Chapter 4

It's been a good few minutes that we've been driving, with us uncomfortably scrunched together in the front of Bella's truck. Jacob sits on the passenger side, Bella is driving, and I am stuck in the middle. This wasn't what I expected when I said yes to be invited to go motorbike riding. The word just blurted out of my mouth without my control. But now here we are, driving along a cliff side heading to a deserted road to try out the bikes.

"If I told you I couldn't fix these bikes, what would you have said?" Jake asks, looking around me at Bella. I am sure he'd rather be the one sitting between us, so that he can be close to Bella but Bella urged me into the car before Jake had the chance.

"Are you doubting your mad skills." She half smiles.

"No," he grins. "I mean, they'll run fine. It's just, ah, maybe if I was smart I would have dragged out the rebuild a bit." He looks down.

"If you told me you couldn't fix these bikes," she shrugs "that's really too bad but we're just going to have to find something else to do."

He smiles and lets out a short snicker.

"Is that Sam Uley?" She points off in the direction of a cliff where four shirtless boys can be seen pushing and pulling near the edge. My heart skips a beat, as I watch as well. Images of me running plays in my mind, blurs of greens and browns, as I approach a cliff side. And then – I fell, running. My hand shoots out and grabs Jacob's forearm tightly, my eyes widen as I can almost feel the impact of the water when I collide with it – face first.

Jake instinctively grabs my hand, but when he notices it's me, he just looks puzzled. I turn to him, eyes wide, I am about to mouth out what happened when Bella swerves off to the side of the road.

"Oh my god! Did you see that?" She exclaims.

We both look over to the cliff where we see one of the boys collide with the water. The other three watch from up above on the cliff. Before either of us can answer, Bella climbs out of her car just as another car drives on by, and runs to the other side of the road where a railing separates her from a deep plummet.

Jacob chuckles at her excited state, and gently pats my hand. I release his forearm, and he climbs out of the car and walks around to the front of the vehicle. "They're not really fighting Bella, their cliff diving. Scary as hell, but total rush." Another boy runs off the edge and leaps, flailing as he falls into the water.

Scooting out onto the passengers' side of the car, I climb out as well and make my way to the two of them.

"Rush?"

"Most of us jump from a lower height, we leave the showing off to Sam and his disciples."

"You got some kind of beef with him or something?" Bella asks, heading back to the front of the car, where we stand.

"I don't know. They just think they run this place. Embry used to call them hall monitors on steroids. Now look at him," Jake says, as the boy named Embry can be seen jumping off the cliff next.

"That's Embry?"

"Yeah." Jake glances over to me and then back at Bella.

"What happened to him?" She asks while shoving her hands into her jacket pockets.

"He missed some school, all of a sudden he started following Sam around like a little puppy. Same thing happened with Paul and Jared. Sam keeps giving me this look, like he's waiting for me or something. Kind of starting to freak me out."

"Well, you should just avoid him," she says, shaking her head.

"I try."

The last man standing on the cliff starts to run towards the edge, but this leap of faith is more elegant, he dives into the water perfectly.

From where I am sitting, the area to the left is wide open, a vast amount of land with a lake between and us and the mountains, with the forest encroaching on the right hand side of the muddy road. This is the perfect area for new drivers to test their abilities – unless if someone gets seriously injured.

The two motorbikes are already on the ground, the black one, which Jake has chosen, stands next to me from where I sit on the bed of Bella's truck. And the silver one which is a few feet away where Jake and Bella stand.

"Okay," Bella says, walking up to the silver motorbike that Jacob stands in front of, and climbs on.

"You look scared." Jake acknowledges.

"I'm not." She fits herself comfortably on the bike and eyes Jacob with a serious expression. He smiles and looks down at the handles of the bike.

"Alright." He puts his hands on hers and shows her where everything is at, "Brake," he pats her right hand, "clutch," he pats her left, "and gas."

She turns on the motorbike and it roars to life.

"Ready?" Jake asks, moving off to the side, "Now slowly, release the clutch."

She releases it quickly and jerks forward before stopping the bike. She looks a little shocked, as does Jacob.

"Are you alright?" Jake asks.

"I want to go again." She releases the clutch this time, slowly and drives off down the road. She does fine for a good distance, but then Jake and I notice she starts to swivel a little.

"Hit the brake!" Jake shouts.

But she doesn't, the bike takes a turn and she goes flying off the bike and rolls into a rock.

Immediately, Jake leaps onto the black bikes near me and rides off down to help her, leaving me climbing off the bed of the truck to watch from a distance. He drives down to her, turning the bike to make it land safely as he leaps off. He rushes to her, and they converse, but I can't hear what they are saying. But Jacob takes off his shirt and starts patting the side of her head with the cloth. She must have gotten hurt.

Should I be concern? I don't feel concerned. I don't even feel the slightest bit bothered by her injury. And I have no idea why.

Back at Jacob's house, we patch Bella up, and she heads home. Leaving us alone once again. Billy is off with his friend named Charlie, so Jake and I have the house to ourselves.

I am heating up the last pizza from the day before when Jacob enters the kitchen, leaning against the countertop nearby with his arms crossed. He has a shirt back on now, and his expression is serious.

"So, what did you see?"

I follow suit of his actions by leaning against the counter as well and crossing my arms. "I saw myself running through the woods and then falling off the cliff unintentionally."

"You weren't trying to hurt yourself, or doing it for fun – you were running from something."

"Yeah." I reply.

"I wonder from what."

So do I.

We went to bed early; Jacob didn't sneak into the bedroom like he had been. Parts of me wonder if it's because of Bella. Another part of me believes it had to do what I did today. How I grab a hold of him while we were in the car. Maybe it intimidated him or frightened him or made him feel disgusted. I'm not sure but either answer doesn't make me feel good. I roll myself towards the window and look out into the forest. The shadows play games with my mind, making me think that there are large animals walking through the woods. I close my eyes and try to fall asleep.

The world around me blurs into green and brown as I bolt through the forest, faster than the average human. Behind me something claws and rips at the canopy of the trees as it flies up above, trying to get its way down into the forest where I can escape. 'Faster, faster.' I hear a voice whisper in my mind. It's the same angelic voice I've been hearing. 'Faster, Furiae, run!' But I am running as fast as I can. The creature keeps up with me from above, it screeches so loud that I can feel liquid streaming out of my ears.

And then suddenly, I am no longer in the forest, instead I bombard into a room with wooden floors. Ahead of me stands a figure, dark and covered in shadows all except for a pair of red eyes. It's probably a foot taller than me. "Well, aren't you a pretty one." The voice is clearly a males', it is cold and rough. He reaches out from the shadows, his hand paler than the moon, and his fingers with nails that are sharpened.

"Furiae, come join us," he says icily. "You have what we need."

"No, don't!" Shouts a woman who now appears in the room between the shadow and I. She's on the floor, her right leg broken and blood on her hands. She reaches up to me just as the shadow does. "Don't! You must run!"

"You have the power that we need!" The shadow's voice gets louder, and his hand impatiently waves.

"He killed your father!" The woman yells, tears forming in her eyes. "Don't fall for it!"

"Mother…." The word comes out of my mouth without my control, as do tears start to form in my eyes.

Turning my back to them both, I start to run for the door behind me but the room just expands more and more, the door getting further away as I reach out for it. "May Artemis watch over you!" She calls out.

Mother….Mother!

I'm awoken from someone shaking me from my sleep. Opening my eyes I see Jacob over me, his eyes wide and full of worry, both hands are on my shoulders grasping me tightly. Sweat drips down my forehead and along my cheeks.

"What's wrong?" I ask in a hushed tone.

"You were screaming in your sleep," he gently lets me go but keeps at my side.

I sit up, running my fingers along my hair that is damp from sweat. "A bad dream, I think."

"You think? You were screaming like you were being murdered. Luckily dad isn't here otherwise he might've sent you to the hospital."

"I saw the woman again, the one I told you about from the vision I had. She was trying to get me not to join someone. Some shadow. She said he killed my father." I start to express my nightmare as if it has some real meaning. But maybe it does? Maybe it wasn't a nightmare, but instead a vision and a warning.

"Who killed your father? The shadow?"

"It had red eyes, and it was very pale with clawed nails. He said I have some sort of power."

"Yeah, must be just a nightmare." Jake frowns, but I can see it in his eyes – he's really thinking about it as if it means something.

"Oh hey! Bella invited me out to a movie tonight with another of her friends. Do you want to come? Might get your mind off of the dream."

"Are you sure? This might be your chance with her." I say.

He shrugs, "Not if there is another person coming along. It sounds like it's a guy who's going to be there, so I could use some support. Besides, I am not feeling to well today, you being there might help if something goes on."

What might go on? I raise a brow as I question this in my mind. Either way, I shake my head free of such a thought, "Yeah, I'll go. My clothes should be clean by now."

"Don't know, you look hot wearing my clothes." He nudges me with his elbow and winks at me playfully. Although he's messing around a blush builds on my cheeks. He gets up and heads out the door, allowing me to throw my legs off the bed and get up myself. When I do, I hear a whisper in my head, of the same voice I've been hearing. 'Don't fall for it.' It whispers. The words linger in my mind. Fall for what?