I felt a smile creep onto my face as the fuzzy edges of Ara's mind pulled her in and out of sleep while I gathered pillows from her window seat. Then, like a whisper, her mind called out in an unfamiliar voice. "Little bird" it had said. "… almost got you." The voice wavered in and out at the edge of her mind, taunting me forward.
"I'm fine." Ara mumbled, half asleep, and threw her head to the side as if she was looking around.
"You nearly weren't." The voice demanded back in her head. I stared at her as she huffed, my hand gently closing around her leg as I piled pillows beneath it.
"Ara?" I asked as I moved forward to sit on the bed next to her, cupping her face and plunging into her mind.
I was standing in the woods, Arabella next to me rather than the perspective I was looking through. Something felt off, and in front of me stood a vampire with waist length red hair and eyes that indicated the halfway point between a human and animal diet. I was astonished by the appearance of this vampire that was stowed away in Ara's mind, because she looked so much like Ara. The mystery girl was undoubtedly older than Arabella, but other than that and the glaring truth of difference in mortality, they were irrefutably similar. She had the same round face and full lips, the figures were slightly different where Ara was more of an athletic build, this woman had a full figure. I could see the evidence that in her human life she would have played some kind of sport, but it wasn't entirely clear what sport that was with just a glance.
I continued my assessment of this vampire with careful eyes, noting the hue of her hair and the planes of her face. So many things were similar and familiar, but it felt so foreign to me. The biggest shock to the system came when her eyes turned directly towards me, not the general area I would be, but exactly me. Our eyes locked and her lip curled slightly, she could really see me. "Who is this that's always poking around and pushing me out?" The vampire girl growled. "I'm not in the mood for it tonight." She waved her hand at me like she was sweeping me off a screen, like I was just a line of text that one could hit backspace on. I felt the sensation of hands pushing on a part of my consciousness that I wasn't even aware was in charge of my gift.
Suddenly, I wasn't in Arabella's mind anymore, the door to it had been shuttered off to me like a closed sign was switched on. For the first time since the day I met her, her mind was silent to me. The terror that realization struck in my chest would have stopped my heart had it not done so itself nearly a hundred years ago. I stroked her cheek, willing her to come forward, the panic wracking in my voice as it finally burst out of me in what could only be described as a sob. "Arabella!" I said, her name fragile and shattering on my lips. "You're not dreaming!" I choked out, no longer caring if her dad could hear me. All that mattered was if she could. "You aren't asleep!"
"What…" her voice trailed off and her arms jerked slightly in the air like she was searching for something. "Blessing." She mumbled as her hand found mine. She clung desperately to it, her knuckles turning white as she gasped. I didn't know what to do, I grabbed my phone from my back pocket and clicked Carlisle's name. The faint ringing that was emitted while I stared at her face felt as hollow and empty as her mind made me feel in this moment.
On the third ring he picked up. In a matter of seconds I was relaying what I knew, which wasn't much. "She's not sleeping, she's not dreaming, and I can't hear her thoughts." I could feel the prickling burn behind my eyes of the need to cry, but the very existence that brought me to knowing Arabella also brought me to having no tears to shed at the agony of her absence.
"Edward." Carlisle's voice came through strong and clear, his calming tone drawing my mind back from catastrophe. "Edward focus."
"What do I do?" I whispered, each word pulled from the holes that had been burnt in my heart.
"Check her vitals, make sure she is physically stable." As he spoke I burst into action. I listened closely to her heart beat and breaths. Both normal, like she was just laying here watching a show.
I went down the mental checklist and ensured with each one that she was physically okay, repeating it like a mantra in my head. She's okay. She's okay. She's okay. "She's okay."
"Good. Bring her here if you can." Carlisle sighed, sounding relieved. "Bring her to the house." I had her cradled in my arms before the line was even fully disconnected, her weight dead in my arms. Even in her sleep she always seemed to cling onto me, but whatever this was it made her limp and lifeless. That was something I never want to experience with her again.
Arabella's POVI stared at Blessing in shock, her eyes had been on an empty space beside me just a second ago, but now they were locked back on me. "What does he mean I'm not dreaming." I said in anger, something was amiss here and I was not going to put up with it. If there was anything the last two years had taught me, don't settle for half truths and half assed explanations.
"That's nothing to worry about right now." She said, waving her hand dismissively.
"Blessing." I clenched my jaw, this was different than before. I could feel my body in the real world and that was something that had never happened before. I could feel Edward's hands fluttering over me vaguely and leaving cold spots in their wake.
"Arabella, please." She looked at me with pleading eyes. "I can't give you all the answers like this, I can barely keep a hold on you when you're not asleep." This was when I noticed a visible strain as her anger ebbed away steadily and was replaced with concern.
"What does that mean!" I pleaded back, I felt myself being lifted, felt the weightlessness of Edward's run, and no matter how hard I tried to reach with my arm while remaining in this state between awake and asleep, I couldn't move. I wanted to reach to where I knew his face would be, to reassure him I was still here, I couldn't hear him anymore but I could basically feel the worry thrumming off of him.
"It means I can't tell you much more, I just need you to start listening to me when I tell you something." Her words were desperate and her hands twitched like she wanted to hug me but couldn't. In the real world I could feel hands and the general buzz of concern, but even that sensation was starting to fade.
"Up until a few minutes ago I thought you were a figment of my imagination!" I threw my hands up in exasperation. "You realize how crazy this sounds? Right?"
"Arabella." Blessing sighed. "You already know who I am, you just… haven't worked it out yet."
"Worked it out? That doesn't even make sense. You didn't show me who you are until recently, how am I supposed to know you based on a made up name!" I wanted to punch something as hard as I could. The helpless feeling that this conversation was giving me was going to drive me up a wall.
"Soon little bird." She stepped forward and planted a kiss on my forehead, pulling away with a sad look in her eyes. "You'll have your answers soon." Her anger seemed to melt away entirely now, and with it so did the woods.
"Blessing, wait!" I called as the last splashed of green faded.
My eyes fluttered open and I was laying on the couch that's in the Cullen's living room. "I've really gotta stop coming here like this." I grumbled as I sat up, my body still sore from surfing.
"Ara!" Arms were wrapped around me in seconds, crushing me to a cold chest. "Don't scare me like that." Edward huffed, he weaved his fingers into my hair that was now spilling down my shoulders instead of in its bun.
"Arabella, how many fingers am I holding up?" Carlisle stood behind Edward, two fingers held up in front of him.
"Two." I croaked from over Edward's shoulder. Exhaustion raked through my body and I felt myself being dragged further and further down into sleep.
"Stay awake love, we have to make sure you're okay first." Edward pulled back from the hug to cup my face and push strands of my hair out of my eyes. As I took in my surroundings I noticed Edward had put my hair tie around his wrist and I couldn't help but smile.
"I'm okay." I croaked out, wanting nothing more than a glass of water and some sleep. "Blessing wouldn't hurt me." I closed my eyes and took a deep breath that was filled with the scent of Edward. At least I don't think she would.
Suddenly Edward let out what sounded like a relieved and cheerful laugh, planting kisses on my forehead as he whispered against my skin. "Your beautiful beautiful mind, I can hear it again." I wasn't sure what that meant or what the connotation was in the slightest, but he sounded so relieved I couldn't help but smile with him.
Eventually they let me fall asleep, mostly from Esme and Alice's insistence. My dreams weren't ones with Blessing, but instead ones of me running through the woods in the blue satin dress. It was the same one as always, but this dream was different from the others because I knew these woods. These were the woods behind the school, and I wasn't chasing Blessing or being chased by something. I was just running with my skirt bunched in my fists.
When I woke up in the morning I was curled against Edward, my hair tie still on his wrist, and my hair spilling carefully across the bed like Edward had carefully kept it from tangling in my face through the night. "Good morning, love." Edward murmured in my ear before kissing the top of my head.
"Morning." I mumbled as I curled in tighter, if I could just stay here for a few more minutes I could pretend like I didn't have the mystery of Blessing to figure out. Alas, the day beckoned, and there taunted the question.
Who is Blessing?