Emmett’s turn.

With Alice gone, Jasper paced. No one blamed him. The thought of Rosalie running into potential danger without me was enough to make me tighten my arm around her shoulders. She leant back into it, but her eyes didn’t leave Edward’s face.

We didn’t know exactly what Alice had seen, only Jasper knew that. But we all knew enough to guess and if any of what we were thinking was even half-true, Edward would be...

Impossible? Maybe.

Dangerous? Probably.

Certainly unpredictable, but that was nothing new. Grieving, or furious? Pain or anger? Acceptance or denial? Was it even true?

The questions swirled in my brain, never enough information to tell him what was going on, because we didn’t know ourselves. But he knew something was wrong, and was on edge. Or, on edge even more than normal.

He shifted slightly on the sofa, and four pairs of vampire eyes followed his every movement.

Jasper dialled the phone. It rang, kept ringing. Then someone picked up. Jasper lowered his voice so no one could hear him, but with Edward of course, that was no help.

Carlisle and I were split seconds behind him as he leapt up, but split seconds are too long. The sofa tumbled and collided with the wall, as he pulled the door off its hinges and ran from the room. We ran behind him, and all three of us went through the banister without even noticing it. The house shuddered as we hit the wall. Jasper dropped the phone and ran towards us; simultaneously Edward made a break for the door. They collided so loudly Alice on the other end of the phone must have heard.

Edward was quicker back to his feet, and again ran for the door, faster than anyone. Carlisle shouted, but he didn’t stop, he kept running.

The dust settled, the door slammed shut. Esme cried.

Esme and Carlisle were distraught. Esme gave up on normality and reality entirely. She never left her and Carlisle’s room. Carlisle kept up the human pretence for a while, but we could see the strain it put on him. Rose and I spoke to him, and persuaded him to quit his job; we could tell he wouldn’t cope. He then stayed at home, spending most of his time with Esme. Jasper all but lived in the forest, and Rose and I had almost the whole house to ourselves. We’d never felt so lonely.

Things improved slightly when Alice returned. She alone was able to convince Jasper he had played no part in this, easing his guilt. But even Alice could do nothing for our parents.

Bella’s funeral was awful. Jasper was shaking under the emotions he was forced to feel. And her cremation... It seemed ironic, at least to me. The last fire I had been around had killed James, keeping Bella with us. Now, this one was taking her away from us forever.

We threw their ashes into the wind, Bella’s and Edward’s. Alice had gone to Italy, and brought back his ashes, and it helped Carlisle and Esme so much. Closure.

I miss all the moments with my little brother. Alice said he was going to propose. I never got to tease him about his wedding night. We don’t hunt Mountain Lion any more. Secrets are half as likely to be found out, because where Edward and Alice always knew, just Alice can’t always tell. There’s never music playing any more; his piano is covered with dust, but no one touches it. From going to Forks, we should have got a new sister. Instead, we lost our brother, and the sister we never had. Our family has changed, with Esme and Carlisle fading more each week. Will they ever get over this? Alice is optimistic. Jasper, Rose and I less so. Alice didn’t see Esme’s face as he ran out of sight, but we did. Will our family ever recover, or will we spend the rest of eternity drifting apart from each other?

I worked out how to do lines on here!