Edward

I can see her through the window by positioning myself on a tree branch. Rain pellets beat down on me, soaking my clothes and sliding down my skin. 

I wonder how “cold” feels like.

I can see that she heard the pebble – her shoulders are up to her ears and her eyes are creeping towards the window. She knows what I am now. 

I wait for her to open the window. She rises slowly, stepping around her bed carefully without ever meeting my eyes – even through the glass blurred by rain I can see that. 

Finally, she opens the window and without hesitation I jump into it. 

What I have neglected is the fact that Bella was still standing in front of the window as I so impetuously leapt into it. I collided with her, bringing us both rolling across the bedroom floor. 

“Sorry,” I apologize as we stop rolling. 

“Get off me,” she half-shrieks, pushing against my chest with her hands. Of course I don’t feel much pressure from this, but I “get off” anyway. 

“Sorry,” I say again, because her face is still flushed. I can feel the heat radiating off her in waves. Why is she behaving this way?

Bella is backing away now, taking small, wary steps backward. Is she afraid of me? “Get away from me,” she warns. Her voice is hard, but scared – and her arms are wrapped around herself; a sign of insecurity. 

“Don’t worry,” I say with a smile. Smiles are supposed to help calm people down. Or make them trust you. “I won’t hurt you,” I say, because I won’t hurt Bella. That’s not my job.

She doesn’t say anything, but continues staring at me with the wide eyes. “What… are you?”

“You already know,” is my reply. Of course she knows – that’s why she is terrified of me.

“No.” Bella shakes her head, catches her head in her hands. “No, it can’t be. How is that possible?!”

I take a careful step forward. She looks frightened enough; I don’t want to scare her with sudden movements. “Anything is possible, Bella.” 

“No… I don’t want to die…” she whimpers. 

I can smell the salty scent of tears, can almost taste it. I dislike this. Having never felt any emotions my whole existence, I cannot fathom the reasoning behind tears. What causes them? Fear? Hate? Sadness? Surely no emotion can be strong enough to induce such a reaction in the body?

“I don’t want… to leave Charlie and Renee and Angela… Please, I don’t want to die…”

I keep silent. I do not know how to reply. 

And then finally, I say: “It is not my job to ensure that you die. That is a separate matter. My job is to stay with you until you die.”

I see her eyes peek at me through the tumble of her hair. “I won’t die tonight…?” 

“I do not know when specifically you will die. However, it is likely to be in the following two weeks.”

With this, the human collapses onto her bedroom floor and starts moaning.

I, too, sit on the ground and watch her. There is nothing I can say. I have seen this reaction many a times before; it does not change anything. Salty tears or not, the human will perish.

“Will you leave?” Bella finally asks, in a quiet voice. 

I incline my head to the side. “Leave?”

“I want to be alone…” she says, so quietly that I can barely hear her over the smattering of raindrops.

“That’s fine. I’ll pick you up in the morning,” I told her, opening the window of her room once more. I close my eyes against the rush of wind. I’ve always loved that.

“In the morning?”

“I’ve told you that I have to stay with you… until the time comes,” I say, before hoisting myself onto the windowsill. “Good night, Bella.”

“…”

*

I hope I’m not too early. 

I get out of the car and knock on her front door lightly. Her father’s car is gone; he has left for work twenty-three minutes ago. I can just get right into the house if I wanted to, but it feels rude to do so.

After a few rounds of knocking without any reply, I notice that there’s a little white button to the right of the door. Ah, the ‘buzzer’.

I place my finger on it and push the button, and as expected a loud buzz sounds.

For a few seconds there is silence, then I hear scrambling and a faint “Hold on!” I step away from the door and within another few seconds it swings open.

Her hair is disheveled, her sleep clothes are rumpled, her eyes are heavy with sleep.

For a moment I have a strange feeling, and then it goes away. I put on a smile and greet her good morning.

Bella stares at me, before her confused look is replaced with one of trepidation. “Why- why are you here?” she demands, stumbling a little bit back into the house.

“I said I’ll come to fetch you to school,” I reply, gesturing to the car.

She eyes me.

“I don’t need you to fetch me to school.”

I keep silent and she takes the chance to slam the door in my face.

I smile, open the door - although it is supposed to be locked – and follow her into the kitchen. The house is nice, nothing too special, but neat and clean. I cough lightly, because it seems she did not realize that I am in the house.

Bella spins around; her eyes go wide and she screams. I put my hand over her mouth and she calms down momentarily.

“How did you…”

I smile and put a finger to my lips. 

Her eyes are anxious, frightened; now she regards me with a different light, I can tell.

“I told you I have to stay with you,” I tell her in a soft voice. I don’t want to scare her; somehow I don’t like it when she looks frightened. This is new to me; I am not known to be sensitive to the human’s feelings.

“Please, just go away,” she begs. Her voice cracks on the last syllable. “Just leave me alone!” 

“Ah… that won’t do,” I say. 

Her back is to me, but I talk to it anyway.

“Look, I’ll make you a deal. I’ll do anything you want if you just endure me being by your side for the next week or so. Is that fine?”

Bella turns around. “You can start by not following me around,” she tries. Her face is still scared, but not too much so.

For some reason, I feel myself relax slightly.

“Anything but that,” I qualify. 

She shakes her head. “I thought so. Okay, I can’t do anything about you anyway.” She sighs, then turns and starts to walk up the staircase. “Be right down,” she calls over her shoulder, but she sounds exhausted.

*

Bella 

After taking a shower and changing into fresh clothes, I walk into the kitchen to find an omelet neatly folded on a plate and a glass of milk sweating on the countertop. 

“Um,” I say, because I didn’t know angels could cook. Besides, I hadn’t even heard cooking – and everything else looks untouched. It looked as if the food had conjured itself up on its own.

Edward is leaning against the fridge on the other side of the kitchen, and as I step closer to the food I notice that he inches slightly away.

“This is for me?” I ask. There doesn’t seem to be much you could say to an angel who has just whipped up breakfast for you in your own kitchen. 

Maybe I was dead already – that would explain the strange images forming before my eyes.

“Yes,” he replies; as always his answers are straightforward. I get a fork from a drawer and take a bite of the eggs. It's delicious, but then again, I’m starved. “Mm, thanks.”

“You’re welcome.”

I finish the food in a few mouthfuls as Edward watches me. I try not to care too much about his cautious eyes, following my actions, flitting away as I look at him. He seems to be as wary of me as I am of him.

Suddenly I’m not too sure whether I should be afraid of him.

“OK, let’s go,” I announce after clearing the plate. 

We both leave the house and I lock the door after him. Immediately, he walks to a silver Volvo parked in front of my house. 

“Wait, whose car is that?” I call after him, right before he whips out a set of car keys and unlocks the car.

“Hey, hey, wait!” I call as he starts to open the driver’s car door. “This is your car?” 

“Yes, it is,” Edward replies. “Come, get in.” 

“No! Uh, I mean, we can’t go to school in that,” I point out, looking over the sleek lines of the car, coupled with its perfectly-cut, tinted windows - perfection. 

Then I glance at my red Chevy… full of imperfections. 

“Would you rather leave the car here until your father comes home, then?” he asks me politely. I wonder if he’s capable of being sly. 

“Uh…” I hesitate. I could almost hear Lauren’s sarcastic remarks flying across the parking lots the moment she sets her eyes upon the car.

“Come on, we’re going to be late for school,” he goads.

Finally, I give in and get into the passenger seat with my book bag. The inside of the car is no better than the outside; smooth leather seats, a sophisticated dashboard… Sitting next to Edward, who looks like he totally belongs in it, I feel completely pathetic.

Then he starts driving.

I almost have a coronary right on the spot; I’m not sure if the guy doesn’t know how to control the car, or if he’s having the time of his life, or if he’s plain making fun of me.

I don’t know if it’s because my Chevy is kind of slow, or if this one was built like a sports car, or if we were really flying off the ground.

What I do know is that we're zipping down the empty road, the trees and houses flying past the windows at an alarming speed as I grip the seat anxiously. Then I knew why Edward had come with his own car, and why he had insisted on taking his car.

“I’m going to die now, aren’t I,” I cry out, slightly angry that my last moments on earth would be in terror.

“No,” Edward replies with that smile of his. “No, you’re not going to die now.”

“Stop lying!” I manage to spit out. “I’m going to die now! I am, aren’t I?! I’m going to die and nobody will know…”

The next moment, I'm thrown against the front of the glove compartment. I hear a sickening thud and immediately the strong stench of blood fills my head – it whirls dangerously, and I groan loudly.

“Hey, you’re bleeding,” Edward says. “Keep still.”

I ignore him and fumble for the latch to open the car door. It’s much more difficult when you have hazy eyes and your head thinks it’s the earth on an axis, I realize. I don’t manage to open it before he grabs my arm and pulls me to face him. 

Bad move; I feel my eyes roll into the back of my head as he whirls me around. “Bastard,” I manage to mutter before his hands move from my arm to my face.

“Hmm,” I hear him ponder. Then he places his hand on the gash and I startle – it doesn’t hurt like I suppose it should. 

Another thing: I never realized that his hands were ice-cold, even when he’d touched me before.

“What are you doing?” I mutter. Now that death wasn’t smiling in my face, I was much calmer – and slightly embarrassed about my outburst.

“You’re not going to die, Bella,” he says. 

“How do you know?” I answer back defensively. “Driving at some crazy speed… you could’ve crashed!”

“I wouldn’t. Besides, I don’t see him around anywhere. There, all done.”

He takes his hand off my face and I put mine to the cut – the blood was dried, but the cut was gone.

“...”

“There, all good. Let’s go to school now.” Edward smiles – only this time do I realize just how unlike a normal person he is.