Little Edward
Chapter Twenty Seven
Jasper
We weren't prepared for the day that the Volturi attacked again.
They didn't physically attack us. They didn't even really attack us as a whole. But they hurt us in the weak link in our armor.
Through Bella.
Garrett and I had been sitting with her, just thinking about the cards that life had dealt us in the last few decades. I held Bella's right hand and Garrett held her left when suddenly a raw, agonizing pain shot through me. Bella was the projector, and I could feel every inch of her anguish.
"Carlisle! CARLISLE!" I roared, leaping out of the seat with a strong push. My adoptive father was in the room within seconds, holding his head to Bella as he tried to diagnose the pain.
Before this, all I'd felt from Bella and Emmett was nothingness. I hadn't felt absolutely nothing, but just that hollow feeling that demands to be felt. It was one of the most hated emotions for vampires, because without a beating heart or a body that was really alive, how much emptier could you become?
But now, Bella was not empty. She was alive with fire. Fire that consumed her, fire that hurt her, fire that burned her.
She was burning.
And there was nothing we could do about it.
"It's the Volturi, it has to be, every piece of evidence points to them, we oughta storm Volterra, kill 'em all, wouldn't be too hard, almost got away with it last time, le-" Garret's frantic voice was cut off by Alice ushering him out of the house. I felt her pain and I felt her helplessness and knew that she had to do something to assist the cause, or else she would explode. This was her way of helping.
"Can she hear us?" Esme questioned shrilly, and that was when that deafening high-pitched shrieking began. Maybe it came from Bella. But no, her mouth wasn't moving. Did the others even hear it?
No, everyone was scrambling and moving about, only it was in slow motion. Why was there so much noise? I crashed to my knees, as the sound began to dominate all my senses. What was happening?
A worried face crossed my vision. Who was the pixie-like girl in front of me? Should I know her? All I knew was that this screeching had to stop, and it had to stop now. I was deaf to anything but the maddening noise.
"Jasper."
The name startled me. How had it overridden the barrier that had surrounded me? Who was Jasper? Why was everything hurting?
"Jasper, you need to calm down. This is Bella's overflowing pain, and you need to control it before you end up like her."
Who was Bella? Who was Jasper? Who was I? I didn't know, I had no clue, I wanted it all to end. No, no, no, no, no. Why was everything spinning? And why wouldn't that goddamned screamer just shut the fuck up?
Why couldn't everything just stop?
Then, a sharp pain hit my cheek, and slowly, very panfully slow, the sound of the noise was muted to a dull ringing in my ears.
Alice stood before me, staring at me in horror. "Jasper, you can't let that happen. Holy god, we thought you would never respond!"
My mind whirled. "Alice, I was only out of it for a few minutes!"
Then I realized where we were. In the same room where Bella and Emmett rested, but as Carlisle and Garret were leaned over Bella, no one else was here. When it had been morning when the Volturi had attacked Bella's mind, a quick glance out the glass wall told me it was around midnight.
"Over twelve hours, Jasper. The Volturi was expecting you to feel the pain so much so that you'd drop your filter and we would all feel it. You can't let it control you."
All I wanted was to lie down. Whoever said vampires don't get tired was very wrong. My heart would've been beating hard against my chest had I actually had a beating heart. But as I didn't, my entire body ached and felt heavy like lead.
"Oh, Jasper..." Alice cradled my head to her torso, and for the first time since Alice literally slapped me out of my torture, I noticed that I was still on my knees.
Alice was quietly sobbing without tears into my hair.
"Oh, Jasper. It's so bad. Her eyes ... They're haunted."
Haunted.
Out of all the words Alice could've used to describe Bella's eyes, she chose 'haunted'. That word nearly broke my dead heart.
Where had my fearless and loyal best friend and baby sister gone? How could she be regarded as haunted?
And suddenly, my recent life flashed before me, from the time Edward was transformed to now. I'd watched how Edward had slowly drifted from us and how Bella had slowly weakened. Bella had needed us. We didn't help her. We were so used to her being strong for everyone else that no one thought to lend her a hand. I should've seen it. I had always been the resilient soldier back in Texas, but when I met the Cullens and then later Bella, I had allowed Bella to take up the exhaustive position of the strong one.
Every time Edward had kissed Emma, Bella had needed us.
Every time Edward called Bella his sister, Bella had needed us.
Every time Edward had flashed that damn crooked smile, Bella had needed us.
And we weren't there.
And once again, for the very last time, Bella was in pain.
Bella had needed us.
And now we would be there.
Edward
"Dahn. Dahn dahn dahn. Dahn dahn dahn. Dahn dahn dahnnnnn. Eye of the tiger!!" came a hum from down the hallway.
"Kyle, since when do you listen to 80's music?"
"Since now, Eddie."
That kid knew how to press my buttons.
It would seem as though he found it amusing to annoy me. But even after everything Kyle pulled during the day, he was a good kid and a good friend, and I knew if I needed to have a very manly heart-to-heart at 3 in the morning, I knew he would be the first person I would call.
But that aside, he was fucking irritating.
After coming to live in California, my swearing had incread by at least ten times. It was most likely a result of Kyle, who had a very dirty mouth since I'd met him a year and a half ago.
That night, when Emma was in bed and I was sitting on the carpeted floor of our enormous walk-in closet, sorting through my old possessions, I found something that sent chills down my spine.
The vial.
Ever since I'd discovered the pink vial with the address 173 Killanburn Lane written on its note, I'd tried not to even think about the clear liquid of Bella's venom. Why would the girl leave me such a disgusting souvenir?
More importantly, why had I given so much thought to it?
Because you still care about her, a voice nagged in the back of my head.
Well, duh, of course I did. She was once my older sister, and now she was my little sister, and that was that. I had no intimate relationship with her, nor did I want one. She was my sister, for crying out loud!
But there was still that ache for her whenever I thought of the way her topaz eyes lit up when she laughed or how her hands fluttered around as she spoke or even how her teeth gritted together when she was in a rage.
Whenever I started to drift too far in my thoughts about her, I forced myself to forget the dazzling vampire girl. I had my own nice, soft, warm, and loving human girl, who would grow old with me and we would have kids and soon die together.
Emma was soft.
Bella was hard.
Emma was warm.
Bella was cold.
Emma was calm but uncaring.
Bella was fierce but loving.
Emma was dependent on me.
Bella was protective of me.
But, I admitted, I had always made myself look at Emma through rose-colored glass. The girl I loved was demanding and actually very mean to others. She was the stereotypical American teenager whose voice was too nasal and gossiped too much. She was a cruel, coldhearted being with warm skin, while Bella was a sweet, warmhearted being with cold skin.
I fingered the venom vial again. Maybe I was missing the true value of it all. Maybe it was a way to turn into a vampire. But that just went against everything I at least thought I knew about Bella and the other Cullens.
So was it a tirgger for a guilt trip? Was it a reminder? Was it a token?
I couldn't decipher the message behind my now younger sister's last gift to me.
But I would keep at it until I found the answer.
Author's Note: This was going to be at least somewhere around four pages, but I had a better idea, so the next chapter will be the second to last chapter, or possibly the third to last. Or maybe I might extend the plot a bit further. I dunno. I haven't made my mind up yet. If you want me to do a sequel, I need ideas. If you don't comment the ideas, then I can't write a sequel.
Thanks for sticking with me throughout this entire story. It's almost over, but I assure you, after the end of Little Edward, it won't be the last we see of Bella, Edward, and Emma!!
Lots of love, darlings!
xxx
Princess