Hey!

I'm back (obviously- hence the update)! That wasn't too long a wait was it? Hmmm? Told you I love you! Thanks to everyone who read and reviewed the last one.

Quick question- is Isabel a Mary-Sue, I'm getting really paranoid that she might be? Please be HONEST or I'll stop updating!

Lots of love, hugs and a small goldfish named Jeff.

LittleVampirate,

XX

I hated the sea.

It taunted me with its perilous beauty. It tricked me by looking calm and peaceful, but I knew how quickly it could turn against you at any given moment. But even when it tosses you around like something broken and unwanted you still feel a connection with it, an indescribably deep bond. A bond that is so strong that once it has formed, it is hard to break. And when you leave it, it tries to pull you back. It tugs at your heart and each wave that gently laps at the sand seems to call out your name. And there is something deep inside all of us that longs to answer that call. It usually isn't long before those of us who have fallen under the spell of the sea find ourselves crawling back to the gentle cruelty of the ocean.

I refused to be one of them.

I looked away from the window and pulled the curtain across. It screeched and juddered on the rail as if protesting about having to shut again. I lit a candle to make up for the lack of natural light and looked around the room. Although it was the same one I had occupied since the age of ten, I couldn't call it my own. It had very little to do with me at all. The things in it were just that- things. They meant nothing to me. There was nothing in it I particularly liked that much, they were things chosen for me not by me. Story of my life, really.

The bell tolled through the house at exactly six o'clock, they way it always did, always had and would continue to do until the day I die. It signalled that it was time for me to dine with my fiancé. The smell of the food filled my mouth as I opened the door, I choked on it, automatically retching and trying to get rid of it, but nothing came up. There was nothing left in my stomach to come up. I never ate because I never felt hungry. Empty? Yes, but hungry? No. It was not an emptiness that could be filled with food. Si there was little point in going to dinner. I wasn't going for the food, or the company, but still I went. Every evening I thought it might serve as a distraction and every evening I was proved wrong. Silence while in the same room as someone else was silence nonetheless and silence was no kind of distraction at all. I knew each time would be the same because for the three weeks I had been imprisoned here every dinner had started and ended the same.

The first course brought silence. I sipped at the soup. Three sips before I tipped the rest of the spoonful back into the bowl.

With the main course came silence. Until George was almost finished.

"Isabel, you're not eating." George's voice snapped me out of my distracted stupor. Did he have to state the obvious all the time? I didn't bother to lift my eyes from where they were staring, unfocused at the food I was pushing around my plate until his shadow leant over me.

"I'm not hungry," I said listlessly. My tone and food were as cold as I feel. He sighed.

"You haven't eaten properly since we got here. I don't think I've seen you eat anything in the past three days," he sounded angry. I looked at the pile of mush I was still moving from one end of my plate to the other. I didn't even know what it was. It didn't look very nice, but by now it was probably several different things compressed together.

"I have," I disagreed automatically.

"Really? What?"

I rummaged through the fog of my memory, but to be perfectly honest, each day was exactly the same as the one before it and the one that followed that it was getting increasingly hard to distinguish between them. "I had an apple yesterday," I said, hoping that it was yesterday I had had said apple.

"One bite doesn't count," he said. "And that was on Tuesday."

"Oh," I said. That could have been yesterday, for all I knew. I had no idea what day it was today. I looked back down at my plate. I probably should eat something, even if I didn't feel like it.

"Belle-" he started. Something inside me broke as quickly as my head snapped up to glare at him.

"Don't call me that!" I said so fiercely he recoiled. I could feel the emotions burning in my eyes, so I lowered them. It wasn't something he needed to see. Nobody was allowed to call me Belle. Except… well, not anymore.

"Izzy," he tried again. I smoothed my expression back over. It was like putting on a mask. When other people were there I could hide behind it and I felt protected. The thing was that it was easily broken. Certain words, certain reminders like the name Belle, or the sea brought it crumbling down around me. "You have to eat something."

I shoveled up some food and raised the fork to my lips; it was cold, but not too bad. He sat back and watched me eat with a creepy kind of satisfaction. I raised an eyebrow at him, "Happy?"

He gave a bark of laughter, "For just now." He grew more serious, "You need to let go of it all, Izzy. It's in the past now."

I felt my recently swallowed food stick in my throat. I gulped down some of whatever was in my glass. It didn't taste very nice. I swallowed and coughed at points so close together that they were almost the same motion. George laughed again, "What an elegant noise, Isabel." I felt myself smile half-heartedly despite myself. It was a brief reminder of why I friends with him in the first place. I honestly believed he had done me a favour by stopping me from making the biggest mistake of my life. Even if it had resulted in the eternal misery I was now wallowing in. George cleared his throat.

"We're having company tomorrow for dinner," he said. I stopped eating.

"Alright," I shrugged, but by the way he cleared his throat again I knew he wasn't finished.

"And… er, there's some people coming round to fit your wedding dress after."

I nodded, "Alright." We had almost gone two days without the W word coming up. I threw my fork down and pushed my chair back. It scraped against the wood of the floor. George winced at the harsh sound. I flung a 'Goodbye' over my shoulder as I left the room.

Someone had opened my curtains and there was the sea.

The window was open and I could hear the call of the sea. It called louder and louder every day, and now that my window was open it came screaming into my room. I would not answer. It made my eyes swim with salty tears. I ran to the window, slammed it shut and tugged at the curtain. I backed away from it and curled up in the opposite corner with my hands over my ears, but it was no use. As if the glass could muffle the sound. As if that thin fabric could stop the sea from haunting me. It would always haunt me. There was nothing I could do to rid myself of it, but I could not return. I would not let the bond pull me back. I knew that the sea was as enchanting and treacherous as those who sailed on her. It would pull you in and without warning turn on you and leave you drowning. That's exactly what was happening. I had been enchanted and left to drown.