Bella's POV (flashbacks)

"You look good" my mother told me after rambling about the nurse she'd met on the way in.

Anna eyes were locked heavily on mine, just as they had been since she walked into the dreary visiting room.

"She looks awful." Anna corrected, her eyes never leaving mine as the sadness in her expression intensified.

"She's fine" she sternly told Anna; annoyance laced in her words. she looked back to me. "Your fine, aren't you? Doctor Henderson said you were doing well." She insisted.

"Sure mom" I croaked with a nod. I realised they were the first words I had spoken to her, and she hadn't taken any notice.

There was no point in pouring my heart out to her in this grey and stale room, windows bared, and tables worn.

I wondered how many people had sat in this very chair and begged for help, but never received it.

She smiled and nodded. And I wondered what she saw when she looked at me. Did she look straight passed me, to some imaginary, healthy version of her daughter, so she could pretend she had done the right thing. Was Max right? Was she just a narcissist that only really cared about herself.

Or did she see me as I am.

Could she justify locking me away because she wanted to do what was best for everyone else. Like I was an anchor, weighing them down and drowning them, but now she'd cut me loose.

Now they were free from me.

"Well. I better go see him. Talk about your progress." She decided in a carefree manner, rising from her seat and walking through the room as though she was strolling through a park on a sunny afternoon.

"She's fucking crazy" Anna hissed quietly.

We watched her leave our eyes unable to leave her, until an orderly allowed her to pass through one of the many locked doors.

When she disappeared out of sight, we looked back to each other. Instantly, we reached across the table and desperately took ahold of each other's hands.

"Are you ok!?" She asked, her words escaping her chest in a harsh and dragged out breathe, that I feared she had been holding since they took me from her.

I let out a heavy breath myself and shook my head. "I miss you" I told her, desperately trying to keep my voice from breaking. They were simple words, obvious ones. But they tore at her. They filled her eyes with tears in an instant and she made no effort to hide them or remove her hands from mine, so she could wipe them away.

"I miss you too. Max misses you."

Max. I missed him dearly. He was like my brother.

But I knew they'd never let him through those doors, my mother certainly wouldn't fight for him to visit me after what he'd done when she first tried to bring me here. The mere memory of that day sent me spiralling. I had to get out of here.

"I don't know what to do. Tell me what to do" I asked in a panic, my loosely placed mask slipping, allowing her to see what was beneath it.

She anxiously bounced in her seat, tapping her foot and chewing her lower lip, looking around making sure that no one could hear them. "You need to hide".

I shook my head in complete confusion. "Hide? What are you talking about?"

She leaned in, her face growing serious with a determination that I could never mirror.

"Hide what you are. Hide everything that keeps you in here. Tell them you made it up. Tell them you'll stop. Tell you just wanted attention."

"I don't know if that's gonna work" I told her, hearing the hopelessness in my voice, betraying me with its weakness. I wanted so desperately to be strong, but I was crumbling.

"You have to try. Please. I don't know how to help you, Bella. I don't know what to do either." She explained, trying her best to convince me.

"Have you seen how long I stay here?"

She shook her head. I could see the frustration in her eyes. I knew now that she had been relentlessly searching the future for answers. It had drained her and maybe that was why she also was too weak to pretend that everything was going to be ok.

"No. I tried to find out, but I can't. I can't see your future at all right now. That's why you need to try to hide it. Maybe that's what gets you out of here."

There was a difference between destiny and fate. That's why her visions were unclear right now. She could look deep into the future and that would remain the same, that was my fate, there was nothing I could do to change it…well, almost nothing. But my destiny? where I went to from here, that was up to me, I needed to pick a path.

"Ok. I'll try."

She looked somewhat relieved with my answer.

"Maybe I should tell them I can see the future, then I could come in here and hang out with you."

I smiled sadly and shook my head. "Don't even joke about that." The mere idea of her in her made me sick to my stomach.

"Have you had one yet?"

I wanted to lie and tell her no. But if I did lie? She'd get the wrong idea. She'd think I was learning to control them. I couldn't let her believe that.

I nodded.

Her face fell. She'd known the answer before she asked the question. But it hadn't hurt her any less.

"What happened?" She asked softly, rubbing her thumbs over my palms.

I dropped my gaze to our intertwined hands. I couldn't think of it. I had to be strong and if I thought about what had happened, then my walls would crumble completely. And I needed those walls, I couldn't allow her to see beyond them again, not when she had no way of saving me.

"What did they do to you?" She whispered her words to me, her voice thick with a fear that made my heart stop and seize.

"It was fine. I'm fine." I told her, shaking my head and forcing my features to hold firm.

She frowned.

"You can't lie to me Bella."

She was angry now. And when she was angry, she was a force to be reckoned with. Something about her fury had always comforted me, nothing could reach me when she was like this. She wouldn't allow it.

I broke. The wall fell.

"They-"

Before I could unload everything onto her. Before I could crush her with the truth, our mother appeared, talking quickly as she approached the table. "Alright let's wrap things up, girls."

Anna's head snapped up to our mother. Her eyes wild and furious. "What? No! You said two hours!"

My mother rolled her eyes, unaffected by Anna's outburst.

"Annabelle. Don't make a scene". She groaned, refusing to take any emotion on our faces seriously.

"Or what?" Anna snapped, flaring her teeth.

My mother rubbed her brow.

We were overreacting. We were childish. We were being selfish. That's how she would see it. She would create any story she needed to justify this situation.

"Look I'm just trying to help her. This isn't a punishment." She turned her attention to me. "Isabella knows that don't you?"

I looked up at her, wishing I could feel something when my gaze met hers. But there was nothing. There was a hollow indifference, like seeing a stranger on the street.

I didn't know her, and she didn't know me. Just another person I was sharing space on this earth with.

I nodded. "Sure mom."

Anna had always been the strong one. But right now, I could see nothing but panic and horror in her eyes. I don't think I'd ever seen her so scared.

I plied my hands from hers, leaving her to reach for me as I broke the contact. I couldn't give in, I had to fight against ache that was building up inside of me.

"Come on Anna. Im sure Isabella has things to do."

"It's ok" I assured her.

She stood up and I followed, keeping her eyes on mine as my mother rambled about seeing me soon. I couldn't listen to a word.

She placed her hand on Anna's back and began leading her away.

I stood by the table watching them leave.

Seconds before reaching the door she stopped and spun around, running back to me. I couldn't stop my feet from pulling me forward. I was drawn to her like a magnet. I caught her in my arms and clung to her so tightly that I was sure I was hurting her, just like she was hurting me.

"I love you. I forgot to say I love you." She cried, burying her face into the crook of my neck.

Bella POV (present day)

He stepped slowly into the living room, watching me closely for a few seconds before deciding to voice his concerns. "You vacuumed twice already Bella".

"You walked dirt in." I lectured loudly, dragging the vacuum cleaner to clean the almost invisible trail of dust behind him.

He smiled, raising his brow. "You sent me outside to rake leaves".

"So, take your shoes of when you come back in" I snapped.

"We never do that." He pointed out, clearly at a loss for what he should do, he'd been trying to extinguish my manic state for some time but failing in his attempts.

"Well maybe we should start". I grumbled.

He sighed, keeping his hard stare on me. Usually it would make me uncomfortable, but right now nothing could make me more uncomfortable than the state of this house.

"I think you need to sit down for a few minutes and relax" he pleaded, reaching out to rub his hand over my back as I finally switched the vacuum cleaner off.

I stepped away from him and continued to inspect the room. "I think you need to help me fix this place up, so it doesn't look like-"

"Like we live here?" He finished.

"Exactly" I agreed.

His mouth opened slightly as he looked at me. I knew he was only helping me because he though that eventually he would be able to figure out what was going on inside my head.

"There's books everywhere." I said as I took in the number of hardcovers that were left on every surface. I never noticed before just how many were left lying around.

He nodded, his lip curving slightly as he looked around. He let out an uncomfortable chuckle that didn't hold any amusement. "We read. A lot. It's not a crime."

"We have a bookshelf. It wouldn't kill us to use it." I argued, my tone sharper than I would have liked it to be.

His face softened. I was being ridiculous; we both knew it. But he didn't argue. He knew better than that. After my rant about the leaves on the lawn and squeaking screen door, he realised that we were operating under a different set of rules.

He walked around the room picking up the scattered books and I dragged the vacuum cleaner to the hallway, so I could stuff it into the closet where we kept our coats.

As I pushed the vacuum cleaner into the confined space, I realised just how cluttered it looked. Why hadn't I noticed it when I was looking in here earlier. It was a mess.

I quickly started rearranging the coats and making sure they were all on the hangers as securely as possible.

"Bella?" I could hear the concern in his voice.

"Please come sit down." He asked in a calm but pleading tone.

I dropped my hands from the coats and folded my arms around myself, before turning back toward him.

I didn't want to scare him. I did enough of that.

I nodded avoiding his worrisome gaze and moved past him back to the living room.

I closed my hands on my lap at sat rigidly on the edge of the lounge.

He'd think I was crazy. Since when did I care about the state of this house? I didn't. What I did care about was my mother inspecting it and judging. Judging me. And when she did judge me, he'd be able to hear it. He'd see me the way she does and what if he realised, she was right about me. I'm broken beyond repair, hopeless and stained.

"Talk to me" he begged as he crouched down before me, placing an arm on either side of me.

I looked up at him. He was perfect. Gorgeous. He was the kind of boy girls dreamed about. Anna was right, he was everything I'd ever wanted and more. The characters in my books could never compare to him.

I didn't deserve him.

"I just…. I just want the place to look good you know. So, she doesn't worry."

I lied.

Edward nodded, but I could tell he wasn't convinced.

"I don't want you to be nervous. Or scared."

"I'm not" I said quickly, shaking my head and squeezing my hands tighter together.

"You cleaned the trash can". He pointed out, forcing a smile.

"Just the outside of it" I added defensively, as though that made it seem any less crazy.

"If she doesn't approve of your home, does it really matter?" He questioned, tilting his head to the side as he spoke.

I dropped my eyes.

"I guess not." I whispered.

It wasn't her thoughts that concerned me. It was how he would read them that had my heart racing and my hands trembling.

He sighed and dropped looked over his shoulder. "She's here"

Anyone reading this? Thoughts?