Twilight FANFICTION
CLASH OF REALITY
CHAPTER 4
Bella was sitting on her bed, deep in thoughts and with dried tears on her cheeks. Charlie had taken away her phone, so she couldn’t call Edward… or anyone else. Why was he so harsh on Edward? And her for that matter? The wedding wasn’t very far away, but was she kidding herself that her father would actually walk her down the aisle…?? Would he ever accept him??? She was starting to doubt it. To doubt that Charlie would ever allow her to follow her heart. It wasn’t fair. It just wasn’t. And now she felt all alone and isolated. Downstairs Charlie was boxing all of the evidence regarding the mysterious box with the dead roses… he would probably dust it for fingerprints. But Bella couldn’t imagine that it could be Edward… or Jacob for that matter. Or Mike.
With a sigh she decided to read and got up from the bed to her dresser to find the book about the cold ones and the wolves. It was always interesting… Almost mesmerizing to read. It was like a fairytale - only true. Maybe she could relax a little if she just dove into a book…. She opened the drawer and fumbled for the thick book, which was on the bottom. Carefully she pulled it out and dropped herself onto the bed on her stomach to read. She frowned a bit as she noticed that one of the pages was dog-eared… Had she done that? Mm, maybe she had wanted to remember something. Curiously she opened the book on the marked page. Her eyes grew wide as she stared directly at a yellow post-it stuck on the marked page.
It read:
Withered flowers
Hearts in decay
Love isn’t ours
Blood you must pay
“Oh my god…!” Bella burst out as she quickly read the lines.
“Edward??” she said under her breath as she let a finger trail down the yellow piece of paper. This couldn’t be. She looked closely at the writing… It looked exactly like his… exactly. A gust of wind hit the window, making it shriek - and she jumped up, staring at the darkness outside. Swallowing she opened the drawer and threw the book and the note back in there. She couldn’t tell Charlie about this. This had to be a misunderstanding of some sort. Edward would never do this… Yet he HAD had a weird look in his eyes tonight… Like he was different somehow. But it was probably all just in her imagination. It had to be. With a deep sigh she sat back down on the bed silently. She definitely couldn’t sleep now… Not with all of this on her mind. Although most of her nightmares HAD stopped after Jacob gave her that dream catcher. Smiling she turned her head to the side to look at it… it wasn’t there?? Quickly she got back up from the bed and walked to the head board where it usually was tied to one of the carefully shaped metal rods. Where was it?? Had someone been in here? Nervously Bella looked around, but nothing seemed to be out of place… Maybe it had just fallen down?
“Oh!” Bella burst out as she noticed some of the brown ring of the dream catcher sticking up from the edge of the mattress. Carefully she grabbed it between two fingers and pulled it up - but there was only half of it?! Someone had broken it! The otherwise so fine threads which formed the webs were torn and the rest of the ring was missing. Anger flushed Bella’s cheeks with red. WHO had been in here??? Frustrated and with tears welling up in her eyes she burst out a ‘NO’ as she grabbed a hold of the mattress and flipped it over - the other half had to be there!! But it wasn’t… instead there was a little piece of paper with torn edges.
“No…” Bella said under her breath, but anyway she picked it up and turned it, looking at the this time much sloppier handwriting. It read:
A broken heart
Ripped at the seams
This is the start
Of haunted dreams
A little gasp escaped her. Would Jacob really do such a thing??? She might have broken his heart… but he couldn’t do this… It wasn’t… it couldn’t be him… Biting her lip she reflected on the night’s events. Everything was so weird and surrealistic. Nothing seemed to be real anymore. How she wished that she had Alice to talk to… But she was on some remote little island in Fiji somewhere. Said she needed a vacation. With a frustrated sigh Bella threw the note down in the same drawer where she had put the book and the note from Edward. Wait, no… It just couldn’t be them. Yet still… Why were they suddenly together tonight?? Usually they were eager to tear each other apart?! And now suddenly they were best friends??? A chill ran down Bella’s spine… She had to talk to someone. She couldn’t talk to Alice, and she couldn’t talk to Charlie… and she couldn’t talk to Edward or Jacob either.
“Carlisle…” she mumbled as she looked out the window into the night. She would have to walk through the deep forest in order to reach their house. It wasn’t safe… But it wasn’t safe to stay here either. That was for sure. And she felt like she was going crazy. She had to know what was going on. Determined she silently opened the window. It was a long way down… But luckily the thick branches of a tree in the backyard reached the window. Carefully she stretched out her arm and grabbed a hold of a higher branch… Then she lunged forwards, grabbing the branch with her other hand and swung herself onto the thick branch going out from the big tree. With a muffled shriek she almost lost her balance and ended up sitting on the branch, hugging the stem of the tree. With a gasp she realized that she had actually made it without falling to the ground some feet below. Carefully she maneuvered herself downwards, holding on to the tree… digging the rubber soles of her shoes into the uneven bark. However her feet slid and she suddenly lost her grip on the branch - determined not to scream and reveal her location she fell towards the ground… And to her amazement she managed to land on her feet and do a forward roll, landing on her stomach in the leaves on the wet lawn. For a few seconds she just stayed there, trying to comprehend that she hadn’t hurt herself. Then, with a small sigh, she got up and stared shortly at the dimly lit living room through the window. No sign of Charlie - he was probably in the kitchen. She better get going, she thought. As silently as she could she started tiptoeing away from the house and further into the backyard, constantly looking over her shoulder.
“Bella!!” two recognizable voices suddenly said somewhere in front of her, to the right. A gasp escaped her as she tried to focus in the dark… All she could see was the outlines of a tree and some shrubbery. Then she could hear leaves crumbling and footsteps - and in the almost non-existing light two faces appeared - it was Edward and Jacob!!! Her heart started racing uncontrollably as she stood there, frozen.
“Bella, what are you doing??!” Edward asked as he took a step closer, his face becoming a little clearer.
“You have to stay inside!” Jacob said and also stepped forwards, now standing next to Edward. Bella blinked in disbelief…
“Just… don’t come any closer…!” she managed to say and watched as the two of them immediately froze in their tracks. Edward’s eyebrows rose in confusion and Jacob narrowed his eyes a bit.
“What’s going on??” Bella demanded, looking from one to another. Both of them suddenly seemed to find the ground very interesting… there was no answer at first, only silence.
“We don’t… know” Edward just said and looked at her, almost shyly as if he was afraid of something.
“You have to go back inside, Bella,” Jacob said and stepped closer. Bella immediately stepped backwards, away from him:
“No…!” she gasped, holding out her flat hand towards them, warning them not to come closer. The two men looked at each other almost puzzled. Why were they even looking at each other?!
“Why aren’t you fighting?!” Bella asked with the fear rising in her stomach, making it turn. Again the two men looked at each other.
“You want us to?” Jacob asked, trying to avoid the seriousness of the situation, even though he knew that it was to no avail at the moment. Bella shook her head in fear and started to walk backwards, backing away.
“You were in my room!!” she burst out, looking at them. Again they seemed to put on confused expressions.
“Yeah, I’ve been there many times,” both of them said simultaneously. Their answer made Bella’s heart sink and beat at the speed of a hummingbird’s wings. This was… This was horrible, this was unbelievable. Carefully she stuck a hand in her pocket… luckily she hadn’t forgotten her car keys… she always had them on her. She had no choice now. She had to get away… away from this. She had to see Carlisle… But… Both of them could easily stop her.
“Okay… I’ll… go inside now,” Bella said and swallowed. Smiles appeared on their lips:
“Good,” they both said. As if they were some sort of mechanical dolls, she thought. Backing away she put on a fake smile:
“Yeah… uhm, take care…” she said and kept moving backwards. Why wasn’t Edward trying to hug or kiss her?? He usually loved to do that… especially in front of Jacob. But it seemed he had no intention of doing so. In a way she was happy about that right now… Yet still she had never felt more heartbroken or scared.
“Stay safe, Bella,” Jacob said and the words from the note seemed to repeat themselves in Bella’s head.
“I will,” she lied and now the light from the living room hit her back. She was back by the tree. They had followed her a little, but they didn’t dare enter the light.
“I’ll… take the easy way in… Goodnight,” she said and finally turned her back to them and walked out on the road towards the front door. They didn’t follow and the corner of the house blocked the view… she couldn’t see them anymore. That meant that THEY couldn’t see HER either. Tiptoeing quickly down the road she opened the door to her truck silently… she obviously had forgotten to lock it. Closing the door without a sound she stuck the key in the ignition. She had to hurry, Edward had probably heard her. Determined and scared beyond belief she turned the key hard and pressed her foot down on the gas, immediately changing gear. The car almost flew down the road with a loud, growling roar and Bella let out a gasp, staring in the rear view mirror. Edward and a sprinting wolf would soon be on her tail… She almost couldn’t see where she was going, she was too busy looking in the mirror - and there they were!! But what the hell… They just stood there in the middle of the road, arms out to the sides as if they didn’t even bother to stop her. They could easily!! Why weren’t they chasing her?? Maybe because it was all true… they really did hate her… for some reason that she would never understand… The distance between her and the house and them grew bigger and bigger and just before she turned a long ninety-degree turn she could see Charlie storming out on the road as well. Swallowing hard Bella pressed harder on the gas. She just had to get to Carlisle before they did… And she prayed that they wouldn’t hurt Charlie. If they did… it was all her fault.