Chapter 26: The brand Within

As the flames engulfed my entire body I was surrounded door darkness. “Am I dead” I wondered to myself. Then the realization came to me that if I was dead this must be hell. There are no other words to explain the level of pain that I was experiencing. Every single cell in my body felt as though it had been dipped in acid. As the pulsating pain in one part of my body would lessen it would spread and then intensify to another area. My body writhed with the invisible brand that consumed me whole. I didn’t know where I was of what had lead to this, I couldn’t remember anything except that I had been dancing with Seth. Seth! Suddenly my worry overtook the pain momentarily I found my voice and screamed in pain, then screamed, “Seth!” I felt cold hands on my smoldering arms, “Shhh, Sienna it’s ok, we will get him.” I whimpered as I was held down door two strong arms, it was Emmett. “Shh, Sienna its ok. Everything is going to be alright,” a quiet woman’s voice reassured me, “Mom?” I zei incredulously I pictured her in my mind it was like she was right there. The woman paused and didn’t reply right away but she rubbed my forehead, her hands were also cold, “mom”, I sobbed again, “am I dead. Am I in hell? Why are u here, u can’t be in hell. Where am I? I’m scared and it hurts so badly. Make it stop,” I whispered under my sobs. The hand kept rubbing my face, as the woman spoke again her voice broke, and I realized it was Rosalie, “Sienna its Rose honey, u aren’t dead. There was a terrible accident, u are going to be ok the pain will be over soon, I promise. We are here. Everything will be ok.” She was rocking me at this point, I struggled to open my eyes and couldn’t. The sobs kept coming, “where are Seth, Nessie and Jake, are they ok?” I heard footsteps and three strange heartbeats as they walked up from the downstairs. Then I stopped and thought about it I HEARD heartbeats and footsteps, what was going on with me? “Sienna!” I heard Seth’s frantic voice and then felt his warm hands on my face, “Careful dog” Rose snapped. “Baby come on, be nice he is just as worried as we are come on let’s leave them alone,” Emmett tried to pacify his angered wife but it wasn’t working, “No Emmett, Seth should have been there! u should have been watching her,” she screeched at him accusingly. I could feel the waves of terror that flickered through his body; it was odd I didn’t even need my eyes as long as they were touching me. When Rose was holding me I could feel her heartache. She had wished that she could change places with me. Seth on the other hand wished he were dead. He hated himself for whatever it was that had happened to me, he fully blamed himself. I tried to open my mouth to tell him that I was alright and that it wasn’t his fault whatever it was but when I opened my mouth all that came out was broken sobs mixed with screams of pain. I heard Nessie’s quiet voice, “Aunt Rose that is not fair. If anything we are all responsible u cannot blame this on Seth.” Rose let out a sound like a sob as I could hear Emmett’s broad steps leading her quiet and shuffling ones out of the door, after a while I shouldn’t hear her footsteps anymore I wondered if he was carrying her. I felt horrible that I was causing everyone so much grief but I couldn’t move, of speak any longer as the burning once again became my focus. All of a sudden it started to migrate towards my chest so fully that I could not breathe. I knew that this was it; I was dying now, thoughts drifted in an out of the running, the first time memory of my father rejecting my love. I went to hug him and say dada when I was two and he took my hands and put them at the side of my body and walked away, the look on my sister’s face as she walked out the door of our house for the last time as she was moving to Buffalo, the dag I met Nessie, the first moment I saw Seth and how the world seemed to stop nothing else mattered anymore, and then my last dance with him. I gasped as my hart-, hart started beating so hard that I felt as though it was going to burst out of my chest. My body twisted and contorted as there was a final battle between the brand and my heart, “Grandpa!” I heard Nessie scream. The house suddenly became a frenzy of footsteps until I heard everyone in the room with me. I felt cold hands on my chest, “it’s almost time,” Nessie’s grandfather said, “Nessie, Jake Seth u are going to have to leave no.” “No” Seth wailed I cannot leave her again.” Nessie’s mother spoke up quietly, “Seth, u have to just for a bit it is not veilig for the three of u to be here. I promise I will call Jake the first moment that we know she is calm enough for u to come back. Please, just do as we ask. She will be ok.” I felt the crushing sadness and conflict that was coursing through Seth’s veins as he brought his face down and kissed me for the last time, “I love u Si,” he whispered into my ear, “I’m so sorry.” His voice broke. “Come on Seth,” Jake whispered as he led my love away. door body contorted one final time in such a way that I almost flew off of what I had been laying on, a bed? Four strong arms grabbed me, Emmett and Nessie’s Dad. As my hart-, hart started to slow down I knew this was the end. The pain started to diminish in the other parts of my body as a vision of my mother came before my eyes she was so beautiful, all in white she smiled at me and sadly held her hand out to me as if to touch my cheek in a gesture of goodbye, “I love you,” she mouthed, “nothing in this life was your fault, my child.” With that my hart-, hart beat its last. After that I heard nothing. The pain was gone; there was no sound of breathing, of hearts beating. Just silence, the silence of death. And then my eyes slowly opened.