Chapter Text
Chapter 1
The Last Normal Day
The cut on Bella’s arm still stung, a faint throb beneath her sweater, a reminder of the birthday that shattered everything. The Cullens had vanished from school without a word. And today… Edward had called. He wanted to talk.
When she opened the door and saw him standing there, she forgot how to breathe. He was perfect. Cold and distant, but perfect. Her beloved Edward.
He didn’t smile. “Come walk with me,” he said, already turning toward the forest.
Bella followed in silence. Something was off, more than usual. He moved like a stranger, and she didn’t dare ask why.
When they reached a clearing, he stopped.
“Bella,” he began, “you’ve probably noticed that we haven’t been back to school. And no one’s called you.”
She nodded, heart hammering. Words caught in her throat.
“What happened on your birthday should never have happened,” he said quietly. “I need to apologize for all of it. I knew this relationship was a mistake. But I let it go on. I let you believe we had a future. And I was wrong.”
She flinched. “Edward, I’ve already forgiven you. It wasn’t anyone’s fault. It was just a paper cut. I love all of you. Nothing has changed for me.”
“You’re right,” he said, voice flat. “Nothing has changed for you. But I can’t keep pretending. I’m not what you need.”
“I don’t care. You can change me. Make me like you. Then we can be together.”
He shook his head. “I don’t want to change you. I don’t need you. I don’t want you. You were a distraction, Bella. Nothing more. You’ll forget me as easily as I will forget you.”
His words hit harder than any vampire’s attack. Bella’s world fractured.
She dropped to her knees in the clearing, sobbing as he disappeared into the trees
Bella didn’t know how long she stayed there after Edward vanished, knees in the dirt, throat raw, eyes burning.
It wasn’t just losing him. It was losing everything.
The family she had come to love. The home she’d started to build in their cold, perfect world. The future she thought she had.
Gone. All of it. Gone with a few words and a disappearing shadow in the trees.
He said he never wanted her. That she was a distraction.
The words echoed in her skull like a cruel lullaby. Over and over. Louder and louder.
Eventually, her body moved. She didn’t remember standing.
She didn’t know where her feet were taking her.
She just walked.
Branches scratched at her arms, and mud pulled at her shoes. She didn’t care.
Everything inside her felt hollow. Like someone had scooped her out and left just a shell behind.
If she kept walking, maybe it would stop hurting.
If she walked far enough, maybe she’d disappear.
Time blurred. The trees all looked the same.
The ache in her chest became something distant, dull, almost peaceful.
The temperature dropped. She didn’t notice.
When her legs finally gave out, she collapsed onto the cold, damp ground, cheek pressing into moss and pine needles.
Her breath came in shudders. Her heart ached like it was physically breaking.
She welcomed the cold.
If this was the end, it was fine.
Her last thought before the darkness took her was simple:
Let it end.
Voices swam at the edge of her consciousness, shouting, distant.
The warmth hit her first.
Strong arms wrapped around her limp body, pulling her up like she weighed nothing. Heat radiated from the chest she was pressed against, unfamiliar and wild. Her mind barely processed it.
“She’s breathing,” a low voice growled. “Stupid leech lover nearly froze herself to death.”
The words cut through the fog like a blade.
Bella blinked, trying to lift her head. She squinted up, and froze.
Dark eyes met hers, black as pitch and furious. But then… something shifted.
His face changed in an instant. The hard set of his jaw loosened. His pupils dilated. For a second, he looked shocked. Like she had punched him in the gut. Then came the whisper, low and bitter:
“Figures I’d imprint on a damn Cullen cast-off.”
Her heart, shattered only hours ago, flinched, but didn’t break. Not this time.
Something about those eyes held her there. Unfamiliar… but grounding.
“Who…who are you?” she rasped. “And why are you such an asshole?”
He huffed a sharp breath, somewhere between a scoff and a growl. “I’m Paul. And you should shut up and rest.”
She opened her mouth to argue, but closed it again. Every bone in her body ached. Every part of her wanted to disappear. And yet… here she was. Carried like she mattered.
“Tomorrow,” he added flatly, “I’ll come talk to you.”
“Tomorrow?” she echoed.
He looked down at her, annoyed. “Jesus, do you have brain damage? Yes, tomorrow. Try to keep up.”
“I don’t want to see you tomorrow,” she muttered.
“Well, too bad. I don’t want to see you ever again, but life clearly has a sick sense of humor.”
Then his voice dropped, darker and more resigned. “We’re bound, sweetheart. You’ll understand soon enough.”
Her eyes widened. “Imprinting…”
Paul glanced at her, and for a flicker of a second, there was something almost sad in his gaze. He nodded. “At least you were listening when I talked. Great. This’ll be fun.”
He didn’t say another word the rest of the way. When they reached her house, Bella saw flashing lights, voices, figures in the dark. Charlie. The search party.
Paul handed her off without ceremony. Her father’s arms wrapped around her, warm but shaking with relief.
Bella barely felt it.
She barely felt anything.
Except the lingering warmth from Paul’s skin and the haunting way his eyes had softened, just once.
Later, in bed, her grief returned in waves.
Edward’s loss.
The imprint.
The confusion.
But it didn’t cut quite as deeply as it had in the woods. And that scared her.
As sleep crept in, she whispered to the dark:
Please.
Don’t let me wake up.
….
The alarm blared.
Bella groaned and rolled over, arm flinging out to silence it.
7:00 AM.
Her eyes blinked open blearily. Her head ached. Her body felt stiff and sore, like she hadn’t moved in hours. She rubbed her face and sat up.
And then…
She saw the date on her phone.
September 16th.
No.
That… that wasn’t right.
Her breath caught in her throat. She checked again.
September 16th.
Panic flared in her chest. She stumbled out of bed, heart hammering, and raced down the stairs.
“Dad?” she asked, voice trembling.
Charlie looked up from his cereal. “Yeah, Bells?”
“What, what day is it?” She asked with fear in her voice.
He frowned. “Uh… Tuesday the sixteenth? You okay?”
She stared at him. She didn’t answer. She turned and walked back up the stairs slowly, like she was in a dream.
The sixteenth.
The day Edward left her.
Her body felt frozen but her mind spun in circles.
She remembered it perfectly, his words, the walk, the forest. Paul.
It had happened.
She’d lived it.
So why was she here again?
…
She paced her room, clutching her phone. It rang in her hand.
Edward.
Right on time.
Her heart surged with something wild, hope? fear? desperation? She answered.
“Bella,” his velvet voice said. “Can I come over? We need to talk.”
“Yes,” she whispered. “Yes, come.”
…
This time when she opened the door, she tried to smile. She tried to meet him with open eyes and a calm heart. Maybe, maybe she could say something different. Maybe if she said it right, he wouldn’t leave.
Maybe she could fix it.
But as he spoke, the words didn’t change.
The clearing was the same.
His expression was the same.
The way he said “You were a distraction.” The way he ran away.
All of it, identical.
She fell to the forest floor again, crying, sobbing, except this time, in the back of her mind, something was screaming.
Not from heartbreak.
From confusion.
From fear.
Because this wasn’t just grief.
It was something else.
….
She didn’t chase after Edward.
She didn’t wander into the woods.
She didn’t scream or cry or beg.
Not this time.
Bella just sat in the clearing where he left her, where he shattered her.
The ground was damp beneath her, her jeans soaked and sticking to her knees. She didn’t notice. She stared blankly ahead, unblinking.
It had all happened again.
The same cold goodbye.
The same cruel words.
The same emptiness swallowing her whole.
And now she knew what was coming. The pain. The isolation. The aching hollow where love used to be. She didn’t know why time had rewound, but it hadn’t changed the outcome.
Edward still left her.
She was still not enough.
Maybe this was hell.
Not fire and brimstone, just this day. Over and over. Forever.
She hugged her arms around her middle. Not to warm herself. Just to hold herself together.
She didn’t cry this time.
She didn’t have the energy.
The sun dipped lower. The forest shadows stretched long across the mossy floor. A soft rustling behind her made her blink, but she didn’t turn around.
“Still not dead?” a voice drawled behind her.
Bella stiffened.
She turned her head slowly, already knowing who it would be.
Paul.
He stood there shirtless, just as before, tall, solid, and simmering with something electric under his skin. His eyes were dark and sharp as flint. And once again, he was looking at her like she was the worst thing that had ever happened to him.
Only this time, he didn’t recognize her.
Of course he didn’t.
The imprint hadn’t happened yet, not until he got close.
“I thought you leech-lovers weren’t the dramatic type,” Paul muttered, stepping into the clearing. “Didn’t expect to find you rotting on the forest floor.”
She exhaled slowly. “You again.”
That gave him pause.
He squinted at her, confused, almost suspicious. “You know me?”
She gave a weak shrug. “Not really.”
He stepped closer.
And then it hit him. The change happened fast, barely perceptible, but she saw it. His entire body stilled, like he’d been frozen mid-step. His jaw clenched. His eyes widened for just a second, and something shifted behind them, like recognition layered over confusion.
Then he swore softly under his breath. “You’ve got to be kidding me,” he said, voice low and sharp. “No fucking way, imprinting.”
Bella blinked up at him, the same strange tug from last time rippling through her chest. But this time it felt sharper. More present. “Are you okay?” she asked, voice hoarse.
His stare snapped back to her face. He looked furious. “It figures,” he said bitterly. “Out of all the damn people in the world,I had to be bonded to you…”
“In case it helps, I’m not exactly thrilled either,” Bella muttered.
Paul huffed a humorless laugh. “Of course not. Leech girl’s still hung up on her sparkly boyfriend, huh?”
Her expression darkened. “You don’t know anything about it.”
“No?” he snapped. “I know you were just sitting here like a broken doll. I know you stink of Cullen. I know you’ve got this… look in your eyes like you’ve already given up.”
Bella stood, unsteady but defiant. “You don’t get to judge me.”
Paul took a step back, eyes narrowing. “No, I don’t. But guess what? I still feel it. Whether I want to or not.”
The air between them vibrated with something tense and unspoken. Bella looked away. “You said… last time… we’re bound by something we can’t control.”
Paul’s brow furrowed. “Last time?”
She caught herself. “I meant… earlier.”
He didn’t seem convinced, but he let it go.
He ran a hand through his short hair and sighed, looking at her with a mix of irritation and resignation. “I’m not dragging you home. If you’re strong enough to throw an attitude at me, you can walk.”
“I didn’t ask for help.” She retorted.
“Too bad. You’ve got it anyway.” He growled.
She started walking toward the trees.
He followed. “Have you got a name, imprint girl?”
She almost laughed at how miserable and ridiculous this was. “Bella.”
He nodded. “Paul.”
“I know,” she said softly.
He gave her a sidelong look, but didn’t ask how.
Paul didn’t speak much on the way back.
He kept a few paces behind her, quiet but watchful. Once, when she tripped on a root, his hand shot out instinctively to steady her, but he didn’t say a word. Just caught her elbow and let go.
When the edge of the forest finally broke into the backyards of Forks, she could see her house lit up again, patrol cars parked haphazardly along the street. Charlie was pacing on the porch, speaking to someone in a low, panicked voice.
Paul stopped walking. “I’m not great with cops,” he muttered. “Go on.”
Bella turned to him, something raw behind her eyes. “Will I see you tomorrow?”
His brow furrowed. “Yes.” But the words didn’t hold much venom this time.
She gave a single, tired nod and started toward the house. She could feel his gaze on her back until she disappeared through the door.
…
Charlie pulled her into a crushing hug the moment she stepped inside, scolding her and holding back tears. She mumbled apologies and told him she was tired.
There was no explanation she could give. Not one that would make sense.
She didn’t remember changing her clothes. She barely remembered brushing her teeth. Everything felt distant. Flat.
The world she’d fought to keep had unraveled again.
And tomorrow, it would do it all over.
Bella lay in bed with the covers pulled up to her chin, eyes open, staring at nothing.
Why is this happening to me?
She turned on her side and closed her eyes, waiting for sleep like someone waiting for a storm to break.
She didn’t cry this time either.
She just waited to be broken again.
…
The alarm clock blared at 7:00 AM.
Bella’s hand shot out, silencing it with a single slap. Her breath caught in her throat as she turned toward the calendar.
September 16th.
Again.
She sat up, slowly, her heart pounding.
No dream. No second chance.
Just another run through the same pain.
She pulled her knees to her chest and stared at the wall, the same thought circling like a vulture: How many times will I have to survive this?