AN: Yeah, I know that Bella seems horribly stupid in this story…But keep in mind that it's like three in the morning again and she's had basically no sleep and an extremely emotional few days.
Through the fog, I felt Keith's hand on my headrest as he backed up. I slumped against the window, trying to fight sleep. The car moved forward and the fog took me.
Slowly, my senses came back to me. The first thing I noted was that I could smell something strange. And not a good smell; I felt my nose twitch in defiance of it. Then I noted that I could hear a low, almost distant purring sound. My head was swirling, and then I realized that my head was pitched backwards. Was my mouth wide open? Yes, embarrassingly enough, it was. I wanted to close it but nothing happened. I tried to talk and still, nothing happened. My eyes were too heavy to open; it was like someone had glued weights to them. Suddenly, my last memory hit me. Inwardly, I began to fight off panic and struggle with my unwieldy body. When I realized it was useless – I was too far gone to come out of this – I almost willingly started to relax into my slumber again. I was exhausted from the last few days. Nothing made sense to me; all I could think of was sleep.
Then, a phone rang. I was jolted – to my distaste – to attention. Still, I had barely any control of my body so I focused on listening to the conversation.
"Fine." Said Keith's voice, it sounded farther than possible.
"Right on course." I could not hear the other side of the conversation, only Keith.
"No. He's nowhere near, not yet at least. But they will be coming soon."
"Of course, shall I keep her drugged?" Who was he asking? Who wanted me drugged and why?
Then, Keith mumbled and hung-up. I struggled and found the strength to open my eyelids a little. Instantly, they flooded with light and I clamped them shut in pain. I heard a small chuckle come from Keith, or was I imagining that?
Every second I felt my strength grow monumentally. A minute later I was able to open my eyes and snap my head forward in a swift motion. I blinked a few times and took in the scenery.
I was in a car, not the first car though – the seats in this car were cloth, Keith's car had had leather – and pine trees were dashing by my window. The sun was high in the sky and there were a few clouds littering what, otherwise, would have been a beautiful day. Then I found that the smell was coming from me. I smelled of men's cologne; the kind that makes most people sneeze. Keith was sitting next to me, he was wearing an amused smile and a new change of clothes. He had on a green sweater and khaki pants. I looked down and found that I, too, was changed. Now, I was wearing a dark sweater.
"You changed me!" I accused, though the words came out slower than I had hoped. But, before he could answer, I began talking again.
"Pine trees!" My voice was deep and I looked around shocked, there were no pine trees in, or around, Phoenix. My still groggy head dipped and I struggled to keep it upright.
"Personally, I like pine trees better than Phoenix." Keith said amiably, which only infuriated me. How dare he kidnap me and pretend like nothing had happened. "And, no I didn't change you. I only put a sweater on you." He shook his head in exasperation.
"Cologne." Somehow I managed to make that one word laced with silent accusations. Besides, right now, it was better off if I stuck to one word sentences.
"Well, I had to cover up your scent somehow." He rolled his eyes. "Can't make it too easy on Edward, now can we?"
"Huh?" As genius as my reply was, I was truly dumbfounded. How did he know about my scent. That was the only thing that Edward could track me with, or at least, that I knew of.
His only reply was to sigh heavily. I felt anger and panic building up in me. I was angry because he was kidnapping me and confusing me and drugging me. The panic and fear came from the fact that he was so calm and seemed to have more knowledge then I thought about Edward, also the fact that I had no idea where I was.
"Where am – are we?" I asked trying to control my emotions and gaze out the window.
"Well, I guess I can tell you that." He said glancing at me, still grinning. I was beginning to find his grin annoying.
"Are you going to tell me?" I demanded when he didn't answer, now I felt much more secure being able to speak full sentences.
"Not the exact spot but, I can give you the general area." I nodded in weak agreement. "Okay, we are now somewhere in the middle area of California."
"What!" I nearly screamed.
"Calm down. We haven't seen the beach yet if that's what you're wondering." Was he mocking me? My anger doubled.
"No, that's not what I'm wondering. How did we make it here this fast?" I yelled and glanced at the clock and then at the speedometer. The clock told me that it was two o'clock in the afternoon, and the speedometer read that we were driving at eighty miles per hour. My throat constricted in panic and I realized just how long it'd been since I'd been kidnapped and Edward wasn't here. No one was.
But how did he know that Edward wasn't coming, or almost here. He didn't and I knew that Edward was coming, he couldn't be this far behind; unless something happened to him. As soon as I thought that I regretted it, I forgot how to breathe and I felt my heart stutter. It hurt too much to think about. I kept myself from thinking about Edward's delay and I focused on getting out of here.
"Why did you take me?" Finally I got the question that I had been meaning to ask out.
"It's not always just about you. There are other people out there too." He replied, obviously he had the answer prepared.
"Who were you on the phone with before?" I asked, annoyed at his confusing answer,
"All in good time." He answered and grinned, reminding me of a creepy man from a cheesy movie.
"Could I get a straight answer just once, please." I mumbled under my breath in frustration. He smiled amusedly but kept his eyes locked on the road.
"What did you knock me out with?" I asked trying to get an answer that wasn't as cryptic as before.
"Sleeping pills, I gave you twice the normal dosage though; I had to keep you asleep for a while." He explained keeping his voice friendly. "Not that it was hard, you haven't slept in a while have you?"
"Where are we going?" I asked relieved that he was talking normally again.
He laughed heartily – he was genuinely enjoying himself – like I was a stand-up comedian or something. I felt my temper wearing thin.
"Seriously, what's wrong with you?" I snapped and despite my exhaustion I felt the need to hit something. Well, not just something, Keith's disgustingly perfect face. I wanted to give him a scar or at least a nasty bruise. See how perfect (heavy sarcasm) he looks then. I had never hated anything with this much intensity, I felt my eyes fill with hot tears and I fought to keep them back. Of course, I was one of those people who had to cry when I got angry. But I refused to look pathetic or weak in front of Keith at all, with this in mind I held back the tears.
"Nothing's wrong with me. And I can't tell you where were going." his smile held strong and he glanced at me, his eyebrows high on his forehead.
It was only then that I realized something that I had seen earlier, it was like it had taken five minutes to compute in my brain.
"Slow down!" I screeched.
"Huh?" he was honestly surprised at my outburst.
"You're going eighty miles an hour! Were you dropped on your head as a child? You'll kill us both going this fast! Slow down!" He calmed down and lowered the speed to sixty.
"What the hell, we're ahead of schedule anyways." He shrugged and the speedometer needle stayed put at sixty.
I breathed a sigh of relief. Then, against my will, my stomach gurgled hungrily. I blushed and looked out the window.
"Hungry?" he said and gestured towards the glove compartment.
"How stupid do you think I am? I refuse to eat anything from the inside of this car." I vowed and tried to ignore my hunger.
"Suit yourself." He said and continued to drive silently.
I had to escape, and once I was in the open I would call Edward. That was the outline of my plan. I looked at him and with a lucky glance I saw to rest of the gauges behind the steering wheel. The fuel gauge happened to be closer to empty than it was to full. It would most likely last a while longer but he would have to stop probably sometime in the next hour. I silently congratulated myself and the rest of my plan fell into place.
AN: Wow, I'm sorry about the delay, I got back from one vacation, was home for like three days and then left AGAIN! For over a week! And being me, I didn't have to foresight to bring my laptop. Sigh. And I really wanted to get this out, I promise the next chapter will be longer. Anyways please R&R. I'm getting nearer to the end of this!