Again with the slow update. New Zealand is amazingly beautiful. I am finally getting with the times and starting a blog on which will chart my life (as pathetic as it is) and my writing. Basically i am aiming to introduce my friends to my writing and my readers to my life. Will upload the address in my profile when i set up my page.
Chapter 9: A Lifetime Written on the Walls
Edward was waiting for her on a bench in front of the house. Alice had shrewdly left her at the towns boundary.
"Bella I..."
She put her long finger to his lips. "I understand what you did and why you did it. You wanted me to have the human experience without the danger, even though i was a proper little danger-magnet. I have been to university, i have seen the world and i have a child. I did all this as a vampire. I can forgive you for it and maybe over time i will forget it again. I love you and i want to try this again but there will have to be some rules in place.
"I promise..."
"Rule 1: No more promises. I am here to stay with you forever if you will have me but if you ever leave me again without my mutual consent then i will tear you apart and burn you myself. This is a forever thing and if you can't do that then leave now."
"I'm not going anywhere."
"Rule 2: I am a vampire now, i have a pretty powerful arsenal of weapons and gifts of my own not to mention i am very good friends with the head of vampire law enforcement. You do not need to protect me anymore. I am not the clumsy, klutzy human you used to know. I want you to be completely honest with me at all times about everything.
"OK but what..."
"No buts! Rule 3: This is the most important one. Sophia and I come as a complete package. You can't have me without her. She is my daughter and she will be with me, us, forever. I know that an Immortal Child freaks other vampires out and that it makes them uncomfortable. If at any point, you can't handle that any more, tell me and i will let you leave. She is a child in many ways and profound changes affect her even more than they do us."
"I can't wait to get to know her and she will have the best set of aunts and uncles any kid would want. Can i tell Esme to get another bedroom ready for Sophia then?"
"Edward this is Sophia's home and we will continue to live here. You can move in here if this works out but she can stay with Esme and Carlisle sometimes of course, she is their granddaughter now." She held out her hand to him. "Come inside and I'll give you a tour of the house."
He took her hand and they walked through the house. She showed in all the pieces of art, paintings and sculptures alike that adorned the living room and hallways. Sophias bedroom took him by surprise. He had expected a pink princess palace but instead he found a huge jungle themed room with all different animals painted in the jungle that wound its way around all four walls. Clocks adored the wall where her door was, all different kinds; cuckoo, astronomical, even a large digital one with a weather station. In one corner sat a large, ornately carved grandfather clock, its pendulum swinging silently to mark time. There was not one single ticking sound in the entire room.
"She's a little time obsessed which i understand is natural for a child who will never grow up. The grandfather clock has only just arrived. It was a gift for Sophias 100 year birthday at the beginning of the year. It was from the wives of the Volturi, they have grown a bit attached to her. It only arrived a few months ago. It got lost trying to find us after we ran from Brazil."
"You celebrate birthdays?" Edward asked incredibly.
"Sophia is still essentially six years old. She lives for birthday parties."
Bellas room was slightly smaller than Sophia's but obviously had an en-suite. The room was decorated in neutral tones, the walls painted in a pale green that seemed the shadow when you moved around the room. The room was flooded with light from an almost wall of glass facing the back garden. There were a few books, obviously very old, sitting on three bookshelves on a wall to the side of her bed, a small black box sat discretely beside the books. That was when he noticed the pale grey speakers that had been set into the wall. The black box was a music system but there was no sign of any CDs. There was also an easel sitting empty in one corner, beside the window. The room was dominated by a wooden, 4 poster bed, covered in ivory silk covers.
"So you painted the animals in Sophia's room?"
"Yeah, I like to paint and sketch though I 'm not very good at it. It's calming."
"You know, when you were human you didn't see yourself very clearly. You haven't changed. I think your paintings are great. One question though why do you have a bed?"
"I hear minds for miles around. Do you know how many decisions a person makes in a day then changed their mind? Also developing my telekinesis is draining so I have a bed to lie in and rest my head, not my body."
She showed him the library that Carlisle had admired earlier before showing him her favourite room in the house, the piano room. Bella took a seat on the piano stool and walked as Edward walked the room. Sophia called this her piano room where as Bella called this the memory room. He has stopped at a wall covered in photos of all different sizes, all in frames. They were mostly of Sophia over the time they had been together. Pictures of her taken where they had travelled, in front of their various homes or just candid shoots of her taken unawares. There were others of them together most looked like Bella was holding the camera away from her or they had been taken on a timer. They were always smiling or laughing, never a serious photo of them together. One photo caught his eye. Bella and Sophia were sitting behind a sandcastle, looking very proud of their epic creation. Their skin sparkled in the sunlight that shone from an unclouded sky. For the first time in 150 years, Edward realised what Bella had meant when she called him beautiful the day when he had shown her his true self in the meadow. They were both beautiful beyond words.
"She really has been your whole life hasn't she?" Bella silently nodded.
The wall opposite the windows was adorned with sketches. They started basic, simple line drawings of figures and messy coloured trees and animals. The series finished with more concrete drawings of buildings and forest scenes. There were some of children playing in a sand pit.
"Are these Sophia's?"
"Yeah we ran out of room on the fridge so now she gets a whole wall. I've been trying to teach her draw but she has the attention span of a 6 year old so it's taken us about 20 years to get this far. Right now she is going back through her smart alec stage."
He ran his fingers along the gaps in between the pictures, feeling the smooth wall rough against his fingertips. The last wall was Bellas alone. It was a collection of graduation hats and university qualifications. She had never put herself through high school and as long as people bought the story she fed, she looked old enough. There were 12 M.D certificates long with 2 degrees in Child Psychology, 1 in Ancient History and, her most recent one, one in Zoology.
"You work in the same hospital as Carlisle, how do you do it?
"I have an extremely low blood lust plus children's blood smells different, very unappealing."
"No, i mean how do you stand to see all the blood? I remember when they did blood typing in school, when we both lived in Forks, you were a mess; fainting, sweating and going green."
"Oh really?" She was surprised. "I guess when you've actually drunk a full body of the stuff it loses its revulsion factor."
"And this one?"He pointed to an A3 sized frame in which was housed 2 pages of handwriting and a well folded and faded photograph of a girl in the sun.
"That is the letter that i wrote myself before i was turned. I lived my life to that letter for 150 years. The photo is the human me, which is probably who you remember me most as."
"You were so beautiful even as a human. I thought that the angels in heaven couldn't be as angelic as you were. Clumsy but so very, very beautiful. How do you live now if you say you lived by the letter?"
"I am Isabella Swan now, again. That letter is a reminder of where i came from and where i will never come back to. It will be nice for you to have a reminder of the human me."
"I already have a human you up here, in my memories, for eternity."
A peace settled on the room. "Come and sit here, play me something." Bella asked
"How did know i played?"
"I remember you playing to me once. Esme also mentioned that used to play. Maybe you can teach Sophia to compose. She's been banging out Bach and Mozart for 30 odd years and i need to hear something different."
They both sat at the piano and Edward begun to play. A sweet melodic tune filled the room. it sounded vaguely familiar, like she had heard it before. The tune reminded her of rapid movements, like water running over stones in a stream. Bella was distracted by a voice that sounded like Sophia in her head. 'I'll leave them alone, maybe another day.'
"You can come in sweetie."
"Hi mum, hi Edward. You play?" Edward nodded. "Can you teach me to play something like that?"
"Of course i can, i can teach you to play lots of things."
"What could wait until tomorrow?" Bella asked, glad that Sophia was comfortable enough around Edward to talk to him.
"I want to go up to the Cullen house. Emmett is going to teach me to play something called American football. He says its the game of real men."
"Of course you can go Sophia." Edward looked at Bella for confirmation. She nodded with a wide smile on her face. "We'll come with you. Alice must be busting at the seams seeing us together."
"Edward, she still can't see me. I still have a shield up."
"OK, well can i tell her?"
Bella nodded. "But if Alice so much as thinks the word wedding i'll part her from her free will permanently."
Of course she kept the letter - it was her rule for living for 150 years! Let me know if you have any questions as i did write a complete background to Bellas 150 year back story but it would bore you to tears if i published the lot as a story.
Last Chapter coming up - Epilogue.