Been super busy enjoy…
It was sometime before Paul could get himself back to the house. Getting Leah to phase back had proven a tedious task. She was wildly undisciplined and unhappy. She had little happiness with Sam trying to help her. And Jacob's absence proved a problem so Paul had been forced to bite the task and help the girl center herself. He hadn't struck a happy nerve until family was mentioned. She spent much of her time thinking of all the terrible moments she wished she could eradicate from her father's memory. Eventually she recalled joyous holiday occasions and she was able to return to human form and join her family in the hospital. Harry was in surgery.
Paul trudged back to his home. The pack had a rough night and a rough morning. He had been with Leah for hours. Embry had patrolled and Jacob had been at the hospital with Seth. While Quil and Jared rested; they'd been the ones on duty when shit had hit the fan. His bedroom door was still open and Paul knew she was sleep. She had tried waiting up for him. But she had eventually fallen asleep. Paul joined her in the bed. He wrapped a protective arm over her body and closed his eyes willing himself get some rest before the next unexpected event interrupted them throughout the day.
Paul woke up to a bed alone, his heart stammered in panic. Bella was gone ... He listened closely for her. He expelled air and threw his head back in relief. He could hear the shower water running and Bella's steady heart beat. He didn't feel well rested. He could have gone for more hours but it appeared that sleep had evaded him. The night had seemed like the longest moments ever. Paul remained in bed and waited for Bella to join him in the room.
Bella squirmed nervously in the bathroom after she had dressed. She was very antsy. She had awoken this morning to Paul in bed with her much to her relief. He seemed tired. She hadn't quite struck up the nerve to explain to him the things she felt in her heart these days. Last night waiting on her autumn relief to return she had begun to wonder about her life if she tried to leave LaPush. Surely Paul would have been unable to bear this burden and she couldn't quite see herself doing nothing all day-no work. She wasn't sure where her life was headed. She's had begun to like Paul...maybe even develop a crush.
Sure it compared nothing to the blistering heart shattering love and devotion she had to Edward. But Paul. Paul was her best friend. He was a quiet man, sure of himself, and confident in his life. She wanted that sense of belonging for herself. She wanted the sense of home and love. She didn't want to spend the rest of her life in this frigid cold place Edward had left her in. She wanted to live.
Bella entered the bedroom and God himself had graced her with the view of the man in the bed. Paul had fallen back to sleep. His arm thrown out over the bed and his face a peace mask. Paul was beautiful, she briefly remembered the word when she had called Jacob that after clunking her head on the hard soil floor of LaPush. Bella wanted to join him in the bed but she knew her presence that close would wake Paul up. He was hyper aware when it came to her emotions.
Edward was a constant cloud that followed Bella around as she tried to find any remnants of the sun. She wanted to feel the sun on her skin and Paul was what she wanted to feel most. She wanted to experience the imprint a permanent bond, it was good for her. Surely the apples Edward presented were much more appeasing to her broken heart but she needed her acorns. Paul was easier to carry around. He was as easy as breathing. He didn't hoover not the way that Edward had. Paul was honest with her, Paul wasn't perfect, and Paul wasn't unattainable.
Bella had decided to go on a walk. She had traveled down Paul's driveway and settled on traveling into the nearby scenery of the woods. She wanted to free herself of Edward but she hadn't known how. She wanted to rid herself of every dark nerve in her body connected to her heart. She hated to consider the impact emptying herself of Edward would present. She wanted the Cullen's gone from her fucking life.
Charlie was her father. He had missed her when her mother had uprooted herself from Forks. Charlie had wanted Bella with him always but he allowed her to make decisions for herself. She had decided that she no longer wanted to visit for the summer weeks. But Charlie still called and reminded her that she loved him. Bella was vaguely aware of the the blistering cloud of despair and danger that was flowing over the tree tops.
The moss of the tree tops had covered her from the sky or else she might have turned around and returned to Paul. The sky was an omen of approach that evaded Bella's senses as she climbed further into her heart, the forest. She was working through her own despair, and loss for the first love in her life. She needed this walk. Bella lost her footing momentarily and braced herself against the ground. She slammed roughly into the ground and felt the bruising that would punch its way from her muscles onto her pasty skin.
Bella wanted to be able to care for someone beyond the Cullen's. She had risked so much on them, her life, her family and her soul. She wanted to eradicate them from her heart and her memory. Edward had promised her after all. Bella considered the moments with Paul that had helped her realize she was capable of loving again.
Paul sleeping on the bed. Paul washing her coffee mug. Paul chasing her outside in the backyard. Paul laying across the bed while Bella was trying to find something to wear swearing he wasn't peaking-she was self conscious still in the towel. She remembered specifically a moment where Paul had differentiated himself from Edward. Bella had fallen outside while they were playing roughly. Paul had thrown his head back and laughed at her and told her to get up and go fix herself in the house. Bella had been insultingly shocked. Paul after all was her imprint surely he had known how much her fall had hurt. Bella had grumbled all the way into the house and bathroom.
In the mirror she looked at herself and saw the mess Paul had seen. No wonder he had laughed. Bella was covered in green. She had stained her cheeks even; she wasn't as fragile as a porcelain doll and she could handle tripping over her own feet every once in a while. She could handle smacking against the not so hard ground and get herself back up. She wouldn't splatter every time she failed or messed up. She could be fully capable of talking care of her own injuries and not just the ones on her body. She was capable of clearing her heart up the same way she had when she had fallen playing with Paul. Paul was letting her figure herself out. She was grateful for the difference in the men. She was 17 turning 18 at the beginning of her senior year and could fully appreciate making her own decisions and actions regarding her life.
Bella brushed herself off from the fall in the woods. But she had yet to get up she stared down at the ground in front off herself. She noticed the footprints on the ground she had yet to breach. After all she had spent a long time on the ground thinking of Paul. Bella was positive her own boots wouldn't have left such a human resembling foot print. Bella began to feel a sense of despair rise in her throat. She had gone to far in the forest. She had travelled away from Paul-a sleeping Paul and headed into the forest unsupervised. A manic emotion ran throw Bella's body. She threw her body up at once and turned and threw her feet forward as fast as possible. She hadn't necessarily seen Victoria but she was fully aware of the impending doom that was raising the hair on the back of her neck.
As surely as her senses had told her to run she could hear it now. The following footsteps. Bella was sure there was someone behind her now. Victoria was much faster than Bella and she was positive nothing else but the she-witch herself could be behind the panic that had lurched her back towards Paul's house. Bella was sure this was a trap.
Victoria was allowing her to run closer to the forest outside of Paul's house. Victoria wanted to kill Bella as close to the stench of wolf as possible. She watched the brunette stumble through the forest terrain never turning her head. Her long hair whipped dangerously behind her. It had grown much much longer sense Edward had been here. Victoria let the predatory nature in her come over her. She watched in with red. Bella's blood was rushing through her body and Victoria wanted to do much more than taste the little bitch. She let a laugh explode from her mouth.
Bella could see the opening that led to Paul's house when she heard the laugh. She had led Victoria right back to an unaware sleeping Paul. A Paul that would be easier to hurt. Bella let her heel dig into the ground and erupted the thundering of her feet on the forest floor and breathe in one more time before Victoria was upon her.
Victoria barely register the girl had stopped running outside the opening of Paul's house and grabbed the object of study she had been observing earlier. Victoria wrapped a stone fist up in Bella's hair and yanked expertly back on the girl's hair. Bella felt the yank was anything but gentle yet she was sure that Victoria had restrained herself. The scream in agony that escaped her lips had been only sound she could get out before Victoria pulled her body across the ground toward her. Bella hadn't seen her in a long time.
Victoria's wild hair was the same. The glowing fireball of red chaos on her shoulders of messy curls that caked from the hunter lifestyle she inhabited. Victoria was beautiful. Bella grasped out breathes of pain as she stared the female in her dry red eyes. The red pooled out into the depths of Bella's soul. She could feel the older female yanking her hair still. Bella should have never gone on the walk alone. She had forgotten in the safety of Paul's house how much danger her life was in.
"I'm going to destroy you, you little bitch" Victoria gripped her knotted hair further around the human girls hair. Bella could respond. The yanking of her hair was enough to send her whirling into a dark pool of painful sleep.