PLEASE NOTE: This chapter features both physical and potential sexual violence. If you are easily offended, please don't read. It's not as bad as it could be but I don't want to upset anyone. It's important to the storyline otherwise I would not have put it in. Please bear this in mind before you read on. Thank-you.
Disclaimer- If this is Disney, I'm a one-legged dolphin.
At first, Bella couldn't take her eyes off of the smashed photo. One thought kept resounding in her head. It should have been the rose. If she had picked up anything off of that table, it should have been the rose. You could pick a rose again and watch it bloom better than the one before it. But a photograph………something told her this photograph was irreplaceable. Somehow she tore her eyes away from the shattered image and lifted her head to meet the eyes of the image's owner. He, too, was staring at the photo. It felt like several minutes had gone by, when in reality mere seconds had passed. Bella opened her mouth, and then closed it again. What should she say? "Oops!" "Sorry!" Somehow both seemed empty. But before she could think of anything else, she noticed he was now staring directly at her, and that stare sent shivers up and down her spine.
She'd never noticed his eyes up until now. They were a strange greeny-blue colour like a Caribbean sea and they bore into her soul. The intensity of his gaze was hypnotising but at the same time darkly menacing.
"What did you do?"
His voice was strained as if he was struggling to control it.
"I….I….I'm sorry. It was an accident…..I…" she found herself gasping for breath. She realised she was absolutely terrified. He was moving very slowly towards her, every step carefully measured.
"I told you not to come up here. Why didn't you do as I asked?"
"I….I……."
Words failed Bella, as she didn't know the answer herself. Why didn't she run when she had the chance?
He was now directly in front of her. She tried to back away but found she was already up against the wall as if she was being cornered. She noticed his hand at either side of his body. They were clenched into fists; the knuckles had turned deathly white. Her eyes once again met his as if she was powerless to stop them. She noticed he was trembling and the beautiful sea in his eyes was stormy. To her slight surprise, tears were forming at the corner of his eyes, as if the sea was trying to break its barriers and flood them both. Bella couldn't look anymore. She closed her eyes and braced herself for what she was sure was coming, but it didn't happen. This was cruel, like a cat playing with a mouse. When would it end? But as Bella opened her eyes again, he was not in front of them. Instead he was now kneeling on the floor his shoulders shaking as if in the aftermath of some internal earthquake. His fingers were running all over the floor collecting the pieces of the glass in the frame.
Bella was not taking any more chances. She ran straight out of the door. Down the corridor, down the stairs, through the hall and out of the front door, and she kept on running, unsure of where she was going. It was now completely dark, but the normally sinister shades of the forest had no effect on her. Only one thought filled her mind. RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN it screamed.
She ran through mud and twigs, moss and lichen, shrubs and grass. She hopped over roots and ducked under branches. Her feet didn't know they could move so fast but her face was determined. She didn't care where she ran as long as it was away, but she seemed to run forever. She didn't remember the forest being this big, as she ran further and deeper into the wilderness, but nature seemed to welcome her. She knew it wouldn't hurt her. It did not have the destructive power that humans had. It was only passive and accepting.
And so Bella ran, in terrified bliss, on and on………
But at some point she had to stop. You cannot run from your troubles forever. Sooner or later, you get tired and they catch up with you, or new troubles make you forget why you were running in the first place. It was the latter that happened to Bella.
She was so caught up with her running that when she first ran into the clearing, she didn't register what she was seeing. In fact she might have ran straight past if it wasn't for the troublesome bramble that caught her ankle and brought her down hard face-first into the mud.
"Ow!" she thought as her ankle throbbed beneath her, but right now her ankle was the least of her worries, as she realised when she heard a voice above her.
"Well, well, what do we have here?" Then a snigger.
Bella didn't know it yet, but Morris had heard the same voice only the day before.
She felt an arm grab hers and roughly yank her up.
"You should watch where you're going, baby. Or I could watch you instead if you liked."
More sniggers.
Bella wasn't sure if she should thank the scruffy boy who was still tightly gripping her arm. He couldn't have been that old, maybe a few years younger than her, but his eyes were bloodshot, his skin marred by acne and other less usual scars. He had a scrubby little goatee. Yes, there was nothing of youthly innocence about this face. She looked, still a little dazed, at the rest of the scene. A small campfire was in the middle of the clearing but it hadn't been built by boy scouts. Two other figures sat by the fire, a half-empty whisky bottle nestled in the grass between them. One of them was smoking a hand-rolled cigarette, its contents part of a wider selection of drugs that were arranged carefully around the space. She had unwittingly crashed some sort of illegal intoxication party. She found herself being hauled towards the fire.
"Welcome. I'm snigger Grant and this is….er….Bagsy and….snigger Dinger. What's your name, sweetheart?"
He blew a combination of stagnant breath and foul tobacco right into her face.
"Let go of me."
Bella struggled in his grip. These guys didn't frighten her as much as the beast had but she still didn't want to stick around and enjoy their company.
"Hey, what's the rush? Have a drag, it'll calm you down."
He shoved the spitty roll-up into her face, trying to put it in her mouth but she twisted her head away from it.
"Get…off….of…me….you…. moron!"
All Bella felt now was anger. She'd had enough of men trying to push her around in the last few days to last a lifetime. She did not want to give these drugged-up goons any kind of satisfaction of thinking she was an easy target.
"Hey, she's feisty. I like it."
The sniggers had started to sound almost hyena-like. The two youths by the fire were barking and coughing at everything the leader said as though he was the world's funniest comedian. The whisky bottle was now being passed back and forth between them in this bizarre cabaret.
Bella had had enough. She slapped the leader hard across the face, expecting him to let go of her as Tristan had done, but he hardly moved. For the first time since running from the house, Bella felt a genuine twinge of fear. She had underestimated these boys. God only knows just how inebriated they actually were if they had become temporarily numb to pain. The whisky bottle glinted in the firelight.
"That wasn't very nice" hissed the voice of the leader. She felt his grip tighten even more on her arm and she yelped like a wounded animal. Her cries of pain obviously pleased him as he giggled like a school-girl, before once again reverting back to dangerous seriousness.
"Do you know what happens to naughty little girls who try and fight back?"
She said nothing as it was obviously a rhetorical question, but he didn't seem to agree with her.
"Do you?" he snarled shaking her.
She shook her head.
"Shall I tell you?"
The two others were now on their feet, their whisky suddenly forgotten as they started to surround her. They were not sniggering anymore.
With the last of her strength, Bella lashed out at the three faces simultaneously but her limbs were weak as though every ounce of blood had been drained from them. All she succeeded in doing was waggling her free arm slightly in a manner which would have been comic if it hadn't been so tragic.
The youths had finished playing. She was pushed to the ground, her arm throbbing in pain, her ankle all but forgotten. Sobbing, she tried to get back up but something knelt on her back and pulled her arms round until they locked crossed behind her. She felt hot breath on her ear and then a repulsive wetness as a tongue was dragged across her neck. She shuddered in disgust, and then tried to scream. She got as far as opening her mouth before they seemed to sense what she was about to do and pushed her face into the mud, choking her screams with dirt. She gasped for air as she was squashed further into the stinking soil.
Suddenly she was lifted out and flipped around, her arms now being repositioned and pinned above her head by one youth as another held her legs down by the ankles. Her eyes goggled in horror as she fully comprehended what was about to happen. Her struggles were getting her nowhere so all she could do was close her eyes and wait.
She wasn't waiting long before something unexpected happened. The pressure on her wrists suddenly stopped as the owner of them let out a startled shout. The shout seemed to automatically open her eyes for her. She looked straight up into the blackness of the sky, and became aware of a commotion to her left. She tried to get up but her body had not yet caught up with her mind in alertness so all she could do was roll-over and then half-sit up. While she waited for the blood to drain back into her heavy legs, she looked to see what had saved her from a fate she didn't want to think about.
One youth was writhing on the floor clutching his arm which was now unnaturally aligned with the rest of his body. The other two were busy fighting with someone just beyond the fire. Bella struggled to see who it was. She could just make out long straggly hair. It was him!
Great! she thought. Now they were fighting over who got the honour of desecrating her. She tried to move again but to no avail so once again, helpless, she could only watch the battle like a Roman in the Coliseum could only watch as a gladiator got mauled by a lion. This synonym struck Bella because she realised that her captor-turned-rescuer was getting badly beaten. After all, two against one was never good odds, especially when the two were running on more than just adrenaline.
The one was not going down easily, that was for sure. For every few punches that rained down on him, one came back, even if they did seem to be getting more and more misdirected. Bella was suddenly hit with the urge to help him, but this was quickly over-ruled by her common sense. Even if she could stop them hitting him, who's to say he wouldn't hit her as a thank-you. Still, it hurt to have to sit and watch someone being beaten up.
Suddenly the punches stopped flying and a body slumped to the ground. With utter horror, Bella saw the beast sprawled on the ground now a mass of blood and bruises. The two youths turned around and noticed her watching.
With a shriek that was too high for humans to hear, Bella decided her limbs were going to work for her now whether they liked it or not. She had just managed to scramble to her feet when was she rugby-tackled from behind.
"Oh no you don't!" roared a voice in her ear, and then tried to finish the job it had started earlier. Bella slapped and scratched his face but it now made less difference than it had previously. Nonetheless she was determined not to let this happen.
On the other side of the clearing, the body that had been left was stirring. The scene that now danced in front of his eyes was stronger than any of his wounds. Shakily but doggedly, he picked himself up ignoring the pain that was shooting through every part of his body and as silently as he could, he crept up behind the boy that was now wrestling furiously with Bella on the ground. His keen sight noticed something very handy sticking out of the boys back pocket and he lunged, or rather fell, towards it, gritting his teeth in determination.
Bella's sudden rush of strength was startling the boy slightly as he fought to keep her from doing him some damage. Why wasn't she giving in? They normally did. Just as he felt he was finally going to get the better of her, a new problem presented itself. All he felt before the excruciatingly cold metal against his throat was a tiny touch at his back pocket. Bella watched in amazement as he slowly got off of her and stood up, the knife at his throat dictating everything he did. She was even more amazed when she realised who the hand that was holding the knife belonged to. Green eyes could be seen over her attackers shoulder; green eyes that somehow were noticeable through the bruising that was starting to appear all around them.
The other youth that was capable of standing was also now standing rigid not daring to move lest he have to watch his friend and ally get killed. He had spent the last few moments tending to his other friend whose arm was clearly broken, oblivious to what had been taking place.
The whole clearing was still, no-one daring to provoke one another. The only sounds were the pitiful squeals of Bagsy as he tried to move his arm somewhere to the left of the complex situation involving everyone else. Bella was half-lying half-sitting on the ground. Dinger was standing stock still, and the man who I can only refer to as the beast (although it sounds kind of redundant now) was holding a knife to the throat of a whimpering Grant who daren't swallow for fear his Adam's apple would get sliced clean off. The whisky was getting too warm to drink by the fire.
The first one to make any sort of intelligible sound was the beast, and to the dismay of Dinger, it was directed at him.
"Leave now or I'll kill him."
Dinger could only nod and catch the terrified eyes of his leader and friend whom he saw were only too happy to comply.
He found his voice.
"Let him go and we'll leave." He noticed Bagsy on the ground. "All of us."
The beast stared straight into his eyes as if searching for lies, but all he could see was fear. He released the knife from Grant's throat and shoved him forwards. A scared but relieved Grant scrambled up from the ground, took one last look at those awful green eyes, and then ran.
He was closely followed by Dinger carrying Bagsy over his shoulder like a fireman. The whisky bottle fell and spilled its contents on the ground.
The beast threw the knife on the floor in disgust, and looked directly into Bella's eyes. He made as if to move towards her but fell to the floor before he could take another step.
Bella's head was swimming, trying to make sense of everything that had happened in the last ten minutes. Then she remembered the thought that had started it all.
RUN!
Before she had time to think of anything else tangible, she got up off the floor and made to run the opposite direction to Grant, Bagsy and Dinger. But something stopped her. The same thing that had stopped her running out of the house as soon as she had had the chance. Every inch of her common sense screamed at her to get out of the clearing as fast as she could. She could almost feel her brainwaves tugging at the nerve-endings to her feet. But they tugged in vain, as Bella was already turning round to see the slumped figure of her rescuer. He was barely conscious, and he looked in a bad way.
Bella gingerly walked towards him, as if expecting him to get up any moment, but the only thing that moved was the gentle rise and fall of his chest. She knelt beside him and whispered.
"Can you move at all?"
He looked at her and nodded very slightly.
A few minutes later, Bella found herself walking back to the castle with the man she had been running away from leaning on her shoulder.
Phew! I feel exhausted after writing that scene! I've never choreographed a fight sequence before so I hope it reads ok. I'm really gonna make an effort now to update regularly so feel free to shout at me if I don't! Thanks again for all your reviews ( I know I keep saying it) as I couldn't write if it wasn't for you guys. Its soi encouraging to check my mail-box and find all those kind words staring back at me. You rock!
TrudiRose – The non-escape thing. I tried to imply in that chapter that the beast had some sort of power over her i.e he told her to get something to eat, she went to get something to eat that would have temporarily stopped her escape plans. Also the fact that she was curious about the house…Maybe I didn't make it obvious enough. Thanks for pointing it out though. Let me know if it continues to cause a problem and I'll go back and change a few bits, cos I do want to make this convincing. I really appreciate your input cos you're a fantastic writer and seem to know what you're talking about so its always helpful if you point out bits that don;'t make sense. After all I am an amateur and its only natural that I'll get bits wrong from time to time.
Yes, it is turning out scarier isn't it? I think because when you put the situation into a modern-day context you realise just how dark moments of the original film could have been. This chapter is sooo not Disney-like, but it needed to be.
Bellamegs- You say such nice things and what you say bout the putting little bits of me in there is sooo true. I love putting in little touches of my own cos it helps the story feel more like I have some control over it. Bella is slowly turning into me, although if I was Bella I would have run for my life a long time ago cos I'm a wuss. Well done for spotting the rose/ family portrait comparison, I always worry about whether things like that being obvious or not, but you got it so yay! So you are not delusional (that's always good to know!)
LumBabsFan- I'm glad my descriptions are working. I never know if I'm good at them cos I never seem to go to as much detail as I would like. But you're happy so I'm happy! Woohoo!
Rosakara- blushes I don't know if 'genius' is right, but if you want to call me one I'm not going to complain….. :p
I'm deliriously happy now, got a slight headache, but still happy! A virtual hug and chocolate cheesecake for everyone! Hurray! Oh and by the way, I also just bought the John Savage and Rebecca De Mornay version of BatB, anyone else seen it?
