Jake!" I protested, but I couldn't offer any other solutions. Jake was as fast as we were when he was in wolf form, but he wasn't as agile. His sheer size was the culprit, and he would fill the room with his leap through the air. It would be nearly impossible for Jake to pass through the room in wolf form without hitting the tree-like plant in the middle of the catacomb. He was going to try his stealth instead of his brawn, and slowly slip through the room in human form.

Alice was the most agile of the group and it was decided that she would go first. We hid in the shadows as Alice approached the door. The velvet bodies began to move with more energy, as they stretched into space and pulled themselves back in again. Alice's perfect little frame was crouched, poised like a cat, ready to jump. I held my breath in anticipation. She waited a few moments until the creatures were lulled back to their swaying, and with one accelerated push she jumped through the room and landed soundlessly on the other side. She was crouching and she didn't move a muscle for many seconds. When it seemed like it was safe she motioned for us to join her.

"Go ahead, Bells," Jake urged me on, "Don't worry, I'll be fine. I can take care of myself."

I nodded slowly and I without a word I turned. Slowly and tediously I worked my way to the door. My muscles were tense, sharp even. I crouched to jump and I eyed the sisters one last time before crossing. Their breathing was calm and quiet, and in one movement I soared across the ceiling of the room. My vampire eyes took in the details below as I flashed through the air.

All three creatures were long and thin, and even though they had no definite outlines I could make out their basic shapes from above them. They were willowy, wispy women; graceful even.
As they breathed their figures morphed, and the dark shroud that covered them moved closer to their bodies as they exhaled.

In slow motion my body ascended, and I looked at the plant below just as I was passing above it.
Up close, it looked more like a small dense tree. I had thousands of tiny leaves and thousands of even smaller buds. Its interlacing shoots were intricately woven and the roots of the tree spilled over the large pot that it was held in. The roots touched the floor and continued over in 3 separate bunches to spread along the ground to where the women were sleeping. As I taking in the details of the tree I went too close to the skylight and my body made the light beam that was shining below flicker dangerously close to where they were sleeping. The change in light had disturbed them and they began to pulsate energetically.

Jasper stood at the door on the other side and I could tell that he was concentrating hard to keep them peacefully unaware. His trick seemed to work and I motioned at the skylight so that the others would know to avoid it. We were all across on the other side of the room except for Jake. The others stood by the door, waving at me to follow.

I motioned for them to go in without me. I couldn't leave my best friend behind. Jake closed his eyebrows together as he stared at me angrily. His eyes darted to the door and using his eyes he pleaded with me silently to go with the others. I looked back as Kate and Garrett slipped undetected through the metal door. In a blink, they were all gone, and I stood close the door and watched Jake on the other side. He took one nervous step into the chamber.

Again, they stirred, but only for a moment. Jake was like a cougar stalking his prey, and he moved majestically with stealth and preciseness. I relaxed my shoulders and loosened my jaw as he took his third step into the room. His slow movements remained unperceived and it looked like we would all get through that door tonight.

He moved towards the center of the room, and he had one sister on each side of his body. He held his breath and froze for a minute to ensure that it was safe to move again. He calculated his next move carefully. He could go around the large plant on the right, and have to take more steps to get to the hallway where I waited, or he could go around to the left and risk being seen as the left side had more light. He crouched down next to the plant and took his first step towards the safety of the shadows on the far side of the room.

As he did, the roots and vines of the plant began to tremble and shake, and I watched in horror as the tiny buds began to move towards him. They followed his step as if they watching him, and I knew that Jake had not seen the small buds. He was keeping his eyes on the three dark shapes that lined the walls of the chamber.

I wanted to run to him but I couldn't risk waking the sisters. I couldn't shout out to forewarn him. All I could do was stare wide-eyed and silent, and pray that the moving buds would not wake the dwelling creatures within.

Jake took his next step and I witnessed the most horrific and surreal thing that I had ever seen. A large bud moved out from the security of the plant, and it worked its way towards Jake. It stopped for a minute, sensing him from behind. I could see it over Jake's shoulder, but he wouldn't look at me so that I could caution him.
Look at me Jake.

The large bud moved side to side, and then stopped still and appeared to be sniffing around Jake's ear.
Jake sensed the movement and as soon as he recoiled from the bud the thousands of little buds opened up in unison and they began to wail, "Shaaaaape shifter"

The high shrieks reverberated into my ears and the thousand tiny voices hissed and screeched, "Shape shifter."

Jake turned to look at me, his eyes as wide as saucers and his hands on his ears to clock out the piercing screams.

A dark mist began to move over the sister that I could see from my point of view. She seemed to glide out of her resting place and she unfurled and stretched upwards. Out of the corner of my eye I saw a second shape rise up, but they had their backs to me because they were all headed towards Jacob. My mind raced, what could I do? I threw my shield out to him and to my amazement one of the branches from the plant sprung out and pushed my shield to the side. I watched the dark creatures and they hadn't seemed to notice, all eyes were on Jacob.

I opened the metal door as quietly as I could so that I wouldn't draw attention to myself. My first instinct was to get the others; maybe Kate could protect Jake with her electrical shock.
I opened the door partway, still looking back at Jake in horror and I heard the deep hiss and then the two toned voice echoed through me like an earthquake, "You dare trespass in our domain shape shifter," they voice paused, hissed, and then continued, "Why are you here ?"

He paused briefly, and sputtered out, "Chief English."

A low two toned growl erupted from within the domed room and the voice demanded as it boomed, "Why are you here?" It wounded louder and angrier this time, like it came from a mammoth beast.

Jake crouched down and phased. The black creatures encircled him and he turned from one to other, bearing his teeth as they danced around him. They moved closer and closer, and their wispy limbs began to take the shape of clawed talons. Jake looked wildly at them, and jumped to attack the sister that was closest to him. Her talons ripped through his skin and I heard him whimper though his deep growl. He bit down hard and the blackness evaporated through his teeth only to come together on the other side of the room. The dark body was visibly wounded though, and it moved slower than its partners. It almost seemed to drag one side of its flowing velvet body on the ground. Jake turned to face the three of them as they were all in one area of the room. His eyes darted quickly and he jumped up toward the plant. His instincts told him that a higher vantage point would reward him with the most damage for his attack. As he was leaping into the air the three sisters jumped up to claw at him. Everything twisted in a fur and black blur and I heard Jake's growl echo through the hall. They wailed and the tiny buds followed them, and the noise was almost too much bear. I saw one of the black beasts jump in the air as if to render one last lethal strike. Her claw was held high above her head, and it pounded down into the blur with a force that made the walls shake. I couldn't tell what was going on. My eyes raced back and forth over the movement and I desperately tried to assess Jake's situation. I wanted to run to him, to help him to overcome his attackers. Every cell in my body pushed me towards them, but one small, tiny thought kept me from running into the battle.

Nessie. I had to find my daughter, and I couldn't be wounded or else I would never be able to save her.

The pain of my own selfishness felt like a slap in the face, but my instincts as a mother were stronger than any others that I had. I would run and get the others, surely we could all take them down.

All of a sudden the blur was gone, and so was Jake.

In horror I waited for a few more seconds, but Jake didn't reappear. He wasn't there, and his body was nowhere to be found. One of the sisters grumbled and began to turn around. I realized that they still hadn't seen me and I quickly slipped through the door as quickly as I could. I had to tell the others what had happened to Jake.

I should have helped him. The magnitude of my self loathing was the premium that I would have to pay for letting my best friend…..go. Where was he? I wondered if I would ever see him again or if he could survive in some strange world all alone. Where would the Korfinnas send him?

The sick feeling in my stomach was well deserved, and I knew it. I began to shake violently and I had to find the others.

My version of the events would go something like this, "The sisters sent Jake to some oblivion while I stood there safely and watched."