❝later that night, i held an atlas in my lap, ran my fingers across the whole world and whispered 'where does it hurt?' it answered 'everywhere, everywhere, everywhere.'❞
the twilight saga / embry call
eclipse ― breaking dawn pt 1
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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO: A LITTLE DEATH (trigger warning: violence, gore and death)
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WAKING UP ON D-DAY was like something straight out of an action movie. Sam and Emily's kitchen was sombre as Mae sat at the bench beside a silent Kim and a brooding Jared. Not too far away was Embry, always watching but saying nothing, and Mae couldn't look at him for longer than a second as she forced down bites of the muffin Emily had given her. It was quiet, too quiet, and Mae couldn't help the feeling of fear that crept in.
"Want the rest of this?" she asked Jared, who, for the first time since Mae had met him, refused an offering of food with a solemn shake of his head. The muffin sat half-eaten in front of Mae, her stomach twisting and turning; she couldn't stand the thought of another bite.
Since Alice's vision, nothing had been the same and Mae had known to expect it. Embry was suddenly distant, and Mae hated the thought that they were back at square one. He spent most of his day training with the pack and the Cullens, often creeping into Mae's room at the dead of night when she was too tired to force a meaningful conversation out of him. He'd throw an arm around her and hold her tight, their heads sharing one pillow, and Mae would let him as sleep took them both, just craving the affection she knew would be gone in the morning.
Deep down, she had expected this too.
Still, it hurt.
(There were no band-aids for a slowly breaking heart.)
It was decided that Leah would stay behind to guard the imprints. It would be Mae, Maggie, Emily, Kim and Zeke stuck in a house waiting for lovers, brothers, friends, family who might not come back. Once again, Mae compared those dwindling moments, those final decisions to a movie scene. A realistic dream she could not wake up from. Better than the truth of it. Leah and the pack's newest addition; a boy named Collin Littlesea (coincidentally, he was Jia's baby brother, though he was nothing like her at heart.) He was younger than Seth, who was practically a toddler in Mae's eyes... she didn't have much hope that, if Victoria really did find them, she wouldn't finish Maggie off then and there.
Far too soon, time ran out.
Mae stood without realising. Embry was beside her in an instant, his hands warm as they cradled her face. The words wouldn't come -- there was so much she wanted to say. So much she should've said. Instead, she bit her tongue and kissed him once, and let him look at her like it was the last time.
"Don't be a dumbass, okay?" she mumbled, because silence wouldn't be enough.
Maggie and Paul were standing nearby. Maggie was smiling as she kissed him. I love you, her words were searing, scalding even to Mae. She tried not to look at them as Paul didn't say anything back. It felt raw, bruising, to see the way Maggie composed herself when I love you, too, didn't follow. Mae couldn't fathom it, what she would do if she and Embry were in that position... Momentarily, Mae's fearful gaze flickered to her boyfriend, but he didn't seem to notice the parting couple, or the look in Mae's eyes as he brushed some of her wild curls back from her face.
