This came to me late last night while battling not being able to sleep. It was jotted down in about 45 mintues and came to me in powerful waves. Read and let me know what to do next with it.

The main blacktop road running into the reservation was empty. She didn't drive the car as much as kept it on the road and guided it towards an unknown destination. Bella didn't know what made her come back, why on this day it was so important for her to be there. No phone call brought her back, nobody told her that anything was about to occur and she needed to be there for it, but after a two day journey by plane and rental car she was back, driving down a wet road that was once so familiar to her that she knew what bumps and turns to slow down for, but now it felt alien to her. The trees standing guard on either side of the road were the same brown-gray and green, the small buildings dotting the landscape, may have had a new paint job on the outside, but they were the same houses, same business and same garages.

She drove all the way through and to the beach, which she also found empty. Under typical Northwest drizzle and mist, Bella pulled her rental car into the empty parking lot and got out. The weather was like a security blanket, wrapping her up in safety, reminding her with each drop that fell of all the events and memories of her short seventeen months in Washington state. Somehow it felt more like home than anywhere else she'd been. Bella walked the shoreline where she first heard the legends, where she'd come to swim or hang out, where many hours were spent growing up. Soft waves rolled onto the beach to her left telling her that no matter what occurred in life, everything continues without end.

She followed the beach to a well warn path she knew too well. It looked more defined since the last time it was traveled by her. If she continued on it she would pass a myriad of places that the rain helped her remember clearly. Every rock, tree root, and curve was still etched into her memory. Something was drawing her, step by step, down that path.

It kept to the beach and Bella was amazed to pass the giant fallen tree that washed up years ago. It was a favorite place of hers to run away to and think. The driftwood was mostly still on one piece and its intact branches reached up for the sky like infinite possibilities and twists or turns in life. Her pace slowed but didn't stop as she passed. It looked lonely there by itself with no on leaning or sitting against it.

She continued into dense forest on the trail, hearing the wildlife and the breeze sing her a song. Water dripped a steady tempo from leaves high above and hit the undergrowth under her feet. She was always warned by her father and others to stay out of the woods but she found them comforting, an easy place to hide from anything and everything. They and the things that lived in them never intimidated her into staying away. Too bad she was always found.

The path made a slight turn around a thick area of forest and passed a small house. It was Sam and Emily Uley's home, plus three kids that she knew about. It was a warm place for her. Flowers grew around the front steps, the yard was neatly kept. She couldn't remember the number of nights she spent behind the house, sitting around a roaring bonfire feeling like she was part of something, not an outsider looking in, but part of the circle. The trees around the house echoed back the laughter that was shared in that home by a group of great friends. Bella paused at the edge of the forest and looked at the house before slowly moving on and being swallowed by the trees.

She dug her hands deep into her pocket and looked down to watch her steps carefully. It would be a shame to come all this way only to stumble and fall and fall, but that wouldn't be a strange occurrence for her in these woods. The animals and humans had been witness to her clumsy acrobatics already in the past. Deliberate motions and better balance helped decrease her bumps and bruises and they did still happen from time to time.

She hesitated again with her feet, but this time before leaving the safety of the woods. Bella looked out at the two building on the property in front of her. It'd been a long while since they'd seen a fresh coat of paint. The last time she was there the garage and house held the same faded red color they currently had and nothing else would look right.

Coming out of the woods cautiously she passed the house first. Every inch, every step, every board of the house held one memory or another for her. Laughter, tears, pain, excitement, embarrassment; every emotion in human existence was experienced there by her at one time or another. It looked the same, maybe a little more tired, run down, lived in, but it was beautiful.

She crossed an old narrow wooden bridge, one of many that went over the creek that ran behind the house, and went closer to the garage. The door stood open and unlocked. Grass grew wild underneath the warped door proving that it hadn't been closed or moved in a long time. She ran her fingers across the width of it while getting closer to the opening wondering what she might find inside in the darkness.

Bella was mostly soaked and welcomed the roof over her head to stop the accumulating water in her clothes as she stepped inside. The interior hadn't changed. Bella didn't know if it was a relief to find the inside the same or if the sight caused her pain. In one of the hodgepodged spaces was his work bench. Tools and auto parts littered every open surface within a three foot radius. There were some chairs and couches around, they weren't any of the ones she might have used, and those would be long, long gone. Crates and boxes piled around the walls. Red work rags laid everywhere. She half laughed and half cried at what was around her until she looked back into the dusty, dark depths of the garage.

Bella couldn't believe what she saw. His precious Rabbit sat there like a puppy, happy to see her. She laughed and thought to herself that he would probably be buried with the damn thing. Next to it though, sat her truck, 'The Beast,' and their two bikes. She ran a hand all the way around her truck, eyes wide at the fascination that it was still around. She thought it'd bit the dust long ago and Charlie disposed of it. Her heart swelled with the love the metal sitting in front of her brought. She focused her attention of the two motorcycles that were once 'scrap metal.' She crouched down next to them and studied the wires and chrome thinking about how the parts once dotted the floor and useless at one time. She ran a hand down the seat remembering the freedom she had when she rode. The sight of the two of them sitting side by side choked her up with emotion.

Standing up from her position by the bikes, she didn't know what to do next. Every move she made since waking up two days ago were automatic and driven and led her here. Now she didn't know which way to go, how she was supposed to get there or why. She didn't know the why of this journey, but it didn't seem important. She took a big deep breath, bringing in reservation air along with the dust and grease of the garage and started to exit. She hoped the path would lead her back to her car and then maybe her next step would reveal itself. Her chest tightened, eyes teared up and she covered her mouth with a hand to hold in the emotion. Why was she drawn to this place? Why did she feel relief with every mile she got closer? Why did it hurt to walk away?

Nothing held her to this place anymore. All ties were severed after graduation. Charlie had been gone for a good seven years. Natural causes took him away in his sleep, but Bella linked his death to the wonderful food he ate and stress on the job. She sold the house, being the only thing left she could find, the truck having been moved to the garage on the reservation, and she just left. She didn't call or visit anyone, just took care of business and left. Many random thoughts about her last two years of high school plagued her mind since then but she was never drawn to come back until the afternoon of two days ago. There was a tug on her body and she followed it. She couldn't say it was a tug on her heart because that hadn't worked right for a long time.

To start the journey in the previous day was a push. When she landed in Seattle it was a constant was a pull. Now there was nothing other than the logical next step to get back to her car.

She braced herself for the feeling of rain falling on her body again but welcomed it to cover the stray tear that could still possibly fall. She stepped out of the garage and looked up to the heavens, opened her arms and embraced the rain. Bella turned around in circles and closed her eyes. That freedom of being eighteen again, even if only for a fleeting second descended upon her. She brought her arms back in and started back towards the house and the path. She felt lighter, less weighed down by something. Maybe she unknowingly let something go or it released its hold on her.

Like she did with Sam's place, Bella stopped, wanting to take another look around before walking away. She wanted to take a mental snapshot of the house and garage that played a big part of her life and remember every detail when she closed her eyes that night. It was like a dream being there. Everything was so quiet, peaceful, deserted and still. But she didn't count on seeing Jake walking up the rocky driveway away from a newer looking pickup truck wearing black dress pants, a long sleeved white button down shirt and tie. A suit coat scrunched up in his hand. His hair was long again and perfectly pulled back out of his face without a single strand out of place. His face was soft and tired; his head hung low, eyes hollow and sad. He was the same but somehow different. He looked younger than she remembered even though there were more years behind him.

Fifty yard separated them. She wasn't sure he'd seen her yet and she could take two steps and be out of sight. The density of the forest would hide her immediately. She looked to the woods and then back at the yard. Jake was staring right at her. She didn't move, not wanting to draw more attention to herself and hoped he dismissed her form as an illusion. Jake stared her down and took tentative steps in her direction. He was handsome as a man; gone was the bulky muscled hunk and it was replaced by something more substantial.

She couldn't run, there would be no hiding, only questions. His step ceased five feet from her. He'd been crying recently or holding tears back, puffiness clouded his beautiful brown eyes. He opened his month two or three times to say something but the words didn't come. She waited frozen in place. He composed himself enough to form words that shattered her due to the heavy emotion they held and because he sounded so lost.

"Are you really here?"

Is this a one shot? Is this something that feels like there is more of it? I know I should be working on Jacksonville and I was until this literally knocked the wind out of me and I started writing. Let me know if this should stand alone or go on...