Disclaimer: I dont own anything but the plot
Chapter 19 Running
Bella POV
Phil held out his hand to me. "Grab hold of my hand, Bella."
I shook my head violently. "Bella, I need to make sure you can hold Luke without hurting him. That man is impossibly strong. Which means that you probably are too. A strength you are not used to. I know that you might hurt me, but it's ok. I won't be needing my hands soon anyway." He tried to calm me by smiling, but it was strained and tears were flowing down his face.
"Bella." My mom said. Her voice was so weak. I looked at her. Was she this pale a moment ago? "Bella. We need you to run away as fast as you can. It's too late for us, but Luke hasn't had a chance yet. He's just a baby. As his big sister, I ask you to take care of him. Protect him in our stead and save him."
"Protect. Protect them. Don't hurt them."
I looked at my little brother. His eyes were open now. His eyes were blue. Just like moms. She was right. I was his big sister. It is my job to protect him. Even from myself. If that meant I had to do what they told me to and hurt Phil, that was a sacrifice I would have to make. It looked like they had already accepted this reality.
I locked eyes with Phil again. Then nodded my head. He moved closer. I looked at his hand, one of my own left my face and I touched it. He screamed and I quickly retreated, shaking my head, silently saying sorry. His hand was purple and bones were sticking out of it in different angles, blood dripping to the floor. The sight of the dripping blood made my mouth water. I immediately shot my eyes. Phil's scream had sent Luke off again, and I heard My mom trying to sooth him again. When he had stopped I heard the sound of fabric ripping and a belt being unbuckled.
"Bella. It's ok. Open your eyes." Phil said.
I opened one of them. He had ripped his shirt off and packed his hand in it. His belt in his hand.
"Now Bella." His voice was very shaky. No doubt from the pain. "I'm going to put my belt in my mouth so I don't scream so loud. And then…" He took a deep breath. "Then you are going to touch me again."
I shook my head and shot my eyes tightly.
"Bella you have to. All of this will be for nothing if you can't carry him." I had a sudden thought.
"Car seat." I got out. I could practically see the lightbulb go off over his head.
"Good idea, but you will still need to touch him at some point. So come on." He put the belt in his mouth and got ready. The bones in one of his feet shattered too. But he told me to just keep going. I was vaguely aware that one of the drumming heartbeats in the room was getting weaker by the second. Another was racing like a horse. We kept going until Phil was a broken pile on the floor next to my mother. He had told me to leave one of his arms whole and I had. The burning flames in my throat got much worse with everything we did. I wouldn't be able to keep this up for much longer.
Then I heard voices and I froze. "I wonder if she'll wake up soon. I've never seen anyone be so quiet during the transformation before."
"Them." I told Phil. I was still holding one hand over my face. Again I was questioning for a second how I could hold my breath for this long without suffocating. But I pushed it aside. Not breathing seemed to be the only thing keeping me sane.
"Okay. Then it's time." His heartbeat was not racing anymore, It was slow and weak like the other one. No wait. The other heartbeat was strong again. Wait no. The only other heartbeat in the room was steady, but small. It didn't sound like the other. I looked at my mom. She wasn't moving. "M…?" I tried to say mom, but there was no air left in my lungs to speak with.
"I think she breathed out a while ago sweetie." Phil was whispering as best he could. "You can't focus on that right now. Listen. Drag me over to be right next to her. Do it Bella."
I did. My body was shaking, but I did it. Phil took his only good limb, his arm and carefully grabbed the blanket with Luke in it, then he placed it on his stomach. All the while gritting his teeth and wincing. I quickly swung the gym bag with supplies over my shoulder.
"Now, Pick me up and kick the door down. Then you're gonna run us to the garage, place me and Luke on the floor. place the car seat next to us so I can try to strap him in. Then run to the door and hold it so they can't come in. Do it. Now Bella before they arrive."
I didn't hesitate. I picked them up like they weighed nothing. Kicked the door, which came off in splinters, and sprinted for the garage. Faster than I had thought possible to move, but I couldn't focus on that.
"What was that?" I heard a female voice say.
I placed them on the floor in the garage, found the carseat, placed it next to them and ran to the door. I blocked it and placed myself in front of it. Something slammed into it from the other side.
I heard a small click.
"Bella, he's ready!"
I saw that Phil had managed to strap Luke in. The garage doors were open now and the night sky filled with stars were shining on the other side.
"Bella, GO NOW!"
I ripped myself from the door and heard it crash open. I grabbed the handle of the car seat and, beats me how I thought of it, grabbed the underside of the car and flipped it in the limited space behind me. It crashed and exploded, but I was already very far away. I ran in the direction I thought was north. And I just ran. Ran as fast as I could. Everything turned into a blur around me. I thought I passed some roads but I didn't have time to register any signs for where I was. I just ran. And ran And ran. When the sun started to rise, I was in a forest. I had stopped because Luke had started to cry. While I was running I allowed myself to breathe. The rushing air had somehow cleared my head a bit. But now that I was standing still I held my breath again. I needed to get some food in Luke. I thought he looked cold too, but I couldn't allow myself to touch him. "What am I gonna do? What can I do?"
"Luke, what do I do?" I hadn't meant to say it outloud, but I was truly panicking now.
The sound of a church bell pulled me from my thoughts and I ran towards it. I didn't know why, I just ran. At the edge of the forest a little village lay, with a small church close to where I was. A sign in front of it read. "God extends his hand to you. Ask and he will help."
I had never been religious in any way, but if there really was a God out there, this had to be a sign from him. I ran towards the church, Placed Luke on the doorstep. knocked loudly, cracking the wood of the door, and then ran towards the forest again, where I could watch at a safe distance. Church people were nice people, right? They would take him for a while so I could get this damned burning in my throat under control. I also needed to practice holding fragile objects some more.
The door opened and a woman stepped out. When she saw Luke and that he was still covered in blood, she panicked, looked around and hurried him inside.
"Okay. Luke is safe for the moment." I breathed a sigh of relief.
Now that my mind wasn't desperately trying not to think about it, the burning thirst became unbearable. My attention was now on the town. There were people in those houses. People with warm pulsing blood, running through their veins. Just as I was about to start running towards a house, my ears caught a sound not too far away. Rustling in the bushes. A small frantic heartbeat. A rabbit jumped out into the open, noticed me and fled. I sprang after it and caught it quickly. I sank my teeth into it's stomach and drank everything there was inside it.
When I was done, the burning was slightly relieved. Not by much but it was less now. I looked down and gasped. In my hands the tiny rabbit was just a mess of fur and blood. I couldn't even see the shape of it's head because I had crushed it so much. I was instantly reminded of Luke. He was about the same size. This is what I would have done to him if I had touched him. I started to sob but no tears came.
The sun was starting to come over the horizon. I was abruptly reminded of the old myths around vampires. "Will the sun burn me?" There were a lot of clouds in the sky over this place, which I just realized I that I didn't know where was. So maybe I would be okay.
Instead of heading back to town, I went to look for other animals. If the rabbit could help a bit, then maybe I don't have to feed on humans. I found a herd of sheep and drank the blood of two of them. It tasted weird and kind of wooly, but better that, than it was my brother. I went back towards the church. I wanted to make sure Luke was fine. But when I reached the edge of the forest again, I couldn't let myself go over there. I still needed to practice with the fragile objects. The rabbit had been a wake up call. The two sheep were just as mangled. I hadn't even tried to keep from hurting them.
I found a lot of branches, mushrooms and other small things that it wouldn't have taken a lot to destroy if I were still human. Hours went by before I could pick a mushroom from the ground, so carefully and slowly, that it wasn't squashed between my fingers. The wind blew then from the direction I had come this morning and it was carrying a vaguely familiar scent. My eyes widened when I realized that it was one I had smelled at my house after I awoke.
"Time's up. We need to go."
I sprinted towards the church and barrelled through the door. The priest inside jumped and yelled.
"Where is he? The baby I left this morning, where is he?"
The man was shaking and cowardly pointed to a set of doors. I opened them too rough and they tore off the hinges. The woman inside was holding Luke and a bottle.
"Hurry! Put him back in the car seat. There are people after us and we need to go now!" I barked at her.
Her fear made her clumsy and slow. I barked at her to hurry up and she flinched. As soon as Luke was safely buckled in I grabbed the handle and yelled over my shoulder for them to get out before the people after us arrived. I didn't look back, I just ran away. I had managed to stuff the bottle and a box labeled 'Baby formula' into my bag. Food for Luke.
It was nightfall again before I stopped. Luke was crying again and needed to be changed. I found a small stream of water and washed him as gently as I could.
That's when I got a look down at myself for the first time. I was covered in the rabbit's and sheep's blood. My pajamas, that I only now realized I was still wearing, were sticky and caked with blood and dirt. I washed my face and changed my top for one of the t-shirts in the bag.
I kept going, only stopping to feed and bath Luke, and drink from an animal a couple of times.
In the following months it got a lot easier to breathe around Luke. The burn wasn't as bad, as long as I drank from one animal a day. My insides felt like a water balloon ready to pop at any moment. It was uncomfortable, but necessary.
The first time I had the chance to look in a mirror, I had been shocked and scared by the red eyes looking back at me. No wonder the people at the church were afraid of me and didn't hesitate to do what I said. Covered in blood and eyes that could resemble hellfire, they probably thought I was a maneating demon or something. Which actually wasn't that far from the truth.
We didn't stay anywhere more than a night or two. I reverted pretty fast to tactics I had seen in movies or read about in books. Zigzagging across the country, not really knowing where we were, and not really caring. We stayed in abandoned buildings and houses where I had made sure no one was home. It was easier to care for Luke with warm running water and electricity to warm up his milk.
I saw James and a redheaded woman, that I figured was his girl Victoria, a couple of times. Every time I spotted them or caught their scent, I ran immediately. Not taking any chances.
It was a full year before I tried staying in one place longer than a few days. That was also due to the fact that my eyes were now changing color. Instead of the vivid red, they were becoming a warm honey color. The thirst for blood was also getting much easier to handle.
At one point I met two vampires, a man named Eleazar and his mate Carmen, who had golden honey eyes like me. I didn't tell them about Luke, he was not with me in the short time I talked to them. The only reason I didn't run from them straight away was because I was fascinated that they had the same eye color as me. We talked for a while and they explained about the Volturi in Italy, that Eleazar had the ability to sense others' gifts, thereby revealing that I was a shield, and they told me that they had a coven in Denali that they would like me to meet. I politely refused, I didn't trust them that much, and I had Luke to think about.
Over the first 4 years of this life on the run, I had 5 encounters With James and victoria. The last one resulted in Luke losing his voice and me becoming even more paranoid than I already was.
As I explained my story to the Cullens, I had become rather distant in my voice and thoughts. I think I even forgot that they were there. When I was done talking about as much of it as I could. I found that Edward was holding my hand in both of his, and Esme and Alice were on either side of me with their arms around me. My body was shaking a bit and I had at some point curled my legs up under me. I remembered what Rosalie had said before. "It took me a long time to talk about what happened to me too. But I felt better afterwards."
I did feel better. It was like a giant weight off my chest. It actually felt easier to breathe. A lot easier.
Please R&R, Thank you
