safe and sound. twilight

ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀ ᴏɴᴇ

CHAPTER ONE
ᴇʏᴇs ᴀs ʀᴇᴅ ᴀs ʙʟᴏᴏᴅ

Crimson, blood-deep eyes stared back at them all upon a tilted head. Such irises were startling, behind thick, black lashes and wide lids. They were unblinking, severely bright, so breathtaking that one was forced to look. It was such a compelling colour, that I had to call it beautiful. But it was the angled, exquisite face of the friend that surrounded them, that allowed me to call those eyes such complimenting words.

We'd all learned to fear such colour. It ran the same shade of red that ran through the vessels of humans- the same colour that would have flowed through Bella's arteries, and may temporarily still. Those eyes held power, one that many of us had forgotten. I could not. They reminded me of William, but he was gone now. As forgotten as horrors that hid behind such eyes- like the terrors that'd plagued Seattle and the Cullen family not so long ago.

Now Bella held that same colour, that same unmatchable energy. It could have scared us, had we not been so relieved to see those eyes open, looking up at the world with a child-like wonder, as if she'd been reborn. Because she had been renewed in such a way. The earth around her would seem so different, so much more vivid, matching the dazzling nature of the diamond-like skin of our kind.

She blinked as if suddenly remembering it once had been an instinct. Then she stared forward, feeling the unnaturalness of it, and brought her hands upwards, soaking in the feeling of her movements, the look of her skin.

Before those eyes could lay down upon us, we stepped from the doorway and stood behind the separating wall, letting Edward snake his way in.

They lasted five minutes before Emmett went barging in with a grin on his face. Our protests couldn't stop him.

"Emmett!"

"You've been holding out on me," Bella said as he enveloped her in a hug.

"It was necessary, believe me. Edward would have crushed me if I'd broken you," he said as he barked out a laugh, earning a glare from his brother. "But now it's your turn to attempt not to break me."

As the rest of us, all of the Cullens except Rosalie, piled into the room, Carlisle slid past us to Bella's side and place a hand on her arm. Bella smiled, eyes drifting over all of our faces as if it felt likes years since she'd last seen us. I supposed it was like looking at us for the first time, with her vision now being so much clearer. We might've looked as different to her as she did to herself.

"Bella. How do you feel?" Carlisle said.

"How do I feel?" she shook her head, unable to put it into intelligent words. "I- Overwhelmed. There's so much... But I still feel like me. I didn't expect to."

Edward's elbow brushed hers. "I told you so."

Carlisle nodded encouragingly. "You are quite controlled. More so than I expected," he said. "And that's taking into account the time you've had to prepare. It seems like we did something right with the morphine this time. Tell me, what do you remember of the transformation process?"

"Well, everything was so dim before. I remember the baby couldn't breathe."

"Renesmee is healthy and well," Carlisle reassured her. "What do you remember after that?"

"It's hard to remember. It was so dark before."

Alice, forever in the centre of attention, moved to stand in front of the pair, her mocking gaze landing in her brother. She took Bella's hand, marvelling at the new coldness of it, and boldly shook her head.

"Can we stop bombarding Bella with questions?" she moaned. "I'm sure she wants to test out what she can do now."

"Alice is right."