Same as before ..... star then italics - Loretta
Italics - Kayla




I burst into the Cullen household to see Emmett and Jasper fighting to hold onto Edward. Esme was trying to calm Edward, her hands touching Edward’s face, hair, arms. She was speaking in gentle tones, telling him to be calm and think things through. They didn’t see me. Their concentration was all on Edward.
“She doesn’t want me, Esme,” he cried to her. “I saw her, draped all over him. I saw the love in her eyes for him and when she looked at me and spoke to me she was cold and hard. She doesn’t love me.”
I stood, frozen in place, as I watched what this wretched spirit had done to him. I couldn’t stand to see him like this but I couldn’t move.
Look what you’ve done! I screamed to her. I can’t believe you’d ruin my life to stay here longer than you’re supposed to! What’s wrong with just moving on?!
*I don’t want to leave my family!she screamed back. *I have a son and a husband who I love so much I can’t bear to be apart from even in death. Do you understand that?
I could. I felt her love for both of them and also her pain of losing them. I couldn’t stand to have her in my head anymore. It was unbearable this amount of love and pain. I loved Edward. I loved him with every fibre of my being. I would sacrifice my life for him, I would give up all of my possessions for him, and I’d give up my Azdi abilities and become human again if it would make him happy. I would do anything for him. But at the same time I felt like that for Zach and Kyo. Loretta’s emotions were my emotions. Her love and pain mixed with my love and pain and I felt like I was going to explode. We both couldn’t exist in the same body. One of us would have to go.
I understand that but this is my body. You’ve had your time Loretta and I’m sorry but I’ve only just started living and I’m not about to give up.
*But you have the whole of eternity with him, she said sadly. I’m only asking for a few years.
The whole of eternity? I have the whole of eternity with Edward? Impossible. How could she know? Carlisle was still running tests, loads of tests. She was in my body for a few hours, how could she know?
*I can feel it. It’s so simple. You won’t obviously because your body always feels the same to you but someone different in your skin can feel the difference from a normal human to someone who will exist forever. Everything about you is becoming stronger. In effect you’re becoming a vampire.
My breathing became faster, my heart accelerated as I went into shock. I couldn’t believe what she’d just said. I couldn’t process it. I couldn’t. I couldn’t believe that I was becoming a vampire or something like a vampire. It means I would live forever. And if I couldn’t prove to him what really happened then I would live forever without him with no way to escape it.
Loretta, if it’s true you have to help me.
*No, if I do you live happily ever after and I get forgotten about.
Loretta, please, he’ll die.
He’ll die. I could see it now. The Volturi sitting on high thrones, looking high and mighty. Edward kneeling in front of them, asking them for death. I watched as the one of them stood up and walked slowly towards him and place his hands either side of his head.
A sharp, practised twist. Death.
I screamed. Not on the inside on the outside. Loud and high-pitched and conveying every emotion I felt.
*Calm down, Loretta hissed. *Don’t make a scene.
Edward looked at me first. He stopped struggling and his gold eyes locked on mine and I was quiet. Esme turned and Emmett and Jasper let go of Edward. Carlisle, Alice and Rosalie appeared at the top of the stairs.
Everyone stared at me. I didn’t know what to do or say. I wanted to tell him the truth but I was scared he’d laugh at me and call me a liar and a cheat and then he’d leave me and then I’d die inside.
“Kayla,” Edward whispered. “Why are you here?”
“I need to explain to you what really happened.” I spoke in whisper too.
He turned his head, his gaze broken and I felt panic rise in me.
“No, Edward, please, you have to listen. You have to believe me when I say it wasn’t me.”
He turned to face me sharply. The liquid gold of his eyes had frozen. “Do you think I don’t know what you look like? I have memorized your entire face. I could tell you how many lines are on the palms of your hands, how many freckles on your arms, the exact shade of ivory your skin is. Don’t tell me I don’t you.”
“But it wasn’t me,” I cried. “It wasn’t.”
“Then who was it?” Emmett asked me. His voice wasn’t unkind, he wasn’t angry.
Would he believe me if I told him?
“Jasper,” I said, turning to him. “You can feel my emotions right now. Tell him I’m not lying. Tell him how I feel.”
Jasper looked at Edward, mentally communicating with him.
*I can’t take this, Loretta said, sounding uncomfortable. *[/i]You are killing me here.[/i]
Then how about you help me? I said angrily. You got me into this.
“Kayla,” Alice called. “Tell him what you told me on the phone.”
*Because you won’t sound mental in the slightest. You need to show him not tell him.
How do I do that then?
Edward looked at me, waiting for me to speak.
“I...this morning I...well do you remember...there was this woman...Kyo he...”
Edward raised his eyebrows. Clearly I had not done a very good job.
“Edward,” Alice took over. “She says there is a dead woman’s spirit in her head.”
“She is possessed by her.” Carlisle helped. “The man you saw with Kayla was the dead woman’s husband.”
Edward didn’t believe them. His mind was so clouded with doubt and loss and hurt that it was hard to see exactly what he was thinking.
*Your eyes! Loretta exclaimed. *You have my eye colour not yours!
They were. I remembered how subtle the change was but they were different shades of green. He said he had my face memorized. Let’s prove it.
“My eyes, Edward. They’re not the same colour.” I said, whilst walking towards him. “You said you had my face memorized. Prove it.”
Edward was unwilling to look in my eyes but I held his face in my hands and forced him too. He stared at me for a while and slowly realisation dawned in his eyes.
“It’s a different shade,” he said, finally.
“Yes,” I laughed, relief flooding through me. “It is. Oh my God, I thought you wouldn’t see it.”
A smile played on his lips. He wanted to smile but he was still doubtful.
“Can this spirit possess you again?” Carlisle appeared next to me so suddenly I jumped in fright.
“Sorry,” he smiled. “But can she? It would help show you’re being honest.”
*I most certainly can.
“I can’t hear your thoughts Kayla,” Edward said, and his hands removed mine from his face. “I don’t know whether you’re telling the truth.”
“But my eyes!” I said, panic rising again. “My eyes! You saw them! They’re not the same! And Jasper! He can feel I’m telling the truth!” I turned to Jasper. “Right?”
Jasper shrugged. “I can feel you’re distress and panic and pain and it would equate to you telling the truth.”
“But?”
“It’s not solid evidence.”
I looked around at all the Cullens. Did they all think I was a cheat? That I would do that to him? That I would throw it all away for a fling with some guy?
“She wants a human body so bad,” I told them all. “I don’t think I can trust her to return my body.”
*It’s your loss.
But if Edward was safe, I thought. If I let Loretta take over and she proved to him that she really has possessed me then he won’t go to the Volturi. He’ll believe me and he’ll stay with his family. Even if she doesn’t give me my body back, it wouldn’t matter. He’d be safe and alive.
Edward turned away from me, fully. I faced his back now.
I would do anything for him.
“I’ll do it,” I said. “I’ll let her possess me.”
“But you said you might not get your body back.” He was facing me again, moving so fast it was like he had never turned away. He reached out as if to touch me but stopped himself. Worry flashed across his pale face.
“It’s a risk I’m willing to take.”
“Kayla,” Esme wrapped her arms around me. “You don’t have to do this. We believe you.”
*Sure they do, Loretta snorted. *I think you should let me take over. I’d get this thing sorted.
“Kayla. Please, don’t do anything reckless,” Edward said. He was trying to keep up a mask, to hide his emotions but he couldn’t do it. His mask crumpled and I saw everything he felt.
“But you won’t believe me.”
*No, he wont.
“I believe you,” he said. “I believe you. Please don’t do anything that could cause you harm.”
*He’s lying, Loretta whispered to me. *He’s just trying to ease his guilt if anything happens.
He would always be doubtful. His mind would run through that scene again and again and he wouldn’t be able to trust me again. It would always hang over my head. He could use it against me. If he couldn’t trust me then there couldn’t be a relationship. I would lose him.
Loretta. Do your thing.