All right then. Here we are. The day of Bella's departure. WILL SHE GO THROUGH WITH IT!

Twenty One: Goodbye, Bella

Bella swore that she wouldn't cry this day. She vowed to herself that, as she and her friends and her father all drove to the airport, she would hold it together. That she would laugh and hug and say again and again that she would keep in touch. But as the car rolled closer and closer towards the Seattle airport, Bella felt her heart grow heavier and heavier. Until finally, tears were indeed clouding her eyes. She had already said goodbye to Edward the night before. She even passed a note along to be given to Carlisle expressing her gratitude for everything he'd done for her in the past. She managed a rigid, awkward farewell with Jacob, though she would have liked it to have gone smoother. Nevertheless, these were the scenes leading up to that moment, in which Charlie's entire cruiser, full of teenagers, drove to the air port. With Jessica in Mike's lap, and she and Angela sharing the front seat, they managed to squeeze their entire way up to Seattle's airport. And though she swore and vowed and promised and begged herself not to cry today, when they got into the airport, and she got her ticket from the counter, she found it very, very difficult to keep such a promise. After checking her bag, she was thrown into a moshpit of tight hugs and sincere farewells. Jessica was already bawling at the prospect of Bella leaving, and Bella had to admit that she was touched. Once all of her friends had told her the best of goodbyes, it was time to address her father. The others made themselves scarce near the Cinnabon while she did so. Another thing she was thankful for. She and Charlie faced one another, Bella feeling her tears start to well beneath her eyelids. If only she didn't have to go. Charlie smiled kindly beneath his mustache, putting his hands into his pockets.

"You can always cancel your ticket," he said sweetly. "Change your mind, you know."

Her throat tightened. She wanted to. Oh how she wanted to. But she couldn't. "I know, Dad..."

There was a little awkward silence between the two. Then, unable to take it any longer, Bella walked forward and gripped Charlie tightly around the torso. He felt warm in her embrace as he wrapped his arms around her without hesitation. Bella buried her face into his shirt, a few tears slipping from her eyes. She couldn't help herself. She only hoped that the Cullens would watch over him. If she came back to find out that Charlie was hurt or dead, she would never forgive herself. Pulling away, Charlie wiped her cheeks dry, giving her a bushy kiss on the forehead. "There now..." He rubbed her arms. "Want me to walk you to the gate?" She nodded wordlessly, gripping her backpack tightly to her shoulder. She and her father walked towards gate C3, Bella pressing into him as close as she possibly could. If anything, she knew that this wasn't fair to Charlie. She knew this, yet there was nothing she could do to correct it. Someday. She swore that someday she would come back and make it up to him.

Upon arriving at the gate, Bella turned back to her father, gripping his large hand in her own. "Well," he said, eyes on the plane outside. "Looks like this is it." He turned to her, his own eyes starting to tear. Leaning inward, they gave each other another hug. A longer one this time. Only to pull away when the sound of the boarding call sounded. Bella felt an appending sense of dread as she pulled back. "That's your cue, sugar." Bella kissed his scruffy cheek and smiled weakly.

"I love you, Daddy."

"I love you, too. No go board."

Nodding, Bella kept her ticket in her trembling hand as she handed it to the attendant near the door. The woman took it and then allowed her inside. After one last look to her father, Bella glumly made her way down the terminal and into the plane. So many others were filling in as well. Hopefully she sat next to someone who wouldn't want to talk. She didn't know if she could handle a conversation today. Her head leaned against the glass (or was it some sort of plastic?) window, staring at the gray clouds above. Would it rain? She smiled ruefully. So the world itself was sad that she was leaving, was it? But what could she do? Nothing. She would just have to wait it out until she could return.

And wait she did. She waited. And waited. And waited still. Slowly, the sun outside began to sink, and a light drizzle came to the sky. Bella frowned. They still hadn't taken off, and Bella had gotten on the plane at four. It was now seven thirty. Fidgety, Bella pulled open her phone to double check the time. She had been sitting on the runway for about three and a half hours now. The captain's message dinged overhead.

"Ladies and gentlemen, if I could have your attention please? There seems to be some sort of technical difficulties. It may still be a while until we take off. Feel free to leave the plane, but return at ten o'clock tonight. Thank you."

A plane-wide grumble met the announcement, and soon after, everyone decided to get up and stretch their legs. Bella being one of them. She was pretty hungry about this time. So, pulling out her wallet, she left the gate and headed down to one of the little cafes not too far from it. There, she bought a sandwich and a bit of hot chocolate. For a while, all was calm. She had finished her meal only to find that she still had two hours left. So, she got up and started to meander about. She didn't go far, just down the hall and up again. With her hands behind her back, Bella let her feet take her all along the corridor with no destination in mind.

That's when something caught her eye.

She paused and quickly turned to see what it was. It was something quick. Something that whizzed by her peripheral vision. But when she turned to see what it was, she found nothing but crowd. She looked everywhere. Nothing. She was about to write it off as a shadow, when she saw it again, this time on the other side. She turned even quicker this time, but again, she came across nothing. This was starting to worry her. Was she going mad? Then, she saw it again. And again. A fifth time. A fourth time. What in the world was it! Her heart pounded within her head as her eyes darted left and right, her body pivoting all around to try and catch whatever it was that was dancing within her vision. Suddenly, two hands came out of nowhere and grabbed her arms.

A scream died in her throat as she realized it was just an old lady, her eyes filled with concern. "Are you all right, dear?" she asked gently. "You look lost."

"O-oh..." Bella's heart slowly came back to normal speed. "N-no, I'm ok. Just a little tired." She went to put her hand to her forehead, when she realized that the old woman hadn't let go of her arms. Furthermore, Bella noticed that her hands were extremely cold. Blinking, she turned up towards the woman to see a malevolent smile curl along her lips. Her eyes faded into a bright, gold color, her lips parting to reveal to sharp, dangerous fangs. A thrill of fear shot up through Bella's body and she yanked herself away. "No!" she cried. She ran as fast as she could without looking back, zig-zagging her way in and out of the people crowding the airport. She tried to bring out her phone to dial the sheriff's office, try to get in contact with Charlie or Carlisle... But her fingers kept slipping on the buttons, and she needed to watch where she was going. In fact, it was this combination of things that caused Bella to trip, her phone sliding across the floor and under the crack of a bar not too far away. Bella could have cried.

But she picked herself up and ran some more. She could feel Victoria's hot breath on her neck as she did her best to get away. "Help!" she screamed through the airport. "Someone help me! Help!" She spotted security immediately and rushed over to them. They were clearly alert at her coming. "Help, help!" she sobbed. One of the officers, took hold of her shoulders in a kind fashion.

"What is it?" he asked, his eyes serious. "Is something wrong? Did you see something?"

"Someone's chasing me!" Bella practically screamed. "She wants to kill me!"

"Ok, ok..." He signaled for the others to go, bringing up a radio to his mouth. "Security, we have a young lady here who's being threatened." He turned to Bella. "What does she look like?"

However, Bella couldn't answer. Because before she could open her mouth. Something sharp and metallic slid straight through his chest. Like a sword of some kind. He gasped once, blood shooting from his body, as Bella watched in horror, and the crowd around her scattered in fear. Screams echoed through the terminal, just above the rushing of feet to get away. His eyes rolled to the back of his head as the metal blade was yanked back. There, Victoria stood (out of costume), as she slowly let the blade at the end of her arm morph back into her hand. Bella was sobbing by now. She knew running would do no good. Stepping backwards, she begged her softly. "Please..." she said, trembling like a captured mouse. "D-don't kill me... please don't kill me..." Victoria let her arm return to its blade form, and she slashed across her neck, as if to slit her throat. Instead, all she did was cut through the silver chain holding her mother's cross. It fell to the floor with a little ding, Victoria's hand sizzling a bit as she pulled it back to normal. Now, her last line of defense against this thing was gone.

"FREEZE!" Victoria paused and looked over to see a line of cops, their guns at the ready. Victoria merely laughed. In a flash, she was behind Bella, yanking her hair back with one hand and gripping her wrists together with the other. The security team ordered her to let Bella go. But Victoria didn't come close to obliging. Instead, she leaned inward, and in a sadistic manner, licked the nape of Bella's neck. Bella herself was panting and whimpering, unable to get away. With a ringing laugh from the vampire behind her, Bella was thrown over Victoria's shoulder with ease, and before she knew it, she was being taken away from the terminal at an insane speed.

Victoria hopped her way through Seattle, mainly along the tops of buildings, before Bella specifically smelled salt water, and heard the dinging of ship bells. Victoria lurched her way downward, and Bella found herself beneath a stack of crates along a wooden dock. Victoria kept a tight grip on her neck as she peered out from behind the crates. She grinned. "Still here," she muttered. Bella looked over to see a ship being loaded and getting ready to dock. A ship? But where were they going? Despite her fear, Bella still found herself curious.

Victoria once more threw Bella over her shoulder and rushed passed the workers (she moved so fast that they didn't notice her) and around the other side of the cargo liner. Clinging to the metal hull, she crawled up to a window, opened it, and looked around. After being satisfied that no one was inside, Victoria pulled both she and Bella through the window and into the cargo hold. She tugged poor Bella over to a dark, dank corner and threw her down. Bella sank into the wall, gripping herself as she watched Victoria move in terror. The vampire grabbed a chain that held a box together and yanked at it. Somehow, she managed to attach it to the wall, and then tie it around Bella's waist. Rather tightly in fact. Once that was done Victoria made a pile of boxes to hide Bella from the world. One of them, a long, lengthy box, she laid right beside her. Upon opening it, Bella saw that it was full of nothing but dirt. She would have asked, but she was too frightened. Victoria grabbed a cover on a different box and laid it along the dirt. "There we are." She pat it and sat herself inside. "Good and comfortable. Now..." She laced her fingers together, eyes narrowed. Bella shrank back. "It's a long way to Italy. So I don't want to hear a single whimper out of you the entire way there, you got it?"

Bella swallowed, though her throat was dry. "I-Italy...?"

"I'll only feed you if you don't try to escape, and you don't bother me. And you get one bathroom break a night. Got me?" Bella felt her mouth open and close in a flabbergasted way. "I said, got me?"

"Y-yes," Bella squeaked. Nodding, Victoria looked around and hopped out of her dirt filled bed. Bella sat where she was, lightly tugging on the chain. Though Victoria had squeezed the links together. There was no getting out of it. Not unless she wanted to saw herself in half. Though Bella wasn't normally a religious person, as she curled up in her cold, lonely prison, she clutched her hands together and started to pray.

Please... Please let me live.

DIDN'T EXPECT THAT, DIDJA! -ahem-

Anywho. Looks like Bella is being whisked away to Italy. I'll give a cookie to anyone who can guess why Victoria's "coffin" is filled with dirt. Leave those reviews!

~T.