Chapter 10:

I've been in bed for the last two and a half months. Pumped with morphine sometimes, and completely sober other times. I liked the times with the morphine coursing through my veins better, I would sleep, which made the time pass much quicker. I was growing infinitely fond of Alice, who would stay and visit with me when she brought me my meals at least two or three times a day, though, none of her visits ever lasted long enough. About the time we ran out of things to talk about and we'd just be sitting in silence, enjoying each other's company, Edward would come up to the door and scurry her off, complaining that I needed my rest and that she should quit pestering me. And when she was gone, it was silent, he had left too.

Besides Alice's frequent visits and Carlisle coming in every now and again to administer morphine, I was generally alone. Edward purposefully kept his distance and the others, with the exception of Alice, didn't bother themselves to check in on "the human". Other than the daily dosage of his angelic voice, Edward might as well have not existed to me, he never actually entered the room when ridding me of Alice, he only stood just outside of the door and barked at her from the safety of the hallway. It was maddening. But if that's all I would ever get of Edward, I would take it and be happy. Although it wasn't very much, it was better than nothing at all. A heavenly torture.

I could always tell if it was Carlisle coming into the room or Alice, Carlisle would walk in slowly and professionally, holding a syringe firmly in one hand. Alice, however, would rush into the room, bubbling over with her usual excitement, and hop up onto the bed next to me, just like the first time we'd met, "Hey Bella!" she'd gush, always sounding like a tiny waterfall of trickling, silver bells. But today something was very different. Today Alice slowly drifted into the room, like a dismal gray cloud on a sunny day at the beach, and pulled up a chair. This worried me, Alice was my only friend here, I couldn't bare the thought of ever losing her. I wanted to ask her if she was okay but it seemed all too obvious that she wasn't. I wanted to ask her what was wrong.

But what if she doesn't want to talk about it? I thought to myself.

Alice walked to the door and shut it, soundlessly, another thing she'd never done before, and whispered,

"Edward's going to kill me," so quietly I had to strain my ears to hear every hushed syllable. From downstairs I heard Edward howl, quite clearly,

"Alice!"

Click. Alice locked the door. In seconds I heard Edward's fist making contact, over and over again, with the polished wood of the door, as his other hand continued to jiggle the handle, hoping to shake it open. Alice took a deep breath and walked back to her chair and sat down, her legs crossed and her fingers laced together with her elbows propped up on the arms of the chair. I sat up and was about to ask her what was going on when she cleared her throat and began to talk.

"Bella, please don't speak, just listen. Edward is furious with me and will try to keep me away. I will answer all the questions you will have as soon as I can." She looked at me and I nodded to show that I understood. Alice stood and began pacing slowly through the room, she saw me glancing nervously at the door as it shook violently with Edward's efforts.

"Don't worry, when we built this house we made sure it was durable enough to withstand many of our temper tantrums. He won't get in through that door." She continued circling though the room, never really looking at me as she spoke.

"I was going to wait for you to start making guesses on your own, but you haven't, and I've stayed silent far too long." She paused, "Do you remember what Carlisle told you, that night when Edward first brought you here, about us being different?" I nodded again, fearful that if I allowed my mouth to open it would betray my oath to silence and gush out all of the questions I've been dying to have answered for months now.

"Well he's right," Alice continued, "We're much different from your kind." I remembered Edward's pale, icy, hard skin, his blinding speed and agility, his unfailing strength, and the way that neither Carlisle or Edward's hearts were beating. I began to wonder about the others. Alice continued, as if she could hear my thoughts,

"We're all wicked fast and strong, we never sleep, we don't age or die, although, our bodies are already legally dead," this was beginning to sound all too familiar, but I couldn't bring myself to step back from the jigsaw puzzle before me and look at the bigger picture, "And we don't eat or drink anything, only blood." I scrunched my eyes at my friend who turned around to face me, mid sentence, making eye contact with me for the first time since she had started talking.

"Bella, we're vampires."