After Dawn Broke

Chapter Fifteen: The Return

"What are you going to do now?" Felix growled as he threw my aunts broken body to the floor. It slumped to the ground with a lifeless thud. She was so tiny... it broke my heart.

"You'll never get away with this," Grandma snarled as she backed up the slightest bit. She positioned herself between the killer and her granddaughters.

"What makes you say that, sweetheart?" He laughed a deep, sickening sound that traveled throughout the silenced house.

A deep, animalistic growl echoed from somewhere outside, and I watched as Felix's head whipped around to face the direction the noise came from. Taking advantage of the moment, Grandma kicked him directly in the spine, and Felix flew across the room. There was a loud bang and then a crack as the the wall gave way and crumbled on top of him. At the same time, the front door flew open and I could hear the heavy feet of someone running towards the room we were in.

Expecting the worst, I turned towards my sister and hugged her close, hoping to escape. All I wanted in that infinite moment was to shelter her from this. She and I began to cough and choke on a cloud of dust that was developing from the fallen wall. I squeezed my eyes shut, held my breath, and hugged my sister to me with all my strength as two strong, warm arms wrapped themselves around the two of us.

I glanced up and began to cry happy tears because I was staring into a familiar set of dark eyes that I would know anywhere.

"It's okay. I'm gonna get you two out of here," he vowed as he hugged us close to his bare chest. Even though there was easily at least two hundred pounds between my sister and I, he carried us as if we weighed nothing.

"I've missed you so much," I sobbed into his chest.

"Me too," my sister added as she looked up to him. She was still red and shaking from her near-death experience.

"I've been so worried about you two," he leaned over a bit and kissed us both gently on the head.

I could feel his muscles become tense as there was a sound of moving rubble. Felix, dark robe torn and dusty, was getting back to his feet.

"Jacob!" Grandma flashed to our side. "Go! Get them out of here. Make sure everything is fine outside. I got this," she demanded, but as my dad turned to leave, Felix threw a large chunk of the wall directly at Grandma Bella. It hit her right in the stomach and sent her to the floor. Grandma slid backwards a few feet and my father remained frozen in place.

"Bella!" he panicked as he looked from side to side for someway he could help. There wasn't too much he could do while holding us in his arms, but I knew he would try.

Effortlessly lifting the wall off of her and flinging it to the ground beside her, Grandma was annoyed. "GO, Jacob! I'll be fine!" She sounded like a concerned mother chiding her son.

Obeying her orders, he darted across the destroyed room towards where the door used to be, but he froze in his tracks.

"Alice!" he choked out sadly when he saw her laying there. "No, no, no, no, no..." he repeated as a single tear streamed down his russet cheek.

I buried my face back into his chest and tried not to think about it.

Another annoyed shout from Grandma Bella. "Just go, Jacob! I'll take care of her!"

He snapped out of it, carefully stepped over the wreckage, and ran to and out of the front door of the house. As he ran down the steps to the porch, taking two or more at a time, Grandpa Edward was just arriving.

"Jacob! How'd you get here? Where's my daughter?" My dad must not have been thinking about it; otherwise Grandpa wouldn't have asked. He looked nervous.

"No time to explain! You need to go in there and help Bella! Meet me at Billy's house as soon as possible. I'll explain when you get there. Hurry!" Dad replied; the words stumbled out of his mouth, and he was ready to take off.

"Here take my Volvo. It'll be faster." Grandpa, standing by the door now, said as he tossed his keys to my dad.

"Oh and one more thing. Alice..." his words trailed off as he looked at Grandpa, who turned around and darted through the door to the house with a pained expression. The door slammed shut behind him and something fell inside, hitting the floor with a loud clank.

"They'll be okay," Dad sighed to himself as he ran towards Grandpa's shiny, silver Volvo. He opened the back door on the driver's side quickly, shoved us each into a seat, and managed to buckle us both up. Within a few seconds he was buckled in the front set, and we were flying down the driveway from the Cullen's house.

I felt so helpless. Why hadn't I tried to helped?

"Are you girls okay?" Dad asked as he tried to stay in control of the car. He seemed really nervous and jumpy.

"Yeah... I guess so," I replied, exhausted. I hadn't really done anything, but I felt drained.

Elizabeth groaned.

"Lizzy, are you okay? You don't look so well," Dad worried.

"I don't wanna talk about," she answered as she pulled her legs up onto the seat and wrapped her arms around them. She shut her eyes and laid her head down on her knees.

{AUTHOR'S NOTE: I might go back and change some things before I post this on @afterdawnbroke on instagram, so a few details may be changed. Thanks for reading! I hope this chapter isn't too bad.)