Edward's POV:
I was locked in my room, wanting to be away from everyone. I curled up into a ball and rocked back and forth in the corner. Nothing mattered but the pain. The pain was consuming everything. Every hope, every dream was being consumed by the flame. Every thought of her was being burned in my memory, tainted by the darkness inside me.
She was my life, and oh, how much I loved her! I missed her more than anything. My very being was pulling me to her, but my mind fought against the pull of my heart. She was better off without me, my mind told me. She can have the life she would never have with you.
But my heart had a different opinion. Was she truly ever happy without you? She fought so hard to keep you with her. She loves you; why did you ever doubt that.
My mind kept contradicting my heart. She only ever loved me because she knew no better. I was a stronger being than her. She looked up to me in a way that she never should. She saw a lie, a mask. She never saw the truth… but she knew me better than anyone, even the people I call my family.
I grasped my hair in my hands, pulling it in my misery. How was I able to stay away from her for so long? After all the pain and misery I inflicted upon myself, how was I ever able to stop from crumbling and crawling back to her on my hands and knees like the pathetic creature I am?
I continued to silently sob in my hands as I basked in the fires of hell. Through the flames, I heard a gasp, a gasp of shock that did nothing to distract me from my tortures.
But the images that followed proceeded to lift me from my prison, if only for a moment.
I saw Bella, my Bella, on a bike. I froze in shock. Since when has she ever been into motorcycles? She only ever loved that rusty, old truck her father bought. I flinched at the memory of our constant banter about me getting her a new car. The memory of her selflessness was too much. I shifted my concentration back to the images my sister was sharing with me.
My love, my life, was going fast on her bike. I saw her beginning to smile, but all too quickly, she came to a curve in the road. She slammed her foot on the break and tipped the bike over, consequently launching herself into a rock.
The image shifted to a new one, a vision of Bella waking up in a hospital without a clue who she was. My heart sunk as I realized that she wouldn't remember me, but then I berated myself. Wouldn't that be better? If she didn't remember me, surely she could have the human life I wanted her to have.
When the second vision ended, a third and final vision took its place. Bella was in her house, her father giving her pictures, telling her about the life she had. Bella threw down a picture she was holding, screaming in frustration that it was no use. She ran up the stairs faster than I've ever seen her move. As she ran into her room, she tripped over a loose floorboard and went flying. She landed on her bed with a gasp of shock. She looked behind her and saw the floorboard which slid out of place.
Bella got up slowly, cautiously, and approached the spot where I hid her birthday gifts. She picked them up, and when she saw the picture of me, she gasped and dropped the photo on the floor. She gasped out my name and then quickly ran from the room.
She ran passed a shocked Charlie and into the kitchen. She approached her father's work jacket and grabbed his gun out of its holster. She pointed the gun to her head and… she was gone. My Bella left the world which I was condemned to walk for the rest of eternity.
"No!" I roared and barreled out of the room without opening the door. I was out of the house in less than a second. I needed to get to my everything before she did anything stupid. My sister Alice was hot on my heels.
We have to hurry. We have to hurry, Alice continued to chant in her head. We won't reach her in time to stop the first incident, but we should get to Forks in plenty of time to stop her from- Alice couldn't finish the thought. I pushed myself harder, faster. Soon, I left Alice far behind.
I reached Forks with plenty of time to spare. It had taken me less than a day to run back to my home. I arrived just after Bella was released from the hospital. I ran back to her house to meet her there. I was planning on hiding in the forest until I could get her alone. I needed to speak to her without her father trying to fill me with lead.
Bella soon arrived in Charlie's police cruiser. She opened her door and I was shocked to see her. She looked even worse than the vision showed her to be. She was so thin that her clothes hung off her loosely. Her hair lost the vibrant color that it used to be. It was now a dull, dark brown that hung around her face. Her eyes, the windows to her soul, did not sparkle like they used to. They were dull; they were sucked of all the life they once held. They were not the open books they used to be. It was like looking into a murky pond and trying to see the bottom of it. It wasn't possible. I've seen corpses with more life in their eyes than her.
You did this, my mind told me. You reduced her to this state. You killed her soul in the ways you never thought you would. You robbed her of everything.
I fell to the ground, a new wave of agony rippling over me. What have I done? How could I have been so stupid? Didn't I always say how much more of an advanced creature I was: superior in every way? How wrong was I! I destroyed everything.
I quickly picked myself up after I was able to move. I needed to see her. I looked around, but there was no one to see me. I sprinted to her house and climbed in her room faster than I ever had.
I heard her slow footsteps climbing the stairs. I felt a new wave of fear as I thought of her reaction. She didn't remember me so she might scream in terror. She would probably faint on the spot. She might even remember me at the instant and start shouting and throwing thing at me.
She entered the room before I could flee. She simply stared at me for a long moment before silently closing the door behind her. She took a deep breath before turning to face me.
She looked me dead in the face, and tilted her head to the side slightly. "Do I know you?"