Title; Hazard
Description; Bella Swan has seen many horrors in her young life, will someone come along to help mend her broken heart?
Rating ; Nothing too graphic but a bit of violence, some ladies smooching... all the good stuff.
Author's Note; Loosely based on the Richard Marx song 'Hazard', this will be a song fic of 7 chapters. After hearing the song a few weeks ago, it got stuck in my head and this plot line unravelled. I had to write it before my head exploded. I've obviously taken some liberties with the lyrics as our beautiful Bella is not a 'he' and I'll be using 'Forks, Washington' instead of 'Hazard, Nebraska'. I don't own Twilight and I don't own Hazard.
My mother came to Forks when I was just seven
Even then the folks in town said with prejudiced eyes
That girl's not right ...
I remember the day we came to Forks vividly. It was a stormy day, the wind and rain battering off our old classic car. Classic meaning rusting, old and noisy. I sat in the back seat with my dog, Cooper resting his head on my lap as I looked out at the bleak scenery as it blurred passed. I was only seven at the time, but even then, I knew I was different. I knew something was wrong with me. The children at my old school certainly wouldn't let me think any differently. They'd call me 'freak', 'weirdo' and a veritable plethora of derogatory names. I don't remember a time when I didn't feel like something was wrong; like something bad was about to happen. And in my short life so far, many bad things had happened. It was like a cloud of death enveloped me. Anywhere I went, death to those close to me would follow. It started with my father.
I was five at the time, and can only remember a blurry outline of what he looked like. He had kind eyes and a soft smile, I know that much of him. And he was a good, kind man who loved my mother and I dearly.
One day my father went fishing and took me with him. It was a favourite past time of his and I was more than happy to spend some time with my dad. He doted on me and I saw him as my hero.
I have a vague recollection of a struggle and then it all goes blank. No matter how much I try to remember what happened between laughing with my father as he made a fish he caught talk to me, and being found by the rescue party five hours later trembling and crying, I only get the occasional disturbing flash.
A hand coming out of the shallow water. A pair of red eyes. My father disappearing over the side of the boat. Me screaming.
Two days later in a hospital with my mother by my bedside, a grief stricken face and red, blotchy eyes, I wakened up screaming for my father.
He never came to me. He was gone.
Once I'd recovered from the pneumonia I was suffering from and was released home, I knew it would never again feel like the warm, loving, happy environment I had been surrounded by before.
My father's body was found scattered around our house five days after the boat incident. Devoid of any traces of blood, his remains only had two puncture marks on his severed neck. No one understood why or how his body got ripped to pieces, and subsequently why his remains were placed around our home, but it was clear that Charlie had been murdered.
I went back to school one week after his funeral. My best friends, Rebecca and John helped as much as any five year olds could. They didn't quite understand what my father being dead meant. I didn't understand it myself. All I knew was that I'd never race home to have him waiting to take me out fishing, or play football, or do any of the things other kids got to do with their fathers ever again.
Six months after my father was murdered, Rebecca disappeared .Her body was found in the same condition my father's was left. Drained of blood and scattered around my home. My mother was beside herself, even becoming a suspect of these murders before her alibi was corroborated by her boss. Renee had been working both times the murders had taken place. The only person who couldn't be accounted for, was me.
It was only my father and I in the boat, and since his murder, I had taken to slipping out of my house and just running anywhere in the intense Phoenix heat to feel something, even it was only pain and exhaustion. On the day what was left of Rebecca was found, I had been one mile from my home, alone and staring across the deserted land behind our house.
There was no evidentiary support that I had anything to do with the murders, and really, how could a five year old overpower a fully grown man and then dismember him? But that didn't stop the rumours. Gossip doesn't have to be true to spread, it just has to be heard.
So when the same tragedy happened to John another six months after that, even I at six years of age could see the only thing these people had in common was me.
Renee and I lasted three months after John's murder before she suggested we move somewhere different, make a fresh start away from the horrible memories and harassment.
Of course, when we got to Forks, our tragic little story had followed us there. I knew it would be no different here. The dreary town may have a different house to live in, different smells, different people; but they held the same prying nature, the same judgemental attitudes and the same cruel remarks that we thought we could leave behind in Phoenix.
Throughout the next decade of my school years the children were relentless with their comments. They never said it to my face, but made sure they whispered loudly enough for me to hear when I passed them in the hallways.
"I heard she killed her pops."
"Oh, don't talk to her, if you say something she doesn't like she'll probably kill you."
"Murderer!"
"Oh look, it's Bella the Butcher!"
These and other snide comments became my only and constant companion during my formative years. It wasn't until my final year in high school did things start to get better. And it was all because of an enigmatic, kind, beautiful, sprite-like girl with jet black hair and mischievous eyes.
Her name was Mary Alice Brandon.
I know- it starts off a bit heavy, but I promise with the introduction of our favourite short haired pixie, there will be better times ahead =) If you're interested in seeing where this will go, please leave a review. I'll only continue if you guys want me to.
