Imagination is not only the uniquely human capacity to envision that which is not,
and therefore the fount of all invention and innovation.
In its arguably most transformative and revelatory capacity,
it is the power to that enables us to empathize
with humans whose experiences we have never shared.
~J. K. Rowling~
Step one you say we need to talk
He walks you say sit down it's just a talk
He smiles politely back at you
You stare politely right on through
Some sort of window to your right
As he goes left and you stay right
Between the lines of fear and blame
And you begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
Let him know that you know best
Cause after all you do know best
Try to slip past his defense
Without granting innocence
Lay down a list of what is wrong
The things you've told him all along
And pray to God, he hears you
And pray to God, he hears you
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
As he begins to raise his voice
You lower yours and grant him one last choice
Drive until you lose the road
Or break with the ones you've followed
He will do one of two things
He will admit to everything
Or he'll say he's just not the same
And you begin to wonder why you came
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
How to save a life
How to save a life
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
Where did I go wrong, I lost a friend
Somewhere along in the bitterness
And I would have stayed up with you all night
Had I known how to save a life
How to save a life
How to save a life
~How to save a life~
The Fray
The scream knew no bounds.
It was not just a scream, it was a blood-curdling shriek of agony. Something I had never heard, nor had I ever witnessed before. The horrifying sound cut off with a gurgle, and her eyes rolled back into her head. Her body twitched, arched in Rosalie's arms, and then Bella vomited a fountain of blood.
I gasped as I felt my stomach churn as tear brimmed my eyes. "WHATS HAPPENING!"
Bella's body, streaming with red, started to twitch, jerking around in Rosalie's arms like she was being electrocuted. Her head thrashed in Rosalie's marble arms, her limbs flailing uncontrollably and I put my hand to my mouth in horror as I watched my cousins eyes fade, going black into an unconscious state. It was the wild thrashing from inside the centre of her body that moved her. As she convulsed, sharp snaps and cracks kept time with the spasms.
Rosalie and Edward were frozen for the shortest half second, and then they broke. Rosalie whipped Bella's body into her arms, and, shouting so fast it was hard to separate the individual words, she and Edward shot up the staircase to the second floor.
I watched them, unable to move as I watched Jake sprint after them - Edwards voice bellowing throughout the house. "Morphine!" Edward yelled at Rosalie.
"Alice get Carlisle on the phone!" Rosalie screeched.
My legs were frozen in space, my eyes looking over the pool of blood that trickled through the intricacies of the wooden floors - creating rifts and almost becoming like a river system.
What are you doing?
GET IN THERE NOW!
The room I followed them to looked like an emergency ward set up in the middle of the library. I had been here before - setting up things that would calm Bella. Now, when we're in the moment of need - I realised that pictures of a childhood would do shit all to calm down my thrashing cousin.
Fucking Idiot.
The lights were brilliant and white. Bella was on a table under the glare, skin ghostly in the spotlight. Her body flopped, like a fish on sand - parched for the release of it sanctuary, of the familiar feel of water against it's scales. Rosalie had pinned Bella down, yanking and ripping her clothes out of the way, while Edward stabbed a syringe into her arm.
I had no time to panic, and I sprinted next to Bella - grabbing Bella's hand.
She had to have someone with her.
She needed me.
"What's happening, Edward?" I screeched, not tearing my eyes from her agonized face.
"He's suffocating!"
"The placenta must have detached!"
Somewhere in this, Bella came out of the darkness that had taken her away from us - that had made us worry so. She seemed to panic when she realised what had happened - what was happening.. She responded to their words with a shriek that clawed at
my eardrums.
"Get him OUT!" she screamed. "He can't BREATHE! Do it NOW!"
I saw the red spots pop out when her scream broke the blood vessels in her eyes.
Yet unlike many times, I wasn't looking away fro the fear that my memory might retain these horrifying pictures - I was looking at her die with no emotion, devoid of any reason to worry, or freak out.
I needed to be strong for Bella.
I couldn't let her see me that way.
"The morphine," Edward growled.
"NO! NOW!" Another gush of blood choked off what she was shrieking. She grasped my hand so strongly that I was taken aback by her strength.
She was no longer the feeble pregnant woman that relied on others - she was a mother protecting her child, fiercely wanting to keep it safe from this damaged and tormented. I grabbed her face, pulling her eyes away from everything and she held my gaze.
"Look at me, Bell's. Nothings going to go wrong - it's just like we planned, remember?" I asked, and she let out a scream of agony, yet a small nod prevailed. "Just imagine the baby, Bell's. It'll be so beautiful. I promise you'll be able to see it."
I held her head up, desperately trying to clear her mouth so that she could breathe again. Alice darted into the room and clipped a little blue earpiece under Rosalie's hair. Then Alice backed away, her gold eyes wide and burning, while Rosalie hissed frantically into the phone.
In the bright light, Bella's skin seemed more purple and black than it was white.
Deep red was seeping beneath the skin over the huge, shuddering bulge of her stomach. Rosalie's hand came up with a scalpel.
"Let the morphine spread!" Edward shouted at her.
"There's no time," Rosalie hissed. "He's dying!"
My head snapped up, and my eyes widened. "Your cutting it out!"
"THERES NO OTHER WAY!"
I watched in horror as her hand came down on Bella's stomach, and vivid red spouted out from where she pierced the skin with the scalpel, the silvery translucence of metal shining against her corpse- like skin, the two meshing together in a unbelievably catastrophic mixture. It was like a bucket being turned over, a faucet twisted to full. Bella jerked, but didn't scream. She was still choking.
And then Rosalie lost her focus. I knew in that moment that her only priority was now blood, the baby no longer meaning anything to her. The baby was now just something in the way. I saw the expression on her face shift, saw her lips pull back from her teeth and her black eyes glint with thirst.
She was so thirsty.
And she was going to drink.
She was a monster.
Unstoppable and uncaring.
She wasn't human in any way.
"No, Rose!" Edward roared, but his hands were trapped, trying to prop Bella upright so she could breathe.
"JACOB GET HER OUT OF HERE!" I demanded, narrowing my eyes as I watched
He launched myself at Rosalie, jumping across the table without bothering to phase. His body smashed against hers, copper skin against that of a corpse. As he hit her stone body, knocking her toward the door, his right palm smashed against her face, locking her jaw and blocking her airways.
Although I doubted that affected her.
She flew into the door frame, buckling one side of it as he kicked her - the little blue speaker in her ears smashing into a million, tiny pieces. Then Alice was there, in an instant, yanking her by the throat to get her into the hall.
I gasped as I saw Jake turn to us, ripping what appeared to be the scalpel out of his flesh.
"Alice, get her out of here!" Edward shouted. "Take her to Jasper and keep her there! Jacob, we need you!"
I didn't waste any time turning back to Bella and ignoring what was happening everywhere around me. I looked at Bella, who's white skin was no longer white - but blue, her eyes wide and loosing their colour.
I knew what I had to do.
CPR was the only option, and I could here in the background Edward growling at me to go faster - to get her heart beat back."Get her breathing! I've got to get him out before-"
Another shattering crack inside her body, the loudest yet, so loud that both of them froze in shock, while I wouldn't let my hands to stop moving in an upward, downward motion - my folded hands pushing on her chest, just hoping that I could contribute to her survival. Her legs, which had been curled up in agony, now went limp, sprawling out in an unnatural way.
"Her spine," he choked in horror.
My eyes widened in horror as I turned to Edward, opening my mouth to scream at him, to tell him anything but it seemed someone beat me to it. "Get it out of her!" Jacob snarled, flinging the scalpel at him. "She won't feel anything now!"
And then I bent over her head. Her mouth looked clear, so I pressed mine to hers and blew a lungful of air into it. I felt her twitching body expand, so there was nothing blocking her throat.
Her lips tasted like blood but I was sure that the metallic taste on her lips wasn't the donors she had been living off - but that of her own.
I could feel her heart beneath my folded hands, thumping unevenly. "Bella, I swear if your heart stops I'm going to fucking kill you. Just keep your heart beating, please, please Bella."
I heard the soft, wet sound of the scalpel across her stomach. More blood dripping to the floor.
The next sound jolted through me, unexpected, terrifying. Like metal being shredded apart. Or almost like the sound of lions feeding on a carcass, their teeth moving in ultimate synchronisation. Yet this wasn't the lions i would watch in documentaries - this was the teeth of a monster.
Of a vampire.
Don't look - focus on Bella's heart.
Keep her heart beating.
She coughed back at me, her eyes blinking, rolling blindly.
Well, at least that was some sort of sign that she was still alive.
Her eyes wheeled, looking for me, or him, but seeing nothing.
I stared into them anyway, keeping my gaze locked there.
And then her body was suddenly still under my hands, though her breathing picked up roughly and her heart continued to thud. I realized the stillness meant that it was over. The internal beating was over. The baby must be out of her.
My head snapped up, and I watched as Edward looked at a small bundle in adoration. Edward whispered, "Renesmee."
I WAS RIGHT!
I looked back down at Bella as she lifted her hands weakly, beckoning for the baby to brought to her. "Let me-" she croaked in a broken whisper. "Give her to me."
I smiled, tears leaking from my eyes as I watched the embrace - the small bundle handed to it's mother, and it was like they were reunited - like Renesmee was always meant to sit in her arms, always meant look up to her with those Swan brown eyes.
I couldn't look away from the embrace - watching as Bella blinked, then stared, finally seeing the sun for the first tine. She moaned in exhaustion, while exuding happiness - moaning out a weak croon as she smiled weakly. "Renesmee. So- beautiful."
And then she gasped- gasped in pain.
Edward had snatched Renesmee out Bella's limp arms and he shook his head as I looked back at Bella - whom had a small bite mark just above her left breast, blood flowing from the wound yet it slowly failed to produce anymore blood.
"No, Renesmee," Edward murmured, the moment in itself beautiful.
I smiled at Renesmee, but in a second the happiness that once swirled around the room - that once enveloped this tortured was gone with Jacob pushing past me, and taking over the CPR.
And then I realised that underneath my hands I felt no heart beat.
That her body had grown cold.
I watched as Jake blew a forceful blast of air into her throat, mechanically moving her chest while pumping her heart again. "What are you waiting for?" I choked out breathlessly, pumping her heart again.
"Take the baby," Edward said urgently, looking at both of us.
"Throw it out the window." Jacob snarled, and I paid no attention to him - grabbing the baby softly, and I looked down at the now alert baby, that by far didn't look like a new born.
I looked down, mesmerised by the eyes that were identical to Bella's - vibrant yet mysterious all in the same way. I glanced over my shoulder once more before I saw a silver syringe in Edwards hand.
"What's that?"
His stone hand knocked Jacobs out of the way. There was a tiny crunch as his blow broke Jakes little finger. In the same second, he shoved the needle straight into her heart.
"My venom," he answered as he pushed the plunger down.
"Keep it moving," he ordered. His voice was ice, was dead. Fierce and unthinking.
Like he was a machine.
I needed to get the baby away and I went through the house swiftly, going into the living room and I looked up from the tiny finger that had wrapped its fist around my pinkie finger, and saw three pairs of black eyes stare back at me - one pair, in partiular, mesmerised.
Rosalie stepped forward, and I stepped back - retreating from the monster I had only seen twenty minutes ago. I would not let her near the baby - not until Bella was here.
Not until she was better.
"Can I hold-"
I shook my head, closing my eyes. "No. No you can't." Her eyes glanced down to my blood soaked clothes, and stepped back. "I think it'd be best if you went in the Kitchen, Rose."
She begrudgingly nodded, looking down at the bundle in my arms once more before she turned - walking away from the both of us.
I sat down on the sofa, looking down at the bundle in my arms and I smiled - biting my lip at the beautiful child that snoozed, not knowing what was happening in the other room. Her fist still clenched at my finger, and I smiled - the sobs overcoming me as I woke the baby up unintentionally by the vibrations of my chest.
She looked up at me, with those inquisitive and remarkable eyes.
Those of the Swan women.
I heard someone behind me, and I glanced - looking at Jacob whom I had never seen so angry. His body, tense and rigid, was covered in Bella's blood while his face was not only agonized over the fact that his best friend might have just died, but that I, his ... soul mate, was looking at the very thing that killed her in awe.
I could tell he wanted to kill Renesmee - I could feel his infuriation and his grief coarse through his body like a river running down endless slopes and hills.
"You said that you would do anything for me. Because I'm your imprint. It's programmed into you." I stood, holding the baby close to my chest. "If you hurt her, I will make sure you never see me again after tonight."
Heres another chapter for you all brillaint people that reviewed.
YOU ARE THE MY LIFE!
NOT REALLY!
BUT STILL!
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