Honeybee

Chapter Twenty-Three~Trauma

Chapter Twenty-Three
Trauma
Elizabeth Cullen
Forks, Washington. September 13-September 16, 2005.

Hours later, Alice's agonized sounding screams tore me out of Carlisle's arms as I rushed across the room to soothe her.

"Alice? Baby, what's wrong?" I cried over her, getting onto the floor and pulling her into my arms to cradle her tightly. "Alice, speak to me." I begged her as she continued to wail and thrash.

"What happened?" Carlisle panicked, falling to his knees at my side, trying to administer aid however possible. "Is she hurt?"

"No, she had a vision and just collapsed." Jasper gasped, her pain afflicting him so strongly that he was fighting to remain standing. "I'm sorry, I have to leave." He shook his head before stumbling out of the house.

"What is going on here?!" I screamed.

Edward opened the front door then and froze at the sight of Carlisle and I holding a spasming Alice. "I think I can explain." He offered weakly.

"Please, do!" I yelled at him. "What did you do? What vision could possibly cause your sister this much pain?"

Five words.

Five simple words was all it took. Decades and decades of prayer, devotion, and unconditional love were all forfeit after five words from Edwards mouth.

"I've decided to leave Bella."

I was no longer myself after those five words. They were mocking and hurtful and downright abusive to me. I saw red as I passed Alice to Carlisle and stood to my full height, drawing in an excess of air into my lungs before screaming all kinds of things at the boy who looked like my son standing before me.

He responded in kind as we hurled insult after insult, accusation after accusation, and called each other foul names and words as if we had burned every bridge between us. In the recesses of my memory, I could never remember a fight this catastrophic between us, and I certainly didn't regret it in the moment.

As tension and anger built to a new level, my mind registered myself saying, "You understand that you've taken another daughter from me, don't you?" with so much hatred and grief that I momentarily shocked myself back to reality.

"How does it feel then?" Edward taunted me. "To know that you've not only stolen your sons' soul but have killed two of your daughters as well?"

I lunged at him then, but Emmett stepped in to catch me around my waist and pull me back in an effort to keep me from hurting my son. I didn't care, the grief and pain was too much, I needed to lash out.

"Mom, stop trying to fight me!" Emmett yelled as I struggled to get out of his arms. "Edward, dude, you know you've messed up when Mom brings out her Irish accent." He chastised his brother.

I hadn't even realized I'd slipped into my accent, and slacked in Emmetts arms as I calmed down enough to not want to strangle Edward. Deciding on a new tactic, I did something I thought I would never actively do to one of my kids ever again, something I hadn't done since the great fight of 1982.

"You're not going to break up with Bella." I tried influencing him with my subtle mind control ability. "You love her too much to decide something like this too quickly. You're going to stop and think this through."

His face quickly morphed into a mask of rage as he realized what I was trying to do. I should've known that his mind was too made up for my gift to influence him any amount.

"I can't believe you'd be manipulative enough to try to influence me with your gift!" Edward roared defiantly at me.

"Can't you see that I'm trying to keep you from making the worst decision of your existence?" I cried in turn.