Chapter 16: Family Betrayal Unveiled

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Anna's POV:

With a jolt and a gasp that escaped my throat as if waking from a nightmare I was suddenly awake.

I was sitting straight on a couch completely disoriented and groggy while I sniffed a few time as my sight adjusted to my surroundings.

Brushing my hands hard over my face once I noticed Charlie's plasma TV in front of me. Straddled I whipped my head around and saw that I was in Charlie's living room. Shocked I jumped off the couch nearly losing my balance in the process.

I fell slightly over bracing myself with my hands against the couch while my head spun with the discovering of being in Chief Swan's house. Carefully and hesitantly I sat back down with a, in fear and confusion, wildly beating heart in my chest.

My breathing left my mouth in shallow and fast gasps as I took my surroundings in once more, paying more attention to everything around me this time. I noticed that it looked exactly the same as when I first arrived in Charlie's home before I cleaned the house from the basement to the roof.

Terror and confusion made my body tremble while my scattered mind was trying it's hardest to make sense out of what was happening.

Maybe this is the afterlife? My subconscious offered looking as clueless as I felt.

My throat burned and tightened up and I lifted my legs up on the couch and pressed them to my chest before I sneaked my arms around my knees, curling myself into a little ball.

I waited for the tears to roll down my cheeks and for the whimpers and cries of complain and pain to escape my throat but nothing happened. I could feel all the emotions that were bottled up deep inside and threatened to spill over but for some reason they couldn't.

I wanted to vent somehow. I knew that it would be better if I could let everything out but all I was able to feel was numbness and an alien feeling of wrongness that had settled over me.

I briefly wondered that if I was unable to cry if I should just stand up and smash the entire living room but that idea was not as appealing anymore given a second thought.

At some point I huffed und unwound my arms from my knees before I laid down on the couch. My head snuggled up into the near by pillow while my mind was filled with nothing. I couldn't cry and as it seemed I was even unable to think.

After a while if absolute silence I sighed and forced my mind to make an effort because there had to be an explanation for what happened. At least I hoped so.

Just as I was concentrating on thinking the loud, shrill ringing sound of Charlie's old land line made me jump nearly a mile in shock. After letting out a piercing shriek of surprise I covered my racing heart with my hand.

Are you going to just sit there or are you going to answer the phone? My subconscious tried to sound unaffected by the sinister atmosphere in the house but failed miserably.

My whole body shook as I tried to catch my breath while the phone was ringing again. I licked my lips and looked helplessly into the kitchen where the phone was located.

Looking around the living room and into the dark hallway I decided to go and answer the phone. My steps were slow and measured as I neared the kitchen. In my head I counted the rings.

5 so far.

On the sevenths ring I stood in front of the yellow phone that was showing it's years. The colour was bleached out and the thing looked like something out of the sixties.

I took a deep breath and timidly reached out my shaking head while my survival instincts and my mind were conspiring against me. The hair on the back of my neck and my arm stood to no end and my mind was bombarding me with images and memories of horror movies where the person who picked up the phone sealed their fate.

Despite the terror that ruled my body I picked up the phone.

Once I had it in my hand and the ringing stopped I blew out a lung full of air before I slowly guided the handset to my ear.

"Hello?" A quiet, choked whisper escaped me.

"Anna? Anna is that you?" I heard Edward's frantic voice through the antique thing.

"Edward!" I breathed his name as relief washed over me.

At least I knew then that I wasn't alone in this world or dimension or afterlife or wherever the heck we were.

"Anna, are you alright?" His voice was breathless and sounded just as relieved as I felt.

"Yes, I am how about you?" I asked him and noticed for the first time the sounds in the background.

It sounded as if he was in a busy place with a lot of people buzzing around him.

"Where are you?" I asked him again before he had a chance to answer my previous question.

"At the São Paulo-Guarulhos International Airport."

"You are at an airport?"

"I suddenly found myself in the middle of the Brazilian forest. It was faster to go straight to the airport then to return to the place I had been staying in."

"You always have credit card with you or something?" I wondered out of nowhere how he was able to call me and how he would buy himself a ticket.

"Well,…" he murmured and I could picture him shrugging helplessly.

"Never mind," I shook my head dismissing the unimportant topic.

"What happened?" and just like that it hit me.

"Wait there are other humans around you?" I was so surprised at what came out of my mouth that I stumbled back a few steps.

Silence followed my question.

"Er….why wouldn't there be?" He asked carefully.

My mouth hung open and I turned around to look out of the windows of the living room seeing the houses of Charlie's neighbours lit and some shadows moving around in the neighbour house.

"Oh, so we are not dead? This is not the afterlife?" I asked nearly stunned.

I really had no idea were my suddenly silliness was coming from. Maybe everything that happened had screwed with my mind.

"No, we are not." He said in a firm nearly angry voice.

I rolled my eyes at him.

"OK, then what did happen?"

"We are back in the past. It is the day before I got the call from Rosalie."

My yaw went slack and I starred at the yellow wall in front of me that desperately needed a fresh paint.

"Are you still there?" Edward's concerned voice rang through the phone after I hadn't made a sound for several minutes.

"Y-Yeah, sorry…..I'm just…you've gotta be kidding me!" I exclaimed suddenly.

"No, I'm not kidding Anna. It is the day before the call. I checked and double checked it."

At that I needed to sit down.

"How is that even possible? Why?"

Edward was silent for a few moments before he spoke again.

"After I told my family about everything that had happened a few theories were rushing through Carlisle mind. Among other things he was wondering how the time line in this world would look like and if you could just exist here without having a real place in our world."

"What does that mean?" I interrupted him.

"The door got destroyed right?"

"Yes," I answered slowly while pain was tightening up my chest.

"The door had been the connection between the both worlds. I think what happened, well what Carlisle was thinking, it was one of his many theories though he dismissed it quickly since it wasn't applying back then but I was able to catch the gist of it."

"Okay," I said slowly and stretched the word out to stop his rant.

"Sorry," he chuckled humourlessly and I could hear the nervousness in that quiet sound.

"Anyway what most likely happened is that the connection was working like some kind of rubber band. Ever since Bella stepped into your world that band had been stretching, creating a new time line for this reality along the real one and when she came back the rubber band snatched back and we are back to the moment when she left this universe."

I was quiet while I mulled this over in my head.

"But that doesn't make sense then she should be here and not in La Push."

Edward was silent again and I suddenly remembered something that Lake told me.

"Jake once asked me if I was alright because apparently she rushed off after getting to know about Harry's death but that was not how it happened in the books. There she was shocked and stayed the night in La Push and came back the next day late in the afternoon if I'm remembering it correctly." I was fisting my hair trying to make sense of the mess I was in.

"If you are remembering right then whatever caused her change of curse does not exist anymore and that would be evidence for the fact that we are back to the original time line."

"Then why am I still here?"

"I really don't know, Anna, but I promise you I will find it out." He assured me.

"Alright …." I sighed while my mind reeled.

"Are you really OK?" He questioned his voice was soft as he asked and it was laced with deep concern.

"No, I just….want to stop….but never mind me for now. Are you coming back to Forks?"

"Yes, my flight will leave in twenty minutes." He assured me.

"I have chartered a private jet that way the journey won't take the usual fifteen to twenty-one hours but only ten on a direct flight."

As he told me about his travel plans I remembered that someone else would also soon arrive.

"Anna what's wrong?"

"What?" I asked confused.

"Your breathing suddenly picked up."

"She will be here soon too. Maybe you will come back just in time for her funeral." I hissed furious as hell.

"Anna I will be there in the afternoon…."

"Afternoon?" I interrupted him. "What are you talking about?" I was confused.

I looked out of the window and for the first time it really registered with me that it was dark outside.

"It must be around five in the morning over there in Washington," I heard him say and my head whipped to the clock on the opposite wall of the phone.

And in fact the clock showed that it was just a few minutes after five.

"Oh, god I'm so totally off," I shook my head. I needed to pull myself together.

"Anna, you have been through so much. It's understandable. I will be there in about eleven hours twelve at tops if something unexpected occurs."

"OK," I breathed.

"Try to get some sleep. Don't drive yourself crazy for no reason. We will figure this out." Edward assured me with determination in his voice.

"Maybe you are right." I sighed as I felt a headache nearing.

"Good. Listen my flight is about to take off. I see you soon."

"Bye." I said before I hung up.

I got up from the chair I was sitting on, placed the phone back, crossed the kitchen and took some pain killers before I went back into the living room laying back down on the couch.

I felt helpless and lost when it realised that after the explosion had been most likely the last time I ever heard my mom's voice. I cursed the universe or whatever power brought us back into the past because if it could do this I couldn't for the life of me understand why that power or whoever couldn't just sweep my family over to this world as well.

I never believed in hating people because that did cost a lot of energy and it was a waste of time in my opinion. I honestly used to think that but after what she had done to me I was shocked to realise how easy it could be to hate someone with every fibre of my being.

My head was starting to hurt I was tired and at some point into worrying and wondering myself sick I was out like a light.

*12*

I stretched as I woke up from my refreshing slumber. When my eyes opened I saw that it was bright in the living room. I yawned for good measures and sat up. Looking over at the clock on the wall opposite the TV my eyes nearly popped out.

It was three o'clock in the afternoon.

That definitely had been quite some sleep but I had to admit that I needed it. My head didn't hurt anymore, luckily and I felt as if I could face the insane craziness that had become my life once again.

It's not like you have much of a choice, girl. My subconscious pointed out.

I sighed at that.

After I surrendered myself to the fact that this wasn't a nightmare from which I would wake up but reality I was trying to decide what to do first. My stomach told me that it wanted to be filled while my nose screamed at me to use the shower and a lot of body wash.

While I was in the middle of the decision making process another thought slammed into me that alerted me to a vital fact: I was in the past, before she came back, before the door had been destroyed.

I didn't even know how I got off the couch but suddenly I was flying up the stairs trying not to break my neck in the process. The last thing I needed was to break my bones as I was so close to my goal.

I grabbed the old wooden railing to swing my body around the curve to the left once I reached the upper level where her room was located but once I had the entrance to her room in my sight I stopped dead in my tracks.

There between the doorframes was not what I had been hoping for. There still was a door but not the one that had brought me into this world. I pressed my lips into a thin line as I dragged my feet over the floor until I stood in front of the damn door.

I hoped. I prayed to feel the connection again that had always been there and that was giving me hope to return home but I felt nothing. The connection, the feeling that reminded me of home was gone.

My hand lifted up in the air, fist balled and I slammed my hand against the hard, dead wood of the door. It hurt a little. I did it again and again until I let out a high pitched scream in disappointment, anger, grief and frustration.

Having done enough damage to my hands I turned around and leaned against the useless door breathing hard from my physical and emotional effort.

Still no tears showed there appearance.

I was leaning against the door for quiet a whole with my arms crossed over my chest grumping under my breath as the realisation that I was truly stuck in this world slowly and in bits started to sink in.

I stopped that line of thought as it started to become too painful. Pushing myself away from the door I opened it in a last desperate attempt to gain some hope. Every time I stepped over the threshold of the other door I felt a funny, electric and slightly powerful feeling. It had been brief and fleeing but it had been there.

But once I stepped over the threshold this time there was nothing. No feeling of electricity or power. The only reaction that occurred was the disgusted sneer that had formed on my face once I saw the mess that I had cleaned up a few weeks ago, laughing back at me, taunting me.

Trembling in disgust I threw the door shut with a loud bang and made my way downstairs and into the bathroom. I shaved and took a long relaxing shower not wanting to think about anything else as the warm water running over my skin and washing away the tension I felt.

Once I was done and dressed back in my clothes since I didn't have any other clothes again. I shook my head and laughed humourlessly while I dressed into my slightly soiled clothes.

I went into the kitchen and made myself a sandwich.

I was chewing slowly and without appetite on a piece of my half eaten sandwich as someone knocked on the front door. With a sigh I put the uneaten part of my sandwich down and went to the front door. Only as I had already opened the door and was about to swing it open it occurred to me that I had no idea if I even belonged to this house anymore or if whoever it was who knocked would regard me as a burglar.

Those concerns were too late though.

Quickly I made up a story about being a nice of Charlie's, since Charlie did have other family as well only that they didn't talk all that much as I got to know. A post card on Christmas was the most contact they had.

With an emergency plan in the back pocket I put a smile on my face and was about to greet whoever it was as two small arms wrapped around my middle and a short cut black head was pressed against my chest, nearly reaching to my chin.

"Alice?"

"Oh Anna I'm so sorry." She moaned into me before pulling away, but not letting go of me.

"Don't you want to come in?" I asked slightly smiling at her.

She looked at me with a sad expression on her face and went after me into the living room after I closed the front door.

It appeared that the Vampires at least still knew what happened.

"It's good to see you Alice." I told her after we got comfortable on the couch.

She nodded her head and her face turned even sadder.

"I'm so sorry Anna this must be so hard for you," she whispered as she covered my hand with hers.

I inhaled and exhaled loudly while I shrugged.

"Poor Bella is…."

"What?" I immediately cut her off as she dared to say the name of the family stealing witch.

"Alice what are you talking about?"

The pixie looked confused and a little straddled at me.

"Bella she…she's dead," her voice was a quiet whisper while her eyes were regarding me carefully.

Just then I understood. Alice thought that the family stealing witch was dead. She had no idea that she was still alive and cuddling with a pup.

"She is not dead," I spat, "unfortunately," I added in a quieter tone.

Alice looked at me shocked and straddled.

I sighed.

"You saw her jump off the cliff but not resurface but she did. Jake, a Werewolf, jumped after her and fished her out of the water. You can't see the Werewolves that is why you couldn't see her rescue or any of her ever since then since she is still with him."

"What are you talking about?" I had to admit that she was good.

Her golden eyes shone with true confusion at me though I could detect some fear in them too.

"I'm talking about you being a Vampire and Werewolves that are living down in La Push."

Her eyes went wide at my words and her jaw went slack.

"H-How…How?" She was stammering just as we heard the beast inch closer to where we were.

I grit my teeth and narrowed my eyes in the direction of the rumbling sound of the old truck.

"You might want to say goodbye to the family stealing witch because she won't be around much longer." I barked out and stood up storming in fury to the front door.

"Family stealing witch?" I heard Alice repeat from behind me, her voice was laced in confusion as I threw the door open.

Just as I stepped outside I saw her and Jake stand huddled together. My anger and fury at the sight of her reached an all time high.

I felt Alice's presence behind me while the urge to murder her was boiling within my blood and beckoning my limbs to sneak around her little neck and squeeze hard until she wouldn't breath anymore.

"Bella!" Alice exclaimed in stunned shock as she must have spotted her.

The head of the family stealing witch snapped up at the sound of her best friend's voice and our eyes met.

When she saw me she gasped, jumped back and paled in horror.

"But…..but….but," she was stammering while watching me with wide open eyes.

"What are you doing here leech?" Jake growled standing protectively in front of the family stealing witch and glaring at Alice mistaking her as the cause of Bella's sudden panic attack.

"I could ask you the same mutt." The little Vampire shot back.

"Don't worry Bella I will protect you." He told her and was about to address me but I was faster.

"Not even your entire pack will be able to protect her once I've gotten my hands on her." I hissed while my body trembled with hot rage.

Some of the anger was wiped out of Jake's face at the word "pack" and replaced with confusion.

"Anna what are you talking about?" He chuckled rather nervously looking puzzled back at her.

"Oh why don't you tell him what I'm talking about?" I sneered at her crossing my arms over my chest while pathetic tears were streaming down her cheeks.

At the sight of her tears and pained face I saw red.

Blood red.

"Don't you even dare to try to play the victim in this! What an ice cold, inhuman monster are you?"

I screamed at her while Jake and Alice were looking totally confused and dumbfounded, not understanding anything that was going on between her and me.

She pressed herself further into her truck trying to shield herself from me and block the sight of her with Jake's body.

It fuelled my rage and I made to storm directly at her but when I was half way to my aim a black car shot into the street we were on and came to a screeching halt, before I heard a car door flying open and cold strong arms halted my movements as they slung around my back and belly pressing me sidewise into a hard, cool body.

"Edward!" I heard her exclaim in a whiny voice.

"Let go of me." I ordered him. My eyes blazed at him when I looked up into his golden pools.

He just shook his head and held me tighter to him.

"I told you to let me go I'm going to strangle her." I hissed and directed my most heated glare at her.

It felt good when I saw her squirm in fear.

"Anna that won't solve anything." He told me calmly.

My eyes were on his face again and I glared at him.

"But it sure as hell will me make me feel better."

"I'm sorry." She suddenly whined again.

"You're sorry. You're sorry?" I laughed hysterically. "After everything you've done to me, after everything you took away from me that's all you've got to say? You're sorry!" I screamed the last two words struggling against Edward's iron hold on my body.

"I'll give you a reason to be sorry!" I vowed jumping in Edward's arms trying desperately to get to her.

"What in the world is going on here?" Jake asked confused looking back and forth between her and me.

"Why don't you tell him what you've done?" I spat at her.

Jake turned around and looked interrogatively at her.

She cried even harder, her face looked more anguished then before and she shook her head.

"You evil coward!" I yelled.

"Edward?" I heard Alice's voice from my left side.

"Later Alice," he replied while I continued to struggle.

"We are getting an audience." Edward said and before I knew it I was in his arms as he carried me bridal style.

I gripped his jacket tightly and glared furiously at the family stealing witch that looked longingly and with jealously but also confusion and hurt at us as Edward carried me inside the house.

"Anna calm down!" Edward said softly after he put me down on Charlie's favourite easy chair.

"Calm down! Calm down? How in the hell am I supposed to clam down after everything she has done to me? After everything she had taken from me?" I shouted at him trying to jump up from the chair but Edward had both of his hands on my shoulder.

His expression showed pain and heartfelt sympathy as he looked at me while I glared at him. I had no idea for how long we stayed in that position but the voice that got my blood boiling interrupted the quiet battle we had going on.

"Edward," her choked, tear filled, annoying voice rang through the house.

Edward let go of one of my shoulders to be able to turn around and look at her but had the other hand still on my body, not moving from my side.

I saw her pleading with her eyes that were filled with tears that waited to be shed. She was so pathetic that I wanted to throw up. No, I wanted to slap her out of her pathetic damsel in distress act. I was glaring sharp daggers at her while my chest heaved with hard and shallow breaths but she had only eyes for Edward, of course.

"Don't you feel even a little guilty? Have you no shame?" I asked in a hate filled and ice cold voice.

Only then her eyes snapped in my direction and quickly located the spot where Edward was touching me to hold me in the damn chair.

"What is going on here?" Alice demanded annoyed and angry herself it seemed.

Edward sighed heavily.

"That is a long story Alice."

I heard a gasp leave her mouth as she looked with shocked and wide eyes at Edward and me.

"I can….I-I can explain." She stammered.

"Well I'm all ears please do tell how you could have been so heartless and take my family away from me leaving your own parents behind like trash?" I sneered at her.

"It-it wasn't like that." She whispered weakly.

"Wasn't like that!" I yelled. "You threw Edward and his entire family at me like they were some kind of used toys you were tired of, not to forget Jake and your parents."

"Please I didn't…..I," she choked on her words and more of her pathetic tears were running down her face.

"You got fed up with the mess you created and you shoved all of your problems at me. What have I ever done to you?"

"No," she shook her head furiously, "I love Edward, so much. I would have gone to Italy…..I did…." She stopped herself from saying anymore when she saw my expression.

Angry, outraged, furious, murderous non of those words did even begin to cover how I felt after she let the little detail slip that the only reason she was back was because she read the damn books.

"That is why you are back because you read the damn books and you want the happy ending with Edward now. Becoming a Vampire and your damn happily ever after. You know that you get it and of course my life that you stole from me couldn't compare to that anymore right?"

I was far beyond good and evil her guilty face said it all I had hit the nail on the head.

Edward's grip on me lightened I assumed that was because of the shock that he was in after my revelation. I was able to push his hand of my shoulder and jump up from the chair only to land in his arms that pressed my back into his chest while I was shaking with hot, painful rage, feeling furious beyond believe but at the same time helpless. Frustration ripped through my frame because of my hopeless situation.

I screamed my lungs out as tears blurred my sight and finally began to fall.

Edward covered my mouth with his hand in an attempt to quiet my screams while he pulled me further into his body.

I didn't care how I looked to the others or how humiliating the crying was or the screaming like a basket case. I just kept on screaming in anguish, grief, rage and frustration until my screams turned into sobs.

The wicked witch had stolen my family from me only to throw them away in the end. When I had screamed in anguish it was not only for myself, the tears that were hotly running down my face weren't only for me either but for my family, for my mother as well.

I knew how hard the loss of her child would hit her.

What she had done to me was one thing but the pain she had brought down on my family was an entire different story. I painfully wanted her to rot in hell.

I broke down in Edward's arms, screaming again while I couldn't stop crying. I was completely out of control when the full weight of what she had done finally sunk in and it was breaking me.

I was alone.

I would never see my family again.

My mom and my family would grief me, go through the pain of losing me.

I was frantically gasping for air while anguished screams left my mouth.

I was hysterical.

On some level I did notice that Edward was trying his best to calm me but I was inconsolable. He was whispering I to me and rocking me while he cradled me to his chest as we both sat on the ground but nothing was helping I couldn't pull myself together.

Instead I was threatening to chock on my screaming and crying. My head started spinning and it was harder to breath with each passing second. My chest burned as my heart twisted in pain emotionally and physically.

"Carlisle hurry!" I could make out Edward's urgent and scared voice before something cold grabbed my arm and something stung me causing me pain that was nothing compared to the anguish that was tearing me part.

Moments after the stung my screams and my tears were lessening as I was slumping numbly into Edward's body.