LOVE AND DEATH, edward cullen

nineteen

━━ love and death. (2024)
edward cullen x fem!oc
chapter nineteen

The three of us arrived at the Hyatt hotel in Arizona almost an entire day after we left the house. It was late in the afternoon and we were all situated in the living room of our hotel room. Jasper and Alice sat close to each other on the couch while I occupied a lounge chair across from them with a coffee table dividing us.

I occasionally – actually mostly — kept glancing down at my phone waiting for Edward to call. Beau already texted me an update that he and Edythe were doing fine. Edythe was currently taking him sightseeing to distract him from the main issue — at least one of us was having fun.

I frustratedly rubbed my forehead then ran my fingers through my hair, flinching whenever they got caught between some knots.

Alice frowned in my peripheral vision and motioned her hand towards the food on the coffee table. "Aspen, you really should try to eat." She and Jasper ordered almost everything off the menu from room service an hour ago but I haven't been able to stomach anything yet.

"I'm not hungry," I softly muttered. "Edward hasn't called, Charlie hasn't tried to contact me – even my mother hasn't tried to spontaneously appear in front of me. Something feels wrong."

"You still need to eat." Jasper tried to encourage me. "Edward won't like it if we return you with just skin and bones.

I shook my head and looked away from the couple as they held hands beside one another. "It doesn't matter. Anything I eat will just get thrown up anyways."

"It does matter. Edward's changed since he found you. And none of us want to look into his eyes for the next hundred years if he loses you." I caught a glimpse of Jasper staring at me with calm golden eyes. It seemed like he was doing better than our first meeting. Or maybe he was just too concerned about his own family to worry about other things. "He wants you to take care of yourself. Believe me."

I lowered my gaze but nodded my head knowingly. It wouldn't be fair if I mistreated myself just because of stress and I should at least try for Edward, but maybe later. I just need to lie down for a while or something.

Suddenly Alice reeled backwards on the couch and her eyes went ablaze. Jasper and I jumped in our seats but he was quick to put a reassuring arm around her back. "What do you see?"

I watched Alice's eyes burn into a spot on the ground, shifting back and forth like she was reading a paper or mapping out details inside her mind. "The tracker — he just changed course." She spoke with deep rooted worry.

Jasper quickly grabbed a piece of paper and pencil, placing it down on the table between us so Alice could draw whatever she was seeing inside her mind.

"Where will it take him, Alice?" Jasper asked with his eyebrows pushed forward.

Her stare never shifted or changed from the specific spot she was focused on while subconsciously drawing an extremely nice portrait on the paper. "Mirrors. It's a room of mirrors."

I got up from my seat to glance at what she was drawing. My chin jutted away immediately at the resemblance. "I know where he's going." It wasn't hard to guess. It was one of the best memories I had of my mother and I — I did ballet as a child growing up. I'll never forget my last recital where Charlie came to watch and I won my first metal. I remembered it so well because my parents were both there with Beau and it was the happiest I've seen them in years.

I thought Charlie came to ask for my mother back that day. I was so innocent. So oblivious to the fact my parents would never be together again — my dad left the very next day to go back to Forks. That's when everything began to change for me.