Familiar Strangers (A Twilight Fanfic)

Chapter 12

Chapter Twelve

I couldn’t pretend to not feel the difference in the way my heart was beating. The heaviness that was usually accompanied with a slow hard thud had turned into a fast steady pace. Something that couldn’t be happening, could it? I retreated towards the forest to get some seclusion off of the main road. Once cleared of any humans, I stood still and closed my eyes. My body trembled and instantly having the need to run, but to where? The rush of anxiety made me feel so human. My head began swimming in the vast sparks of dark and light and suddenly a quick flash of Bella’s face crossed the boundaries of both. Bella’s eyes were full of penitence as she gasped for air, her hands almost clawing at her throat as if it were closed completely.

Honing in on what I was viewing, the image became so clear that being right there with Bella seemed so real. Charlie was almost in a screaming panic as he tried his best to calm her down. Before my brain realized what was happening, my body had already left the spot where I once stood. My legs were running at full speed back to Bella’s house. Although breathing was not something that I needed to live; life was quickly leaving from within me. Drained…I needed air…my legs were slowing…the muscles in them failing me. What was happening? Bella’s house came into view. Walking as fast as possible, making it into the house and up the stairs I saw Bella’s legs resting below her in front of Charlie’s bedroom door on the floor. The color of her skin faded to a ghastly tone that scared the hell out of me.

“Bella…?”

“About time Gabriel, I can’t help her in my current situation so get over to her.”

Almost having to pull myself to her from the sudden weakening condition that plagued me, having to ask the question of what was wrong with her would have to wait. Encasing Bella in my arms as she lie close to lifelessness in my arms, tears began flowing down my cheeks. “Bella, please breathe. What has happened to you?”

“I told her about my death and who did it. Now she thinks it’s her fault.”

“Why would she believe such a thing?”

The room instantly filled with a bitter chill. I could hear Charlie’s breath exhale with a shiver as he said, “No…” Charlie’s one word sent a wave of sheer panic through me.

Turning more to Charlie, a ghost already; I would have used the term, ‘He looked as though his life was being drained from him’, but of course that couldn’t be the case considering he was already dead. The spark he had in his eyes vanished as he looked over to Bella. Only a split second went by when I realized what had him in a horrible trance.

“Do you see it Gabriel?”

“No…”

“Why can’t you?”

“I don’t have to see it Charlie, I can feel it.”

Feeling Bella’s life succumb to death stripped my soul of all happiness. My face fell to look down to her and for some unknown reason that I wasn’t positive of its outcome; with the air I had, my lips pressed against hers as I was about to see if a Blood Witch could give CPR.

“Hurry Gabriel, you’re my baby’s only hope.”

A level of consciousness swept through my veins with the sweetest melody vibrating across my skin when beginning to recognize that I had achieved my greatest victory; Bella was accepting the air that I had put forth. The clarity of the tone of her skin bouncing back full with life from a ghostly image much the same as her father’s too rosy red cheeks was nothing short of a miracle in my book.

The ecstasy that filtered to every part of my body left me buzzing and wanting more. I could hear Bella’s chest rise and fall quickly as she gasped for more air. I opened my eyes to see hers boring into mine with trepidation. Pulling back slightly to give her some much needed space didn’t last long as Bella pulled her frail frame up closer to me, letting me know that she wasn’t having it. She was so close that I felt a tightening in my chest. Holding onto her as tightly as I could without hurting her felt so right, but I had to remember that she was a simple human.