Bella
Oscar's compound wasn't what I expected. When I first saw it, it looked like nothing more than the foundation of a house, half overgrown by weeds and brush. But when we got closer, I saw that there was what looked like a cellar door cleverly hidden in the undergrowth. The man pushed the brush aside, and opened the door before ushering me down a steep set of stairs, through a set of reinforced steel doors, and into a long corridor. It was a shock coming from the wilderness into such pristine surroundings. Humming with florescent lights overhead, it reminded me of a hospital, sterile and bright, but foreboding. Hospitals scared me. Every room you passed had its own story of illness, injury and death. This place felt just the same. Looking at my surroundings, Oscar's experimentation on Edward became real. I'd known about it, but being here made it a reality and the horror of it flooded me.
The man took me into a room that looked a lot like an operating room. I recoiled, afraid of what lay in that room. But in it stood a middle-aged woman who looked at me with an expectant look on her face. When I fearfully met her eyes, she walked towards me with hands outstretched.
"My dear Bella, I am so sorry for everything that's happened to you," she said soothingly as she took my hands in sympathy.
She wasn't what I'd expected. I'd expected someone like Oscar to greet me, not a motherly looking woman with bright friendly eyes who smiled gently at me as she tugged me into the room.
"Thank you so much for coming. I know that it must have taken a great leap of faith to join us. My name is Dr. Clara Young and I'm going to do everything I can to help you," she said with a comforting smile.
"He said that I'd be able to see Carlisle and Esme," I responded, resisting her pleasantries.
"Yes, yes, the vampires. You'll see them soon enough. We just need to treat your injuries first. From the look of your clothes, I can tell that you're bleeding quite heavily," she said soothingly but I'd noticed how her eyes had flared at the mention of Carlisle and Esme.
"Climb up here on the gurney and let's see what we can do," she continued, turning away from me to gather a few supplies that she'd laid out on a table next to the bed.
I looked from her to the gurney, not sure what I should do. But after looking down at the dark stain spreading across my shirt, I realized that I really had no choice. If I didn't let her take care of my injuries, I was going to faint from blood loss and then she'd be able to do anything she wanted to me anyway.
Climbing onto the gurney, I perched on the edge waiting to jump down at any sign of danger.
"Okay, let's take a look at your stitches," she said, tugging on my shirt in order to remove it.
The man who had brought me to this place stepped forward with a leer on his face.
As he got closer, I grabbed a hold of the woman's hands refusing to let her pull my shirt up.
Her brow furrowed in confusion before she noticed the man who had edged towards me.
"Will! Leave! Now!" she ordered.
With a loud sigh, he stormed out of the room.
From that brief little exchange, the pecking order was clear-this woman was in charge.
Once he'd closed the door, she pushed my hands out of the way and pulled my shirt off to examine the damage to my stitches.
Looking down at myself, I felt faint.
My stomach and chest were covered in dirt from my fall down the embankment and under the dirt I saw that three of my stitches were torn and bleeding.
"We're going to have to clean you up first. Sorry, but this is going to hurt a fair bit," she said.
Using a wash cloth, she washed away the dirt and then took another cloth and soaked it in what looked like some kind of antiseptic. The minute it touched my skin, I gasped in pain feeling like I'd been set on fire.
With a tsk, she pulled the cloth away before reapplying it and dabbing carefully. Once she was satisfied that it was clean, she reached for a syringe and filled it full of a liquid. Turning back to me, she moved it towards my side.
"What are you doing?" I demanded, grabbing her hand.
"Bella, I need to freeze the skin surrounding the wound before I stitch it," she reasoned.
"No! No, needles," I said, terrified by what she might inject me with.
"Bella, Bella, Bella, you wouldn't be able to handle it without freezing and you'll bleed to death if I don't," she said with an undertone of condescension, "Take your pick."
Hesitantly, I let go of her hands because I knew that I had no other choice.
Deftly, she froze the area and quickly stitched up my side before tending to my other wounds.
I was covered with scratches and cuts from my fight for survival in the woods. As she cleaned each one, I watched fearfully for any bite marks. While I'd been fighting for my life, Oscar could have bitten me numerous times. At this thought, my fear for Jake came back to the forefront. He had taken my place in the fight for survival against Oscar and another werewolf.
"The guy who brought me here said that he would save my friend. Is he going to follow through with his promise?" I asked carefully.
"We've sent some of our group to retrieve your shifter friend. Hopefully, he'll still be alive when they get there," she responded not looking up from the gash in my leg.
She paused for a moment before speaking again.
"Our friend Sue told us about the health complications that you've been having recently. Have you had any side effects from your contaminated blood?"
"What do you mean contaminated? What do you know?" I asked cautiously.
"Oh, we know a lot. We know that you let that monstrosity contaminate you. I don't understand how you could allow such a creature to touch your body. You did, didn't you? You had intercourse with him. How else could his genetic material enter your body?" she said with a shudder. "No matter what Oscar says, he is nothing more than a petri dish of viruses."
I tried to sit up, but with one hand she pushed me back down. She was remarkably strong for a middle-aged woman.
"I'm not finished," she stated coldly.
I watched as she stitched up my leg and finished her examination. Once she'd decided that she'd taken care of all my injuries, she went to the sink and washed up.
"Now, can I see Carlisle and Esme?" I asked.
"Just a few more minutes. I need to take a few samples, just a little blood, skin, and saliva. It won't take long," she said, turning back to me.
"No," I said firmly.
"Oh, come now Bella. What did you expect when you agreed to come here with Will? Did you think that we'd just let you see your vampires? You can't get something for nothing. Besides, we may be able to help you. We've been studying your 'petri dish' a lot longer than your friend Dr. Cullen," she said with a smirk.
"Stop calling him that," I said, but there was no strength to my words.
She ignored me. Instead she pressed a button on the wall and called Will back into the room.
He must have been standing guard just outside of the room because he was next to my bed before I had the chance to jump off the gurney.
"Hold Bella down while I take some samples. I thought that she would be agreeable, but it seems that she's not as smart as I'd given her credit for."
At her words, I struggled to get off the gurney but Will was faster. With one hand he pushed down on my shoulders. My human strength was no match for his shifter powers, so no matter how much I thrashed I couldn't shake him.
"Hold her arm!" she ordered.
Will gripped my arm tightly and held it down against the bed.
Dr. Young swabbed my arm and took blood and skin samples, seemingly unfazed by my desperate struggles. Then, she pried my mouth open in order to swab the inside of my cheek.
"Take her to one of the holding cells," she ordered.
She turned back to her equipment without even a glance at me.
"I want to see Carlisle!" I demanded.
"All in good time, my dear," she said, never looking up from her tray of samples.
I was put into a small cell, waiting on the mercy of Oscar's pack.
I knew that my decision to go with the shifter Will had probably been a mistake, but I hadn't known what else to do. He would have taken me by force if I'd made the choice not to go with him and I'd hoped that perhaps if I went willingly they'd let me see Carlisle and Esme.
Without a clock in the room, I had no idea how long I waited. At first I paced the room looking for any way of escape. I checked the door, the air vent in the wall, but everything seemed air-tight.
So, eventually with nothing else to do I laid down on the small bed tucked into the corner of the room.
Staring up at the ceiling, I found myself counting the small dots on the tile. But soon my eyes became heavy as the blood loss and trauma of my attack started to take over. Without even being aware of it, I dropped off into a restless sleep.
I ran aimlessly down so many corridors and turned so many corners that I had absolutely no idea where I was going.
FREAK! WHY ARE WE DYING AND NOT YOU?
The words spray painted on the wall of my hospital room haunted me, spurring me to run faster.
"Please! Someone! Anyone! Help me!" I yelled, but all I heard was the sound of my own voice echoing back. No one was going to help me. I was alone. It was all up to me.
I dashed around a corner and pulled to a stop which nearly toppled me to the ground.
A man stood in the middle of the hall. He was hunched forward, so I couldn't see his face, but his body was tilted at an unnatural angle with his hands swinging loosely at his sides. I was about to ask him if he was okay, when suddenly he started shambling towards me, his movements spastic.
A word popped into my head... zombie...
Involuntarily a word escaped my lips, "… please..."
At the sound of my voice, the man stopped moving and slowly, so slowly, looked up at me.
It was Edward, but he wasn't a zombie at all, but some other kind of creature. I held my breath as he examined me with his head tilted to the side. He stared at me for a moment longer before letting out a hiss as he got ready to pounce.
That was all it took. I spun on my heel and ran, ran as fast as I could.
I didn't know how long I ran for, but when I finally had to stop for breath. I looked behind me fearfully only to see that I was alone. Then, a sound in front of me spun me back around.
It was the sound of someone coughing, a harsh sound that continued unabated. I edged closer to what appeared to be a lab. I needed to know if anyone else was alive.
Through the open door of the lab, I saw a man dressed in a white trench coat hunched over his desk. He looked unconscious with blood dripping from his nose and mouth to where it pooled on the table. His breath rattled in and out of his lungs with a lengthening pause between each breath. I started to back away, but at the sound of my shoes shuffling on the tile floor, the man's eyes opened. Staring at me, barely able to focus on my face, he gasped out a few words.
"Why… are… you alive?" he panted. "What is… different…" He took a gurgling breath and blood frothed at the corner of his mouth. "… about you?"
The dream suddenly shifted to the room at the clinic on the reservation. Jake was sitting next to me holding my hand as the doctor began to interrogate me.
"I need to know whether you've been using any experimental drugs."
"Some viruses attack a cell, it inserts a part of its own DNA near the cell growth genes, causing cell division. The group of changed cells that are formed from the first cell dividing all have the same virus and they quickly begin to multiply. However, your changed cells are nothing that I've ever seen before. And what is even more extraordinary is that in your case, it seems like your immune system is constantly adapting to fight these changed cells. As I looked at your blood through the microscope, it appeared almost as if your cells and the changed ones were fighting!"
Then, the dream morphed again to a memory from years ago. Edward and I were sitting at a restaurant in Port Angeles. I could remember that moment in vivid detail because it was the first time that Edward had opened up to me about hearing everyone's thoughts but mine.
"The only guess I have is that maybe your mind doesn't work the same way the rest of theirs do. Like your thoughts are on the AM frequency and I'm only getting FM," he said with a smile.
I'd been so worried that I was a freak, which made Edward laugh.
"I hear voices in my mind and you're worried that you're the freak."
I bolted awake, with Edward's laugh still in my head. I couldn't catch my breath as the dream still held on to me. Once the dream had faded away, I realized that my brain had stitched together memories and nightmares, making it into a story that made a kind of sense.
In my nightmare, I'd been the only one to survive the killer flu. In the real world, the doctor said that my own body was able to defend itself from the infiltration of Edward's virus. Then, strangely I remembered a conversation that I'd had with Edward years ago in which he'd told me that I was different from everyone else because he couldn't hear my thoughts.
Was it all true? Did my body have defenses against attacks?
I shook my head, dispelling the ridiculous thoughts.
I still got sick. I caught colds, broke bones...Whatever was happening to me had more to do with Edward than me. I was just grasping at anything that could help prevent the impending disaster.
It felt like I'd been alone forever in the tiny cell, afraid to fall asleep but too tired to continue pacing the room.
It was so quiet that at first I wasn't even sure I'd heard anything, but then I heard a whispery sort of sound coming from the vent.
As I carefully crept towards it, the sound became clearer. It was the sound of someone moving around in the cell next to mine.
I froze. I was afraid to say anything for fear that it was an enemy, but then common sense hit me. If this person was an enemy, why would they put him or her in a cell?
"Hello?" I whispered, hoping that whoever it was was listening.
The person stopped moving at my voice, but did not respond.
"Hello? Is there someone there?" I whispered.
No response.
"Can you hear me?" I whispered again although I knew that they did.
"Yes," a man's voice whispered back after a spell of silence.
"Who are you?" I asked.
"It's me, Paul…" he said.
I flinched away from the grate.
"You! Wha—What are you doing here?" I gasped.
Silence.
"You would be happier not knowing…" he eventually answered.
"What do you mean I would be happier not knowing?" I said, panic leaching into my voice.
He didn't respond.
"Paul! Tell me…" I pleaded.
Finally he spoke.
"I'm a prisoner, just like you because I helped your friends..." he muttered.
I tried to process what he was saying. "What do you mean 'you helped my friends'?"
"I helped your bloodsuckers. I didn't have a choice," he said.
"The Cullens! Who? Why?"
"I hate them, but Oscar and his pack are putting the people I care about in danger. My mother..." he trailed off in a choked voice.
"I don't understand," I responded.
"Neither do I..." he said and would speak no more
I paced the cell until I couldn't take it any longer. I walked over to the air vent and slumped to the ground next to it.
"Paul?"
No response.
"Paul, why are you locked up?"
I heard him let out a deep sigh before speaking.
"Because Oscar thinks I'm weak, that I can't stick with the mission, so I'm not useful anymore," he muttered.
"What do you mean?" I whispered.
After taking a deep breath, he began to speak.
"I used to be all about the hurt, revenge for Rach—. I wanted to kill all the bloodsuckers, especially the Cullens because they were responsible for bringing Victoria to our territory. So, when Oscar came to the reservation, he gave me with an outlet. We would kill whatever bloodsuckers we found without mercy, without regret. It felt good to be able to let the rage out. But when I would rejoin the pack, they couldn't hide their horror at what I'd done. Oscar told me that they were just weak and I started to believe him. Sam had been the one to always make exceptions for the Cullens even though our tribe were turning into werewolves in order to balance the danger. So, Oscar gave the pack one last chance to step up. He told me that we should gather my pack and together we would kill the Cullens and the Denalis in Alaska. But when I talked to Sam about the plan, he refused and tried to command me to stay. It was the final straw. I was so angry that Sam was taking the side of the vampires that I couldn't follow his command any longer and I broke from the pack.
"It was so hard at first. I couldn't handle the quiet in my head, but soon Oscar changed everything. He told me that now that he saw my dedication to the cause, he could bring me in on his secrets. He brought me to this compound and introduced me to his pack. They were all like me. They'd all lost loved ones and wanted revenge. I immediately felt a connection with them that I hadn't felt with my pack for a long time. We've never developed a pack mind because our alpha Oscar isn't a shifter, but it was almost as good for a while. They depended on me and I depended on them."
He paused for a moment and I held my breath afraid that any sound from me would cause him to retreat.
"We hunted for vampires together and felt the rush of the kill together. But Rachel's death haunted me and soon my joy in the kill started to fade. I guess Oscar must have seen me change because suddenly he was interested in including me on his other secrets. One day he took me into one of the wings of the compound that we'd been told not to enter. He took me into a control room full of television screens each looking down on a cell. Some of them were empty, but others had vampires in them. The majority of them were running wildly around their tiny cells pounding on walls and clawing at the door, but my eyes focused on the one cell where the vampire wasn't freaking out."
My heart stuttered as he paused again. I knew that he was going to tell me that this vampire was Edward.
"I stepped closer to the screen wanting to know what was different about this one. When I saw that it was Edward, I couldn't stop myself from lunging towards the screen. I wanted to tear him apart with my bare hands."
Paul growled deep in his throat.
"Oscar just laughed at my reaction and told me that I couldn't kill Edward because he had plans for him. But if I wanted, I could help him with those plans.
"I was only too happy to help at first. I enjoyed causing him pain. But then one day Oscar increased the level of torture. He brought a human man onto the compound. It took three of my new pack members to drag him down the stairs and then tie him up, but once he was inside Oscar wanted me alone to bring him to the locked ward where Edward was located. I didn't know what he wanted to do with the man but I started to become nervous. We took him into a cell across from Edward's. Oscar ordered me to pin the man down on the bed. As the stranger begged for his life, Oscar rolled up his sleeve and proceeded to bite him over and over again."
I shuddered in horror at the image.
"I was so shocked by what he was doing, I couldn't move.
"When he finished, Oscar pushed me out the door and left the man tied up in the cell. When he saw the look in my eyes, he shrugged and said, 'Don't feel sorry for him. He was a murderer. He murdered his girlfriend in cold blood and was proud of it. He doesn't deserve to live. And I think he is just the thing to break Edward.
"He starved Edward until he became just as crazy as the other vampires, clawing at walls and throwing himself against the door. At this point Oscar said that Edward was ready and without telling me what he was doing he was out the door and into the murderer's cell. Grabbing the man under the arms, he lugged him fighting to Edward's cell. Oscar jerked his chin towards the door and even though I knew it was wrong, Oscar was my alpha so I opened the door anyway. With a laugh, Oscar shoved the murderer into the cell and slammed the door behind him before dashing away to go back into the control room to watch the monitors.
"With growing horror, I watched Edward attempt to avoid the man. They stayed on opposite sides of the room, cringing when the other moved, but I could see Edward weakening. Oscar thought it was funny that I couldn't tear myself away from the monitors. He thought that I was enjoying the show, but I was becoming more and more disturbed. What was happening inside that room had nothing to do with revenge; it was torture for torture's sake. I knew that Edward would be dying of thirst as well as being bombarded by the murderer's thoughts and feelings which I'm sure were filled with his evil thoughts," he said, his voice trailing off into almost a whisper.
I couldn't believe what I was hearing. I'd heard from Jasper what had happened to Edward, but he had kept the story simple. I'd heard that Edward had been tortured and eventually forced to drink human blood tainted with Oscar's own werewolf virus, but now hearing it in such vivid detail was more than I could handle.
I wanted to cover my ears, but I knew that I had to keep listening. What he was about to say, could change everything.
As if sensing my emotions, Paul stopped talking altogether.
I cleared my throat and in a quavering voice asked him to continue.
"Please tell me the rest Paul. I need to hear it."
"Edward finally couldn't handle it anymore and he drained the man. It was hard to watch because he sobbed the entire time he was doing it... It wasn't long after that that Edward began to change. We didn't know what he was changing into at first, but soon it became clear that he was turning into a human. It was at this point that Oscar started injecting him with stuff. I had no problem hurting him as a vampire, but once he became human it was just wrong. So... I helped Edward escape...
"After one of Oscar's torture sessions, I carried Edward's unconscious body out into the woods and left him there. I couldn't take him to the reservation, but I got him far enough away that I thought he find his own way there... I guess I was wrong..."
We both sat in silence for a while. I was so overwhelmed by what he'd just told me that my mind was a blank. So I stared up at the ceiling and counted the dots.
"I'm sorry, Bella," he said in a whisper. "I never thought that they'd take you. I'm not sure what Oscar has planned, but I overhead Dr. Young talking. She thinks that you might have some immunity to supernatural viruses. They're planning on injecting you with the killer flu and possibly werewolf saliva. They might have alrea-"
Just at that moment there was a loud bang from the other room.
I heard scraping and shuffling, then, grunts of pain as a struggle broke out in the other room. Paul snarled and fought like a wild animal before there was a thud and he abruptly fell silent. I scrambled away from the vent, terrified that they were going to come for me next. However, no one ever did.
Instead I heard the sound of scraping trailing out of the room and echoing down the corridor.
I crawled into a corner of the room where I wedged myself between the wall and the bed and wished that Edward was with here with me.
EDWARD
I rush through the trees. I hear them hunting, howls echoing in the pitch-black night. Between the rocks and through the trees I hear them hunting, their killing growls, their snarling breath.
Slipping through the trees, I become the hunter. I run sure-footed, the forest my playground.
In a clearing, there before me, my prey appears. A tremble runs through me as the hunter's fire ignites. I circle closer. Keeping them in my sight, I circle closer. They are distracted, they bite at their prey, growling and grunting in the throes of a killing frenzy. Now I'm behind them. So close now. I smell blood. So close now.
Quickly I move, tearing at one of the beasts, searching for the kill.
The others turn towards me, but I am strong. I am the hunter. I can kill with the slightest twitch of my hand, the gnashing of my teeth.
One falls at my feet too easily. No challenge in an easy kill. I need the chase, but they have run away in fear.
I taste the air and give chase. The hunter's fire returns in anticipation.
Through the trees I slip, cutting off my prey's escape.
The prey is surprised and tumbles to the ground at my feet. My spirit thrills in anticipation.
I can taste its blood on the wind.
I edge forward, watching my prey for any reaction.
It stays still. I stop, confused. Why is it not afraid?
I edge closer.
There is a buzzing in my head. I shake it, trying to get rid of the sound.
The buzzing is louder with every breath. I growl at the unseen intruder but it doesn't stop. The buzzing attacks and I spin around snarling at the attacker.
…. Edward… …. Jake … remember… stop… find… …
I stumble. The sounds are familiar, but again I try to shake it out of my head. My prey awaits.
I growl and shift closer and now I feel a spark of its fear.
….Stop…. ….friend… help… …remember… who you are …
I lunge and the prey is not fast enough. I grab its foreleg and shake and shake and shake. The blood starts to flow again and the hunter's fire burns brightly inside of me.
It breaks from my grip and scrambles away, but it's injured. I can taste the impending kill.
….STOP…. ….FRIEND… NOT A MONSTER… …REMEMBER WHO YOU ARE… REMEMBER BELLA…
I yelp in pain and fall back, the sound reverberating in my head. How does it attack so fiercely? I tilt my head to the side, watching my prey for its next attack. How does it make the loud sound?
However, my prey stays still, not attacking. So I attack. I need to make the kill before the loud sound hurts me again.
….. YOU ARE NOT A MONSTER… THINK ABOUT BELLA…THERE'S NO TIME…..
I bite into the ruff of the animal's neck preparing to squeeze. I need to stop the loudness.
…OSCAR HAS BELLA…..EDWARD SNAP OUT OF IT…
Suddenly the loudness changes. Now I see things in front of my eyes.
I see a female. She is familiar.
I see her mouth moving, but I don't understand.
I try to understand.
I feel my prey try to move as I watch the pictures, but I bury my teeth deeper into its ruff and it stops moving.
I see the female laughing as she chases me in the water. She isn't prey. She is something else.
… EDWARD… BELLA NEEDS YOU….. SHE IS YOUR MATE….. OSCAR IS TRYING TO KILL HER….
I see the female on the ground with one of my prey on top of her. It is searching for the killing grip.
I growl.
She is mine.
Letting go of my prey, I bound backwards and away.
I sniff the air and catch her scent. Her blood on the wind. The scent of my mate.
With one last snarl at my prey, I give chase.