Fanfiction - Another Life, Chapter 12
“It all started a few days after you left,” I began.
“Charlie had given me the week off, told me that I needed some time to ‘re-group’,” I said.
Glancing around, I saw all the Cullens looking at me, guilt and pain clear on their faces. I had thought about this moment, when I would tell them, and now that I was here, I didn’t want to, didn’t want to hurt them, didn’t want to relive the memories and the pain.
“They need to know, Bells,” Mark said quietly.
I nodded, taking a deep breath before starting again.
“Charlie came home that night, pale and acting weird. He didn’t want to tell me, but I eventually managed to get the story out of him a few days later. He had been called to the Webber house; apparently someone had mutilated an animal and left it on their front door step.”
“It continued for about a week, each time a larger animal, and they started to hear noises at night, running foot-steps, people banging on their door, voices calling out. Pale figures that were there one second and gone the next.”
Out of the corner of my eye I saw Alice gasp, Jasper pulling her into a hug.
“The Webber’s moved away a few weeks later, the constant harassment too much for them. At first I didn’t think much of it, thought it was someone’s sick joke. That was when the first letter came,” I said, still remembering the bloody envelope, still remembered opening it with a detached fascination.
“It was Victoria. She told me that because she couldn’t hurt Edward, that I would have to do. That I would beg for her to kill me before she was done. That everyone I cared about would suffer.”
“And she did. She went after everyone I cared about,” I continued, as the images started to play inside my head, as if I was reliving the time over. “Jessica, Eric, Mike, Tyler. Never hurting them, but taunting them, trying to drive them away and it worked. And after each one she left a note, taunting me.”
I swallowed hard and looked up at the ceiling, before looking down and continuing.
“Jake and the others in the pack tried to help, but Victoria knew how to draw their attention away, how to get what she wanted done and then,” I stopped, looking at my hands. “Then they went after my mom, Phil, my dad. Mom and Phil apparently died in a car accident; the report said they swerved to miss something. The note I got from Victoria confirmed that. They’d swerved to miss her, she watched as they died. I flew down to their funeral and when I returned to Forks …”
**
Something had felt wrong. The whole flight home, as I drove back to Forks from the airport, there had been a pit in my stomach, an uneasy feeling that I couldn’t shake, that had me pushing down on the accelerator. If I could just see Charlie, I could stop thinking that about the accident, stop thinking about the note that had been left in my hotel room.
Seeing the cars in front of our house, the red and blue lights filling the dark night with eerie colours, and the way people were murmuring quietly, the feeling in my stomach solidified.
Charlie.
The one word ran through my head, as I parked, hopping out of my truck, my feet bringing me closer to the house. To the house and the police line that had been put up. Ignoring it, I ducked under, moving towards the porch, and the white sheet that had become clearer.
The white sheet that was surrounded by a dark red patch.
A white sheet, that hadn’t covered a human hand. A hand covered with blood.
Swallowing down the bile in my throat, I walked closer, feeling like I was in a trance. I could hear someone shouting, but what they were saying and who they were saying it to, was lost to me, as I knelt by the sheet.
Reaching for the top of the sheet, my hands curled around it, pulling it down slowly, dark hair coming into view, hair which I knew, had grown up with, had pulled when I was a younger. Sobs ripped from my throat, as I continued to pull the sheet down, slowly uncovering the face.
Charlie.
Tears were running down my face, falling unchecked onto the ground, and the sound of voices was getting louder. All of a sudden I was picked up and taken away from porch and the sheet. I felt myself go limp, mind going blank.
This couldn’t be happening.
Not Charlie as well.
Please God. Not my dad.
“Bella? Bella, please. Please,” a pained voice whispered.
Slowly I lifted my face to look at my best friend.
“Jake?” I whispered, raising a hand and wiping the tears away from his face. His face showed so much pain, eyes full of tears, mouth pulled into a thin line.
“Bells,” he choked, sitting down with me in his lap, his head burying into the crook of my neck and shoulder, as he sobbed, choking words out. “I’m so sorry, I’m so so sorry. We should’ve stopped this. We should’ve been here. God …”
I put my arms around him, tightening mine, trying to see past the haze in my head, the fog that wasn’t letting me feel anything.
“Miss Swan?” a soft voice asked. Looking up into the face, I realized it was one of my dad’s deputies. “Do you have somewhere you could stay during the investigation?”
I felt myself frown in confusion, why would I need somewhere else to stay?
“I …” I trailed off, eyes looking past him to the sheet, feeling the hole in my heart get bigger as I remembered what was under the sheet. “I don’t …”
I shook my head, feeling tears well up in my eyes again.
“She’ll stay with us,” Jake said, voice strong, not a trace of the tears that he had previously shed, in his tone.
“Course,” the Deputy said, voice catching as he looked away. “I’m so sorry, Bella. I just …”
I nodded as he trailed off, reaching out and squeezing his hand. Wanting to help the man, to tell him it was alright. Even though my own body felt numb. Jake’s warmth not able to get through.
“Come on, Bells,” he said, lifting me up, as I continued to stare blankly back at the porch.
“I’m going to get you through this, Bells,” he whispered into my hair.
I closed my eyes as he carried me away from the house, looking up at the sky as the rain started to fall, washing away my tears.
**
“Where is he?” I said, pushing my way through the crowd to the front. “Is he okay?”
My heart picked up as I saw Billy’s face, fear making it hard to breath, feeling like my whole world was about to get destroyed. It had only been two weeks since … my dad. Since I’d lost Charlie. I couldn’t lose somebody else, I couldn’t lose Jake.
“Please,” I whispered. “Oh, please.”
I felt my knees go weak, someone steering me in the direction of a chair.
“Bella?” a quiet voice asked, a big, warm hand cupping my cheek. Looking up, I tried to stop the tears filling my eyes.
“Seth?” I asked, willing him to give me a good answer.
“He’s okay,” Seth said, thumb wiping away the tears that fell. “He’s hurt, but he’s okay.”
“Victoria?” I spat.
“They must’ve planned it out,” he said quietly, taking the seat next to me. “The way they came at us.”
Looking down at my hands, I felt the tears running down my face. I had cried so much over the past few weeks that I was surprised I still had tears left. Jake was the only one left; Jake and the pack. And if anything happened to him, anything happened to any of them, I don’t think I could make it through it this time. Jake was my rock, the one thing that was still holding me together, my sun, if I lost him...
“Can I see him?” I whispered, still not looking at the younger man, closing my eyes as I felt one of his warm hands wrap around mine.
“Course, Bells,” he replied. “He’s been asking for you.”
I let him lead me to the room, not looking at the rest of the pack, not wanting to see their anger or sadness.
Walking into the room, I raised my head, swallowing the lump in my throat as I saw my best friend hooked up to all the different machines around him, tubes and lines and screens all over the place.
I didn’t notice Seth leaving, my eyes focused on the boy in bed.
Walking over, I sat tentatively on the bed, biting my lip as I saw the damage that Victoria and her coven had done. The most obvious was a vivid red scar running down the left side of his face.
“Bells?”
I looked down at the blanket, not wanting to meet his eyes, but unable to not look up as he touched my hand.
“Bella,” he said again, voice scratchy, and I had to wonder why it was like that.
“This isn’t your fault,” he continued. “None of this is your fault.”
I nodded, tears filling my eyes, as I felt him pull on my arm, letting myself be pulled down next to him, his arms coming around me.
“It’s not your fault,” he whispered into my hair.
I nodded again, but didn’t believe it. This was all my fault. If I wasn’t here, if I had left months ago, maybe none of this would have happened. Maybe the people I cared about would still be here; maybe my family would still be alive.
But they weren’t. And that was because of me.
As he murmured into my hair, I finally convinced myself that I had to leave, that I had to take away what Victoria wanted most, or Jake would be the next one she killed.
**
Walking into the bar, I gave a quick smile at the bar tender, sitting down at the end of the dark bar, trying to ignore the people looking at me. I ordered a drink and was surprised to see the bar tender accepted my fake I.D., barely glancing at it, before placing my drink down in front of me.
“Penny for your thoughts,” a quiet voice asked, from next to me. Turning my head quickly, I frowned, wondering if I was that out of it, that I hadn’t seen the young man sitting on the stool next to me. He was strikingly good looking, with high cheekbones, messy short raven hair and dark eyes. In the bar light, I couldn’t tell what colour they were, just that they were looking at me in concern.
Shaking my head, I sculled my drink, coughing as the alcohol hit my throat, my eyes watering.
“Just a little Dutch courage,” I replied quietly, putting the glass down, picking up my jacket and walking out of the bar. Crossing the street, I ran into the apartment building and up the stairs until I came to the door to the roof.
I felt my heart racing, but I knew I had no other choice. I couldn’t let Victoria continue to use everyone I knew against me, torturing them, and ruining both their and my life.
I walked out on the roof, taking in the starless sky, and cool wind, as I moved over to the edge of the building.
Standing on the edge, I looked down at the street, lit up by the street-lights and cars going past. A bitter-sweet smile crossed my face; at least I knew that I was denying Victoria the pleasure of being the one to end my life, which I knew would have been long and painful, if she had been the one to kill me.
Taking a deep breath, I felt my eyes fill with tears, remembering Charlie, and hoping that he would forgive me for everything that I had brought upon him. Thinking of Jake, and hoping that he would forgive me too.
“Don’t do this, Bella,” Edward pleaded, his ghostly image appearing next to me. “Please, don’t do this.”
I felt the tears run down my cheeks, as I laughed bitterly.
“You don’t care, none of you did and I won’t let anyone else die for me. I won’t let Jake die for me.”
Turning my head, I took one last look at his visage, as I stepped off the roof. Only to feel myself pulled back. I screamed, trying to get the arm to let me go, kicking and flailing at the hard as steel arm around me, wanting to fall.
Crying, I hit at the arm over and over, not paying attention to the pain running through my hands as I hit it.
“Stop, stop it,” a voice whispered into my hair. “You don’t want to do this.”
“I do!” I cried. “You don’t know me. You don’t know what I’ve been through! Let me go!”
I sobbed, as I saw my shoe fall to the road, shock running through me as I saw a car run over it.
“Please,” I whispered, tears running down my face. “I can’t live like this anymore. Please, just let me go.”
I was pulled away from the edge, feet placed gently on the ground, the arm remaining a solid bar around me, stopping me from trying again. I was turned slowly and gazed up into the face of the stranger from the bar. He reached a hand out, brushing my tears away, sadness in his eyes.
“Perhaps I can help,” he said quietly, thumb rubbing at my cheek. Pulling my head back, I shook my head.
“You can’t help,” I said. “No-one can.”
“I can,” the voice whispered. “I can give you another way. If you tell me your story, I’ll give you another way to stop the pain.”
“I don’t even know you,” I replied, feeling myself calming.
“Will,” he said. “My name is Will.”
**
“… and so I did, I told him everything that had happened. If Will hadn’t been a vampire, I’d probably be in an institution, or dead,” I said, as I looked over and gave a small smile at my saviour.
“The change didn’t stop the pain,” I continued. “But it … lessened it. Having to learn how to be a vampire, how to control myself, it … it left less time to think about the past.”
“Bella,” Alice whispered eyes full of pain and sympathy. “Bella, I’m so sorry.”
I felt a laugh leave me, knowing that it sounded hysterical but not caring, glaring at the people that had made up my life and then destroyed it.
“I thought I knew what pain was when you all left,” I replied, shaking my head. “But that was nothing compared to knowing what my family, my friends went through. How …”
I trailed off, shaking my head, as anger ran through me, my whole body shaking.
“How can you do that to someone you love?” I whispered. “How could you just leave and never look back?”
“We thought we were-” Carlisle started to say.
“You were protecting me?” I replied scathingly, cutting him off. “Some protection. You might as well have just left a sign for her. I mean did any of you even think about Victoria? Or were you all too busy being self-righteous, thinking you knew what was best for me, to consider her and her vendetta?”
Turning my back on them, I took a deep breath, trying to stop the shaking, trying to stop the pain and anger that was running through my body.
“You know Jake? Jacob Black. He’s pretty dangerous too. He had to learn to control what he is as well. But he didn’t leave me when things went wrong, when people in his pack found it hard to control themselves around me,” I spat, whirling around to face them, as I remembered how hard it had been for both Paul and Leah to control themselves when I was around. “He was here, trying to help. And it almost killed him,”
“Bella,” Edward said, standing and moving towards me, eyes showing the pain and regret he was feeling.
“Don’t,” I said, holding my hand up to stop him, shaking my head, the anger draining away, leaving only a tiredness that I hadn’t felt in years. “Just don’t. I don’t want to hear what you have to say, I don’t want to hear how sorry you are, or why you did it. I just … I just need to go.”
Moving past them, I strode out into the hallway, not surprised to see Will next to me when I turned to pick my phone up from the table in the hallway.
“Going for another run?” Will asked, eyes full of concern and sympathy. I nodded, closing my eyes briefly as I felt his lips brush my forehead.
“Come back soon,” he whispered into my hair.
Glancing at him, I gave a small nod, before turning and walking out of the house.
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A/N - So let me know what you thought of the chapter :)