Chapter 4: Forks

Nessie's POV

I tried to calm myself when we arrived at the airport. Everywhere I went it seemed like people were watching me. I had to remind myself that nobody knew I was missing yet. If people were staring it was probably because I was was a teenage girl in a wheelchair all by myself. Not because I was already on a missing person's list.

"Try to calm down Nessie. Nobody is going to come here looking for you,"

"I know!" I shouted in frustration. Several bystanders looked at me funny. I shuddered. It reminded me of my days in the psychiatric hospital.

"I'm sorry," I muttered as I strolled right past them.

Bella didn't say another word until we were alone.

"Maybe you shouldn't talk to me when there are other people around. People might think that-"

"That I'm mentally ill? Yeah I know exactly what it feels like,"

"What do you mean?" she asked me curiously.

I sighed. "There was a time when I was little where I proudly flaunted my ability to see and communicate with ghosts like you. It didn't end well for me. I was ridiculed and laughed at by my peers at school. My parents took me to a child psychiatrist and I ended up in a psychiatric facility for it," I sighed and continued. "I was given a diagnosis of schizophrenia,"

"Oh my God Ness I'm so sorry," Bella looked heartbroken. I was sure that of ghosts could cry she would be in tears.

"Even though I hide my ability now the other kids haven't forgotten. I get bullied for it still. Do you know what it's like to be ostracized by society and labeled a freak for having an ability that nobody else has?" I asked her.

"No," she admitted.

"It's...painful. Even now it's hard to talk about.. But oddly enough I feel comfortable telling you,"

"You can tell me anything Nessie,"

For a second I deliberated on whether or not I should tell her about my leukemia. I decided against it. I didn't like it when people, or ghosts, felt sorry for me.

"I think it's almost time to board our airplane," Bella said.

I didn't speak to her again when we got on the plane. There was too many people around. As soon as we were in the air I put on my headphones and watched the movie that was playing. It wasn't enough to totally distract me though.

Several hours later the plane landed in Seattle and I had to hurry up to catch the next plane to Port Angeles. The one hour flight there went by fast. From there I took an Uber down to the hotel I'd booked in Forks.

As we got closer to the small town a strong sense of familiarity struck me. It was a beautiful place surrounded by woods. An odd sense of familiarity about the place hit. I had the strangest sense, like dejavu, that I had been there before.

I shook my head. It was a silly notion to entertain. I'd never traveled anywhere before. My cancer treatments had nearly drained my parents of their finances. They had taken out several loans just to pay for my treatments. Loans that they were really struggling to pay off. Therefore we could never afford luxuries like vacations. So we certainly never visited Forks before.

Still I couldn't help but to admire the beauty of the place. I was itching to go out and explore a little bit. The car pulled up to the hotel and the man driving me was kind enough to help me get out.

The receptionist gave me an odd look probably because I was young and alone. But she didn't question me. It wasn't until I had gotten to my room that I realized how tired that I actually was. The day of traveling was starting to catch up to me.

I got up onto my bed without much struggle. "I wish I could help you," Bella said sadly.

"It's okay I actually like being as independent as I can be in my circumstance. I don't want people to always be doing things for me just because I'm partially paralyzed. Not when I can still do things on my own,"

"I can see that you're a very strong and independent young lady Nessie. Is there anything that scares you?"

Chills went down my spine. There was one thing that terrified me to no end. As someone who has spent her fair share amount of time in a hospital fighting for her life I have seen my fair share of death.

The first time it happened was when I was ten years old. I was in the hospital about to undergo chemotherapy when someone else in the cancer ward died. Usually what happened was a great white light would appear and the person would walk toward it and dissappear as they crossed over into heaven. I'd seen it happen twice before already.

But this time was different. Instead of a great white light I heard awful, tortured, screaming. I looked around, scared, but no one else seemed to hear it. Then I saw demons come out of the shadows. They grabbed the man who had just died. The poor soul was kicking and screaming out for help in absolute fear. I watched in fear as the demons dragged him down to hell.

It has happened several times since then and it was the biggest reason why I hated going to the hospital. I was always scared that I was going to see someone being forced to go to hell. It was absolutely terrifying and I often wondered what these men and women did in life to earn them eternal damnation.

"Nessie are you okay? You look whiter than me and that's saying something,"

"You asked me if there's anything that scared me and there is. Have you ever seen a newly dead person being dragged down to hell?"

"No," her eyes widened in alarm.

"I have and there is nothing scarier than that," I shut my eyes and tried to force the image of the demons from my mind.

I'd fallen asleep but when I woke up again Bella was gone. I decided that since she wasn't here I'd go do a little exploring on my own.

I decided to go into the woods. I'd lived in New York City for as long as I could remember and city life was all that I really knew. So this was new and exciting to me.

I saw a massive animal in the distance. At first I thought that it was a bear but then I realized it wasn't a bear. It was a wolf. A horse sized wolf with reddish brown fur. I was in awe. He was beautiful.

The wolf suddenly stopped in his tracks. He turned to look at me.

"Wow. Beautiful,"

He looked at me oddly and tilted his head in confusion. I didn't dare move when he walked toward me. When he was close enough I decided to reach out toward the reddish brown wolf to pet him but instead of feeling fur like I had expected my hand went right through him.

This beautiful, magnificent wolf was a ghost.

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