Our Search Collides With Hell

current summary: She is looking for her missing sister, Hope, with the help of a confused and grieving Claire. Meanwhile, others too have something they desperately want to find. The Volturi in particular are determined to find a power that will defeat the Cullen family and please Aro, who still longs for Alice's ability.

so far...

In Forks, the new resident Audrey is having trouble searching for her sister Hope who went missing. Claire, who now lives with her aunt Emily and Sam, after the loss of her family offers to help her when they first meet at a diner in La Push. In Volterra, Aro is looking to recruit new vampires to the Volturi guard which Jane is not pleased about. Heidi and Demetri along with a few others volunteer to leave and begin the search. Jane volunteers too which forces a concerned Alec too. Heidi is suspicious and plans to find a replacement for Jane. Back in Forks Renesmee returns with her family to begin her life with Jacob, however, Alice has a vision.

Note

I apologise for the long wait, I've been busy with exams and other projects. I also started college and did not realise how much it would take over my life. From now on my most popular stories will have priority so please review/follow/favourite so I know there a people waiting!

Keep an eye on my profile for news on the latest chapters!

I hope you enjoy chapter 3! The pace of the story will pick up after this chapter.

Chapter 3

late in the morning...

Forks

Claire

Nessie has returned home at last. I'm currently sat outside the Cullen mansion waiting for her so we can head into Forks for lunch. It will be fun to catch up; letters and occasional phone calls just don't compare to face-to-face conversations.

I had expected her to hear me arrive and come out and greet me or send someone else out too... I assumed they must be busy so decided to wait as I didn't want to intrude. They probably had a lot to organise too. I bet the place is covered in dust! They are a large coven of vampires though so it shouldn't take too long.

After a few minutes though my patience wears thin and I begin to tap my foot. Then I finally lose all of the little bit of patience I possess and enter the house. It was rude to enter without knocking but it was impossible for them not to know I'm outside waiting. If anything it was them being rude. I'm about to round a corner when I hear everyone engaged in a very quiet, serious conversation. Okay, maybe it's me being rude...

"-vision."

"Who exactly... vampire?"

"...new recruit?

I strain my ears to hear more before realising what I'm doing is wrong. They also probably know I have entered the house and I am currently hiding behind the wall.

"Come out," Edward Cullen spoke giving away no emotion.

Great, I don't even know how much trouble I'm in...

I reveal myself with a guilty expression, "Sorry, I was just curious, what's going on?"

"Nothing!" Quil voice instantly exclaims nervously surprising me.

Quil's here? I look around and see him stood tense. I didn't know he was going to be here too! I'd cycled here by myself even though I was supposed to be accompanied places by Quil or a responsible adult. That didn't matter though, Quil was lying to me and that pissed me off a lot.

"You're lying, tell me the truth, I'm not a little kid or a complete outsider, you know." I frown upset.

Quil sighed and looked at the others in the room to see what he should do. In response most of them leave apart from Nessie, Jacob and Alice.

"It's good to see you again Claire." Alice greets, waving slightly from where she is stood.

"Claire!" Renesmee smiles happily and walks to me so she can give me a hug, "How are you doing?"

I smile and hug back, "I'm okay I suppose,"

She pulls back with a concerned look and looks deep into my eyes to see if I'm lying before smiling again, "Good,"

I know Renesmee is trying to distract me but I allow her to for a little while because I've missed her and I know that it's not the sole reason she's talking to me. I was glad she was back at last. With Nessie around I had someone I could talk to about anything. Part of was sad that she had returned, mature and ready to start a life with Jacob already. Soon, I'll look older than her and eventually she'll leave again. There was nothing that could be done about that though. I just had to get on with things and enjoy having my friend back.

Finally it was time for answers.

Alice looked at Quil meaningfully to let him know that he should be the one to begin giving me the long awaited answered to my question, "What's going on?" Quil and Renesmee couldn't keep making idol conversation in hopes of distracting me. They couldn't hide this from me either. I heard the serious voices, I know something is going on.

"Claire, Alice had a vision." Quil told me frowning at the thought of it.

My calm even breaths hitch and became erratic. My hearts thumping increases to almost racing speed. Last time I was an ignorant toddler and only later was I told stories by Quil, Jacob, Sam, Emily, Alice and Renesmee about that day. Gradually, I was told more and more details up until the information I have going around my head today. I assume I've been told pretty much everything but being told is very different from being stood in the middle of it all, seeing and hearing and touching. This time, while I won't see I will know. This was knowledge I didn't want and I could understand why Quil didn't want me to know what this vision. Well, he wanted to protect me and prevent me from getting involved. I just want to remain ignorant so I don't have to deal with the feeling of dread. At least I'll be prepared for the death of the people around me this time. It will not be suddenly dropped on me unexpectedly on any random day of the week, during any random month and year.

"The Volturi?" I say shaken.

Alice nodded, "The Volturi are sending a visitor, a new member of the guard. I already had a vision about the recruitment of new members,"

"They are doing this in preparation for when they can come back here, aren't they?"

Quil smiled comfortingly, "Hey, don't worry about this Claire. I'm sure nothing bad will happen and I'll protect you."

"Don't lie to me Quil!" I snap before sighing, "It's not like I'm involved in any of this or can do anything about it, I don't need protecting. There isn't anything any of us can do yet, right Alice?"

"I'm just going to monitor the situation and when I have an exact date and time then we and the wolves will come up with a plan to work out how we can avoid any trouble or conflict,"

"Why don't you and Nessie go and catch up now Claire." Jacob suggested.

"Okay Jake, I need her help with something anyway!" I smile.

"Oh, what is it Claire?" Renesmee asks interested.

"You'll have to wait and find out,"

We head outside to sit in the garden.

"I recently became friends with a woman called Audrey, she recently moved to Forks," Claire told Renesmee when they were seated on a bench in the garden.

"A new friend? That's great, what's she like?" Renesmee asked pleased Claire had made a new friend.

"Audrey's really nice and quite funny. She is also a good listener and has helped me," Claire said smiling guilty, "I feel bad because she has her own problems,"

"She does?"

"Yeah, her sister Hope went missing a while ago and she wants to look for her but is struggling to get any leads. I want to help her but I have no idea what I'm doing,"

"Ah, so this is what you wanted help with. A friend of yours Claire is a friend of mine so I'll help. I hope Audrey doesn't mind though,"

"She won't, she'll appreciate the help."

"Okay, let's get started!" Renesmee exclaimed determinedly, "Firstly, tell me everything you know about her sister's disappearance."

I began to tell Nessie everything Audrey had told me about her sister Hope and about the events before her disappearance. Did Hope get on the plane she had told her sister about? Did Hope make it to her dream job? Why did she not return after two weeks like she had told Audrey? I doubt Hope would have been lying. She and Audrey are close, so Audrey would have been able to tell if Hope was lying to her and faking her excitement. It was awful that the police didn't seem to care and have time to investigate and the rest of their family were apathetic. They just gave up and did not care that Hope could be out there alive somewhere potentially in danger.

"We can start online, do you think Hope might have used social networking sites?" Nessie asks.

"Probably, I'll phone Audrey and get some information and we can begin!" I say positively.

"If Alice isn't busy I'm sure she would be willingly to help us out, if not I can ask someone else in my family,"

"Okay, but I don't want to bother them and I don't want to take all the control of this from Audrey. I want her to help her to find her sister not find her sister for her,"

"But if we do have to use my family and maybe some of their contacts and other methods normal people can't typically use, would you be willing?"

"If it's the only way then yes. I'll find some excuse for Audrey but I want that to be a last resort."

Nessie nods understandingly.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

Early afternoon...

Forks

Claire

We sat in the garden using one of her families laptops. Renesmee was better with technology and searching the internet so I just sat with a notepad ready to get any information needed down on paper for Audrey. I had sent her a text asking her about Hope's internet use and she replied back with some user names and websites we could search. Nothing out of the ordinary was coming up and there was little information that we could use in our investigation so far. However, we managed to get the contact details of some friends that we could use to track them down and question them later on. They might know something and if Audrey has already spoke to them they may give different answers to someone who is not related to Hope and never even met her.

"You told me about Hope and Audrey wanting to visit Italy and you told me about Audrey's last conversation with Hope which was about her new job..." Nessie trailed off, deep in thought.

"You think there could be some connection, Ness?" I ask, curious to know what she is thinking.

"Did Audrey tell you what Hope's dream career was?"

"...No, I don't think so. Why?"

"Give Audrey a call and ask. I think it will help with our online search."

"Of course! Why didn't I think to ask!?"

Renesmee was right! We needed more information about Hope and Audrey's last conversation. Audrey may have not told me everything that was said or she might have not mentioned a certain part of the call because she thought it wasn't important. I should also ask about previous conversations, ones just before that final phone call. We also need to know exactly what Hope's dream career was. Maybe there was a connection between her wanting to travel to Italy and her dream job too...?

I pull out my phone and search through my contacts for Audrey's number. When I find it I click and ring the number. I wait patiently for her to pick up. I'm relieved when she does after around fifteen seconds, we really need to get on with this as Hope has already been missing for a long time.

"Did you find anything Claire!?" Audrey asks immediately through the phone with a hopeful tone of voice.

"No, we just need some information from you which could really benefit some searching on the internet we are currently doing," I reply back hating to get her hopes up.

"We?"

Crap, I said 'we.' Oh well, I needed to tell her about this any way. I hope she doesn't mind.

"If you're not cool with it then it's fine but I asked one of my closest and longest friends Renesmee for some help because she is great with this kind of stuff,"

"...Okay, if you are sure Claire. I trust you. Maybe I can meet her sometime?"

I lower the phone from my ear and turn to Renesmee, "She wants to meet you sometime, is that possible?"

"Yeah, of course! I'd really like to meet Audrey,"

I put the phone back to my ear, "Nessie said she'd like to meet you. Maybe we can meet at our usual diner sometime. I'll text you the details, okay?"

"Great! Is that all then?"

"Yeah, bye Audrey."

"Bye!"

...

"Claire, you didn't ask her about Hope's job," Nessie pointed out when I ended the call.

"Crap, I got sidetracked! I'll ring back," I say resisting the urge to punch myself.

I grab a notebook and pen that's beside me and quickly call Audrey back. She picks up again and I breath a sigh of relief.

"What's up, Claire?" Audrey asks confused.

"I forgot the whole reason I called you!" I sigh at my stupidity, "What exactly was Hope's dream career?"

"If I'm honest I'm not quite sure," Audrey replies sounding deep in though, "Well, she was always quite secretive when it came to what she wanted in life. I think it was so our family would not be disappointed if she didn't achieve it. They were quite big on goals and achievements,"

"Okay..." I make notes on the new information about Hope for future reference. Every bit of information we could get hold of was vital.

"So, can you think of anything? Even if its just a general idea, it doesn't need to be something exact," I encourage Audrey to think.

"Well, Hope mentioned to me that she was maybe interested in something to do with maybe travel, tourism, history, art and architecture..." Audrey trails off uncertainly.

"Okay, so travel and tourism, history..." I recall as I make notes before making some job suggestions to get Audrey to think more, "Could she maybe have wanted to be a tour guide, work in a museum...?"

"Yeah, I think it was that kind of thing she was interested in,"

"So, we could be right in connecting this to Italy and relating searches to those fields...?"

"Definitely! I think we're on to something there," Audrey says with enthusiasm. I can tell her optimism has increased.

"I'll call soon." I tell her finishing off my notes.

"Okay, bye – again!" Audrey replies before hanging up, her mood some what good.

I put the phone down and pass Renesmee the notes, which she quickly types in to a word document.

"I have a feeling that some of this information will help somewhat," I tell her pointing to key bits.

"I have the same feeling..." Nessie said, frowning.

"What's worrying you," I ask concerned.

"Italy and tourism."

"Oh. Well, for now we should do some more searching online and see if anybody who knows her can add to or back up this information!"

Renesmee just nods and continues typing in silence. I have an idea of where her thoughts are going with this but I refused to think about it. If she truly has a deep worry about this then she'll tell me. For now, I think it's just a slight possibility. I really think it would be too much of a possibility...

After half an hour the silence we sit in is broken.

"I don't think we are going to get anywhere with this Claire..." Renesmee speaks quietly, closing her laptop.

I close the page I'm looking at on the laptop screen and nod stiffly, "You may be right Nessie. What now?"

"We should ask my family for help,"

"I don't think Audrey will want too many people involved. She hasn't even met you yet! Plus, we can't give up on the first day!"

"We aren't giving up, we are just getting some outside thoughts and suggestions,"

"Fine."

"Claire, if... if my feeling is right, they'll need to know anyway."

I shut the laptop without a single word and stand up. Nessie also stands up and we go inside. As we enter, we place the laptops on a cupboard before heading to where some of the family would hopefully be waiting. If Edward has paid any attention to our thoughts then he'll know what we are thinking already and might have already shared it with the family.

XXXXXXXXXXXXXX

As expected Edward was waiting for us, along with Alice, Carlisle, Jacob and Quil. Crap, were Renesmee and I really on to something here? No, no, no! I pray that all of this is a coincidence because there was nothing we could do if our idea about this was right. I'd rather be stuck with no leads than this. There was no chance she was alive if we were correct about this.

My breathing becomes erratic as I panic. Poor Hope and Audrey...

"Calm down." Jasper urges as he enters the room.

I begin to feel calmer and I sit down on a comfortable sofa to try and relax. I need to think rationally, we all do. It could all turn out to the coincidence I want it to be.

"Yes, we need to be rational and be completely sure about this," Edward answers my thoughts.

Carlisle looks at Renesmee who has just sat down beside me and then me sadly, "I'm afraid, if this young woman has been taken by the Volturi there is nothing we can do,"

Renesmee nods, "Of course. She's already dead now if that's the case,"

"What am I going to tell Audrey!?"

"We'll see if we can come up with something to give her closure," Alice says with optimism trying to cheer me up.

"Is she really dead though?" Quil asked, I suspect they are thoughts he has accidentally voiced since he wasn't one to speak and make suggestions in this kind of situation.

"What do you mean?" Renesmee and Jacob both question Quil in unison before pausing and making eye contact, slightly amused.

"You could be right Quil," Edward nodded, worry on his face. He looks like he is beginning to suffer from a headache.

"What's going on?" Alice crosses her arms waiting for Edward to fill us in.

"The Volturi are looking for new guard members and one may be paying us a visit," Edward reminds everyone, "Quil was thinking that she may have been turned by them."

My eyes widen, "What if the guard member coming is Hope?"

"Surely that would be too much of a coincidence, right?" Jacob replied.

Carlisle looks around the group, "If the Volturi is involved we cannot do anything, whether Hope has been killed by them or become a member of the guard. Until there is more reasons to suggest their involvement I suggest you girls continue to assist Audrey. However, we may need to fabricate something if it turns out the Volturi are in fact involved."

"You're right grandfather." Renesmee replies sadly.

I excuse myself and decide to sit outside for a while to clear my head. Quil follows, clearly wanting to know how I got involved in the search for a missing person. He was probably going to be upset me with me about not talking to him about it. I just had to keep my fingers crossed that he wouldn't tell Sam and Emily about it. Some imprint manipulation may be required which may, or may not work. They always say how the person who imprinted on you will do anything but that isn't always the case.

Once I sit down I pat the space beside me and Quil sits down huffing and puffing. I sigh softly at his childlike behaviour. It was understandable though. Once again, I had hidden something from him. I get angry when he hides things from me too. We'll both never learn though. The whole keeping secrets from each other thing has been something we've always done.

I take his hand, "Look at me,"

He refuses moving his focus from the ground to the other side of him, deliberately refusing to look at me.

"Quil," I plead, "Please, look at me,"

He turns and we both look each other directly in the eyes.

"I'm sorry for keeping this a secret Quil."

Quil squeezed my hand before pulling his from my grasp, "Don't say 'sorry' if you do not mean it."

I sigh. I was somewhat sorry. It annoyed me that he could keep things from me and I couldn't keep things from him though. That fact was what was keeping me from being genuinely sorry. I hated how everyone could have secrets except me. I was tired of the lack of privacy. Helping Audrey was a way to forget some of my own problems and to rebel. This was something that was supposed to be mine and late Renesmee's thing. I admit, we need the Cullen family's assistance now but it's not Quil's problem and it certainly is not Sam or Emily's problem.

"I do. I just didn't think you'd want to be involved and Audrey didn't want others involved either," I tell him.

"You still told Renesmee about it though," Quil pointed out.

"She's good at stuff like this,"

"When it comes you to you Claire I really want to be involved, no matter what. You're my world,"

I cringe inwardly, "I know. I'll tell you next time,"

"Okay. Well, we'll have to go and tell Sam about this now so let's go,"

I jump up glaring, "No way! What's Sam got to do with it?"

"Well you've been involved in something that is potentially dangerous without telling any one,"

"I'm entitled to my privacy, I'm a young independent woman who is capable of looking after herself."

Quil laughed, "You were entitled to your privacy until you began to behave like a reckless brat."

I look down frowning at the floor. It was all over. Soon I'd be confined to the four walls of my bedroom. I continue to look down for a minute, unmoving, unblinking. I'm aware Quil is looking at me intently, breath held, waiting for me to snap but I don't

"...Can I have five minutes alone before we go?" I ask quietly.

He exhales, "Sure, just don't run away,"

I let him get away with that and let him go back inside. When he's gone I head towards the garage contemplating stealing one of the cars. I'm surprised to find Edward there. I look down guiltily. He must have heard my thoughts...

"I heard but I know you were not going to really," Edward said, sounding surprisingly absent minded.

I nod before asking curiously, "What're you up to?"

"Bella was supposed to be going to Seattle but her car is still here," Edward explains frowning.

"That's strange... I wonder where she could have gone,"

"I'll go and see if she left her phone somewhere. If not I'll give her a ring."

"Okay, see you later."

Edward left and headed back towards the house.

This was unusual. Where could Bella have gone?