Renesme's Dream

Chapter 27: The Aftermath

Chapter 27: The Aftermath

**Ben’s POV**

There were times when I was a child, still the little innocent 8 year old boy who's body had been frozen in time for eternity.  Then there were times like these, when I had to be an adult.
Making the decision to shoot Ben was hard; when I was still human, when my parents were alive, he had come over to our house every week to babysit me while my parents hunted out of state.  He had played with my toy cars, played catch, and raced around the yard with me, controlling his speed so that I would win every time.
When my parents had told me they were going away with Laurent, I'd thought it would just be for a couple of weeks or so. Ben had volunteered to watch me, and I remembered being so excited at the thought of having him to myself for awhile to play with endlessly. I never dreamed that I would get sick of him, grow to hate him, and be able to kill him.

I watched his face as I raised the gun towards his head. He made no move to stop me, my movement was too quick. All that registered on his face was pure, utter shock. I hesitated for the briefest of seconds on his face, my finger dancing nervously over the cold metal trigger.

I lowered the gun, moving my aim from his face, to his knees. I wasn’t done with him yet, he wasn’t going to escape that easily. I could see him raising his arms, about to attempt to stop me. But it was too late.

I fired. Once, twice. One bullet in each kneecap. He fell backwards, his arms flailing madly, turning like porcelain windmills in the night air.

His screams shook the night, his face contorting into an unnatural arrangement.

Vampires are unaccustomed to physical pain; nothing can hurt us. If a vampire is in pain, then it’s about to die, and the pain won’t last very long.

But this…..

This was haunting. I should have just killed him.

He lay there, screaming. He hadn’t felt pain in centuries, and then this….

I realized I was still standing over him, the gun still pointed at him.

I felt my head spinning, the room whirling. I felt sick. I tasted my own venom as my sharp teeth unconsciously bit into my tongue. 

I felt a hand on my shoulder and I flinched, but did not move. I felt the cold metal of the gun slide through my fingers as someone took it from me. I closed my eyes, and gave into the dry sobs.

**Bella’s POV**

Max had stood in the door way for what seemed like an eternity, with they pressure of the knowledge that we were about to die pressing down on me. In reality, it was no more than 3 seconds before Ben shouted at him to just do it. A second later, Max frowned, making his decision.

“This is it.” I thought. I held Renesmee tighter to me, and felt Edward pulling me closer to his side. I closed my eyes.

But it never came. I opened my eyes to see Max turn on the spot and raise the gun on Ben, then shoot him in the knees.

My mouth fell open in shock, then I gave a short laugh of shock. We all sat there in stunned silence, trying to catch our breath. Edward held me so tightly against his side that it should have hurt. Renesme cried quietly in my lap, burying her face in my neck and hair.

Carlisle and Esme were the first to recover. They carefully walked over to Max, and as Esme placed a hand on Max’s shoulder and knelt down next to him, Carlisle gently removed the gun from his small hand.

Max seemed to be in shock himself, until his tiny frame started shaking with dry sobs. He fell into Esme’s open arms, sobbing as she soothed him.

Ben was still screaming. Carlisle was about to look into his wounds when Edward and Jacob both said “Stop!” at the same moment.

Edward stood and walked over to Carlisle, explaining as he went.

“He knows things. He won’t show me what they are in his mind, but there’s something vitally important in this man’s mind. We need him to talk.”

“Then he can do so after I treat him.” Carlisle said, his voice heavy.

“No.” Jacob said sternly. “Edward is right. If we treat him, we have no incentive for him to talk.”

Carlisle’s mouth dropped open in disbelief. “You can’t be serious…”

I felt sorry for Carlisle; he was a healer, a helper. What they were suggesting was totally barbaric to him.

“I’m sorry, Carlisle.” Edward said. “But you have to trust me. Keeping him in pain is the only way this man will talk. And we need to hear what he has to say.”

Carlisle was about to argue, his face outraged at Edward’s command. But Alice’s sudden gasp prevented him. Jasper was there to catch her as she fell to the ground, holding her head in pain.

Wait, pain? Her visions never hurt her before….

In the same instant Edward gripped at his head in pain, gasping for breath. The mysterious spell lasted only a few seconds.

As soon as Alice stood up and Edward released his grip on his head, the questions started.

“What did you see?” Carlisle asked.

“Are you alright?” Esme said.

“What happened?” Emmett asked loudly.

“Are you ok?” Jasper asked Alice, shouting above everyone else’s voices.

Renesme placed her tiny hand on my neck, showing me Edward’s display of pain. She was frightened, what could possibly hurt Daddy?

“Edward!” I shouted above the noise. He looked over and I pointed at Renesme’s scared little face. He came over and knelt in front of us, gently touching her cheek, wiping away the tears, showing her he was unharmed.

Alice held up her hands for silence. “Edward,” she started. “Did you see it too?”

Edward’s face was grave and dark as he answered her. “Yes. I’m not sure what it was, but it hurt.” He stood from his position in front of me.

“Did you see anything I missed?”

She shook her head. “All I saw was…” She looked at Ben.

“Carlisle,” Edward said darkly. “Do not touch him. Do not even attempt to heal him.”

“Edward, you can’t expect him to just sit here!” Esme said harshly. The stern tone sounded wrong coming from the normally gentle and compassionate woman.

“Yes, I can.”

“Why?!” Carlisle demanded. “What makes this one man so damn important?!”

“He’s with the Volturi.” Edward said clearly, his gaze boring into the moaning man in the doorway. “He’s one of them.”

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