“Yes.”
“I’ll be right back.”
Isabelle listened as her mother moved away, but she refused to open her eyes. The annoying tears were threatening to come again, and she refused to shed them. Not for him. He did not deserve her tears. This was exactly what she wanted, and she was going to rejoice in the fact that he was gone. She was going to get her life back together, and she was going to forget that he had ever existed.
Even as she told herself this, the pain in her chest constricted, and a single tear slid free.
***
The next twodays passed by in a blur of pain. Isabelle found herself disjointed, irritable, and exceptionally moody. She snapped at everyone, cried for no reason, and constantly ached in every part of her body. Her heart had become a constricted lump of muscle that blazed agony through her with every beat. There were times that she thought she was simply going to die from the pain that wracked her.
She saw the looks that everyone gave her, heard their whispered comments, but she couldn’t bring herself to care about any of it. Her mind was a foggy mess that didn’t want to function. She couldn’t bring herself to eat, and sleep was the only solitude that she found. She would curl up in her bed, drag the comforters over her head, cry out her anguish, and when she was completely exhausted, sleep would finally claim her.
Then, she would dream of him, and in her dreams the pain eased, and everything was right again. When she woke, the pain instantly reclaimed her body, seizing hold of her, and shaking her until she broke out in a cold sweat, and tears of agony were wrenched from her. She would curl into a ball and cry until she was too weak to cry anymore. Then, she would fall back asleep, and the whole process would start again.
On the third day, her hunger began to greatly affect her. She made her way upstairs, every step an act of sheer will power. She felt horrible, she looked horrible, and it washisfault. It didn’t matter that she had wanted him to leave, that she had gotten what she wanted, because she could no longer recall why she had wanted it. She only wanted him to come back. But, he had abandoned her, and he had left her to feel like this. Left her here to suffer miserably while he went offgallivanting, doingwhatever he wanted. That thought only made the pain worse, and she tried desperately not to allow herself to think about what he could possibly be doing, and withwhom.
The pain didn’t ease with every day like she had hoped, it only got worse. Much worse. She was beginning to fear that if it didn’t ease, she would die from it. She had never imagined that anything could hurt like this. Not even when they haddrainedher bloodhad it hurt like this. She had a permanent black cloud of misery enfolding her, making it hard to breathe, hard to live. She felt as if she was missing a piece of herself, the piece that had made it possible for her to exist.She was missing the piece that made it possible to make it through everydaywith some semblance of sanity,if it didn’t ease soon, than she didn’t know how she was going to survive.
Ethan was in the kitchen when she made it upstairs. His eyes widened in surprise as they landed on her. He had always been her rock, her best friend, the one person that she had turned to in times of comfort and need, but she didn’t even speak to him,couldn’tspeak to him. “Isabelle,” he said gently.
She shook her head, unable to deal with him at the moment. He took hold of her arm, settling her onto one of the stools before grabbing a bag of blood and opening it for her. She accepted it and drank it quickly before tossing it aside. “That’s the first time I’ve seen you feed since you were eight.”
Isabelle looked into his warm, worried green eyes, and burst into tears. Ethan stood in stunned silence before wrapping his arms around her and pulling her tightly against him. He rocked her gently as she clung to his shirt and buried her head in his solid chest. The comfort she had always found in him was nowhere now. She hurt too much to find any comfort anywhere. She cried herself out, but still clung to him, unable to move for fear that she’d fall off the stool.
“It will be all right,” he said, gently smoothing back her hair.
“No it won’t,” she whispered. “I want to go to bed.”
“You can’t spend the rest of your life asleepIssy.”
She started crying again, but she was so exhausted that only dry sobs wracked her. Ethan helped her climb to her feet, and led her into the living room. She curled up on the couch;drawing her knees to her chestshewrappedher arms around them as she tried to ease the agony in her body. He sat nervously beside her, uncertain of what to do, of how to help her as he lightly stroked her hair until she fell back asleep.
He looked up as David, his mother, and Mike came through the door. “I thought you said that he couldn’t hurt her!” he snapped.
They stood silently, staring down at Isabelle. “He’ll be back,” his mother said softly. “He has to come back.”
“And if he doesn’t?”Ethan demanded.
His mother’s eyes filled with tears as her gaze met his. “They say that one can’t live without the other,” David said softly. “They go insane and have to destroyed, or they kill themselves.”
Ethan swallowed heavily as his hand convulsed in Isabelle’s hair. He had never seen her look so bad. No matter how much sleep she got, there were still dark shadows under her eyes. She had become so pale that she was almost translucent, and he could clearly see the tiny blue veins in her temples, eyelids, and neck. Her hair was lackluster, its natural shine gone. Her face was pinched tight, even in her sleep, and she had lost a good five pounds.
“She’ll die,” he said softly.
“Maybe, maybe not. We don’t really know how it all works. They may not have known each other long enough, they may not have been able to form a strong enough bond for itto end that way,” Mike said hopefully.
“Theyformed a bond,” Sera said softly. “Ian said it was Stefan that knew she was in trouble the other night, and he would have killed Ethan if David hadn’t managed to get through to him. Their bond is strong already. Trust me, I know.”
“Why would he leave then?” Ethan demanded.
“I don’t know. Maybe he thought it would be for the best. But, if Isabelle is going through this much pain, than so is he.”
“And if he’s not? If you’re wrong about that, and he doesn’t come back?”
“I don’t know Ethan!” she cried, tears streaking down her cheeks. “I don’t know!”
***
