Disclaimer: I am still not Stephanie Meyer, all credit for anything recognizable goes to her.

I awoke to the sound of raucous laughter, my head pounding as I struggled to open my eyes.

Where am I?! What's going on? Where's Jasper!? He's going to be so worried...

As the musky smell of smoke drifted over me, the crackling of a fire registered from somewhere on my right. I finally peeled my eyes back as a particularly loud roar of mirth followed a lewd joke; I flinched at the sound.

"Well, lookie here! Little Miss High-and-Mighty is finally awake!"

"Took you long enough, Girly."

I flinched as one of them grabbed the back of my neck and dragged me up so that I was standing in front of them. Finally, I had a clear view of where I was. A roaring fire was directly in front of me, a wild boar roasting above it. Roughly ten men were in the little clearing. Some of them were distinctly vampire, which I had been expecting. What I hadn't been expecting was that the majority of them looked nothing like a vampire at all, including the one that held me now. I winced as he tightened his grip on me. I had thought that there was nothing on earth as powerful as a vampire, nothing that could hurt one. Apparently, I had been wrong.

"We was begginin' ta think you'd never wake up, wasn't we boys? An' tha' woulda been such a shame." The men all nodded in agreement, their eyes glinting evilly. I glanced around cautiously. Why on earth would they care about my well-being? They had just kidnapped me, for crying out loud!

"Wha-what?" I grimaced, annoyed with myself for letting my voice shake.

"Oh, yeah. We was gettin' real concerned, wasn't we?" There were general murmers of agreement, but they sounded a tad off. Smirks and sly, secret glances were exchanged around the circle. It was like they were all in on some private joke that I was missing out on. I mean, come on. As far as I knew, kidnappers in general were not friendly. And the man's tight grip on the back of my neck definitely not feeling very concerned.

"Ya see, doll," he continued, "we was really lookin' forward ta gettin' ta know ya a bit, if ya catch my drift." His hand came up to stroke my face in a caress. "An' we woulda been very put out if we hadn't gotten ta spend a little time with ya." I nearly gagged as his free hand moved from my neck to my hip, squeezing me tighter to him.

Harsh laughter grated on my ears as I squirmed to get away.

"I don' think so, babe." His mouth hovered next to my ear as he playfully whispered into it, "Ya see, I'm not quite finished with ya yet." I turned my head toward him, trying to figure out what he was going to do. Almost faster than I could comprehend, one of his hands was grabbing my chin, pulling my mouth closer to him as his lips roughly shoved against mine. His other hand started to roam across my body as casually as if I belonged to him, as if I were merely a toy that he owned for the express purpose of his entertainment, destined for the trash as soon as he was finished with it.

I knew that things like this happened in real life. Heaven knows I'd heard Rosalie's story enough times. I just never thought that it would happen to me. Terrified, I tried to pull away before it could go any farther. He was too strong. I tried to push him away, hit him, kick him, anything that would make him stop, but he just lazily - and briefly - pulled away for long enough to nod at two of his cronies before continuing to have his way with me. Apparently, this was a signal, because they came up behind me and held down my arms.

Wolf-whistles and cat-calls sounded from the other men seated around the fire, watching us like the destruction of my pride was the world's most enthralling entertainment.

A ripping sound brought my attention back to my immediate predicament and I panicked further as I realized that it was the sound of my shirt being torn. Desperately, I redoubled my efforts to repell him. It was in vain, they were too strong. So I did the only thing that I could think of; I bit down. Hard.

He broke away from me swearing, his hand - thankfully - coming off my body to cover the blood gushing down his lip. I curled as far away from him as I could before realizing that it only brought me closer to the two that were still holding me and that they would treat me no better.

There was a general uproar throughout the clearing. Some were joshing the guy for picking "a girl he couldn't control." A few were laughing uproariously. But what chilled me to the bone was that the rest of them were calling dibs on who got me next.

I expected him to start yelling at me. I expected him to pitch a fit and storm around the clearing, furious that I had prevented him from getting exactly what he wanted. A thrill of terror shot through me as he slowly looked up.

"Y're gonna pay for that, Missy." His voice was quiet and slow; it terrified me even more than it would have if he had shouted.

He started back toward me, intent on finishing what he had begun.

"Enough."

The quiet word stopped the chaos. A deadly silence filled the small space as every head turned simultaneously toward the voice that had spoken.

He wasn't a big man; his strength was more subtle, depending on understated - but very real - muscle. He was sprawled, in a calculatedly lazy look, across a low tree branch, one leg straight along the limb, the other curled up so he could lay his arm across it. The stetson pulled low over his eyes matched the hint of a Southern accent adorning his voice. Comparing him to some of the more burly men around the fire, one wouldn't think that he was the leader just by looking at him. But he gave off an aura of unquestionable authority.

"Women will not be treated in such a way in my camp."

"Aww, shucks, Will. We was just havin' some fun with 'er." One of the more courageous - or stupid, I'm not quite sure which - men spoke up.

"I don't care what you do with her, but there will be no raping of anyone on public display while I am in charge. Give her dignity that much at least; do it in private, when nobody's there to watch her humiliation." Most of them hung their heads a little, grudgingly accepting of his rebuke.

The man who'd been kissing me just stood there glaring at me, a little trail of blood trickling from his lip down to his chin.

Will's next comment was adressed to the whole group, but specifically directed at him, a hint of danger darkening his tone. "Understood?"

General sounds of consent spread throughout the group.

"Jared?"

The man - Jared, apparently - finally tore his eyes away from me, glaring at his leader before ducking his head in submission.

"Understood, Will."

"Good." He turned away to stare back into the forest, apparently finished with the conversation. Slowly, the men started to talk again, chatting and debating about new things as their interest turned away from me.

Jared walked back over to me, grabbing my arm in a vice-like grip and tugging me over to the edge of the clearing, where a chain was attached to a tree. Throwing me down next to it, he clasped it around my ankle. Then he reached down to stroke my cheek softly, whispering to me in a deadly voice:

"I don't know who you think you are, and I don't care. But nobody gets away with making me look like a fool. You will pay, princess." I shuddered away from his lips as he reached to kiss me again. The stroking hand turned violent quickly, slapping me hard across my face. I gasped at the sting. I saw the determinedly vicious glint in his eye as he forced my chin towards him.

Once again, his lips imposed themselves onto mine, his tongue shoving its way into my mouth as I whimpered. He pulled back, smirking at me.

"Just ta give ya a little taste of what's gonna happen tonight."

I shuddered at the thought.

The rest of the day passed in a haze of terror. I'd tried to break the chain holding me to the tree; all it had accomplished was making my ankle hurt. All I could do was sit there and wait for him to come and finish what he'd started. Questions and worries circled through my head.

Why me? What's going on? Why can't I break this stupid chain? Where's Jasper? I wonder what he's doing right now. He's probably going crazy with worry right now. Oh, I wish he were here.

My dread grew exponentially as the sun went down and the shadows lengthened across the ground. When it got dark enough, Jared stood up. I scooted back toward the tree, trying to make myself as small and insignificant looking as possible. It didn't work.

"I'll be back for ya in a bit, doll. I've just gotta go hunt first. Y'll like that, won'tcha darlin'? Then I'll be nice and strong when I get back." I heard the distinct threat in his voice as I sat, curled up and shivering, in my place by the tree. My panic and desperation grew as I watched him leave with four others. As soon as he came back...

"Psst."

I glanced around, startled. I'd been so caught up in a haze of worry that I had been completely ignoring my surroundings.

"Psst. Alice."

As subtly as I could, I glanced behind me. To my suprise, I saw a girl crouching in the undergrowth.

"I need you to listen to me and I need you to obey instantly if I ask you to do something, okay?" She whispered urgently.

I nodded dumbly, my brain unable to comprehend what my eyes were telling me they saw. Why was a random girl hiding in the bushes talking to me?

"Alright. I'm going to try to get you out of here, okay?" she hissed. "And I need you to be absolutely silent." I nodded my head.

"Turn to face the fire."

I did as I was told, straining my ears for some idea of what she was going to do. I didn't hear anything, but suddenly my ankle was free and her hand was over my mouth.

"Alright, now we are going to slowly back up into the forest, and then we are going to stand up and run. And we are going to do this all silently." Her hushed voice blended in perfectly with the night air; if I hadn't have been listening for it, I would have missed it all together. She released my mouth and slowly, carefully, tugged me backwards.

We made it to the forest and carefully stood up.

"Come on."

We took off silently, running north. My mind was still freaking out, trying to comprehend that I was being rescued as I attempted to think through the paralyzing fear. It wasn't working to well. I kept getting a paranoid feeling that that man - Jared - was going to get me again. And I couldn't deal with it.

All of a sudden, we heard their rough voices shouting to each other.

"WHERE'D SHE GO!?"

"I DON'T KNOW!"

"I'M GONNA KILL HER!"

I whimpered, my panic going into overdrive.

"Crap." The girl's voice startled me. She glanced around, seeming to take in everything in a single glance. "Follow me, run!" We turned left and sprinted through the darkness. I gasped as frigid water splashed up my legs. The girl didn't even flinch. "Come on!" She called.

I followed her, running as fast as I could through the stream. She made it to a wall of rock on the other side and stood beneath it, waiting for me.

"Alright, listen up. I am going to boost you up. You are going to hide in a cave at the top of the rocks. I am going to lead them away. When we are out of earshot, you are going to run in," she spun me around and pointed "that direction until you make it to safety. Do you understand?" She looked concerned that I couldn't comprehend her simple instructions. It would have been insulting, except that I was having trouble understanding anything through the desperate terror that was taking over my brain.

I shuddered as the shouts of the men grew louder and stared fearfully in the direction they were coming from.

"Alice." She snapped her fingers in front of my face. I looked back at her.

"When do you run, Alice?" she asked me.

"Umm..." I tried to think through my panic. "When I can't hear you anymore?"

"Good." She said. "And which way do you run?"

Silently, I pointed in the same direction that she had.

"Good." She looked vaguely relieved. "Look at me Alice." I looked. "Remember that. Keep telling it to yourself in your head." I nodded.

She gave me a boost as I clambered up the rocks into a small cave. Really it was more like a shelf in the rock, just a little crawl space. It was a good thing I was so small.

As the sound of the men's voices came closer, I shut my eyes and pressed my face into the floor of the cave. Desperately, I tried to see something - anything - good in my future to give me a shred of hope that this would come out alright; all I could see was black. Me fear level spiked again as I belatedly realized that I hadn't been able to see anything since I'd run from Jared's glowing red eyes after my hunt.

I waited with bated breath as the voices came closer...closer...so close now, so terrifyingly close...now they were right outside the mouth of the cave.

"I can't find the scent!"

"Well, look for her trail, then, idiot!"

A crashing sound sound came from the distance, like someone had tripped over a tree root.

"Look!"

"Where!?"

"Over there! Do you see it!?"

"Is that...?"

"It is! It's that Whitlock girl!"

"After her!"

"But what about...?"

"Who cares about the other one? Don't you know what kind of money is being offered as a reward if we bring her in?!"

I slowly let out my breath as the voices got farther and farther away. Carefully, I peeked my head out of the cave and looked around.

Silence.

Nobody was there.

I tried to think logically through my dread of being found. I was supposed to do something when I couldn't hear the voices anymore. I was supposed to run, that's what the girl had said. Which way? I spun around helplessly. Think, Alice! Come on, what did she say!?" She didn't say, I realized. She pointed. She pointed... I spun around again, desperately searching my memory.

That way!

If I were human, I would have cried in relief. Instantly, I took off running as fast as I could. The world blurred around me into one nameless terror as I sprinted away from my captors, my situation, my fear. As I checked over my shoulder to make sure no one was following me, I ran right into a pair of arms.

I screamed.

A/N: Hey guys :) So...what'd ya think? Who did she run into?

Please review!