Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

62 - ᴏ ɴᴇɢᴀᴛɪᴠᴇ

*mentions of illness for my emetophobia pals

EVERY SINGLE piece of research that the Cullens and Athena did for Bella either turned up with a negative result or they could not find anything relative to use. They had paintings of demon monsters and a few tales similar to the one in Athena's book but other than that there was nothing. Whether these children were just kept off the internet for their own good (this sort of thing would not go down well with the Volturi) or they just simply did not exist. Though she and Alice could never believe that this had only happened to Bella - there was just no way.

Bella wasn't going to get any better and it didn't physically look like she could get any worse but they all knew that she could. Her heartbeat was so slow and weakened that everything in the room had to be still to be able to actually hear it and the baby's heartbeat also. Athena had noticed that she could make some sort of a connection to the infant's mind but didn't mention it to anyone, wanting Edward to find it out for himself and get to hold that special moment with Bella.

Athena paced the length of Jasper's room, having been on the phone with Billy for a good hour just talking about random things. It took her mind off the looming threat outside the Cullen house and the mortal who could literally die at any given second. "How's Charlie?" she asked, pausing her pacing as Benji crawled past her feet.

"Stressed, worried and practically going insane," he sighed. At the beginning of all this, the two had promised each other that they would not withhold any sort of truth or news. They didn't have the time or the effort to do that and honestly, she liked being able to talk to someone who wasn't angsty over their lack of blood. "And Bella?"

"Getting weaker by the minute," she paused, beginning to pace again as she looked out of the window.  "We can't figure out how to make her feel any better. I'm basically the only pain relief she gets since she can't take pain killers."

She could hear his concern for her begin to grow."When was the last time you ate?"

She thought about it for a second, not being able to pinpoint the exact date since it was so long ago. "Weeks ago now, like two weeks before Jake found out about Bells," she replied with a voice filled with uncertainty. "My eyes are like coal now."

"Make sure you don't overwork yourself, you know how you get when you use your gift too much without hunting."

"I know I know, I'm being careful," she reassured, stopping her pacing once again as she asked, "Have you talked to Jake recently?"

"Briefly, before he had to leave when he saw...someone in the woods," he sighed. Jake had been at the Cullen house more often than not but he hardly talked to her, mainly being there for Bella. They did talk briefly one evening when she asked him if he wanted a cupcake that she had stress baked while Bella was sleeping.

She raised a brow, "Someone?"

He sighed, "Embry." She started to pace again.

"Oh," she almost whispered, feeling a punch in her gut. Embry had taken it upon himself to call her one evening, spewing all these tales about how she was endangering Bella and all the other residents of Forks by not harming the baby. He had also tried to recruit her to kill the child,  attempting to guilt trip her into believing that the child would kill everyone so murder wouldn't be too bad. And she didn't hang up, she just listened to his every word because she found herself unable to do so. Jasper however, definitely had that ability. He walked into the room halfway through a rant and by hearing one guilt-tripping sentence, he stormed across the room and immediately hung up the phone and blocked his contact. As she was about to continue, her phone beeped and gave the signal that it was about to lose all its battery. "I gotta go, phone's about to die."

"Okay, I'll call you tomorrow."

"Bye," she replied before hanging up the phone, putting it on charge almost instantly. She could not afford to not have a full battery at all times, just in case something happened to occur.

She walked down the stairs and into the living room, walking into the room just as Jake moved closer to Bella. Everyone, including a rarely awake Bella, was half watching the game and half focused on their own thoughts - blood for some, the baby for others and pain for Bella. She sat next to Jasper, placing her hand on top of his.

*start

She turned her head as Bella leaned forward, about to throw up but once again nothing came. That's when Athena took it upon herself to go into the very basics of Bella's mind - which took an enormous amount of effort given her blocking properties and she soothed away some of the discomfort from her mind -replacing it with a certain degree of comfortableness that would last a good few hours.

*end

"Maybe I could figure out what it wants," Alice must have replied to something someone said but she was too busy being in Bella's mind to hear it. Silence befell the group and Athena tried to figure out what was going on by the vibe of the room and Emmett's extremely loud thoughts.

"Think you might be right," Edward said quietly, talking to Jake about one of these thoughts. Athena grew even more confused until she looked into Jake's mind. "Jacob just had an idea." 

He chuckled softly,  "It wasn't an idea. It was a snide comment. It's probably just looking for someone to sink its teeth into."

"He's thirsty," Bella replied softly, as loud as her voice would allow her to, as she protectively rubbed her stomach.

"I know the feeling," Emmett added through his teeth. Athena nodded, feeling her own thirst dry her throat. She couldn't imagine how Jasper felt though and she hated seeing him so tense.

"If it's craving, it's not gonna want animal blood," Edward added, looking to Carlisle.

Carlisle nodded, "I have some O negative laid aside for Bella." Jazz's head snapped towards the very mention of blood, squeezing Athena's hand ever so tightly.

She immediately stood up, still keeping their hands attached. "Love, come walk with me?" she asked and Jasper stood, letting her lead him away from the situation as he hung onto her hand for dear life. They went to the top of the house, climbing one of the trees that took them to the very top of the roof. Given the not leaving the house rule, the roof was a good way to get out of the house without being in danger. They sat the furthest away from the living room. He had his earbuds in, playing whatever music he chose at an extremely loud volume as she ran her fingers through his hair - attempting to give all the distractions that she could. Up here, she could vaguely smell the blood but knew that he smelt it a lot stronger than she did. It worked though, all the distractions, no blood was drunk and no one was harmed.

And Bella and the baby were all the better for it.