Disclaimer: All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators, or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. Edited by Sjdavis84 and StillDreaming85.
WARNING: This story contains mature themes and is intended for mature readers.
MARIE CULLEN (ISABELLA)
I had never taken the time to look at him, to really look at him.
It was the early hours of the morning. The sun wasn't up yet, and for some reason I hadn't been able to sleep at all last night. I felt as if all my senses were on high alert. I had this dread in the pit of my stomach, as if something bad was about to happen. The thought of that alone made me want to laugh. What could be worse than what had already happened?
Edward was lying on his side facing me. His gentle snores filled the silence in the room. A light glow from the bright lights of the city shone through the open window.
Watching Edward sleep was fascinating at best. He was deep in sleep and yet he wasn't.
It was as if even in his sleep, he was ready to jump out of bed and attack at the slightest noise.
"Why are you watching me so closely?" He mumbled, still keeping his eyes shut.
"I'm not."
"I can feel your eyes on me, dolcezza."
"You must be dreaming," I said.
He mumbled some incoherent sentence. Nothing but a jumble of words came out of his mouth as he wiped away at his eyes. He reached out for me and pulled me close to him. He was naked under these sheets. I had gotten up after he fell asleep last night and dressed myself. It was pretty stupid, the man has seen me naked, he had done things to me that shouldn't make me shy around him any longer. But still the thought of lying in bed next to him, sleeping next to him naked, it was an intimacy that we didn't have, well, I didn't think we had. Edward must have thought otherwise. Maybe it was my recent behavior that led him to believe I was okay with all of this.
Edward had given me a small amount of freedom. We had been out together. He had let me out in public even though that there may have been the risk of someone recognizing me. I guess that had been his way of trying to convince me that I was no longer a prisoner. No matter what he did, and no matter what he said, I knew that couldn't be further from the truth. I was still very much a prisoner, a captive. I think he was trying to convince himself with his actions. But if that was the case, then Edward was a very stupid man.
"No, I don't think I am, gattina," he said, rubbing the tips of his fingers down my face and my neck.
He shifted his body closer to mine and brought our lips together. He was always gentle, always careful, it made my head spin. He had always given me a choice to say no, to pull away. So why was it that I couldn't do it?
I hated him, I know I did. But it had become an accepting hate. He had changed these past weeks, he was different. It was almost as if he were walking on broken glass around me. The way he touched me, the way he spoke, the words he chose. Everything was planned to perfection. I thought I had Edward figured out at one point, but now I'm not so sure. Was there really a monster hiding inside him?
He was a dangerous man, yes, but was he dangerous to me?
He hadn't hurt me, not like his brother had. Edward hadn't caused me any physical harm only emotional damage.
Maybe that was it, that was why I hated him so much. Edward was playing with my mind, with my emotions. He had worked his way deep inside my mind and made me question everything I thought I felt. His mother didn't help things either. She is a beautiful woman, but I didn't know what, if anything, she wanted from me. She didn't agree with what her children had done. She had been so angry with Edward, she had gone out of her way to ignore him for a whole week back at the estate. But Esme didn't want me to hate her son either, she had made that very clear. She wanted us to get along, she wanted a family.
In her mind, I think she had come to the same conclusion that I had. I was trapped here, I knew that, I knew my only escape would be death, and she knew it too.
Maybe it was her way of helping me cope? Maybe she was trying to make me feel more comfortable about my new role in her family, even though it was a role I didn't want.
"What's wrong?" Edward asked.
"Nothing," I said, too quickly.
He sighed, sounding almost defeated. I think he himself had gotten tired of trying with me. He was tired of me being emotionally unavailable.
"Please, Isabella, tell me," he insisted.
"Nothing is wrong. Why do you always think there is?"
I climbed out of bed and went into the bathroom, slamming the door behind me. There was still no lock on the door, he still didn't trust me that much. Funny, he trusted me enough to be out in public, but he can't trust me with a lock. So much for freedom.
He didn't come after me in the bathroom, thank God. I showered and slipped on the bathrobe. When I went back into the bedroom, he was no longer there.
Edward had left. By the time I had dressed myself and made it out of the bedroom. I was thankful he had left. Edward's behavior, it was becoming suffocating and I didn't know how to deal with him or if I should.
"You hungry?" James asked, popping his head out of the fridge.
"No," I said.
Garrett was his usual quiet self. He's gone back to being a man of very few words, and it was driving me crazy. We had spent all that time together and now he was simply brushing me off.
"Are you okay?" James asked, placing some cheese and eggs on the bench.
"Why does everyone keep asking me that?" I stressed, throwing my hands up in the air in frustration. "I'm fine. Fucking fine, peachy in fact."
"You're feisty this morning," Anthony said. I turned around and smacked right into his chest. He wrapped his arms around my waist and stood frozen on my spot, not knowing if I should move away or push him off of me, and if I did, what would he do?
I still hadn't gotten used to this side of Anthony. The monster in him, I was accustomed to. I knew what to expect from that side of him. But this, this was a side of Anthony that had me feeling...I don't even know what. I was already so confused and my head was all over the place, Anthony behaving this way, it only messed with me further.
"What the hell are you doing here?" Edward's voice sounded through the room. I thought he had left, but I had been wrong.
Edward was beside me in a heartbeat pulling me away from his brother and putting distance between the three of us.
"Relax brother, I was just making sure my sister-in-law was okay. She looks a little sick to me," Anthony said, cocking his head to one side as he eyed me up and down. There was nothing sexual in his gaze, in fact, he appeared to be concerned.
"She's fine," Edward said.
"You sure about that, brother?"
"What are you doing here, Anthony?" Edward asked, stepping in front of me, blocking me from his brother's gaze.
"Since you no longer answer your phone, you left me with no other choice. I thought you would like to know that my people have found Tanya," Anthony said. That got Edward's attention. He let go of me and moved towards his brother.
"What about the other two?" Edward asked.
"Just her. She was at Victoria's."
"Victoria?" I asked. She was a person who offered me comfort when I needed it the most. Both she and I we were trapped in this world together, and I missed her a lot. She was the only real friend I had made in this new world.
"Let's go, brother. I don't think you want your wife knowing your business," Anthony smirked, licking his lips.
Edward turned back to me. He kissed me on the top of the head. "I'll be back later. Please eat something," he said. "Hey, look at me." He cupped my face in between his hands. He gave me no other choice but to look at him. His eyes searched mine, for what? I don't know. He closed his eyes and kissed me. It was different from before. It was gentle, soft, and almost pleading and it made me weak.
I watched the two brother's leave the apartment. Garrett walked behind them, punching a code into the door, trapping us, well me, in the apartment.
There was a part of me, a big part, that didn't want to hate Edward. No matter what had happened to me these past months, no matter how many promises he had made and broken to me, he was trying to make it better, he was trying to make me better. I wanted to let him. So many times I wanted nothing more than to crumble in his arms and let myself be comforted by him. The one thing that stopped me was that Edward killed me. Edward killed Isabella and that was worse than anything Anthony had put me through.
Anthony had taken me from my home, from my life, but Edward had killed my hope. Edward accomplished the job for his brother. Edward broke me.
~DINY~
It was well past midnight and Edward hadn't come back, and once again I couldn't sleep.
Garrett was asleep in one of the bedrooms which left James on duty with me.
He sat in bed next to me watching tv. The irony, Taken was being played on the TV. I laughed, and James laughed along with me.
"Yeah, I know, right?" James said.
"At least she gets a happy ending," I said, staring at the screen.
Watching this made me think of Victoria. I wonder what had happened to her before she ended up being rescued? I wondered who it was that helped her? I doubt it was Edward or Anthony. She did say he was a father figure to her. Maybe it was Edward and Anthony's father?
I looked at James, at the pained expression on his face as he watched this movie. I wondered what was going on through his head as well.
"What are you thinking about?" I asked.
"Nothing for you to worry about," he said, giving me a sad smile.
"Are you thinking about your sister?"
"Yeah, I am," he admitted.
"You know, Victoria…" I tailed off. It hit me like a ton of bricks, and I wondered how the hell had I not put two and two together earlier. Both of their stories were so similar, they were identical.
James had a sister who had run away ten years ago. Victoria had a brother she had run away from.
Both their parents died at the same age in the same way.
Victoria admitted to doing drugs. James said he knew his sister had started taking drugs.
Could it be? Was it possible that James's sister had been right under his nose this whole time? He said he had never met Victoria personally, he never had a reason or a job to go there.
Was Victoria really Victoria? Or was Victoria actually Irina, James's sister?
"Isabella?" James called out, waving his hand frantically in front of my face. "Are you okay? Please don't pass out on me again," he begged.
"James," I said, jumping off of the bed. "You've never seen Victoria right?"
"What does that have to do…"
"Yes or no?"
"No, I haven't. Why?"
"Oh wow," I said, staring at him in disbelief.
"Hey, what's going on? You're scaring me here," he said.
"When I was over there, she and I, we sort of talked about things, life, our life. She said something about her family, her brother," I said, watching James's reaction.
He got up off of the bed, swallowing the lump the lump in his throat. He stared at me with a mask on his face, not giving anything away.
"What did she say?" He finally asked.
"She said, her parents died. She said she ran away because she didn't know how to deal with the pain."
James slumped down on the bed, putting his hands in his hair. "It can't be her," he mumbled. "She couldn't have been that close to me this whole time and I didn't know."
"James." I sat next him, placing my hand on top of his knee. "I'm sorry," I said. Why did I open my mouth? Why did I tell him this? There is a chance that it's all coincidental, Victoria may not even be his sister.
"Why are you apologizing?"
"I…"
The loud explosion made both James and me jump to our feet. It was sudden, unexpected, and powerful, it made the walls shake.
"What was that?" I asked, panicked.
"I don't know. Stay here," James said, pulling out his gun.
"No, please." I didn't give him another choice. I followed closely behind him as he slowly made his way out of the bedroom, down the hallway and into the main living area. There was a smoky haze around us, but the body on the floor was unmissable. A man stood over Garrett's body with his own gun drawn.
Everything happened so fast. The gun went off. James's body slumped to the floor in front of me. I screamed when I saw the large hole in his head. I dropped to knees beside him, shaking him. This wasn't real, it couldn't be. James wasn't dead, he wasn't allowed to be, he had to find his sister. James couldn't die, not like this.
The gunman's footsteps echoed through the room. He stopped in front of me, crouching down to my level, his gun pointed in my face.
"Hello, Isabella."