Chapter 7:
Every ounce of liquid remaining in my body came seeping out of my eyes, my ragged breathing began to escalate to a forced hyperventilation, my head began violently shaking from side to side. I would crawl if I have to, I had to get out of here! I was trapped, Alice's firm, but tender, hands were holding me down. I lay there squirming, and wriggling, trying to break myself free, practically defenseless, but too scared to give in even though my entire body was shrieking in agony. Edward appeared in the doorway.
"Let her go." He said calmly. Alice's smooth, child's hands eased from my body, but continued to hover where they had been.
"Why?" She asked, defiantly. He smiled at her, that same lifeless smile he had given me in the woods,
"I'm curious," he said flatly, his eyes narrowing in my direction. Alice looked down at me, frightened. I threw her hands the rest of the way away and rolled off the bed. It was a much farther fall to the ground than I had anticipated. I clutched my arms close to my chest and rolled out of the fall, but still jostled my cracked rib and fractured arm, making me whimper. Using my left hand and right elbow I began to crawl across the beautiful, glossy chestnut colored, wood panels towards the door. Each inch was excruciating, but I didn't have time to feel the pain, I had to get home first.
At the door I ran into my first obstacle. Edward was still standing in the doorway, his shoulder leaned up against the frame, his legs crossed at the ankles, slanting the length of him all the way across my only exit. His dark figure loomed up over me, blocking me from the one thing I wanted most. I put my weight onto my elbow and looked up at his pale face, he grinned down at me smugly. Furrowing my eyebrows together I tried to look as forceful as possible,
"You're in my way." I said to him. His smug grin grew into a mocking smile.
"Oh, how stupid of me to be in the way of an injured human."
I wanted to cry. Why did he have to be so cruel? His hard expression slipped for a brief moment into an apology and he reached out to me, but when I drew back his persona of "I don't care" was put carefully back into place and he straightened himself back up. There was no time for tears, I had to get home first. Edward's eerie smile grew even wider and he leaned down so close that his icy breath nipped at my ear when he whispered,
"You are home."
Chills ran up and down my aching spine whether from his breathe, or just the way he sounded so certain. I shrank away from him and pulled myself through the door much too fast, sending lightening bolts rattling through my arm and rolling my ribcage making me cough back the stinging pain. I strained my watering eyes to see around the darkened hallway that only had two sources of light, the light from the open door behind me and the light pouring up from the grand staircase, only to see that I was coming out of the very last room at the very end of a very long hallway. And I would have an enormous staircase to look forward to after that. Goody. I sighed and continued to haul myself across the floor traveling half the speed of pregnancy. Once I had gotten to the stairs I gripped onto the red oak banister as best I could and slid my legs out and around until I was sitting on the top step. Slowly, using my good leg, I scooted myself down the stairs, step by step, and onto the creamy marble tiles in the entry of the glass mansion. Rolling back around to my stomach I propped myself up onto my left arm and hip, hoping it would be faster to drag myself sideways, and began to make my way for the front door. I twisted the brass knob and was struck hard by the thick, oak door as it was hammered, on the other side, by the howling Washington wind. I let it swing the rest of the way open, and pushed my aching mass forward through the frigid wind and icy drizzle.
About an hour later I was within spitting distance of the tree line. Knowing that my voyage would be much more difficult once I was in the wood and also positive that they weren't going to stop me from leaving I decided that I'd earned a break. I propped myself up on a tree, panting heavily from the effort it had taken me just to make it this far, a distance that probably would have taken minutes had I been able to walk. Looking back to the glass mansion, I hoped never to see again, I saw that the door wasn't closed yet, and there were two shadowed silhouettes blocking the warm glow of the candles hanging on the walls. They were watching me struggle. In that moment I had a realization, "Let her go." … "I'm curious", he had said. They weren't stopping me because they weren't expecting me to make it, they wanted to see how far I would get. As if to prove my theory the wind ripped through the shirt Edward had given me to wear and I shuddered against the cold, the rough bark turning to a block of ice against my back. I needed to keep moving.
The dense underbrush in the forest of Forks Washington is both harsh and unforgiving. The ground is even colder and harder than Edward's icy fingers it's also littered with dagger sharp rocks and vines covered in thorns. It was cold, I was alone, and I didn't have the slightest idea where I was or where I was going. As much as I hated it, I was about the prove the Cullens right, I wasn't going to make it. Not here, not like this. I crawled just a little further to a small patch of ferns, they were wet, but more comfortable than the bare ground. As I lay on my bed of ferns I prepared to freeze. Here in the darkness the forest canopy protected me from most of the rain but still lightly showered my frozen body and rocked me with its raging winds. The quiet here was deafening as I lay in silence, waiting to die.