The Crash: Book Two - Heart on Fire

Chapter Fourteen: Where the Fault Lies

Bella

"Narrative drawing to a close. Still remain the things we couldn't kill. In your eyes I can see it still. How we choose the framing of the scene. Hate begins to spill across the screen. Blinding light illuminates the scene. Trying to fill the spaces in between."

- How To Destroy Angels (The Space In Between)

Friday, September 16, 2005

I looked at Rose and nodded, then stole one last look at my father wishing him better. Then we took off towards the house. Just as we crossed the edge of town Rose's cell phone rang.

"Is Bella with you?" I could hear Edward's voice clearly. She didn't answer and instead handed me her phone and continued ahead while I stopped to talk.

"Edward? What's wrong?" I asked, not sure why he wanted to speak to me.

"Angela is safe at home, and we're watching the area. I thought you would want to know." Edward kept his voice even, and I felt a small smile curl at my lips from his thoughtfulness.

"Thank you." I said easily, as I realized I had forgiven him. Perhaps in time I could even learn to love him as a brother.

"Of course, I know how much she..." There was a strange sound, like stone grinding on metal and the phone landing on the ground. A few seconds later I could hear someone pick it up.

"Are you his mate?" The voice on the other end matched the tracker James. I stopped in mid-step horrified by the thought that Edward was suddenly gone.

"What did you do?" My voice was cold as ice. I was already angry with the situation with my father, and now this monster had hurt my family.

"I'm sorry he had to go, but he was in my way. Get this message to the white haired one, tell him if he wants his human, then he needs to come alone to the clearing where we met." Without another word he ended the call, and I started to run towards town faster than I had ever run before.

I had found my last experience running to be exhilarating, liberating, even wonderful. This felt like the opposite, I was filled with dread and fear. If I had still been human, my heart would've been racing. Instead, my new body simply moved. Faster and faster, through the streets of Forks towards an uncertain future where my family would be broken and grieving. Why hadn't Alice seen this? Wasn't Edward supposed to be alive in the coming fight? I had just gotten over my anger, but I had always assumed I would have time to figure out what we meant to each other, form a real relationship as family. I still wanted him in my life, but he was gone, in an instant.

I knew Angela's street very well; I had spent more time staring out their large bay window onto this street than I could actively remember from my fuzzy human memories. I risked stopping for a second under a tree at the end of the block, scanning everything for any sign of Edward. It took longer than I wanted, but eventually I found him halfway down opposite from Angela's house, in the front yard of a family that was out of town on a off season vacation.

I ran to him without really thinking, and what I found sent waves of shock and fear up my spine. His eyes were motionless, his head nearly sheared off and his right arm severed and laying next to him. I fell to my knees unable to think clearly. I stared at his corpse for what felt like hours, but I knew it had only been seconds when Rosalie came up behind me.

"He's gone." Was all I could say.

"He's not burned." Rose said rather curiously, kneeling down next to me.

"But he's in pieces." I looked over at her, feeling helpless.

"Help me press the pieces together and hold them in place." Rose spoke slowly, her instructions almost seemed practiced despite the horror and fear in her eyes. I dropped the phone I'd stolen from her onto the grass and leaned down to press Edward's head against the trunk of his neck as she fitted his arm back to his shoulder. It was a bit like fitting together pieces of a mannequin, but far more real and terrifying. For five long seconds nothing happened. And then the jagged seam across his next started to knit back together, and as the crack across his neck faded, life flashed back into his eyes. He sat up and stared at me wordlessly.