Blind
By Hanabella Louise
Chapter 1- The Last Time
Bella
"Bella, baby, can you hear me?" Dad says. I can hear his voice from the right-hand side of my bed. I can feel his warm, strong hand holding mine tight, like he's afraid to let go, and after tonight's events, I can't say I blame him.
"I can hear you, Daddy. Where am I?" I ask, calling him Daddy for the first time in ten years. I'm eighteen. I'm not a little girl anymore, but at this current moment in time, I have never felt more like a scared little girl wanting her daddy to make it all better, but I know deep down he can't make this better, even if he tried.
"Hospital, baby. Bella, I need you to try and tell me what happened tonight, please?" Dad says, giving my hand a gentle squeeze, trying to reassure me.
"Is Mom coming?" I ask, avoiding the question because I don't want to remember the events of tonight, or the events leading up to it.
"She's on her way, Bella. Baby, I know it's hard, but I need you to tell me what happened. Please, Bells? This is important," Dad pleads with me, and I have to swallow the lump in my throat as the memories flood back. I begin to explain the night's events to Dad, leaving out the burning memories of the days leading up to all of this, because I know where this all began, and it's crystal clear. This all began on my eighteenth birthday, the day my whole life fell apart.
"Smile, Bella. Please, for me?" Edward whispered to me as Alice dragged me down the stairs to my eighteenth birthday party in the Cullen's front room. I hadn't wanted a party. I would have happily let my eighteenth birthday go uncelebrated, but Alice was a stubborn vampire, and I couldn't change her mind once it was set on the idea of a birthday party.
"This is hell, but I'll try for you," I whispered back, giving him a small smile as we reached the living room. Edward chuckled, before placing a kiss on my cheek. The only people at the party were me, Edward, and his family, and I was happy with that.
"Happy Birthday, Bella," Esme said, giving me a hug. Edward didn't let go of my hand as Esme let me go, and Carlisle also wished me a happy birthday, giving me my third birthday hug of the night.
"Present time!" Alice shouted before I had a chance to say thank you to Esme and Carlisle. She'd dragged Rosalie over to me, and I knew perfectly well that Rosalie Cullen hated me for reasons I would never understand.
"It's a necklace. Alice picked it out," Rosalie said, handing me a small box with no emotion on her face, and I didn't expect anything different.
"Thank you, Rosalie," I said, giving her a small smile a smile that went unreturned, as Alice took Rosalie's gift from my hand before replacing it with another present. It was a large box, which I found when I shook it was empty, to my surprise.
"Jasper and I got you a new stereo for your truck, since the old one sucked ass. Well, your truck sucks ass to be honest, Bells. I've already installed it in your truck," Emmett said with a playful grin on his face. No one apart from me liked my truck. Edward kept asking me to let him buy me a new car since my truck was falling apart, but I told him that I wasn't trading in my truck while there was still life left in it.
"Thanks guys, and Emmett, stop hating on my truck!" I said with a playful smile, giving Emmett a hug, which he turned into one of his famous bear hugs as Alice took the present from me. I didn't give Jasper a hug for the simple reason that Jasper couldn't handle the smell of blood like the others, and I had a feeling that close, personal contact with me might be too much for him, so I gave him a small smile, which he returned as Alice grabbed both mine and Edward's hands, pulling us slightly away from the group.
"Smile!" Alice said with a big grin on her face, and I noticed that she held the camera my dad had bought me for my birthday in her hands, but before I had a chance to question her, Edward put his arm around me and leaned in to kiss my check as Alice took the picture.
"I found the camera in your bag. I hope you don't mind," Alice said, giving me a small smile.
"Of course I don't mind, Alice," I said with a small smile, which made Alice grin bigger.
"Okay, two more presents left, one from Esme and Carlisle, and one from Edward. Open Esme and Carlisle's first!" Alice said, gently turning me to face Carlisle and Esme. Edward kept his arm around my waist as Esme handed me an envelope.
"Just a little something to brighten your day, because you've been looking very pale lately," Esme said with a smile, and Carlisle chuckled before kissing her cheek.
"Thank you," I said with a tiny smile as I slid my finger under the tape. I stupidly pulled my finger across the tape too fast, and the tape sliced into my finger.
"OW! Paper cut," I said, pulling my finger out of the envelope to examine it as a single drop of blood oozed out and dropped onto the carpet, but that single drop of blood was enough to push Jasper over the edge, and it all happened pretty fast after that. Jasper went to attack me, Edward pushed me out of the way into the piano and cut my arm on the glass bowl, and I ended up needing stitches in Carlisle's office while Emmett wrestled Jasper outside.
"This is all my fault. I never wanted a stupid party in the first place," I explained to Carlisle as he cleaned my wound and picked out the pieces of glass.
"It's not your fault. Jasper hasn't been away from blood as long as the rest of us. It's harder for him, because the smell still calls to him," Carlisle said with a small smile as he started to stitch up my wound.
"How do you do it, Carlisle? Don't you ever feel like doing it the easy way?" I asked him with a sigh, as he sewed the first stitch across the wound. He let out a little chuckle at my statement.
"No. I knew who I wanted to be. I wanted to help people, even if I am damned regardless," Carlisle said with a small smile, and I looked up at him.
"Carlisle, you could never be damned," I said with a small smile. He just chuckled.
"Why, thank you, Bella. You've always been very accepting of us," Carlisle said with a tiny smile, and I couldn't take my eyes off of him as he finished stitching up my wound and set fire to the blood-soaked tissues he'd used to stop the bleeding. As I looked into his golden eyes, it finally hit me.
"That's it, isn't it? That's why he won't change me," I asked, and Carlisle broke eye contact with me, because he knew that was exactly the reason Edward wouldn't change me.
"Look at it this way, Bella. If you felt as strongly as Edward does, would you take away his soul?" Carlisle asked as he put out the flame. I sighed, and didn't reply as he helped me up, and put my jacket gently over my shoulders and walked me to the front door, where Edward was waiting for us.
"I'll take Bella home," Edward said, taking me gently from Carlisle's grasp. I gave Carlisle a weak smile. Edward opened the front door as Alice appeared with my presents.
"Don't forget your presents," she said, handing them to me with a tiny smile. I smiled back, and wrapped my arm around her to give her a hug.
"How's Jasper doing? Tell him it's not his fault, please?" I said to Alice after we pulled away from our hug. She gave me a small smile, and a kiss on the cheek.
"He's angry with himself, but I'll tell him. Happy birthday, Bella," Alice said with a smile, before Edward and I left through the front door, which Edward closed behind us. We walked in silence down the driveway to my truck. Edward drove me home. The only sound in the truck was the music that quietly poured out of my new radio. Neither of us spoke, because truth be told, neither of us knew what to say to make this all better. Everything had changed between us in that single moment.
"I'm sorry," I said as we pulled up outside my house, and he killed the engine, which turned off the radio, leaving us in complete silence. Edward didn't say a word, just got out of the car, slamming the door shut. I sighed, and climbed out of the car with him.
"Edward, say something, please? Say you forgive me. This is all my fault. If I'd been more careful, this wouldn't have happened," I said, trying to hold back my tears, because the silence was killing me inside. He took my head gently in his hands and placed a soft, passionate kiss to my lips before pulling away, moving his hand down to my waist, before wrapping his arm around me, holding me close.
"It's not your fault. I have to go. Happy birthday, Bella," Edward said before he let me go, and I watched him walk away before grabbing my presents from the car and walking up the steps to the front door. I opened the door, and shut it behind me.
"Hey," I said with a small smile three days later. I hadn't seen or heard from Edward or Alice for three days straight.
"Come for a walk with me?" Edward asked, glancing between me and the woods, and the knots that were forming in my stomach told me that something was very wrong.
"Okay," I said, swallowing the lump that had formed in my throat before following behind him into the woods. We didn't say a word, just walked. We weren't following a path, just walking straight and deep into the woods.
"Bella, we have to leave Forks," Edward said, finally breaking the silence after we'd stood still and facing each other for a few moments.
"Why?" I asked, trying to keep calm. I wasn't ready to leave everything and everyone in Forks just yet.
"Carlisle is supposed to be ten years older than he actually looks, and people are starting to notice," Edward explained.
"Okay. Well, I'll have to think of something to say to Charlie..." I started to say, but I saw the look on his face, and it hit me that I'd misunderstood what Edward was actually saying.
"When you say 'we,' what do you mean exactly?" I asked him. He looked away from me for a moment before turning back to look at me.
"I mean my family and myself. You can't come with us, Bella," Edward explained, and my whole world started to collapse around me, and I found myself struggling to breathe.
"Is this because of what happened with Jasper? Edward, that was nothing. It was an accident!" I said, grabbing his hand in mine, trying to hold onto it, but he pulled away from my touch.
"Yeah, it was nothing, nothing compared to what could have happened. I don't want you to come with us, Bella. I don't want you. This is over. This shouldn't have happened in the first place. We're too different," Edward said, with an expressionless face which broke my heart more than his cold words.
"You don't want me?" I asked, trying not to break down in tears, because I wouldn't let him see me broken. I had to stay strong, even though that seemed impossible.
"No. I don't want you. I'm not coming back, Bella. This is our last goodbye," Edward said, touching my cheek with his hand before disappearing, leaving me alone and gasping for breath because I felt like someone had just knocked all the air out of my body. I closed my eyes, wanting this all to be a dream, wanting to wake up with Edward's arms around me, but when I opened my eyes there was nothing, just me and the feeling of emptiness.
"Edward," I whispered his name, hoping he could hear me, hoping he would come back for me, hoping that he didn't mean what he'd said, but I knew deep down that he meant every word. I let out a small sob before I decided that standing in the woods wasn't going to make the pain go away, so I decided to head back to the house, and while the thought of going home seemed simple, the actual task of getting home was a lot more difficult than I first thought because we hadn't followed a path. I actually didn't have any idea how I was going to get back home, and the sky was beginning to darken. I tripped over a branch, and ended up on the cold, muddy ground, and I didn't have the strength to pick myself back up, so I just stayed down and curled myself into a ball, wanting the ground to swallow me up.
"Edward?" I whispered, sitting upright as I heard a twig snap, and couldn't help but hope it was him, but it wasn't. It was someone I'd never seen before. He was in his late thirties, and his face would be the last face I'd ever see.
"Hey, sweetheart," he said with a smirk on his face, and I could tell he'd been drinking. I quickly got to my feet, cursing myself in my head for leaving my mace in my truck. I stood still, not daring to run, because I knew if I ran he'd follow, and he looked stronger and faster than me, even drunk. He held a can in his hand. I thought at first glance it was beer, but it was something very different. I could smell it, and I knew straight away what it was, Methanol. We'd studied it at school in science, and I knew it wasn't good, and he was starting to scare the crap out of me because he was slowly walking towards me, so I decided to take my chances and run, and of course I tripped over a stupid twig because I'm that clumsy, and he was suddenly on top of me, pulling at my jeans, and I wanted Edward to come back in that very moment and save me, but he didn't. I kicked at the man, and tried to scream, but he had his hand over my mouth trying to silence me, and that's when it happened. The lid on the can was loose, and the contents ended up leaking onto my face and straight into my eyes, and I had to scream at the pain because it felt like someone was holding hot irons on my eyes, and everything went blurry, and that was the last thing I remembered before waking up and only being able to hear my dad's voice.
"Bella, baby, I spoke to the doctor. He says the damage to your eyes is pretty bad, honey," Dad explained after I'd finished telling him what had happened.
"How bad?" I asked in a small voice as I heard the door open. I knew it was Mom because her perfume filled the room. I heard her take a seat next to Dad, and put her hand over his on mine.
"You're gonna be blind for the rest of your life, baby. I'm so sorry," Dad said, and I could hear Mom start to cry. I wanted to cry too, but I couldn't. My sight was gone for good, along with the love of my life, and there was nothing I could do to get them back.
A/N: I'm so sorry that it's taken me over a year to write this first chapter. I lost my love for Twilight, but I've gotten it back, and I hope this chapter makes up for the wait. I tried my best with it. I've got so much going on at the moment, because I've started a two year child care course, which is fulltime. I have hardly any time to write. Please forgive me?