Be Careful What You Wish For

Chapter Two

1 "Bella, please step away from the mirror, take a moment, and calm down!" Edward's clanging, scraping voice – dear Lord, he sounded as if he were speaking into a tin funnel from a hundred miles away – was imperious. He clearly was willing her to do as she was told, there was no mistaking that tone. This rang a bell, somehow, and made her feel like punching someone out. "All is well. You just need to-"

"No!" Her fist collided with the gilded monstrosity that was this goddamn mirror. What idiot had thought that she would want to see this hideous monster she'd become? That she would want to be like this? Never like this!

The glass shattered into a million pieces, raining down on her impervious, hard skin. It felt as if she were being pelted with foam plastic. From outside the room, this awful, damned, stifling dump of a fricking room, she heard voices shouting, and suddenly, it all crashed back down on her, all the noises, the chaos, the swirling maelstrom of everything pounding down on her senses at once. Edward yelled again, Jacob's voice was somewhere in there, too, but this was all too much. It was all too goddamn much; she couldn't take it anymore.

Desperate, Bella pressed the heels of her hands to her ears, spun around, ran, and jumped – straight through the closed window. Crashing through the thick glass didn't hurt; it was as painful as brushing twigs against her skin. The ground came flying up to meet her; she shielded her face and collided with the lawn with a big, dull thump. It took her only a second to shake off her confusion. She scrambled up, blinking, trying hard to focus, to make sense of the world around her. Quick as lightning, she climbed out of the hole her body had left in the soft earth, pressed her rubbery, alien lips together, and broke into a run, stumbling and veering left and right like a drunk as she did so. It didn't matter where she was running. She needed to get away from that room, from this house, from all these people. She needed to get away from that thing she'd seen in the mirror. She needed to run.

She crashed into trees, breaking off branches and ripping that ridiculously stupid dress to ribbons, stumbled, fell, and ran again. After a moment or two, she splashed into water – a river. This invoked familiarity in her; there'd been a river before, and she remembered it. She remembered it. Everything that she remembered from before was a good thing. It made her recall somewhat what it felt like to be an actual, real person again, instead of a hollow, undead, revolting thing.

The water splashing her feet and calves made her stop. She breathed in deeply, even though her body did not need it and it brought no relief. A second later, she forced herself to relax her tensed-up muscles and opened her eyes. Immediately, she was pummelled by a thousand different images trying to be the focus of her attention. Groaning, she squinted, concentrated, and managed to zoom in on the water flowing over her naked, disgusting and stony feet. It felt warm and soft, almost silky to the touch. A little smile curved up the corners of her lips. It vanished a split second later, though, when she made out the sound of pursuing feet.

No. Oh, no, she was not going to go back, look at their weird, monstrous faces, let it all overwhelm her, drive her insane – not yet. She needed to be alone, at least for a while. With no hesitation, she stepped out of the river, walked backwards, ran, and launched herself across, firmly believing that she'd land face-first in the middle of the stream. Surprisingly, she flew wide, far across the water, and crashed noisily into a huge cedar tree. The tree groaned and swayed, but didn't fall. Bella clung to it with arms and legs, eyes shut. When she didn't fall off, she ventured to look again. The sight of it all gave her vertigo: she was at least five metres above the ground. The running steps behind her came closer. Trying not to think too much, she placed her naked feet on a thick branch below her, crouched, steadied herself, and jumped again.