"I'm not angry. I'm just... surprised."
I looked at Alice. Then I looked down at the floor. "It was just... I don't know. I don't even know. I just... needed to go."
"But you just went hunting, Bells."
"Not that way needed." I dug deep for the right word. "It just wasn't because of his blood." When she gave me an incredulous stare, I just sighed. "Okay. Whatever. Fine. It's a little because of his blood. But not completely."
Alice sighed and looked straight at the road.
"I said I was sorry," I said very, very weakly.
"I know."
"I don't know what happened and—"
"But do you promise me now?" Alice stared intently at me from the passenger's seat. "Do you?"
"I don't see why I can't." I leaned back in my seat and clenched the steering wheel so hard, it almost snapped into two pieces. "Nothing went horribly wrong, like you probably thought it would, did it?"
"Bella, it's just I—I have a reason for this, I do, trust me, but I just—I can't let you get hurt. I can't let our family get hurt. And you heard what Rosalie said at the bowling alley, even if you don't wanna believe it." She shut her eyes. "You're probably only drawn to him because of two things: one, his blood."
"I know, Alice. I—"
"And, two, the fact that he looks like Chris."
I sucked in a deep breath. "That is not why, Alice."
"Bella..."
"It is not why!" I cried, even though a little pang inside of me told me otherwise. "It is not why!"
Alice, looking alarmed, nodded twice. "Okay. Maybe it isn't. Maybe Rose was wrong."
"Yes." My hands unclenched the steering wheel slowly. "She's just wrong."
Gosh. I was insane.
Neither of us said one more thing as we drove home. I had dropped Edward off a few minutes ago—Alice had been sitting in the back, then. But now she was in the front, and the whole ride was just... well... awkward.
As I pulled up in front of the house, and Alice hopped out from the car, I said, "I think I'm going to go for a drive." It was sudden, but I knew I couldn't go into that house yet. Carlisle and Esme and Jasper and Rosalie would be there—all knowing what happened tonight. I wasn't ready to face them. Not yet.
"A drive?" Alice asked suspiciously.
"I swear—I'm not going to see... Edward," I said. "I pinky promise." I stuck out my pinky, and, when she shook mine, I put the truck back into drive. "And I'll be back before midnight."
"Good! Because I think Rose and Emmett are watching the Titanic." She rolled her eyes. "Rose said something about the DVD finally working."
"Have fun," I said mockingly before flooring the pedal—creating a lot of exhaust from the back of my ancient truck. Alice waved it away with her hand before turning to go inside.
Once I knew she was inside, I breathed a sigh of relief. Now I could really be alone.
And get that one last thing on The List done for good (so what if he was evil or whatever? He had still been my friend, right? And I was going to get that list done if it killed me).
Take a Drive in the Forest Late, Late at Night.
I'm screwed, I couldn't help but think. I wonder how long it'll take Rose to speak to me again. That one time I used her favourite scrunchie she didn't talk to me for a whole month.
I guessed the verdict would be at least a year for hanging around with a human.
I switched on the radio as my truck chugged down the narrow road surrounded by trees. My head bobbed along to Britney Spears, and my hair was flying everywhere. I guess that that was why I didn't notice the shadows that were moving outside the windows.
"OOPS, I DID IT AGAIN!" I was singing along, now. "I PLAYED WITH YOUR HEART! GOT LOST IN THE GAME! OH BABY, BABY!"
The radio was so loud I couldn't hear myself think. I couldn't even hear my truck making it's usual weird noises.
"YOU THINK I'M IN LOVE!" I screamed at the top of my lungs.
That was when the truck broke down.
It just... stopped. Like that. It was sudden; so sudden that, since I wasn't wearing my seat belt, my head bashed into the steering wheel. It probably would have totally knocked me out—if I was human.
I frowned and hit the dashboard of the car, like that would start it up again. When nothing happened, I sighed and opened my door, getting out and around to the hood of the vehicle faster than normal. For some strange reason, I had a bad feeling inside of me. Usually I wouldn't be afraid of the woods around eleven at night. I mean, what did I have to be afraid of? But, today, I had a feeling.
A bad, bad feeling.
Not even the crickets were chirping. Not even the leaves were rustling. The only noise I could hear was my feet crunching over the leaves and the squeak of the hood popping open.
Oh, who was I kidding? I had no idea how to fix a car. I would just have to leave it here until tomorrow when—
Something moved.
It was in the bush beside me. It was so fast, a bit of dust fell to the ground where it had moved, and some of the bare twigs on the bush fell to the ground. Quickly, I looked around. To my right, my left, above me, and even below me. Nothing was there.
You have no reason to be scared, I told myself. What's could be out there?
Frankly, I didn't want to answer that question.
The bush on my other side moved, and more twigs fell to the ground. This time I pretended I didn't notice. I couldn't show fear. I just had to look confident, unafraid, and completely ready if someone was going to—to attack me or something like that.
And then, as if on cue, it began to rain.
Swallowing hard, I slammed the hood of my truck and rushed inside, locking all the doors. Not that that would help any. But it gave me a tiny, tiny, flicker of security.
The rain made loud pitter-patter sounds above my head. Somewhere in the distance, thunder rumbled and lightning struck. This would be such a good time for baseball, if it weren't so damn creepy, I thought.
I revved the ignition a few times, but, still, my truck went nowhere.
I would have to walk—erm, run—back. Out in the open. Where anybody could clearly see it was me.
I opened my door again and the canopy of leaves above me was no shelter from the rain. It automatically drenched me from head to foot, and, as I broke into a run—a run faster than any car could possibly go—thoughts whirled through my head. Why did I have such a bad feeling? There was obviously nothing to have a bad feeling about, right? I was a vampire—with shielding powers. I had nothing to be afraid of.
I mentally pushed my shield around me, and felt even more security as I ran on, the leaves crunching under my feet. There. Nobody could catch me now. Nobody—
Then everything happened at once.
Something was pushing back at me. Mentally, I mean. And then my shield shattered. I could feel it. I let out an ear-piercing scream—something was definitely out there—but didn't slow down by a second. If anything, I made my legs go faster and harder until I was faster than Alice and Jasper and Emmett put together.
The leaves and bushes around me were moving faster, now, like someone was running beside me. Except, I couldn't see that someone. They were invisible to my eyes—my supernatural-seeing eyes.
Twigs breaking. Leaves crunching. Rain pouring. Thunder vibrating. Lightning flashing.
Someone saying, "Good to see you again, Bella."
A blur appeared beside me. First it was only an image I couldn't make out exactly. A speck of blue in the background of darkness. But then my eyes adjusted. And then I saw who was standing beside me. Bronze hair, deep red eyes, darker than the color of blood, that somehow even shone and shimmered in the blackness. His posture said confident, unafraid—exactly what I was supposed to be. But, truth be told, I was the exact opposite.
He was having absolutely no troubles keeping up with me, and I knew at once. He wasn't truly dead. He hadn't died. He was standing right here. Right beside me.
"You're looking pale," he said with a grin that wasn't anything along the lines of happiness. "Like you just saw a ghost."
Ohmygod, ohmygod, ohmygod.
"Did you get my note?" he asked me, still keeping up with me. "Judging by where we are now—I'm guessing that you've completed it, haven't you?"
A trap, the thought went through me before he could even finish talking. That last thing on the list—it was a trap! Gosh, I'm such a total idiot!
"So, Bella, how have you been?" Then he stuck out his arm in front of me. I knocked into it—it was harder than a rock—and fell backwards on the ground. "I've heard you have a new boyfriend?"
"And I hear you've been up to no good." I got up and pushed him backwards with all my force into a tree. As his back crushed into it, it wiggled a little, and probably would have fell over if he hadn't recovered so quickly.
"Maybe," he said blankly, and then pushed me into a tree.
I stayed on the ground this time, and shut my eyes to concentrate. I concentrated as hard as possible, until I could see the shield's boundaries around me. They didn't go too far out—but that didn't matter. It was a shield all the less.
He outstretched his hands and instantly the shield shattered.
He's too powerful, I thought.
Hell.
