Chapter Nine: My Little Girl
Bella's POV
I watch Nessie pull out of the driveway. She said she was going to get her and her little sister's stuff from that awful place they were forced to call home. I still am getting over the fact that my daughter lived in a place where the people there would hit their kids just for dropping something. I felt horrible for her little sister, who had nowhere to go. At least Nessie had us. I remembered the day she disappeared every day since, and it had always torn me apart. For eleven years, I'd just been sort of a shell of a person. I didn't talk to anyone save Edward for the first six months after she was gone. I didn't even talk to Alice, and she could be really persuasive. But when we moved to Maine, and I saw her get out of her car and walk towards me, everything healed. I felt like I was looking at a ghost. My little girl was alive. She was so different, though, from the girl I had known. She hated her name, for one thing. And for another, she had no idea who I was.
When she came to my door with the picture in her hand I could tell she thought we were familiar, but just couldn't quite place us. I knew then I had to tell her the truth, there really was no other explanation we could give. I wasn't expecting her to believe me. I hadn't hugged my daughter in eleven years, and when she just hugged me, without even asking for an explanation first, I saw a little bit of the girl we lost. The girl that was willing to believe anything was possible.
"Bella! Bella!" I was jerked out of my thoughts by Alice shouting in my ear.
"What?" I say, annoyed. I turn around to look at her, however, and she looks really scared.
"No," mumbles Edward, and he takes off for the house.
"What?" I say again. I've always been annoyed with the fact that they all seem to be able to communicate without saying anything, and nobody ever tells me what is going on.
"It's Nessie, somebody's going to kidnap her," says Alice. Everything seems to freeze then. Not again. We just got her back, and now someone's trying to take her again. Someone, I think Edward, grabs my arm and starts to pull me, but I'm frozen.
"Bella, love, if we don't go now, we could lose her again," he says. That snaps me out of it, and I take off running after them. By the time we get to where Alice says to go, however, there is only a car and nothing else. No scent. Nothing. Just like Jake described happened eleven years ago.
I turn to Alice, to ask where they went, but she just looks confused. "I-I can't see them anymore," she says. "Whoever took her is very good at disappearing," she says. Suddenly, Jake, who phased back into a wolf to keep up with us, starts walking forwards.
He starts running, and we have no choice but to follow him. We kept running for several hours. It's impossible that whoever had taken her was human, because nobody could go this far in a matter of minutes. Finally, we're probably in Alaska by the time Jake finally stops and slows to a walk. He walks right up to this little cabin and I immediately smell vampire.
"She's here," I say. Jake runs off to phase back and walks right up to the door, me right on his heels despite the wet dog smell. He pushes the door open, and I see a blonde vampire girl holding Nessie by the arm that appears to be broken and they also appear to be disappearing into thin air.
"Help!" she shrieks, right as they disappear completely. Jake stiffens.
"I can't feel her anymore. Or, well, it's really faint. She's really far away," he says. I just stared at the spot where my daughter was, and then wasn't.
"No, we were so close," I say, barely more than a whisper. Edward walks up behind me and hugs me.
"We'll find her, Bella. We'll find her," he says. Jake has already phased back and is making his way across the snow. I have no idea how far we'll have to go to find her, but I am sure we will. We have to.
I start after Jake, because the only hope we have of finding her now is that weird pull he has towards his imprint.
I never really expected to end up in Florida, but after three days, that's where we end up. We have to wait until night to go out, and Jake has to phase back because of all the people. We walk along a beach that gets slowly emptier, and emptier, until finally there's one little building left. We're within a hundred feet when I put an arm out to stop Jake.
"Wait, if we go in too slowly, whoever it is will just disappear again and we'll end up having to go half-way across the globe. We just have to run in and surprise them," I say. Jake nods, and starts to look like he's going to bust the door down, but I stop him again.
"Sorry, but your scent is just too noticeable. I'll do it," I say. He gives me a look of contempt, but backs off. I take off for the door and shove it open at full speed. I'm not really thinking, I just grab the blonde vampire and destroy her. I turn back to see my daughter lying unconscious on a table, and feel all of the anger go out of me.