Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns it all. I have no claim over any of her characters.
Touching the Dark
Chapter 1
Secretly Abused Girls
"Fuck!" She whispered loudly and hissed as she examined the gash on her upper left arm. It was not too big, but it seemed pretty deep. She wondered how far in that knife went. At least the blood had slowed down. She took off the bandage that had been there since last night. It was dirty and she did not want to put it back on again but she did not want the blood to seep through her sleeve either.
She heard someone walk into the bathroom. She got scared and stretched her long sleeve back out again making sure her wound was hidden. She could not hear anything so she began contemplating opening the stall door to check who it was.
"Bella?" she heard a small voice ask.
She sighed in relief, "Oh, Alice, I thought you were someone else."
Alice followed the voice to the stall Bella was in. She pushed it open and saw Bella sitting on the toilet with tears in her eyes. Alice frowned.
"What did he do this time?" Alice said, signaling Bella to lift up her sleeve since Bella was holding onto it as if applying pressure.
"Nothing," Bella closed her eyes and paused, "We had an argument while I was cooking dinner and he shoved me into the counter and I somehow got cut by the knife."
"Bella," Alice sighed, "Was it 'cause you were trying to break up with him again?"
The brunette nodded and began biting her nails, becoming anxious since she knew what was coming. Alice grabbed her bag and opened it. She took out her first aid kit and began to tend to Bella's wound. Even after all the trouble she frequently got herself into, Bella still could not get used to the sight or smell of blood. She began to feel slightly dizzy, struggling not to pass out. Alice noticed this and decided to get Bella's mind off reality.
"Sooner or later, Bella, we're all going to get out of here and we're going to go live someplace where everyone loves us and treats us like royalty, you'll see," Alice began her wishful out-loud thinking. This soothed Bella a lot. No matter what Alice had gone through, she always seemed to have a bright outlook on the future. Bella was trying to smile the entire time hoping that all of Alice's dreams would eventually come true for all of them.
"Ow!" Bella yelped.
"Sorry, but we need to clean it if you want it to heal properly," the pixie girl stated. She left to put the bloody cotton balls in the trash can and walked back to bandage up the cut and put the kit away.
"Thanks, Alice," Bella began, "I don't know what I would do without you."
"No problem. Rosalie might come in soon to see if you're all right. She noticed you did not show up for lunch."
"Oh, yeah, lunch. I almost forgot. I forget to go there sometimes."
Alice smiled slightly and then frowned again, "James not letting you eat again?"
Bella stared back at the small girl. She nodded slowly, "He kind of thinks I'm gaining weight, but it's not so bad, I have to eat with Charlie or else he starts asking questions."
Suddenly, a beautiful blonde girl bursted into the bathroom. She ran towards the stall with fury in her eyes.
"What did that bastard do this time?"
"Rose, calm down," Alice breathed in, "She and James got into a scuffle and she cut her arm with the kitchen knife. I cleaned and bandaged it. It's all right."
"Is he still threatening to hurt Charlie if you say anything to anyone?"
Bella nodded, not really having anything to say that would give them hope that he would eventually stop threatening the Swan family if Bella kept being a "bad girlfriend".
Rosalie punched the stall wall hard and whimpered from the pain. She was especially angry this afternoon and Bella and Alice knew what that meant.
"What did Royce do to you last night?" Alice asked, her eyes full of pain since she could already imagine the torture she had gone through.
"What the hell do you think?" Rosalie spat, "He fucking groped me as he 'tucked me into bed'! Yeah what a great fucking father he is!"
Bella looked away as Rosalie spoke. Alice and Rosalie were like her older sisters, she could not stand to hear all the shit they had to go through, which always seems to be worse than her own problems. She found herself thinking about Alice's dreams once again. One day their princes will come and sweep them away into a world where they would be happy together for the rest of their time. If only that could happen sooner instead of later.
Rosalie stepped away from the stall and went to the sink to throw cold water on her face. She could still feel his hands on her breasts and his kisses on her cheek. She opened up her backpack to reapply her eye make-up.
"Ugh!" she groaned, "I just feel so dirty and gross. I can't hide it from myself! Not even showers or make-up make me feel any better!"
There was a solemn silence between the three girls for a minute or so.
"Lunch will be over soon, we should start heading to class," Alice told the two girls before quietly walking towards the large bathroom door.
"Wait there a minute, missy!" Rosalie held up a finger and Alice stopped halfway. The small girl turned on one foot and faked a smile at her two friends.
"Yes, Rosalie?" Alice asked, the happiness was obviously too forced. Why wouldn't it be, however? She just heard what happened last night to the two best people she's ever met in her life!
Bella stepped outside the stall and readjusted her clothes while staring at Alice, "What happened to YOU last night?"
Alice stared back at Bella and then at Rosalie. The smile disappeared from her face. What was she suppose to tell them? They already knew what her adoptive parents did to her, so did they really need the specifics?
With a sigh Alice responded, "I had a vision again, I saw my dad trip on the stairs and roll down them. I told him to be careful coming down the stairs as soon as I got home from school yesterday. He got angry at me for trying to predict the future again and locked me in my room. When he went back downstairs to eat, he tripped and... rolled down. He, obviously, got more angry and called me a 'fucking freak' like always. He took me out of my room by my hair and threw me in the closet. He kept me there until this morning since I had school."
Bella regretted asking the question, but she knew asking it or not would not have made any of it untrue. They supported each other by having each one talk about their problems at home and hopelessly encourage each other and reassure, to no avail, that everything would be all right.
Rosalie inhaled sharply. She was seething with anger and struggled not to break a mirror. She knew Alice had the power to see the future. It wasn't her trying to be special or different, Alice just WAS special. She had the power that brought them together in the first place and she would be punished for it all the time. Her adoptive parents thought she had a demon inside her or something and would lock her in the closet for hours, days, maybe even weeks to try to get her to stop being such a "freak".
Rosalie could remember it like it was yesterday. It was only a couple of years ago when they were freshmen that they were all in the bathroom at the same time. Rosalie and Bella were tending to their wounds in different stalls and Alice came in, knowing exactly what they were doing and how it felt to be hurt by those you loved. She simply went up to Bella's stall and said out-loud, "Bella, he's gonna keep doing it until you break up with him... successfully. You're gonna get your head knocked into a wall because he's jealous that you're talking to Mike", Alice then walked to Rosalie's stall, "Rosalie, he's gonna touch you again tonight and you won't like it so no matter how hard you want to defend yourself... don't... because he's going to do it even worse and you're gonna regret it."
Bella and Rosalie did not believe Alice at first. Afterall, she was the school reject because she was so odd. Once what she said came true that same night just as she had predicted, however, they sought her out in the school cafeteria and asked her questions about what would happen the next night. Soon, they had become close friends and two and a half years later, they were the secretly abused girls who would deal with everything life threw at them, but they dealt with it together.
"Fucking assholes!" Rosalie yelled out as soon as the bell rang, blending her cry into it.
"It's all right," Alice put a hand on Rosalie's shoulder, "C'mon.. let's go to class."
"Did you guys eat?" Bella made sure her best friends, who were starved more than she was, had gotten a bite to eat for lunch. They had spent most of it in the bathroom. She smiled softly as Alice and Rosalie nodded quietly. Once they stepped out of the bathroom, though, their lives were different. They still acknowledged each other, but they had to keep up with the crowds they were in. Rosalie was the popular, beautiful one who was hated and loved by everyone; Bella was the pretty one with the close-knit circle of friends; and Alice was the cute, fun reject who everyone thought was extremely weird.
Before the three girls went to their separate classes in the middle of the hall, Alice stopped and grabbed their arms firmly. The pixie's eyes glazed over and Bella and Rosalie knew she was having a vision. They stopped and stood in front of Alice to the stares of other classmates, but they did not care. Once Alice's eyes were back to normal they looked at her, confused, wanting to know what she saw.
Alice looked at them with clear fear in her eyes.
"What happened?" Bella finally broke the silence.
"There's new kids coming to the school," Alice explained, "They're different. They're cold and hungry. If we're not careful, they will find out our secrets. They can sense emotions and read thoughts. They call themselves... vampires."
Please Review, anyway, thanks for reading! I hope you like it so far.
