A/N: This is another very short update and it has not been beta'd. That's totally my choice. Aleea is still my beta but I'm going through a very tough time right now and just wanted to get this up because it's been awhile and you have my apologies for that. So as usual any and all errors are mine. Please be kind. While I welcome critical feedback my skin is very thin right now due to a recent death.
I hope you are all well. Reviews are love. And please know that I appreciate every single one of you.
He watched her from across the street. His target. His human target. He has been instructed not to kill her, threatened not to. Only to seek her out, gather information, and report back. He doesn't understand. Aren't these cows merely food? Why should one human girl matter? But he'll do what's asked of him. He owed the red haired demon that much. She created him, molded him, and loves him, or so she says. He owes her this. If it wasn't for her he'd be nothing, he'd dead by now anyway. Truly dead. She told him all about his life before. About how alone he was, how no one cared, how he'd stood at the end of a pier drunk and ready jump into the cold water and end it all. Victoria had saved him, given him a new life, an immortal life, with powers beyond imagining. He would do anything she asked.
The brown haired girl was sitting in her living room with an older man, her father he assumed. They were watching television but he could tell the girl wasn't really paying attention. Her eyes sort of had a glazed over look and she would only nod minutely whenever her father said something. He could also see the man growing exasperated. He heard him sigh and saw him shake his head and focus back on the TV. The girl continued to stare at nothing.
Riley knows very little about the girl. He was told where she lived, that she was human, that he was not to kill her. He knows that for some reason she's very important to Victoria, that every time Victoria says her name, Bella, she says it with a sneer and the hatred that rolls off of her is almost palpable. Occasionally in her anger she will take Riley, violently, against a wall or wherever they happen to be. She will claw and bite him and it hurts but then she always tells him she loves him and how proud she is of him. This makes him feel good. He wants to please her.
He watches as the human girl rises from the couch she's been sitting on and tells her father goodnight. He can hear her climbing the stairs. Her steps are slow, her feet dragging. He hears a door close and then water running. He waits. He's a very patient man.
xxxx
Bella goes through the motions. It's something she's used to. Having a routine helps her to keep a small shred of sanity. It's a charade though and one she knows her father sees through but it's the best she can do. She sits with him, she eats with him and she cleans and does laundry and runs errands for him. Tonight she will shower. For a long time this was something she didn't care to do. For a long time she didn't want to do anything at all but she could tell Charlie was getting fed up and she was worried he'd make her leave so she forced herself to do the basics.
She showered quickly and looks at herself as little as possible. She doesn't pay attention to what she wears and she no longer bothers to keep her room tidy. She's in no rush to sleep because she knows that will only bring nightmares so instead she logs online and sends her mother an email. She's taken to doing this weekly in an attempt to appease Renee. Their relationship has suffered because of Bella's behavior but Bella can't find it in herself to care. Bella is shut off, shut down. Nothing stirs her anymore. Not books, not music, nothing.
When she's finished online she sits in the rocking chair she's placed in front of her window. She looks out at the night sky and the snow capped trees. They are lit silver from the streetlamp. This is the worst time of day aside from sleeping. This is when there's nothing left to distract her and her mind turns to the past and all that she's lost. In her darkest moments she's thought about ending things but it just isn't in her nature to do that. So she sits and she remembers and she wonders where they are and if they ever think of her.
The light outside flickers and then goes dark. She gets up and presses her face up to the cold glass and cups her hands around her eyes to block out the light from her room. She sees nothing and decides to go to bed.
xxxx
She wakes to find Edward standing over her. She is speechless and ridiculously her mind immediately turns to how she must look and smell. She's wearing holey sweats, a dirty t-shirt, and she hasn't washed her sheets in weeks.
He looks her up and down.
"You disgust me," he sneered.
Her lip trembled, the first sign of impending tears and she bites down on it to try to keep them from coming.
"Leaving you was the best thing I ever did." He says.
Her eyes water and her cheek twitches.
"Do you want to know what I regret the most?" he asks.
She felt a tiny flutter of hope. He regretted something? Maybe he regretted hurting her?
"What?" she asked, hopefully.
"I regret saving you from James. You deserve to die."
He growled fiercely and leapt upon her.
Bella woke up screaming.
XXXX
Riley heard the girl scream and jumped up into the tree outside her window. He wasn't afraid of being seen because he'd knocked the streetlight out. She had bolt upright and was backed up against her headboard. Her breath was coming fast and hard and tears were streaming down her face.
He heard the click of a light switch from another room and then the rustling of sheets and then bare feet thudding on a wood floor. Then nothing.
"God damn it, Bella." He heard her father whisper. Then the steps retreated, the sheets shuffled again, and the light switch clicked again.
Bella was left to cry alone in the dark.