Fragile Monster

Chapter 3

Removing myself from her body, I lifted and gently rolled Bella onto her back. Looking at my love's face, I recoiled in horror at what I saw. Bella's eyes were hollow, dead marbles staring back into oblivion, her lids pulled back and frozen in a nightmarish stare. The light and life behind them had been extinguished.

As I sat astride Bella's body with my knees on either side of her waist, I hunched forward and cradled her head in my arms. Lifting her head slightly, I felt the crunch and grind of her vertebrae as I swept my hands around the back of her neck. Gently palpating her spinal processes, I could feel the separation of C2 and C3 - undoubtedly severing Bella's spinal cord.

I had a fleeting thought as I looked at her neck. Maybe it wasn't too late after all? Maybe there was the chance to change her before complete brain death. I bent down toward Bella's neck and opened my mouth, as my phone started to ring on the bedside table. I didn't need precognition to know who would be on the other end of the line.

Dragging myself from Bella's corpse, my lead legs felt like they wouldn't support my weight, the ground turning to tar sapping at me in. I crawled to the table and haphazardly felt for my phone and lifted it to my ear.

"Edward, its too late," Alice's voice breaking with heavy grief. Of course she had seen what was going to happen. Of course she couldn't stop it either. I only prayed she didn't feel any guilt. There was only one guilty party in this catastrophe...

"I could..."

"Edward, she's gone."

"But it might..."

"It won't..."

"How do you know? I've got to try."

"You know how."

"She's gone?" I broke.

"She... she's gone..." Alice repeated before I could hear her muffling her phone with a struggle.

"Jasper, I swear to God. Quit trying to fucking control me and let me actually feel!" Alice yelled, her voice more of a screech as she was dragged away from the phone.

"Edward, Edward! Don't hang up! Esme's here," Jasper shouted as I moved the receiver from my ear. I could hear Esme's voice, gentle and soothing as I lay on my side with the phone wedged between my ear and the floor.

"Edward, sweetie are you there?" Esme asked.

"Mom." The sound of her voice was calming as I listened to her. She may not have been my mother through birth, but she was as good as. All I wanted was for her to be with me and hold me in her arms. Her soft, caring embrace in which all of this would be a nightmare and she'd be the one to wake me up. All I wanted was for Bella to open her eyes...

"I'm here, darling."

"Mom... I need you," I whispered into the phone. "I can't.. I can't..." Breath was an impossible weight as it sliced and scissored its way out of my too-small, and long since defunct, lungs.

"Edward, I'm going to be there as soon as possible, but I need you to do something for me."

"Mom..."

"Edward, can you hear me sweetheart?"

Sweetheart. Bella had called me that earlier. "Yeah."

"Okay, listen to me. I need you to be strong. You can do this. I promise."

"I can't..." I replied, drawing my knees to my chest cradling myself. How could I possibly do anything? I couldn't even shed a tear for the remains of my wife laying no more than ten feet from me. I wanted to scream, cry, grieve; rage at the angels, but I didn't have it in me. There was nothing left inside; no fight. Even my sterile cadaverous heart had abandoned me.