Elizabeth

I took a deep breath. A very deep, long breath.

"Er… Bella? What is this supposed to mean?"

I replayed the scene in my head. Bella was in my room, and she was teasing me – without reason – about the photos I had taken of her brother. Then we started talking and I invited her to come and meet my grandmother the following day… today, that was. Her. Just her. So why were all the Cullen kids, so to speak, ready to come with us?

Bella gave me an apologetic look. "Sorry… When I said I would come with you, Jasper decided to cut in. Rosalie comes because she's decided to try and make an effort to be friends with you… Emmett follows Rose…"

"And what's your reason, Edward? You can't live without me?" I added with a sweet smile.

"I'm here because Carlisle asked me."

"Nice. But there's no way in hell we're all going to fit in my car."

Rose gave me a superior look. Wasn't she supposed to be nice to me that day? Then I realized it was because she had a car as well. A bright red Mercedes CLK. Maybe she wanted to make me feel inferior, but like Bella I loved battered cars with personality. I wouldn't give up my '90 Chrysler LeBaron for anything.

Everyone but Bella and Jasper left to go in Rosalie's car, and Bella muttered an apology.

"Really, sometimes I'd like to strangle her."

"I'm told it's common with sisters."

Esme and Carlisle showed up just before we left. Esme hugged me, saying she was pleased to see me. Carlisle shook my hand. I couldn't wrap my head around it yet… Every legend my grandma told me, every story, they were true. I had living proof standing in front of me.

"I hope you'll give your grandmother our love," he said. "Next time I'd like to meet her, if she agrees."

I nodded. "She'll be quite happy to hear it."

But I couldn't shake off the feeling that something was wrong. I had a knot in my stomach for no reason at all… and I couldn't imagine why. Gabriel wasn't there, I could breathe again. Life was back on track. So why I was still feeling scared?

Exactly the same question Jasper asked me once in my car.

"I don't know. It's like… nevermind, you'll think I'm crazy."

"Elizabeth… I can feel emotions, and Bella can talk with ghosts. We don't judge… we can't."

"Ok. Sometimes I… I can feel if something good or bad is about to happen. Like a sixth sense."

"It's not so weird," said Bella.

"It is when you wake up at night with a really bad feeling and twenty minutes later a policeman comes to your house and tells you your parents are dead."

I saw Bella and Jasper exchanging a glance.

"What?"

"It was like… like you could see the future?" asked Jasper.

"No. The only way I know to tell the future is reading the tarots. No visions… just a sixth sense. Why this question?"

"There was a member in our family," said Bella. "Her name was Alice. She was very good at seeing things before they happened."

"What happened to her?"

"She died. Almost forty years ago. She was murdered by the Volturi."

"Those guys sound like bad news."

"Can't say you're wrong…" said Bella, and I wondered what exactly she knew about those vampires. It didn't sound like she had an empirical knowledge, but more like she had met them… I wondered when and how.

My bad feeling kept on getting worse and worse. By the time we arrived at the retirement house I was certain something bad was about to happen.

And then Ms. Norvich told me my grandmother had been hospitalized early that morning. I started shivering. I caught just a few words of what that woman was saying to me… hypovolemic shock… unexplainable internal bleeding… heart failure… close to death…

I couldn't move. I couldn't talk. I was shaking so much I felt like I was convulsing. What happened next I didn't know… but I woke up in the hospital, with Carlisle hovering over me, and all the other Cullens in the room.

"Carlisle?"

He looked worried. Esme and the others looked deeply relieved to see me awake. Hell, even Rosalie.

"You scared us to death, Elizabeth."

I was going to reply, by the pain in my chest cut my breath short. Weird, I didn't remember hitting something, or falling on the ground. I gave Carlisle a puzzled look.

"What happened?"

"Your heart," the doctor simply said. Enough for me to understand. Yes, my heart defect wasn't a big deal, I could lead a normal life… but I also had to lead a quiet life. The fear of Gabriel's return and my grandmother's conditions didn't help…

"Have you ever heard of Takotsubo cardiomyopathy?" Carlisle asked me, while checking my eyes and listening to my heartbeat. I shook my head.

"It's a stress-induced pathology, triggered by an intense emotional stress… or the death of a loved one. A weakening of the myocardium. It's also called Broken Heart Syndrome."

"And it didn't help that I already had a congenital defect in that area."

"No, it didn't. Your heart stopped on our way here. We weren't able to immediately revive you. For a moment we feared…"

No need to be a mind-reader to realize how that phrase was going to end. They had feared I died before arriving to the hospital.

Edward gave me a strange look, and then he lowered his eyes.

"What, Edward? What is it?"

Esme gave a worried look to Carlisle. Bella bit her lip. Rose shifted her weight, uncomfortable. Emmett grimaced and looked at the floor. Jasper moved closer to me. I started hyperventilating again. If I was fine, there was just one person they could be so worried about. Just one.

Jasper was at my side in a quarter of second, touching my arm with his cold hand. It was like a wave of Thorazine washed over my body. I didn't feel upset… but I remembered I had to. Weird.

"Elizabeth, please, you can't get upset in your condition," said Carlisle.

"I won't get upset if you start telling me what is wrong with my grandmother!"

Since no one seemed eager to give me what I wanted, I decided I would discover the truth myself. I tore the IV from my arm and tried to get up from the bed, but Jasper, Esme and Bella prevented me from doing it. They were trying to hold me down without causing me bruises, but I was fighting too hard against their hands… it was unavoidable. Carlisle took a syringe from a tray, and injected me with a sedative. I stopped fighting immediately.

"What's wrong with her… tell me, please…" I whimpered while Esme helped me lie down again.

"When you feel stronger, my dear," she said, stroking my hair. "Now rest."

I closed my eyes and drifted into unconsciousness.

Bella

I watched Elizabeth lose consciousness, and I started sobbing. Jasper left her side to engulf me in a tight embrace. How? How could we tell Elizabeth her grandmother was dead?

When Carlisle explained to us Elizabeth's pathology, he also told us that it wasn't something that happened all of sudden. Elizabeth must have already suffered of that when her parents died, and never really recovered. Her heart walls were too thin, her health was seriously at risk. And then there was the part about Gabriel. Carlisle didn't talk, obviously, but Edward told me everything as soon as we had a moment alone. He told me he saw Elizabeth's chart through Carlisle's eyes and all the bruises and fractures her so-called boyfriend caused her. He was shocked, we all were. She went through hell and survived… and I would do whatever was in my power to help her. This time we all agreed on this. We stayed with her for as long as possible, then Carlisle started his shift, and we all moved to the waiting room. After a while, I got on my feet and headed on the roof to catch some fresh air and to phone Mick and tell him about Elizabeth, but his phone was turned off.

Weird. I left him a message on his voicemail, and when my phone rang two minutes later I answered, sure it was Mick on the line.

"Thank God, you called. Elizabeth's sick, you have to come over now."

No one answered.

"Mick?"

I heard a whisper. "Guess again."

I stared at the void with my mouth hanging open.

"Dave?"

"Hi, Bells. It's been a real long time."

The understatement of the century, I'd say.

"And whose fault is it, huh? You've had my number for twenty freaking years and you never used it!"

"You put it in an envelope labeled 'open just in case of a real emergency', what was I supposed to think?"

I shook my head and rolled my eyes. Typical Dave.

"So…" I said, "How are things doing in La Push? And what's the emergency?"

"Bella… we need you. Big time. Strange things are happening… and I fear there are ghosts involved. Evil spirits. Many people have died."

I shivered. "Tell me some more."

"Mostly men… always near the cliff at First Beach. We can hear whispers in the wind when no one is around, or see things written in the wall that appeared out of nowhere. Bells, it's getting scarier by the second around here… and you might be the only one that could set things right. It's your field of expertise."

"Thanks so much for reminding me. But don't think for one second I believed the 'we'. No one knows of this phone call, does it?"

"Bella, things here are serious. The fact you're a vampire will be the last thing on their minds. Please… come home. Many things have changed… you've no idea."

I sighed, glancing at the room where Elizabeth was sleeping. "Dave, I can't. Not right now. I'm in the middle of a very messy situation… I can't leave."

"Bella, I'm begging you."

And I wasn't used on refusing Dave anything. Plus, I really wanted to go to the place I had called home for the first eighteen years of my life. But I couldn't leave right now, and I repeated that to him.

"I'll see what I can do, Dave. I promise."

He was disappointed. And so was I. I banged my head against the wall a couple of times.

"What's wrong, Bella?" asked Rosalie, joining me on the roof.

"I received a phone call. From Dave."

"The wolf?"

"Yep. Sounds like the reservation is in danger."

"And why should you care? They kidnapped and tried to kill you. They don't deserve your help!" she hissed through her teeth. She was right, in a way. I wished I was able to hold a grudge.

"I would do it for Dave, not for the others. He helped me escape, and he has always been a good friend to me."

"Except for the last twenty years."

I sighed and looked away, biting my lip. I couldn't tell her I was seriously thinking about going, but somehow she realized it by herself. God, I hated how much Rosalie knew me.

"You cannot be serious!" she almost shouted, clutching my shoulders. "You can't go there! Can't you see it's a trap?"

"No, it's not. Dave vas genuinely worried… scared, even. It's all true."

"Whatever. It's their problem, not yours! Would you please put yourself first for a change?"

Ok, that was a first. I knew Rosalie cared for me, that somehow I had found a little place in her heart next to Emmett, but now I looked at her in the eyes, and I saw something new… something that I usually saw in Esme's eyes. Rosalie loved me for real, and not just because she had to. I smiled.

"Rose, relax. I'm not going anywhere. Elizabeth needs us now… the werewolves can wait."

"Elizabeth. Right. I admit, when I felt her heart stop all of sudden…"

"Plain scary."

Rose gave me an eloquent look. "Did you know her heart was sick?"

"Not a word. She hates to be considered weak. Sounds familiar?"

Rosalie gave me an astonished, outraged look. "Are you comparing me to her?"

"Beautiful, stubborn, tenacious, brave… yeah, I think I am."

"Well, stop. I'm nothing like her. And she wishes she were as beautiful as me."

"Yeah, she probably does…" I said, trying not to laugh.

Rosalie hit me hard in the head with her hand.

"Ouch! What was that for?"

"I'm your sister, I don't need a reason to hit you."

I was going to reply, when we heard someone racing up the stairs. Emmett opened the metal door and ran to us.

"Bells, we have a problem."

"What, Emmett? Did something happen to Elizabeth?"

"She's gone. Out of thin air. She disappeared under Esme and Carlisle's noses, for crying out loud!"

I immediately ran down the stairs to Elizabeth's room. Esme was looking at the empty bed, worried sick.

"I don't understand… why did she have to run away? Gabriel hadn't come back for real… or did he?"

I shook my head. Any guess could be the right one. Elizabeth was so complicated to read… My eyes fell on the cards disposed neatly on the covers. The Tower. The Moon. The Wheel of Fortune. The Death. Whatever she had seen in those cards made her decide to leave the hospital and run, ignoring her health conditions.

But what did she see?

And with this evil cliffhanger I tell you goodbye... Saturday I'm leaving to spend a month abroad to study German, and I don't think I will be able to update this fic (or any of my fic) before early November. Sorry. So... See you in November, guys! ; )