Cold Grey Light

Winter Break PT 2

POV Bella 

"Bella! Bella! Wake up! It's just a dream, wake up!" Edward shook me, desperately attempting to be gentle and forceful at the same time as he tried to wake me. I started to bolt upright, but he held me down.

"Relax Bella, just relax, it was only a dream. You're okay, you're safe." I looked around me wildly, expecting to see nothing but white. It took me a few minutes to realize where I was. Someone had moved me from the couch to the bed in my room and I was warm under the blankets. I took a moment to focus on reality; the room was dark except for a soft glow from the fireplace. I turned to Edward's anxious face, hovering above mine. He had one hand on my shoulder and another cradling the side of my face.

"Edward?"

"It's alright Bella, you just had a bad dream, everything's fine." He bent down slightly to place a gentle kiss on my forehead.

"You were dreaming about ice this time." Edward always liked to discuss my dreams after I woke up. He said that talking about my dreams would help me to not be so scared of them, but I imagine that was only part of the reason. Edward couldn't read my mind, but when I spoke out loud in my dreams, it was like he could listen to my thoughts for brief, broken periods. I always thought that this was the real reason he wanted to discuss my dreams; he had heard bits and pieces of the dreams, and afterward, he wanted to know all the details that I could remember.

"Did you fall through the ice?" Edward prompted me again, "Is that why you were so frightened?"

"I'm not sure if I fell," I whispered hesitantly, "I think something pulled me under."

"Pulled you under?"

"Yes, the ice cracked and then I was in the water. I tried to swim to the surface, but then…" I didn't want to finish, I had just remembered exactly what, or rather who, had kept me under the surface and I didn't want to say it out loud.

"But then…what?" Edward was waiting for my summary of the dream as patiently as he could, but I could tell that he was losing his ability.

"Well, then something grabbed me and pulled me down to the bottom, and then I woke up." I gave my quick explanation and hoped furiously that he wouldn't ask what had pulled me down. But instead he asked a different question that was just as bad.

"Where was I?"

"What?" I panicked as I realized that I might have said his name out loud during the dream.

"You said my name. Once at the beginning, like you were curious, but then at the end you were screaming for me." Edward bowed his head and avoided my eyes and whispered,

"Or screaming at me."

"Edward," I ran my hand through his hair and he gently rested his chin on my shoulder. "It was just a stupid dream. I only dreamt about ice because I fell asleep to some arctic survivor show. It didn't mean anything." I hoped that my explanation would placate him, but of course, I was wrong. He closed his eyes and took a deep breath.