Chapter One

You're Not in Kansas Any More

I couldn't sleep.

I had been tossing and turning for what seemed like hours. A glance at my phone revealed that it had in actual fact been hours; it was three am. I rolled onto my back again, my eyes fixing on that one dirty spot on my new bedroom ceiling that I had been staring at for too long. I made a mental note for what must have been the tenth time to get up there and clean it off in the morning.

We had just moved into the little house. In fact, we had just moved into this little town too. Forks, it was called. What kind of name was Forks, even?

But it was tiny. We had driven here, away from our comfortable and central apartment in Seattle. I thought it was a damn shame. I was at the age when things were just beginning to happen for me. In fact, on my last trip to the mall with my friends, I'd even been asked out by a boy for the first time. I was mortified when I had to bumble about and tell him that I was moving the next day.

"Ugh," I groaned and threw my duvet off of me. The air was cold, which didn't seem right considering it was just the beginning of September. We hadn't had time to get the heating up and running before we'd gone to bed but I planned on making that an issue in the morning too.

I rooted around the floor for a moment before finding my overnight bag which had a pair of sweat pants and hoodie in it. I pulled the garments on, and then picked up my phone, my new house key, and my shoes before tiptoeing out of my room and heading for the front door.

From the limited research I had done; the crime rate in Forks was practically non-existent. The only reason the little town even had its own police department was to curb the trend of under-aged drinking, doling out fines for minor traffic violations, and oh yes, hunting wolves. I had to admit that I had been mildly shocked when googling the small Olympic peninsula town of Forks to find that they had had a bout of wolf related killings a couple of years back. Hiking seemed to be big thing around here, and during the period of time in question, several hikers and been savagely killed by wolves. There was ever reports of a Native American girl being attacked by a bear by the side of the road.

But there hadn't been any reports of animal attacks in a while. This was why I felt that it was more or less safe for me to leave the house at three o'clock in the morning on my own and without a can of pepper spray. I never would have considered such a thing in Seattle. Not on my own, anyway.

The air outside was ever colder. Another thing about Forks which I was not looking forward to: the greenery. Everything in the town seemed to have its own share of forest. Our own backyard, for example, was bordered by a dense tree line which led to an ever denser forest. There seemed to be an endless amount of trees. Enough even for the town of Forks to single handedly turn the tides on global warming.

As I walked along the non-existent side walk of the road, letting the moon guide me – apparently Forks didn't believe in street lights – I pulled out my phone and quickly tapped out a message to Lissa, my best friend back in Seattle: You still awake? Call me.

Usually, I would have considered social norms a barrier to my text messaging anyone at three o'clock in the morning unless it were an emergency, but I knew Lissa and I knew that it was very likely that she was still awake.

After only a few moments of walking on, my phone began to vibrate furiously. A quick glance at the screen had me smiling – a picture of Lissa pulling a funny face flashed when she called me – as I answered.

"Whaddup', yo?" I spoke into the phone.

"Not much. I was just getting ready to annihilate some noobs on League of Legends. How's East Jesus Nowhere?" I could hear Lissa's fingers moving over the keys on her computer as she spoke to me. She had always been brilliant at multi-tasking. I wasn't even sure if I was able to walk and chew gum at the same time. For that reason, I had come to a stop on the side of the road, right next to yet another tree-line.

"It's... cold. And wet. I've just come outside and it's the first time since we got here that it's not been pissing it down."

"Well, Seattle isn't exactly dry either, Ell," Lissa reminded me. Of course she was right. I knew that I was just determined to be negative about everything that had to do with this move. I also knew that my negative attitude was really starting to get on both my dad's and my sister's nerves'.

"I know... It's just..." I didn't really know what to say. There was a lump in my throat and I bit my lip. "I just can't believe that we sold the apartment to come and live in this shit-hole."

"I know, Ell," Lissa said softly from the end of the line.

Lissa understood what I meant. I had lived in that apartment since I was just a kid. It's where Hazel and I had lived with our mother after the divorce. It was where Hazel and I had grieved the death of our mother. And now it didn't belong to us any more. Now we were going to live in this new house like she never existed at all. All of her clothes and all of her things – except the very few things that we kept – were gone. There were going to be no surprises when we peeled back the wallpaper in this new house and found cartoon drawings of our family on an adventure. There was nothing of her here in Forks.

"I can't believe my dad did this to us."

I heard Lissa yawn. "Ellody, he didn't do this to you. In fact, he probably thinks he's done this for you."

"Blah. Why do you have to be so... reasonable?" I asked my best friend, chuckling. "I don't think I like this new side of you."

Lissa laughed and the leaves of the tree beside me rustled. "You know, it's just going to be you and your dad in that house when Hazel comes back to Seattle. You should probably just try and get on with him. You two are usually so close."

"I know. I wish Hazel was taking me with her. I mean, I almost eighteen, it's not like I need to- Holy shit!" In the middle of my rant about independence and my ability to look after myself, I was nearly knocked over by something shooting out of the tree-line.

I stumbled and managed to right myself quickly. My eyes darted up to see that I had practically been attacked by a very large and very half naked Native American man who had come sprinting from the forest. I stood there for a moment, petrified as our eyes locked. I held the man's gaze for a second or two. He looked like he was in a kind of daze. He opened his mouth like he was about to say something...

And then I screamed. Screamed in a big way; top of my lungs, blood curdling scream of pure fear. I didn't wait any longer before spinning around and darting away, hoping I was heading in the right direction to lead me home. I hadn't been expecting that! This was Forks, for crying out loud. I don't think there had ever been a rape or sexual assault case on record, but I'd only been here for less than a day and already I'd be bowled over by a half naked man at the side of the road.

I didn't scream any more. I was focussing all my energy on getting home. I wasn't the fittest person as it was, but I was determined that wasn't going to stop me from getting away from that creep.

I almost cried when I reached the front porch of my house. A glance behind me, revealed that there was nobody following. Though it was dark, and it wouldn't have been hard to hide. I unlocked the door quickly and entered my new house, promising myself I would never bash it again. It was providing me with a much needed sanctuary.

Once I was inside the house, I was faced with the decision of whether to wake up my dad and my sister to tell them of what had happened to me – it didn't escape me that this could have possibly been a situation dreadful enough to convince my father that moving back to Seattle would be a necessary step to ensure my continued safety – or to let it go for now.

I stood there, with my back to the front door for what must have been a full three minuted before I was snapped out of my reverie by my phone vibrating again. I almost jumped out of my skin. However, it was only Lissa calling me again and I quickly answered it, moving into the kitchen. I made sure to lock the front door behind me.

"Hello?"

"Ellody! Oh my God! What just happened? Do you any idea how scared I just was? I mean, one minute we're just talking away and then you scream! And I'm talking proper, 'I'm getting attacked by wolves' screaming, not, 'Oh my God, look at these cute shoes' screaming too. What. The. Fuck?"

"I'm okay... I think," I told my friend in whisper. "I was out for a little walk-"

"At three o'clock in the morning? Are you insane?"

"Let me finish. Because I couldn't sleep. The crime rate here is non-existent. I thought it would be perfectly safe. And I was. At first. I was just hanging around a bit and then this half naked guy came running out of the woods and almost knocked me on my ass! Lissa, I was so scared. I thought I was going to get raped and killed and murdered and left in the woods and all those bad things."

"In that order?"

"Shut up."

"Where are you now?"

"At the house! I ran away." I found myself standing next to the kitchen windows, attempting to peer out without being seen.

"Go tell your dad, Ellody!" Lissa urged me. "Seriously, that's some scary shit."

"No! I'm not going to wake him up right now and tell him I went out for a walk. He'll flip his shit. And the chances are that he won't decide that this warrants us moving back home, and I'll just end up being grounded for like, a year!"

"... Ugh. I'm all worried about you now."

"Me too. I should go back to bed now. And get under my covers and pretend that I'm back in the apartment."

"Do that. Do you want me to sing you to sleep, baby?"

"I'm hanging up now."

Lissa snickered. "'Kay. Night. Be safe. And take your Mace with you the next time you decided to take a little promenade in the middle of the night, idiot."

I hung up and headed up the stairs to my room, my shoulders hunched and my breath ragged. What a brilliant start.

Author's Note

So, here we go again. The wonderful (or perhaps not-so-wonderful) start of a new story. I'm really psyched about this one, actually. I feel like it's going somewhere. The possibilities are endless, of course!

Anyway, please have the heart to review, guys.

Yours, Jenny

xxx