A/N: Hello! I know it's been a long time since I updated, but I finally finished my exams and sat down to write. I hope you like this chapter, I really do, and if you happen to feel like leaving a review I'll appreciate that very much!
I actually need a Beta, to see what my eyes don't and helps make the story better! Inbox me if you're interested =)
Chapter Three:
The sky was devastatingly blue, the enthralling shade of blue that lures your thoughts in and makes time disappear. The air was humid and hot. The asphalt was hot under her skin as she continued looking into the blue that stretched forever. Her fingers started to burn from the heat of the asphalt. She stood up, her hair wildly tousled and bent to the will of the wind. The wind was getting stronger. She was in the middle of a highway, an empty one cutting dry land with nothing in sight.
She looked around in panic. She had to find someone, she knew that much. She started running down the highway in the same direction of the wind.
Deep in the distance she could make out an outline of a person. She started running faster, but the wind changed directions. It was harder to run but her will was strong. Something compelled her to go against the wind with all her might to get to that person.
She was close enough to see who it was, but still too far to reach.
Bella's legs stopped involuntarily as she recognized who the figure was. The figure was walking away, the wind was fiercer and Bella couldn't move her legs.
"JAKE" Her hair was slapping against her face, the wind was strong enough to knock her down, but she didn't stop. She called his name as loud as she could.
Just as her voice seemed to reach, against all impossible odds, propelling Jake to turn his head, the wind knocked her down on her back. The very ground she was on started to shake. She sat up and right before her very eyes, the earth split in two creating a deep rift that kept getting wider.
Jake continued to walk as if the sound he heard was a figment of his imagination.
Bella whimpered his name in one last attempt before despair claimed her.
"I told you not to wish for impossible things." The wind whispered to her.
Bella's eyes shot open in the darkness of her room. Her heart was hammering inside her ribcage and she breathed deeply and slowly to calm herself. There was no one in sight as she took in the room in the faint moon light that illuminated the room slightly.
She pulled the covers back and got out of bed and walked to the bathroom to wash her face. Sleep would not return tonight, not after that nightmare. She splashed the icy cold water on her face washing sleep away. She looked at her reflection in the mirror and sighed tiredly. She didn't recognize herself anymore. Her eyes were sunken and the dark circles stood out prominently against her fair skin. Her cheek bones stuck out and she felt as hollow as she looked.
Her last final was yesterday. She stayed up filling the nights with studying and filling her mind with nothing but her academics. It was really hard at first, focusing on something specific in her life when she was surrounded by the source to her constant thoughts, but after some practice she was able to momentarily focus on something else. It did wonders for her grades.
Bella felt the chill in the air bite into her skin and walked to the closet to find a jumper. She had everything she needed in that closet; in fact, she had everything any girl would ever want to have in her closet. She paid little attention to it, but wondered if he was the one getting all of that stuff for her or it was his family. She didn't care, she pushed through all the new and trendy sweaters and jackets to the very back of the closet, where what little cloths she brought were stored. She put on her own deep navy blue jumper that fit her just right and was enough to protect her from the chill in the air.
She looked for her wool socks but couldn't find any and decided to reluctantly wear any of the ones stored in there.
'Since I'm up, might as well get something to drink.' Bella usually didn't really eat in. Most of her meals were on campus or were small snacks smuggled into the library. She'd been trying to legitimately spend as much time as she can away from the house, the vampires house.
She can understand now that the world can hide astonishing secrets hidden right in plain view. Her belief system was short circuited and she could safely say her eyes have finally been opened.
Not real
It was a lie, a very old lie from a very old generation in the old world, told to protect the young and scared. It was a lie that destroyed her life and no one cared because no one knew what she was going through. No one ever will.
Bella had been left alone, he was never there anymore. She didn't have to be alone in a room only to realize he'd been there staring at her the whole time. She didn't have to fear for any of his advances on her. He terrorized her and intimidated her, but he left her alone after that day.
"You make me sick."
She most certainly touched a nerve. Good. She wanted to be left alone; he had infinite control and was a mad man drunk with dangerous power. It'd been weeks and she only saw him once, outside a coffee shop she frequented. One of her classmates, a boy that reminded her of Mike, had asked her to help him with his paper. It was a flimsy excuse to sit with her and talk to her, but she smiled politely and gestured for him to sit anyway. It was longer than she remembered that she had a conversation with another person about anything, just casually like kids her age are meant to have. They were talking literature then music and she found herself enjoying her time. Unburdened and able to forget everything else, she laughed for the first time in a very long time and felt relief. She wasn't Bella, forced into a life not of her choosing, she was just Bella college kid.
"So, there's this party tonight if you want to go. It's going to be huge; you won't want to miss it!
Bella did want to go, but at that precise moment, before she opened her mouth to form the words of her answer, the bell of the coffee shop door chimed signaling the arrival of a customer.
He was there. In the very coffee shop she was in, his gaze burning intensely as it held hers. She quickly diverted her eyes elsewhere, like a little child caught doing something wrong. She didn't know what this could mean for her, but all the guy did was sit and talk with her, she couldn't live with herself if anything happened to him because of her. The fear and terror she felt of harm befalling her best friends always stopped her process of defiance.
This was precisely why she never got to feel like a normal college kid. There was no guarantee others would be able to be college kids safely and without harm traced back to her. She knew exactly what Edward was capable of, she should have known better.
"No, thanks. My friend's here to pick me up. See you in class, good luck with the paper." Bella said in one breath, collecting her belongings in a hurry and throwing a small smile at her classmate before rushing to where Edward was standing idly, holding a cup of coffee to go. She noticed his jaw was clenched and his lips were set in a hard line. He threw a hard look at her class mate before slowly looking at Bella with blazing Topaz eyes. His look made the hairs on the back of her neck stand. The air around him it's self seemed to crack with electricity. He handed her the coffee and she took it unwillingly, motivated primarily by fear, and then he opened the door for her. She walked out the door with the weight of the world on her shoulders.
She got in his Volvo and buckled up with nothing but the warm coffee in her hands to warm the ice cold fear she was feeling. She loathed herself at that moment, resented how quickly she thought twice about everything because of him. She was scared of his reaction and she hated herself even more for that. She could go on about her days normally, careless for her safety, but she couldn't let her actions lead to the retribution of others.
There once was a strong and fiery girl, she would command the attention of a room with her intelligence and authority, now that girl hid somewhere in the depths of Bella's mind and she would not resurrect someone who would make the hurt worse. Bella mustered up her courage and whispered quietly with a tremor in her voice "Please don't hurt him."
Edward was eerily silent throughout the entire car ride. Even his hands on the steering wheel didn't give away any emotion. He was as normal a person can be while driving, except Bella knew that under his pristine exterior his anger probably passed boiling point. She knew, because her instincts, ever protective even if futile, told her to get away and hide. She hated how she couldn't shake off her fear of him, she was still weak.
Bella brought the coffee to her lips just to busy herself with something. Something bad might happen to her, but she couldn't withstand something bad happening because of her. She didn't want to start picturing the worst case scenario. She didn't want this crippling fear. She took a sip of the coffee and pursed her lips. She stared at the cup in her hands for a while before shifting her gaze to the street lamps they were passing, bitter coffee was all she had to make her feel better about her bitter life.
Bella walked in the empty dark hallway reflecting on that night in a mix of wonder and confusion. Nothing had happened, she just went to her room and prayed nothing would happen and nothing did. She went to class and saw the same guy unscathed and normal as ever. She went back to her routine life of studying and co-existing with her 'roommates'. She never saw him after that night, never felt his presence anywhere and it almost seemed like she was living alone at some point, no one was ever around.
She wanted to be left alone and got her wish. She should be beyond ecstatic and she was sure she would be.
Bella descended the marble spiral stairs and was grateful for the socks she put on to protect her from the freezing cold of the marble floors. She navigated her way to the kitchen where she glanced at the clock that read 4:00 AM.
She made herself a black cup of coffee; she'd developed a taste for its bitterness. In the darkness, she stood, pensively looking out and staring at the pitch black sleeping world. She wondered how, even though the sky was lit by the moon and stars, it was still blindingly black outside whereas in the kitchen where she stood, the soft moon light casted shadows that her vision perceived.
It was the silence she enjoyed, until the silence turned into what invoked a sense of familiarity. She felt the goosebumps breakout on her skin before she even registered what it was that caused this reaction.
He was there.
He had to be.
Bella placed her cup of coffee on the counter and slowly turned around, her eyes searching the suddenly pitch black room, as if all the faint light was consumed by the shadows. She couldn't see anything, so she took a few steps towards the kitchen door. She could run to the safety of her room and make believe it had the power to repel him.
She tried to walk back in the darkness as normally as possible, unaffected at all by her haywire feelings. She ascended the stairs and half skipped to her room. When she closed the door behind her and locked it she let out a breath she didn't know she was holding. She closed her eyes and willed her heart to slow down its thunderous beating.
"I'm right here" Bella blinked a few times as she stared up into Edwards's topaz eyes. Her breathing hitched and every nerve end in her body was aware of his presence and his close proximity.
But that floated somewhere in the back of her mind, because his gaze captured hers with a coldness that froze her insides. His entire demeanor emanated something sinister and he smirked as she breathed deeply to try and steady her nerves.
"Can I ask you a question, Bella?" Whispered Edward sweetly as he leaned in, trapping her between his arms that jailed her between him and the wall.
Bella swallowed and glanced at both his arms before looking back into his emotionless face and unreadable eyes. She nodded not trusting her own voice to not crack and betray her the same way her body had.
"Why were you shouting 'Jake' in your sleep?" He asked in a frightening quite tone.
Bella froze and held her breath, not daring to blink as she looked into Edwards deadly eyes. She didn't know she sleep talked and there wasn't a worse time for her to find out. She continued to stare dumbfounded and in shock. That nightmare was pushed into the back of her mind; it was horrible enough seeing one of her best friends walk away from her in real life, let alone having to relive it in a dream. However, she instantly knew what Edward was referring to.
"So?" Edward asked with a raised eyebrow.
"It was a nightmare." Bella let out in a small voice breaking eye contact.
"Look at me." Edward demanded in a harsh tone, his voice not so calm and collected anymore.
Bella, against her better judgment, met his fiery topaz eyes and gulped. The intensity in them frightened her.
"How" he breathed softly, leaning in closer to her face, their noses were close enough to touch. Something unreadable flashed in his eyes and Bella just stared blankly at him. The air around him changed fundamentally, something else seemed to hang in the air quite heavily.
"What?" she whispered back just as softly. Everything seemed to fade away, the moment washing all her fear away, the look in his eyes puzzling her even more. It was almost like she was under a spell, bewitched by his eyes.
"How can I fix you?"
Bella looked into Edwards eyes, unable to see past their beautiful color and shook her head.
"You can't."
Bella looked around the empty room questioning if Edward was ever there at all.