AN; As always, thanks for the feedback lovebugs! There's this and one final chapter left of this story.. I am overwhelmed by the love I have gotten from this story, it was the first story I ever wrote and completed [I know there are some things that eventually need work]. Thank you for going easy on me and enjoying my writing! x3
Disclaimer; Stephanie Meyer owns all things Twilight.
- Chapter 21 -
BPOV
"You little lying bitch!" James screamed, slapping me again, kicking my stomach so that I flew back into the stairs, I could feel the glass shards from the beer bottle he had broken dig into my back. I whimpered, looking at Emmett's limp body lying at the foot of the stairs.
"How many more are there?" he demanded, as he uncuffed one of my wrists, and dragged Emmett closer, cuffing his closest arm to the now empty one.
I shrugged, not looking at him. Wrong answer.
He grabbed my chin tightly, squeezing, as he pinned himself against me, pushing all his weight on me, pushing the shards of glass deeper into my body.
"5." I whispered, he pulled himself off of me, kneeing me in the abdomen as he did.
"Would one of those include your beloved Dr. Cullen?" he asked, laughing wildly. "He's in jail. He actually came in and assaulted me, can you believe that?" he asked incredulously, I looked up at him with wide eyes.
"Oh don't worry sweetie, I'm going to save the three of you for last." he laughed again "When I find the other three, I'm going to kill them quickly, they haven't pissed me off too badly. So it will be quick and painless for them. This one" he kicked Emmett in the stomach "I won't be as nice to." he laughed again, throwing his head back "But for you and your lover, that will be the best part. I can't decide if I want to kill you slowly and have him watch you die, or the other way around, and then let you live and continue to have my way with you." he grinned wickedly.
"Please, no." I whispered, looking down, fighting back tears.
"As for now, I have some patrolling to do. I'll be back." he winked and left the room.
I looked over at Emmett, who was still laying facedown and began to nudge him.
"Emmett." I said, nudging his shoulder with my now, free hand. But he didn't wake up. I felt myself break down completely against the stairs, sobbing uncontrollably.
"Uhh" he groaned, as he began to stir, lifting his head up to look at me. He had been out a long time, I was so relieved he had finally woken up. I waited for it to kick in, and suddenly his eyes widened, and he shot up, pulling his cuffed hand, which in turn pulled me so I was almost stuck in between the thick poles on the banister.
"Emmett! We're stuck together!" I told him, as he helped me loosen myself.
"Sorry Bella, what the hell happened?!" he asked, flailing his free arm.
"I tried to warn you, but it was too late, James hit you over the head with his gun." I sighed "you were out for a long time, I couldn't wake you."
"I got pistol whipped and cuffed?" he asked, his eyes widened, I nodded.
"Sorry."
"That would be so hot if this were Rosalie doing this to us." he sighed, shaking his head. I couldn't help but giggle; at least I was stuck with the ever-optimistic Emmett.
"Emmett, he's going to kill Rosalie, Alice, and Jasper, and he arrested Edward!" I told him quickly.
"What?!" he asked, loudly, panic was written all over his face. "We've got to get out of here!"
I sighed, that was clear. "Do you have your cell phone?" I asked him curiously, his face brightened and he nodded.
"Listen, call Alice, tell her to get Edward out of jail, and then they need to leave, we can't let them get hurt, at least if we know they are safe we can focus on getting ourselves out." I explained, not knowing where any of this was coming from. Emmett looked at me skeptically for a moment, but seemed to agree with what I was saying, he nodded.
"I hope you know what you're doing" he said as he pulled out his phone and began dialing quickly.
EPOV
I had no clue how long I had been sitting in this stupid jail cell. But I was practically scaling the walls. I hoped that my siblings had made progress, and found Bella so I didn't need to worry.
I sighed and looked at my knuckles, which were swollen and bloody from hitting James. Even though they were sore, I would definitely do it again. I looked up when I heard footsteps echo down the hall, and sighed when I saw a new officer who I hadn't recognized, which meant I had been stuck in here long enough for shift change. Too fucking long.
"Cullen?" he asked gruffly, he had dirty blonde hair and a goatee, and he looked a little older.
"Yes sir." I stood up and walked towards the door as he began to unlock it.
"You got bail, your belongings are at the front desk," he said simply, sliding the door open and letting me out.
I nodded thanks to him and quickly walked out to the front, grabbing my items in the large Ziploc bag, and I walked out the door. Alice, Jasper, and Rosalie were huddled on the sidewalk in front of the station, in what looked like an extremely worried conversation. Which, in turn, worried me.
The first thing I noticed was no Emmett. The second thing I realized, is that I had no phone call, they had no way of knowing I was in jail.
They had broken apart enough for me to join their group as I approached them. "Where's Emmett? How did you guys know I was here? What's going on?" A asked at rapid speed, feeling a bit like Alice, looking between the three of them, waiting for someone to tell me what was going on.
"Emmett found Bella." Rosalie said quickly, but something seemed off about her facial expression.
"Where are they?" I asked, looking between the three again.
"First tell us how the hell you ended in jail Edward!" Alice demanded angrily.
"For hitting James. Now tell me what's going on!" I demanded back, losing patience.
"Emmett found Bella, but, James knocked him out and now they are both trapped, But James plans on killing us all. Emmett said to go wait at the hotel, and not to leave, or open the door for anyone, even the police. That he and Bella will be able to escape and they'll call us as soon as they do." Alice explained quickly.
"What?!" I asked loudly as I began walking quickly to my car, which was parked at the library.
"I think we should listen to him... I mean-" Jasper began, as the three of them followed closely behind me.
"No!" I demanded angrily "You three go back to the hotel, I'm going to help them." I told them unlocking my doors.
"Edward- I don't think-"
"Stop it. I have to go help them. It's Bella. And Emmett. I'd never forgive myself." I told them, sighing as I pinched the bridge of my nose.
I felt like they should all have known me well enough to know that I wasn't going to go sit in a room and just wait for everything to turn out all right. I have never been one to just sit back and let things happen. And now, when it concerned my family, I was definitely not sitting around and waiting.
"The last street he was on was Denali Street. He said that he recognized the truck." Alice sighed in defeat, knowing I wasn't going to give up.
I went to get into my car, but Rosalie's voice calling my name stopped me, I stopped moving and peered over the hood of my car at her.
"He said not to call him. James doesn't know he has his phone, and Bella is in bad shape, and he's worried for what would happen if his phone were to ring when James was there." Rosalie's eyes were filled with tears and my heart broke for her. She had already been through so much; I didn't want her to hurt anymore.
"I promise, I won't call him. You guys please, go back to the hotel, and do not go anywhere, James is a fucking bastard, and don't put anything past him. Call dad and Esme, and then call the officers that we've been in contact with, okay?" I told them, they all nodded somberly and I climbed in my car, starting the engine.
Normally when the car purred to life I would revel in it for an endless amount of time, it was one of my favorite sounds in the world, but not today, I was on a mission, I had to get Bella and Emmett out safe. I felt a lot better that Emmett had found her, and that she was no longer alone, and that she was okay. But was she okay? Emmett had told them that she was in bad shape, and who knows what exactly that entails.
My heart sank, Bella had come so far, she smiled, laughed, joked, and seemed to enjoy the life she had been living with me, with my family. Which was a complete turnaround from when I had first met her, she was constantly in pain, for she had been through so much. Something like this was most likely going to set her back even farther. I didn't even want to think about any physical or sexual abuse that he had caused her. I swear to god if she weren't in one piece when I got to her I would send James to his grave.
As I plugged Denali street into the built in GPS in my car, I dialed the Seattle Police department and gave them a run down on what was happening, and that it was a fellow officer who was doing all of this. Even though I had told my siblings to make this phone call, I also wanted to speak with the officers as well. They needed to know how serious this was. I didn't want to take any chances when it came to Bella, my brother and their safety. Even though I was taking a pretty big chance as it was by going to find them on my own. I prayed it wouldn't backfire.
BPOV
"Emmett, you are out of your fucking mind!" I said angrily, if I could cross my arms over my chest, I would have.
"Bells, why won't you even try it, please?" he asked, pleading me with his huge eyes.
"Emmett," I repeated sighing, looking at the space between the vertical rails as they went up the staircase. "There's no way I can fit through there." I couldn't believe we were actually having this conversation right now, let alone actually considering this.
I really had no energy, to move from the step I was sitting on, or to speak, or even to breathe. I knew I was getting weaker by the minute, and I was trying hard to keep up my strength, but it wasn't an easy feat. I had never gone more than eight hours without eating, and that wasn't by choice either, Alice had dragged me to the mall, and in her shopping frenzy she had completely forgotten about the fact that we both needed nourishment. I sighed; I would gratefully go shopping with Alice every weekend if Emmett and I could just make it out of here safely. I would never tell her that, but I missed her.
I looked at Emmett and sighed again, hoping that telling everyone to go away was the right idea.
"Bella, please, can we just try it once, please." he pleaded with me, giving me the saddest puppy dogface I had ever seen, I sighed again and nodded reluctantly.
If he thought it was possible, and wanted to try it, I would. "Emmett, I'll try, but you need to listen to me if I say I'm getting stuck, if James comes back and I'm halfway through the fucking rails, I don't even know what he'll do." I shuddered at the thought.
"I promise Bells, just try okay?" he looked hopeful as he moved closer to the railing so that I had a little more leeway.
I sighed and slowly slid my arm through, which was the easy part. Once I got to my shoulder it was a little harder, but I could still manage. Suddenly I became hopeful that I was going to be able to do this, and that we were going to be able to get out of here.
But of course, once I saw the silver lining of this miserable fucking cloud, my body came to a halt.
I frowned and looked at Emmett sadly. He sighed, but gave me a reassuring smile, helping me back so that I could sit on the stairs, I leaned against him, curling into his chest, having no more energy to keep myself upright.
"It's going to be okay Bella, I promise we will get the hell out of here, okay?" he wrapped his free arm loosely around me, kissing my forehead.
"Emmett, I'm so tired" I told him, realizing that I was extremely tired. My eyelids had begun to feel unbearably heavy; I didn't have the energy to keep them open anymore.
"Bella, I need you to stay awake for me babe." he told me shaking my body.
My eyes fluttered open for a second, but things were becoming blurry. I just wanted a nap. That's all.
"Just a little powernap Emmett, I promise, that's it." I told him, trying to get out of his grasp.
"Bella, no." he said loudly, and if I wasn't so concerned with sleeping, I probably would have been scared from the volume of his voice, but I didn't have the energy to be scared.
I tried to look up at him, but everything was blurry, and I was beginning to have tunnel vision. "Emmett." I whined, or tried to whine, I don't even think I was able to get his full name out of my mouth before the blackness closed in around me.
EmPOV
In the short time that I had known Bella, She had passed out twice- that's more than I had ever passed out in my twenty-six years of existence. Here she was laying limp on the stairs, handcuffed to me, and the railing of the stairs. It was not a pretty sight. And the scariest thing about it was that I had been trying for nearly ten minutes to wake her up, and I couldn't.
I knew enough from Edward and my father being Doctors that she was probably dehydrated, and malnourished, and god knows how much blood she had lost.
I had to get us out of here. I began to slam my body against the pole that was keeping me from my freedom. It was a strong motherfucker, but I was stronger. I continued to throw my body into the railing, my body would be bruised, this I knew, but I could feel the poles weakening more and more each time I threw my body into them.
"Come on you fucker!" I cursed under my breath, slamming into the railing again. I sighed, and paused, wiping the sweat from my forehead. I was surprised that they hadn't given in yet, for such an old house, it was pretty strong.
I looked over at Bella, and shook myself out of it, I didn't have time to rest, and Bella didn't have time for me to rest. I took a deep breath and flung my body towards the railing, and it finally gave out, but it sent both Bella and I crashing to the floor.
I sat up and if Bella weren't attached to me I probably would have literally jumped for fucking joy. I carefully scooped her up in my arms, and had to adjust both of our arms so that neither of us was uncomfortable.
As much as I cared for Bella, I really wasn't enjoying being handcuffed to her. I carefully walked out of the house, making sure to peer into the rooms, as far as I could without falling over on top of Bella, to make sure the coast was clear.
As I walked through the kitchen, and towards the front door, the realization hit me that I was going to get us out of here. That Bella was going to be safe. It was enough for me to cry. And Emmett Never cries. But I couldn't have felt any better as I walked us through the front door and onto the porch. I stood there for a minute, breathing in the fresh air, enjoying outside.
Suddenly, screeching tires pulled me out of my happy place, I furrowed my brow and turned to the street to see my brother's silver Volvo screeching to a halt in front of the house and he flung the door open and ran so quickly that I almost didn't see him.
"What's wrong with her? Are you guys okay? Why isn't she awake? What's going on?!" He asked frantically, sounding like Alice, as he began taking her out of my arms.
EPOV
When I turned on the street and saw Emmett walking outside of the house with Bella lying in his arms, it was so bittersweet.
They were okay, my brother was okay, and my Bella was okay. Well Bella was okay for the most part, she wasn't awake, she was covered in bruises, cuts and dried blood, she was most definitely not okay, but she was alive.
As I tried to take her limp body into my arms, Emmett pulled away from me, glaring at me.
"Emmett?" I asked, taking a step back, he had never looked at me like that before, what had James done to them?
"We need to get her to the hospital, now." he said roughly, starting to walk over to my car.
"Emmett?" I asked, keeping in pace with him.
"That motherfucker locked us together," he said angrily lifting up his arm, which was cuffed to Bella's. I frowned and helped them into the backseat, which with Bella being unconscious was not easy.
Before I could get into the car myself, a cruiser screeched around the corner on two wheels, and James flung the door open, making his way over to us. We didn't even say words as we began swinging fists at each other, I wanted him dead, and it seemed he wanted to same for me.
"You are a fucking sick, twisted psychopath." I spat, connecting my fist with his jaw, taking a step back as he swung at me, luckily missing.
"You have no idea what you've gotten yourself in the middle of Cullen." He seethed as we fell to the ground, rolling around the front yard, punching and hitting each other. We were about the same size, I had a few inches of height on him, but he definitely had more of a muscular build.
"Edward! Knock him out, we have to get Bella to the hospital!" I heard Emmett yell from somewhere behind us, I knew that if he wasn't attached to her he would have been over here joining in on this fight in a second.
Suddenly, we heard police sirens in the distance, which distracted James enough for me to knock him twice in the face, knocking him out.
"fuck." I grumbled, standing up, making my way back over to my car, helping Emmett get resituated in the back with Bella.
The police came and it was all a blur, they cuffed James quickly and put him in the back of one of the patrol cars, I quickly explained to them what he had done to Bella and Emmett, and they had a patrol car turn on its siren and lead us quickly to the hospital.
"How long has she been out?" I asked, climbing into the front seat and driving as quickly as I could towards the hospital.
"I don't know, maybe twenty five minutes now" Emmett answered, I glanced in the rearview mirror and he had worry written all over his face.
"Are you okay Emmett? Did that motherfucker do anything to you?" I asked, worried, even though Emmett was a big guy, it didn't mean he couldn't have gotten hurt.
"I just have a pretty big lump on the back of my head." he said somberly, reaching his free arm up to check it.
"How did he get you Em? You're definitely bigger than him."
He groaned loudly "I was being careless. I was just so happy that I found Bella, I didn't care about anything else, and I should have. Because he had come in the house, and I didn't hear him, and by the time Bella warned me it was too late and the motherfucker knocked me out." he huffed.
"I'm glad you're okay." I told him, running my hand through my messy hair.
"Yeah." he sighed, I could tell he still felt bad about this whole situation.
"Thank you for listening to Bella when she talked to you. And thank you for caring enough to risk your life for her, for me, I really appreciate it "I told him, sending him a grin through the mirror.
"Hey bro, we're family, I'd do it all over again." he patted me shoulder "But this is never going to happen again." he added with a scary seriousness.
"Definitely not."
We made it to the hospital in record time, and luckily they took Bella and Emmett in immediately, I made phone calls to my siblings and parents letting them know that they were safe, and where we were.