Bella pounded her fists against the wooden door in front of her, the smell of damp clogging the back of her nose and throat, the walls brushing her arms in the cramped space made her head spin and her breath come in shallow bursts. She was cornered, she was trapped.
She wanted out, she needed out. Her hands throbbed with the force she was using to try and break out but her mind couldn't properly focus on the pain, it only made her bang harder and faster. She couldn't see, the darkness around her was thick and hefty, it made her already panicked state climb drastically. God, she needed out.
She wasn't that scared little kid any more, she knew that, so why was she back in the one place she never let herself think about let alone be in again? Something tickled the back of her neck, like a wisp of breath fluttering across her skin, making goose bumps break out and flush across her body in a ripple of anxiety.
With startling clarity Bella realized it wasn't the darkness that was thick and heavy, it wasn't the smell or the cramped space... she wasn't alone. Her fists stilled their pounding for a split second before she started with renewed strength, giving her all to get out, and subsequently get away from the thing behind her.
Without seeing it, without actually knowing what it was, she knew it was bad, that it would do something terrible if she didn't get away from it right then and there. Bella could feel it in her bones, in her very core. Something sharp and pointy grazed the skin of her neck and she knew, with absolute certainty it was some ones tooth, a fang dangerously close to the soft skin of her throat.
Just as a scream was about to burst out of her chest, the lopsided wooden door vanished, as if it was never there to begin with and she went tumbling to the ground. Something soft and moist met her face and hands as she clutched at the ground. The darkness had lifted, but it took a few blurry blinks to right her eyesight to her new surroundings.
A parade of Green greeted her in multi-shades, the dewy softness she felt brushing her face was freshly cut grass. Slowly, with shaky limbs, she heaved herself up and took in where she was with a type of thankful bewilderment. The closet was gone, and in its place was a... Maze?
The hedges were lush with shapely leaves and higher than she could ever hope of seeing over. Instead of darkness, fog floated around her like clouds, obscuring the edges of her vision. Clambering to her feet, Bella edged down the path she found herself on, not really in control of her thoughts or feet. She had somewhere to go, somewhere she needed to be... Someone was waiting for her.
Looking down, Bella noticed she was bare foot, the blades of grass tickling in-between her toes and cushioning her footfalls. Little balls of lights floated around her and through the fog, lighting up the green scenery with a golden hue. Reaching out, she watched avidly as one of the little balls landed on her open palm, and once again she came to a revelation, they were fireflies. The little bug wiggled a little and then set off again, dancing through the air with its brethren.
The urgency set in more and made Bella pick up speed as she made her way down the path, that something in the closet was still here, lurking somewhere in the shadows, always in the shadows. Spinning around she tried to spot what it was but came up blank, nothing was there, but she couldn't shake the feeling of being watched, of being hunted. What-ever it was, it was playing with her.
Turning back around with a whirl, she took off in a run, zigging and zagging around the corners in hopes of loosing the demented thing that was following her. Nothing made sense, why was she here? Why was it chasing her? Who was it she needed so urgently to get to? She had no answers, she just knew she was here for a reason beyond her grasping fingers, she knew something was chasing her and whoever she needed to get to, she needed to get to soon or it was game over. For her, for them, for everyone she cared for or will ever come to care for.
Taking a sharp right, Bella made it to the centre of the maze, an open, round cavity of the thick maze. The fireflies had all but disappeared, off dancing somewhere else she guessed. The fog had drawn back too, only taking spot in the only other exit to the centre of the maze on the opposite side of Bella.
Her heart beat erratically in her chest, here, that someone she needed to find was here. But where? She couldn't see anyone or anything remotely pulling at her, tugging her in a direction. Only the foggy exit, and she knew that whatever was still chasing her liked to play in the fog and the darkness. It liked to stay hidden, and for some reason she knew she needed to get away from it, get the person she was looking for away from it.
Straightening out her spine, she took solid steps to the path on the other side of the centre, her heartbeat picking up pace every step she took. Once she was only a few feet away from it, she could see a gate locking her out... Or locking someone in. She couldn't tell which one, she could hardly tell you which way was up or down in this new weird world she found herself in.
The gate was a rusty golden, tarnished and marred so much that in some places the gold had flaked off, leaving only a blackened iron to peak through. In the middle of the gate, where the handles should have been, was a sun, the black breaking through at the points of the star, giving the sun a look as if it was bleeding.
Before she could think, she had taken off again, running at the gate and grasping the bars with a tight grip, trying to pull it open. They were there, just behind those bars, she was close, so close. Giving another hard yank, Bella felt like crying when the gate only rattled and grumbled its rebellion. Why wouldn't the damn thing open?
A pale hand wrapped around her wrist from the other side with startling gentleness, and all her efforts ceased in that one moment. Looking up, she saw the hand was attached to a blurry figure. Everything about them was blurry, the fog damning any of her efforts to see who it was.
They were short, but still managing to have an inch or two topping her height, pale, male by the looks of it, but that was all she could tell from her side of the gate. Until she saw their eyes. Startling blues and greys, like a settling sea just after a raging storm. His left eye however had a ring of mottled brown around the pupil, splintering of in the higher right corner, splitting the blues and greys with its contrasting colour across his iris.
The colours were beautiful, without a doubt, but it was what lay buried underneath that had her racing heart stop dead in its tracks. Wisdom, age and a tortured kind of longing. A heady mix that left her breathless.
Bella started to pull at the gates again, determined to get him out of its prison, for she was sure that's what it was, but the heavy metal wouldn't budge an inch. A loud bleeping began to ring out through the air, as if ticking down the time she had to free him. He came closer but his visage didn't change, only another arm slipped through the cage and the hand joined its counter-part, wrapping around her white knuckled hand.
The breath and the tickling of a fang on the back of her throat was back, making her heart jump and miss a beat, the bleeping grew louder, ringing in her ears, but she heard the one word the blurry man said loud and clear. His voice rough and ragged with miss-use, an accent she couldn't put a finger on decorating the words edges, his tone dusted with strict urgency.
"Run."
Bella came to with a crash and shattered memories. The bleeping carrying on just from her right obnoxiously loud. Groaning in pain and blinking wearily at the white light that burned her eyes, she tried to recall what was happening, where she was and what she was doing.
Like a flood gate being opened, Bella remembered Bon-Temps, Nana, Sookie, Jason, Merlottes and... A large knife. She tried to sit up but the wires attached to her stopped her from getting far, only having enough slack to let her push herself up onto her elbows, so she was partially sitting against the rough pillows of the bed she found herself in.
"Oh thank god, you're awake! You had us all so worried Bella, especially in the state we found you in!"
Bella watched confusedly as Sookie came jolting out of the bed side chair and at her with swirl of blonde locks and a relief painted face. Looking around, Bella took in the heart monitor, the bleeping still emanating from it, white sheets and even whiter walls. She was in hospital... Why was she in hospital?
"What state? What happened... Nana... Where's Nana?! There was this man... Jesus Sookie! Help me get the fuck out of this bed... He had a knife!"
Bella frantically pulled and ripped the wires from her, the ones leading to her hand stung as the IV was ripped free, spilling the liquid onto the now crumpled sheets. She made to get out of bed, to find Nana but her legs gave out and she crumbled to the floor as soon as her heel took any pressure of her body weight, only Sookie and Bill grabbing her shoulders and waist, helping brace Bella against the bed frame stopped her from landing face first on the light blue linoleum.
She didn't have time to question Bills sudden appearance as the weight of what she last saw with her eyes hit home. Dear god, please let Adele be okay. Surely she was? Nana was most likely just grabbing a cup of tea from one of the shitty vendors lining the hospital walls. Nana had practically raised Bella, Sookie and Jason. Adele was stubborn, she carried on no matter what, no silly man with a knife could... Could...
Sookie's stricken face made Bella's own hopeful one shatter and for tears to swell in her eyes. No, Bella refused, what she was thinking wasn't possible. Bella looked away from Sookie, deliberately refusing to see the sadness swimming in her face. If Bella pretended it wasn't there, then nothing was wrong. She was right, she had to be, Nana was just around the corner. Even as she mentally denied everything her brain was shouting at her, her tongue took action.
"Where's Grandma Sook? Please... No... She's okay right?... She's..."
Sookie held back a sob, but it was still loud enough for Bella to catch and force her to look a Sookie at the abrupt noise. Sookie's own eyes had glazed over with un-shed tears. Bella couldn't breathe, her throat constricted and her whole body shook with restrained emotions. Her resolve broke when Bill spoke up somewhere from her left.
"I'm sorry. You're Grandmother didn't make it. You had quite the bump to the head, you've been in hospital for the last three weeks as the swelling to your brain decreased. I'm... Sorry."
And just like that Bella couldn't hold it in any more, couldn't hold anything in any more. Something in her head crunched and crumbled, then there was chaos. The small window above the bed shattered and sprayed shards of glittering glass all over the room, The still blaring heart monitor crumpled in on itself as if something from inside was sucking it in, ending up with it flying across the room and smashing into the opposite wall with a loud thunk. The bed, the IV drip, the metal chair... Everything followed suit, bending and breaking in on itself and flying across the room in multiple directions.
Sookie screamed, Bill pulled the startled blonde closer to him for safety, but all Bella could focus on was the hailstorm raging inside of her, Sookie's crying drowning out her ears. It was her fault, she could of done more, done something. She had let Nana... she had caused... It was her fault Adele was gone.
Once she had started letting it out, she couldn't stop it from happening. No matter how hard she tried to stop the rooms contents from smashing around the place, to reign her wild emotion's in, she couldn't. The flood gate had opened, the dam had burst and she couldn't stem the flow from her mind. A part of her wanted to carry on, wanted to rip the whole hospital apart. A part of her, that sounded so much like Charlie and Renee were screaming at her, cursing her and everything she was or will be. The last part of her, the one who could still focus on Sookie and her worried face, wanted everything to stop, to end.
Bill tried to keep Sookie close to him as the rooms contents swirled and crashed around the room as if caught up in an invisible tornado, but the small blonde had managed to wriggle free from his tight grasp while he was distracted. Sookie made a dash for the brunette, dodging and skirting Bills reaching arms and hands. Once she finally managed to dodge Bill and the flying crushed objects, she smashed into Bella with enough force to knock her back, once again sending Bella sailing to the floor, this time however, not alone.
Sookie had always thought Bella's gift had gone, she had never seen her use it since they both still had grazed knobby knees and dirt smudges on their faces. It always gave her a tranquil sense of hope, that one day maybe hers too would just go away and she could be normal. Right now though, that fragile dream was just as crushed as the bed was, Sookie realized it had never gone away like she hoped for herself, Bella had simply pushed it so far back and locked it down. And by the state of the still swirling room and a crying and shaking Bella, it was a dangerous and disastrous thing to do.
But Sookie had no time to ponder why Bella had so diligently locked her gift away, or why it had suddenly come back with such a vengeful force, she needed to calm her cousin down from... Whatever was happening. Scrambling to her knees, Sookie Pulled back slightly from Bella, holding her shoulders as she took in Bella's wide eyes and blank face, jumping slightly and growing frantic at the sight of blood.
Bella was bleeding from her nose and eyes, rivets of red cascading down her pale complexion. Bella's pupils were blown, so large they nearly took away all of the iris, but what worried Sookie the most was the far away stare to them, Bella was there, but her mind was somewhere far far away, not really taking in anything at all.
Sookie grew frantic as everything that was flying around the room picked up speed and the bleeding that was trickling down Bella's face began to become a waterfall of sickly red. Shaking Bella's shoulders harshly, Sookie tried to snap her out of it, to bring her back from where-ever Bella had been taken to by her mind but nothing was working.
"Bella?! Come on Bella snap out of it! Bill do something!"
Bill was just about to come hurtling towards them, when the flying objects simply dropped to the floor, Bella's eyes flicking around the room before rolling up into her skull as she passed out cold, flopping onto the floor as Sookie cradled her limp hospital gown clad body.
Sookie reached up and felt the coolness of Bella's sticky cheek, the worry and fear building in her stomach became violent storm at sea when she felt and saw the coldness and the shallow and sparse breathes Bella was taking. Tapping Bella on the cheek, Sookie tried to wake her up but once again, nothing was working.
"Bella? Bella wake up! Wake up now! For goodness sake Bella wake up!"
The large hand that settled on Sookie's shoulder made her head snap up to Bills frowning face.
"She's fine, her heartbeat is steady. What was that Sookie?"
Sookie pulled Bella slightly closer to her own body when Bill asked the dreaded question, as if shielding the unconscious brunette from the prying eyes of her curious and worried looking boyfriend. Gran had always told her to never tell of her own gift, or Bella's, it was rule number one in their household. When people asked it became instinctual for Sookie's well ingrained guards to slam up and the urge to run to rear its head. But this was Bill, her Bill. He wouldn't judge or tell anyone else. He knew about her gift, how much difference could explaining Bella's be?
"Bella's...Bella's like me."
Bill crouched down to her level, settling on his haunches, searching her face and eyes for something Sookie had no clue what. His eyes darted back between her and Bella before settling back onto Sookie, having obviously come to a decision.
"That didn't look quite like telepathy to me Sookie."
Sookie scoffed at his poorly hidden curiosity and poorly worded question. If he wanted to know something he should have just came out and asked, not edge his way for answers. Surely he knew she wouldn't lie to him?
"No, of course not. I said like me, not the same as me. I can read peoples minds, Bella's... Is a bit more complicated. She can do things she has seen, Gran had called it replication or adaptation. Bella, when she used to do it, called it mimicry. Gran used to say where I was naturally good at reading people, Bella was good at learning and adapting and god had only gave us the gifts that suited us most."
One of Bills thick eyebrows rose high on his head, and Sookie knew he had picked up something in her rant that had piqued his interest.
"What do you mean used to?"
Sookie sucked in a sharp breathe. She hardly knew why Bella had her gift, let alone why she had hidden it for so long, or if it had gone and had simply come back. As bad as it was, Sookie hoped it was the latter, if it was the latter, that meant she could still hope that one day her own 'gift' could go away. Looking up at Bill, Sookie came to a loss of words. How was she meant to explain something she herself didn't fully understand?
"Well, Bella used to always come down for the holidays. Jason used to think her gift was amazing, he would always heckle her to do something but Bella used to like doing it. Then one year, when we were around ten, she came for the summer holiday. Jason, like always, asked her to do something, she just simply walked away. When anyone asked her about it she wouldn't say a single word, just get up and leave the room. I thought it had gone you know? That she had gotten rid of it and she didn't have to put up with it any more like I did. Looks like it's came back."
Bill's eyes took on a sharp edge to them, almost glinting mockingly at Sookie's wide blue's, his face became more serious than it normally was, which was saying something within itself, the lines on his face becoming harsh under the unflattering florescent lighting of the hospital room they were huddled in.
"Not come back, repressed. She repressed it. Which itself is a marvel... I suppose your gifts are a lot like our vampire nature. Like a vampire having refused feeding for too long only to slaughter a whole village once their resolve broke due to the hunger, or emotions in Bella's case."
Now it was Sookie's time to frown in confusion. Repression? Why would Bella do that? What had happened when they were children to make her do such a thing?
"I don't know... What do you mean repress? You can actually do that?"
It was no secret Sookie loathed her gift, but she never fully pushed it away, she couldn't. It was a part of her as much as she hated to admit it. Faced with the very plausible possibility of being able to repress it, she couldn't bring herself to try it. Which was odd, she had always believed, given the first chance, she would have dropped her telepathy faster than you could blink.
"Something most likely happened when you two were ten, something traumatic enough for Bella to decide to push it away and never use it again. This... What just happened was the dam bursting from being built up for far too long. I hazard a guess it was the news of your Grandmother's... Untimely death that was the last drop the dam could take. This is dangerous. We need to get you both out of here."
Bill bent down even further and scooped Bella's still form into his arms, ushering Sookie to stand too so they could make a hasty exit.
"Wait, leave? No, we need the doctors to check Bella out, she's bleeding Bill! She could be really hurt..."
"Trust me Sookie, she and you are safer far from here. I wont be the only vampire in the building, hospitals are like a free buffet for my kind. Soon the nurses and doctors will be running in here from the noise, how are you going to explain all... This?"
Bill waved his hand around the destroyed room, the wrecked furniture and dented walls. How could she explain all this? There was only one answer, she couldn't. Sookie nodded minutely at Bill.
"Fine, lets just get home."
Bella had drifted the week following her return to Adele's house, feeling like someone had cut her strings and she couldn't do much more than slump to the floor like a useless marionette. She also felt hollow like one, hollowed wood painted to look reminiscent of a human being, but never fully reaching that stage.
Unfortunately for Bella, her Nana's wake and funeral had taken place when she was in her mini coma, so she had missed out on the, according to Sookie, lovely fair well. But even knowing where the grave was, Sookie having told her, Bella couldn't bring herself to go to it. She was half afraid of what she would see there, what she would feel when faced with the irrefutable proof of her own failing.
She ate, she slept, as much as she could grasp from the ever slippery slope of slumber, and she went to work like everyone else did. She carried on, but it felt fake, a scene from a play she had to act out repeatedly. She was going through the motions, but the routine helped keep herself grounded, kept the nightmares that plagued her sleep away. A replaying of Adele's death, sometimes joined by either Sookie or Jason, then there was that weird fogged one that she forgot when she woke up. All she could recall of that one was eyes, and even they were hazy at best.
Bella sat, wrapped up in a multi coloured crochet blanket, on the bench pushed up on the front porch, waiting for her cousin to arrive. The last week had been hard, incredibly hard after the events that took place at the hospital. The thing about the Stackhouse siblings and Bella was they each had their own way of coping with grief. Sookie cried and shown her every emotion on her sleeve, Bella disconnected from everything and everyone and got lost in her own mind and Jason... Jason got angry. Unluckily, both Jason's and Sookie's grieving methods had butted heads, causing the normally close siblings to fight like cats and dogs, leaving Bella in the middle of the frosty period of the fight. Both refusing to talk to the other, to sort things out.
If Adele was there with them right now, she would have solidly hit the three of them around the head, dragged them by their ears into the living room and made them apologize to each other, forced them at spatula point to promise each other not to argue again. But Adele wasn't there, and Bella's own tries of getting the stubborn blondes to talk to the other paled in comparison. Adele had taught them staunchly that family was family, nothing could or should come between that. God knows Bella was running out of family members and she didn't, couldn't loose either Sookie or Jason.
That was why she was waiting outside, just as the night was falling, to hopefully catch a glimpse of an elusive Jason Stackhouse. She had been sitting outside for the last two days waiting and hoping he would come around, but so far he was a no show. She was worried about him, she was worried about Sookie too, if they couldn't see it, Bella could. They needed each other more then ever now. Bella needed them.
So Imagine her surprise when a familiar pick up truck pulled into the drive way and Bella saw the iconic torn jeans and cut off sleeved shirt that could only belong to Jason. Bella wasted no time in getting up from her seat and making her way over to him with strong strides. She had played the soft part, if they wanted to play hard ball Bella would.
"Jason, where the hell have you been?"
Once she had gotten close enough, Blanket still wrapped around her shoulders like a shawl, Bella could see Jason's face properly, and if she wasn't worried before, she was now. He was pale, as pale as she had ever seen the normally tanned man. Sweat was glistening on his brow and forehead and Bella could see the odd jerk or twitch to his limbs as he stood there, staring blankly at her.
"Jay are you ill? Do you need a doctor?"
Bella went to reach out for him but he smacked her hands away with a deep scowl and huff. Bella automatically retracted her hands, feeling like he was a wild animal, one wrong move and she would scare him off. He had only just come home. Because that's what Adele's house was, no matter if Bella, Sookie or Jason had house's of their own, Adele's rickety, old painted house was home. It always would be.
"I'm fine! I'm not ill, I've just left my shirt here and I'm here to get it then I'm heading out!"
Yanking open the front door, Jason disappeared inside and Bella shrugged of the blanket and left it on folded over the porch. She was half afraid with the state Jason was in he would pass out in the hallway. Or god forbid the kitchen, Bella didn't think she could handle that imagery. Looking down at her outfit, Bella realized she looked alright. Not exactly glamorous, but when had she ever?
White washed jeans, her trusty boots and leather jacket and a simple black tank. It would have to do for where-ever Jason was planning on running off to. She couldn't let him head out on his own, not with the way he was, and to be perfectly honest, she missed him. She had seen Sookie everyday, she knew how she was doing, but Jason? Jason had practically blinked off the radar and Bella didn't want him to do that again. Not when she had a say in it.
Strolling over to Jason's truck, ignoring his driver seat's door being left wide open, Bella walked around it and pulled open the passenger seat, settling herself in to the worn leather. Jason came out a few minutes later, shrugging on the new shirt he had come all this way for. Once he had settled into his own seat and buckled up, he finally noticed her and sighed heavily.
"What are you doing Bells? Get out and go home."
Bella ignored his order, any other day she would have sassed him back. But not today, not with that hazy look in his eyes and something not quite right sitting heavily in her stomach. Instead she reached over and buckled her own seat belt, ignoring Jason and spoke to the wind-shield in his place.
"No I'm coming with you. You look ready to be sick or hit the deck. What ever you need to do, you can do it with your little cousin tailing you. Or I swear to god I'll get out this car and take the spark plug out, see you drive off and not turn up for a fucking week then."
Jason grimaced at her not so subtle reminder of his disappearing act, but he soon brightened his face. Bella felt bad, she hadn't meant to have brought it up, she just... Did. He didn't deserve her anger. No one did but herself, and she surely wasn't helping to change his decision of sticking around. Then she felt warm fingers, too warm, settle over her closed fist pressed down at her side and into the crack of the car seat. Glancing up, she was met with Jason's sad face. He wasn't crying, wasn't shaking, nothing gave the sadness away but that glimmer in his eyes, one you could only spot if you knew him long enough. Jason was just as hurt as Bella and Sookie, even if he didn't show it. Bella didn't want him shouldering that feeling alone, not while she was there for him.
Then his hand was gone and they were driving away from the house into the settling night. It was only after they drove past Bon-Temps welcoming sign that Bella grew a little suspicious of were they were actually going, and thankfully Jason answered her un-asked one with, you guessed it, a question.
"How do you feel about vampire bars Bells?"
And suddenly Bella's haphazard decision to come along felt like the right one. For one, when had Jason become pro-vamp? And two, what kind of shit would he have dug himself into if she weren't there to dig him back out again? Running a tired hand down her face and leaning against the side of her seat, Bella rolled the window down and let some fresh air blow across her face, cooling her off and helping settle what felt like her exposed nerves.
"Look's like we're going to find out doesn't it?"
A.N- I know it's been a long time coming but, if you read my other story you will already know this, I've recently been diagnosed with Epilepsy and to be perfectly honest, it's been hard getting used to the meds and the meds getting used to me.
I can't promise there won't be another wait, because there could be, but I do promise I wont give up on this story. Some chapters might just come out a lot later than others.
Well, I hope you liked this chapter, and fingers crossed, the next should be out within a few days time, around Thursday/Friday.
THANYOU to everyone who followed, favourited and reviewed. It means an awful lot and it gets me typing faster ;) So, if you guys can spare the time, please drop a review! :)
