Bedlam

Chapter six

...Hopeless time to roam
The distance to your home
Fades away to nowhere
How much are you worth
You can't come down to earth
You're swelling up, you're unstoppable

'cause you've seen, seen
Too much, too young, young
Soulless is everywhere...

- New born by Muse

"Clarissa?" Bella called out softly.

"Yes dear?" the elderly called out from her position in the kitchen.

"Clarissa?" Bella repeated.

Clarissa put down her wooden spoon next to the pot she had been stirring and wandered into the back garden to search for Bella. She found her sitting cross legged in the centre of it, with a thoughtful look on her face.

The first few words that Clarissa had taught Bella were basically her own name and the different items around the house.

She hadn't been able to do much more than that, Clarissa had given Bella a basic understanding of the things around here, but even she knew it wasn't enough.

After finding that Bella couldn't pronounce her full name Isabella properly, they had decided to shorten it down to the two-syllable pronunciation of it.

What Clarissa saw made her eyes water, the young girl was sitting down and on her palm of her hand sat a butterfly.

"Clarissa?" Bella repeated, looking from the butterfly to her and then back again. "Clarissa?"

The elderly woman had never taught Bella much about nature, so it didn't surprise her that Bella didn't know what the butterfly was.

Clarissa hobbled over towards the girl and squatted down.

She used the same technique she used for teaching the other words to Bella.

"Butter…fly…" she said slowly, pronouncing each section clearly.

Bella frowned and looked at the butterfly. "Bud…budder…budder fly…"

She sighed in frustration as Clarissa shook her head slowly.

"Butterfly," Clarissa repeated, her long grey braid fell from her shoulder as she leant forwards – her round grey eyes looked at Bella reproachfully. Bella had been known to blow up when frustrated.

"Butterfly," Bella repeated and then beamed at the small creature in her hand.

"Well done Bella, well done," the old woman sighed before turning and walking back into the house.

It had all started when Clarissa found Bella starving out in the forests.

She had seen the girl collapsed so obviously approached her to lend a hand.

But the eyes had been a shock.

The blood red eyes, Clarissa still shuddered from the image burned into her mind. She knew it wasn't Bella's fault that she had been turned into this mysterious creature against her will…but it was still oh so unnatural.

She had pulled Bella up – brushed her off, tugged her back to her own home, given her a bath and some clothes.

When Bella had come down the stairs, walking on egg shells, Clarissa had offered her some food.

Bella didn't understand what Clarissa had asked her, so the elderly woman had retrieved some bread and mimed eating it.

Bella had been hesitant before taking a bite, only to regurgitate moments later.

Clarissa had felt hopeless, the girl was obviously starving – but her body was rejecting the food.

That was, until Bella had shot off into the forest, returning with blood splattered on her clothes.

That's when Clarissa guessed what Bella was; it was fairly obvious for someone who had enough wit like she had.

From then on, Clarissa had urged Bella to hunt animals every so often – she knew Bella never went near any other humans except herself, and for some reason she felt special.

Bella had grown to be Clarissa's daughter.

But as the day in age progressed, Bella stayed a youth while Clarissa grew older and older.

Just the other day, the doctors had told Clarissa she only had a few months to live – if her liver didn't fail her first.

Clarissa worried what was going to happen to Bella, she wasn't ready for the world yet…it would eat her alive.

That's why she decided she would have to set Bella free before she died, so she would have some piece of mind that Bella hadn't dithered in the small cottage waiting for her return.

But Clarissa couldn't bring herself to force Bella out; she only had the mental age of an eight year old at most with limited knowledge and vocabulary.

But there was no other way.

Bella had been with Clarissa since 1945, long years they had lived in the same enclosed area.

Clarissa was approaching her eighties, and knew that she didn't have long left.

Yet Bella remained young – and Clarissa didn't know what to do about it.

So that very night Clarissa packed Bella a backpack, filled with necessities that she thought whatever-creature-Bella-was would need.

When night fell, Clarissa approached Bella, who was still sitting outside. But the butterfly had flown away.

Clarissa handed Bella the bag, who looked equally confused.

"You must go, young one. You cannot live her anymore."

Bella looked perplexed for a moment, trying to but the definitions with words before she finally understood.

Her expression was heartbreaking as she asked, "Why Mother?"

Clarissa felt like crying but knew this emotion would just worry Bella and if anything – make her stay for longer. So she decided to use the polar opposite of crying, madness.

"JUST GO!" she roared while making motions towards the surrounding forest. "I DO NOT WANT YOU HERE!"

Bella jumped up and backed away, her expression defeated.

She nodded once before turning and whispering, "Love you."

Clarissa had no idea where she learnt those words – she had never taught them to Bella…

But then the young creature was gone from Clarissa's back garden.

"Go child, find your own kind…" she whispered into the darkness before turning and retreating back into the cottage.

Isabella ran for many more months.

Months turned into years.

Years turned into decades.

Decades into nothing.

Bella felt her heartbreaking at being sent away from her Mother's house. She never knew the full meaning of the word 'Mother' but presumed it was use of affection because Clarissa's eyes always shone when she said it.

Bella lived in forests, camping during the day – out of the sunlight, scared of the affect it had on her from the first time she saw her glittering skin – and hunted at night.

When the forests ended and small villages began, Bella would skip the outskirts until she found a mountain or some kind of other enclosure to be safe.

As the years went by, Bella's forests became less and less.

Wide grey things were built into the Earth and huge metal beasts would go whizzing past it.

These beasts scared Bella.

She had heard Clarissa use the term for her kind of creatures as 'humans' and she was a 'female' while others were 'male'.

And when Bella saw the humans sitting in these metal beasts she would look on in terror and wonder.

The humans dressed differently from when Bella had last seen clothes up close.

She still didn't know what all items or objects were but she learnt over time, by listening into others conversations and also from the knowledge Clarissa provided for her.

But Bella's body never grew tired or soft, like Clarissa's had done, but stayed stiff and cold.

It scared Bella – what if she never changed? What if she stayed the way she was forever?

She desperately wanted to have contact with the humans but something told her that she shouldn't – a natural instinct.

She had come across scents that smelled faintly like her own before – but she was even wary of those.

Bella's encounters with others had always left her with jumbled brains and terrified emotions.

She had danced around the outskirts of the ever-growing villages and found herself running out of land.

This fact scared her above most all – what if the humans forced her out?

Oh yes, she saw them cutting down the trees.

They were destroying everything she had become acquainted with…it drove her mad as she saw animals screech in terror as their habitats were destroyed.

Oh and the humans – they drew her in, she felt a stinging substance pool in her mouth whenever she even thought of them.

Yet she didn't go near them, even when they were right beneath her when she was perched in a tree.

As mentioned before, she was extremely wary of all creatures.

Bella bounced on her current branch – watching as the bark strained against her weight as it drew downwards only to bounce back up as she pushed her weight upwards.

She shifted the backpack on her shoulders, the material of it beaten and dulled from exploitation to the elements.

And then a buck was only a few feet away from her.

Bella braced herself to spring from the branch, she waited until the creature wandered closer to her and then she sprang.

She sailed down on top of the buck and had her teeth poised above the main artery in its neck when she felt something collide into her left side.

The thing threw them both off the buck and onto the forest floor.

Bella snarled at the thing on top of her and as the thing moved its hand towards her face she snapped at it, sinking her teeth into the side of its wrist.

The thing gave a high pitched yelp before jumping off of her, and then it whimpered before calling out a foreign word.

"Jasper!" it called out frantically.

Another one of Bella's kind raced into the area, the male immediately moved towards the one Bella had bitten before turning back towards her with rage in his eyes.

Bella sprang into a defensive crouch and bared her teeth at him, hissing with acid dripping off of it.

The male crouched as well and started to move towards Bella slowly.

Bella drew back minutely, but that enough to tip the male off and it pounced at her.

The rolled around on the dirt, both pairs of fangs snapping and biting at each others exposed skin.

Bella felt small stings as the male bit her in different places, but she delivered as many fatal blows as he dished out to her.

And then Bella retracted her foot, placing it on the male's chest before pushing him off with all her strength.

He sailed backwards before hitting into a tree, and the other female rushed to his aid.

Bella stood up and nursed her injured right leg, the one where most bites had been issued.

She heard the male cussing at her as she looked back towards the pair.

The pair had both stood back up now, the male and female standing close together for protection and looking towards Bella.

She snarled in their direction before looking back at her wounds.

There were small silver crescent shaped marks on her skin, the venom still burning slightly at the surface.

Bella bowed down and ran her tongue over the marks, licking away any excess venom from her skin.

"Alice," the male sounded out.

"Jasper," the female replied with other words that Bella couldn't understand.

But she made out one sentence the female said.

"Call Carlisle."

Okay, major time skip in this chapter. I hope nobody minded - it's just I didn't want it to get sluggish and people get disinterested...and I needed to get the show on the road to be honest.

If you're confused about what just happened, don't worry to ask in the review or pm me about it.

If I get loads of "What the hells?" I might rewrite part of it, if that's what it takes.

BUT! I won't be updating for a few weeks because in a few days I am going on a skiing trip - which I will most likely die on because I have no balance or co-ordination... so I don't think that will end very well at all.

Please review! I'm not going to beg but they always make my day!