A/N: Set during New Moon when Bella chases Edward through the woods in an attempt to find him after he leaves her.

Chapter 14

Bella's POV-

"Where is my sister? The actual one?"

Um.

Yeah. About that.

"Well…"

"What?" she continued to glare at me. "Where is she?"

"Er, I don't exactly know the answer to your question, but I can assure you that she is fine."

"And how exactly do you guarantee that?" she folded her arms over her chest, her eyes piercing holes into my very soul.

"That's the funny part." I offered her a humorless, awkward laugh. "It is just a feeling…"

"You need to go back."

What?

No.

I wasn't doing that.

"Listen to me very carefully," her voice was down to a scary whisper as she leaned forward in my direction, "you don't belong to this universe, but my sister does, and you have no idea what I can do to get my sister back in this universe, her universe."

"Um…are you…are you threatening me?"

Why was I stumbling in my words? I had to appear confident, damn it!

"You bet I am." She continued to glare at me. "Go back. Get lost. You and your Sam, both of you."

"We will not go." I firmly stated. "I admit I made a huge mistake by confiding in you; I had falsely believed that you would understand." What an idiot I had been! "Anyhow, I am no coward and I am not afraid of you."

"Fine." She cruelly smiled. "Then you leave me with no choice but to inform my father, the police chief, who in turn will inform the higher authorities. You have no idea how quickly this news will spread that you have travelled the universes; imagine the possibilities! The Government will definitely want to know more; the media will have a field day with this data. Your personal life will be finished. You will be studied; probably put up on machines as they deduce how you managed to do the unthinkable. The rest of your life will be spent in a well- guarded laboratory, one in which you will die a sad and pitiful death. Take my advice and go back. You are still young; find your Sam in your actual universe, he needs to go back to his. Live a good life and never tell another about this shit. We are not ready for this information."

"You are damn right about one thing; I will never trust another with this information!" I spat at her, miffed by her betrayal.

She smiled; her eyes way wiser than her age. "If I had to guess, Emmett and I were together in your universe?"

I did not answer. I was so not in the mood to play cupid. And especially not for her.

"If he does turn out to be the best thing to happen to me, I will forever be thankful to you for forcing me to give him a fair chance. But Bella, I am not your enemy," she half-smiled, "I am simply stating a fact. This is not your life, and you have to get back to yours. It does not work that way. If you want Sam in your life, you will have to find him in your universe and work to get him. There is no easy way out in the actual world. By refusing to leave, you are simply messing with the plan of fate. I don't know how and why this occurred, probably a glitch in the system," she dryly winked, "but think about my sister, or the Sam that has filled in someone else's place. How confused they would be? What fault of theirs that they are now stuck in a world they don't understand?"

"Life is not fair." I attempted to give my defense, a half- hearted one.

"It isn't." she admitted. "But why play a part in making it tougher."

I hated to admit the truth in her words. Without any fault of theirs, an innocent Sam and Bella were now stuck struggling to accept their new life, assuming they had taken our places, respectively.

"I hated my life." I sourly admitted. "I was a disaster. My boyfriend left me, taking his entire family with him. Even before that, we were a match made in imperfect hell. I just wasn't worthy of him. He was so handsome, meticulous at everything he touched, and always knew when to say what. Never the slightest of under-confident. It always felt as if I would mess up and he would dump the simple-plain-me in a heartbeat." Ironical, considering he had no heartbeat! "I felt as if my world had ended when he finally dumped me; all my fears lay confirmed…"

"He sounds like an ass." She pointed out the obvious.

I nodded my head in agreement. Now that I looked back at those months of my life, I could see clear as day that Edward was the one not worthy of me, and not the other way round. He was controlling and manipulative, using Alice and her visions to rule over my life. He alienated me from everyone who wasn't his family, and used his over-confidence to make me feel like an idiot!

"Look, I don't know you well enough to comment on your situation, and so I won't." she stated. "But I do know that escaping is no solution. You have to go back and face your fears. Don't let a man affect you. You are stronger than that."

I smiled at her. "I lost my best friend too." And someone I had come to accept as my second parents.

"Trust me she wasn't your friend if she could leave you this easily." She waved a hand in air. "True friends don't ditch you in your toughest time."

Was Alice truly ever my friend?

Or was she only Edward's sister who liked me because Edward fancied me?

"I loved her like the sister I never had." I whispered; the betrayal fresh in my mind. "I can't go back to that."

"I will trust you with making the right decision." Rosalie's tone was calm and trusting. "But I would like to get my sister back. It is not fair to her."

I knew that.

"I am sorry." I offered my apology, our conversation fading with Rosalie offering me a brief smile before walking away.

Was she correct?

Was I being unfair by prolonging my stay in this universe?

At the same time in another universe-

"She is mine!"

"No. She is mine!"

"You mongrel, you are not worthy of her."

"Neither are you, leech."

"She loves me."

"She will fall in love with me!"

"Love?"

"Bells."

"Enough!" I growled out in anger, taking my head in my hands in desperation.

Who the fuck were these people?

What claim did they have on me?

I did not even know them!

Yet, they insisted that I belonged to them.

"I have already told you both before, several times in fact, that I am engaged to Sam…"

"Sam is with Emily. He has imprinted on her. I am much better suited for you."

Imprinted?

Again, a strange word that had recently come to mean something in my life.

Vampires, werewolves- the strange reality of my new life.

I had tried waking up from this nightmare, but no matter how much I tried, my eyes never opened in my reality.

I was stuck here. With no way to escape.