Chapter 3:
My ridiculously large smile died along with my racing heartbeat which sputtered to a screeching halt. I plopped down onto the rough cement and dropped my head, I knew it! I just knew this was too good to be true. I knew he was far too good to be real. I thought to myself. I pulled my knees up around my chin and wrapped my arms securely around them, tucking my head into the small hole between my chest and my legs.
"Are you alright?" His frigid hand was on my shoulder, his alarmed voice echoed through my cranium. I flinched when I looked up to see him inches away from me, I hadn't heard him approach.
"Sorry for startling you, I thought I'd be finished before you came back. I was dying to get out of that tux." He said, explaining his sudden disappearance.
"Oh! No, that's fine," he's so charming and perfect, why did I have to be such a dorky klutz? I guess opposites really do attract, although it was difficult imagining Edward being attracted to me in any way.
"No, it's not, I should have waited." He looked around the garden for a moment and knelt down to a rose bush next to him.
"Please, forgive me." He said smoothly, plucking a single, red rose from the shrubbery, and offering it to me. The blush that had been fading away raged back to the surface. This made him smile tenderly, "I'll take that as a yes." He said, pressing the stem of the rose into the palm of my hand, and rolling my fingers closed around it.
"Are you ready?" asked Edward as he stood back up. I looked at him quizzingly. He smiled warmly and asked, "Do you trust me?" This took me aback.
"Yes." I answered slowly, taking the hand that he offered me. He slung my 128 pounds over his shoulder and onto his back as if I were nothing more than a feather pillow. He inclined his head so his face was tilted closer to mine and said, "You'd better hold on tight spider monkey." He grabbed hold of my thighs right above the knee and tightened my legs around his torso, then he fastened my arms around his neck. He looked back at me again, "Don't let go." He said in an almost questioning tone.
"I promise." I replied.
"Don't worry, you'll be okay, just close your eyes and we'll be there before you know it." He reassured me before leaping into the foliage and breaking into a sprint.
Edward's running was the most graceful movement I had ever experienced, it was like rolling a marble across a glass tabletop, only smoother. I attempted lifting my head, to feel the breeze pulse against my skin as he ran, and was lashed across the face by the wind, whistling past us much faster than I had thought. I ducked my head back behind his, and peeled my eyes open to see the forest rushing by at an alarming rate. I gasped, which caught Edward's attention, he turned to look at me.
"Watch where you're going!" I half screamed at him just in time for him to swerve and miss an oncoming tree.
"I told you to keep your eyes closed!" He yelled back to be heard over the raging wind. At a loss for words I laid the side of my head down in between his shoulder blades and closed my eyes. I got an odd sensation then, like something was missing, but I couldn't place it, so I just ignored it.
When he came to a complete stop I hopped off, fully intending to confront him about what just happened, but he turned to me and his eyes were saturated with sorrow. My fear was forgotten. What I had planned to say was, "What the hell was that!?", what came out was, "What's wrong?" He lifted his eyes from where they rested, on my feet and said,
"I frightened you, didn't I?" My face softened, "Not really." It didn't look like he was buying into this bluff so I added, "More like you startled me, that's all. I mean, it's no exactly everyday I fly through the forest traveling faster than I would driving on the highway." I could see him draw back from me emotionally, he didn't want to talk about this. So I changed the subject,
"So is this where you've been trying to take me all night?" At this he withdrew even further, so I tried again.
"What's so special about this place?"
"Nothing. Just forget about it, never come to this place again. Please, just leave. The school's back that way." He said pointing back through some ferns arching up into the canopy of pine trees. When I looked back to him he was walking the other direction, his head dangling from his hunched shoulders.
"What about you?" I called after him. He stopped dead in his tracks, but didn't bother to turn around to answer me.
"I'm going home." His voice was distant, cold, it cut me deeper than Ryan ever could.
"No! Please don't go! I don't want you to leave!" He turned to me then, he looked at me with hate dripping from his eyes, it frightened me. When he spoke again it was like a dragon breathing fire into my face.
"I know, that's why I have to." It was silent for several seconds before Edward turned and started to walk away again. I was desperate, I only had one shot at getting him to stay, I had to say something, anything, that would hold his attention. I started racking my brain for something to say.
"Bella!" I shouted, praying this would work. Edward stopped walking and turned a quarter of the way back around, "What?" I can't believe this is actually working!
"I'm Bella." I said taking several steps forward and snagging my foot on a tree root, twisting its way out of the ground like an octopus that misplaced one of its tentacles, and was sent flailing to the forest floor, a ripple of pain shooting up my leg as my ankle twisted. I pulled myself off the rocky ground but toppled back onto it when I tried putting weight on my bad ankle. I rolled back over and sat up, clutching my leg with both hands, I could feel my eyes beginning to water but tried to bite back the tears. Lifting my head to tell Edward I was hurt I saw that he was already there, leaning down to scoop me up into his arms. He lifted me up and carried me over to a tree stump, grown over with different kinds of twisting, turning vines and some moss, making it soft enough to be comfortable. Rolling a small boulder over to the stump he sat across from me and pulled my foot up into his lap.
"Does this hurt?" He asked me, pushing his first two fingers into the most sensitive spot. I shrieked and squeezed my thigh, digging my nails into the denim. He took my hands into his, "It's not broken, but if you try walking on it, it will be."
"Please don't go." I whispered.
For a moment his features contorted into a look that was pained. There was something he wasn't telling me, but I didn't care, first I had to make sure he wasn't going to leave.
"Bella, I…" He started, but I wasn't going to let him finish, he was going to stay one way or another.
"Please! How else am I supposed to get home? My ankle's almost broken, and I'm bound to get lost anyways. Please." He had no other option, and we both knew it.
"Fine. I'll take you home, but that's it, after that I'm gone." I dropped my head, admitting that bit of defeat, "Fine."
"You ready?" He asked. I just shook my head, "No."
He sighed, "Bella. Don't do this just to spend more time with me. It's not safe."
"I'm not doing anything, I really am hurt." I retorted. He shook his head, "I know that, it's just…"
"Just what?" I asked, impatient.
"This isn't safe." He said, brushing his hand against my cheeks.
"You see, that's what I don't understand. What about this is dangerous? I don't feel scared." The sorrow returned to his eyes then.
"You should." He whispered before slipping his hands out from where I held them to my face and propped his elbows on his knees, cradling his face in his hands.
"Why?" I asked, slowly, not wanting to upset him, knowing I was the more vulnerable component in this situation. He didn't move, nor did he respond to me. I placed my hand on the top of his head. He jumped up, pacing the length of the small clearing, he stopped briefly and bent down to pick something up. It was just the rose he had given me, when he straightened up he continued his pacing, absently plucking thorns from the stem. He looked like he was deliberating something, so I just watched him in silence.
After several minutes he walked back to the boulder and sat down across from me, I was a bit relieved, it felt like he was less likely to leave when he was sitting so close.
"Talk to me." He said then, his perfect lips curving down into a snarl.
"What about?" I whisper meekly, the hate that he looked at me with earlier was leaking back into his eyes.
"It doesn't matter," he closed his eyes, "anything. What kind of music do you listen to?" I thought about this for a moment, until I felt his glare melting into the side of my face.
"I listen to a little of everything mostly, some rock here, some pop there, every once in a while I'll bust into the classical stuff, especially when I want to relax. I'm not too big on rap, it's not really good for much, other than dancing to, but even then…"
"Alice must be going crazy." he said, mostly to himself, interrupting me. I was astounded, "Is she your…" I was trying to say girlfriend, but couldn't, it would explain some of his odder behaviors tonight, some. Fortunately he butted in, saving myself some humiliation.
"No. Alice is my sister, Jasper is her betrothed."
"Oh, you don't live with your parents?"
"We all live together, Carlisle and Esme, Rosalie and Emmett, Alice and Jasper, and myself."
"That must be lonely" I whispered to myself, but still Edward asked, "What?" I looked up at him through the veil of my eyelashes and said, "You paired everyone else up and you're alone. Am I right to assume that that means they're together and you're single?" His cheekbones sunk a bit, making him look even more sullen, "Yes, that assumption would be correct."
"I'm sorry."
"It's not your fault." Dropping his head back into his hands he added, "My god Bella! Why are you making this so hard!?" I was taken aback, what was he talking about?
"Bella, don't you see?" he asked grabbing me by my shoulders, "Don't you!?" he asked again, giving my shoulders a gentle shake.
"No! I don't! I don't even know what you mean!" I half shouted, my eyes pleading. He let go of my shoulders then and leaned back on his boulder, cupping his face, upright, in his hands. A few moments later he let his hands drop and his face was smooth again, his emotions under control. He looked across the small space between us and said,
"Bella, I brought you here to kill you."