Author's Notes:

Thank you so much to my reviewers and favouriters/alerters from chapter 1. Enjoy…

Chapter 2: Bloodshed

"Do you think she saw us?" one of Bella's former friends stage-whispered from the other side of the room. She thought it might have been Jessica, but it didn't really matter. They were all huddled in a group and any one of them might have said it. They all looked up, as if they sensed her staring, and giggled conspiratorially when they saw Bella watching them. It was a nuisance to always have them laughing at her and saying things behind her back, just barely loud enough for the whole office to hear, but she could handle it. She had to handle it, she told herself, or she'd go insane… if she wasn't already.

This was turning out to be a fairly mild day, if she was honest. Most days the bullying was more physical, but if she stayed calm and didn't engage them the nastiness was minimal. After the traumatic events of last night, the last thing Bella wanted was a confrontation. She didn't even feel angry today, just lonely. She felt the tears welling up, and the bitchy giggles rose in volume as if to serenade their falling. She sniffed back the tears and got up from her desk, heading for the restroom and determined not to let them see her cry. They would be nasty all day if she cried.

Finding all three cubicles empty, she stepped inside the middle one, locked the door with the bolt and shoved the bin against the door as an extra line of defense against the outside world. Then she climbed on top of the closed toilet lid, tucking her legs underneath her body and wrapping her arms around her waist. She hid her face in the wide neck of her sweater and let the tears soak into the soft woolen fabric.

She was still for several minutes, near-silent tears and soft, shaky breaths the only sounds echoing through the empty room. There was a sign, reminding staff to wash their hands, pasted on the inside of the door, and Bella distracted herself by staring at it a few times. The toothy, smiling woman with a fist full of Anti-Bac was enough to gain her attention for a few seconds, between sobs.

She was staring at one of the woman's pearly white teeth so intently that she almost didn't hear the door creak open, followed by the sound of footsteps. The door banged shut and Bella held her breath, both tears and teeth forgotten as her brain replaced them with fear. She listened carefully and heard one… no, two sets of footsteps getting closer to the door with every thundering heartbeat.

"We know it's you in here, Bella." Jessica's voice drifted in through the crack under the door, and Bella's body stiffened. "You can't hide from us, bitch." Bella gasped, in spite of herself, and Jessica laughed aloud. This was no girly giggle now, but a full-bodied laugh that oozed hatred and aggression. Jessica had never called her a bitch before. Not ever. That was worse than the shoving and name-calling any day of the week.

"Yeah, Bella!" And there, like Jessica's Siamese twin, was Lauren. The two were now pretty much inseparable. "You'll have to come out sooner or later."

As Lauren's words sank in, Bella wondered where Angela was. Angela had always been the nicest one to Bella, even after they had abandoned her. Bella hoped she'd seen sense and decided not to take part. The other two didn't need her help to make Bella's life miserable; they did that well enough as a pair.

"Go away?" Bella had meant it as an instruction but, to her dismay, it came out as more of a question. Her hands shook, and she was breathing heavily as she wiped at her cheeks again. She had to get it together or they'd never stop. She tried again, praying that her voice wouldn't crack or waiver. "Go away!"

"Not a chance in hell, honey," Lauren said scathingly. One of them pushed on the door, shaking it a few times as if to test the strength of the lock. They weren't actually going to try and break it down, were they? Bella felt like her whole world was spiraling out of control. These were her friends, not mindless aggressors. They had been friends for over ten years. Why was this happening to her now?

"Let us i-in," Jessica sang, and the thin wooden door shook again. Bella saw it bend this time, and her eyes narrowed in disbelief. Now they were just making her annoyed. No matter who these people were, they couldn't treat her like this anymore. She had been passive and non-confrontational for months, hoping they would see how stupid and mean this was, but enough was enough. She was getting angry for no reason these days anyway. Why not get angry for a legitimate reason for once?

"Stop it!" Bella snapped, swinging her legs down and pushing herself up of the ceramic lid. Placing one hand on the inside of the stall door, she lowered her other hand ready to unlock the bolt and shove her way past the girls outside. "Just quit already."

"Aw, is little Bells scared of big bad me?" Lauren asked. Bella snarled, sliding the bolt loose and already planning her comeback when she heard a loud smack echo off the tiled walls.

"What the fuck?" Lauren screamed. Jessica must have hit her… hard. Bella froze for a moment, and then slowly slid the bolt back into place. She was still furious, and more than a little shocked, but self-preservation screamed that she didn't want to get involved in whatever had just occurred.

"You always say the stupidest things, moron," Jessica told Lauren and Bella heard another smack, followed by a howl of pain from Jessica this time.

"Well you can just shut the fuck up!" Lauren screamed, and then the door bent and cracked a little down the middle as a body was thrown against it. Bella backed up until she was next to the cistern, but the door just about held. She thrust her hands up to cover her ears, to try to shield herself from the screams and thuds just feet away from her. She couldn't completely block it out, and she could see shadows rippling and moving quickly across the patch of floor outside that she could see from under the door. Bella squeezed her eyes shut and prayed for the fight to end before they hurt each other, her anger dissipating as she realized how strange and out of control her friends had become.

The entire frame of the stall block shook as someone impacted it with an almighty crunch one last time, and then the room fell silent. Bella stayed absolutely still for a good few moments, allowing her fingers to release her ears and her head fraction by fraction. She didn't want to move in case she made them mad again, but she had an uneasy feeling that she wasn't going to cause any more damage than had already been done. She'd done enough.

She didn't know why her conscience was convinced that this had been her fault, but she couldn't shake the feeling that she had somehow caused this. She hadn't actually done anything, other than hide, but this was all because of her, for a reason that still escaped her. She stepped forward, to open the door for real this time and try to help calm down her friends.

"Hey guys, did you make her come out yet?" Bella stiffened as she heard Angela's muffled voice from out in the corridor, just before the door swung open. "I got the stuff that…" She broke off, and there was a pregnant pause before Angela started screaming. It was the most painful, heart-wrenching noise Bella had ever heard and she looked down, as if she was instinctively trying to give Angela some privacy, just in time to see the blood start to seep under the door and soak into her white canvas shoes. Then Bella was screaming too, and it was all too much.

"Oh god, oh god, oh my god," Bella repeated over and over, huddled on top of the toilet lid again. The door was open now but just a crack, so she couldn't see the black body bags or the rest of the blood. Nobody was screaming anymore. Angela had been escorted away by one of the office managers some time before the police had arrived, but the ghost of a scream still echoed in her head like an aftershock.

Bella still couldn't process what was happening, or what the body bags signified. It just couldn't be true. That was Lauren and Jess. They were her friends. She could shake the idea that this was somehow her fault that they were both d… She couldn't say it.

This was her fault, even if the police didn't believe her and it made no sense whatsoever. She'd tried to tell them, stammering and mumbling like a madman about hiding and getting angry and riling them up and the fighting and the crack of body on wood and… but they wouldn't listen. They just kept saying that it was a tragic accident, a cat fight gone bad. They had reassured her that it couldn't have been her fault but if that was true, why did she feel like her heart was breaking in ways she hadn't even known were possible.

She hadn't been able to help it when the images of the man from the report last night swam behind her eyelids. He had said that bloodshed would follow, and he had been right. She hadn't realized it before, but the guy had obviously been talking about her, which made her… what?

She didn't even know what she was anymore. Was she even human? Was she a super-villain? Witch? The scenarios got more and more bizarre and unfocused as she sat in silence, waiting for the medical examiner and the paramedics to finish clearing up and investigating and whatever. Not that they needed to investigate. She knew exactly what had happened. She'd gotten upset and angry and then she'd used her freaky mind powers or whatever to kill them. She had wanted them to go away, and now they were gone forever.

She started to sob again, and hugged her sweater to her face. Maybe if she hid herself from what she'd done, it would never have happened. If she could do this, then maybe she could turn back time or change history and save them from her. Maybe… She needed to get her shit together, and quick. There was absolutely no way this could be her fault, and people simply didn't have super powers. She was delirious and distraught and she was in no shape to be analyzing anything, let alone her slim grip on reality.

"Miss Swan," a male voice called to her, and the door creaked open. "My partner and I are with the FBI. Could we ask you a few questions?" He sounded nice enough, but she kept her eyes tightly shut regardless. Now that the door was open, she would have no choice but to see the aftermath and she just couldn't bring herself to see that.

"Sure." She kept her head down, but she felt a person step into the cubicle in front of her. He placed a large, warm hand on her shoulder and she took in a deep shaky breath.

"Will you look at me, Isabella?" He asked gently, and she shook her head.

"I don't want to see."

"I understand," he replied, and then he paused. "Trust me," he whispered and then she gasped as she felt him slip a hand under her legs and another around her back, lifting her into the air and carrying her out of the cubicle. She kept her eyes shut until she heard the door bang shut behind them and heard the thundering air-con that told her that they were in the corridor. She raised her head to find herself face-to-face with a chin of neatly cropped stubble. It was a nice chin, she thought. It was an odd thought, but it was a distraction from her own mangled psyche for a few moments.

She found herself being lowered into an office chair and blinked. The chin morphed into a nose as the man crouched down to her level, and then he met her gaze. He had nice eyes, if a little close together. She leaned back in the chair to take in his whole face. Nope, they weren't too close together. She'd just gone a little cross-eyed from being so close to him.

"Are you alright?" She nodded, and he smiled. He had a nice smile too, she noticed. She returned his grin before remembering what she'd just witnessed, the smile fading from both their faces as the horror returned to her eyes. "Okay, that was a bad question," he mumbled apologetically.

"S'okay. I'm fine," she replied. She certainly wasn't going to tell him how she really felt. No-one needed that visual, especially not this nice man who was trying to help her.

"Can you tell us what happened, ma'am?" Bella's head snapped up and to the left as she focused on the unexpected second voice. This must be his partner, the other FBI guy. That thought sobered her up pretty damn fast. These guys, no matter how kind they might be, were investigating the death of two of my closest friends.

"Um, I'm not sure exactly." She decided that she would be as honest as possible. There no way, no matter how unsure she might be about everything, that she could be guilty of their murders, and therefore she had no reason to lie about it. If only her conscience would receive that message, along with her subconscious. "I was hiding in the stall and they came in after me. I was crying, and they started taunting me. They started fighting somehow, and then they were dead." I think I might have killed them, she added silently.

"They had no motive for fighting whatsoever?" The partner asked incredulously.

"Not that I know of," she told him, and he nodded. He waited for her to continue, but she didn't know what else to say. "I may have missed parts of the argument, because I was pretty angry, but there didn't seem to be a motive that I heard."

"You say that you were angry?" The first man asked, glancing at his partner as if asking a silent question. The partner shook his head and frowned. He was not as pleasant as the first one, who turned back to Bella and stared intently into her eyes. "Can you describe exactly how you felt throughout the exchange with the deceased? It will seem like an odd question, but be as thorough as you can."

"Well at first I was upset, and they were scaring me when they came in and started to shout at me through the stall door. Then I realized how ridiculous it was for a grown woman to be cowering in fear, and I got angry at them. Then they all of a sudden started attacking each other, and I was just plain terrified again. That's pretty much it," she finished lamely.

"So you got real angry just before they started fighting?" the partner asked, and Bella nodded.

"I know it was mean of me to be annoyed, but they'd been bothering me for weeks. I was mad at them and now I can't even tell them how much I loved them, in spite of everything. They're just gone." She sniffed back a tear, and the man kneeling in front of Bella patted her hand awkwardly. He started standing up, before pausing and turning back to face her.

"I need to talk to my partner, Agent McCarty for a moment. Stay here and do me a favor. Don't talk about this any further with any of the other police officers. Just wait for us to come back, if you need to tell us anything else about what you remember. We won't be long." He stood to his full height and motioned for Agent McCarty to follow him down the hall, away from both Bella's chair and the bathroom.

"Wait," she called. "You didn't tell me your name."

"Cullen," he told her. "I'm Agent Cullen."

Author's Notes:

So this chapter was getting pretty long, so I ended it here. Things will start to be explained next time.

Comment or critique as you wish. All feedback is most welcome.