Letting Go
Disclaimer: all characters and copyright belong to SM.
Disaster
"Bella." Alice spoke quickly in a fierce, low voice. "I can't see what the guard here will decide now – if this doesn't work, you're going to have to go in alone. You're going to have to run. Just keep asking for the Palazzo del Priori, and running in the direction they tell you. Don't get lost."
"Palazzo del Priori, Palazzo del Priori." Bella repeated the name over and over, trying to get it down.
"Or 'the clock tower,' if they speak English. I'll go around and try to find a secluded spot somewhere behind the city where I can go over the wall."
Bella nodded. "Palazzo del Priori."
"Edward will be under the clock tower, to the north of the square. There's a narrow alleyway on the right, and he'll be in the shadow there. You must get his attention before he can move into the sun."
Bella nodded furiously.
Alice was near the front of the line. A man in a navy-blue uniform was directing the flow of traffic, turning the cars away from the full lot. They U-turned and headed back to find a place beside the road. Then it was Alice's turn.
The uniformed man motioned lazily, not paying attention. Alice accelerated, edging around him, and heading for the gate. He shouted something at them, but held his ground, waving frantically to keep the next car from following Alice's bad example.
The man at the gate wore a matching uniform. As they approached him, the throngs of tourists passed, crowding the sidewalks, staring curiously at the pushy, flashy yellow Porsche.
The guard stepped into the middle of the street. Alice angled the car carefully before she came to a full stop. The sun beat against Bella's window, but Alice remained in shadow. She swiftly reached behind the seat and grabbed something from her bag.
The guard came around with an irritated expression and tapped on her window angrily. Alice rolled the window down halfway, and Bella watched him do a double take when he saw the face behind the dark glass.
"I'm sorry, only tour buses allowed in the city today, miss." He said in English, with a heavy accent. He was apologetic, now, as if he wished for better news for the strikingly beautiful woman.
"It's a private tour." Alice said, flashing an alluring smile. She reached her hand out of the window, into the sunlight. Bella froze until she realized that Alice was wearing an elbow-length tan glove. She really had thought of everything. Alice took the guard's hand, still raised from tapping her window, and pulled it into the car. She put something into his palm, and folded his fingers around it.
The guard's face was dazed as he retrieved his hand and stared at the thick roll of money he now held. The outside bill was a thousand-dollar bill.
"Is this real?" He mumbled suspiciously.
Alice's smile was blinding. "I can assure you; it is very real."
He looked back at Alice, his eyes staring wide. Bella glanced nervously at the dash. If Edward stuck to his plans, he had only five minutes left.
"I'm in a bit of a hurry." Alice hinted, still smiling.
The guard blinked twice, then shoved the money in his vest. He took a step away from the window and waved them on. None of the passing people seemed to notice the quiet exchange. Alice drove into the city, and Bella sighed in relief that another obstacle had been passed.
The street was very narrow, cobbled with the same color stones as the faded cinnamon brown buildings that darkened the street with their shade. It had the feel of an alleyway. Red flags decorated the walls, spaced only a few yards apart, flapping in the wind that whistled through the narrow lane.
It was crowded, and the foot traffic slowed their progress.
"Just a little further." Alice murmured. Bella was gripping the door handle, ready to throw herself into the street as soon as Alice spoke the word.
Alice drove down in quick spurts and sudden stops, and the people in the crowds shook their fists and yelled angry words that Bella was glad that she couldn't understand. Alice turned onto a little path that couldn't have been meant for cars; shocked peopled had to squeeze into narrow doorways as they scraped past. There was another street at the end. The buildings were taller here, they leaned together overhead so that the sunlight touched the pavement-the thrashing red flags on either side nearly met. The crowd was thicker here than anywhere else. Alice stopped the car, and Bella knew that the inevitable moment had arrived.
Alice pointed to where the street widened into a patch of bright openness. "There-we're at the southern end of the square. Run straight across, to the right of the clock tower. I'll find a way around – "
Her breath caught suddenly, and when she spoke again, her voice was a hiss. "They're everywhere!"
Bella froze in place, feeling absolutely terrified. She didn't want to leave the safe confines of the car, but knew she had little choice. Then suddenly Alice gave her a hard shove, and she tumbled out onto the stone flags, scraping her hands and knees as she tried to save herself. "Forget about them. You have two minutes. Go, Bella, go!" She shouted, climbing out of the car as she spoke.
It was mind-numbing chaos after that. Bella scrambled back onto her feet, her heart pounding loudly in her ears. She didn't pause to watch Alice melt into the shadows, but tore off as fast as she could, staggering and stumbling her way through the heavy throng of warm bodies. She shoved one heavy woman who was blocking her way, ignoring the string of curse words that followed her. With head down, paying little attention to anything, but the uneven stones beneath her feet, she sprinted flat out.
There was no pathway, no crevice between the pressed bodies. Bella pushed against them furiously, fighting the hands that shoved back. She heard exclamations of irritation and even pain as she battled her way through, but none were in a language she understood. The faces were a blur of anger and surprise, surrounded by the ever-present red. A blonde woman scowled at Bella as she elbowed her out of the way. A child, lifted on a man's shoulders to see over the crowd, grinned down at her, his lips distended over a set of plastic vampire fangs. Seeing them made hysterical laughter bubble up in Bella's throat as she ran.
The throng jostled around her, spinning her in the wrong direction. She was glad that the clock was so visible, or she would never have kept her course straight. Both hands pointed up toward the pitiless sun, and, though she shoved viciously against the crowd, Bella suddenly realized it was too late. She wasn't halfway across. She wasn't going to make it. She was stupid. She was slow. She was human. With all the frailties that came with it. And they were all going to perish because of it.
Bella hoped that Alice would get out. She hoped that Alice was watching from some dark shadow and knew that she had failed, so she could go home to Jasper.
Bella listened above the angry exclamations, trying to hear the sound of discovery: the gasp, maybe the scream, as Edward came into someone's view.
But there was a break in the crowd- Bella could see the bubble of space ahead. She pushed urgently toward it, in a last valiant effort to reach her destination, not realizing, until she bruised her shins against the bricks, that there was a wide, square fountain set into the center of the plaza.
With her usual clumsiness working against her, Bella tumbled over the edge, landing headfirst in the knee-high water. Her right temple hit the stone bottom of the fountain, pain ricocheting through her skull on contact. Then the blackness set in and she knew no more.
Two weeks later:
Charlie Swan's face was grim as he helped Bella into the cab. Her head hung limply; her face hidden behind a swathe of her long, brunette hair. Unaware of anything around her, she sat lifelessly in the back seat.
Charlie noticed the driver looking over at his daughter curiously. His lips pressed together in irritation as he paid the fare upfront and rattled off the address at the same time.
"She alright?" The driver asked nervously as he watched Bella curl up into a ball, a quiet sob bubbling up in her throat.
"Just drive!" Charlie ordered.
The driver just grunted in response, turning away, he swung the wheel and eased the car out onto the main thoroughfare, following the line of other cabs making their way out from Port Angeles' airport.
Charlie sat back, glancing in concern at his broken daughter. The way she was acting was all too reminiscent of the last time that the son of a bitch had upped and left her. She was barely coherent, sinking into a zombie like state, unaware of others or her surroundings. At night she would scream and cry, thrashing about wildly in her sleep, only to sink back into the same catatonic state upon awakening.
Charlie contemplated all of this on the journey home as he tried to make sense of what had happened. He had returned home from an ordinary day at work to find a distraught Jacob on his doorstep, who told him that Bella had run away again.
Edward Cullen's sister, Alice, had shown up unexpectedly, with the devastating news that her brother was in some sort of emotional crisis. She had somehow persuaded Bella to abscond to Italy with her on some kind of wild goose chase to stop the little shit from hurting himself. Jacob explained that he had done everything in his power to stop Bella leaving, but he couldn't compete against Alice's emotional blackmail.
Charlie, still in the dark about most of the details, had immediately packed his bags, ready to head to Italy himself to drag Bella home kicking and screaming if he had to. Just as he was about to leave, he got a call from an official at the American Consulate based in Florence, informing him that Bella had been in an accident, and was in a small hospital located somewhere outside of a little tourist trap called Volterra.
Shocked at this news, Charlie had caught the first available flight heading out there. He had called ahead, telling Billy what had happened, asking him to let his son know that he was going to collect Bella and bring her home. Billy had gone quiet for a moment, before wishing him luck.
The flight had seemed endless, and then there was the long drive from Florence to Volterra. Charlie was a ball of tension, imagining the worst, when he finally arrived at the small hospital and was taken straight to see his daughter. His heart nearly stopped at the sight of her. She had looked so frail and forlorn. A big gash marred her right temple, along with purple bruises that were slowly turning black. When he questioned her, Bella refused to speak, just turning her head away and staring sightlessly at nothing.
Of Alice Cullen there had been no sign.
A/N-thanks for reading! Sorry, another one of my brain fuzzies. When I have a plot bunny boiling away in my head, I must write it down.