Chapter Thirteen: Running

And so I ran. I made no stops other than to hunt, which I only did because it was easier than eating and was more 'diverting' than, say, grabbing a cheeseburger and actually having a moment to think. I did not sleep the entire time; my days were filled with endless occupation, whether it be running, hunting or simply trying not to get lost. I did not really have an idea where I was going. All I knew was that I wanted to get away.

From the southern coast of Italy, I traveled north, giving myself a new appearance for every province I passed through. I always made sure to look plain. A face people would see but not acknowledge. When I reached the border of Italy and Switzerland I continued to move north. I cut straight through the hardest mountain passes in the Alps and enjoyed the challenge of climbing up some of the great mountains. On one mountain I came to a great precipice. I stood out as far as I could and was breathless with the beauty of the valley before me. It seemed like something straight out of a fairytale book. There was a huge, mirror-like lake in the center of the valley that perfectly reflected the sky with more distant Alps in the background. There was something truly magical about it and I honestly wouldn't have been surprised if tinker bell had come and bopped me on the head, covering me in pixie dust. However my happiness was suddenly overcome with grief as I remembered that this was like our, no his meadow. The place where it all began, where we had out first kiss, where I was changed… And without my knowing, tears became to fall from my eyes once again. That was when I had an idea. It couldn't hurt if I jumped off the cliff right? I was invincible. Besides I would probably land in the lake anyway. And even if I landed on the hard ground, nothing could ever hurt as much as I was hurting right now. Maybe the pain would distract me from my heartache… But it was just an idea; I would intentionally hurt myself, EW. I just wouldn't terribly mind if I did. God was I turning emo?

Before I could further question my sanity, I was backing up. When I was about fifty feet from the ledge, I ran. I ran until my feet no longer touched the ground. When I went off the ledge my stomach instantly dropped with the sensation you get from roller coasters. Only this was so much better. It felt like I was flying. It was amazing. The wind was pushing against me fiercely, as if trying to hold me up. I stretched my arms and legs out to make the fall longer. I pretended to swim in an effort to move around in the sky. The sensation was amazing, too amazing for words. I smile spread across my face as I remembered how skydivers used to go head first to increase their speeds. So I tired. Suddenly, it was not like flying, but truly like falling in an exhilarating way. Instead of feeling like the air would hold me up, it felt as if it were rushing past me, like rapids going around a rock in their way. As I approached the ground, I aimed for the water. When I was sure I would get into it, I curled my knees into my chest and tucked my head in. And so, the biggest cannon ball in history was made.

After that, I was exhausted. I couldn't push myself any longer and I knew that I had to sleep. I also knew of the nightmares that would surely accompany them. I picked a nice, sunny spot in the valley so I could dry off. I could smell nothing but clean air and the aroma of the mountain, so I knew no humans were around. So I dreadfully lied down and closed my eyes, letting the sun envelope me in its warmth.

I was in the meadow. Our meadow. I was laying down in the sweet grass, letting the sun warm me. Suddenly, Edward was there. He was lying down on my right, propped on one arm, his head in his hand, and he was staring at me. His eyes were full of love, and happiness as he looked at me. He took a strand of my hair and became to play with it before taking his hand and starting to gently drawing circles on my cheeks. I smiled and blushed a deep rd as I always do and he did his famous, heartbreaking crocked smile.

"I love you," he whispered. "I will never, ever, leave you."

As soon as those words came from his sweet, soft lips, the scene changed. The meadow turned black, the flowers were dead, Edward was gone and everything was in black and white. I stood up; my eyes searched the clearing and found Edward leaning against one of the trees in the distance. His eyes were dark, and cold, completely unreadable with large purple bruises underneath. He stalked over towards me, shooting hatful glares at me as he came closer.

"Bella, we're leaving."

"Okay, I'll come with you."

"You can't. Bella. I don't want you to come with me."

"You…don't…want me?"

"No."

The scene spiraled in my head, and disappeared, leaving me in complete darkness before I woke up with a jolt, crying once again. Ever since that faithful day when Edward had left me, I had not been able to tell the difference from a dream, and from a nightmare.

…

After Switzerland I cut through France headed towards Paris. I had never seen the wonderful city before and I thought that it couldn't hurt to stay for the night, just to clean up and have some human food maybe.

The city was wonderful. It was so full of life, and lights and…love. Okay, so maybe it was wonderfully painful. The city truly was gorgeous, but whenever I saw a couple (which was very often), I couldn't help but tear up. And so I moved on, after grabbing some pastries and bread though of course.

When I finally got to the coast of France I had another crazy idea. Why not swim to England? I couldn't get sick from the cold water, I could not tire, it wouldn't take me longer than half a day, and it would be challenging.

So, I stuffed the rest of my food in my face, stole an old wooden box no one was using, put my clothes into it, and tied it to myself with a rope. I bought myself a bathing suit and quickly changed into it. (Read this if you think the wooden box thing made no sense. Okay, this might be confusing. It's hard to explain and it's actually really stupid. Bella found like a small wooden crate thing that closed up on all sides and put her clothes in that. Then she tied a rope around the box and tied the rope onto herself. It was the only thing I could come up with so yeah, lol. I mean she has no idea where she's going so she couldn't mail it or anything. So anyways, back to the story…)

By the coast of France, the water was a deep blue, and was heavily filled with the stench of fish and very dirty, nothing like my lake in the Alps. The farther I got away from the coast, the colder and stronger the water became. The color was a dark blue, grayish color, with the occasional spot of green from seaweed. Once the water got fairly calm, I detached the box from me, and went under. I opened my eyes, ready to feel the burn of salt, but it never came. Water could not get into our eyes. I took a moment for my eyes to adjust to the water. Even though the water was clean, it was still a little cloudy, especially the bottom. In fact, I could not see the bottom. It was just an ominous, eerie, mystery. For all I knew there was an abyss underneath me. There really was no marine life, a few schools of fish but nothing exciting. When I had had enough I resurfaced. I had kept an eye on my provision box and found it quickly.

After another half and hour of swimming I had reached the coast. I headed towards a few of the towering rocks on the coast and dried myself of in the cover of them then changed after making sure no one was looking. I took my phone out of the box (which I had zip-lock) and dial a number.

"Hello?" The man's voice sounded through my ear, bringing a smile to my lips.

"Hey Brian it's Bella, listen I need a favor."

-

-

By the time I had arrived in London, I had gotten the stench of fish out of my body and had changed my appearance once again. I had called Brian and asked if I could stay with him for a couple of days until I sorted some things out. He happily agreed and said he could stay as long as I wanted. I had to pose as Lady Isabella again, much to my distaste.

Brian called a limo for me to be escorted into the palace. (Okay people. I have never gone to Europe, and I have no idea what Buckingham palace looks like and I don't have Internet so I'm going to use my creativity…Oh boy. Please bear with me. By the way, it's Buckingham right? Omg I'm such a retard lol, sorry if that's the totally wrong name for it.)

The palace before me was nothing what I expected. I had always thought it grand, when looking through it in pictures. However the word 'grand,' did the monumental structure before me no justice. The elegant architecture was breathtaking. Every little crevice had extraordinary detail in it. It reminded me of Mr. Darcy's home in the movie Pride and Prejudice, only ten times as opulent, and ten times as immense. I was simply awestruck by the time the limo had finally pulled up to the foot of the palace.

I was escorted and lead through the maze of endless hallways to the ballroom where Brian was waiting for me. After what seemed like an eternity, the maid finally stopped at two colossal oak doors.

"The Prince is waiting for you your ladyship," the maid said, keeping her head down and curtsying.

She opened the door for me and I smiled warmly and thanked her.

The open doors revealed a truly breath taking room. The room was massive. It could easily and comfortably fit the entire population of a big town high school. The floors were all marble, kept in pristine condition. The ceiling was dome shaped with a sunning chandelier, easily five feet in length, in the center. On the dome were beautiful moldings, and I could see every little detail that was put into them. Above them were sculptures of angels, actually coming out of the wall, flying towards the sun, which in this case was the chandelier. On the surrounding walls, the same molding was placed, along with various gold candleholders and beautiful paintings.

"Glorious isn't it?" A voice sounded from my right, snapping me out of my trance and startling me. I whirled around to see a smiling Brian.

"Oh Brian! You scarred me! But yes, the palace truly is ravishing. Every little detail I see is so tasteful. I don't think anyone could ever tire of seeing such beauty," I explained to him, looking awe-struck around the room again.

"I agree, anyone who can tire of Buckingham's beauty must truly be deranged," he said with a thoughtful look and softness in his eyes as he surveyed the room. He was wearing his official garment, with the little shoulder fringes and everything. He truly looked the part of a prince. His tall, lithe body shape and muscular arms fit the suit perfectly. His boyish looking face had a princely looking quality to it and his eyes danced with knowingness and kindness.

He saw me examining him and became a regular human again by becoming self-conscious.

"I know I must look absolutely ridiculous in this outfit, but I had just come from a very official boring meeting that requires me to wear this foolish garment," he explained.

"It' not ridiculous. In fact I find it rather dashing," I joked with a smile wide across my face.

"Well thank you Miss Volturi," he replied, playing along.

"Your quite welcome my lord," I said with a tiny curtsy.

I had a little balance trouble and became to topple over before I could catch myself. Brian laughed at my attempt.

"So Bella, what brings you to England? You were not very clear in your phone call on your reasons in coming here."

"Oh well um…my ex showed up the other day in town, and I just got, very scarred and confused so I ran away. I couldn't deal with it all. Anyways, I rather not talk about it but I just want to thank you so much for letting me stay here while I sort things out," I rambled to him.

"It's no problem Bella, I assure you. I'm happy to have you here and as for you ex well… I think it's good to step back sometimes and just take a look at things before you do anything so that you can make better decisions," he reasoned.

"Yes that's exactly it."

"Well in that case, you can stay as long as you'd like Bella."

"Thank you Brian, this is very kind of you," I said sincerely.

"So…I'm going to go change out of this ridiculous outfit, and you may freshen up if you'd like. I'll have a maid show you where your room is. When your done I'll meet you down here again at lets say, five-thirty? We can go out to dinner if you're in the mood for human food," he said with a smile.

"Human food sounds great."

"Oh, by the way, there are some dresses in your room. You'll probably want to change into them because the Queen is a little picky with attire," he explained nervously.

"Oh, no problem. After you've suffered in that, I think it only fair that I suffer a little bit too, just to balance out the scales," I joked.

"Oh, well thank you for your concern, now, if you'll excuse me, I'm going to go change as fast as I can. Lucy, can you please escort Lady Isabella to her room?" he asked one of the waiting maids who quickly came to my side. She curtsied at him then began to lead me through the maze of hallways again.

BrPOV

I couldn't get over it. This was too perfect. Bella was here. In my home, with me. It also looked like she was getting ready to finally give up on Edward. She just needed a little push in the right direction. After that, I could make her fall in love with me. We'd be the perfect couple. Powerful, beautiful, and immortal. Now I just had to make sure that Bella completely forgets about Edward, and falls in love with me. I quickly got out my phone and dialed the Liz's number.

"This had better be good," she answered in an insipid voice.

"Guess who just arrived at Buckingham," I teased.

"Who?" she asked, suddenly interested.

"Bella. Apparently she saw Edward in Italy and ran all the way here. She's trying to get over him now and she's staying here until she 'sorts things out.'"

"Perfect! She's weak and insecure right now. That means she'll be easy to break. I'm sure it will be the same case for Edward too. However, if we really want to crush them, we have to let them crush each other first. I have a great idea, but you're going to need to find out what exactly made Bella run away," she began, I could practically hear the wheels turning in her head.

"She ran away because she was scarred and confused. I don't think it was for any other reason," I reported.

"Okay well then…oh! That's perfect. He should come running after her. That annoying pixie will probably have a vision of Bella and send Edward here. He'll want to apologize and try to make her feel better, which he will. This is why we will be making our move before he gets the chance. Okay here's the plan…"

BPOV

My room was too wonderful for words. It reminded me of Daphne's room from 'What a girl wants' but only twice that size and twice as luxurious. It was lavishly decorated in blue. On the walls were an old, beautiful wallpaper with delicate blue flowers on them. The bottom half was white molding.

The bed was made with luxurious, silk and Egyptian cotton. The pillows and comforter were all made of pure down. The bed itself was painted in a brilliant white; again, the same moldings that occurred on the walls appeared on the head and footboard.

The bathroom was equally as ravish. The floors were made of solid white marble, and the size was easily bigger than my room in Forks. In the center of the room was an elegant, white bathtub. The sink was on the right side of the wall along with the toilet. The far side of the wall consisted a huge, 'length of the wall' mirror. Then on the right side of the wall was a glass room with a showerhead set at the ceiling like a lamp, so that the water poured straight down. It looked so inviting.

I checked my closet and picked out a nice, simple blue dress with silver shoes before heading back into the bathroom to shower. I turned the water onto the hottest I could, yearning to feel some comfort. I could practically 'feel' the grime and stench coming off my body, and the hot water relaxed me. I sighed heavily for more times than I could count. Why was Edward here? Why did he pretend to be 'Anthony?' What did he want? All these thoughts ran through my head as I tried to make sense of his actions. I don't think that I could ever get over him. I would always love him, for he had my heart, which I could never take back, nor did I want it. But oh, how I wished he would love me in return… It physically hurt how much I loved him. My body yearned and needed him so much that when it was not close to his, a numbness would envelop me. But I had to fight it. I had to keep my walls that held me together up. If I let them down, all the pieces of me would spill out, leaving me completely defenseless and vulnerable. If I ever got hurt when I had let my walls down, there would be no hope for me anymore. So, the walls were to stay up. I could never let them down. I could never trust anyone with my heart ever again, not even Edward. This I vowed to myself.