A/N: Chapter contains violence and non-con.

Dear Edward

I haven't much time. He's gone only for a few minutes. I'm scared, Edward. I'm sorry for everything that happened. I'm sorry for the things I said. Please help me. He frightens me.

Bella

EPOV

"Mum!" I shout, reading the few words on the otherwise totally blank page. "Mum!" She hurtles into the hall, face white. I hand her the sheet of paper. Her eyes go very wide, and she literally goes grey. I think she's going to faint. She brushes me off, calls the detective in charge of the case, and then it all goes mad. The postmark, it transpires, is the Lake District. How'd they get there? How'd they get all that way without being seen? Of course, none of these questions are answered by the detective, who has a stick so far up his ass, it's coming out his mouth. He's the best apparently. Some bull was spun about how he's ex-SAS. I don't care who he is, but I want Bella back, preferably in one piece.

EmmettPOV

They've been relegated on the news a bit. They're no longer headliners, but each bulletin, their pictures, descriptions and an overview of the story is given out. Now they're news again.

"Isabella Swan and Jasper Whitlock, the two teenagers who ran away from a foster and care home in Hammersmith three weeks ago, may have been traced. A new lead places the pair in the Lake District, after police received news. The exact nature of the lead has not been revealed. We remind the public that it is vital the pair are found, as both are suffering from considerable emotional and psychological stress. We also remind the public that Jasper Whitlock is considered a threat to both Isabella and himself, and to not approach the pair, but instead inform authorities immediately. Today an emotional broadcast was made by Isabella's foster family."

"We just want them both to let us know they're OK. All we want to know is whether or not Bella is OK. We want her to come back. We need her to know that no matter what's been said, we don't mind. There's still a place for her."

"Bella, I'm sorry, OK? I should have helped you, and I didn't. Please come back. Please just come back, and we can still sort this out." Edward says, looking right at the camera. "Please, Jasper," he adds, quietly. I hear it. He wants Jasper to let her come back.

I turn the TV off after that. I feel sick. It'd all come out, of course. Everything Edward knew, everything he thought might have been going on. How Jasper was - well, how Jasper was sick. Everything he was doing to Bella - and what Bella was probably doing to him. Alice puts her hand on my shoulder, and makes me jump.

"Hey, pixie."

"Hey, brother-bear. She'll be OK, you know. She's pretty tough."

"Yeah, but -"

"You can't live your life saying what if, Emmett. Sometimes you have to take your chances." She pats my head, and then wanders off. I think about that, sitting quietly and calmly for once. My mother starts when she sees me. I'm not doing anything, just sitting there.

I don't get any sleep that night. At around 3 a.m., Edward calls.

"Hey. Have we heard anything else?"

"No. Not since -" I don't need him to finish off that sentence. I know that Bella's note remains the only lead we have, and that even that could have been some clever decoy on behalf of Jasper. For all we know they could be anywhere, and he could be hurting her.

"I figure they'll be OK. She's pretty tough. At least she always struck me that way."

"Oh, she is. She's hurt, afraid, and worried. But she was bearing up OK before him. I guess she needed something, and he gave her what she thought was the appropriate route to take. I know it sounds like a cliché, but I never trusted him, Emmett. I always thought there was something about him."

"He had charisma, Edward. Some kind of weird pull around him. That sounds dumb."

"What gets said at three in the morning doesn't get spoken about again. And I agree. Bella never had a chance."

"Edward, none of us ever saw this coming. He didn't even bother to get in with us first. He just went straight for Bella, like a vampire would go for fresh blood. You feel guilty because you couldn't have protected her, but still feel you should've. That isn't going to work. They don't like each other, if they met in ordinary circumstances, they probably wouldn't have even spoken."

"It's just sex, is that what your saying? Just sex, and slicing each other up like some ritual." "Harsh as that sounds, yeah. It's just sex. It gives him control - and it takes away all her's. she's got survivor's guilt, and he's angry. Bella lets him dominate her."

"That psychology course is showing through."

"I know."

"Thanks, Emmett," he says, quietly, before he hangs up.

JPOV

I wake her up by sliding inside her. I don't wait for her to adjust, just go for her neck, biting hard, hard enough to bruise, to make her call out. She struggles. She's started doing that a lot recently. I slap her, pinch her stomach roughly.

"No, bitch," I snarl. "Still, like the whore you are." She growls at me, and pushes against my shoulders. I smack her head against something, and she goes still this time. She's conscious, but dazed. I finish off, slap her face, hard. "Good little whore," I croon, before pulling her upright. We've been sleeping rough in forests and on the streets. She's been behaving herself, up to a point. We're low on supplies, and we'll have to go into town. I'm not stupid. Most of the media will have died out by now, and chances are nobody will even give a damn.

We won't even get a second look.

BPOV

I'm scared, more scared than I've ever been in my life. I'm frightened that he's going to kill me. Every day, he gets more violent, more unpredictable. I'm never sure if he's going to be nice, or whether he's going to hit me. I'm never sure of his moods, they change so quickly, and without any warning. I don't need to do anything to provoke him, but he can still blame me for anything and everything.

God, if you hear my prayers, let Edward have gotten my letter. Let him have told the police. Let them be looking for me. Keep me safe, Lord, if you hear my prayers.

He keeps me close to his side as we walk. I keep my eyes on the floor, keep my eyes focused on nothing. Meeting his eyes, that's a beating. But if I chose this relationship, if I chose him, then am I not, at the end of the day, responsible for what happens to me? Isn't it all consensual, if I agreed to this in the first place? Isn't it all my responsibility?

Oh God, let someone catch us. Save me.