Skyfall In The Dark
Chapter 1: Little-girl-snatching-monsters
It was cold, dark and damp here – there was not a ray of sunshine or one tiny blast of heat. I shivered uncontrollably and wrapped my small arms around my legs, hugging them close to me. Where was I?
The last thing I remembered was walking home from the library after school when everything suddenly went dark. And now I was in some scary, unfamiliar place and all I wanted was my mom and my dad. But my dad wasn't here; he lived in Forks, Washington , and I lived in Phoenix with my mom. Was I even still in Phoenix?
I had no idea what happened, but I could guess. I'd heard about this in a school assembly once. Stranger Danger, they'd called it - little girls being snatched off the streets by strange men. Had this happened to me?
I suppose I shouldn't be so surprised, my mom always said I was a danger magnet. I could hurt myself by tripping over air.
I was scared, tired, cold and hungry and I just wanted to go home. I wanted to be with my harebrained mother and have her hold me and tell me everything would be alright, that there was nothing to worry about. Would she be looking for me by now? Would my dad? Were they as scared as I was? What was going to happen to me?
I heard the creak of a door open and I shrunk back, hoping I could just blend in with the darkness and disappear. I had a very bad feeling about all of this.
I hugged my arms tighter to my frail frame, trying to keep myself together. I was standing in the middle of the airport waiting for Charlie to come. Charlie – my father; I wasn't allowed to call him Charlie to his face. As I waited, memories assaulted me – memories that never left me alone no matter how hard I tried to block them out.
I had been exiled to Forks, Washington, to live with Charlie. Renee – my mom – didn't know what else to do with me anymore. It had been 7years and according to her I was only getting worse with each passing day. She hoped a change of scenery would help me. I doubted it.
I hoped Charlie would hurry up and get here soon. I hated being in crowded placed. I hated being around people, period. I was much better off by myself – there was no need to keep up appearances when there was no one around.
I sighed with relief when I saw Charlie make his way through the crowd – finally he was here. He stopped and frowned when he saw me – I hadn't seen him since last summer and I was sure he was comparing my appearance now to that of then. I'd looked bad last time, but I looked worse now. As time went by I kept looking worse and worse – mom once said I was fading away before her eyes and she felt so helpless she couldn't stop it.
My hair lay flat on my head – not an ounce of life in it. My cheeks were sunken in and my eyes looked dead, I knew. I also had bags the size of Texas under my eyes because I hardly ever slept – I tried to avoid the nightmares as much as I could. I was so thin I looked like an anorexic because I hardly ever ate; I couldn't stomach much of anything.
Charlie grimaced and walked over to me. He kept his distance and didn't try to touch me – touching me always ended badly. "I'm glad you're here, Bells," he said. Charlie wasn't one to readily show his emotions, but I could see he really meant it. I tried to smile at him; I'm not sure I succeeded.
We walked to the police cruiser in silence and continued that silence when we started to drive to Forks. When I was little I didn't see Charlie very often, only a few weeks during the summer. The rest was spend talking on the phone a few nights a week. But after 'the event' I saw a lot more of him. He'd often take time off work and come to Phoenix to visit me for a few days. I never went to Forks – I hadn't been there since I was 7 and hadn't ever planned on going back.
I spend the ride thinking about Charlie; thinking about him was better than thinking of it. When we arrived at the house I saw an old, red Chevy pick up waiting in the driveway. I turned a questioning glance toward Charlie; he saw this and smiled. "I figured you wouldn't want a police escort to school everyday, so I bought this from a friend. She's old but reliable." I choked up and quickly turned to look away from Charlie so he wouldn't see. This was probably the nicest thing anyone had ever done for me – I didn't know what to say. I finally settled on a quiet, "Thank you."
Charlie showed me to my room even though I still remember where it was from when I was little. I supposed he wanted to make sure I was settling in alright. The room hadn't changed all that much from when I was 7. The pink walls had become purple, the child size bed had changed to a king size bed and a desk with a computer had been added – everything else was exactly the same.
Charlie quickly left me to my own devices; unlike Renee, he didn't hover. With a heavy sigh I sat down on the bed and just stared ahead. I didn't do anything – I never did anything except homework when I had to. As I stared, the memories quickly consumed me once more.
"Please, please, I wanna go home," I begged as I'd been doing ever since the unknown man had walked into the room. Because of the darkness I hadn't been able to see his face, but I could tell it was a man by the sound of the low chuckles he released as I begged.
"This is your home now," he said eventually. I sobbed as I realized the implication of that statement – the man wasn't planning to let me go. He hadn't taken me for money, he'd simply taken me because he could.
He started walking, his heavy footsteps sounding louder with each step as he came closer – I still couldn't see his face, I couldn't see anything.
"What's your name, little sweetheart?" He asked and I flinched at the sound of his rough, heavy voice. I shook my head; I wasn't going to tell him. I wasn't going to tell him anything. I just wanted to go home so badly. Why wouldn't he let me go home? What did he want from me?
He laughed again, but this time it sounded darker, more sinister somehow. "You'll tell me soon enough. Soon you'll do whatever I want." I had no idea how right he was in his statement at the time.
His footsteps retreated as he walked from the room, once again leaving me alone in the coldness of the dark and terrifying room.
It was my second day here in Forks and I was supposed to leave for the high school right now, but all I wanted was to crawl into bed and shut the entire world out. I didn't want to go to school – I hated school!
No matter which school I would go to I would always be the freak. I didn't talk to anyone and I avoided bodily contact at any cost. I never ate at lunch and I always sat by myself during breaks with my nose in a book, trying desperately to escape the horrors of reality. It also didn't help that I would sometimes freak out if someone accidentally touched me – I'd gotten better now, had less episodes, but it still happened from time to time. It wouldn't take long for this school to realize what a freak I was, and it would be worse because the student body was so small, much smaller than in Phoenix.
I sighed and grabbed my car keys as I headed out the door. There was no use in prolonging the inevitable.
My truck groaned loudly as I started the engine and I jumped at the sound – I didn't like loud noises at all. I backed out of the driveway and slowly headed towards the school trying to keep the panic at bay.
When I parked the car and got out I noticed every eye was on me and I ducked my head and headed towards the administration building as quickly as I could, hoping I wouldn't trip.
"Hello dear, can I help you?" A middle-aged looking woman asked, looking me up and down – I kept my head firmly toward the ground making it clear I wasn't here to socialize with anyone, not even the adults.
"I'm Bella Swan," I murmured quietly, never once lifting my head to meet her eyes. She seemed slightly unnerved by my behavior and hurried to hand over my class schedule and a map of the building – I was careful to avoid contact when I grabbed the papers from her.
My first class was English and after a fast review of the map I headed over to the class building, careful not to bump into anyone on the way. I found the class fairly easily and stepped up to the teachers desk, thankful no one else had arrived yet. I told him who I was and he assigned me a seat in the back and I was grateful he wasn't going to make me introduce myself.
I'd hoped I'd have this seat by myself, but that hope was short lived as the bell rang, the class filed in and the chair next to me scraped the floor as it was dragged backwards and forwards as someone sat down. I never once looked up, hoping they'd get the hint and leave me be. Again, my hope was in vain.
"Hi, I'm Jessica Stanley. You must be Isabella Swan?" The girl sounded way too pumped up and a little fake to me. Her voice grated on my ears.
"Bella," I muttered. I still didn't look up.
"So why did you move to Forks, Bella?" She asked, clearly too dumb to realize that I had no desire or intention of talking to her. I ignored her. She repeated her question, probably thinking I hadn't heard her, but when I kept on ignoring her she huffed and turned silent.
I dreaded the rest of the day if this was only the beginning. My head was starting to pound and my heart was racing too fast – I felt sick to my stomach. I couldn't wait for the day to be over.
The morning passed slowly, and each time someone was brave enough to talk to me I'd ignore them, only correcting them when they called me Isabella – I hadn't gone by that name in 7 years. I hated that name.
By the time lunch rolled around I was barely holding it together. I didn't buy anything to eat or drink and went straight to an empty table in the back. I sat down and pulled out my copy of Wuthering Heights, hoping I could lose myself in it for a while. But I was too aware of everything right now. Everyone was staring at me – I didn't need to see that to feel it. I kept the book in front of me as if it were a protective shield.
A gust of cold air hit me when the outside doors of the cafeteria opened and I briefly looked up and nearly gasped. The five students that walked in had to be the most beautiful people I'd ever laid eyes on. Perhaps even the most beautiful people on the entire planet.
They sat down at a table not far from mine and not one of them even glanced my way, unlike the rest of the school. I inconspicuously tried to observe them. There were two girls and three boys. The first girl was probably the most beautiful woman in existence. She had long, wavy honey blonde hair and golden/topaz like eyes. I almost couldn't tear my eyes off her. The second girl was petite and had spiky black hair and the same color eyes the supermodel has. Were they related? The first boy looked like a body builder – I vowed to stay far far away from him. Again, his eyes were the same color as both the girls. Next to the black haired girl sat a boy, also with honey blonde hair, who looked as if he were in pain. His eyes were closed, but I would've bet they were that same golden/topaz color as well. Lastly there was the most beautiful boy ever, maybe even the most beautiful of the five – it was a toss up between the supermodel and him. He had messy, bronze colored hair and also golden/topaz eyes. If I'd been the dating kind, I would've wanted to date him. But I wasn't, so it was a moot point. Another thing I noticed was that they were all incredibly pale and they all had dark circles under their eyes – much like mine – as if they hadn't slept in a while. And like me, none of the five beauties were eating. I was weirdly entranced by these people.
Just as I was about to look away the bronze haired one tilted his head in my direction. Not wanting to be caught staring at them I ducked my head and buried myself behind my book again.
I left well before lunch was over and headed to the Biology class room which was taught by a Mr. Banner. After I introduced myself, I stiffened when Mr. Banner said I was going to be seated next to a Mr. Cullen. I hated sitting next to boys, it always made me feel like I was going to panic at any second. Trembling slightly, I sat down and waited for the rest of the class to arrive. I didn't have to wait long.
When the chair next to mine was pulled out and someone sat down, I couldn't help but take a quick look at who my lab partner was. I gaped when I saw it was the beautiful bronze haired boy from the cafeteria. I quickly looked back down, but took another look after a few minutes. His posture was stiff and rigid and his hands were curled up in fists. Looking closer I could see he was shaking slightly. I didn't look up to see how his face must have looked like.
Was this reaction because of me? Had news traveled around that I was the school freak now? Whatever it was, he seemed as uneasy to be sitting next to me as I was sitting next to him.
For the rest of the class I kept my head down and tried to move as little as possible; I didn't want to draw any attention to me. When the bell rang the boy was out of his seat and out of the door so fast it made my head spin.
Drained from the entire experience of the first school day I immediately crawled into bed when I got home. I tried to keep my mind empty and not think of anything at all. It worked for a little while this time. When Charlie came home and asked what I wanted for dinner, I pretended to be fast asleep. I couldn't deal with anymore company today.
Eventually I did fall asleep, but it was not peaceful by a long shot. I dreamed of little-girl-snatching-monsters, big dark holes and cruel laughter. I went from one nightmare to the other, all night long. It was an endless form of torture that never stopped and never would, I was sure.