Mending a Broken Spirit
Chapter 1
BPOV
I was currently in one of the few dress shops in Port Angeles with Jessica and Angela trying to find them the perfect dresses for prom. I wasn't planning on going but Angela was going with Ben Cheney and I had finally gotten Mike to ask Jessica instead of me. I was getting kind of bored with them trying dress after dress on and asking me how they look.
"How does this one look, Bella" Jessica asked me bringing me out of my thoughts.
"It looks great" I answered.
"That's what you've said about the last five dressed I've tried on" Jessica retorted.
"I thought that they all looked pretty great" I told her.
"You aren't really into this, are you?" Angela asked.
"Not really, I actually just wanted to check out a bookstore that I found on the internet" I admitted. "Would it be ok if I met you at the restaurant in an hour and a half so we can still get home by curfew?" I asked when neither of them said anything.
"Yeah, that's fine. We'll see you then" Angela answered.
"Ok, see you later."
"See ya later" both of them said at the same time.
As I was walking out of the store, I heard Jessica say "She's right, this dress does look amazing."
It didn't take me long to find the bookstore. It was only five or six blocks away from the dress shop and took about twenty minutes to get to. When I got the door open, I heard the bell ring announcing that there was a customer. The person at the counter asked if I needed help finding anything.
"No thank you, I'm just going to look around" I answered.
I spent about half an hour looking around until I found something that I was interested in buying. It was a book about the legend of mythical creatures from around the world. I took it off the shelf and took it up to the counter to pay for it.
"Did you find everything ok" the lady at the counter asked.
"Yes, I did" I answered. She rang up the book that I had picked out and put it into a bag that had the store's logo on it.
"Your total comes to $19.95" she said. I gave her a $20 bill and she gave me a nickel back. I looked at the time and it said that I still had another forty minutes till I was supposed to meet up with Jessica and Angela so I decided to wander around a little bit. About twenty five minutes later I figured that I could still make it to the restaurant on time if I found a shortcut. When I looked around to try to figure out where I was, I found out that I was in an alley and it was getting dark outside fast.
All of a sudden, I heard heavy footsteps coming from behind me. I took a glance behind my shoulder and there were five men following about ten yards behind me. I kept walking trying to make it seem like I didn't see them so that they wouldn't chase after me. I could hear them gaining on me so I started walking a little bit faster knowing that if I ran, I will trip and they'll get me anyway. I looked behind me again and now they were only five yards behind me. They didn't look like the type of people that were looking for directions either. They all looked like they were in their mid to late twenties, hadn't shaven in about a week, they were all wearing dark hoodies, torn jeans, and hiking boots. I was about half a block away from them when they caught up to me. They started surrounding me and I started looking around to find a way out.
"What are you looking for, sweetheart" one of them said.
"N...no...nothing." I felt in my purse to see if I had the pepper spray that Charlie gave me when I moved in with him. When I didn't feel it I remembered that it was still on my nightstand in my bedroom.
All of a sudden the one from behind me grabbed my arm and pulled me closer to him. I started pulling away. In my struggle to get away, I dropped my purse and they dragged me further away from the busier intersection.
"Let go of me!" I cried out.
"I don't think I'm gonna. I think that we should have a little fun before we do that."
I was trying to remember some self defense moves that I learned when I had gone with Renee. I could remember some punching moves but that did me no good since one of them was holding my arms so tightly. Then I saw one of them come at me and felt him punch me in the stomach. They started dragging me to the end of the alley where there was just a brick wall. The one holding me pushed me down and I heard my right arm snap when it hit the brick wall. The biggest one started to undo their belt so I got up and started running away seeing what their intentions were. I got about ten feet away when I tripped and fell forward. I tried using my good arm to catch myself but I fell on my bad arm. The pain shot through like a thousand needles being poked in my skin at the same time.
"Where do you think you're going, sweetheart" one of them said as he very roughly pulled me off of the cement dragging me to the others. This time someone was already on the ground ready to catch me. I'm sure that was so that I wouldn't try go get away again. By now there was someone holding each of my wrists down. I tried to keep my legs together as tight as possible.
"Spread your legs!" When I didn't listen to him, he put both his hands between my knees and pulled them apart with so much force that they hit the cement and bounced back up. I felt an excruciating pain in my left knee from this and knew it was broken. "You two hold her ankles so she doesn't try to kick" the biggest one said, who was currently standing over me. He started to take my jeans and underwear off. I tried screaming as loud as I possibly could to anyone who could possibly hear me.
"Be quiet!" Right after he said this he punched me right above my ear and in my eye. Before he punched me in the eye, I saw that he had a big square metal ring on his finger. I felt the blood coming down my face but when I smelled it, I started to get dizzy and started to lose consciousness just as he got his jeans off.
APOV
I looked at my cell phone to check the time once again. It was 7:50 so Bella was twenty minutes late.
"Something's wrong, Jess. Bella is never late and already she's twenty minutes late."
"I know. Maybe she ran into somebody and got a ride with them and forgot to call us."
"Maybe, I'm going to call her and see." I found her number in my contact list and clicked call. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring. Hey you've reached Bella. Leave your name and number after the beep and I'll get back to you as soon as possible. Beep. "Hey Bella, it's Angela. I was wondering where you were cuz we were supposed to meet up about twenty minutes ago and you're not here. I wanted to make sure you were ok. You've got my number. Talk to you later." Then I hung up with a worried look on my face.
"No answer?"
"No, this just isn't like Bella."
"Maybe you're right and something is wrong. I say that we wait here for another ten minutes and if she doesn't show up we go back to the dress shop and see if she went back there. Maybe she thought we were going to meet at the dress shop and she's there right now. If she isn't there we can go find the bookstore that she was going to go to and see when she left."
"That sounds like a good idea but it still doesn't explain why she didn't answer her phone."
"Maybe she had it put on silent or didn't hear it."
"Maybe."
Ten minutes went by so Jessica and I went and paid for our drinks leaving the hostess with a message saying that if she saw Bella for her to call either me or Jessica. We got to Jessica's car and headed back to the dress shop. We still had another hour until it closed and hopefully the bookstore would still be open. When we got to the dress shop, we went right to the person working and asked her if she had seen the person that we were with earlier since we had left. She hadn't.
"Do you know of a bookstore around here" I asked her.
"Yes, there is one about five blocks down the street from here."
"Do you know how late they are open?"
"I believe 9:00."
"Ok, thank you."
"You're welcome."
We left the shop and got back into Jessica's car and headed to the bookstore. We found it easily. When we got inside we went to the middle aged lady at the counter and started asking questions.
"Have you seen a girl come in here that's our age, about five foot four, long brown hair, brown eyes, and was wearing a sweatshirt, jeans, and tennis shoes?"
"Yes, I have."
"Do you remember when she left?" Jessica quickly asked.
"Yes, she left about an hour and a half ago."
"Ok, thank you."
When we got back to Jessica's car, we got in, buckled our seat belts, and tried to come up with a plan.
"How about you try calling her again since it's been almost forty five minutes since you called the last time."
"Yeah, that sounds like a good idea." I called Bella once again and got her voicemail just like last time. I hung up with a sad look on my face starting to lose hope.
"We will find her Ange. Don't lose hope on me now. How about we look through the streets and if we don't find her by 10:00, we'll go back to Forks and tell her dad and he can set up a search party" she told me trying to reassure me. Most people think that Jess is just a fashion loving, self centered bitch but the people that really know her know that she takes care of the people that she cares about and is friends with. She is loyal and if you hurt someone she cares about, she will come after you.
"Ok."
"Now let's go find Bella."
We combed through the streets of Port Angeles and we found no sign of Bella anywhere. It didn't help that it was dark outside either; we were just going by the lights of the headlights of the car and the street lights. It would be so much better if it was light out. When it got to be close to 10:00, we decided that we had better head back to Forks. It was a very quiet ride back up until we got about five miles away.
"Which one of us is going to tell the Chief that his only daughter is missing" Jessica asked.
"I don't know, I know that is news that no parents want to get and neither of us wants to be the bearer of bad news, but it's gotta be done."
"Yeah, it wouldn't be a good thing if he collapsed or anything." We pulled into the driveway by Bella's truck and made our way to the white two story house. Jessica knocked on the door and we waited for Chief Swan to answer.
CPOV
I was wondering where Bella was since she had fifteen minutes to get home before it was her curfew. I knew that she was going to Port Angeles with a couple of friends from school. I think that she said that their names were Jessica and Angela, must be Jessica Stanley and Angela Webber. All of a sudden there was a knock at the door. Who would be visiting this late? I answered the door and see on the steps Jessica and Angela.
"Hi Chief Swan. Could we come in and talk to you" I think Jessica asked.
"Yeah, come on in." Wait a minute, where's Bella. "Um, Jessica, Angela, where's Bella?"
"That's what we came here to talk to you about. We haven't seen her since about six o'clock and we haven't been able to get a hold of her. We were hoping that she had just found a different ride home and had her phone on silent" Angela explained.
"No, she isn't here. How about you explain to me what happened.
"Ok, well, we were in a dress shop and me and Angela were trying on dresses. Bella looked bored so Angela asked "you're not really into this, are you". She said no and that the reason she came with is because she wanted to check out a bookstore that is in town. She asked if it would be ok if we met her at the restaurant in an hour and a half so we would be meeting at 7:30. We said ok and she left the shop and we haven't seen her since. At about ten to eight, we realized something was wrong because Bella still wasn't at the restaurant and she is never late. I told Angela that we could call her and see where she is but it rang until her voicemail picked up. Angela left a message and we decided to wait ten minutes until we left in case she showed up. We went back to the dress shop to see if they had seen her after we left and they hadn't. Then we found the bookstore that Bella went to and the person there remembered her but said that she left about an hour and a half before we got there. It wasn't even 8:30 yet so she had plenty of time to get to the restaurant. Then Angela called her phone again and once again got no answer. Then we decided to look through the streets and try to find her and when we hadn't found her by 10:00 we decided to come home and tell you since our curfews are at eleven just like Bella's."
"Ok, well you two need to get home and I'm going to call the Port Angeles Police Department right away in the morning and let them know. If I don't find her by the time school is let out tomorrow, you can come help look for her. I'll be setting up a search party and do everything I can to get her back. If your parents give you trouble about being late, have them call me and I'll explain. Thank you for coming and telling me."
I led them to the door and shut it when they were in their car safely. Then I decided that Renee should know that her daughter is missing too. Even though it is after two over there, I know that she would want to know. I found the address book and dialed the number. Ring. Ring. Ring. Ring.
"Hello."
"Hi Phil. It's Charlie, is Renee there?"
"Yeah, just a minute." I heard Phil put the phone down and walk away.
"Hello."
Hi Renee, it's Charlie."
"Charlie, is something wrong? Why are you calling so late? Is it Bella? Did something happen?"
"Yeah, that's what I'm calling about. Bella went to Port Angeles with a couple of friends from school to go shopping. She went on her own to go to a bookstore and nobody has seen or heard from her since except for the person that was working at the bookstore."
"Bella's missing? Has anyone tried calling her phone?"
"Yes, one of her friends said that she called it twice and there was no answer. It always rang until it went to voicemail."
"When was the last time that anyone saw her?"
"Her friends saw her at six and the bookstore owner a little less than an hour later. I'm going to be calling the Port Angeles Police Department first thing in the morning and set up a search party with people from the reservation and some officers from my department. Then if we don't find her by the time school lets out tomorrow, I'm sure that a bunch of Bella's friends from school will want to help look for her."
"Ok, if you find anything out, please call me no matter what time it is."
"I'll be sure to do that. Goodnight Renee."
"Goodnight Charlie. Goodbye."
"Goodbye." Just as I hung up the phone I thought "please let Bella be ok".
