Act III
Chapter 38 ━━ The Day I Died

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Life is a mess. But it can be messier. Whoever told that must be awarded a nobel. 

Shelley is still standing still and shocked in the same spot Rosalie left her with a rope wrapped around her neck which she cannot find the two ends of it. The rope of questions with no answers. 

"She shouldn't have told you that." A voice boom behind the blonde, disappointment is laced in every word. "You're not yet ready." 

"What is going on?" Shelley asks. They say knowing is worse, but not knowing is the worst. Guess it's true. She's thirsty for answers desperately like a man in a dessert. 

"There are a lot of things hidden under the shelves you should know, Shell." Esdras calmly replies, looking straight into her eyes. His eyes are full of concern. "I don't know if I have the right to say that all to you." 

"Does others know? Bella?"

"Everyone knows, except you."

Throw a tantrum. That's all Shelley wants to do right now. She hates when people keep secrets from her. Especially when she's a part of it. She runs a hand through her blonde hair whilst her mind is experiencing various emotions; betrayal, anger and depression. "What is? I want to know, Ezra!" 

Esdras hesitates for a moment, wondering if he's doing the right thing. He then sighs deeply as if he's attempting to gain courage to blurt out his next few words. "You're adopted." 

Shelley blinks several times in shock. "What do you mean?"

"Her name was Vanessa Hennig. I met your mother when she was 18. She was a Nymph, just like you." Esdras begins. Sadness draws into his perfectly sculpted face deeper and deeper as the old memories flood into him. "I couldn't resist her. Beautiful, kindhearted and stubborn. All I knew was me falling in love with her. But I was late. She was already in love with her highschool sweetheart. Your father. So I kept my distance and watched her living her life from far. She was so happy. They had a daughter. You." 

He sighs once again before continuing the story. "Then there's this fire that came up in your house. I tried to save her. But it was too late for her. Your father, he was breathing his last few seconds. He was shielding you from the flames while you were crying your eyes out. He wanted me to save you. So I did. I took you out." 

Shelley's mind is about to explode with the information she just gathered about the history she never imagined to have. Her parents are dead and she's an orphan. She doesn't know if she has to cry or freak out. Maybe she should do both. She wants to go home right now. Home. It's not even her real home. Is it? 

Reading her mind, Esdras pulls the blonde into a tight embrace in an attempt to comfort her. "You aren't ready. I shouldn't have told you the truth." 

"Where is Bella?" She mumbles into his chest. "I want to go home." 

"She left with Edward. She was feeling sick." Esdras replies, rubbing her back, holding her in his arms as if she'll disappear into the air if he lets go of her. "I'll drop you home." 

The ride is peaceful except for the concerned glances Esdras throws at the blonde every ten seconds. She turns to the window and closes my eyes, trying to calm herself down. That's when her phone begins to beep in her pocket. 

"Hey! Congratulations! I'm sorry for not being there. But I'll make it up to you both, I promise." Renee rambles from the other line as the blonde holds her phone to her ear. "So… how's the party? Are there nice boys? You're allowed to have a little fun as long as you'll be safe, you know? Still young to be a grandma-" 

"Mom, aren't I your daughter?" Shelley asks, cutting her mother in mid air. 

"You are, my baby. What's wrong?" Renee's voice is now low, the enthusiasm is down. 

The blonde can imagine Renee frowning at her daughter's meekly voice. "I know." 

"Oh." Renee speaks after a long pause of silence. "Baby, listen. I know you're upset. But I want you to know that I love you just as I love Bella. You're my little girl and it'll never change just because I didn't give birth to you." 

"I know." Shelley says, holding her sob, not wanting to break down. She hates to upset Renee. There are so many sacrifices the woman made in the past just for Bella and her, being the best mother of the whole damn universe. "I just- I wanna talk to dad. I'll talk to you later." 

"Okay. I love you, baby." Renee says softly. 

"I love you too, mom." Shelley says and hangs out to notice Esdras's car now parked in front of Charlie's home. 

Throughout her whole life, drowning in a sea of lies is not what Shelley expected or imagined. She lived in a lie. How far are they going to keep this away from her? 

Mumbling a small 'thank you' to Esdras, she gets out of the car and storms into the house in a hurry. 

Charlie is the first to greet her with a smile, just as she walks through the door. "How's the party?" 

"Am I adopted?" Shelley questions him back without any emotion on her face. 

Shock spreads to his face. "What?" 

Bella steps into the view from the kitchen, holding a half eaten sandwich in her hand. Ignoring her, the blonde decides to keep her eyes straight on Charlie. 

"Answer the damn question, dad. Is it true?" 

Knowing he can't get rid of the question, Charlie sighs and answers honestly. "Yes, but you're not just adopted. You're the daughter of my twin brother." 

"You had a twin brother?" 

"Yes. A few months after your birth, your parents Charles and Vanessa died from a fire at your home. The fire extinguishers came to extinguish the fire and save them, but it was too late. Fortunately, someone saved you from the fire. We don't know the person's name even today."

"Why didn't any of you tell me?" Shelley holds into her blonde roots, stressed. "Why?" 

"I might not be your real father, but you are my daughter for real. Just as Bella." 

"So, is this a lie? Me being Bella's twin sister?" 

"No, you two are born on the same day, with different time periods of course. Renee and Vanessa got into the labour on the same day." 

Then she turns to Bella, who just witnessed the whole conversation between Shelley and Charlie. Bella doesn't look surprised to hear it all. That means one thing. "Did you know?" 

"Yes." Bella's voice is so weak. 

"You told me that there isn't any secret, Bella. I trusted you!" Shelley yells at her sister, lashing all her anger on her. 

"I'm sorry, Shell." The brunette cries. 

"You always say sorry at the end just after repeating the same mistake!" The blonde snaps at her sister and slams the front door behind her before jogging out of the house and into the woods. The sun is peeking out of its hiding, slowly shading the night away into oblivion. 

"She's sorry for you." Esdras appears behind her, catching her speed. 

Shelley stops on her track to face him. "Will you stop talking about Bella?! I am the one who has no one! Not her! Everyone loves her. She has everything. I hate my life." 

"No, you don't." 

"Stop worrying about me."

"Stop worrying about you?" Esdras shakes his head in disbelief. "I'm not letting you slip out of my fingers. I lost Vanessa. I'm not losing you." 

"Listen to yourself, Ezra. You're trying to see my mom through me. It is not love. It's obsession." She points out, before continuing to walk deeper into the woods. 

"Then what is love, huh? You think Jacob loves you?" Esdras chuckles dryly and follows after her. "Hate to break it to you, Shells. He doesn't give a shit about you if you weren't his so-called imprint! You're being ignorant!" 

"So are you, Esdras! So are you!" The blonde yells, throwing her hands in the air. "Talk to Rosalie. Your mate. The one you're destined to be with. Try to understand her. She loves you." 

"Maybe you're right." He pauses and stops this time, making her stop walking as well. "What I'm feeling for you might be some crazy-ass obsession. Everything about you screams Vanessa. Guess, it's hard to move on from your first love." 

Shelley nods in agreement and lets out a sigh. "It is." 

"About Rose. She's lovely. But she wants a family, Shells. She wants kids. She wants to grow old with me. That's all she thinks about. I can't give her that. She makes me want to wish for a human life again. I hate that." He says with a sad smile. Suddenly, he stiffens and abruptly pushes her behind him, taking a protective stance in front of her. 

Out of the shadows emerges, Riley. His angel-like face peer out from the shadows, his crimson irises darting toward the blonde. 

"Missed me?" 

Esdras covers the blonde from Riley's eye sight where Riley instead focuses his gaze on Esdras who holds his ground unshakable. "Where is Victoria?" 

Riley laughs manically. There is no humanity left in him. The sweet boy with a bright smile is gone long ago, leaving a pale face of a killer. "I killed her. Such a whiny bitch. I hate redheads." 

Esdras tilts his head to the side with a questioning manner. "Why are you here?" 

"It is hard to take a guess? I'm here to stake my claim." Riley wickedly smirks and gestures at the blonde. "She." 

"You're kind of late, man. She's sadly taken. Do you want my number? I'm single and ready to mingle." The Cullen twin smirks sarcastically, cracking his head to the sides, preparing himself for an attack.

Riley charges at Esdras, forcing him up against a tree and smashes his face into the truck until it cracks. "You're alone, mind reader. I am trained to kill. I'm faster than you." 

"I'm strong enough to kill you." Esdras flings Riley backwards before he abruptly rips off the large tree, then throws it against Riley with explosive force. 

The two figures twist and fight, in and out of focus. Everytime the two vampires are exposed to the sun, their skin literally sparkles as if embedded with thousands of tiny diamonds. They both are magnificent, shimmering, like a statue carved from glittering crystal. 

It is a beautiful sight to watch if Shelley is in a different situation where they're playfully fighting each other for amusement. But no. This is a life and death situation and she's terrified. 

That's when she sees the explosive raw reality of Riley kicking Esdras, delivering death blows when at the speed of light Esdras's hand shoots up and grabs Riley' ankle. 

Esdras roars up to his feet and swings Riley around like a baseball bat, smashing him into tree after tree where Riley is battered, beaten for now. 

Esdras abruptly and effortlessly scoops the blonde up into his arms and starts running. He races through the forest, dark trunks strobing past as he picks up speed, faster and faster. 

Shelley clings tighter to his back as it seems he'll collide with the trees, but he avoids them with supernatural grace. It's frightening, nauseating, intoxicating. In other words, she hates it. Of course, nowadays, she hates everything in her life. 

They make it to a meadow when suddenly the couple is jerked downward where Riley yanks Esdras violently onto the floor, knocking her out of Esdras's arms as Riley flings the Cullen twin up into a tree trunk. 

Shelley groans, trying to repress the pain from the landing and to regain her equilibrium from the dizziness. She slowly rises on her feet to find herself face to face with Riley, resulting in her to stumble a few steps backwards. "Where is he? Esdras!" 

"You mean him?" Riley holds out his hand into her eye level to notice him gripping the hair of a head. The decapitated head of Esdras Cullen. 

Shelley screams at the top of her lungs with both agony of losing her best friend and the terror overwhelming her in whole. Tears fall down her eyes as she begins to sob, desperately wishing this to be a nightmare. But no, her fate is cruel enough to take away the life of another person dearly to her.

"No, no, no. Don't be upset." Riley sounds almost sincer until he faces her, taking in her scent, bloodlust building. "You smell so… mouth watering." 

Her teary eyes dart around to notice that escape is impossible. Is this how she is going to die? In the middle of nowhere, in the hands of her ex boyfriend who turned into an evil psychopath? 

"Jake. I love you." The blonde whispers, her voice is barely audible. But audible enough for Riley to hear her with his vampire hearing. 

Rage erupts into Riley's face as he grits his teeth, clenching his fists. "I searched you every single place and look what finally happened to me?! This happened to me because of you! And you're here having fun with your vampire boyfriend? Guess what? You'll be my queen whether you like it or not. We're going to spend our immortal lives happily ever after!" 

She flings her purse at him, and runs for the Quileute tribe border since she's currently in neutral land and there's a possibility of Jacob's pack members patrolling nearby. 

"Excellent! An escape attempt. As if you could outrun me. As if you could fight me off." Riley is suddenly behind her and she freezes in fear. He inhales as if he can taste her blood already. He's having too much fun to notice the pepper spray in her hand and that's when she spins around and sprays him. Thank you, Charlie.

Then again, Shelley continues to run for her life, screaming for help, as Riley reels back briefly. But he leaps over her and lands right in front of her. 

"Well done, darling! You've succeeded in annoying me!" His hand grip tightly around her neck before throwing her across the meadow like a bowling ball where she hits hard into a tree trunk and collapses to the floor, whimpering. 

Riley advances toward her and stomps on her shin where her tibia snaps, ending up for her to let out a scream in agony. He inhales as her blood pools around her. He leans in, hungrily, to have a drink. 

Hoping for an instant death, Shelley watches him, half-conscious and helplessly. 

Then abruptly, his expression changes. He sees something in the forest behind the blonde and he looks a little bit scared. She follows his eyes, slowly turning to find Jacob with his pack standing. The russet-brown wolf is the closest and looks directly at her with a concerned face. 

Riley immediately pulls her up to her feet with force before he grabs her closer to his body. "One step forward will be a step towards her death." 

Alpha snarls angrily at the vampire, warningly. 

"If I can't have you. No one can." Looking directly at the wolves with a sinister grin, Riley sinks his teeth into her neck and Shelley screams in agony once again as the venom travels through her veins. With that, he drops her to the floor before running to the other side to escape. 

The wolves spring toward Shelley and leap right over her in pursuit of Riley, their thunderous snarls and snaps shake the forest when they lunge at Riley savagely ploughing him through the floor and in an animalistic fury, they bite off Riley' flesh into pieces. 

That's when Cullens joins the scene and Rosalie's mournful wail echoes within, at the sight of her dead mate.

Carlisle rushes to the injured human and begins to observe her injuries as she writhes in pain. "Shelley, try to stay awake, okay?" 

Jacob dashes toward his imprint when Shelley's eyes turn towards the remaining Cullens and the wolves going in and out of focus… It almost looks like a tribal dance as they rip out the ground and build a fire… it's like a funeral pyre as they rip Riley apart, throwing limbs into the fire. 

Jacob reaches Shelley's side whilst Carlisle works fast to assess her wounds, focusing on a massive bleed from her leg. But clearly her neck hurts the most.

Carlisle applies pressure to the gash on her thigh. "Her femoral artery has been severed. She's losing too much blood." 

"It's on fire! My neck!" Shelley screams in pain, struggling to keep herself steady and awake. 

"Venom." Jacob realises. 

"The Nymph blood in her is fighting the venom. But not for long. She's losing it. The venom is too powerful to fight off." Carlisle says, working on her injuries.

Rosalie appears behind Jacob with a sorrowful expression slapped all over her face. "How can I help?" 

If Shelley isn't severely injured and poisoned with the vampire venom, she might gasp in disbelief. Rosalie Hale cares for her? Maybe the vampire is feeling guilty? 

"Rose, find me a tourniquet. A rag, a shirt." Carlisle informs and Rosalie holds her nose and avoids the blood as she rips the sleeve off her blouse and kneels to aid Carlisle. 

"It's burning!" Shelley yells in pain for the millionth time and the sound of her painful moans slices through Jacob, breaking him. 

Jacob gently strokes her hair from one hand and holds her hand from his other hand to comfort her. He looks like he's about to cry. He looks up at Carlisle with a pleading look. "Do something. Save her. Please." 

"Tighter, above the knee." Carlisle instructs the blonde vampire, who immediately falls into action. 

"Carlisle!" Jacob calls out, not having the strength to watch his imprint in pain anymore. 

"We have to try to suck the venom out, at least most of it. She only has minutes left." Carlisle states. 

"I'll do it for Ezra. He wanted her safe." Rosalie volunteers. 

"You can't control the bloodlust." Carlisle reminds her. 

"I'll find a way." Rosalie insists and looks down at the human, where she is thrashing in pain. The vampire tries to reach closer to Shelley when Jacob grabs Rosalie's shoulder with a warning look. 

"If she dies, I'll kill you." 

"I'll take my chances." Rosalie pushes away his hand from her shoulder and looks back at the human with a sad smile. "It's alright, Shelley. I'll make it go away."

Then starts to suck the venom from Shelley's neck where she screams once again wildly with pain. But subsiding. 

That's when the frenzy began. Rosalie sucks harder, hungrily and anguished, it seems as if she wants to stop but can't. The bloodlust is too strong.

"Stop. You're killing her." Carlisle's voice sounds miles away whilst the blonde twin looks at Rosalie, forgivingly, as she begins to lose consciousness growing blurry… everything around me disappears into the blinding light.