44

Bella hadn't been sure what was going to happen when she died. She just always kind of assumed that you faded into the darkness and just, kind of, ceased to exist. Yet, she found herself laying in the field of wildflowers, though even she would admit that she knew she was no longer on earth. The sky was crisper, the air purer, and the flowers brighter, more colorful than they had been when she was still on earth, so no, she knew for a fact that she was dead.

She sat up and looked around, finding Eve standing on the other side of the field, as she had been the last time they met in a vision. Just like in her other vision, Eve was magical and beautiful, spectacular. She was radiant and her eyes were kind and gentle, loving and filled with sympathy. As she had been before, she was wearing a long, flowing white dress, but this time, she had a crown of many colors on top of her head. This wasn't a vision, though, Bella thought to herself. Somehow, she knew this was heaven.

"Yes, this is heaven. Or at least, the way you envisioned heaven, Bella."

"So I really am dead?"

"Yes."

Eve walked over to her, kneeling next to her. "You were so brave, Bella, so very, very brave."

She nodded, though the last thing she felt in that moment was brave. "And the others, they're . . . they're okay, aren't they? They're human and happy? They're getting their second chances, aren't they?"

Eve laughed, and brought her hand up to Bella's cheek. She gasped as her eyes darkened for just a moment, and when her 'sight' came back, she saw the others. Carlisle was at the hospital, treating a young boy who had broken his leg after falling off his skateboard. Esme was at the house, sitting at the table with a cup of coffee and a notepad, making a grocery list. Emmett, Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper were at school. Emmett was in history, Jasper and Rosalie were in Spanish, and Alice was in gym. The only one missing was Edward.

"Where is he? Where is Edward? Why isn't he with them?"

"He's stuck between the old reality and the new," Eve said, pulling her hand from the side of Bella's face, taking the vision with her. As they stood, and Bella looked around, she wrapped her arms around herself. "He's not ready yet, Bella. He's waiting for you. He has always been waiting for you."

"He's dead?" she cried.

"No, not dead. Just waiting. I'll explain, but first, I have business to tend to, business you need witness before you can move on."

Eve sighed and looked behind her to where Judas, Adam, Job, and Isaac were kneeling with the rest of the Sentinels who had been cursed by the blood drinkers. Cain and Abel were standing guard over them as were the rest of the Sentinels who had come to her aid, come to fight for their freedom. They'd been forced underground, held prisoner by those they trusted the most, but now they were free. They were finally free.

"Your sacrifice, Bella, freed them from their prison, as you freed me from mine. They were locked away inside those shells, where they had forgotten who they were, why I created them in the first place. I was the first of our kind, tasked by God to protect the humans, and I loved my humans, but I, like you spent all those years in isolation and illness, was lonely; so very, very lonely. So I created a family of my own: sons and daughters, whom I loved as much as I loved my humans. You know the story, of course, don't you?"

"I know the story they told me in bible school, but I don't believe they were telling it accurately, seeing as Adam was the one made from your rib, wasn't he?"

Eve laughed. "Yes, yes, he spun that story to fit his narrative, didn't he? But I was the first, his creator, and he betrayed me, betrayed all of us out of jealous and spite." Eve looked back at Bella. "But you saved me, saved all of us from his curse. I spent so many years searching for you, waiting for you to be strong enough to free me. It is a bit ironic, is it not, that you had to be changed by the blood drinkers, in order to free me. But not just any blood drinker, of course. You had to be born to a mother and a father who were willing to give up everything for you to live, even their own happiness, and Edward . . . Well, he had to be the one to change you, to love you, to bind your fate to his."

Eve turned and faced her. "You've sacrificed so much, Bella, for me, for us, for the humans I cherish so much. Your sacrifice was not for nothing, my dear; that much I can promise," she said, turning back to where Adam, Job, and Isaac knelt with the rest. "But first things first."

Eve walked through the field of wildflowers and stopped in front of Adam, who was bowled over, fragile and as delicate as she had been when she was a sick human girl, dying of cancer. The removal of the blood drinkers curse had made him sickly and pathetic, Bella thought. Fitting, seeing as he was ready to end her life, take her power, and end the world out of pure, utter jealousy.

"Adam, my dear, Adam. You betrayed me. You, unlike those kneeling next to you, gave yourself to the blood drinkers freely, willingly. They were the greatest threat to humanity, which was why they had been locked into the pit of despair. Yet, you freed them. You let them curse you. How could you, Adam? How could you leave our most cherished to be vulnerable and lost to the blood drinkers?"

"I . . ." Adam tilted his head back, the sorrow and grief that filled his eyes was tragic, though Bella felt no sympathy for him. He had made his choice. "I just wanted to be important."

"No, you wanted to be me." Eve knelt in front of him, placing her hand on his cheek. He cried out as he leaned into her touch. "You were bitter and angry because I loved them more than you. Jealous over the humans we were created to protect. You were a part of me, my confidant until you let jealousy and envy corrupt your heart."

"I was," he admitted, his tears seeping down his cheeks. "I was weak. Give me another chance. I will . . . I will do better this time."

Eve sighed. "No, I don't think you will. Your heart is cold, dead, hardened."

And without warning, she placed her other hand on his face. The sound of his screams echoed throughout the field of wildflowers, sending a wave of chills up and down her spine. As his hands came up to cover hers, his eyes widened and Adam crumbled to the ground. His eyes were open, though there was no doubt that he was dead.

Eve knelt next to his body, her hand coming over his eyes and as hers closed, Adam vanished into nothing but ash, blowing away in the wind. Job, Isaac, Moses, Noah, David, Luke, Matthew, John, Paul, Simon, Mary, Miriam, Esther, and Sarah started crying, their pleas for mercy and forgiveness filling the air; though they were silenced when Eve put her hand up.

"Enough," she said and they stopped, though Bella could feel the fear radiating off each and every one of them. "You may not have been willingly corrupted, but you still followed Adam, let him harm those we loved the most. You locked your brothers and sisters inside the in-between, imprisoned them for staying true and faithful to me and to our humans. You stood by while Adam killed me, while he hunted me for a millennia."

With every word she said, they shrunk inside of themselves, shame and sorrow etching deeper and deeper on their faces.

"I hereby banish each and every one of you to spend a thousand years locked inside the in-between, as your brothers and sisters had been until a fragile, human girl freed them. You should be thankful for my mercy, and my grace."

Each of them cried out, and Job and Isaac scrambled to their feet, trying to run before the ground shook and opened and they, along with the others in their guard, fell into the large crater; their screams silenced as the earth grew back together and it was like they had never existed.

Eve turned to those who had been locked away, her faithful army. The smile that spread across her lips brought Bella to her knees and had she been alive, she would have wept at the sheer splendor and compassion she expressed. "Cain, Abel, you never stopped fighting, never stopped searching for me."

"We couldn't," Cain whimpered, falling to his knees as her feet. "We love you, mother."

"We have always loved you, mother."

"As I have always loved you." Eve placed her hands on either side of their faces, listing them back to their feet. "You are free from your prison, free to take your rightful places as guardians over the humans."

The euphoria that erupted throughout the three dozen plus sentinels who turned and cheered, celebrated before one by one by one they were lifted into the air. Cain and Abel were the last. They looked right at Bella, tilting their heads in respect and reverence before they turned, stretched their arms out and allowed themselves to be lifted into the air and they took their rightful place as protectors of the humans.

Eve turned her attention to Judas, the only one who hadn't begged for mercy or forgiveness like those who had been imprisoned. No, he knelt in the grass, shame and disgust filling his features. The Eleazar she knew had dissipated, of course, leaving behind a man just as beautiful as he had been when he was a vampire, only different and unique. His eyes were the clearest blue she had ever seen, which she hadn't been expecting.

"Judas."

His lips trembled as he bowed his head even more as Eve turned her attention to him.

"Judas." Eve knelt in front of him, placing her fingers under his chin and tilting his head backward. Tears sprinkled down his face. "Oh, Judas."

"I'm sorry," he cried. "I am so, so sorry."

"You were my favorite," she said, her voice soft and brittle. "My favorite, Judas, yet you gave me to them, let them kill me."

He nodded, causing more tears to fall. "I did. I have regretted it ever since that night, but I am . . . I am prepared to accept whatever punishment you deem appropriate."

"Including death?"

Though Judas flinched, he nodded. "No less than I deserve."

"I'm not sure I agree," Eve said, standing with him in her arms. He leaned against her, almost like he was afraid of what would happen if she let go of him. "You betrayed me, Judas, and I can't . . . I can't let that go, but you protected her," Eve said, gesturing toward Bella. "Stood shoulder to shoulder with her and faced Adam when the time came to chose."

Judas's eyes shifted to her, his lips curving into a small, tragic smile. "She was worth losing everything for."

"Yes, she is."

Judas looked back at Eve, his head bowing toward her. "Still, I didn't make it easy for her."

"Neither did I," Eve said. "I mean, my power almost killed her, but when it came down to standing up to Adam, to the others, you chose to stand by her side and fight with her, for her, for me, and I believe that needs to be rewarded."

"Rewarded?" Judas asked, hope filling the single word.

Eve nodded, and placed her hands on either side of his face. "You cannot remain with us, Judas, but you can return to her as Eleazar."

"Her?"

Eve smiled. "Carmen. She's waiting for you. Do not waste your second chance to live."

"I won't," he promised, his eyes flickering to Bella before he simply faded away as if he had never been standing there.

"You made him human, didn't you?"

Eve nodded. "I did. Her love for him saved him, as did yours, Bella. She will guide him as she did when they were infected with the blood drinkers curse."

Bella bit the inside of her lip as she nodded this time. "Good. He . . . he deserves a second chance."

"Yes, he does." Eve walked over to her. "As do you."

"Me?"

Eve laughed and nodded, raising her hand up and placing it on her cheek. Bella felt the strangest energy filling her, lifting her off the ground and her arms spread out to her side. She heard herself crying, weeping as she dropped back to the ground, falling to her knees. Her chest heaved as she inhaled a deep breath of air. Tears filled her eyes as she felt her heart begin to beat inside her chest once again, and her lips trembled as she tilted her head backward and she looked up at Eve.

"Am I . . . Am I alive again?"

Eve smiled and nodded as she stretched her hand out to Bella. "You gave your life for me, Bella, and now, I will return that life back to you."

She was overcome with emotions, her tears seeping down her face as she scrambled to her feet. "Does that mean you're sending me back? Back to him?"

"I am. Edward," she said his name with such reverence, "is the other part of your heart and soul. The yin to your yang. He was created to save you, save us, and in return, you gave him life — a life worth living. He cannot survive without you, and you cannot exist without him."

Bella brought her hand up to her mouth. "And I won't be sick, right? I won't have cancer. We'll live a long life together?"

"Yes, you will have a long and happy life together." Eve stepped up to her, lifting her hand up, but before she could touch her, Bella threw herself in her arms. Eve laughed and returned the warm embrace. "Thank you, Bella for your sacrifice."

"Will I ever see you again?"

Eve shook her head. "But I will be watching over you, over him, over all of you, my favorites of all the humans. Be happy, Bella. Just be happy."

As she leaned away, Eve raised her hand to her cheek and her eyes closed as she felt herself falling backward through the light and into the darkness.

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