A/N: This is my take on what would happen if Alice had gotten the emails that Bella sent. Hope you like. :)


From: Bella Swan []

Subject: [no subject]

Date: September 17, 2005 2:42:24 AM PST

To: Alice Cullen [alice_]

Alice,

You've disappeared, just like everything else. Who do I have to talk to now? I'm lost. When you left--and he left-- you took everything with you. It's like a hole has been punched in my chest. But I'm almost glad for the pain. It's the only reminder I have that you ever existed. I wish you'd reply. So I'd have something besides pain to remember you by. I love you and I miss you.

~Bella


I gritted my teeth in grief and made sure I didn't hold my phone too tightly as I pulled it out of my pocket. A hand stopped me as I dialed Bella's phone number. I stiffened and felt a growl bubble up from my chest.

"Alice. Remember. We all agreed. We can't have any contact with her. It needs to be like we never existed. A clean break, remember?"

I sighed frustratedly, my breath rumbling with remnants of my growling.

"Edward, this isn't going to work. It won't be a clean break. She's not going to let this go. She's not going to be able to handle this. It's too much for her. I've seen it. "

"She'll be fine. She'll move on."

"She won't, Edward. Trust me. I-"

"She will. She'll get over me."

"No, she won't, Edward! For someone who's supposed to be intelligent, you can be remarkably dense! I've seen it already, Edward! She'll never get over this. Ever! I think we need to go back, Edward."

"We're never going back. And your visions aren't always right."

I bared my teeth slightly as I spoke. "Have you ever seen visions as clear as the ones I'm seeing right now? I know you can see them. And I know that you'd never admit it, but you think they're unusually clear, too. I know you see her face in my mind. Right now. Look at her! That's not normal, Edward! She looks dead! There's nothing there! Nothing! She's just this shell. All she does is sit there! And I don't see that changing any time soon. That's why the visions are so clear. It's because her future is the same thing. All I see is that blankness. That's all that's in her future."

"It'll change. We just have to give her time."

"Edward, you're not listening to me! Stop telling yourself that she's going to be okay! There are some things that time can't fix and I'm positive that this is one of them. Do you have any idea how much she loves you? Do you know what this is doing to her? This is killing her, Edward! Literally killing her!"

Edward clenched his jaw.

"This isn't going to kill her. What was going to kill her was us. "

"Edward, she hasn't eaten for days! She's barely had anything to drink. She doesn't talk, she doesn't move. How many times has she told you that she'd rather die than be without you?! Did you think she was kidding? Did you not listen to her? She's not afraid of death. She's afraid of losing you. You're trying to protect her, yet you go and do the very thing that'll hurt her the most."

"Unlike you, Alice, I'm trying to do what's best for her," Edward spat. I noticed the rest of my family in my periphery, watching us uneasily. They were wondering whether to intervene, but decided against it.

"What's best for her?!?" I shrieked. "What's best for her, Edward? No. You're doing what's best for you. You can't handle knowing that your being a vampire puts her in danger. So you just run away, like the selfish coward you are!"

"So I'm selfish now? I'm selfish for having the guts to leave everything to keep her safe? She's my life, Alice! I won't have her getting hurt because of me. And that's selfish?"

"Yes, it's disgustingly selfish," I snarled. "Did you not stop to consider what she thinks, Edward? Did you stop to think about what she wants?"

Edward growled. "What Bella wants isn't good for her."

"It's not your place to determine what's good for her! That's not your decision to make! That's Bella's prerogative! Her opinion isn't any less valid than yours, Edward."

"I know that, Alice. I'm not some controlling jack-ass!"

"You could've fooled me! You don't act like her opinion is as valid as yours! Every time I've ever heard you two argue, you're trying to tell her what's good for her! She's a big girl, Edward. She can determine what's dangerous and what's not. Just because she's human, just because her bones are fragile and her skin is soft and her senses are weak, doesn't mean she's any less capable of making decisions as you are."

"What would you have me do, Alice? Jasper almost killed her!" I saw Jasper look down at the floor. If I weren't already so livid with Edward about Bella, I would've flown off the handle about that, too. Jasper already felt like this was all his fault, like he was responsible for Bella's pain. Edward's bringing that up didn't help.

"That could've been any of us, Alice! It could've been you. It could've been me! And I'm going to put the one thing in this world that means the most to me in that kind of danger? What would you have me do?"

"You want to know what I would do, Edward?" We were now at opposite ends of the room, screaming at each other. I could feel my hands shaking.

"I would remember that there are two people in the relationship, not one! I would remind myself that you have to compromise in a relationship. You can't totally disregard the other's opinions and feelings. You can't be so assured of your own rightness so as to bulldoze over the other person-"

"Alice, shut u-" Edward tried to interject.

"Excuse me for being crude, Edward. But what would I do? I would grow a pair and try to work things out. I'd solve the problem instead of running away from it."

Edward gritted his teeth. "Running away. You know it's not that simple. Leaving Bella like that? Being forced to hurt her? That's the hardest thing I've done in one hundred and nine years."

"Yeah? Well, listening to you? Not dialing her number on the phone that's in my hand? That's the hardest thing I've done in one hundred and eight years. I don't think it's fair that you're forcing the rest of us to hurt her, too."

Just as I finished speaking, a vision hit me. It was Bella. But it wasn't the blank-faced, corpse-like Bella of my other visions. Bella was having a nightmare. I had seen her have nightmares before, but I'd never witnessed anything like this. Bella was thrashing and writhing about so violently that her legs were literally bound in her sheets. She was lying on her side. The arm closest to the bed was stretched out, clutching the sheets. She had ripped the contour sheet off the mattress. Her other arm was curled around her chest, guarding her movements as if she were severely injured. And she was screaming. It was the type of scream one normally hears in horror films. Loud, high-pitched, grating, and pervasive. She just kept screaming, in pure agony, until she ran out of air. And every time she took a short, shallow breath she started back over. Near the end of the vision, Charlie rushed in. It even woke Charlie. Charlie was known for being able to sleep through anything. But not this. I couldn't imagine how anyone could ignore a sound as harrowing and tormented as that scream. I was sure her neighbors could hear her. The scene faded away as a panicked Charlie shook Bella, trying desperately to wake her.

I clenched my fists, forgetting the tiny silver phone in my hand. The device crumpled like an aluminum can in my hand.

Edward, who was obviously shaken by the vision, wouldn't look at me. I had to get out of here. If I didn't leave soon, there would be an all-out brawl between us. As I walked past him, I spoke.

"Edward, do me a favor. Don't talk to me for a few months."

Just before I opened the front door, Edward replied.

"What are you going to do about the email? We have to make sure she knows that you don't use that email anymore."

I wheeled around. "Me? What am I going to do about it? Nothing! If I can't reply to her, if I can't talk to her, I refuse to do anything at all! You handle this!" I paused for a minute, yanked an ancient, skinny hardback off the book shelf and hurled it at his feet. The old copy of Of Mice and Men crumpled and pages exploded outwards as it socked the floor at over a hundred miles per hour.

"Shoot your own dog, Edward!"

Edward bent to pick the battered copy of Of Mice and Men off the ground. As he picked it up, the book flopped over like a wilted plant where the spine had broken. I flung the door open, rushed outside, and slammed it so hard it cracked down the middle. I ran, not caring where I was going, not noticing that I had ripped the door knob off and still carried it in my hand. I ran until I didn't know what state I was in anymore, until I didn't know what time it was. I just kept running, concentrating on the scents in the air, the feel of the forest floor on my bare feet. Anything to get her out of my head. Anything to get her dead face out from behind my eyes, her screaming out of my ears. After a while, I slowed to a stop as a vision hit me. The vision was of an email. The email Edward was sending back to Bella. I just stood, trembling in my fury as I watched it unfold. By the time the vision ended I was nearly insane with anger. I had felled three massive trees and reduced a boulder to powder when the vision had faded away. Afterwards, I called Jazz to let him know I'd be home in a few days. Then I sat on the ground, propped against a tree, and broke down in tearless sobs as, back in Forks, Bella sat and stared blankly at her computer, tears glinting in her dead, hollow eyes.


From:

Subject: Returned to Sender: Delivery Has Failed

Date: September 17, 2005 2:42:24 AM PST

To: Bella Swan []

Your message cannot be delivered to the following recipients:

alice_

----- Original message -----

Date: Sept 15 2009 7:46:09 AM PST

Subject: [no subject]

From: Bella Swan []

To: Alice Cullen [alice_]

Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary=000e0cd2170847c1bd0478d5d786

Alice,

You've disappeared, just like everything else. Who do I have to talk to now? I'm lost. When you left--and he left-- you took everything with you. It's like a hole has been punched in my chest. But I'm almost glad for the pain. It's the only reminder I have that you ever existed. I wish you'd reply. So I'd have something besides pain to remember you by. I love you and I miss you.

~Bella


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