(Disclaimer- i own not one single twilighty thing. and its a heartbreaking reality, i'll tell you.)
hello lovely people! okay, so thanks to forevertopaz1901, unspoken emotions, paleviolet, wolfseye1, and
of course, queenoftheviciousvines. you guys leave some pretty flipping awesome reviews. :) and, unspoken emotions,
i hope this chapter is long enough for you. :D i can definitely try making them longer, if thats what you guys want.
i normally wind up with like seven pages every time i write a chapter, but i thought that maybe it'd be too much
for everyone to have to read in a chapter. i normally try to break them down into smaller chapters. but i can
most definitely make them longer. :D
alright now. this chapter, i must say, is a favorite of mine. not because the writing is very good, because quite
truthfully, i don't think my writing is quite up to par at all in this chapter. i kind of rushed through it, i suppose.
but what i like about this is that i kind of picture the entire scene panning out in my head, and i must say that i find
it to be quite humorous. i hope that you all enjoy it as much as i did. :D
please leave reviews, and thank you very much for reading!
Storytelling
"Bella," Edward started, his voice strained. I looked up at his face with only my eyes, my head unwilling to move. His jaw was tight, his nostrils flared angrily. "Would you mind telling me exactly why the police are after Anna Hensley…or, in other words, you?"
I bit my lip, finding somehow the strength to move, and flung myself at him, tears streaking down my face. I couldn't speak even one word of explanation; all I could do was shake with fear and pray to my creator that I not go back to that hellhole they called a mental hospital. This was my last minute with Edward Cullen. My last moment with my fantasy—my reality.
I pushed my face up to his, touching his lips with mine in a way that was both fierce and reluctant, all at once. One part of me screamed profanities, kicking the skirting of my insides in self-hatred. How could I do this to Jacob!? The other half of me clung to the cold man in my arms like a starving man clings to the last loaf of bread on the table.
Edward gasped beneath my mouth.
"Bella!" He breathed, shocked with my forward behavior, tugging me away from him. His black eyes were incredulous, but no longer angry. They were hungry now, instead. I cried harder. "Alice, stall them!" He whispered sternly behind him, scooping me into his arms like a baby. My head whipped itself around, searching for her.
When did Alice get here?
"I knew this was going to happen!" Alice muttered hectically, blurring past us from the back door, headed in the direction of the front one. Her black spikes fluttered gently as she breezed past, looking like a perfect little angel. Her tiny body looked so graceful, a magnificent piece of music, played elegantly by a skilled performer. She glided to a stop right in front of the exit, glancing at me with a little twinkle in her eye.
"You couldn't have told me this earlier, Alice?" Edward hissed at her, flinging himself toward the other side of the room, aiming for the stairs. My head rocked back into his hard body, colliding with his chest, a low ringing noise booming in my ears. My eyesight became fuzzy with the impact of my crash, and I swallowed hard, trying to stay conscious. Edward's cool hand pressed gently against my cheek, holding me there against him so as not to let it happen again.
The sirens were getting louder.
"Get her upstairs!" Alice commanded, ignoring his jibe. Her voice sounded strange, the irritated stress clashing oddly with the beautiful humming of bells.
Edward seemed to leap over the last of the steps, his movements poised as a dancer and quick as a lion. He finished the next case of stairs just as smoothly, rushing me into the room at the very end of the second-story hallway. He pressed me gently onto his bed, pushing his mouth to mine for a split second, and pulled away, heading for the door.
"Stay." He ordered, pointing a finger at me. I obliged happily, unable to even so much as nod in response. He pursed his lips, looking at me, before throwing the door open and stepping back into the hall. There, suddenly, he froze.
There was a loud knock at the front door.
"Dammit." He muttered, turning around to face me once again. "Should I take her and run?" He asked, staring at my face. For a moment, I was confused, wondering what he meant by his question, but then I realized that he wasn't speaking to me. He was talking to Alice. Of course she would be able to hear him.
He pursed his lips, shaking his head, and came to sit by me.
Apparently Alice's answer had been 'no.'
I breathed hard, on the verge of hyperventilation as I stared at him with round eyes. They were here for me. The police were looking for me—here. But how had they found me? Had Kyle ratted me out, used a tracking device to locate his cell phone and help the police? I shook my head, unwilling to believe that he would betray me in such a way. He would never do that to me, would he? Unless they'd threatened him…
Would even the threat of a life sentence in jail bring him to throw me to the sharks?
I didn't think so, but I was a cynical person. I couldn't help but wonder.
Edward's cold arms wrapped around me, pulling me into his side. I didn't struggle against his grip; instead, I let him take me, wishing that, with the arctic chill, he could also bring me numbness. Fervently, I wished that he would make me forget my troubles now like he had that time in the forest, the second time he'd tried to run with me. I could definitely use that kind of distraction at the moment.
I angled my chin upward, looking him in the eye. I hoped that he would understand the language my body was speaking. I prayed that he'd erase my memory completely—wipe away the guilt, the terror, the treachery, the sins.
He understood.
He pressed his freezing lips against mine, taking my attention from the voices echoing up the stairs. I leaned in against him, my heartbeat quickening in worry, as his hand swept down over my back. I could still feel the moisture of my tears rolling down my face, taste the salt bubble over my lips, meeting his.
He pulled away, looking at me with a soft expression. "Shh, my Bella." He placed one stony finger against my mouth, his head tilting toward the door, listening. I, too, listened. The voices were getting louder now.
Edward jumped off the bed agilely, his pants sliding off. My mouth flew open and I gasped, blinking in surprise at the half-naked vampire standing before me. My eyebrows pulled together over my eyes, the pumping of my heart reaching a tempo much too quick to be considered normal. I couldn't believe him. This was not the time for him to overlook his carefully assembled rules of limited physical contact. I only wanted him to make me forget, not get me into bed!
"Edward!" I protested quietly as he grabbed me. His strong fingers wrapped themselves around my arms, overlapping, and he dragged me into his arms, one hand clasping over my mouth. My eyes widened, not sure if I should continue to object or not. I couldn't help the part of me that was eager. I couldn't hide it, either. My passion was barely hidden in my eyes as I stared up at him in shock.
Edward's lips twitched in humor as he towed me over to the closet, pulling me into the darkness with him. His fingers moved from my mouth, tracing instead over the length of my sides, settling on my hips. I inhaled deeply; the scent of him was so much stronger in here.
"The closet?" I whispered incredulously. I'd never taken him to be this kind of man. My eyebrows felt permanently frozen in an arch of confusion over my blind eyes. I pursed my lips, breathing heavily, waiting for him to make his move.
Instead, he chuckled. "Silly girl, hush. Trust me. You need to stay here—don't move until I come to get you." Something brushed across my mouth, so soft I could barely detect it. Was it his lips?
I shivered.
A thin slit of daylight swirled into view for a split second, obscured by his retreat, and then it was gone. Suddenly, I was left in a world of darkness. I sunk to the floor, my fingers gliding over the walls until I met the wooden planks below. I tried not to panic.
Outside the door, I heard another door open—the main door to his room, I assumed. I heard Edward gasp, sounding startled, and then the sound of material being tossed around—the sheets? A man cleared his throat, a slightly embarrassed noise. It was much too gruff to have been Edward. Had the police come upstairs? I covered my mouth to suppress my own frightened gasp.
"I told you." Alice chirped, her voice thick with reprimanding. I pressed my ear against the wooden door, putting all of my weight into it, trying to understand what was going on out there.
"Sorry, ma'am. We have our orders." This voice that spoke now matched the earlier tone I'd heard perfectly. He must have been the one who'd cleared his throat. Oddly, he sounded just like Charlie.
I listened harder, my eyebrows inching further up on my forehead. None of this was making sense to me.
"Do you have a search-warrant, gentlemen?" Edward's voice was like pure satin—even and unruffled, completely alluring. There was an awkward shuffling of feet in response to his words, a small stretch of silence. I held my breath.
"No, sir." Another man said shakily after a minute. His voice was higher than the other's, anxious.
"Well, then, if you wouldn't mind, my fiancé and I have some…business to attend to." My face scrunched up in perplexity at his suggestive tone. He waited a minute before he continued, the silence in the room almost deafening besides Alice's flirty giggle. Was she flirting with Edward? I gagged quietly, repulsed. What was going on here?
"There's no need to make this into a bigger issue than it already is, wouldn't you agree? Why don't we just pretend that this never even happened, and you can continue whatever it is that you were doing and, well, so can we." Edward suggested—again with the same indicative tone. The two men agreed quickly, a little nervous with Edward's superior calm, and their footsteps hurried out of the room.
"Sorry, honey." Alice apologized somewhat quietly, seeming to direct the words at her brother. It was loud enough for the men to hear, but quiet enough to still be considered personal. She was quite the actress, Alice Cullen. I couldn't deny that fact. But it still weirded me out.
I made a face, listening to the door click shut.
After a moment of silence, the door in front of me opened and I fell out, plummeting toward the floor.
Edward caught me.
I gasped, taking in the sight of his nearly naked body. All he wore was a pair of light blue boxers. I looked around, noticing the way that the covers of the bed were tossed halfway to the floor, his clothing strewn all over. He grinned sheepishly as I looked back at him, my face frozen in horror, and placed me on the bed.
He slipped on his jeans and shirt while I stared at my hands, shocked and frozen on the bare mattress with my eyes wide. Just as he was pushing the sleeves of his shirt up his forearms, Alice bounced through the door—wearing only a skimpy dress that resembled something more like lingerie. I gaped at her.
"Hey, Bella!" She sat next to me on the bed, throwing her arms around me. I hugged her back quickly, but I wasn't really in the mood for a reunion. I was still too shocked with the situation. I started to ask them about it, but Edward cut me off.
"Good plan, honey—sick, a little twisted, maybe, given the circumstances, but good nonetheless." He complimented Alice with a smirk. She smiled back at him, her arm around my shoulders casually.
"Thanks. I figured it'd be easier if we embarrassed them a little bit."
They grinned at each other for a minute, snickering like junior high students who'd just pranked the principal.
"Uh…do you mind telling me what just happened here?" I interrupted their sibling bonding, raising an eyebrow. Edward looked at me amusedly, seeming to doubt my seriousness, raising his brows and tilting his chin down into his chest. He chuckled darkly.
"I believe that you may actually owe me a bit of an explanation first, Bella." He crossed the room quickly, standing in front of me with a hard stare. Alice continued to smile. "What's all this about, Isabella? Hitchhiking and running away from the police? What has gotten into you? Are you hoping to wind up in a jail cell—or, better yet, a coffin?" He flinched at his own words, staring me down. I knew that he wasn't going to settle for any simple explanation. He wanted all of it—the whole truth, nothing but.
I sighed, reluctant, and stared down at the bed. He cleared his throat, tipping my chin up with his finger so that I would look at him. I pursed my lips, stubborn.
"I'm afraid to tell you." I whispered. His brows met in confusion, his eyes softening at the desperate tone I used. He sat with us on the bed, draping his arms over me.
"What are you afraid of, Bella?" Alice asked. I twisted in Edward's arms to look at her, sniffling.
"It's…not a pretty tale. But don't you know that already, Alice? Don't you know the entire story already?"
She smiled gently, giving Edward a strange little look. I blinked.
"No, Bella." She murmured. "I probably could figure it out — see it — if I wanted to, but up until this point, you hadn't planned on telling anyone about this. And I can't see the past, you know." She grinned again, flashing me her stark white weapons.
"But don't you want to see?" I insisted, confused. Why wouldn't she look for my story, now that she could?
"I do, and so does Edward, but I'm sure he'd rather hear it from you rather than me." Alice turned to him, and he nodded in agreement, ushering me on with his hand.
When I didn't respond, his face seemed to warm, his features melting with compassion. He stroked my cheek. "Bella, love, don't be afraid. I don't care how awful the truth is—I still want to know. Please."
I waited, pursing my lips in silence. I didn't want to explain it to them, but it seemed to be my only option as of the moment. Edward wanted to know, and Alice wouldn't look for my story with her visions. Edward probably wouldn't have given up on getting me to tell him the story anyway—even if he had already heard it from his sister.
There was no escape.
I scowled at his expectant face, sighing. "Fine." I said, raising my hands in surrender.
And then, apprehensively, I began my tale.
(author's note: okay, so if that wasn't exactly...uhhh, clear, then here is what happened with edward and alice: alice came up with the plan to make it look like her, and her "fiance" Edward, were getting a little uhm..."business-like" upstairs. when the police asked to check the home, they found edward in the bed waiting for alice with only his boxers on. so then of course edward gasps in surprise, and the cops are all embarrassed. and then when bella hears the sheets being thrown around, thats edward trying to cover himself up. i hope that wasn't too unclear the way that i wrote it. sorry if it was.)