The Tale of the Fey (Jasper Whitlock Hale Twilight fanfic)

Chapter 18

"Is she dead yet?" Rosalie whispered eyeing Charlotte with disdain. She didn't understand why the family was so worried about someone who never gave them a straight answer to anything.

"I can only die if I was alive." Charlotte didn't take her eyes off the ceiling. "Since I'm already dead, I can't die a second time."

"Then what do you call this?" Rosalie scoffed gesturing at the room Charlotte was encased in.

"Well I'd call it a thermoplastic rectangular prism." Charlotte retorted dryly.

"Rosalie that's enough." Jasper said curtly. He didn't need her antagonizing Charlotte when he could tell she was in a lot of pain. Rosalie scoffed again leaving the room to go complain to Emmett.

"Jazz." Charlotte breathed. "I can't feel my legs... or my arms."

"But this'll work right? You'll live?"

"I don't know. Theoretically it should but I just don't know." Charlotte sounded uncertain, she didn't think it would work but if there was a chance it would she would take it.

"But it will work." Jasper said roughly. Charlotte nodded not knowing what to say. As she laid there she could feel herself slipping into darkness. Ever so slowly she could feel her life draining.

Soft whimpers escaped her lips, Charlotte wanted desperately to curl into a ball but she couldn't move. Her body was frozen in a rigid position laying on the floor. Slowly the rest of the Cullens, even Rosalie, gathered in the room.

Charlotte's mouth opened, sucking in a ragged breath she spoke to Jasper in a labored voice. "You asked weeks ago what my middle name was. Evangeline." When every things meant to be broken, I just want you to know who I am.

Jasper let out a choked sob because Charlotte was saying goodbye. She was saying goodbye because he realized that she believed she wouldn't live through this. Or maybe she didn't want to live through the pain she felt inside her. Janice appeared next to him looking down at Charlotte with a sad expression.

"It's not everyday you get to watch your child die." She whispered. "I may not be your mother, but I sure as hell feel like it. Diluxae comlente abrui." Tears streamed down Janice's face making her look more human than ever. The entire time she was there she hadn't needed to breathe so she didn't. Janice was so use to being around her kind she hadn't been around humans in a couple hundred years. "Ave atque vale Charlotte Waters."

"I love you Charlotte. Please. Just make it through this." Jasper placed his hand on the plastic wall.

Charlotte drew another ragged breath that sounded more like a gasp than anything. When she finally exhaled black mist came out like smoke from her body. Twirling and twisting in the air the life drained from Charlotte's eyes. The storm that was constantly churning in her eyes faded and calmed; the storm was over.

Then Charlotte's body did something quite strange for being dead. It jerked inward like some invisible force punched her in the stomach. The black mist was violently sucked back into her body along with the air in the case. It shook with such force everyone thought for sure it would shatter.

Charlotte's body relaxed back onto the floor still and unmoving. Her hair was fanned out around her making her face whiter than it normally was. Her mouth was open and eyes wide, staring up at the ceiling but unfocused. "Did it work?" Jasper looked at Janice who was still crying. Jasper's hope of Charlotte making it threw died when he saw that.

Screams shattered the uncomfortable silence plagued between everyone who didn't know what to do. These screams that were so loud it gave the vampires and Janice headaches, so loud it could probably be heard in town. They were so full of pain and suffering, seeping with agony Jasper was glad he couldn't feel what it was like. They amplified in the box they originated from, echoing inside it sounded like a group of people all screaming at once.

"WHAT'S HAPPENING?" Someone yelled behind them.

"HER SOUL! IT'S REATTACHING TO HER BODY!" Janice answered choking with more sobs. Jasper moved toward the box to rip it apart so he could comfort Charlotte, who was still screaming, when a small hand held him back. "DON'T. WAIT UNTIL THE SCREAMING STOPS. NO ONE CAN TOUCH HER UNTIL SHE'S DONE RESETTLING IN HER BODY." Janice shook her head.

So they waited, and waited, and waited. Charlotte's fingers were clawing at the floor of the box trying to take the pain away somehow. Muscles all around her body tensed and flexed, arching her back the last scream left her breathless. Her body fell limp to the ground gasping for air. Tears flooded her eyes and fell like a waterfall down her face which had returned to it's normal color. Charlotte curled into a ball, laying in her side sobbing from the pain that still lingered.

Jasper lunged forward ripping the wall from the others. He dropped to his knees pulling the balled up faerie into his arms. Charlotte wrapped her aching limbs around Jasper, burying her face into his chest getting Jasper's shirt wet with tears. Jasper didn't have to say anything, Charlotte just knew that he would hold her until the pain faded. And even after that, he would still be there.