3. The End

Chapter Synopsis

Bella wakes up feeling “hideous.” Her arm hurts, her head hurts, and Edward only gives her a little kiss on the forehead before he ducks out her window. When Bella gets to school, Eddie’s waiting for her, but his face is “wrong.” Something’s up. Edward tells Bella that Alice and Jasper have gone away for a while, and Bella feels bad. Edward and Bella’s interactions at school are very mechanical. Bella feels bad some more. But Edward agrees to come over that night anyway when Bella invites him. Bella is feeling bad (again) for messing up the Cullen family, and begins running through scenarios in her head — she finally decides that she and Edward will probably have to leave Forks together in order to make things easier on the rest of his family.

Bella spends some time at work, and is excited to see Edward’s car in her driveway when she gets home. She goes into the house, and Charlie (AKA Claude, we’ve decided) and Edward are sitting in the living room watching ESPN together. This freaks Bella out; Eddie doesn’t watch TV, and definitely not ESPN. Bella’s preparing herself mentally for the worst as she stares at some cold pizza in the kitchen. She decides the worst would be having to stay away from Edward’s family.

To try and break the awkward silence, Bella decides to take some photos. But everything is very forced and awkward, of course, and they end up just watching EPSN in silence until Edward says he has to leave. Bella asks him to stay, but he declines. Angst, angst, angst. Bella doesn’t sleep well.

Bella takes her camera to school the next day — she’s decided to start on a scrapbooking project in order to get her mind off other things — and is very out of it. Edward is still acting very distant. On the way to work that evening, Bella drops her film off, picking it up after work. Edward does, it turns out, come out on film — and of course he’s just as stunning as he is in real life. Bella starts on her scrapbook. There’s one photo of Bella and Edward, and Bella is so “ordinary” and ugly, that she folds the picture over so just Edward is looking up at her from the page. Gag.

She sleeps poorly again that night, and the following day drags on slowly. After school, though, Edward asks if he can come over. Right now. Bella hopes they’re finally going to talk, and agrees.

Edward beats her to her house, and, instead of going inside, asks Bella to go on a walk with him. They go a little ways into the forest, and we find out that this is no ordinary walk. Edward informs Bella that “we’re leaving,” and Bella assumes he means she and Edward. But Edward corrects her. The Cullen family is leaving. Leaving Forks. Leaving Bella. Bella begs to go with them. But Edward tells her he’s hurt her too much, and that he’s no good for her. Despite the promise he made her in Phoenix, he tells her he doesn’t want her anymore. He’s tired of acting like he’s human.

Edward makes Bella promise that she won’t do anything stupid while he’s gone, because Charlie needs her. Edward, in turn, promises Bella that this will be the last time she ever sees him. He promises it will be like he never existed. (Oh God, how we wish!) Then he kisses her one more time, and disappears into the forest. Bella, dumbstruck, goes after Edward in shock. She trips and falls (of course), and lays in the mud for a long time.

It gets dark, but Bella doesn’t seem too concerned about moving. She vaguely realizes voices are calling her name, but she’s too numb and emo to care. It starts raining, which annoys Bella, and then she hears more people calling her name, and starts to see lights in the forest. Sam Uley finds Bella curled up in the mud, and carries her back to the search party that’s been out looking for her. All Bella can say, over and over, is “He’s gone.”

Charlie takes Bella home, and Doctor Gerandy (not dreamy Carlizzle Cullen) looks her over, finding nothing physically wrong. Bella tells them she just got lost in the woods. Dr. Gerandy then lets it slip that the Cullens have very suddenly up and left Forks, reportedly because Carlizzle took a high-paying job in LA. Bella, of coruse, knows this is a lie; Carlizzle and his family are too sparkly for LA. Bella covers her ears like a 5-year-old.

The phone rings all night with concerned residents checking up on Bella, and Charlie gets a phone call from someone reporting fires on the reservation. Charlie calls Billy to check it out, and Billy informs him that some of the Indian kids have built bonfires to celebrate the Cullens’ leaving.

Bella eventually goes up to her room to wallow, and realizes that Edward would make a great serial killer — he really had removed all traces of himself from her life. He took the CD he’d just given her, along with the photos of him that had been in her scrapbook. Cue more wallowing. Oh, the pain.

Best Worst Lines

“‘So you’ll come over when I’m home, though, right?’ I hated that I felt suddenly unsure about this.

‘If you want me to.’

‘I always want you,’ I reminded him, with perhaps a little more intensity than the conversation required.” (56)

“I was still imagining pleasant scenarios that consisted of me running away with Edward to various exotic locales.” (57)

“When I pulled it out, I gasped aloud. [That’s what she said!] Edward looked just as beautiful as he did in real life, staring at me out of the picture with the warm eyes I’d missed for the past few days. It was almost uncanny that anyone else could look so… so… beyond description. No thousand words could equal this picture.” (65)

“It was what I wanted, I reminded myself. A chance to talk it all through. So why was the panic choking me?” (67)

“‘No! This is about my soul, isn’t it?'” (69)

“Love, life, meaning… over.” (73)

Things That Really Irk Us

We know we write this about nearly every chapter, but Bella is really, really dumb. We could clearly read the signs Edward was sending. So why the hell is she so surprised??

Bella doesn’t listen. She just runs through her dumb little scenarios in her head, and then is totally taken by surprise by what’s actually going on. The fact that she basically says nothing as Edward is dumping her really irks us. Grow up, Bella.

Laying in the mud for hours? Really? Can Bella get any more damsel-in-distress?

Bella finds it odd that this strange Sam dude scoops her up and carries her out of the forest. But yet, when the Cullens were carrying her up the stairs and to and from the car in the last book, Bella found nothing out of the ordinary about it.

Final Thoughts

We really don’t want to read on. We know it can only get more emo and angsty from here.

Go to our favorite part!