Chambers of the Soul
Summary: Bella lives with her abusive father; Charlie, her older brother; Maxi and her younger sister; Harmony. She almost thinks there's no hope but what happens when the new family comes to town? Will she ever be happy? What if Bella and her siblings became happy and then someone came back to haunt them…
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. All characters and other twilight-related things belong to SM. I only own the storyline.
Maxi Swan POV.
The next day
Charlie had already left for work when Harmony and I had arrived back home. He had left one simple note on the table which read; you are dead.
I didn't let it bother me as I got myself dressed and then Harmony.
I had rung the school whilst at the hospital to see if I could bring her to school with me. They agreed and said that whilst I was in lessons Mrs. Cope, from the front desk, was going to let her daughter look after her for me.
Carlisle promised he'd take good care of Bella until I got to the hospital after school and I didn't feel so bad anymore. I could trust him.
As I entered the hallway of the school building heads looked my way. They were focused on the little girl that was huddled in my arms.
I ignored their stares as Harmony whimpered. I headed straight for Mrs. Cope's desk but she hadn't yet arrived in school.
On my way to the bleachers I bumped into the Cullen's. Not good. They were so curious and Rosalie, a tall girl with blonde hair who loved to show her legs, was way too interested in Harmony.
Harmony tugged on my sleeve. "Bleachers" she stated, pointing.
I nodded and shifted her to the other side of me. I pushed passed the Cullen's and sat on the 6th row of the bleachers. They followed. What a surprise! Not.
They took seats around me and Harmony didn't like the new company. She pushed herself into me. "I liked the hospital better." She whispered.
I chuckled. "Most people hate hospitals."
"I don't." she said, turning to smile at me. "Have you called a prince yet? Like with sleeping beauty?"
I shook my head. "I'm still on it, their all busy this week; got balls to go too."
She frowned. "Typical."
I had to laugh at that, Bella had a fabulous speech. She used so many long words that it made me sound dull. Harmony just couldn't help but pick them up.
"Will you introduce us?" Rosalie asked, gesturing to Harmony.
I looked down at Harmony and then back at the Cullen's. "This is my sister, Harmony."
Rosalie smiled. "I'm Rosalie. It's nice to meet you!" she cooed.
Harmony pushed herself into me; her eyes turning glassy. "I'll do anything!" she pleaded. She thought they were going to hurt her.
My arms tightened around her and I stroked her brown curls, gently. "It's okay." I soothed.
She struggled against me. "Get off!" I knew the words weren't directed at me; she was having a flashback of Charlie.
"I'm not him." I told her calmly but let her out of my grasp.
As soon as she was free she dropped to the floor and hid under the bench; hiding her face with her hands. Her whole body shook. "Don't!" she screamed, her voice full of fear.
I hated doing it but Bella could always calm her and I didn't know what to do. I dropped to my knees and dragged her from under the bench. "I'm not him." I repeated.
She tried to scramble away from me but I sat her on the bench and held her hands. "Harmony!" I yelled.
The Cullen's looked shocked from what had happened but I think they were more shocked with how loud I had yelled at a 5 year old.
Harmony's eyes returned to normal and she started to cry. I hugged her to me and sat back down. "I'm sorry!" she whimpered.
I rubbed her small back. "It's okay, you did nothing wrong."
She sighed and buried her face in my chest. "Can we see Bella now?"
"Not yet," I told her truthfully. "When school's over. Mrs. Cope's daughter, Sara, will be looking after you whilst I'm in lessons." I told her.
She frowned. "I can't be with you?" her eyes filled with horror. "What if they…"
I cut her off with the shake of my head. "They won't."
She nodded and I stood up because the bell rang loudly. I walked Harmony to the office where Mrs. Cope was sitting with a blonde haired girl around the age of 19 beside her. She smiled. "Maxi!" she peered down at Harmony as she rose from behind her desk. "This must be Harmony." She looked back up at me. "Don't worry; Sara will take good care of her."
Sara introduced herself and then took Harmony's hand. Harmony tried to protest but then relaxed when I told her things were alright.
When they disappeared up the corridor Mrs. Cope gave me a smile from behind her glasses and I followed Alice to homeroom.
When I took my seat Alice turned to me. "Where's Bella?" she chirped.
I raised my eyebrows knowing that Alice had taken a liking to Bella. "She…she can't be here today." I said, looking down.
"Oh" Alice whispered.
"Yeah…I hope she's okay" I muttered.
Before Alice could respond the bell rang loudly and we were dismissed to our first lesson. The day went by fast except for the Cullen's talking to me when I wanted my space to think about my sister.
I picked Harmony up from Mrs. Cope's office. I was surprised to see her plonked on the floor with Sara. They were building Lego houses and Harmony was giggling as Sara told her something funny. It was such a precious moment.
"She's as quiet as a mouse." Mrs. Cope said, watching Harmony and her daughter, happily.
I smiled. "Yeah, I guess she is. I think she likes your daughter."
Mrs. Cope agreed. "Sara's been looking for a job for a while now, not to be rude or anything but maybe she could take the role of being Harmony's babysitter? I know your father's having a tough time finding a good one."
I smiled. "I think Harmony will like that very much."
Just then Sara came towards us holding a bouncing Harmony by the hand. She smiled at me and held her hand out.
Harmony let go and came barrelling towards me. "Maxi! That was so fun…we built houses and sung songs and played with toys!"
The lump rose in my throat as I watched my little sister's happiness. If only she was always like this…if only she could feel safe in her own home.
'Thank you!' I mouthed to Sara and handed her $15. She tried to give me it back but I turned away and took Harmony down the corridor to the cafeteria.
When Alice saw us she practically danced over to us and pulled us to her families table. I hated the attention and I hated sitting by people. It was just routine.
Rosalie was staring at Harmony with so much affection that I thought she was going to burst!
Harmony wasn't really paying attention to Rosalie though; she was looking around the cafeteria. This was a living hell to her; too many people. "Can I go back with Sara?" she asked.
"Maybe tomorrow, if Bella still isn't back." I told her.
Her eyes focused on me. "You need to call a prince. I don't care if they have a ball to go to or not. They need to come give some kisses!"
"And what are you going to do if they don't come?" I asked, amused.
Her eyes looked like flames. "I will drag them by their hair and yell at them and then I will torture them until they do." She nodded to herself and leaned back.
She had gotten that from Charlie; one year he had dragged Bella to the cellar by her hair and had shouted at her until she agreed to go to his bedroom….
I laughed. "Charming, Bella would be so proud of you." I said, sarcastically.
Harmony grinned; obviously not noticing the sarcasm and sat back. "Figures."
"Where is Bella?" Edward asked as he picked at his sandwich.
I sighed. "She can't be here today." I looked at the table.
"You said that to me." Alice frowned.
I shrugged and sat back.
"I can see that she's not here but why not? Is she okay?" Edward asked, his eyes were full of concern but I couldn't put my finger on why.
"I…I don't know…" I choked out. "She's in the hospital."
"What why?" Alice asked, leaning forward in horror.
Harmony peered at me with sad eyes and I took a deep breath. "We were walking home last night from a friend's and there's a quicker route to our house. We took it and Bella, being the clumsy person she is, was walking up 3 flights of concrete steps and she slipped on ice near the top. She fell…" I swallowed and avoided everyone's eyes. "I took her home and thought she was just upset and that she would be okay but then at 3am I realized she wasn't…."
"But that's-" Harmony started.
I gave her the 'don't mention anything' look and she shut up, sinking down into her seat.
Everyone was speechless.
"I'm sure she'll be okay." Rosalie reassured me as the silence went along.
I nodded. I desperately wanted to see Bella but I knew that I would have to wait a little bit longer.
Edward grew silent for the rest of the day and I wondered why. Did he want to know Bella? Did he like her? Did he want to be more than friends with her?
I couldn't help but think as I led Harmony to his Volvo. He and Alice offered to take us to the hospital so they could come in and see Bella quickly to make sure she was okay.
I agreed because a car would get us to the hospital faster.
We pulled up into a parking slot and Harmony dragged me out of the car. She yapped away to Alice about the prince coming to wake Bella up and suddenly they understood the conversation we had had at lunch.
I was surprised with how Harmony was talking to strangers today.
Edward and I walked faster than Harmony and Alice so we were quite far ahead. "I know you hardly know us," he started. "But I think we're going to be good friends, I'm sorry if you didn't want us coming to see Bella; my sister's quite pushy."
I shook my head. "It's fine, really. Thank you for caring about her…"
He shook his head to wave my comment off and we approached the receptionist's desk. She noticed me and smiled and signed something down; indicating for us to carry on. She said hello to Edward and to both Alice and Harmony when they arrived.
I led them to Bella's room and stood outside her room for a bit. The blinds were down and so I couldn't see in.
"It's okay." Edward said, placing a hand on my shoulder.
I nodded, took a deep breath and stepped into the warm room.
Bella was in the same state as she had been before except now the blanket was pulled to her waist and the hospital gown was pulled up to under her breasts. Her stomach was bloated and more monitors surrounded it. "Bella." I breathed.
I always thought Charlie would go to far someday and one of us would end up in hospital but Tyler had done this…
"All of this is from falling down the steps?" Edward said in a small voice, astonished.
"She fell on her front when she hit one of the steps…I think that's why she was struggling to breathe" I lied.
He nodded. I turned to see Alice looking horrified and upset. "All of this from some ice and steps…" she murmured, taking a step towards Bella.
5 minutes later we found ourselves all sat around Bella's bedside waiting for her to awake.
Carlisle came in and was shocked to find 2 of his children sitting with his patient. "Alice, Edward?"
"Dad." Edward nodded. "We came to see Bella."
Alice nodded in agreement.
"Does your mother know?" he asked as he checked Bella's vitals.
They both nodded.
"Why's all that on her stomach?" I asked after a while of uncomfortable silence.
Carlisle sat down. "We needed to insert a chest tube to drain the fluid from Bella's chest. The fluid, medically called Pleural Effusions most likely occurred from a chest injury. We called your dad this morning because with the fluid now in her chest it means it can cause her lungs to collapse and her breathing to stop."
I said nothing. Charlie knew. He was going to kill us. I wasn't going to last much longer, probably until tonight….what about Harmony? She couldn't get hurt, I had to protect her. I met her eyes and we both swallowed.
With Harmony being so young she let the terror show. "You called Dadda! But…you can't!" she said, glancing from me to Carlisle.
The Cullen's were looking confused now but I continued to stare ahead. Harmony's eyes went from terrified to concerned. She rushed over to me and tried to yank on my arm but I didn't look.
How was I going to try and get us away if he was lurking around the hospital? How was I going to protect Bella? I couldn't ever leave her alone in this room with him, not with her being so fragile. I didn't want to sit in this tiny room with him….oh god, we couldn't escape….he would take Harmony and I down tonight and leave us in the cellar….Bella would be the only one left and he'd get to her with her being here….no…
"Maxi!" tears were streaming down Harmony's face and I couldn't handle it. She was so little, so innocent…
Black spots danced in my vision and then got blurry. I felt someone moving towards me and then I was gone into the blackness.
I woke up a few minutes later with Carlisle hovering over me. My mind was still fuzzy but I managed to sit up. Edward on the right side of me; trying to get me to lie back down and Alice was no where in sight.
Carlisle shone a light into each of my eyes and then sat back. I then noticed I wasn't in Bella's hospital room.
"What happened?" I asked, I was still confused.
Edward pushed me back down as Carlisle started to talk. "You fainted after I told you about Bella."
It came back to me. Charlie knew Bella was here.
"I need to puke" I muttered and in seconds I was heaving my guts up into a grey sick bowl.
"Is it because of Bella?" Edward asked, "She'll be fine, I know she will."
I nodded because I couldn't possibly tell them it was because Charlie knew.
When I regained control over my body again they allowed me to go back to Bella. When I entered her room I was surprised to see her awake.
The oxygen mask was fogging up and her eyebrows were pulled together like she was in pain.
Harmony was holding on to her hand and talking about some things whilst Alice sat there, looking both worried and relieved.
I rushed to Bella's side and leaned forward so I was right next to her ear. "Charlie knows…"
She shivered but not from the cold and stared at me. She nodded once and pushed herself against the pillows.
"I'll take it tonight." I whispered quietly.
Bella tried to protest but I shushed her and just watched her for a while until she fell back asleep.
That night Harmony and I were dragged home by Charlie.
Little did people know that that could be the last time they'd ever see me or Harmony.
Haven't updated in a month and 1 day but I've been so busy since we're now caring for a terminally ill child but I hope you like this one.
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Savannah
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