Chapter Sixteen

I was in shock. I had fulfilled my visions many times, grown used to the deja vu which came with seeing the important things ahead of time, but this vision, my vision of the meadow... it had become a myth to me. It was something to remember on bad days, to comfort myself with when I was miserable. The idea that I could just be with Edward here, knowing him, experiencing him... it was a lot to take in.

So we sat next to each other in the tall grass, not saying anything as we were wont to do. The sun had retreated behind the clouds again, but it didn't matter. The space was still beautiful, perfect, made more so by the enigmatic man sitting beside me.

"What are you thinking about?" Edward asked me shyly, breaking the silence.

"That really does bother you, doesn't it? The not knowing?"

"You have no idea," he admitted, shaking his head.

"Well, I like it. It makes me feel mysterious," I said wryly.

"As though you weren't mysterious enough already."

"Psh," I scoffed indelicately. "Like you're one to talk, Mr. We'll-Talk-About-It-Later."

He gave me a long searching look and dropped his head, his chin resting on his chest.

"I do not want you to run away," he said quietly.

"Who said anything about running? I didn't."

"You don't know-"

"So tell me," I insisted, lifting his chin and looking straight him straight in the eye. "Tell me and I'll know."

"You will not-"

"Stop it, Edward. Stop telling me how I'll react and let me decide for myself."

It was a battle of wills, him searching my face, me staring resolutely back at him. I recalled my dream from the night before and decided to bring it up, thinking that at worst, he would be offended and at best he would tell me it had been some abstract metaphor for something else. Either way...

"I had a dream about you. Did you know that?" I asked, squaring my shoulders.

"What sort of dream?" he hedged, looking away.

"It was a strange one. It was nighttime and you were in the woods."

"Was I?"

"You were sitting on a rock, running your fingers through your hair like you're doing right now."

He stopped the action so abruptly that I almost started laughing.

"Anyway, you were sitting there and then this... animal... wandered by and you..."

"I what?" he asked flatly, his expression almost daring me to continue.

"You..."

"I what?" he repeated. "You can't say it, can you, Isabella?" he all but mocked, his eyes dark.

And he wasn't wrong. I couldn't say it. It was one thing to think it, to journal it, to consider it... it was an entirely different thing to say it out loud for the world to hear. For me to hear.

"That's what I thought," he said, moving to stand.

"Edward, wait!"

I reached for his wrist but grabbed nothing but air. I stood and looked around frantically, but he was nowhere. It was as though he had never existed.

"Edward!" I yelled spinning around, looking squinting into the tree line. "Edward come back!"

And then he was there again, standing right in front of me, his sudden appearance making me jump.

"Edward," I gasped, my hand on my chest. "Don't do that again!"

"Do what?" he asked dispassionately. "This?"

He was gone again, leaving nothing but a breeze in his wake. I froze, concentrating on my surroundings, trying to figure out where he kept going, how he was doing it. A flash of bronze on my periphery caught my attention, and I focused on it, noticing it again and again.

"Are you... are you running?" I asked, unable to keep the shock from my voice. "Is that what you're doing?"

And he was before me once more, his eyes almost black, his hair more disheveled than I'd ever seen it before.

"What's going on?" I demanded. "Why are you doing this? Are you deliberately trying to scare me?"

"Trying to scare you? You think I'd have to try?" he sneered.

I took a step back, bewildered. This wasn't him. This sneering, scowling, angry young man was not the Edward I knew.

"Stop it," I hissed at him, my fists balling in frustration. "Stop this right now. You're acting like a child."

"Oh, I'm no child, Isabella," he laughed darkly. "If anyone's a child here, it's you. Why don't you run on home now?"

"That dream was real, wasn't it? It was a vision, just like everything else..."

"Go home."

"It was real and you're scared that I'll reject you or something. You're terrified right now."

"Terrified?" he roared, disappearing only to reappear by the fallen tree. "I'll show you terrified."

There was a loud crack and suddenly the trunk was split in half. I watched, shocked and amazed, as Edward lifted both halves, one in each hand, above his head and threw them into the tree line as though they weighed nothing.

"Are you still here?" he yelled, turning back to me and stalking towards me slowly, deliberately. "Do you have no sense of self-preservation at all?"

"I guess not," I answered calmly, refusing to let him see me sweat. He was testing me, whether he realized it or not, and I would not fail. "Do you?"

"Do I what" he sneered, coming to a stop in front of me.

"Have any sense of self-preservation? It doesn't seem like it right now."

"And what is that supposed to mean?"

"It means that if you continue to act like a child I will walk away right now and never come back. I will cut you out of my life and never speak to you again. So I'll ask you again, Edward. Do you?"

He quailed a bit, flinching for an instant before schooling his features back to indifference.

"I don't know what you're talking about," he said, but the anger wasn't there anymore.

"You do," I replied calmly, mentally high-fiving myself for managing to put even the slightest chink in his armor.

He didn't say anything. He seemed frozen in place, his eyes dropping down to the ground as though unable to bear looking at me any longer.

"Fine," I said smoothly, pretending not to care when in reality I was slowly dying inside. "I enjoyed spending the day with you, Edward, and I thank you for showing me this place, but it is late and I am tired, so I'm going home now. You have a nice life. Call me if and when you decide to grow up."

And without so much as a glance back in his direction, I took off into the trees, picking my way carefully along the trail we had taken and waiting until my house was in sight before I burst into tears.