Chapter 1 - Storm
What she had wanted to do was move here a year ago, so Renee could travel with Phil, but Renee wouldn't have her moving schools in the middle of the year. So here she was, sat in the passenger seat of Charlie's car, mildly jet-lagged after her over-night flight here, right at the beginning of the summer break before her senior year. She managed to take note of all the places Charlie pointed out on the way to the house.
"Your auntie Jane and uncle Matt are coming down in a few weeks, they're bringing your cousin Katalyin with them, you haven't seen any of them in a while"
Bella looked at Charlie briefly, no, she definitely hadn't seen Katalyin in a few years. The last time she'd seen her was about six years ago, at the beach down in La Push. She'd been playing with Jacob as she usually did and Katalyin was impossibly shy, she'd spent most of the time hiding behind her mother. Jacob had tried to get her to come and play, but she suddenly looked terrified and started to cry, even though she was eleven years old at the time. From what she could remember, all of the Quileute boys scared her.
"I bought you a truck." he slipped in casually, interrupting her train of thought
"Char-Dad, you didn't have to."
"No, you'll need it, the school's quite a walk. Besides I got it cheep off a friend, Billy, do you remember Billy? You used to play with his kids, Rachel, Rebecca and..."
"And Jacob, yeah, I remember Dad."
Ha carried on "Jacob's grown quite allot since you last saw him, especially in this past year, shot right up, barely recognised him myself..." he trailed off, realizing that Bella was no longer listening.
Her eyes were locked on the Red Chevy in the drive, as soon as he stopped the car Bella jumped out and went over to the truck. Most people would of rejected or hated this car, but she loved classics.
"Yes it's yours" said Charlie, answering her unasked question "It's a bit old, but..."
"I love it, thanks"
Just then another car pulled up in front of the house. Bella recognised the aged man in the passenger seat, heavy set, wrinkled face, russet skin, black hair and dark eyes. This was Billy Black. The man who just got out of the driving seat was a completely different story. His eyes and hair were as dark as Billy's, although his hair was allot shorter his russet skin was smooth over well muscled arms and chest. Despite Forks' almost always cold weather, he only wore a white t-shirt and cut-off jeans. He reminded her of one of the heroes you see in Greek mythology. She must of been staring, because he grinned at her, but then his face seemed to fall into something similar to awe. Bella blushed and looked away, turning back to Charlie's cruiser to get her bags out.
A thunder rumbled over head, rain sheeted heavily against the houses and cars. The sky was black with thick storm cloud for as far as the eye could see, even though it was only seven in the afternoon.
Katalyin half danced her way round her room, she was supposed to be tidying up the 'organised chaos' as her mother called, Bad Romance by Lady Ga Ga was blaring on her stereo, which was no doubt annoying the hell out of the neighbours, but they annoyed the hell out of her. She sang along, every word and note perfect. "Ra-Ra-Ra-a-ah, Ra-Ma-Ra-Ma-a-ah, Ga-Ga-Oh-la-la-ah..." she drifted off, her phone was vibrating on her dresser. Slightly upset that she'd been interrupted, she flicked the phone open. 'Mom' shone brightly on the screen. Katalyin burst into a smile, she picked the control to the stereo off her bed and turned the volume down, then pressed accept as she dived onto her bed.
"Hey Mom!" she said brightly,
"Hi darling, we're on our way home now, just thought I'd call to check how you were."
Katalyin laughed, her parents had gone on a spa weekend, an anniversary present from her that had taken half a year of wages to pay for. "I'm fine Mom, the house is fine, and you can tell Dad his fishing stuff is fine."
Her mother laughed on the other end, followed by a grumble that must of been her Dad, of course her Mom would put her on speaker-phone.
"That's good to hear," her mother said "What are you listening to?"
The stereo skipped to the next song "Lady Ga Ga, Love Game..." suddenly she was plunged into darkness and the stereo fell silent "Or I was..."
"What is it?" asked her father, concern lining his voice
Katalyin leaned over the side of her bed to fetch the torch from under it "The power just went out," she said, flicking the torch on and shining it round her room.
"Go to the fuse box," instructed her father "It's in the garage, on your left as soon as you open the door, switch the..."
"Hold on, I'm not there yet... Mum where'd you put my umbrella?" she asked, pulling on her old plimsolls with one hand, holding the torch and phone in the other.
"It should be by the back door. Why?"
"It's chucking it down out there! Where are you? Haven't you hit the storm yet?" she turned the torch off and picked up her umbrella, somehow managing to pull off the cover off with one hand while her eyes adjusted to the darkness
"No, but we can see the lightening from here, we're about sixty miles away." said her mother
"Jane, be quite for a moment please. Kat, you at the Fuse Box yet?"
"Yep," she said, popping the 'p' "Bare with me..." she said, pulling the cover off "Now what?"
"The red switch, is it up or down?"
"Um..." now she wished that she hadn't left the torch in the kitchen,
"There's a torch on top of the box" he said, Matt White knew his daughter well enough to guess that she didn't have a torch with her
"Oh! Thanks..." she grabbed the small torch off the top and flicked it on, shining it on the fuse box "the switch is facing upward." she confirmed
"Hmm, the storm must of caused a power cut then... go over to Mrs Doyle's, I don't want you on your own during a power cut"
"Dad, I've just spent the whole weekend on my own, I think I can handle a power cut"
"House robberies increase by twenty percent during power cuts, things can be replaced, you can't"
"Fine..." she sighed, replacing the torch "I'm going..." she opened her umbrella and locked the garage, "Hey Dad?"
"What?"
"Be careful on the mountain roads, I know you like to race round them and you know every blind corner off-by-heart, but they're not safe in this kind of weather."
"Okay, I'll be careful, I promise. Love you darling."
"Love you too Dad, see you in a bit Mom" static cut the phone line for a moment. "What was that?"
"We've hit the storm now... Doyle's house, stay... we get back, okay?"
The line went dead. Katalyin sighed and flipped the phone shut, then shivered. She'd come out side wearing her Pjs, not a good idea. She looked at the time on her phone, they should be on the mountain road by now, she really hoped he was being careful. Suddenly a sharp pain shot through her chest and she keeled over onto her knees, allowing the umbrella to fall to the side as she clutched her chest, it felt as if it was tearing her in two. Her clothes were wet-through in a matter of seconds, but she couldn't move, it hurt too much.
Mrs Doyle looked up from her knitting when someone knocked on the door. There was another knock, more urgent this time, she got up, wondering what time it was now, the sky was too clouded over to tell. She opened the door to a wet-through Katalyin White from next door, she was shivering and looked as if she was in pain.
"Oh! My dear come in." she ushered the girl inside "What happened to you?"
"Fuse Box... the umbrella got caught in the wind." she explained, if she told her about the pain, she'd tell her parents and they'd no doubt panic and insist on taking her to the hospital. "Mum and Dad called and said to stay here until they got back"
"They've been gone all weekend, why now?" she asked, confused
"Mrs Doyle, were're in the middle of a power cut..." Katalyin looked at the old woman expectantly, how hadn't she noticed? She looked over into the sitting room, there was a fire crackling in the fire-place and half-finished knitting lay on the coffee table, she sighed, this woman could knit blind, she didn't have any reason to turn her lights on.
"Are we?" she questioned, twitching the corner of the curtains to look out into the street "So we are... Wait here, I'll get you a towel and some blankets"
Katalyin sat curled up in front of the fire. Bathed in its warmth, she tried not to concentrate on the flames too much, ever since she was old enough to realise what it could do, she'd been scared of fire. Mrs Doyle was sat in her arm chair, the rhythmic clicking of her knitting needles was somehow lulling her to sleep, but she wanted to be awake when her parents got home. The storm outside had eased up, although the rain was still torrential, the thunder and lightening had stopped.
"You can put the television on if you want dear" said Mrs Doyle, hardly able to hide the worry from her voice
"It's quarter to twelve at night, what's on now?" her voice wavered slightly on the time, even if her Dad did drive slowly round the mountain road, it shouldn't take more than an hour to get home, it had been five.
"What on earth..." muttered Mrs Doyle,
Flashing blue lights shone through the curtain's, Katalyin shot up from her spot by the fire and straight over to the window, Pushing a gap between the curtain's with her hand. Two police officers were striding through the rain, down the front path of the house next door, her house. It didn't take her long to pull her shoes on and grab an umbrella from the stand, before Mrs Doyle could say anything, she was outside and making her way over to the police officers.
"Can I help you?" she asked as they rung the door bell for a second time
"PC Fielder, and PC Walker," she said, displaying her badge "we're looking for a Miss Katalyin White, do you know her?"
"It's a silent 'y', but that's me...Why?"
The policewoman looked at her sceptically
"My parents went away for the weekend, when the power cut happened, Dad told me to go over to Mrs Doyle's and stay there until they got home"
They looked at each other, something similar to sympathy on their faces. "Can we come in?" asked PC Fielder
Their words didn't quite seem to make sense to her.
"No... no... they can't be... I spoke to them on the phone..."
"And when was that?" asked PC Fielder
"About five hours ago..."
"They've been dead for at least four and a half hours." explained PC Walker
Katalyin just shook her head, it wasn't possible... "How?" she asked quietly
"A car crash... up on the mountain route." said PC Fielder "But we need someone to identify the bodies, but if you don't want to, your mother's next of kin... a Mr Charlie Swan, can."
"Uncle Charlie... we were supposed to be going down for a visit... Isabella had just moved in..."
The officers looked at each other again, wondering what she was talking about.
"I'll do it..."