Chapter 43
Irascible- [ih-ras-uh-buhl] Easily provoked to anger; very irritable.

"I think we caught enough for today." Rosalie announced as the seventh fish was tossed onto the sand.

"I agree." Alice wiped the sweat from her brow then leant forward and scooped up two of the fish to carry back to the caves where they would gut and clean them on one of the small detached rivers. Jasper and Rosalie followed her, also grabbing two fish.

Emmett looked down at the one fish he caught and frowned. "You guys head back, I'm going to stay here and try to catch one more."

Rosalie pecked his check and leaned against him. "Do you want me to wait with you?"

"It's alright Rose. You head back and get started on cooking these." He ran a wet hand through her hair and pulled her face forward to capture her lips in a quick kiss.

After their brief but intimate moment, Rosalie departed with Alice and Jasper while Emmett continued to fish.

~S.O.S~

Paul glared at the spot where Lauren used to be. The rope that had once tied the girl to the tree now lay pooled on the ground. In pure anger, Paul lashed out by kicking the pot behind him and crushing the small tent, breaking the plastic poles. He roared to let out his frustrations and many birds that had settled in on the branches higher up, scattered at the noise and cawed in agitation.

The angered teen couldn't sit still but instead began to run through the forest, searching blindly for Lauren. If he hadn't been so consumed with rage, he would've noticed the tree root that had risen from the earth. Instead, he tripped and ended up tumbling over the side of the cliff with a screech.

~S.O.S~

"I'm still confused about your arm…or lack thereof." Alec muttered when Lauren reached out with her good arm to pop a pill. "Should you be taking these?"

Lauren smiled at Alec and closed her eyes, falling asleep.

"I didn't think so." He grunted, putting the pill bottle back into his pocket.

From far away, Alec heard a voice. Tuning in, he recognized it as a human. He quickly jumped to his feet and prepared to take off through the woods to find the person. But he didn't want to leave Lauren behind, so he lifted her from the ground gently and as fast as he could, he half-dragged, half-carried the unconscious girl through the woods. As he grew closer to the voice, he realized it was more than one person.

"No, it is definitely your turn to gut the fish. I did that yesterday with Jazz. We're cooking this time." Alice stated while watching her step carefully so as not to trip on any of the risen tree roots.

Rosalie snorted as she sidestepped a bush with prickly leaves. "I don't think so shorty. Emmett and I were the ones that gutted those suckers. It's our turn to cook them. You need to gut them."

"You're lying through your teeth!" Alice countered. "We all know you hate gutting them and shirk your duties on Quil."

Rosalie shrugged nonchalantly. "It's not my fault he is sweet on me."

Alice rolled her eyes. "He is not sweet on you. You threatened to withhold his portion of the fish if he didn't clean them." If Alice had her hands free, she would have placed them on her hips.

"Whatever. It's not like he does anything. It's his way of contributing."

"Actually, every day he has to go out and collect enough pieces of wood for the fire, then he has to gather a lot of large leaves for us to eat on. Starting a fire isn't easy and it's not like Edward helps him. Plus Felix is trying to get Angela to walk again so he's not much use either. Quil actually does contribute." Jasper put in his two cents.

"No one asked you." Rosalie snapped, then paused when she noticed someone a few feet away coming towards them. "What the—"

"Wait!" Alec called out, huffing and puffing with Lauren falling out of his grip. He managed to catch her before she fell, but had to lean against a tree for support. "I've finally found you!"

Alec was met with startled silence. Rosalie looked the boy up and down before her eyes roved over Lauren. A gasp rang through the three classmates when they realized her arm was gone. "What happened to her?" Rosalie asked when they had openly gawked for a couple minutes.

"I have no idea. I found her tied to a tree." Alec answered honestly.

"Tied to a tree?" Alice eyes widened into saucers.

"Yeah. I think Paul knows what happened. She kept mentioning him. Where were you guys headed? I'll follow."

Rosalie motioned to with her head the direction. "It's not much farther this way. Do you need help with her?"

Alec shook his head and Rosalie led the way. When they made it to the campsite, the fruit group hadn't returned yet so the only people around were Edward, Felix and Angela. Even Quil was gone, most likely in search of wood or leaves for the fire.

Felix was so busy trying to help Angela that he didn't notice the others had returned. But Edward did, and immediately his eyes narrowed in on Lauren's missing arm. He quickly made his way over to the unconscious girl and removed her from Alec's side. He carried her to his cave and laid her down on his makeshift bed. Since his cave was the smallest, not everyone could crowd around him, but they tried. "What happened to her?" he asked while peeling off the small cloth that turned out to be a tourniquet. He removed the stick and immediately regretted it because it was staunching the gaping hole. Some of the blood had clotted over which was a good thing because it meant that she wouldn't bleed to death anytime soon. But It was a sickly red color that reminded him of Eric's gangrene except this looked like blood poisoning.

Everyone turned to Alec who held up his hands defensively. "I found her yesterday tied to a tree. She mentioned Paul but I don't know. Is he here?"

"Paul?" Edward shook his head. "We haven't seen him since the boat. I assumed him dead, to be honest. Maybe he knows why her arm is missing." Edward returned his attention to the girl. "This must hurt a lot."

"No, she'd been taking these." Alec tossed the Vicodin pill bottle to Edward who was surprised when he realized what it was.

"This is a strong narcotic! Do you know how she got her hands on these? I doubt the island produced it…unless we're not the only ones here."

"I guess we'll have to wait to ask her when she wakes up." Rosalie said slowly. "Until then, we shouldn't jump to conclusions."

Rosalie, Jasper and Alice left Edward and Alec to tend to Lauren while they took care of the fish.

The trio stopped cold when an ominous crash through the woods had them dropping their fish and eyes bugging out of their sockets. When the creature sauntered out of the woods and into their clearing, fear hung thick in the air.

"Is that what I think it is?" Alice croaked softly so as not draw the attention of the large animal.

Jasper nodded and sought out her hand, clasping it firmly. "It is. Maybe if we don't move, it won't see us."

Rosalie felt like this plan could work as the creature seemed merely interested in the water at first. But then she looked down at her feet and saw the fish they had caught earlier. A gentle breeze swirled around them before carrying over to the large creature who smelled the fish and finally noticed them.

"What do we do?" Alice whispered, paling as the animal growled at them menacingly.

She was greeted with no answer as everyone around her was as frozen with fear as she.

~S.O.S~

Jacob plucked the last mango from the tree and passed it to Embry. "Alright, you and the girls can head back for the last trip. I'll get some of those berries and follow behind soon after."

Embry nodded in affirmance, then motioned to Bella and Leah to follow after him. Once they were on their way back to the caves, Jacob walked over to the blueberry bush and began quickly plucking the berries. He had what used to be a shirt now fashioned into a pouch, to carry the berries. When the pouch was half filled, a startled cry caused him to drop the berries. It sounded like a male's voice and he instantly began running towards where he heard the cry. His feet led him to the edge of island that happened to be on a rocky incline. It reminded him much of the time when Austin committed suicide after finding out that his love, Katie, had died.

"HELP!" a voice called from below.

Jacob looked down and quickly dropped to the ground when he spotted Paul hanging off the cliff. The teen was gripping a rock a couple feet below Jacob.

"Paul!" Jacob leaned over the edge and reached out to his peer. "Grab my hand!"

The hanging teen stretched his arm as far as it would go, but could only barely touch Jacob's fingertips. Jacob realized he needed to be closer, so he inched farther over the ledge so that half of his torso was hanging off. This was very dangerous as he could fall over if he weren't careful.

Stretching as far as he could, Jacob's tan fingers managed to make purchase around Paul's wrist and he tugged the boy upwards with all of his strength. He didn't end up pulling him completely over, but he pulled the boy high enough that he was able to climb over the edge. They both landed backwards and Jacob was out of breath.

"You okay Paul?" Jacob asked once his breath was caught. He turned to the side only to find that Paul had vanished.

~S.O.S~

Quil carried the numerous sticks haphazardly. It was an awkward bundle, but it would be his final trip into the woods for the day. Just as he was about to break through the trees and enter the clearing, a hand latched onto his arm and dragged him backwards. He was so startled he ended up dropping all of his sticks.

"What—" the person who grabbed him quickly flung their hand over his mouth which muffled his voice.

"Shh." They shushed him quickly and Quil rolled his eyes but cocked a brow at his capture. "There is a bear out there."

Quil's eyes widened in shock before his gaze returned to the clearing where sure enough, a bear was standing a few feet away from Rosalie, Alice and Jasper who stood frozen in the middle of the clearing. It almost looked like the bear and three teens were having a standoff.

"What's going on?" Quil asked quietly, looking at Bella, Leah and Embry with alarm written all over his face. "Where did that bear come from?"

"We don't know but they're trapped out there and we have to do something." Bella looked down at the sticks and suddenly an idea popped into her head. She scooped up the sticks and gave them to everyone around her. "We have to scare it. There's more of us than it. It must back down."

Everyone looked at the large sticks thrust upon them and put on a brave face. "Alright let's do this." Leah said, taking charge. She led the group into the clearing and they walked over towards their classmates who were visibly shaking.

When the bear noticed the others approaching, it growled angrily and the three teens closest to it, took a fearful step back. They were confused as to why it suddenly seemed angry.

"Stand your ground!" Quil stated once he and the others had gathered around Rosalie, Alice and Jasper. He quickly gave them sticks and they all faced the bear. "We have to scare it from the clearing!"

"It's scaring me from being here." Alice whispered, holding the stick with shaky hands.

"There's more of us than there is of him!" Quil thrust forward his stick and the bear took a step back. "See? He's scared!"

This invigorated the others and they all began swatting their sticks at the creature who swiped at a stick only to be jabbed by another. Quickly retreating, the animal barreled through the woods the same way they had come.

Everyone cheered and even Alec, Edward and Felix joined the group. "That was amazing!" Alec proclaimed in surprise.

"Angela was so worried about you guys." Felix spoke, keeping an eye on the woods to make sure the bear didn't come back.

"It must have smelled the fish or something." Edward stated. "Good thing there was enough of you to scare it away."

Everyone clapped themselves on the back in happiness.

"That was easy." Quil stated bravely. "But I hope we don't have to do it again."

"Agreed." Many of them decreed.

"Good thing it didn't take our fish." Alice scooped up one of the fish by our feet. "But since it's headed towards the beach, maybe it can fish for itself!" she joked, causing a few of her classmates to laugh.

When Rosalie heard the joke, she paled and nearly collapsed to her knees. "Oh no. Emmett!"

A/N: Lots and lots will happen next chapter! But regardless, I hope you enjoyed this one. You can let me know in a review. All are appreciated, and thanks for all the new people who fav/alert this :D