Waxing Crescent (Alice Cullen x Bella Swan)

Epilogue

Clothes and random junk were flung across the room as we frantically shoved things into suitcases. Even in the chaos, Alice somehow managed to fold and pack with perfect precision, her movements fluid and efficient.

I wasn't so lucky.

Anxiety gripped me as I yanked open drawer after drawer, trying to sift through tangled piles of tattered shirts and worn-out knitwear, my mind whirling faster than my hands could move.

"I still don't understand why you won't just let me buy you a new wardrobe," Alice's voice was clipped, her lips thinning as her hands moved in a blur, folding and packing with almost mechanical accuracy.

"Because..." I muttered, my voice tight as I abandoned the drawers and stumbled over to the clutter on my desk. Papers, trinkets, fragments of a life I wasn't ready to leave behind, "I want to take as much of Charlie and Renee with me as I can. It's not just about clothes—I need to hold onto home. If I could take every last brick, I would."

Alice's hands slowed, the whirlwind of movement halting as her gaze pinned me from across the room. The weight of her unspoken thoughts pressed down on me, but whatever she had wanted to say remained unsaid. Maybe it was the sob I barely swallowed that stopped her.

Then, just as quickly, she was moving again, her hands a formless blur, folding and packing as if the urgency might keep our fears at bay.

I snatched up the last of the papers from my desk, staring at them, unsure if I'd ever finish school, unsure if any of this even mattered. Still, throwing them away felt like surrendering, like admitting this was the end. I wasn't ready for that. I wasn't ready to say goodbye.

My head throbbed, my pulse thrumming like a hummingbird's wings as my thoughts spiraled into a dizzying mess. I carried the paperwork over to the open cases, staring down at the jumbled pile of clothes, keepsakes, and books. My hands trembled as I tried to organize it, moving things in a frantic dance, trying to make everything fit.

Alice let out a sharp sigh, tossing a shirt back into the drawer with a snap. She strode toward the bookcase, her frustration barely concealed.

"We have packed enough clothes. If you dare grab anything else, I swear that I will commit arson. There is nothing in there that is remotely salvageable, I promise you."

On any other day, I might've laughed. I might've thrown some sarcastic quip her way. But all I could manage now was a weak grunt.

She moved quickly, her fingers flying over the spines of the books as she pulled out my favorites. Without a word, she laid a neat pile on the mattress between the bags, then turned back to gather more.

I ran my fingers over the first book in the stack, my vision blurring as I bit down hard on my lower lip. It was the one she'd given me for my birthday. The soft leather cover felt impossibly fragile. It belonged to another lifetime. A simpler time. A safer one.

"Bella?" Alice's voice cut through the haze. Too calm. Far too calm.

I looked up, and she was standing with another book in her hand, her expression frozen in... Fear?

"What is it?" I asked, stepping toward her, confused as to why a simple book would matter so much right now.

Her eyes didn't leave the page, "I think... I think I have found it. I think I know what it is."

She held the book out to me, her fingers tapping anxiously on the worn page.

Chapter 13 - The Curse of the Succubus.

I scanned the passage, each line sending a cold, creeping dread through me. My chest tightened as I read on, my breath coming faster, the implications sinking in like an anchor—pressing on my ribs and suffocating the air out of my lungs.

I swallowed hard, my voice barely rising above a whisper as I lifted my gaze to meet hers.

"So... I'm dying, then?"