Golden Hour: A Team Jacob Twilight FanFic

Shiny

It was all too much.

I couldn't listen to any of them say anything else. The words Alice spoke came out distant. Fuzzy. Unreal. Eventually, I tuned them out completely, hearing only the shrill ringing that blared in my ears.

I couldn't be in their house for another minute.

Instinctively, I bolted out of the Cullen's living room. Edward, of course, immediately towed behind me. I think he was yelling, though I wasn't sure—I couldn't hear any of it.

I flung open their front door, attempting to slam it behind me to no avail as Edward followed.

Through blurred vision, I focused on the wooden steps as I stumbled down them.

Edward's muffled hysteria sounded like a mere buzzing now as I sank down on the last step in defeat. There was no use in running.

Feeling under pressure wasn't foreign to me; in fact, it felt as if it were my default setting. Time and time again, my life had been put in danger, and I often had to make decisions fast to save my life or those I loved.

But I felt pressured, unlike before. If I didn't choose to be with Edward, he was doomed to join the Volturi. It would be his new life forever. They would maybe spare my life to use him as a tool in their sadistic arsenal.

And I didn't know what to do.

Sitting on the step beside me, he attempted to pry my fingers from my face. He was speaking, and I'm sure he was saying something about Alice's visions being subjective or that everything would work out between us in the end. It was for the best that I couldn't hear him over my thoughts.

I'd always known the Volturi were going to come for me. In the past, it didn't scare me since there was a plan in place to change me. I felt so sure of changing, desperate, even.

But ever since the doubt crept in, I hadn't allowed the reality to fully sink in. They were going to kill me if I stayed human. They probably still will, even if Edward joins them. Alice said she no longer sees my future—that it's black.

I hated that I realized the truth. It would have been so much easier if I had remained ignorant. I could've been one of them, a Cullen. But my stomach lurched at the thought now.

It's funny how things change.

"Bella, Bella, please!" Edward yelled, finally cutting through my deafening thoughts.

Pulling my head out of my hands, I looked at him, hoping to fall back into that comfortable, ignorant bliss again. Instead, I felt the opposite.

The rain had stopped, and the blinding sun broke through the trees, reflecting off his face in a way I'd never seen before.

The rays distorted his features, making him look like a shattered mirror. Mesmerizing, bright facets deeply contrasted with the many pairs of his abysmal black eyes. It was a kaleidoscope effect, glitching with every unnatural blink.

It was clear as day now: the perfect mask of him was breaking down, along with the story of us.

"What is it, love?" When his lips moved, the illusion warped even more. He didn't look real.

Edward never looked human; there was always a stark difference between him and everybody else. He had never looked real, in an angelic way. Now, he looked more like the type of angel I had read about in the Bible—the ones with multiple faces, eyes, and wings.

"Bella!" The distorted angel screamed while its multiple sets of eyebrows furrowed in anger.

"Answer me!"