Marvellous days

Chapter 71 -The Black Cloaks Are Emerging...-

The day of all days…

We woke up early as we wanted to be far out before the Volturi would slaughter the entire town. Carlisle had woken me up and then helped getting me and Carlie ready as we got up at night even before sunrise. I got dressed half-asleep with the assistance of Alice handing me the right items. Carlisle in the meantime had dressed Carlie, who was again asleep in his arms.

We walked downstairs in silence. We were surrounded by silence as no one spoke, it was eerie. I grabbed Carlie’s backpack and blanket on the way downstairs. Everyone stood downstairs in the hall awaiting us. The only other ones looking tired were the wolves. Rose came to in my direction and hugged me. I squeezed her hand and smiled at her.

“You are nearly falling asleep on the stairs,” Jasper said with a chuckle. “I still have some hours to get awake,” I smiled and a little woozily walked down the last steps. Carlisle came to my side and held me by the waist to him so that I couldn’t fall.

“Can we go?” Edward asked. Everyone nodded and that was the starting signal for all of us to go into the garden to leave. We couldn’t possibly leave through the front door considering the risk that any human would see us. So we started in the garden and then would go west to a more remote place.

Rose took Carlie from Carlisle as he held his arms open for me. I let him hold me in his arms as they all started running at vampire and respectively wolf speed. Everything was blurry and I nearly fell asleep again. But we were there in under half an hour. I hadn’t been here before; Edward and Carlisle chose this place far out and higher up. It was like the place we had made a picnic the other day with Rose. The trees were dense but there was a big clearing where we would all fit effortlessly.

Carlisle let me down and set me on a rock. Rosalie walked over to us and handed me Carlie. She was still sleeping and looked so peaceful. I sighed and kissed her forehead. “We still have to tell them…” Carlisle said as we were sitting there a few meters away from everyone else. I looked at him questioningly, but he only got up and held his hand open for mine. I took his without a question and he led us to the others.

Edward silenced everyone to listen to us; he had probably already read in his mind what he wanted to tell. Edward looked devastated and held Bella closer. “I just wanted to tell you all that I… we are very grateful that you came to join and fight with us. It means so much and I am eternally in your debt for that,” Carlisle announced. Everyone nodded as our family came closer to us. Edward stood next to me and rubbed my back in comfort.

 “And Esme and I have made another decision… It might have been the hardest in our existence,” Carlisle said and looked down at me. “We don’t want that any harm comes to our daughter and therefore we ask you to take Carlie with you as soon as the battle starts and we cannot stand a chance. So… whoever gets the chance runs away with Carlie…” he ended his talk and looked sadly at me. I squeezed his hand as tears fell down my face.

I looked at my daughter in my arms and I nonetheless knew that it was the right decision. “We might not be able to keep her safe… so please take good care of her,” I whispered. “We will,” Kate promised and came to give me a hug. Everyone else nodded in affirmation. “Thank you,” I sobbed and held Kate close. Rose and Alice hugged us, too and gave Carlie a kiss. “Don’t worry about her. We will keep her safe,” Alice promised. “Thank you,” Carlisle repeated and had tears in his eyes as well. This really wasn’t easy for us to give our daughter up, but it was the right thing, I believe.

As the sun rose, we stood in our right positions and prepared for the Volturi. They could be here any minute now… I stood far in the back together with Bella, Emmett, Rose and Zafrina.

I held Carlie close to me. Around the sides and behind me were the wolves, apart from Jacob and Sam, who stood next to the Irish coven on the left and next to the Amazons on the right. In the center in the front were Carlisle, Jasper, Edward as well as Eleazar and Garrett. Right behind them were Alice, Carmen, Kate and Tanya. Alice was closer to me and was the shield in the line of sight.

I looked down at Carlie as she was slowly waking up now and looked disoriented around and then focused on me and smiled. “Good morning,” I whispered and kissed her tiny nose. She put her arms around my neck and cuddled me close.

Alice, Bella and Rose smiled at her and greeted her as well. Carlisle came over to us and cuddled Carlie close to him. He kissed her forehead and cheeks and then held her close again. “I love you,” he whispered and then handed her over to me again. He looked at me then and that look said more than a thousand words. “Be safe…. I love you,” he whispered and kissed me. “You, too. I love you so much,” I whispered and kissed him again. Like that we stood close together for a few minutes. Then the rest of our family came and hugged us three, too.

Nearly everyone had tears in their eyes. After that they stood close to their mates and took the last minutes to spend them with their loved ones. “We will make it,” Emmett whispered and held Rose close. “Yes, my huge teddy bear,” Rose giggled and reached up to give him a kiss.

“Here is the backpack,” Carlisle said then with a sad look and gave me the small one for Carlie. I put it around her tiny shoulders and kissed her forehead. She held me close with an iron grip. “Mommy, Daddy… stay,” she whispered with her babyish voice. It was still a bit difficult to understand, but it were definitely the words “Mommy, Daddy stay.” I cried again and kissed her. “We’ll try,” I whispered. Carlisle stroked her cheek, “we will do everything in our power,” he promised.

“They will be here in two minutes,” Alice announced and everyone got back to their position. Carlisle looked at me for the last time and we pledged our love. I looked at the sky and saw that the sun was now fully up but covered by clouds. It was going to be a gloomy day…

Rose held my hand and smiled at me. Bella stayed close as well. “We will take care of her,” Bella promised. “I know,” I smiled. Emmett then stood closer to me and went rigid. Alice positioned herself in front of me. Everyone got ready… Carlie hid in my hair. I looked at her and saw tears. I wiped them away. “Don’t be afraid, they won’t ever hurt you,” I whispered and held her closer. She sighed, laid her head on my shoulder and held me close with her hands.

“I can already hear their thoughts,” Edward said. I looked closer but couldn’t see anything. A few seconds later though I saw a mass of black cloaks walking in our direction and coming closer fast. They had the upper hand in numbers and I couldn’t see anything else as more and more cloaks appeared from the dense forest.

They walked simultaneously and looked like a dark machine like thing, everything was planned minutely. A few seconds ticked by before the huge group stopped abruptly and just stood there. We couldn’t see their faces yet.

Three figures walked further though. They wore the darkest cloaks of them all. They stopped then, too and lifted their heads at the exact same time.

“Well, well, well, what do we have here?”We heard the high and threatening voice of Aro. 

-All rights belong to Stephenie Meyer-