A/N: Hi everyone! I hope you are all being safe and finding emotional and social outlets during the era of social distancing! Please let me know what you think of this chapter and what you think will happen next! I love hearing all the musings. 8D

A leaf on the oak tree was twisted. It winded about itself like a ballerina mid-afternoon. Something about the image was beautiful; something about it was disturbing. My blurred vision fixed on this single point as my mind whirred.

My mind also fixed on a single point. "No. I can't. I won't," Edward barked out angrily. Then he was gone. He left me.

Left me alone and unprotected in this godforsaken forest. In this forest wherein lurked at least one something intent on killing me. I shuddered.

As if on cue, a deep roar cut through the foliage, and I jumped. It sounded like a tiger, but I swear it had a very...human feeling to it. That sound... it couldn't possibly be human, could it?

Well, I guess human was a questionable choice of word given recent happenings. Rephrase: That sound...it couldn't possibly be Edward, could it? Or... Jasper?

I shuddered again.

A large bolt of thunder sounded, and I jumped. I laughed at myself. Was I going to argue that the thunder was Jasper's doing as well?

Boom! Another clap of thunder, and it was getting closer. I idly wondered if I would get struck.

Ironically, I was struck, but it wasn't the thunder that struck me.

.

.

.

The sheer volume of the roars were overpowering, totally incapacitating. But they came from behind me. Then I was struck - my head whipped whipped with the force. My thoughts became incoherent as I stood face to face with the beast that was Edward Cullen.

I gasped and stumbled backward.

His sharp white teeth were snapping viciously, like a dog held back by a leash.

I guess this is how I go, I thought idly, squeezing my eyes shut. Not with a bang but a whimper.

My pulse roared in my ears and a white static seemed to fill the air. My neck felt oddly moist, even sticker than the rest of my skin in the frigid, humid night. I could feel the hot blood gushing.

In a moment, the ghastly sounds mutated into something that directly ripped my heart out. I opened my eyes to realize that the leash analogy wasn't totally inaccurate - Carlisle and Emmett were Edward's leashing, holding him back as he struggled to break free.

"Edward," I found myself murmuring, stumbling toward him. Although a part of my mind was screaming, He's going to kill you! He's trying to kill you! The other part rationalized that he didn't want to.

I'm not like this, I swear, he'd said. I felt a sharp pang of guilt. I did this to him.

He cowered at my approach, going limp in their arms.

"Let him go." I felt myself sway. "He's better now."

Edward mouthed something, shook his head, and seemed to try again, his whole body trembling.

They dragged him away - he fought feebly. "No, Bella!" I barely caught the words, and they were gone.

I found myself, once more, stranded in the foliage of Forks, Washington - although now that I thought of it, who knew how fast Edward had run, where the heck we were now. I sure didn't.

I recalled the sticky moistness of the air, sighed a breath of relief, and chuckled to myself. The coast. Funny how that simple realization relaxed me, grounded me, coaxed into an optimism entirely unfit for the situation. The ocean always seemed to offer me a sense of security.

"Hi there!" A voice cut into the silence, ringing with an eerie cheer entirely unsuited for my predicament. I jumped.

A small girl-woman popped out of the trees. A woodland fairy, I thought with dismay as I struggled to process the petite, ephemeral figure which danced into my line of vision. My eyes focused and I recognized the girl as Edward's sister, Alice.

Jasper's girlfriend? I gasped with terror and stumbled backward, my hand instinctively flying to my neck. My hand struck the sticky skin, and I flinched.

Alice gasped as well. "You're bleeding," she said. "How did they...?"

"You're bleeding, Bella," she said again, gesturing to her own neck with one hand, pinching the bridge of her nose with the other. "This is so complicated."

"How did you...?" I asked, swaying more significantly now.

She sighed. I tried to focus through the haze of nausea that struck me.

"Really, Bella, things would have been fine if Edward-"

The world was spinning. I was hanging on,

I inhaled deeply, trying to make it through the conversation with whatever this girl was.

The copper twang in the air intensified and I couldn't fight it anymore. Reality rushed toward me - and so did the forest floor.

"Bella!"

I heard a shout and saw Alice's face at an odd angle, and then the world went black.

A/N: Bleeding, fainting, defending Edward when he is threatening her life... Classic Bella, huh? Let me know what you think! (I'm so excited about what happens next!) RxR pweez