Pale Faces || Damon Salvatore

Nineteen

Here is a sentence I never thought I'd say — ever — in my life; Jacob Black is a genius. Only someone with such a distaste for the Cullens kind could think of an idea so ludicrous and intelligent at the same time.

The baby wants blood. That's why it's taking so much of Bella, that's why she looks so pale. It's not taking the food she's eating, it's taking the blood she's pumping into her veins! How couldn't we see? You'd think we would've heard it draining her veins.

So, Bella's been downing cups of blood as if they're vodka (and the girl could really use a vodka, couldn't she?). She seems to have gotten some more colour in her, and she sounds healthier.

But we all know it's just a matter of time before it all comes crashing down again. Edward is trying to keep a brave face, for her, but he isn't an idiot. He knows just as well as the rest of us.

Bella's in the kitchen, getting some more blood — with the help of Rosalie and Alice. I told her I'd get it for her, but apparently she trying out this while 'I can do it myself' regime, which, by the way, she technically didn't since Rose and Alice helped her go into the kitchen.

"If you were to not seem so frustratingly idiotic, brother dearest, I may be more inclined to update you more often." Damon says sarcastically down the phone, and I hear Stefan groan on the other end.

For Christ sakes, you'd think Stefan would've given it a rest by now. But no, of course he feels the need to check up on Damon and I to make sure we're behaving.

If he hasn't noticed, there's fuck all to do in Forks anyway.

"Don't play games with me Damon," Stefan says, "I need to know when you'll be back."

With a smirk, Damon replies cheekily, "Oh, but you know how I love to play games."

I smile at their bantering, noticing how much lighter their relationship seems to be now that Elena isn't in the middle. Last I heard her and Stefan were well on their way to the high life, but for all I know thy could've split up since then. I haven't kept track, I've been slightly busy — what with the whole dying sister and everything.

Bella is helped into the room by Rosalie, and grins at me as they carefully manoeuvre down the step. She seems healthier now she has the blood, but she still has the black circles under her eyes from the lack of sleep.

"Hey El, look—" she drops the cup of blood in her hand, and everything slows down.

It's all in slow motion as Bella bends in an unnatural way, the sound of her spine snapping ringing in my ears, the panic spreading through the room, the horror as Bella begins to scream. I can't take notice of anything, too busy staring; horrified; at my sister, my poor, poor sister.

Damon grabs my arm, lifting me up from the couch, and whispering in my ear, "Come on, she needs you, get it together for just a little longer Fire Starter."

His words gain my attention, and I send him a nod, shaking his hand from my arm as I walk towards the room Rosalie and Edward carried Bella into.

I can hear the screaming from here, and to anyone else it might seem like a normal childbirth. After all, every woman screams at those don't they? But no, no this is far from normal. This is a breaching in the supernatural lines. This is, probably, the only time this experience will ever happen. It's a story for the history books, a dawn of a new era.

It's the day my sister dies.

I didn't think I'd be too upset at the sight of Bella dying, since she's just going to come back anyway. I remember being seven, listening to Bella laugh as I cried from the pain of my broken arm, and I remember squeezing my eyes shut and praying — wishing — that Bella would just 'shut up and die already' (as seven year olds say). I remember when I was depressed, and ready to feel the sweet clutches of death around my heart (ha, that didn't work out for me did it), cursing Bella into oblivion for making me feel the way I felt.