Chapter Text
He was gone.
No footprints remained, the leaves still, as if he had never been there at all.
“Edward…” she croaked, the name falling on the wind and reaching nothing, the vampire long gone already.
It felt like bile on Bella’s tongue…a hole punched right through her ribcage.
Her legs—shaky as they were—moved of their own volition. It was an instinctual reaction. A subconscious thought demanded her to follow; to hunt his ass down and scream at him about broken promises and lying through his stupidly perfect teeth.
Bella couldn’t do anything else. She had to keep moving. If she stopped looking for him, then it was over, wasn't it?
Love, life, meaning… over.
Her feet kept moving, one unsteady foot in front of the other. Bella hardly noticed how the green google turned near black as the sky darkened, hours passing.
It all looked the same to her: absent of him.
She didn’t care that she stumbled, cared even less when she fell. There was no scrape or bruise that mattered more to her than the gaping wound in her heart.
She wasn’t going to delude herself into thinking she could handle it if it was just him that left, but it wasn’t just him that was stolen away.
It was Alice flittering about as she talked a million miles an hour about all the clothes she wanted to dress Bella in. It was Emmet swinging her into a bear hug before setting her down in front of his PS2 to play video games. It was calmly chattering with Jasper when he was having a good day with his thirst and entertaining her questions about history.
It was Carlisle always willing to educate her on philosophy and vampire anatomy, ever the scholar.
It was Esme being the doting mother Bella never really got to have.
It was fucking Rosalie finally warming up to her as Bella sat in the garage while she worked on cars, both of them secretly seeking something mundane; a quiet moment to just feel human again for an hour or two.
Bella had been so damn proud of herself when Rosalie finally smiled at her, feeling as if God itself was parting the clouds for her to see something holy and beautiful.
And he took that all away.
It was
Finally, she tripped over something, landing into dirt and moss that wasn’t really visible to the eye anymore. She could feel her knees and palms ache from the small collision, her thighs burning from the miles she treaded into nothingness.
It was nothing compared to the hole growing between her lungs.
She laid there for a very long time, the dark night swallowing her whole.
Then the voices—far into the distance—started up.
Somebody was shouting her name, muffled by the wet foliage that surrounded her, but it was most certainly her name. A part of Bella recognized that perhaps she should respond, but what would have been the point?
What was there to even go back to anymore?
So instead, she laid there long after the voices stopped reaching her ears, staring off into the darkness, mind drowning in a pain she couldn’t bear to try and unravel right now.
The rain—which always seemed to be on a thirty minute cycle in Forks any given day—bothered her little.
It was cold.
Just like them.
If she curled up and squeezed her eyes shut, she could almost pretend she was wrapped in the family's arms, dog-piled under the weight of their affection that no longer belonged to her.
Suddenly, there was another sound, close enough to cause her to startle. An animal of some kind, large and huffing barely seen steam into the frigid air just beyond a nearby tree.
Bella wondered if she should be afraid. She wasn’t—just empty. It didn't matter. The snuffling went away.
She could feel the rain pooling up against her skin when a dim glow reflected off the bushes in the distance. It grew brighter and brighter, illuminating a large space.
“Bella.”
The voice was deep, but not unfamiliar.
Sam Uley.
Bella had met him multiple times throughout her life. She used to play with the clearwater kids alongside Jacob all the time as a kid, and though Sam was a little older, sometimes he would have joined.
Her father had dragged her down to the reservation a couple times since she moved to forks, and she had stayed away since he had cut off the engagement suddenly with Leah Clearwater, for Leah’s cousin, Emily Young.
She stayed away out of solidarity for her childhood friends, even if she wasn’t as close to them anymore.
She never hated Sam though.
Didn’t know him well enough to care.
So she was shocked by the sudden rage that swelled in her at the sight of him.
It was grand and monstrous, and made her blood feel like it was boiling, and she bit her tongue in wrath when he spoke again.
“Have you been hurt?”
She found a sudden strength to stand, her shivering legs unsteady and threatening to fall again, but she managed a glare.
“You’ve got some nerve, Sam Uley.”
All friendly familiarity was gone, replaced by a bitterness that was growing rapidly into something monstrous.
In the back of her mind, she knew she shouldn't be acting like this, but she felt out of her body. Out of herself, her grief converted into the closest thing that wasn’t pain.
His brown eyes lidded for a moment, a knowing look in his gaze, combined with something akin to confusion.
It only seemed to piss her off more.
“Where the fuck are you clothes?” She hissed, but it sounded more like a croak given her state.
He stood there in cut off jean shorts—no shoes nor shirt—his tall, deep-tan skin muscled and towering. When the hell did he get so tall?
He ignored her question.
“Charlie sent me to look for you.”
Charlie?
That one struck a chord. Charlie mattered, if nothing else did.
More than her sudden anger.
More than her grief.
Sam held out a hand.
Bella found herself snarling at it, not sure what she was supposed to do.
His eyes appraised her for a second, and then he shrugged. In a quick moment, he swooped her rain-soaked frame into his arms, causing her to startle.
“Put me the fuck down!” Bella yelled, hitting his shoulder and quickly wincing.
This dude was solid fucking muscle, and the hit had sent a thrum through her palm all the way up to her shoulder.
“Ack!”
Sam didn’t even bat an eye, marching off into the trees as if she were some gnat, unworthy of even acknowledging her tantrum.
Just like that, her anger fizzled out into something hollow and empty, and she just hung there, limp and defeated.
The ache and emptiness wasted no time in returning.
It seemed like hardly any time passed before there were lights and a deep rumble of male voices. Sam Uley slowed as he approached the commotion.
“I’ve got her!” he called, his voice booming over the masses.
The chorus ceased, and then swelled again with more intensity.
It was a confusing mix of faces, all rushing over, and Bella felt like she was going to throw up under the barrage of questions.
“Bella, honey, are you all right?”
That was one voice she would know anywhere.
“Charlie?” Her voice was strangled and small.
“I’m right here, baby.”
There was a shifting under her, followed by the leather and cotton smell of Charlie’s sheriff jacket. He staggered under her weight.
Sam gave a peculiar look and suggested, “Maybe I should hold on to her.”
“I’ve got her,” Charlies said, a little breathless.
He walked slowly, struggling. Bella wished she could tell him to put her down and let her walk, but she couldn’t find her voice.
As selfish as she was… she needed the comfort right now.