Chapter 18: Tada! A chapter! And not 8 months after the last one!

After the whole freak out that I had about hearing their footsteps, both Edward and Carlisle left. Edward was supposedly going to think, Carlisle was going to tell the others about the new development in Edward.

I was still stuck on the metal bed, though. I was bored out of my mind, but I kept thinking that if I moved, someone was going to come and see that I wasn't there. I really didn't feel like scaring an unsuspecting nurse or something, and then causing a body hunt.

So I kept still for what seemed like hours until someone came in.

"Oh, Bella." It was Alice.

"Why'd you have to go now? Actually, a better question is, why didn't I see that you would die this way?"

Maybe it had something to do with the whole tree-rhino thing. I would bet my life's savings that I wasn't human anymore. Actually, I was probably the farthest thing from being human.

"The funeral's tomorrow."

WHAT? I had to go through my own funeral tomorrow? I was having enough trouble staying still right now- I had to be still all tomorrow, too?

"I kept it simple- I know that's the way you would have wanted it."

Oh, Alice... I bet that that was the hardest thing she's done in years.

"It's a private function- only us, the wolves, and your parents and closest human friends. We thought that it would be best, seeing how most of the other people didn't know you very well."

So Edward wouldn't have to deal with Newton and Jessica is probably a better reason. Oh, and Lauren. I almost forgot her. I bet that if Edward saw them at my funeral, he'd expose the vampire secret to everyone else. Seriously.

"Gosh, I wish that you could talk back to me. I'd really like that a lot. It's been so dreary at our house- Edward was thinking about going to the Volturi, but he decided against it."

Whew. That was relieving.

"Jasper's been depressed- he's been picking up on Edward's emotions, and sort of broadcasting them. No one wants to go near him anymore."

Oh. Gosh. That made me feel much worse about this pretending-to-be-dead-for-right-now thing. If only I could tell her about it...

"Bella?" Shoot, I must have twitched. It's getting more and more painful to stay still.

"Bella, did you just...?" Her voice trailed off as I heard her gasp. Stupid, uncooperative legs!

"Carlisle! Edward!" She called, and I tried not to wince as the sound reverberated off the walls and into my poor eardrums. They were starting to hurt as well. It felt just like I imagined being turned into a vampire felt- like my entire body was burning- only right now, it was burning to move, talk, to do something, anything.

"What is it, Alice?" I could hear how tired and worn down Edward sounded- like he had all of a sudden stopped holding up something really heavy.

"I think Bella just moved!"

I heard Carlisle sigh. "Alice, you really should stop doing this to yourself. You know that Bella is dead now- it really was just a matter of time, since she is- was- human."

"But Carlisle, I didn't see it. I saw her passing out just before we entered the hospital, but since then- nothing. Not a single vision of her. I think something's blocking my vision."

I could almost feel Edward's brow furrow- he was thinking, and thinking hard. I was thinking, too- but probably not about what he was thinking, because I was thinking about what exactly I was, that something would go to such trouble to block Alice's visions.

"Is that even possible?"

"Apparently so."

I sighed- mentally, of course. I really just wished that they would all leave the room, so I could at least wiggle something without one of them detecting it. The involuntary twitches had helped me, but it was building up again- that urge to move, to become the wind, or the sea, or the trees- all things that were constantly moving, constantly in motion, never ceasing. It was an almost burning desire- yet again, it felt like I imagined the vampire venom would feel.

Venom. Why hadn't one of the Cullens tried to transform me? Questions, questions, always circling, never ceasing...

I woke with a jolt, trying to sit up, but there was something over me. I was in a coffin, I suddenly realized. I could feel that something was lowering me into the ground.

No! I tried to shout, but my voice was gone completely. I was immobilized by an irrational fear of being put into the ground, the calm, patient, still earth, a place that was not suited for me. Not suited for me at all.

I felt a thump that sent me reeling into the side of my grave, and then a pattering over me. No! They were going to bury me alive!

Some part of me knew that being buried, and then reborn, was just part of the circle of things that I had to do in order to become- what I was meant to be. What that meant, I still have no clue.

But the other part of me, the part that reveled in the wind and sea and trees, in ever-changing, never-ceasing movement, screamed in fear and panic. Being buried, to it, was like being burnt- I sensed that to be burnt was to be tortured by demons.

The pattering stopped, and my thoughts- and fears- were quenched. The moving part of me cried out, and fled out through me somehow, into the ground and out, spreading my consciousness throughout the sea and wind and trees, just as it wished. The part of me that was left behind- the quieter, stiller part that felt more like my old self- sighed in relief.

I knew what I had to do then.

I had to dig my way out.

I have NO idea what came over me for that last inner monologue. I was almost literally asleep,and when I jerked awake, it was sitting in front of me, typed. Really spooky.

Of course, it may just be the fact that I'm sick, and still a little delirious.

Hope you enjoyed!