Ok, this is the second to last chapter. It makes me sad to know it's all finishing... -sniff-
And the reviewers are:
margaritama, GinnyBrown is here and now, Vampires-Rock4eva, LookAfterMyHeartt, HarvestEclipse31, sweet333249, manyafandom, AlwaysBettingOnAlice, laibballfan, Jennie (x4), Screams-At-Midnight, bedwardforever, Music ADD, 4theluvofMary, jennifier potter, In The Life Of Sara's, edwardsfavouriteflavour, sunshine4047, okiegirlforever, x-aly-x, musicormisery4105, dark-star.mystery, Rhiannon Summer, Kevin the Cornbread Slice, lia516, FrEvrNvrLasts, sporkchief (x2), StarryNightT, Luckybugg, babygirljen6, VampyChick95, Bethany Knight, twilightismylife140, FearLover, joellen818, IrisOfTheRainbow, maryellen, Fanpire, ReflectionsDistortedInTheSun (x4), 143twilighter, xx Phyre xx, OfficiallyDazzled, AtReYu-FrEaK, THISwayOUTofLIMBO, EdwardxBells4ever, Bellefire253, sassydolphin007, Bit-By-Edward, Fall Down Again Bella, EdwardsEyes. (P.S., if I've missed anyone, please let me know and I'll add you name in! Apologies again to Ghosts in the Snow for having this happen to her!)
Special Mentions:
EVERYONE: The reason why Edward didn't write back is in this chapter ;-D
Jennie: Oh, thankyou! I actually want to become an author one day; it's good to know that someone else think's it's a good idea!
joellen818: Nah you didn't sound pushy! And I get aggitated sometimes and accidentally take it out on people who don't deserve it, so don't worry about it lol. Nope, unfortunately Carlisle won't be seen again in the story.
Bit-By-Edward: Hahaha, those stories you left in your review about your gym class mishaps are awesome! Totally Bella-worthy. Lol.
Chapter Twenty-Seven: Kidnapped
"Bella?"
I was still in bed, the covers pulled all the way up. I didn't want the light to hurt my nocturnal eyes so I didn't sit up to see what Charlie was calling me for.
"What?" I called back, my words muffled by the doona.
I heard the door sliding across the carpet and realised that he was coming into my room. I instantly sat up, throwing the covers back and hurriedly shoving the haystack of hair from my face.
"What's wrong?" I asked, panicked.
Charlie smiled at my needless worry and slid through the gap in the door. I saw he had something in his hand. It was silver and shiny and the screen light was lit up. Charlie held it out to me, and I took it from him, baffled.
"It's Alice."
"What? Why? Is something wrong? Why is she calling me so early?" I looked at the phone, then back to Charlie. I knew Alice could hear me but I didn't really care.
Charlie laughed. "I don't know what she wants. And it's not that early, it's eight o'clock. You should be out of bed and taking over the world by now!" He chuckled at his own joke, then patted my leg through the doona and turned for the door. I waited until he was gone before turning my attention to the phone.
This better be important. I was having one hell of a dream…
"Hello?"
"Bella! You're up!" She sounded extremely loud and excited. It was too early for excitement.
"Whoa, use your indoor voice Alice, it's only eight." I rubbed my eyes with my free hand and crossed my legs under the covers so I could sit up.
She laughed. "Sorry. But I think you need waking up anyway, I'm going to be there to pick you up at nine – or prepare to be dragged out the door in your pyjamas!"
I moaned and flopped back down under my covers. "Please be kidding."
"No such luck. Get up."
"Why?" I whined, rolling on my side to see the clock by my bed. 8:04am. Wonderful.
I heard some rustling around Alice's end of the line. "Well," she said, and I could tell she was moving something by the strain in her voice, "we're going for a little drive. I think you'll like it. And I also think you should hurry up and get dressed because I'm going to be there in exactly fifty-five minutes."
"Alice! I'm not in the mood!"
"Oh, I know. But I'm going to fix that."
She's so annoying when she gets an idea in her head.
"Fine," I said, throwing my warm covers off my body. "This had better be worth missing out on a sleep-in and a very good dream."
"Dream?"
Damn it.
"Never mind."
She paused for a moment before replying, and I knew she was trying to figure out what my dream had been about.
"Whatever," she said after a few beats. "See you soon! Oh, and wear warm clothes."
"Fine. Bye," I said, and I hung up the piece of technology before I could say something I might regret.
Stupid, overly enthusiastic, boyfriend-owning pixie.
I yawned widely then stretched when I stood up. I headed off to the bathroom first; thinking about how nice a warm shower was going to feel.
When I got out, Charlie called me from the foot of the stairs as I was crossing the carpet to get to my room. I felt very glad that I'd taken my dressing gown in with me.
"Yeah?" I called back, halting movement across the hall.
"I'm going over to see Billy. I'll be back tonight, but not too late I think. I'll have dinner with them." He paused for a moment. "Do you want to come with me? I'm not in a hurry."
As tempting as it was to leave Alice's plan for dead, I knew she would hunt me down.
"Thanks Dad, but I'm being kidnapped by Alice today. I reckon I'll be home around the same time as you."
"Okay. I'm going now, so you kids have fun together!"
I laughed, hoping that what Alice defined as 'fun' was not on the list of things for us to do today. "Thanks Dad. See you tonight." I heard Charlie rustling his jacket for a moment, then the front door opened and closed and he was gone. I didn't hear the cruiser leave but when I looked from my bedroom window after I'd pulled on a t-shirt and jeans, it was gone.
All too soon, my little clock told me that I had seventeen minutes of solitude left. I sighed and grabbed my jacket and purse, then headed down the stairs to the kitchen. I slowly chewed through my toast, thinking about what Alice could possibly want to do with me on a Saturday morning. True, she was a maniac about shopping – but if she wanted me for shopping, she wouldn't have called me. She'd have been the one interrupting my dreams, not Charlie.
And the dream had been wonderful. Of the snippets I remembered, one in particular stood out.
I was back at the Masquerade Ball, fleeing from Edward. But this time I'd chosen option one. I stopped running, and he had almost run into me.
I was crying again, my makeup running down my face. I wanted to pull my mask back over my eyes but my hands refused to listen to my head.
"Bella," he said, and he sounded apologetic. "I'm sorry."
I spluttered, thinking of how silly it was that he was the one apologising to me.
"No," I protested, looking up at him.
Just at that moment, the moon appeared from a cloud behind me and illuminated Edward's face. He looked so painfully perfect that I had to reach out to touch him. His strong face looked like it was made from stone, or marble, and I wanted to know if it really was.
When I touched his cheek, the light faded away, the moon being swallowed back by the clouds. But he felt warm, and real. His eyes closed and he raised a hand to his face, catching my hand between his cheek and palm.
I smiled, foolishly thinking that everything was going to be alright. But then Edward's head jerked up, and he looked at something behind me. Before I could start to turn around, I was swept up and being carried in his strong arms while he ran. There was something chasing us, I realised. And I could see its overbearing shadow ahead.
It was a butterfly. Its wings were so loud that I couldn't hear anything, not Edward's voice, not my screams, nothing. My ears were full of cotton wool. Then it was getting closer every moment, until suddenly Edward was gone, and I was falling… falling…
Then Charlie woke me up. I knew that I had been about to die, but I didn't care, because for the first time in my relationship with Edward, I hadn't been the one to stuff it up. And he'd carried me. He could have just left me, but he didn't. He'd carried me.
Suddenly there was a loud honking outside the house from a car horn. Alice was here. I jumped and saw my reflection in the bathroom mirror do the same. Somehow during my reverie I'd finished my breakfast and gotten upstairs to brush my teeth – or had I? I ran my tongue over my teeth. My breath tasted like peppermint. I had brushed my teeth.
Alice was waiting for me when I came out of the house. I noticed as I was turning to lock the door that she wasn't driving her Porsche for once. It was a green four-wheeled drive – something I thought would look more at home in the army. It was called a, um, Hummer, I thought. A Hummer? Yes, that sounded right.
I walked down the path to the car and jumped in the passenger side. Alice smiled at me when I got in.
"You got up!" she said, clapping her hands together.
"Yes," I said, frowning at her. "I know you would have gotten me up if I hadn't done it myself."
She grinned, looking like a crazy person. "True. Guess what?"
"Your parents bought you another car?" I suggested, looking around inside the monstrous vehicle.
"Nope. This is Emmett's. Guess again."
Of course, Emmett's. This looked like a car that would suit Emmett perfectly. I cast around for ideas as to what her surprise was.
"Where's your Porsche?"
"Rosalie wanted to take it out for a spin today." She looked at me impatiently. "Stop avoiding the subject! Guess, guess!"
"You're taking me out to lunch?" I wondered, thinking of a restaurant in Port Angeles she loved.
"Nope. I got you a surprise!" She squealed with delight and clapped her hands together like a hummingbird's wings.
I smiled at her craziness, I couldn't help it.
"Okay…?" I said, wondering what kind of clothing I was going to be shoved into today. "What is it?"
"I'll show you," she said, with a mischievous grin on her face.
I opened my mouth to protest – I hated surprises and she knew it – but she was out the door in a flash. I saw her running around to the back of the car in her rear-vision mirror, but turned away once the trunk had been opened.
I leaned my head on the headrest and closed my eyes. A minute later I heard the back of the car slam shut, but instead of looking around for the surprise I squeezed my eyes tighter together.
"I hate surprises you know," I said, bring a hand to my forehead and kneading it with my palm.
"I know," said a voice, but it wasn't Alice's.
My eyes flew open like shutters. "What are you doing here?!"
He shrugged. "It was my idea, so don't blame Alice. She just brought me."
Then something in my head clicked. "You were in the trunk?!"
Edward laughed… and despite my shock, anger, irritation, embarrassment and a whole host of other emotions, his laugh was still at the top of my 'Favourite Sounds' list.
He reached for the keys and turned on the ignition. My eyes narrowed in irritation at his casual approach to the situation, and I mumbled something under my breath.
"Pardon?"
"Nothing."
He turned with his whole body, giving me his full attention. "What did you say, Bella?"
I sighed, knowing he wasn't going to give up. "I said, 'Your hands obviously aren't the reason you didn't write'."
He looked stunned; completely innocent. Too innocent. I would have fallen for it but knowing Alice gave me exceptionally good senses to detect when someone was covering up their real emotions.
"Don't pretend you don't know what I'm talking about, Edward." I looked at him unblinkingly. "Why didn't you write me?"
"Oh. That." He fiddled with the collar of his shirt with one hand. "Well; don't blame them – but Leah and Alice told me to leave you be for a while. I knew I should write but I worried that it wouldn't come out the way I wanted it to. And I wanted to see your face after what happened on Saturday, anyway."
I closed my eyes tightly and tried to control my tone as I responded. "Does that mean you're going to apologise?"
"It means that I owe you an apology, but I want to do it properly. So you're going to have to wait a little while."
I sighed, and waited for him to continue, but he didn't. It seemed that he wasn't going to give me any more information.
"What's going on?" I looked at him suddenly when put the car into gear. "Where's Alice? Where are we going?"
Edward just chuckled, and I felt my heart trying to jump forward to get to him again. "Alice is fine."
I put my hand on the doorhandle, weighing up my chances of getting back into Charlie's house before he could catch me.
"I'll just drag you back," he said, guessing my plan.
I huffed, and reluctantly reached back to put my seatbelt on. "Where are we going?"
He looked over at me as he pulled away from the curb. "If I told you that, it would spoil the surprise."
OOOOHHH!! Exciting!
Well, you guys know the drill... review? Pretty please?
And remember, the next chapter is the last. I know, it makes me sad to have it all come to an end too.
But you all still love me, right? :-D
-Shaps