Waiting For My Real Life To Begin
by Laura Spudzmom
Chapter 36
“Hey,” Bonnie said, nudging Damon with an elbow as she took a seat next to him on the couch.
“Hey yourself,” he responded with a lazy look to the side. It had been a stressful day for all of them and they’d all dispersed to separate areas of the house to decompress for a time.
“The two Cullens leave?” she asked and he nodded without lifting his head from the couch back.
“Yep,” he said, before taking a slow sip from his glass. “They said they were gonna get a hotel room and stick around in case their fearless leader shows up.”
“Ah, yeah, I guess that could be a problem.”
Damon snorted. “Not a problem we can’t handle, but I’m sure they don’t want it handled in any way I have in mind; or Jasper, for that matter, especially if they interfere in anything he has planned for the mind-reader.”
“Smart of them, then, I guess.”
Damon inclined his head and saluted with his glass. “If they don’t want to lose any more family members, it is.” He glanced at her. “Elena ditch you for Saint Stefan?”
She snorted and glanced at him. “I haven’t heard him called that in a while, but yeah, they’re ‘resting’ upstairs,” she said with a smirk.
He smirked back. “How domestic, like an old married couple.”
She hummed agreement with a nod while resting back against the cushions.
“How’d your chat with Bella go?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “Okay I guess. She apologized and said she doesn’t hold me responsible…”
He raised a brow. “But…?”
She blew out a heavy breath. “I heard the words, you know? But I guess I’ll always feel responsible.” She glanced at Damon. “If not for me, their baby would still be alive.”
His eyes narrowed and he threw his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. “If you insist on looking at things that way, then, if not for you, they wouldn’t be together and never would’ve had a child in the first place.”
“Yeah,” she murmured, “Bella said something similar; something about magic seeking balance, but I just…I find it difficult to accept.”
Damon smirked. “She’s wise, like her old man.”
Bonnie bit back a snort. “She’s as stubborn as you, that’s for sure.”
“You love me anyway, Bon-Bon, admit it.”
She smacked him in the abs and he grunted. “You’re not so bad, I guess, for a self-absorbed, egotistical womanizer,” she said while leaning her head against his shoulder.
“You forgot, lovable, witchy-poo…lovable, self-absorbed, egotistical womanizer.”
She sighed and smiled. “Yeah, that too, I guess.”
~o0o~
Jasper eased his sleeping wife off his chest and onto the mattress, covering her with a quilt and kissing her temple before quietly leaving the room.
It had been nice to lie there with her for a while, but his mind wouldn’t let him sleep. It was focused on thoughts of the cold one in the basement and how he would deal with him; the murderer of his son.
Before he did that though, he had to speak to his father-in-law. He had some things to learn about cold ones before he could do anything, as he didn’t want to screw this up.
Just the fact that the thing was in pieces and not dead was boggling his mind, so he knew there were a few essential things to learn before plowing ahead.
“Damon, Bonnie,” he greeted with a nod as he sat across from the pair in the living room.
“Jasper,” Damon returned. “Bella sleeping?”
“She is, so I thought this’d be a good time to ask some questions before getting started down stairs,” he said with a grave look.
Damon nodded and sat up, swirling the contents of his glass while meeting Jasper’s unwavering gaze. “Okay, shoot. I’ll help in any way you want me to.”
“All right. How is it that thing’s in pieces and still alive?”
Damon smirked. “I wouldn’t say he’s alive, per se; more of a suspended animation type of thing. You can only kill them by burning them to ash, and they have to be torn apart first. Their venom is highly flammable, so you have to be careful when you deal with it.”
“Damn,” Jasper muttered and Damon nodded.
“Yeah, the way he is now, if you left the pieces out and free to migrate, they’d find their way back together, fuse, and you’d have a functional cold one on your hands. It would take a while, but it would happen.” He shuddered. “It’s all pretty creepy, if you ask me.”
Jasper nodded and glanced up. “So, all I have to do is hold the pieces back together and they’ll fuse? Even his head?”
Damon nodded. “Even his head. I wouldn’t give him his legs back, though. The blonde bombshell told me he’s the fastest in his family, so it’s a risk if he gets his legs back.”
Jasper’s eyes narrowed. “I’m damn tempted to. I’d love nothin’ more than to kick his ass, man to man before doling out the final punishment.”
Damon arched a brow. “Yeah? And if he got away? Don’t go letting your pride get in the way of taking care of this, Jasper. You have a wife and a future to focus on. Don’t let this rule you, or become more than what it should be.”
Jasper looked away, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “I reckon you’re right,” he finally ground out before looking back at Damon, his green eyes flinty. “I could probably spend the next hundred years torturing the bastard and never feel satisfied. Nothing will ever be a high enough price to equal the loss of my boy.”
“No, it won’t,” Damon agreed gravely, “And none of this will bring him back either.”
Jasper swallowed heavily, his eyes now sparkling with tears he refused to let fall. “No, it won’t.”
With that, he got up and headed toward the stairs, back straight and fists clenched.
With a glance at Bonnie and a pat to her knee, Damon got up, set his glass on the side table and followed his son-in-law to the basement.
When they got down there, they both began unpacking the various pieces and parts, both with similar sneers on their faces. “Be sure to get that venom off when we’re through,” Damon said while propping a pair of legs against the wall. “And don’t wipe it on your clothes,” he said with a pointed look, catching Jasper right before he’d done that very thing. He tossed him a towel and Jasper gave a nod of thanks.
“All right,” Damon said with a look around as he wiped his own hands. “Head to torso first? I assume you want him talking, or screaming, during this little meet and greet?”
“Damn right I do.”
“Okay then, grab the head and bring it here.”
Twenty minutes later, they had a reassembled cold one, minus his legs, chained to the wall. He was just coming around, blinking his eyes and groaning as he peered around the dimly lit space. “Where am I?” he rasped.
“Your own personal corner a’ hell, and I’m your guide, you sorry piece a’ shit,” Jasper snarled while pacing in front of the mind-reader.
“Who…?” Edward’s eyes went wide as Jasper paused and stared down at him. “Jasper?!”
He leaned down and got in the cold one’s face. “That’s right, motherfucker. Surprised to see me?”
Jasper and Damon watched as the mind-reader’s eyes filled with hope. “The baby? Did the baby survive too? Oh god, please tell me he survived!”
Jasper grabbed him by the throat and squeezed. “Don’t you even mention my son, you dirty piece a’ shit.”
Damon stepped forward and laid a hand on Jasper’s shoulder. “You might wanna let up unless you want to wait while his head fuses back on again.”
Jasper shoved, watching in satisfaction as cracks formed in the block wall as well as the side of the mind-reader’s head from the force of the blow.
Damon met the mind-reader’s gaze. “And no, to answer your question, my grandson didn’t survive.”
He hung his head, moaning, “I didn’t mean for him to die. He wasn’t supposed to die…”
Jasper kicked him in the side, hearing the brittle sound of ribs breaking over the mind-reader’s scream. “Quit your crying and take your punishment like a man.” He grabbed him by the hair and got in his face, seething, “After all, you were man enough to sight down the barrel of a rifle and shoot, weren’t ya? So, your cryin’ ain’t gonna save your sorry ass now.”
He stood up and paced, pausing to smirk down at the weeping cold one. “You wanna know your first mistake? It was not making damn sure I was dead for real.” He leaned down, grabbing a fistful of Edward’s hair as he murmured, “Your second was coming back to where I could get my hands on ya, and I guarantee, you won’t ever get a chance to make a third.”
He let go and stood and Edward broke down in sobs. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…”
Jasper’s eyes glittered with pure malice as he stared at the pathetic, blubbering being chained to the wall; the murderer of his son. “You don’t know the meaning of the word yet, boy, but you will,” he said while reaching for a large pair of pliers on the nearby work bench. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
~o0o~
A frown marred Bella’s brow as her eyes blinked open in the pitch dark room. Something had awoken her, but she wasn’t sure what. “Jasper?” she called, running her hand over his side of the bed and finding nothing but cold sheets and a pillow.
She sat up and peered around the darkened room and that’s when she heard it—faint screams—screams that spoke of pain and anguish such that she’d never heard before. “Oh god…Jasper!” she cried while scrambling from the bed and out the door.
Stefan caught her in the hall, holding her gently by the arms. “Bella…Bella, listen to me, you don’t wanna go down there right now, sweetheart, please.”
She blinked wide eyes at her Uncle. “What’s going on? Where’s Jasper? Where’s my Dad?”
“They’re in the basement, sweetheart,” he said, his eyes full of resolve and regret. Another scream, louder now, pierced the air and she stared in the direction of the basement.
“That’s Edward, isn’t it?” She looked back at Stefan who nodded.
“Yeah, honey, it is.”
“How long?” she asked with a frown.
“A while now,” he murmured over the sound of more garbled screams.
“I need to be down there,” she said with a desperate look at Stefan who was shaking his head before she’d even finished speaking. “Yes, I have a right! I need to see!”
Stefan hung his head and let her go. “Bella, please don’t go down there.” He looked up at her. “No good can come of it, honey. Seeing that kind of horror won’t bring Jace back.”
She hesitated with her hand on the bannister. “No, it won’t, but at least I’ll get to see that some kind of justice was served.”
He pulled her into a hug and nodded before letting her go. “I understand.”
“Thank you,” she murmured, stretching up to kiss his cheek before jogging down the stairs.
When she entered the basement, the first thing she heard was sobbing, but that’s not what nearly bowled her over.
The smell…
The smell of venom and burning vampire flesh was heavy and nauseating and she paused with the back of her hand over her mouth, gagging and swallowing thickly as her eyes watered and stomach rebelled. “Oh god,” she said with a gasp.
“Bella? Babygirl, what are you doing down here,” Damon grabbed her and pulled her into his chest, holding her close as she struggled to keep the contents of her stomach down. Thank god she hadn’t eaten since breakfast…
“Please, please, just kill me,” a garbled voice choked and she cringed at the pathetic sound of it. It was nothing like the velvet voice she remembered. If she didn't know who was down here, she never would’ve placed it. He sounded like he was speaking through a mouthful of marbles and spit and she wondered at the cause.
“I’m okay, Dad,” she assured when she knew she wasn’t about to puke.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said. “You don’t wanna see this.”
She looked up into his face. “You’re right, I don’t really want to see this, but I have to.”
“Isabella, you need to go back upstairs,” Jasper said, his tone hard, cold. “I’m not finished with him yet.”
She tensed in her father’s arms and he sighed, knowing they were now in for a fight. “I have just as much right to see this done as you do, Jasper Whitlock, and I’m not leaving till I do.”
“Please,” Edward whimpered, “kill me…”
Damon glanced at Jasper whose jaw clenched even as he nodded. With another sigh, he let his daughter go and stepped back, giving Bella her first look at her ex.
“Oh god!” she cried while covering her mouth with a hand before looking away.
Venom coated his cheeks and chin, pouring from one gaping eye socket and his mouth. She chanced a look back and swallowed the bile that had risen in her throat as she studied him closer.
All his teeth, at least from what she could see, were gone, yanked from his mouth by the venom-coated pliers laying on the work bench if she had to guess.
As she watched, Jasper tossed what looked like an eyeball into the open wood furnace
door, drawing fresh, raw, anguished screams from Edward as he pulled and writhed against the chains that held his weak and shaking form to the basement wall. “No more! Please, I beg you, no more!”
Bella backed away in horror as her ex reached out what used to be his hand, but was now only a palm with no digits. “Bella…please, make him stop…mercy, I beg you…kill me!”
Backing into her father’s arms, she leaned heavily against him, taking in his comforting presence, even as she continued to watch.
“Mercy, you say?” Jasper seethed while grabbing a handful of the mind-reader’s hair and jerking his head back. “You better pray you find it in the next life, ‘cause there’s none to be had here,” he growled while digging his fingers around Edward’s remaining eye.
Screams filled the space as the eye gave way and popped out with a nauseating sucking sound and with the deft swipe of a razor sharp knife, Jasper cut the connecting tissue before tossing that eye into the fire too.
“Let me go, Dad,” Bella whispered, before rushing to the corner to vomit.
Damon rubbed her back until the heaving stopped and she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she nodded. “I’m okay now.”
“I told you, you shouldn’t be here, now come on, let me help you back up the stairs.”
She held up a hand. “No, I…I have something I want to say to him, first.”
Damon blew out a heavy breath before nodding. “If you feel you must…”
“I do.”
“Then I won’t stop you.”
She walked up to Jasper who was wiping his hands on a towel. He eyed her when she stopped in front of him. “Are you done with him now?
He ran an assessing look over the sobbing cold one—the missing fingers on each hand, the absence of any teeth or eyes, the feet that he’d yet to burn, but fully planned to…
“For the most part, yes. Just need to burn the feet and I’m done. Why?”
She didn’t answer but turned to face what she had considered her first love, or at least, what was left of him. “Edward?” she said, her tone cold, even as her voice trembled.
He raised his head. “Bella?”
“Do you remember when you told me you thought you were damned?”
His chin quivered as he nodded. “Yes,” he croaked. “I remember.”
Leaning down, she spat in his face and hissed, “Well, you thought hell was your destination, Edward, and it may very well be...but until then, your hell will be right here on this earth. I pray it’s all you imagined and more…”
“I’m sorry,” he whimpered.
She stood straight and stared, her eyes icy and glittering with hatred. “Save it for someone who gives a fuck, you murdering bastard.”
With that, she spun on her heel and ran up the stairs, only letting the tears fall when Stefan wrapped her in his arms.
“Hey,” Bonnie said, nudging Damon with an elbow as she took a seat next to him on the couch.
“Hey yourself,” he responded with a lazy look to the side. It had been a stressful day for all of them and they’d all dispersed to separate areas of the house to decompress for a time.
“The two Cullens leave?” she asked and he nodded without lifting his head from the couch back.
“Yep,” he said, before taking a slow sip from his glass. “They said they were gonna get a hotel room and stick around in case their fearless leader shows up.”
“Ah, yeah, I guess that could be a problem.”
Damon snorted. “Not a problem we can’t handle, but I’m sure they don’t want it handled in any way I have in mind; or Jasper, for that matter, especially if they interfere in anything he has planned for the mind-reader.”
“Smart of them, then, I guess.”
Damon inclined his head and saluted with his glass. “If they don’t want to lose any more family members, it is.” He glanced at her. “Elena ditch you for Saint Stefan?”
She snorted and glanced at him. “I haven’t heard him called that in a while, but yeah, they’re ‘resting’ upstairs,” she said with a smirk.
He smirked back. “How domestic, like an old married couple.”
She hummed agreement with a nod while resting back against the cushions.
“How’d your chat with Bella go?”
She shrugged a shoulder. “Okay I guess. She apologized and said she doesn’t hold me responsible…”
He raised a brow. “But…?”
She blew out a heavy breath. “I heard the words, you know? But I guess I’ll always feel responsible.” She glanced at Damon. “If not for me, their baby would still be alive.”
His eyes narrowed and he threw his arm around her shoulders and pulled her into his side. “If you insist on looking at things that way, then, if not for you, they wouldn’t be together and never would’ve had a child in the first place.”
“Yeah,” she murmured, “Bella said something similar; something about magic seeking balance, but I just…I find it difficult to accept.”
Damon smirked. “She’s wise, like her old man.”
Bonnie bit back a snort. “She’s as stubborn as you, that’s for sure.”
“You love me anyway, Bon-Bon, admit it.”
She smacked him in the abs and he grunted. “You’re not so bad, I guess, for a self-absorbed, egotistical womanizer,” she said while leaning her head against his shoulder.
“You forgot, lovable, witchy-poo…lovable, self-absorbed, egotistical womanizer.”
She sighed and smiled. “Yeah, that too, I guess.”
~o0o~
Jasper eased his sleeping wife off his chest and onto the mattress, covering her with a quilt and kissing her temple before quietly leaving the room.
It had been nice to lie there with her for a while, but his mind wouldn’t let him sleep. It was focused on thoughts of the cold one in the basement and how he would deal with him; the murderer of his son.
Before he did that though, he had to speak to his father-in-law. He had some things to learn about cold ones before he could do anything, as he didn’t want to screw this up.
Just the fact that the thing was in pieces and not dead was boggling his mind, so he knew there were a few essential things to learn before plowing ahead.
“Damon, Bonnie,” he greeted with a nod as he sat across from the pair in the living room.
“Jasper,” Damon returned. “Bella sleeping?”
“She is, so I thought this’d be a good time to ask some questions before getting started down stairs,” he said with a grave look.
Damon nodded and sat up, swirling the contents of his glass while meeting Jasper’s unwavering gaze. “Okay, shoot. I’ll help in any way you want me to.”
“All right. How is it that thing’s in pieces and still alive?”
Damon smirked. “I wouldn’t say he’s alive, per se; more of a suspended animation type of thing. You can only kill them by burning them to ash, and they have to be torn apart first. Their venom is highly flammable, so you have to be careful when you deal with it.”
“Damn,” Jasper muttered and Damon nodded.
“Yeah, the way he is now, if you left the pieces out and free to migrate, they’d find their way back together, fuse, and you’d have a functional cold one on your hands. It would take a while, but it would happen.” He shuddered. “It’s all pretty creepy, if you ask me.”
Jasper nodded and glanced up. “So, all I have to do is hold the pieces back together and they’ll fuse? Even his head?”
Damon nodded. “Even his head. I wouldn’t give him his legs back, though. The blonde bombshell told me he’s the fastest in his family, so it’s a risk if he gets his legs back.”
Jasper’s eyes narrowed. “I’m damn tempted to. I’d love nothin’ more than to kick his ass, man to man before doling out the final punishment.”
Damon arched a brow. “Yeah? And if he got away? Don’t go letting your pride get in the way of taking care of this, Jasper. You have a wife and a future to focus on. Don’t let this rule you, or become more than what it should be.”
Jasper looked away, a muscle ticking in his jaw. “I reckon you’re right,” he finally ground out before looking back at Damon, his green eyes flinty. “I could probably spend the next hundred years torturing the bastard and never feel satisfied. Nothing will ever be a high enough price to equal the loss of my boy.”
“No, it won’t,” Damon agreed gravely, “And none of this will bring him back either.”
Jasper swallowed heavily, his eyes now sparkling with tears he refused to let fall. “No, it won’t.”
With that, he got up and headed toward the stairs, back straight and fists clenched.
With a glance at Bonnie and a pat to her knee, Damon got up, set his glass on the side table and followed his son-in-law to the basement.
When they got down there, they both began unpacking the various pieces and parts, both with similar sneers on their faces. “Be sure to get that venom off when we’re through,” Damon said while propping a pair of legs against the wall. “And don’t wipe it on your clothes,” he said with a pointed look, catching Jasper right before he’d done that very thing. He tossed him a towel and Jasper gave a nod of thanks.
“All right,” Damon said with a look around as he wiped his own hands. “Head to torso first? I assume you want him talking, or screaming, during this little meet and greet?”
“Damn right I do.”
“Okay then, grab the head and bring it here.”
Twenty minutes later, they had a reassembled cold one, minus his legs, chained to the wall. He was just coming around, blinking his eyes and groaning as he peered around the dimly lit space. “Where am I?” he rasped.
“Your own personal corner a’ hell, and I’m your guide, you sorry piece a’ shit,” Jasper snarled while pacing in front of the mind-reader.
“Who…?” Edward’s eyes went wide as Jasper paused and stared down at him. “Jasper?!”
He leaned down and got in the cold one’s face. “That’s right, motherfucker. Surprised to see me?”
Jasper and Damon watched as the mind-reader’s eyes filled with hope. “The baby? Did the baby survive too? Oh god, please tell me he survived!”
Jasper grabbed him by the throat and squeezed. “Don’t you even mention my son, you dirty piece a’ shit.”
Damon stepped forward and laid a hand on Jasper’s shoulder. “You might wanna let up unless you want to wait while his head fuses back on again.”
Jasper shoved, watching in satisfaction as cracks formed in the block wall as well as the side of the mind-reader’s head from the force of the blow.
Damon met the mind-reader’s gaze. “And no, to answer your question, my grandson didn’t survive.”
He hung his head, moaning, “I didn’t mean for him to die. He wasn’t supposed to die…”
Jasper kicked him in the side, hearing the brittle sound of ribs breaking over the mind-reader’s scream. “Quit your crying and take your punishment like a man.” He grabbed him by the hair and got in his face, seething, “After all, you were man enough to sight down the barrel of a rifle and shoot, weren’t ya? So, your cryin’ ain’t gonna save your sorry ass now.”
He stood up and paced, pausing to smirk down at the weeping cold one. “You wanna know your first mistake? It was not making damn sure I was dead for real.” He leaned down, grabbing a fistful of Edward’s hair as he murmured, “Your second was coming back to where I could get my hands on ya, and I guarantee, you won’t ever get a chance to make a third.”
He let go and stood and Edward broke down in sobs. “I’m sorry…I’m sorry…I’m so sorry…”
Jasper’s eyes glittered with pure malice as he stared at the pathetic, blubbering being chained to the wall; the murderer of his son. “You don’t know the meaning of the word yet, boy, but you will,” he said while reaching for a large pair of pliers on the nearby work bench. “Let’s get started, shall we?”
~o0o~
A frown marred Bella’s brow as her eyes blinked open in the pitch dark room. Something had awoken her, but she wasn’t sure what. “Jasper?” she called, running her hand over his side of the bed and finding nothing but cold sheets and a pillow.
She sat up and peered around the darkened room and that’s when she heard it—faint screams—screams that spoke of pain and anguish such that she’d never heard before. “Oh god…Jasper!” she cried while scrambling from the bed and out the door.
Stefan caught her in the hall, holding her gently by the arms. “Bella…Bella, listen to me, you don’t wanna go down there right now, sweetheart, please.”
She blinked wide eyes at her Uncle. “What’s going on? Where’s Jasper? Where’s my Dad?”
“They’re in the basement, sweetheart,” he said, his eyes full of resolve and regret. Another scream, louder now, pierced the air and she stared in the direction of the basement.
“That’s Edward, isn’t it?” She looked back at Stefan who nodded.
“Yeah, honey, it is.”
“How long?” she asked with a frown.
“A while now,” he murmured over the sound of more garbled screams.
“I need to be down there,” she said with a desperate look at Stefan who was shaking his head before she’d even finished speaking. “Yes, I have a right! I need to see!”
Stefan hung his head and let her go. “Bella, please don’t go down there.” He looked up at her. “No good can come of it, honey. Seeing that kind of horror won’t bring Jace back.”
She hesitated with her hand on the bannister. “No, it won’t, but at least I’ll get to see that some kind of justice was served.”
He pulled her into a hug and nodded before letting her go. “I understand.”
“Thank you,” she murmured, stretching up to kiss his cheek before jogging down the stairs.
When she entered the basement, the first thing she heard was sobbing, but that’s not what nearly bowled her over.
The smell…
The smell of venom and burning vampire flesh was heavy and nauseating and she paused with the back of her hand over her mouth, gagging and swallowing thickly as her eyes watered and stomach rebelled. “Oh god,” she said with a gasp.
“Bella? Babygirl, what are you doing down here,” Damon grabbed her and pulled her into his chest, holding her close as she struggled to keep the contents of her stomach down. Thank god she hadn’t eaten since breakfast…
“Please, please, just kill me,” a garbled voice choked and she cringed at the pathetic sound of it. It was nothing like the velvet voice she remembered. If she didn't know who was down here, she never would’ve placed it. He sounded like he was speaking through a mouthful of marbles and spit and she wondered at the cause.
“I’m okay, Dad,” she assured when she knew she wasn’t about to puke.
“You shouldn’t be here,” he said. “You don’t wanna see this.”
She looked up into his face. “You’re right, I don’t really want to see this, but I have to.”
“Isabella, you need to go back upstairs,” Jasper said, his tone hard, cold. “I’m not finished with him yet.”
She tensed in her father’s arms and he sighed, knowing they were now in for a fight. “I have just as much right to see this done as you do, Jasper Whitlock, and I’m not leaving till I do.”
“Please,” Edward whimpered, “kill me…”
Damon glanced at Jasper whose jaw clenched even as he nodded. With another sigh, he let his daughter go and stepped back, giving Bella her first look at her ex.
“Oh god!” she cried while covering her mouth with a hand before looking away.
Venom coated his cheeks and chin, pouring from one gaping eye socket and his mouth. She chanced a look back and swallowed the bile that had risen in her throat as she studied him closer.
All his teeth, at least from what she could see, were gone, yanked from his mouth by the venom-coated pliers laying on the work bench if she had to guess.
As she watched, Jasper tossed what looked like an eyeball into the open wood furnace
door, drawing fresh, raw, anguished screams from Edward as he pulled and writhed against the chains that held his weak and shaking form to the basement wall. “No more! Please, I beg you, no more!”
Bella backed away in horror as her ex reached out what used to be his hand, but was now only a palm with no digits. “Bella…please, make him stop…mercy, I beg you…kill me!”
Backing into her father’s arms, she leaned heavily against him, taking in his comforting presence, even as she continued to watch.
“Mercy, you say?” Jasper seethed while grabbing a handful of the mind-reader’s hair and jerking his head back. “You better pray you find it in the next life, ‘cause there’s none to be had here,” he growled while digging his fingers around Edward’s remaining eye.
Screams filled the space as the eye gave way and popped out with a nauseating sucking sound and with the deft swipe of a razor sharp knife, Jasper cut the connecting tissue before tossing that eye into the fire too.
“Let me go, Dad,” Bella whispered, before rushing to the corner to vomit.
Damon rubbed her back until the heaving stopped and she wiped her mouth with the back of her hand as she nodded. “I’m okay now.”
“I told you, you shouldn’t be here, now come on, let me help you back up the stairs.”
She held up a hand. “No, I…I have something I want to say to him, first.”
Damon blew out a heavy breath before nodding. “If you feel you must…”
“I do.”
“Then I won’t stop you.”
She walked up to Jasper who was wiping his hands on a towel. He eyed her when she stopped in front of him. “Are you done with him now?
He ran an assessing look over the sobbing cold one—the missing fingers on each hand, the absence of any teeth or eyes, the feet that he’d yet to burn, but fully planned to…
“For the most part, yes. Just need to burn the feet and I’m done. Why?”
She didn’t answer but turned to face what she had considered her first love, or at least, what was left of him. “Edward?” she said, her tone cold, even as her voice trembled.
He raised his head. “Bella?”
“Do you remember when you told me you thought you were damned?”
His chin quivered as he nodded. “Yes,” he croaked. “I remember.”
Leaning down, she spat in his face and hissed, “Well, you thought hell was your destination, Edward, and it may very well be...but until then, your hell will be right here on this earth. I pray it’s all you imagined and more…”
“I’m sorry,” he whimpered.
She stood straight and stared, her eyes icy and glittering with hatred. “Save it for someone who gives a fuck, you murdering bastard.”
With that, she spun on her heel and ran up the stairs, only letting the tears fall when Stefan wrapped her in his arms.
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