Last Moments

Well, here's the last ever chapter of this story. I hope you've enjoyed reading it as much as i've loved writing it. Thank you for every single review, favourite, alert etc.

I loves you all!

"Evie..." Edward whispered as he approached her dismantled body.

"Yes Edward?" she replied, as she flickered her eyes in his direction.

Because of the chunk missing from her neck she was unable to move her head as freely as she'd like to.

Evie had her right arm missing; both legs chewed to pieces, and there were various pieces of her torso missing also.

Edward's tears fell to the ground as he leant over her broken body.

"This seems familiar." She laughed as she cringed from the pain.

"Why's that?" he asked as he tenderly stoked her face as sadness shook him throughout his body.

"Didn't you find me like this the first time? All battered and bruised?"

"But Carlisle can't fix it this time. However much I want him to."

"I don't want him to."

"Why don't you want to live Eve? I thought we were going to spend eternity together, just me and you."

"There's already someone else you want to spend eternity with."

"Evie I..."

"Hush Edward." Evie smiled looking into his topaz eyes "Did you really think that you could keep it from me?"

"Keep what?"

"I know part of the reason you chose me was for Bella's safety." He looked at her with more tears expelling from his eyes and nodded sombrely. Evie continued, "I know it scares the hell out of you to kill her to become a vampire, but it's for the best. You can't wrap her up in cotton wool forever. There is too much against you both. The Volturi...Bella's clumsiness...Me..."

"You were never in the way...Never."

"Yes I was. I was Bella's 'get out of death free' card to you. But I refuse to stand in the way of that. I've seen what you're both like without each other. I saw it in your minds. You're half a person, you make each other whole...I don't want you to be half a person, I don't want that for either of you."

"Did you plan this?" he asked seriously.

"That would be telling." She teased as she creased in pain once more.

"Why do you have to be so selfless?" Edward asked as he whirled round in anger as he made a large dent in a tree trunk with his fist.

"Because you were selfless enough to save my life, I was indebted to you Edward, but now I've paid you back. Fair and square."

"With your own life? That's twisted Evie." He rounded on her.

"I'm a twisted vampire." She replied simply.

"But why did you choose this way to pay me back? There had to be something simpler." He said as the anger was replaced by sadness once more, he knelt to the floor and held her in his arms.

"You can't have me and Bella in your life. And I can't be without you in mine anymore. So I made this solution."

"You had me Evie!" he moaned, "You had me, and now you're taking yourself away from me. None of this makes any sense."

"You have Bella. That's all you need. I have my memories of you Edward; no one can take those away from me wherever I'm going."

"You're not going anywhere." His voice broke.

"Yes I am. Burn me Edward, stop this pain. Please?"

"I...I...can't...you can't...I..." he howled loudly. In his pain Evie struggled greatly as she lifted her left arm to touch his cheek in comfort.

"Please?" she begged softly as tears streamed down her own face. "Take me out of the forest and burn me. I'm ready to go."

With a heavy heart, he nodded and scooped up what was left of her body and ran back to the middle of the field. He placed Evie on the ground and ran back to get some firewood.

He laid the wood close to her body and hesitated before he carried out his task.

"I...I love you Evie...always have done...always..." he sniffed as he wiped away the falling tears, "always will do..." he told her as he brushed a palm against her cheek for the last time.

"I love you Edward. Thank you for everything." She replied as tears fell against her cheeks and into her hair chestnut hair, "Keep Bella safe, I mean that." She paused for a moment as she roughly wiped away what moisture she could from her face with her remaining arm. "As my last request I want you to change her at the end of the school year. Promise me."

"I promise..."

"And I want you to tell everyone at home that I've loved them so much in the short time I've known them, I'll never forget them." She paused again and sniffed as she tried to get the rest of her words out, "And...tell Esme and Carlisle they've been the best and only parents I've ever had. I'm going to miss you all."

"We're...going...to miss you too." Edward whispered as he placed a kiss on her cold forehead.

"Goodbye Edward." She touched his hand one last time and closed her eyes as if it was going to ease the pain.

He started the fire as the tears fell faster than ever, and he watched morosely as her body went up in deep purple smoke.

She made no screams of pain as the flames licked her body; she looked like Sleeping Beauty as she was consumed by the fire, beautiful in life and in death.

Edward waited all night for it to be over. He watched her body slowly disintegrate into ashes and it was three in the morning by the time the cremation had finished.

That was the end of Evelyn Cullen-Brown.

He cried a little more as made his way back to Bella's house. His best friend and his first love had gone forever. No one could bring her back.

Whilst he thought about Evie's final moments, he knew she'd been right about his choice.

He had thought by choosing Evie he could spare Bella's life, but she'd seen through his plan. She'd known he could never survive without Bella, even if he kidded himself into thinking it just the first time he'd left.

But she'd stopped him from committing that same mistake again, and he would thank her forever.

She'd made him see the truth in a screwed up kind of way. She'd been his conscience, she'd been his realisation.

She'd been Evie, his selfless, know-it-all best friend. The only person who would ever understand him in the whole of the universe.

As Edward arrived at Bella's window he climbed in and saw Bella enveloped in Alice's arms as she tried to calm her down.

"He's here now, stop worrying." Alice hushed her, as she stoked Bella's hair in comfort.

"Jacob didn't come back for you did he?" Bella whispered worriedly.

"He went home after he hurt Evie." Edward replied hollowly as a new hatred towards Jacob had been unearthed. "He didn't come back for me."

"Where is she? Is Carlisle treating her? Will she be ok?" Bella asked with wide eyes filled with tears.

"She's dead...Jacob ripped her beyond repair, the best thing to do was end her life"

Bella gasped as she clapped her hands over her mouth and sank to the floor. Her best friend had killed Edward's best friend. She felt terrible.

Alice seemed unperturbed by the news.

"It's what she wanted." She told him as she walked over and squeezed his shoulder. "She also wanted you with the right person." She whispered comfortingly.

"She made that clear, I just wish there'd been another way." He whispered back as the tears started to flow again.

"You couldn't have saved her."

"I could've if you'd let me go."

"She wanted to die."

"The future can change Alice. It isn't set in stone." He snapped.

"I know full well it isn't set in stone. But I can't let you change a future someone doesn't want."

He exhaled heavily and crumbled, "She's gone..." he said weakly.

"I know she's gone. But she'll never really be gone, not from you; she'd stick around for you always in your memories." Alice tried to reassure him; she looked at his hopeful eyes and changed the direction of the conversation. "I'm going to go home and tell everyone the news. I think you should stay here with Bella. You need her right now and I think you need to sort your relationship out." Alice squeezed her brother's shoulder again and disappeared out of the window.

"Edward I'm so sorry." Bella began as soon as Alice had left the room, "I don't even know what Jacob was doing there; he was probably after Evie because of all the stupid stuff I told him..." Bella apologised as she walked over to him and wrapped her arms around his chest. "It's all my fault she's dead... I shouldn't have let myself get so paranoid and jealous of her..." she started crying again in remorse. "Stupid Jacob...in the morning I'm going to find him and..."

"Bella, stop apologising." Edward said as he wrapped his arms around her. "Evie had her reasons for getting Jacob to act the way he did."

"Reasons? For what?" Bella asked confused.

"She wound Jacob up to the point of murder because I chose her instead of you. I thought that it'd be best if I left you human and what I thought would be happy. But Evie being the biggest know-it-all on the planet, she saw through my plan. She knew that we needed each other like blood and oxygen, so she sacrificed herself for our happiness."

"What?" she took a step back from him in confusion and anger. "You chose her to protect me? And she got herself killed because she knew you wanted me?"

"Yes." He hung his head in sadness. He was going to lose Bella now. It was what he deserved for all the pain he'd put her through.

"I told you on Monday that you should pick the person who made you happiest. I told you that I didn't want to change. Did any of that get through to you? Because of all of your protection your best friend is dead."

"It did get through to me. But I still thought that if I went off with Evie you'd stay safer than staying human and being with me. I know it's my fault she's dead. I'm the one who fuelled her suicide plan by forcing her hand to take action and make me see my mistake"

"Did you think about your happiness once whilst all of this was going on? You know that's all that she cared about."

"I knew I'd be happy to an extent with Evie..."

"Do you know why I'm mad at you?"

"Yes." He nodded sullenly "It's because you think that you're the rebound during my grief. It's far from that, you are my one and only choice Bella. Evie would never have stopped me from loving you as much as I do. She knew that and made me realise it too."

"Funnily enough I'm not mad at you about that. I'm mad at you because you think that going away would've protected me, and alternately it ended up that your best friend sacrificed herself so you could realise that your plan was wrong. Can't you see I'm more vulnerable when you're not here? You are my life and soul Edward Cullen and I can see that Evie thought the same way. In a way I'm thankful she made her sacrifice, and I thank her even more for bringing you back to me."

"So you don't want to break up with me?" he asked as his face brightened a fraction. He was still in mourning, but knowing Bella was still together with him reflected a ray of happiness.

"No! How could you ever think that! I'm staying with you until I'm old and wrinkly and dying..." she saw him wince at the world death, "I am staying with you until my heart stops beating, I hope you can live with that."

"I was hoping you'd stay with me after your heart stops beating..." he said quietly.

"What?" Bella asked confused.

"At the end of the school year would you consider becoming a vampire and spending the rest of your eternal life with me?"

"What's brought this on?"

"Let's just say a certain vampire put that in perspective."

"I would love to be a vampire and I would love even more to spend eternity with you." Bella beamed.

"Get some sleep now." He told her as he kissed her lips softly. "It's been a long night." Edward watched her obey him as she left his arms and climbed into bed.

"Are you not staying?" she asked when he didn't move from the spot where he was standing.

"I want to be alone for a while." He replied as the edge of sadness crept back into his voice.

"I understand. Take as long as you want. I know you're going to miss her."

"Thank you. I love you Bella. More than words can say."

"I love you too Edward. More than you can ever know."

He left Bella to sleep and ran to the meadow to reflect on everything that had gone on in the past two weeks.

As Edward lay on the grass, images flashed through his mind. It started with the most recent images: Bella's face, Alice's comforting squeeze, Evie's face before she was cremated, and then it worked backwards; there were images from the three years he'd spent with Bella and then back to the early days with Evie.

The lessons he'd taught her, her laughing face, the first time she woke up and looked at him for the through vampire eyes.

Images moulded together of Bella and Evie, and soon enough the sun was rising into the clouds for another rainy day in Forks.

Evie may have died, but Edward and Bella's relationship was going to survive because now he knew that they were unbreakable, nothing else could get in the way of their happiness.

Love had been a competition, but Bella had won.

In reality, she'd won the first day she'd walked into Edward's life.

There'd been no competition in the first place.

-The End-

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