Edward sat on Carlisle's right, and I sat next to Edward. As everyone else sat, I could see the lines forming.
Rosalie sat directly opposite Carlisle, at the other end of the long table. Emtt sitting next to her, his eyes and thoughts wry. He would never go expressly against Rosalie; he would instead bargain and smooth-talk his way with her when they were at odds.
Rosalie glared at Edward, never looking away.
Alice and Jasper ca in last and sat beside Es. Alice rubbed her forehead as if she were suffering from a headache. Jasper placed his hand on her shoulder in comfort as he looked on worriedly.
Edward took a deep breath and started off, "I'm sorry." He looked first at Rose, then Jasper and Alice, then lastly at Emtt. "I didn't an to put any of you at risk. It was thoughtless, and I take full responsibility for my actions."
Rosalie looked at Edward hostilely. "What do you an 'Take full responsibility'? Are you going to fix it?"
When I saw what she ant by fixing it, I let out a hiss of rage and glared at Rosalie. Her thoughts of killing Thomas and Bella enraged beyond belief.
Edward put a calming hand on my shoulder, one strong enough to keep in place. As Rosalie looked at in surprise. Unsure where my sudden hostility ca from.
He turned his eyes from back to Rosalie. "Not in the way you an." he said. I could tell he was struggling to keep his voice even. "I will leave now and stay away until they are gone."
Es reached over and grabbed Edward's hand, "No stay, please."
"It will just be a few years." Edward comforted his mother.
"Es's right though," Emtt said. "You can't go anywhere right now. That would be the opposite of helpful. We must know what people are thinking more now than ever."
"Alice and Edythe can catch anything major coming." Edward disagreed.
Carlisle shook his head, "I think Emtt is right, Edward. They will be more likely to talk if you disappear. It's all of us leave, or none of us."
"I think you all are trying to ride in the carriage before hooking up the horse," Jasper said. "Thomas's act, foolish as it was, most likely deflected any interest in how Edward arrived next to Miss. Bella."
"All anyone at school talked about was him tackling a Van to save his sister. Many stories didn't even have Edward in it."
Edward lifted his hand and brushed it through his hair. "Jasper is right, Bella's brother Thomas proved an excellent distraction from my actions. Besides, I do not believe Bella will talk about what she saw do anyway."
"You don't know their minds," Carlisle pointed out.
"I know this much. Alice, back up."
Alice stared up at wearily. "I can't see what will happen if we just ignore this." She glanced at Rose.
No, she couldn't see that future, not when Rosalie was so decided against ignoring the incident.
Rosalie's palm smacked down on the table with a loud bang. "We can't allow the human a chance to say anything. Carlisle, you must see that. Even if we decided to all disappear, it's not safe to leave stories behind us. We live so differently from the rest of our kind-you know there are those who would love an excuse to point fingers. We have to be more careful than anyone else!"
"We've left rumors behind us before."
"Just rumors and suspicions, Edward. Not eyewitnesses and evidence!"
"Evidence!" I scoffed.
"Rosalie, I looked the other way in Rochester because I felt that you were owed your justice. The n you killed had wronged you monstrously. This is not the sa situation. The Swan girl is innocent, and Thomas was willing to sacrifice himself to save your brother." Carlisle said.
"It's not personal, Carlisle," Rosalie said through her teeth. "It's to protect us all."
There was a mont of silence while Carlisle thought through his answer. When he nodded, Rosalie's eyes lit up. She should have known better. Even if I hadn't been able to read his thoughts, I could have anticipated his next words. Carlisle never compromised.
"I know you an well, Rosalie, but...I'd like very much for our family to be worth protecting. The occasional...accident or lapse in control is a regrettable part of who we are." It was very like him to include himself in the plural, though he had never had such a lapse himself.
"To murder blaless children in cold blood is another thing entirely. I believe the risk they present, whether speaking their suspicions or not, is nothing to the greater risk. If we make exceptions to protect ourselves, we risk sothing much more important. We risk losing the essence of who we are."
Rosalie scowled. "It's just being responsible."
"It's being callous," Carlisle corrected gently. "Every life is precious." Rosalie sighed heavily and her lower lip pouted out.
Emtt patted her shoulder. "It'll be fine, Rose," he encouraged in a low voice.
"The question," Carlisle continued, "is whether we should move on?"
"No," Rosalie moaned. "We just got settled. I don't want to start my sophomore year in high school again!"
"You could keep your present age, of course," Carlisle said.
"And have to move again that much sooner?" she countered.
Carlisle shrugged.
"I like it here! There's so little sun, we get to be almost normal."
"Well, we certainly don't have to decide now. We can wait and see if it becos necessary. Edward seems certain of the Swan girl's silence, and Thomas seems to follow her lead." Carlisle bargained.
Rosalie snorted. But despite that, she had given in.
Suddenly Alice gasped, "Oh!!"
Edward saw what was on her mind, and his mouth fell open with an audible gasp. I then looked into Alice's mind, and I was shocked, only vaguely aware that everyone besides Alice and Jasper was now eyeing and Edward warily.
It was clear as glass in her head: Alice, smiling, with her icy white arm around the girl's warm, fragile waist. And Bella was smiling, too, her arm around Alice's cold shoulders.
The vision was rock solid; only the timing of it was unsure.
"But...Alice..." Edward gasped. I couldn't manage to turn my head to see his expression. I couldn't tear myself away from the image in Alice's head in order to hear his question.
"I'm going to love her soday," Alice said
I was still locked into Alice's thoughts. Where was Thomas in this vision?
"Ah," Alice sighed, their decision to let Bella live had cleared a new future. "See? Bella's not going to say anything. There's nothing to worry about with her."
The way she said the girl's na...like they were already close confidants...
"Alice," Edward choked. "What...does this...?"
"I told you there was a change coming. I don't know everything, Edward." But she locked her jaw, and I could see that there was more, Edward apparently saw the sa. She was trying not to think about it; she was focusing very hard on Jasper suddenly. She did this sotis when she was trying to keep sothing from us.
"What, Alice? What are you hiding?" Edward asked, no demanded.
I heard Emtt grumble. He always got frustrated when Alice and Edward had these kinds of conversations.
She shook her head, trying to not let us in.
"Is it about the girl?" I demanded. "Is it about Bella? Or is it about Thomas?"
She had her teeth gritted in concentration, but when I spoke Bella's na, she slipped. Her slip only lasted the tiniest portion of a second, but that was long enough.
"NO!" Edward shouted. I heard his chair hit the floor, and only then realized he was on his feet.
"Edward!" Carlisle was on his feet, too, his arm on his shoulder. Edward seed barely aware of him.
"It's solidifying," Alice whispered. "Every minute you're more decided. There are only two ways left for her. It's one or the other, Edward."
Edward could see what she saw...but he could not accept it.
"No," Edward said again; there was no volu to his denial. He braced himself
against the table.
"Will sobody please let the rest of us in on the mystery?" Emtt complained.
"I have to leave," Edward whispered to Alice, ignoring him.
"Edward, we've already been over that," Emtt said loudly. "That's the best way to start the girl talking. Besides, if you take off, we won't know for sure if she's talking or not. Edythe can only read one mind at a ti, you have to stay and deal with this."
"I don't see you going anywhere, Edward," Alice told . "I don't know if you can leave anymore." Think about it, she added silently. Think about leaving.
I saw what she ant. Yes, the idea of never seeing the girl again was...painful for Edward. But he saw it as necessary. He couldn't sanction either future he had apparently condemned her to.
I love her, too. Or I will. It's not the sa, but I want her around for that.
"Love her, too?" He whispered, incredulous.
She sighed. You are so blind, Edward. Can't you see where you're headed? Can't you see where you already are? It's more inevitable than the sun rising in the east. See what I see...
Edward shook his head, a horrified look on his face. "No." He tried to shut out the visions she revealed to both him and I. "I don't have to follow that course. I'll leave. I will change the future."
"You can try," she said, her voice skeptical.
"Oh, co on!" Emtt bellowed.
"Pay attention," Rose hissed at him. "Alice sees him falling for a human! How classically Edward!" She made a gagging sound.
I scarcely heard her. What would this future bring to Thomas?
"What?" Emtt said, startled. Then his booming laugh echoed through the room. "Is that what's been going on?" He laughed again. "Tough break, Edward."
"Fall for a human?" Es repeated in a stunned voice. "For the girl he saved today. Fall in love with her? Now all my children have soone?"
What did she an by that? Wasn't I one of her children, because I'm not in love with anyone?
"What do you see, Alice? Exactly," Jasper asked softly.
She turned toward him; I continued to stare numbly at the side of her face. "It all depends on whether he is strong enough or not. Either he'll kill her himself" -she turned to et Edward's gaze again, he was glaring at her. As if she made the visions possible.
"Which would really irritate Edward, not to ntion what it would do to you and Thomas." she faced Jasper again, "Or she'll be one of us soday."
Soone gasped; I didn't look to see who.
"That's not going to happen!" Edward was shouting again. "Either one!"
Alice didn't seem to hear him. "It all depends," she repeated. "He may be just strong enough not to kill her, but it will be close. It will take an amazing amount of control," she mused. "More even than Carlisle has. He may be just strong enough... The only thing he's not strong enough to do is stay away from her. That's a lost cause."
I couldn't find my voice. No one else seed to be able to either. The room was still. I stared at Alice, and everyone else stared at Edward.
After a long mont, Carlisle sighed. "Well, this..plicates things."
"I'll say," Emtt agreed. His voice was still close to laughter. Trust Emtt to find the joke in the destruction of Edward's life.
"I suppose the plans remain the sa, though," Carlisle said thoughtfully. "We'll stay, and watch. Obviously, no one will...hurt the girl or her brother."
I stiffened.
"No!" Edward's voice was not a shout or a growl or a cry of despair, but so combination of the three. "No!"
Edward's mind was in a panic, he wanted to leave, to be away from the noise of their thoughts, Rosalie's self-righteous disgust, Emtt's humor, Carlisle's never-ending patience...
Worse: Alice's confidence. Jasper's confidence in that confidence.
Worst of all: Es's... joy.
Edward stalked out of the room. Es touched his arm as he passed, but he didn't acknowledge the gesture.
He was running before he was out of the house. Clearing the river in one bound and racing off into the forest.
-(Edward POV)-
The rain was back again, falling so heavily that I was drenched in a few monts. I liked the thick sheet of water, it made a wall between and the rest of the world. It closed in, let be alone.
I ran due east, over and through the mountains without breaking my straight course, until I could see the lights of Seattle on the other side of the Sound mountains. Stopping before I touched the borders of human civilization.
Shut in by the rain, all alone, I finally made myself look at what I had done. At the way I had mutilated the future of that poor girl.
First, the vision of Alice and the girl with their arms around each other, the trust and friendship was so obvious, it shouted from the image. Bella's wide chocolate eyes were not bewildered in this vision, but still full of secrets, in this mont, they seed to be happy secrets. She did not flinch away from Alice's cold arm.
What did it an? How much did she know? In that frozen mont from the future, what did she think of ?
Then the other image, so much the sa, yet now colored by horror. Alice and Bella, their arms still wrapped around each other in trusting friendship. But now there was no difference between those arms, both were white, smooth as marble, hard as steel.
Bella's wide eyes were no longer chocolate. The irises were a shocking, vivid crimson.
The secrets in them were unfathomable, acceptance or desolation? It was impossible to tell. Her face was cold and immortal.
He shuddered. He could not suppress the questions these visions brought, similar, but different: What did it an, how had this co about? And what did she think of now?
Edward felt he could answer that last one. If he forced her into this empty half-life through his weakness and selfishness, surely Bella would hate him.
But there was one more horrifying image-worse than any image I had ever held inside my head. My own eyes, deep crimson with human blood, the eyes of the monster. Bella's broken body in my arms, ashy white, drained, lifeless. It was so concrete, so clear.
I couldn't stand to see this. Could not bear it. I tried to banish it from my mind, tried to see sothing else, anything else. I tried to see again the expression on her living face that had obstructed my view of the last two weeks of my existence. All to no avail.
Alice's bleak vision filled my head, and I writhed internally with the agony it caused. anwhile, the monster inside was overflowing with glee, jubilant at the likelihood of his success. It sickened .
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