Another Life
Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.
Stepping into the Void
The ocean sounded very far away. Bella grimaced when she thought about the possible temperature of the water. But, still, she wasn't going to let that stop her. The wind blew stronger now, whipping the rain into eddies around her.
Bella stepped out onto the edge, keeping her eyes on the empty space in front of her. Her toes felt ahead blindly, caressing the edge of the rock when they encountered it. She drew in a deep breath and held it…waiting.
"Bella."
There it was. His voice.
She smiled and exhaled.
Yes? Bella didn't answer out loud, for fear that the sound of her own voice would shatter the beautiful illusion. He sounded so real, so close. It was only when he was disapproving like this that she could hear the true memory of his voice-the velvet texture and the musical intonation that made up the most perfect of all voices.
"Don't do this." He pleaded.
You wanted me to be human, she reminded him in her head. Well, watch me.
"Please. For me."
But you won't stay with me any other way.
"Please."
His words were just a whisper in the blowing rain that tossed Bella's hair and drenched her clothes-making her as wet as if this was her second jump of the day. She rolled up onto the balls of her feet.
"No, Bella!" He was angry now, and the anger was so lovely.
She raised her arms straight out, as if she was going to dive, lifting her face into the rain. But it was too ingrained from years of swimming at the public pool-feet first, first time. She leaned forward, crouching to get more spring…
And flung herself off the cliff.
Bella screamed as she dropped through the open air like a meteor, but it was a scream of exhilaration and not fear. The wind resisted, trying vainly to fight the unconquerable gravity, pushing her, and twirling her into spirals like a rocket crashing to earth.
Yes! The word echoed through her head as she sliced through the surface of the water. It was icy, colder than she'd feared, and yet the chill of the day only added to the high.
Bella was proud of herself as she plunged deeper into the freezing black water. She hadn't had one moment of terror, just pure adrenaline. Really, the fall wasn't scary at all. What was the challenge?
That was when the current caught her.
She had been so preoccupied by the size of the cliffs, by the obvious danger of their high, sheer faces, that she had never worried at all about the true menace lurking far below her, under the heaving surf.
It felt like the waves were fighting over her, jerking her back and forth between them as if determined to share by pulling her into halves. Bella knew right away to avoid a riptide: swim parallel to the beach rather than struggling for the shore. But the knowledge did her little good when she didn't know where the shore was.
She couldn't even tell where the surface was.
The angry water was black in every direction, there was no brightness to direct her upward. Gravity was all powerful when it competed with the air, but it had nothing on the waves-she couldn't feel a downward pull, a sinking in any direction. Just the battering of the current that flung her round and round like a rag doll.
Bella fought to keep her breath in, to keep her lips locked around her last store of oxygen. It didn't surprise her that her delusion of Edward had deserted her. Just when she needed it the most, his voice had vanished into ether, just like he had when he'd left her. She was all alone in the black sea, the cold water numbing her arms and legs. She didn't feel the buffeting anymore, just more of a dizziness, a helpless spinning in the water.
Her eyes closed as an intense weariness set in. She didn't want to fight anymore. And it wasn't the lightheadedness, or the cold, or the failure of her arms and legs to comply with her demands to move, that made her content to stay where she was. She was almost happy that it was over. This was an easier death than others she'd faced. She felt oddly peaceful.
Bella thought briefly of the cliches, about how you were supposed to see your life flash before your eyes. She was so much luckier. Who wanted to see a rerun, anyway?
She drifted, drifted, drifted into nothingness….
At that moment Bella's head broke the surface. She gasped for air, her arms and legs flailing in the water. She opened her eyes, expecting to see the storm clouds building in the sky, but to her astonishment she found herself almost blinded by bright sunlight. She blinked rapidly, bobbing on the surface of the water, which was no longer grey and chill, but calm and tepid.
When her eyes finally adjusted to the unexpected brightness, Bella glanced around, her budding confusion turning to outright bewilderment. The grey water was now a deep, azure blue. The wind and the rain had been replaced with bright sunshine. But the most astonishing thing of all was the location. Where there should have been sheer, black cliffs looming above her, the coastline was now a rugged kiss of grey meeting blue, the oceanic waves lapping gently at the rocks.
Feeling completely disorientated, Bella spun around in the water, her astonished gaze trying to drink everything in all at once. She had been sure she was sinking. The last thing she remembered was being caught in the strong current, which had been beating against her back so sharply, it was like someone was trying to push water out of her lungs.
And then she felt two strong hands grabbing her ankles. She was suddenly yanked below the surface, a budding scream building in the back of her throat. Her mouth and ears flooded with water. She couldn't breathe out of her nose. Her lungs burned and she thrashed about wildly, fighting her way to the surface. But the hands were like steel chains around her ankles, anchoring her in place.
Then just as suddenly they were gone.
Bella broke through the surface, gasping for air. The salt burned her throat. She took a few deep breaths to calm herself. She was bobbing on the surface again. Nothing had changed. The sun still shone. The same rugged coastline greeted her bleary gaze.
What the hell was going on? She didn't understand. Was she dead? Was her delusional brain, starved of oxygen, playing tricks on her?
Bella was sure she recognized that coastline. It seemed overfamiliar. She tried to think, to sort through the chaos of her mind, but felt ultimately too tired and exhausted to work out exactly where she was. Instead, she lay back in the water, spreading her arms and legs wide like a starfish, enabling her to float. She closed her weary eyes, enjoying the feel of unaccustomed warmth on her skin. If she was dead, or dying, the sensation wasn't proving so bad.
Then she heard laughter. It came to her ears as a tickle and bounce. She reluctantly opened her eyes again, to find a very familiar face rising from the water, inches from hers.
"Jacob?"
"Bella?" Jacob mocked her, his laughter, so free and pure, so childish despite his years.
Bella shook her head, swaying her arms back and forth by her sides as she tried to maintain her balance in the water. She was totally confused. What was Jacob doing here?
"You pulled me under?"
The realization of his presence shocked her, jarred her into a more focused awareness.
"I'm not dead?"
Jacob stopped laughing, his eyes puzzled. "Are you feeling alright? You didn't inhale too much seawater. You were only under for a few seconds." Hands- so warm they had to be his-brushed the wet hair from her cheeks. "It was just a joke, Bella, honey. I didn't mean to scare you." He added, sounding concerned.
"But I jumped off the cliff." Bella mumbled, feeling completely dazed.
The quiet whooshing inside her ears was not the waves-it was the air moving in and out of her lungs. She stared at Jacob wide eyed. He was leaning over her now, his face blocking out the sky. "Bells, what do you mean you jumped off the cliff? Are you sure you're okay?"
"We were going cliff diving." Bella repeated faintly. "But you were late…. I didn't want to wait…so I jumped on my own…and now I'm here. Wherever here is."
"Bella, honey, we're on First Beach." Jacob said, his gaze turning troubled. "We've been here all morning, just hanging out. It was your idea, remember?"
"My idea?" Bella looked around vaguely. No wonder the coastline had seemed familiar.
Jacob's eyes tightened at the corners. "Is this a trick?" He asked suddenly.
"Huh?"
The corners of his full lips pulled up into a smirk. "Is this you getting back at me for ducking you in the water? Very funny, Bells. Ha ha. You almost had me there."
Bella bobbed up and down, still feeling addled. As hard as she tried, she couldn't fathom what had happened. Had she imagined the whole cliff dive then? Had she been at the beach with Jacob the whole time? She couldn't figure out what was real, and what wasn't.
Jacob finally caught onto the fact that she wasn't pretending. That her befuddlement was real. "Shit, honey, lets get you out of here, then." He slid his arms under Bella and lifted her without effort-like picking up an empty box. His chest was bare (nothing unusual there) and warm. Bella's head lolled over his arm. She stared vacantly back toward the calm water, lapping at the sand behind them.
A/N-thanks for reading!
