What Doesn't Kill You

Chapter One

Bella

"I didn't do it! I swear! He framed me!" The muscular guards that carried me laughed gruffly.

"Shut it, murderer. You killed them innocents, that's what you did. And now you can pay the price," one guard snarled at me, spit forming at the sides of his mouth. We reached the cold, empty cell, and they tossed me in, my head slamming against the stone wall.

"No! No, you can't do this!" I cried, feeling as though the walls were closing in around me. There wasn't enough air for me to breathe.

"Actually, Princess, I think we just did."

"Bells? You look…" Charlie stared at me, his expression similar to that of a fish, eyes wide, mouth hanging open. I smirked at him.

"Different? Yeah, I know. Five years of prison does that to a person," I replied bitterly, thinking of the years I'd spent in that godforsaken place, while the true criminal pranced around the world, wreaking more havoc than I had thought possible.

"Bells…I'm so sorry…everyone thought-" I cut Charlie off before he could repeat the excuse Renee and Phil had both used against me.

"Yes, everyone thought it was me, Charlie. Pretty sure that's why I was found guilty. Don't bother. I honestly don't care." With that, I snatched up my parka and black backpack and began striding out of the airport to my old home.

The car ride to Forks was silent. I sat on top of the car, much to Charlie's protest. I assured him that I'd done it many times before, when my favorite prison guard, Adrian, had taken me for a spin in his beat-up Range Rover. He knew I was innocent-no one listened when he tried to convince them.

The wind rushing through my hair, letting it fly behind me, I spread my arms, feeling as though I were flying. This used to be my only thing to look forward to, and it still brought me the great joy it did when I was still an inmate of Downview Prison of Surrey, England.

When we arrived at the tiny house that I used to call home, I jumped to the ground, landing in a crouch in front of my father. Charlie nearly had a heart attack then and there.

I guess Charlie had reason to be shocked and possibly frightened. I should probably mention what happened to me.

When I was twelve years old, I was friends with an older boy, around the age of fifteen. We'd met at a park in Seattle. My friend Kayla had been interested in Daniel, but he had also captured my own heart. His reckless attitude and yet caring aura out me at ease with him. But there was something strange about him that I couldn't quite put a finger on.

A few weeks after I'd turned thirteen in April, Daniel and I had snuck out at night to go to Port Angeles. He was the one who had to convince me, as I was a Chief of Police's daughter, and was strictly against breaking the rules. But I had foolishly loved the older boy, and boy, was I an idiot for that.

Daniel asked me if we could go to the bank to get some money to go to the mall. I naively agreed, and the instant we entered, Daniel had the doors locked, cameras shut off, and a gun pressed against the accountant's temple.

Daniel shot all ten people in the bank that night. I had pressed myself into a corner, quietly whimpering, unable to believe this was happening. Finally, Daniel turned to me, a wicked smile forming on his face as he took in the corpses of the dead innocents on the ground.

"Well, well, Isabella, I hope you enjoy being locked up." With that phrase, I remember being knocked out, and waking up in a holding cell at the police station, where my own parents signed the forms to send me to the living hell I had stayed in for five years.

The only reason I was out was because of a stupid mistake made by Daniel. He had forgotten to knock out one hidden camera, and instead threw it at the ground, assuming it was disconnected. Alas, it was not, and it had the perfect view to capture the entire night's events. This was brought to light a month after I turned nineteen, and I was released from prison, only to carry a name hated by many who didn't believe the recently discovered security video, and a past haunted by merciless demons.

Charlie was right to say I looked different. I was different. Before being framed, I had a short, 5'0 frame, with long, brown mousy hair and regular brown eyes. Nothing special there.

Now, I was 5'8, with auburn curls framing my face. Slightly pudgy before, I thinned out in jail, taking up a hip-and-rip-showing frame, all the while having slender thighs and waist. The guards at Downview had tortured me whenever they had the chance, so now deep scars littered my back, arms, legs, and one extremely visible one down my jaw where one of them took a knife.

"You have a big school shopping day tomorrow, Bella. I suggest you get some sleep," Charlie muttered as he dropped onto the couch. I snorted.

"Ha, no. I'm going out," I announced, standing and taking the new truck keys from the table. Charlie got it as a "welcome home" gift. It was officially my favorite possession. Not that I had many, considering anything I'd owned prior to being in jail had been taken or destroyed.

"Young lady, just because you were convicted of murder doesn't mean-"

"News flash Charlie, I'm nineteen. I can go wherever the hell I want. You can put me in high school for another year, but I'm telling you now, don't try to tell me what to do," I warned, swinging the front door open and stepping out into the cool evening air.

I hopped into the new black Jeep Wrangler Unlimited that my father had bought me as

I wasn't sure where exactly I was going, but I needed to get away from Charlie. I didn't need to actually get sent back to Downview for actually killing someone.

Darkness clouded my vision as I drove through the empty streets of Forks. My thoughts turned to my time in jail.

"Killed ten? Jeez, you're a baby," the man in the cell next to me had chortled as I told him what I was convicted for. I had only been in Downview for three months, and was still relatively innocent and pure.

"I didn't kill them! I was framed!" I insisted, and the man gave me a funny look. He was a tall, lanky man, with dark, cropped hair and distrusting ice blue eyes. He couldn't have been older than thirty. Perhaps a few years older than Adrian, who was twenty-four.

"By who?"

Who was Daniel? He certainly wasn't my friend, because I had liked him so much more than that, before he sent me to prison.

"My boyfriend," I replied, seeing that as the best term to describe the little bastard. The man's face softened, and he shifted a little closer to my cell.

"I believe you, kid," he told me gently, and he reached a trembling hand through the bars to caress my face. "I believe you."

Liam had been one of my only friends in Downview, aside from Adrian. But Adrian could only do so much for me while being watched by the other guards. It wasn't uncommon for the older inmates to take the younger offenders under their wing.

I'd had one other friend, James. He, unlike Adrian and Liam, was my age, and he had gotten the cell on the other side of me. He was my best friend, because he was just as crazed as I was now. He and I had been inseparable. The nastier inmates had yelled at us to shut up at all hours of the night.

James was coming to Forks tomorrow, having been released two months before I had been. He had told his parents that as a legal adult, he was moving to Forks for the school year to stay close to me.

I hadn't noticed that I'd stopped driving until I saw movement in the corner of my eye. Upon turning my head, three white blurs zipped by in the trees, faster than should be humanly possible.

I'm hallucinating. Prison really has done me in, I thought to myself, and I turned the Jeep around, beginning the drive back. I could barely see in the hazy blackness of the night.

When I walked through the front door, Charlie was sitting at the kitchen table, a furious expression on his face.

"One in the morning, Bella? Seriously?!" Charlie boomed. I hadn't noticed the time, but when I saw that it was indeed an hour and a half after midnight, I grinned at him.

"You waited up for me? How sweet of you, Daddy Dearest," I replied sarcastically, walking past my father into the living room, swinging one leg onto the couch and falling onto it. Charlie followed me, disbelief now evident in his eyes.

"Last time you went out at night, I woke up to find my own daughter in a holding cell at my police station!" Charlie glared me down. I stood, rising to my full height.

"Really? That's funny, 'cause last time I went out at night, I woke up to find my own father shipping me off to a British prison for five fucking years!"

"Mind your language, young la-"

"Young lady yourself, Charlie. I left behind being a kid five years ago when they threw me in a cell in the most heavily guarded section of Downview."

"Bella, I'm sor-"

"No you're not. You just don't want me terrorizing your precious town now that I've changed. Let me tell you, Daddy Dearest, I don't plan on wasting my breath on this dump. Right after this school year, James and I are moving to Los Angeles to make up for time spent in a hellhole," I snarled, my blood boiling in anger. After Downview, I could see right through everyone's lies and pretenses.

Charlie sighed. "You used to be a good kid," he whispered, giving me a miserable look. "I don't know what happened."

I laughed.

"Hell happened."

Author's Note: I know Downview Prison is for females and young offenders, but let's just pretend that it was a co-ed jail.

Notes to the reader:

-Bella is nineteen years old. She is going for her senior year at high school, even though she's a year older than she should be. She has been educated by Adrian in Downview.

That is all, my lovely readers. Until I get around to updating more, enjoy!