Renesme's Dream

Renesme's Dream: Chpater22: Plans Gone Wrong

Chapter 22: Plans Gone Wrong

**Bella’s POV**

Edward and I listened to the exchange from the next room. We leaned against the wall, not moving, listening to Carlisle recount our dealings with James and Victoria.

It took forever. I counted the grains of wood in the floor, the dust motes in the air, the patterns in the paintball stains on the wall. Finally, we heard our cue.

“They would never do any of that. Never.”

His foot steps receded.

“Now.” Edward said.

“Wait!” I cried as I rounded the corner.

He stared at me, his eyes wide. I could see the hatred and the fury pooling up, filling his eyes and he took me in.

“You.”  He stiffened, his fists clenching.

“Wait, please, Max. I just want to talk. I’m not here to hurt you.” I held my hands up, the universal sign for ‘Please don’t kill me I’m unarmed!’

“Please, Max, hear me out. I never wished any harm on your parents. They attacked me first, I swear. I never wanted them dead.”

I took a cautious step forward, then another.

“Stop! What are you doing here?” He demanded.

“That’s where we weren’t completely truthful, lad.” Carlisle spoke up. His voice eased the tension by a small fraction, but not enough to put my mind at ease. “Our last name is really Cullen. Edward is my son, and this is his wife, Bella.”

“I know who they are!” He snapped. “So you tricked me.” He stated, not making it a question, but an accusation towards Esme and Carlisle.

“We truly are sorry Max,” Esme soothed. “But we had to talk to you.”

“I still don’t believe you. I still say you’re lying. You didn’t know them.”

And with that, he turned and fled the house.

Carlisle jumped in front of the door to stop us from chasing after him.
”What the hell Carlisle?!” Emmett burst out.

“It will do us no good to chase after him. He’s hurt, he’s scared, he needs time to think. He won’t attack us right away. He’ll want to think things through again.”

We all gave a collective sigh. “Fine.” We muttered.

“What’s our next move then? This obviously didn’t work.” Alice quipped cynically from the couch were she had flopped down.

“I guess we go back and see how Emmett’s coming along with Ben.” Jasper said.

**30 Minutes Later**

We pulled up to the house. I could see Jacob’s silhouette through the curtains, he was holding Renesmee and talking to Billy.  I ran into the house and held my arms out for her. He surrendered her without a fight.

“How’d it go?” He asked.

I sighed. “Not well. He didn’t believe us, as we expected. But he ran off.”

“How are things going with Ben?” Edward asked as he came into the house behind me. 

“Nothing, really. He’s still out cold.” Charlie commented from the couch. He, Rene, Phil, and Billy were all sitting and playing some card game.

“Here.” Jacob held his arms out and I returned my daughter to him. Edward, Carlisle, Esme, Jasper, Alice, Rosalie, and I all made out way down to the basement. Emmett sat playing a game on his ipod, his face cool and collected, not at all worried about the prisoner we had chained up there.

“Has he woken up?” Esme asked. Emmett looked up from his game.

“Nope. Nothing. We can try waking him though, it’s been long enough.”

“I’d like all the women to go upstairs, please.” Carlisle stated. We stared at him.

“Seriously?” Rosalie asked.

“Seriously. This man is dangerous, if he rips through those chains I’d rather you weren’t in his path of destruction.”

“We can handle ourselves in a fight, Carlisle.” Alice chimed.

“All the same, I’d feel better about this one if you all were safely upstairs. Go on, now.”

We grumbled and moaned, but we marched upstairs all the same.

**Carlisle’s POV**

“Alright, Emmett. Go ahead.”

Emmett lifted the glass of cool water and poured it over Ben’s head. Nothing. Emmett slapped his face a bit, gently.

“NOW Can I beat on him? Please??” Emmett asked, giving me the puppy dog eyes.
I sighed. “No! Just slap him a little bit harder this time.”

Emmett pulled back his hand and whacked Ben on the back of the head.

“Emmett!!” I scolded.

“Hey, you said to slap him harder.” He winked at me.

Ben gasped and sputtered, regaining consciousness. “Wh-Wha-What the hell?!” He gasped.

“Hello again, Ben.” I said, stepping in front of him.

“You? What the hell man? Where’s Max?”

“I’m not sure. He ran off to be on his own for awhile. But that’s not your concern at the moment. Your concern for right now is the fact that you’re chained up in a basement, with two young men who would like nothing more than to beat you up a bit. Now, I’m restraining them, because I’m hoping you’ll choose to listen to me. Will you listen?”

Ben slowly nodded.

“Good. I have a story to tell you.” I retold the same story I had told to Max. At the end, Ben was snarling and growling at me.

“That’s a filthy lie!” He shouted. “You stupid moron! They would never do anything to hurt anyone!”

He pulled against the chains, straining.

“Yes, they would. I’m sorry, I know you don’t want to hear this, but it’s all true. Now, we know that you and Max want to avenge their deaths by killing us, but I’m here to offer you a second choice. You can accept their deaths and accept what they truly were, and you can leave here in peace and move on with your life. Will you do that?”

The string of profanities that followed was unpleasant. The end result was a big, fat, NO.

“Very well then. I’m afraid we’ll just have to keep you here a bit longer then.” I said sadly. I hated seeing any creature in chains or behind bars, but this was a necessity. I turned and started for the stairs.

“Oh, really?” He sneered. I turned back around. He burst out of his chain as if they were made of paper. He flew up the stairs and up into the house before we could even blink and stop him.

We ran after him, only to halt as we entered the living room and found him holding Bella and Esme by their throats.

“Stay there, Carlisle.” He ordered. I held up my hands, showing my cooperation.

“Please, Ben, let them go.”

He smiled crookedly. He raised Esme off the ground, and slammed her against the wall, breaking the beams behind the drywall. He raised Bella off of her feet, but did not slam her into the wall.

“Do not follow me.” He ordered. He jumped through the front window, shattering the glass, and took off, with Bella still in his clutch.

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