This is where the darkness starts.

I do not own Twilight.

Chapter 4 - The Child is Gone

Honey help me out of this mess
I'm a stranger to myself
But don't reach for me, I'm too far away
I don't wanna talk 'cause there's nothing left to say

The next day, Bella denied herself the pleasure of waiting outside in the ever present rain. She felt uncomfortably awake, excessively aware of what everyone in the small town of Forks was talking about. The Cullens were back.

They hadn't been to school yet, but Bella knew better by now than to expect them to leave her alone. She peeked out the window, craving the feeling of the cool raindrops on her skin, numbing her and washing the pain to a bearable level. She didn't see anyone outside, no cars, no vampires lurking in the woods. She was ashamed to be hiding from them, but didn't know if she could find the strength to say no again. That she'd said it once was a miracle. She looked again. There was nothing there to hide from.

She stepped outside, amazed at how much she'd come to enjoy the fresh wet smell of the forest. She let the rain pour over her face, washing away some of the despair that was always there, just under the surface. She lived in the moment, trying to stay balanced, to present the proper image to the world. She treasured moments alone. There were so few of them, and even fewer where she could really let go of the mask she wore.

She had just reached the bottom step when a blur grabbed her arms. She was moving before she realised that the blur was Alice. In a heartbeat she was in the backseat of the Mercedes parked down the street where she had not been able to see it and they were speeding away in the wrong direction. "Let me go!" she cried, fighting against the locked door and Alice's steel-like arms.

"Bella, you're not giving us much choice!" said Alice, trying to contain Bella's frantic movements without hurting her. "Your future isn't changing, and we won't take chances with your life like that. We wouldn't be able to save you."

The reality of what Alice was saying began to sink in. Bella had been daydreaming about slitting her wrists for months – a quick but bloody death that would ensure that none of the Cullens be able to even enter the room without wanting to eat her. She wondered if that was an unconscious way of thumbing her nose at Edward for breaking her heart.

"I...just..." she mumbled, trying to remember her reasons for protesting in the first place. She'd been drifting aimlessly for months, and this sudden change of direction was making her dizzy.

"Please Bella," came a low smooth voice from the front seat. "Give us a chance?"

She nodded, knowing it was a mistake, but unable to deny him anything now that he was here in front of her.

Rosalie looked up as they walked into the house, her nostrils twitching. What's up with the wet dog smell? she asked Edward silently, the crushed look on Bella's face enough to prompt some tact in her blunt soul.

Edward shrugged and looked at Alice who shrugged back. Edward wasn't sure what had happened to Bella, or why she smelled so strongly of the La Push werewolves. He only knew that she went to La Push every afternoon.

Rosalie was doing her own assessment of Bella, who'd been seated on the couch looking like a refugee. She quickly noted the bedraggled hair, the dark circles under her eyes, her gaze which which was focused on the floor. Rosalie's eyes focused on Bella's neck. There, at the very bottom, where her neck met the collar of her shirt. It wasn't the blood vessels there that caught her attention; it was the finger shaped bruise. The bruise combined with the strong scent of wolf rolled Rosalie's stomach in a way she hadn't thought possible.

"Bella," she said, bursting into action without conscious thought, thereby startling both Edward and Alice. "Come and have a word with me, please?" She gently took Bella's fragile hand and towed her into Carlisle's office. Edward began to protest, but a look from Emmett stopped him, and kept Edward on the couch, watching helplessly.

Rose had learned long ago that the only way to evade Edward and Alice was to move towards your goal quickly, concisely and with as little thought as possible. She shut the door to the office to give Bella the illusion of privacy. Bella did not react to the situation, showed no signs of curiosity. She slumped in her chair like a marionette whose strings had been cut.

Rosalie decided to speak as though Bella were responding normally. "Bella, I want to tell you how I came to join this family." Bella frowned, and her heart rate accelerated, though she did not look up. "Carlisle found me in the road, bleeding to death. I'd been left for dead by my fiancé, Royce King. He and a bunch of his friends had been drinking and I ran into them alone a few weeks before the wedding. They raped me, beat me and left me there. Royce was laughing about how he was going to need a new fiancée." It was still hard to talk about that night, even after all these years, but this time it was worth it. Bella's eyes had filled with tears and she was squirming uncomfortably in her seat.

Rosalie focused on Bella, ignoring the sounds of a scuffle from the other side of the door as Emmett kept Edward from bursting in, having guessed where Rosalie was going with this.

"Now, when I woke to this life, I was a mess," Rosalie explained carefully, not wanting her own emotions pushed onto Bella. "Esme had done what she could with a washcloth, but it wasn't enough. I felt like I had been rolled in the scents of the men who had killed me. Washing thoroughly was practically the first thing I did. Now, when you walked in here this afternoon, you smelled like you'd been rolled in the scent of werewolf." Bella looked up finally, her eyes popping as she realised that Rosalie knew more than she had thought. "There are a lot of ways that that could have happened, but if it wasn't consensual, if you didn't want it, we will make sure that it never happens again."

Bella stared at her, and tears began to roll down her cheeks. For just a second Rosalie thought she might be wrong. Then Bella shook her head, and whispered, "You can't do that," and Rosalie's heart sank. She would never wish this on anyone.

"Just tell me who did this, Bella," she pleaded.

Bella took a very long second to consider if her secret would be safe here before she answered.

"It was Jake, and the boys."

Chapter Title and excerpt are from "The Child is Gone" by Fiona Apple

Reviews?