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Dream's Shadow

Summary:
This is my take on the over- and usually poorly- done plot. Edward leaves Bella again. She is changed and they meet again in the future. There will be a big twist! Requested by Iris. Banner by Iris!

Notes:
Try it! I know stories like this usually stink, but I thought I'd give it a try. I own nothing. Stephenie Meyer owns all.

64. Chapter 64

Rating 5/5   Word Count 566   Review this Chapter

I gulp. I don’t know. Honestly, there is no way I could be more conflicted. I love Edward more than the rest of the world together. But I can’t imagine any choice more selfish than staying with him and letting everyone else I love lose their lives- because I know without Alice the family will collapse.

“I’ll stay,” I say. Edward groans.

“No…”

“Thank you, Bella.”

“Ha! I can’t wait to see how this turns out!” Aro chuckled. “This is the most fascinating situation I’ve seen in millennia!”
Excellent. That just brightens me up, it does. Jasper looks at me, and I can hear him saying mentally, Let it be possible, let her be safe… anything, anything.

I know I’ve made the right decision. It’s the only fair way, to give back to Alice what our family has given to me. I need to repay the mistake I’d made. I am the reason she’s here. I can’t just abandon her.

And she’s my best friend. I don’t want to lose her.

Yet the pain… fifty years. Fifty years. Fifty years. That’s three times as long as I’ve lived so far- indescribable lengths of painful lonely time. I don’t think I’ll live that long, truly. It’s horrible to comprehend, and yet I must find a way to do it.

“Fascinating! I’ll go inform my brothers,” Aro announces.

Jasper follows him out. Edward and I are alone. He stares at me, betrayal and pain in his face. Gently, his hand glides across my cheek.

I can’t meet his eyes. “Oh, Edward. I’m so sorry.”

“I deserve it,” he says. I wish he’d said he forgives me, but I don’t have any right to expect that.

I twist the ring off my finger, offer it to him. “Edward, I can’t keep this. Fifty years is too long to expect you to wait for me. I’ll always love you, but I don’t expect you to wait for me.”

“I will,” he whispers. “I’ll wait forever. And I want you to keep that, to remember me. In fifty years, I want to marry you. In fifty years I will still feel this way. In a thousand years, in a million… Bella, I meant it when I said I’d love you forever. This doesn’t change anything.”

“I am going to miss you,” I say. It is an insubstantial utterance. It goes nowhere near capturing the depth of my feelings. I am going to be in agony every instant we are apart. I am going to ache for him, my soul burning, my heart a chunk of empty ice.

He chuckles softly, catching the understatement. “And I you, Bella.”

Quietly, without any words, I kiss him. It only lasts a second. Unlike at our other partings, there is no fiery rage, just soft devotion.

When I pull away, I can finally meet his eyes. He smiles with some effort. I can tell it is a lying expression. I don’t really care.

“I love you.”

“And I love you, Bella.”

“Will you wait for me? I don’t have any right to ask.”

“I couldn’t leave you if I wanted to,” he says.

And with that he walks away. And for the third time, I am alone.