WHO IN THE HELL WROTE THIS STORY
Disclaimer: The Cullens, the Swans, and most of the characters mentioned in the story that are known from Stephanie Meyer's Saga beloved Twilight, are all hers and hers alone. I neither have nor wish to pass in them off as mine. I do appreciate the fact that she did bring them to life and allows us to play with them our imaginations. The only thing I will claim is the current storyline.
This chapter has been beta'd by dowlingnana and her work is making the story flow more smoothly. And, this chapter is dedicated to her special service above and beyond the normal as a great big thank you.
Alice, Rosalie and Bella spent about an hour or so talking about their impressions of the Cullen family and then Bella laid out what she needed to have done beginning the next morning to have the necessary information to start looking for the clues she would need to solve the mystery. Alice and Rosalie quickly retired to their rooms since tomorrow was going to be hectic with a very heavy work schedule and very little time to get things done. They had plans to spend some time with Emmett and Jasper, but, as they had promised Bella they would do what she needed for them to do for agreeing to come on this trip.
None of the three mentioned the appearance of the apparition, but, it didn't stop the dreams that invaded her. She starred in all three of their dreams for one reason or another.
CHAPTER 6: DISCOVERIES NEEDED
Around three in the early hours of the morning Bella called a halt to all of the tossing and turning she was doing with trying to get into a deep, restful sleep. When she had first gone to bed it didn't take long to fall into what at first were a very peaceful sleep, then the dreams started. They were strange to stay the least, young Elizabeth kept slipping in and out of the dream, but, it mostly centered around one of her cousins, although, why she wasn't sure. The contents of the dream kept quickly changing from present day to the eighteenth century and then back again. It was so constant that the mind was having a hard time in keeping up which caused a lot of tossing and turning until finally Bella woke and got up.
Trying to make sense of the dream and who all of the characters were became difficult as the dream slowly, in parts at first and then more rapidly, slipped away from memory to be lost from conscious thought. Names, faces and events all blurred to become nothing more than empty space or, possibly, imagined images. But, nothing made any sense. The one thing that Bella did retain was the firm belief that one of her cousins was mixed in the dream sequence, but, she couldn't remember which one or why she was there. Very frustrating as the longer and harder she tried to remember or retain the more was lost not to be recalled.
With the rising of the sun announcing the beginning of a new day, so, did Alice and Rosalie appear for their intake of the morning coffee which Bella had been steadily drinking since about three thirty when she made the first pot of the brew. The two cousins found her bent over the kitchen table with pages filled with her writing scattered in no particular order, but, covering the entire surface of the table.
"When-" "Uh huh, what-" "Shit, what is –" poor Alice couldn't seem to make a complete sentence so was her surprise at finding the mess and the work that Bella seemed to have done in no time.
"I think what our little one is trying to ask or say is, when did you do all of this, what is it for and what is it for?" Rosalie decided to help Alice out since she was having a hard time getting her thoughts together.
"I've been up since three this morning because I couldn't get to sleep long enough to rest. My mind was too active." Bella explained while still keeping her eyes on the notes she had been making all morning. Finally when she did look up at her cousins she couldn't help but notice the dark circles underneath their eyes. "What the hell is going on with you two? You look like death warmed over, or, something along that line." She commented.
"Had a rough time sleeping and don't understand why as the bed was the best. I was having some kind of dream that I can't even remember, but, it had me tossing and turning most of the night. I would start to get—"
"Me too!" Interrupted Alice. "I was having a dream of different times and places and it seemed at times that I was in the present as well, but, I can't remember the dream; only that part about places. But, I couldn't get into a deep enough sleep for long before I was changing positions again and again. Just couldn't seem to get comfortable long enough to really sleep for long."
They spent the next hour or so discussing the situation while making breakfast before getting ready to start to work on their assigned job to help solve the mystery. It seemed that each cousin had the same results from a dream, but, were unable to tell what happened in it. And, they took a moment to go over the many notes that Bella had been making. It seemed these notes were trying to capture the essence of her dream, the impressions she remembered at the time of making the notes, trying to understanding the meaning of what the dream was trying to convey and who all was in the dream. However, the one thing that stood out to all three women was the fact that one of them was in each of their dream, but, they couldn't say who it had been.
As they were finishing getting dressed and ready to start a knock sounded at the door and Bella being the closes went to answer it: On the other side stood two individuals asking to see Alice and Rosalie. The two men had the biggest damn grins spreading across their faces as they heard the sounds of two voices behind Bella just entering the living room area.
Alice stopped dead in mid stride when she happened to see Jasper standing in the doorway which caused Rosalie to bump into her nearly taking both women to the ground due to the force of the impact. And, as Alice squealed from the surprise of seeing Jasper and the impact from Rose, Rosalie looked to see what was causing the commotion and saw a grinning Emmett standing next to his brother. She returned the smile and it was just as big as the one on Emmett's face.
"Ladies, we thought we would stop by to see if you had managed to settle in okay, and had everything that you might need." Jasper was quick to explain while continuing to stare at Alice.
"Actually, I need transportation into town so I can stop at the library as I have some research to do there. Alice has some correlating to do here and getting things in order." Rose told them, but, was very aware of getting two different looks from her cousins. The one from Bella was of amusement and the one from Alice was murderous.
Jasper cleared his throat and asked if Alice needed any help, but, Emmett was quick to offer Rosalie a ride into town and then to take her to lunch before they returned. Bella saw the sadness around Alice's eyes and it took quite a bit of control to hide the smile that was threatening to appear on her face as she offered, "Alice, since I haven't gotten set up and signed into as yet for you to work here why don't you go and use the equipment at the library or an internet café in town, if there happens to be one?"
"Oh, that won't be necessary as she can work up at the house in the library there." Jasper offered.
"I think that would be acceptable and I'll give you the necessary information to sign into my personal account to save the information for our work until I get things organized here." With that said Alice and Jasper headed towards the main house while Rosalie went with Emmett to head into town to the library so she could start her research.
About an hour after everyone had gone their separate ways to begin getting all of the information that Bella would need to gain access to the clues they would need for solving the mystery, Bella decided to take a walk further afield. She left the cottage walking towards the woods beyond the rest of the guest cottages out where the sighting of Elizabeth had been seen. Walking slowly looking up and then down to the ground moving along the path that the apparition had followed, searching, seeking anything that could give her clues as to the truth of what had been seen last night.
At first she kept within the narrow confines that Elizabeth looked to have been following, but, with no luck of finding anything to even indicate that she had been present, Bella widen her search area and was getting closer and closer to the woods. Without really paying any attention she was getting deeper and deeper into the woodlands. Not realizing how much time had passed as she was searching the area and in one particular area not seeing a hidden tree root she fell and would have landed on her face if not for a sudden stop due to a pair of hands grabbing her around her waist.
"Do you mind if I ask what the hell you are doing out here so deeply into the forest?" a smooth voice like velvet asked with a biting edge to it.
Bella recognized the owner of the voice from having met him the day before; Edward Cullen had somehow shown up just in time to keep her from being hurt or knocking herself out from the tumble she almost took from tripping. But, she couldn't understand why he was so angry with her. What the hell had she done or not done to cause his reaction? The one thing she did know is that Edward wasn't totally immune to her because she had seen his male reaction the first time he had seen her yesterday upon her arrival.
Not bothering to answer him she just looked him in the eye and then moved her eyes up and down his body before moving past him to head back the way she had come in the first place. In fact she just ignored him all together as if he didn't exist in the same time and space as she did. This did nothing more, but, pissed him off even more.
He reached out to take her arm, but, Bella evaded with a swift move by sidestepping his outreaching hand so all he managed to grab was air. "Why won't you answer me? I think my question is reasonable considering you were in the woods alone looking for heaven knows what while everyone else is busy looking all over the house for clues." He says in a demanding manner.
Bella continues on without once looking back or hesitating in her step while walking away from him. She felt that his manners were greatly lacking considering how welcoming the rest of his family had been and she couldn't understand why he was behaving as he was.
The rest of the day was spent in the cottage getting her things along with all of Alice's and Rosalie's unpacked and put away. Then she made a makeshift office so they could have an area for them to work on putting the clues together to make sense of what had happened to Elizabeth Isabella Cullen. When Rosalie and Alice, both returned, they found that everything was in place for each of them to be able to work on what they had found out thus far.
Time passed quickly as Rosalie did a brief rundown of what she had found and gave the written information over to Alice for it to be put in outline form. Alice had all of the information from what Esme had related to everyone during dinner the night before already in outline form and needed all in their rightful places what had been gathered by Rose. And, they all became so engrossed in their assigned areas that it was dinner time before they realized it. Esme was expecting everyone to gather again for dinner and cocktails up at the main house once more.
Each woman went to their respective rooms and prepared to wow the crowd again. Bella hadn't mentioned about meeting Edward in the woods as she didn't feel like dealing with the questions that would arise.
Dinner progressed with everyone concentrating on what they had hoped to find, but, failed and then offered their own ideas of what they wanted to prove had happened to the missing child. Esme did remind all of them that to solve the mystery meant all of it, not just part, the how with the where and if possible the who. Then once again everyone adjourned to the patio for cocktails before retiring to their quarters when the lights begin flickering as they had the night before.
A low moan was heard as everyone went totally quiet and looked at one another before another moan was heard coming from the same direction as the night before; beyond the cottages on the edge of the woods. "Beware. Please. Must keep her safe." Was heard before another moan was heard and then suddenly the apparition disappeared.
A/N: Who is Elizabeth speaking about? Why is she appearing now? Did Rosalie find anything useful? How about Alice? Has anything caught her attention while doing the outline? Does Bella have any ideas as yet towards what clues need to be looked for?
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