Edward's POV
I ran faster than I ever had before, but still felt like I was going way too slow. That scream… If I still had a beating heart, I was sure it would have stopped hearing that. I started smelling blood, as I followed Bella's scent. It was already intense, but the smell only became more powerful as I ran. Her scent led me to a back alley, where I could hear two beating hearts. One beating fast and loudly, the other only becoming slower and weaker. I entered the alley and wasn't at all prepared for the scene I encountered. On the ground, in an ever growing pool of blood, was the barely alive attacker. He had several puncture wounds on his neck and chest, his breathing sounding wet and raspy, his heart barely beating anymore. I was completely stunned, as I noticed the quiet sobbing. I went further into the alley and saw a small woman sitting against the brick wall. She was curled in on herself, her arms tightly wrapped around her legs, her face hidden in her knees. In her right hand was a bloodied pencil still wrapped tightly in her fist.
"Bella?," I croaked, barely more than a whisper. Outside of the alleyway Jasper parked the car, and he, Carlisle and Rosalie all exited the car, noticing the strong smell of blood from the back alley. They slowly came closer staring at the near dead man on the ground. I squatted down in front of Bella slowly, and tried getting her attention again.
"Bella," I said again, gently touching her arm. She recoiled from the touch and swiftly lifted her face, staring at me. Her face, neck and chest was covered in blood spatters except for lines coming down from her eyes, where her tears had washed away the blood. Her big, brown eyes were wide, looking confused and scared.
"Holy smoke…" Jasper murmured in shock from behind me. Carlisle and Rosalie's thoughts agreed with him.
"Did she kill him with a pencil?" Rosalie whispered, too low for Bella to hear, staring at the bloodied writing tool clutched in Bella's hand. The predator, unfortunately, wasn't dead yet, but would surely soon die from the blood loss.
"Bella," I said as gently as possible. "Are you hurt anywhere?"
She looked down at herself, as her tears started falling more rapidly. She gasped for breath as her sobbing became louder and louder. I slowly reached out towards her, and she closed the distance between us, coming apart in my arms, while shaking violently
"You're okay now… He won't hurt you ever again. You did so well, I'm so proud of you," I said as
I held her tight, while soothingly stroking her back.
"What should we do now?" Jasper asked from behind me, while trying to calm Bella slightly with his powers. "What about… him?" He continued waving towards Bella's attacker on the ground.
"We have to get rid of the body," Rosalie said determinedly. "It won't look good for Bella, even given the circumstances of her drugging and assault."
Carlisle crouched down beside the man, examining his wounds. He had six puncture holes in his neck and chest region, and one in his back.
"I think Rose is right, unfortunately," Carlisle sighed. "Someone could argue that his injuries are too excessive, for her actions to be considered self defense. He won't make it much longer, even if I wanted to save him."
Jasper pulled out his phone and quickly dialed Alice's number.
"Alice, can you send Emmett to our location with the offroader? We are going to have to bury the body somewhere far away in the woods," Jasper said quickly.
"What about Bella," I asked quietly, looking down at her. She was still crying and shaking tremendously; Jasper's powers had barely had any effect on her. I began gently prying the bloodied pencil from her hand, but she was refusing to let go of her weapon, and it only caused her brows to furrow in a worrying fashion.
"We can bring her back to the house. There we can get her cleaned up, and then I can assess her injuries. It doesn't look like she needs immediate medical attention," Carlisle said softly, but still looking worriedly at Bella.
"Bella?" I asked gently, pulling her head back slightly so that I could see her face. She slowly opened her tired, red rimmed eyes, and looked up into mine.
"Can we take you back to our house? Then Carlisle can assess if you have any injuries, and you can get some sleep," I said stroking her cheek. Even through the blood spatter you could see the cheek was red and swollen. Bella nodded weakly, before trying to stand up on her shaking legs.
"It's okay, I got you," I said while helping her up, keeping her close to my side and almost carrying her. As we started walking, she was soon met by the sight of her bloodied attacker. His heart had finally stopped from the large amount of blood he had lost.
"Did I kill him?" Bella whispered in a shaking voice.
I wasn't sure whether to tell her the truth, or keep it from her for now, for her own sanity's sake.
"Yes, he's gone," Rosalie said gently, coming to stand at Bella's other side.
"Good," Bella said firmly, but her eyes were furrowed nervously.
"We'll clean this place up, and bury that bastard six feet under," Jasper said, walking up in front of us. "Don't worry about this right now… We'll take care of everything."
He looked into Bella's eyes sympathetically and sent soothing waves at her.
"Thank you, Jasper," Bella whispered as tears filled her eyes again. "Thanks to all of you…"
"Of course Bella," Carlisle said, and began walking with me and Bella towards the car. "Right now though, you need some rest."
Carlisle entered the driver's seat while I carried Bella into the back seat and sat beside her, still holding her comfortingly in my arms. Soon she was drifting off against my chest, as we drove through the dark night.
"How much of all this will she be able to remember tomorrow?" I asked Carlisle quietly, as to not wake Bella up.
"Only time will tell, unfortunately," Carlisle sighed. "Rohypnol will make the victim confused, drowsy, impair their judgment and slow down their reaction speed. But it also causes short term memory loss, especially of the events that happen while under the influence. Which is why it is too often used to sexually assault someone; As it will cause the victim to forget, or at least not clearly remember certain events. Sometimes they don't remember anything, other times they can somewhat remember being assaulted, but not by whom or where."
"It's absolutely revolting… doing that kind of thing to another person… Someone who is supposed to be your friend or classmate…" I whispered, feeling absolutely disgusted.
"Yes, it is… I can't say how Bella will be feeling after all of this. Especially as we don't know how far the assault went… But no matter what, it won't be easy for her…" Carlisle said sadly.
"We should have gotten there sooner… Before that worthless excuse for a human being, had the chance to put his hands on her… Before she needed to take actions into her own hands and kill him," I murmured regretfully, stroking Bella's bruised cheek gently.
"She has been through a lot… Much more than most humans go through in an entire lifetime," Carlisle sighed, before turning around to look me in the eyes. "But we have done everything we could with the knowledge we had at the time. And now, all we can do is be there for her and support her… if she wants us to…"
We were quickly approaching our driveway, and a mile or so later we pulled into the garage. I looked down at my sleeping love, unsure if I should wake her or not. I decided to wait a bit and gently lifted her out of the car and into the house. As we entered the living room Esme jumped up from the couch and gasped quietly as she noticed Bella's appearance.
"My god… Alice said that she had to defend herself with only a pencil, but I didn't expect her to be so…" Bloody, Esme's thoughts finished her sentence. She was staring at Bella's face, which was caked in blood, and the bloody pencil clutched tightly in her hand. Alice entered the room carrying a bowl of water, soap, a cloth, and a comfortable set of clothes.
"I tried warning you, mom," Alice said softly, but she also seemed slightly taken aback by all the blood that we were now all able to see in the light. "At least that brute's blood doesn't smell very appetizing. Not even when he was still alive."
I carefully sat down on the couch, and placed Bella against my chest, so she was in a position between lying down and sitting up. Carlisle entered the room bringing all his medical bag with him, and placed it on the coffee table next to the bowl of water.
"Bella," I said gently stroking her hand. Her eyes fluttered slightly before her hand went up to cover her eyes. I grabbed the hand, before it could reach her face, as it was still holding the pencil, but shielded her eyes from the light with my face. She looked at me confused, before taking in her surroundings. Carlisle sat down on his knees next to the couch before speaking to Bella in a slow and calming fashion.
"You are at our house, Bella. We brought you here after you were attacked. I want to look you over to assess any injuries you may have. But first, can you give me that pencil in your hand?"
Bella's brows furrowed as she looked at the pencil, before slowly handing it to Carlisle.
Alice sat down beside him reaching for Bella's hand and began cleaning it with the cloth.
"You put up quite a fight, didn't you?" Alice said, giving Bella a small smile. In her head I saw the image of the attacker backhanding a struggling Bella across the face, before trying to enter her. Only seconds before he succeeded, Bella brought the pencil down and stabbed him in the back. I winced at the vision, and began stroking Bella's hair soothingly. I tried staying positive about the fact that he didn't reach the point of actually raping her, but what he had managed to do was still way too much. When Alice had thoroughly cleaned Bella's hand and lower arm of blood and dirt, she rinsed the cloth and gently began cleaning her face. She winced slightly when her bruised cheek was cleaned, but she took it in stride. Bella's eyes were drooping again, and she looked absolutely exhausted sitting here on the couch. Alice continued the cleaning on Bella's neck, where large bruises were quickly becoming apparent.
"Does your neck hurt, Bella?" Carlisle asked softly, while eyeing the injury. Bella's hand went to her neck where she rubbed it lightly, before nodding.
"He tried strangling her after she stabbed him in the back with the pencil," Alice said quietly, looking incredibly guilty. In her mind I again saw images of a previous vision where the attackers hands took hold of Bella's neck, squeezing it, while pushing her back against the brick wall. That was when Bella brought her hand up again and stabbed him in the throat. He stumbled away from her, before Bella charged on her attacker, screaming while penetrating his neck several more times, until he fell to the ground in a pool of his own blood.
Sorry, Alice thought seeing my face grimace. None of the visions I saw after you left were pretty… I just nodded at my sister, trying to keep my face composed, as I was still holding Bella.
"Here, I brought you some clean clothes to wear, at least while you sleep," Alice said, again giving Bella a small smile. I gave Bella's hand a small squeeze, before standing up to leave the room with Carlisle. She looked at my retreating form dejectedly as her eyebrows furrowed again.
"I'll be back in a minute, Bella," I promised her. "I'll just let Alice help you change in peace."
She looked slightly more relieved, but still sad and disoriented.
"How are her injuries looking?" I asked Carlisle, after we had exited the room.
"I don't think anything is broken, at least. But she has a lot of bruises. She will definitely feel sore tomorrow from them. Rohypnol already causes muscle aching, so in addition to her injuries and the overexerting fight her body has put up tonight, she will definitely be hurting," Carlisle said sadly.
"Is it normal for her to be so quiet and… compliant?" I asked worriedly. Bella had never been the type of person to go along with what others told her, especially not when her own health was concerned.
"Right now, I think she is too confused and exhausted to really do anything except for that," Carlisle sighed. "I have no idea how she will be feeling, mentally, tomorrow, when her head is clearer."
"We're done in here," Alice said from the other room, and I rushed back to my love.
Her hair was now in a messy bun on the top of her head, and she was wearing comfortable cotton pants and a t-shirt. Her eyes were drooping as Alice put a pillow under her head and a blanket over her body. I sat down on the floor in front of the couch, and stared into Bella's big, brown eyes. She smiled slightly, seeing me next to her, and that warmed my heart. I itched to kiss her forehead or cheek, but I didn't want to make her feel uncomfortable.
"Shh, sleep now love," I said to her, while I began stroking her hand. Almost immediately her eyes closed and she was dozing off tiredly. I just sat there, really looking at her for the first time in so long. The face I had imagined daily in my mind for so long, was now here next to me. Her face was thinner and she looked like she had lost some weight in general, these last few years, which she definitely hadn't needed. I doubted it was purposely as Bella had never cared much about physical appearances. She also looked weary and drawn, frown lines between her eyebrows seemed to be constantly present. I looked at the scars she had acquired over these years, and felt so angry and ashamed that we hadn't been there to help her.
"What do you think had caused these marks, Carlisle?" I asked quietly, gesturing to the long lines going from her neck down to her chest.
"I'm not completely sure, to be honest. My first thought was that it must have been Victoria's doing… But they seem too large and wide, to be from a 'human' hand. Maybe a bear, or a mountain lion.. " Carlisle mused, looking at the scars. "They look old and quite healed. It probably happened at least a couple of years ago." My face grimaced at the thought of my Bella against a large, wild animal. How much trouble could one human get into?
We could hear a car driving into the garage, and soon after Jasper, Emmett and Rosalie entered the living room.
"It's done," Emmett said. "We buried him at least ten feet deep, and far into the woods, so I doubt he will ever be found!"
"Good," I grumbled harshly, while still protectively stroking the sleeping Bella.
"We also cleaned up the alley, so hopefully nothing will link the disappearance to Bella," Emmett continued.
"Except for the fact that he was seen leaving with Bella at the party," Alice said worriedly. "I think maybe some of the other frat boys know what he did, or planned to do to Bella."
"Seriously?! How could his friends possibly be okay with that," Emmett exclaimed.
"Shh," Alice shushed him, gesturing to Bella turning in her sleep. "He made a comment about Bella being 'lucky' that it was just him, and that he didn't let his friends 'have a piece of her' as well… I don't think Bella is the first girl, they have drugged and assaulted…"
"That's horrible!" Esme screeched, before slapping a hand over her own mouth with a look in Bella's direction.
"It is!," Alice said heatedly, though quietly. "But, we have to count on those boys keeping their mouths shut for now, giving how certain information could incriminate them. But I'll try to keep an eye on the situation. There will probably be an investigation…"
"Yes, do that Alice. You also need to find out what you want to do about Bella, Edward," Carlisle said gently, making eye contact with me.
"I know…" I sighed, giving him a pained look. "I have to tell her everything… The truth about why we left… And how we had no idea about Laurent and Victoria coming after her… I still don't understand how she survived it, but I hope she will eventually open up and tell us about it."
Esme squeezed my shoulder and gave me a small smile, before exiting the room with Carlisle. Emmett and Rosalie followed soon after. Alice brushed a piece of hair out of Bella's face before saying, "She needs us, Edward! Now even more than before… I doubt she will take everything with us well, but we have to try to make her understand… That we only ever did what we thought was the best for her."
I nodded slowly, while stroking Bella's hand. I hoped that there would be a way for us to help her and maybe just a sliver of a chance for me and her to repair and rebuild the love we once had.