Twilight: blood & brimstone

The flight home was silent.

Edward hadn't spoken.

Not once.

Alice tried—soft words, careful glances—but even she knew there was no fixing this. Not right now.

Bella kept her hands folded in her lap, fingers digging into her palms to keep them from shaking. Because if she let herself feel—if she let herself think about what had just happened—

She wasn't sure she'd survive it.

Aro knew.

And worse—

Edward knew too.

A Shattered Illusion

By the time they landed in Forks, the weight in the air was unbearable. The car ride home was spent in silence, tension so thick it suffocated.

When they finally pulled into the driveway of the Cullen house, Edward was out of the car before it had even stopped, moving with a speed that made Alice flinch.

Bella hesitated, her stomach twisting.

She didn't want to go inside.

Didn't want to face the storm brewing behind Edward's pitch-black eyes.

But running wasn't an option.

Not anymore.

She stepped out of the car, gravel crunching beneath her feet, and followed him inside.

The door slammed shut behind her.

Edward Breaks

"Tell me the truth."

Edward's voice was low, barely more than a whisper.

Bella turned slowly. He was standing in the middle of the living room, hands clenched into fists at his sides, body shaking with restraint.

The others lingered in the doorway—Alice, Jasper, Rosalie, Emmett. Watching. Waiting.

Because this wasn't just between her and Edward anymore.

This was a reckoning.

Bella swallowed hard. "What do you want me to say?"

Edward snapped.

"That you're mine!" His voice cracked, raw and unhinged. "That you still love me. That he's nothing to you. That I haven't already lost you!"

The silence that followed was crushing.

Bella felt every pair of eyes on her.

Waiting.

Expecting her to say what they all needed to hear.

But she couldn't.

Because it wouldn't be the truth.

Edward's breathing was ragged, his chest rising and falling too quickly. "Say it."

Bella's fingers trembled.

Edward stepped closer, his expression pleading. "Please, Bella. Say it."

She opened her mouth—

And nothing came out.

Because she couldn't lie anymore.

Edward's entire body stilled.

And then—

The last thread snapped.

His fist slammed into the wall, the force cracking the drywall, sending a spiderweb of fractures across the surface. The house shook, Jasper taking an instinctive step forward as the energy in the room turned volatile.

Edward's head dropped, his shoulders rising and falling with each shaky breath. "You hesitated."

Bella's throat tightened. "Edward—"

His head snapped up, eyes blacker than she had ever seen them, voice hollow.

"I lost you."

It wasn't a question.

It was fact.

A truth so final, so undeniable, that it settled into Bella's chest like a stone sinking into deep, dark water.

She had tried to pretend.

Tried to lie.

But Aro had been right.

Love was fickle.

And Edward wasn't the center of her world anymore.

The Other Cullens React

The room was deathly silent.

Jasper's gaze flickered between them, feeling the violent emotions radiating off Edward in waves. Alice looked pained, her arms crossed tightly, as if she had seen this coming but had been powerless to stop it.

Rosalie just watched, expression unreadable.

Emmett was the first to break the silence.

"What happens now?"

Edward let out a hollow laugh, raking a hand through his hair. "I don't know."

He looked at Bella then, gaze exhausted, broken.

"Do you?"

Bella opened her mouth—

And then, the lights flickered.

The air shifted.

A pressure settled over the room, thick and suffocating, the kind of weight that pressed against the soul.

And just like that—

He was here.

The Demon Returns

The front door swung open without a sound.

The shadows stretched, curling unnaturally across the walls. The fire in the hearth guttered, the flames struggling against the weight of something ancient.

Bella felt her blood hum.

Her heartbeat stutter.

Because she knew.

Before she even turned around—

Before he even spoke—

She knew.

"Hello, little lamb."