A/N: Guys, you are amazing! I got so many lovely reviews for the last chapter, I'm still feeling a little bit overwhelmed. Thank you so much! And those who added Lifelines to their favourites lists/put it on story alert/added me to their favourite authors/author alert lists, thank you, thank you, thank you. That means just as much to me as reviews do!

And nobody actually came after me with pitchforks, though I saw one or two. Unfortunately, I have a feeling that this will change after you've had a chance to read this chapter. Really, I'm not naturally a mean person. And I don't even like cliffhangers myself. But it's so tempting… Oh well, I'm rambling. Next chapter will be up sometime next week, but I might not get a chance to upload it until Sunday.

Rating: I have decided not to change the rating for now. If you feel that it should be changed, please let me know. I hope I'm just being over cautious.

Enjoy!

A special thank you to my amazing beta KayMarieXW, who always makes the time to read what I send her, no matter how busy she is. Thank you!

Recap: Bella and Edward have arrived at Helena. Bella has been taken prisoner as Alice has foreseen, but managed to escape, hoping it would make their plan more believable. Meanwhile Edward has his own problems to deal with. Let's see how Bella is doing.

Disclaimer: The Twilight Saga is property of Stephenie Meyer. I'm only borrowing.

40. SHOWTIME, PART 2

BELLA

We draw our strength from the very despair in which we have been forced to live. We shall endure.

Cesar Chavez

I was hopelessly lost.

Not lost in the sense that I would never ever find home again. If I started running and kept going, I'd eventually get back to civilisation—and an airport or at the very least access to a map. But I had absolutely no idea where I was right now, although we had looked up the area around Helena on Google Maps. There had even been a PowerPoint Presentation when Jasper and Eleazar first presented their plan to us. Clearly, that had been a waste of time, as far as I was concerned.

I couldn't even tell which direction I was headed. The sky was practically black and I couldn't make out the sun behind the rolling clouds. Also, vampires seemed to have no innate sense of direction, but that might have been just me. I guess I had expected them to have an inner compass, like a pigeon. Now that would have come in handy.

I huffed as I trudged on. Some vampire I was.

It was also raining buckets, which made it impossible to rely on my sense of smell. The wet forest smelled amazing, each smell somehow amplified: the earth—or mud, I guess, was a better description for the murky slush I was walking through—smelled richer, the pine trees spicier, the trees woodsier. But that was it. Every other scent, animal, human or vampire, had been washed away by the rain.

It was frustrating.

At least I couldn't get cold, although I was drenched to the bone. My hair was plastered against my scalp and muddy water was seeping into my boots, which squeaked with every step. The forest floor had turned into a mud pit. I seemed to have unintentionally shaken off my pursuers though I wondered why. I wasn't exactly moving quietly—that was kind of hard when you were sloshing through two inches of mud—and could probably be heard from three miles away, despite the pounding rain. But maybe they hadn't been trying very hard. Maybe they'd been too busy insulting each other at the top of their lungs, like they had done after scrambling out of the car after me—tearing it to shreds in the process, by the sound of it.

"This sucks," I muttered, stomping my foot to vent my frustration. Mud splashed over my jeans up to my thighs. Great. God, I hoped that everything would still work out as Alice had foreseen, meaning that hopefully Victoria's vampires would find me soon. This definitely wasn't what I had had in mind when I decided to run. At least I wasn't going in circles, thanks to my eidetic memory. That would have been beyond embarrassing and I had had enough embarrassment in my human life to last me two decades.

As soon as I had realised that I was alone, I had wanted to call Alice, but I hadn't even gotten to find out whether or not I had reception. The display of my cell phone was broken, fractures stretching across it like a spider web, which had probably happened when I was thrown into the car. I couldn't even switch it on.

I was walking uphill now, slipping and sliding with every step. I didn't fall, but I wobbled ungracefully as I fought to keep my balance. This was ridiculous. I was a vampire, for crying out loud. Unfortunately, the laws of physics seemed pretty unimpressed by that. I had been told, by Edward mostly, that I moved quite gracefully, even for a vampire. If he could have seen me now, he probably would have changed his mind.

Finally, I reached the top. Climbing the highest tree for a better vantage point, I searched for the farmhouse Alice had seen in her vision and that had to be around here somewhere. But all I could see was a sea of trees stretching for miles and miles and miles, and more hills. Ragged mountains lined the horizon, barely visible through the rain. Angrily, I brushed my hair out of my eyes. I had lost my barrette somewhere along the way. At least now that it was wet, it didn't blow around my face anymore.

I sighed, my shoulders sagging a little. "Okay, this is getting you nowhere, Bella," I said to myself. I drew a deep, calming breath and counted to ten. When that didn't help, I tried counting to a hundred. After that I felt a little better. I had to keep going; that was the only thing I could do. Sooner or later Victoria's vampires would track me down. Hopefully.

My coat hung in tatters, so I took it off and draped it across the branches before I slid back down. Maybe that would make finding me a little easier.

The rain began to ease off a little and the thunderstorm Alice had predicted had passed ten minutes ago. I turned right and then left, deliberating which way to go, then decided that it didn't really matter and stalked off. Actually escaping instead of just pretending to would have been much, much easier. I could have been halfway to Alaska by now.

My thoughts drifted off to Edward. Was he already at the rendezvous point and waiting for the others? I had no idea what time it was—vampires seemed to have no internal clock either and I didn't have a watch. For that I had my cell phone.

Ha ha.

Although I knew that it was better that Edward wasn't here, I couldn't help but wish that he was, slipping and sliding through the mud with me. I smiled despite my shitty mood. That was a nice picture, even though I couldn't really imagine Edward slipping up.

You really shouldn't be thinking about things like that right now, I told myself as I set off again. You need to focus. You're about to face Victoria!

The thought was sobering.

Downhill I took the direct route—I jumped. I made it to the foot of the hill in one bound and my legs promptly disappeared to the ankle in mud. I pulled my feet out with a slurping noise. If I survived this, then Alice would definitely kill me: the boots were brand new. Apparently, she had not anticipated mud baths in my future when she picked them out for me.

I was running now. Strangely enough, the slippery ground suddenly wasn't that big a problem anymore, now that I was moving faster than before. It barely slowed me down. Unfortunately, I couldn't keep running forever; I was covering ground too quickly and I couldn't leave the area. This might not have been the best idea I had ever had. Sure, if I hadn't run, the vampires who'd taken me probably would have gotten suspicious. Or maybe not, given how caught up in their personal problem they had seemed. Still, staying in Montana when I should have been halfway across the country by now, covering my tracks as I went, wasn't exactly inconspicuous. Hopefully, when Victoria's vampires finally caught up with me, they'd be so happy that they'd overlook the fact that I hadn't been trying very hard to get away.

I sighed. I needn't have worried about Edward accidentally screwing up the plan—I was doing a pretty good job on my own. I really should have thought this through more thoroughly.

Thirty minutes and roughly twenty miles later I finally caught a break. I was used to the forest being silent when I was hunting—the animals either fled or hid, if they knew what was good for them. But the birds rarely did, sensing that I was no real danger for them. With the rain slowing down to a faint drizzle, the birds had started singing again and up until a moment ago I had also heard them hopping around in the trees above me, their tiny claws scratching the branches.

Now there was only complete and utter silence and I was instantly on edge. The silence felt unnatural, tense somehow. As if the animals had collectively decided that this was some sort of hot zone. A delicate shiver ran down my spine and I stiffened as the wind, now barely a gentle breeze, changed direction. Vampire. The scent wasn't strong at all, but it was there and despite my brain's persistent warning that the unfamiliar scent could mean danger, I felt strangely relieved. I stopped, turning a few times to find out where exactly the scent was coming from. Then I could figure out how to alert them to the fact that I was here without being too obvious about it.

I should have stuck with the original plan.

As I took a hesitant step forward, another breeze rustled through the trees, showering me with water and needles, and suddenly, for a brief moment, the scent was stronger. Straight ahead, I decided, and whosever scent it is, is still fairly close and not moving, otherwise the air wouldn't still taste like him—or her. Scents dissipated into the air within minutes if its source didn't remain in one place.

Crouching low to the ground, I crept forward very, very slowly so that I wouldn't make too much noise. When the scent grew stronger, I paused. I saw a glimmer of brilliant white between the green and brown of the trees about a mile away and, still a little farther out, patches of duller white that had a greyish tinge to them. Could that be the farmhouse Alice had seen? She hadn't described it to me so I had no idea what it looked like. But what else could it be? Besides, there was definitely at least one vampire around: the glimmer of white, gone when I looked for it again, had been so glaringly brilliant that it couldn't possibly belong to anything else.

Quietly, I retreated without turning around, slipping back into the scrub that crackled softly. If they caught me staring, they'd wonder why I hadn't taken off the second I had scented them. Unless they thought I was stupid of course. Or that I had a death wish. Either would certainly explain why I was still around.

Well, I thought with morbid humour, and they wouldn't even be wrong. This is stupid. Too late for regrets now though. Besides, it wasn't like we had a choice. If there was another option, one that didn't require me to go on this crazy mission all by myself, we'd take it in a heartbeat. But there wasn't, so we had to work with what we had and here I was.

In my peripheral vision, I caught movement in the trees to my left, white slipping through the green like a ghost. That was my cue. I shot up and, spinning around, dashed off without pausing to confirm that what I had seen was actually a vampire. Now that I was being pursued again, I couldn't keep the fear shut out like before anymore. It slithered around the edges of my mind, pushing me to run faster than I had ever run before. Splash. Splash. Every step echoed painfully loud in the silence of the forest; at least it seemed that way to my sensitive ears. A human might never have heard me. My snarled mass of hair whipped out behind me; it got caught on bushes and low-hanging branches that broke off with a gunshot-like snap when I tore free.

I could hear my pursuer now, mud sloshing violently as he raced after me. At least I wasn't the only one having trouble moving quietly in the swamp that was this forest. If I never saw another tree again, it would be too soon.

Images of Alice's vision returned with the fear and although I tried to focus solely on the ground underneath my feet, the trees flying by, the warm spray of rain on my skin, it was impossible push it back into the depths of my mind. I wish I hadn't seen it in Edward's thoughts. Alice's description, delivered in a flat, emotionless voice, had been horrible to hear—but actually seeing it was much, much worse because although I knew what was going to happen, there was nothing I could do about it. The faintest sliver of hope remained that maybe it wouldn't come true. That maybe, by running, I had changed things so much that the future Alice had seen would never happen now. But I doubted it. If anything, my actions would probably only make what would happen ten times worse.

In Alice's vision, I was in a small room. The wooden floor was nearly black with mould and the walls, once baby blue, were mostly a faded grey. Two male vampires were holding me down, each gripping one of my arms, forcing me to kneel on the floor in a position that was horribly submissive and degrading. One was the vampire I had only briefly glimpsed at the airport before he had snatched me. The other, tall and with a dark tinge to his vampiric pallor, his black hair cropped militarily short, I hadn't met yet. They had started with my hands. Each finger broke off with a sickening crack. Hopefully, it wouldn't hurt much; I hadn't even noticed when my arm had been broken off until after it was flopping on the floor. However, putting it back on had hurt and so would what they were going to do. Over and over and over again. I thought that I'd be able to handle the pain, but what if I was wrong? What if it took Victoria hours to get here? How long would I be able to stay strong?

The reminder that I was doing this completely voluntarily wasn't much comfort.

I suddenly noticed how quiet it was. No sloshing mud. No rustling leaves. No whispering sounds of a vampire's passage. In fact, there were no sounds at all except doe the steady drip drip drip of dripping water and the occasional noise in the undergrowth caused by rodents scurrying away. Had the vampire given up? That wouldn't be good because I could hardly go back now.

I risked a quick glance over my shoulder, trying to spot a glimpse of white… The moment I turned my head something moved into my path; I sensed it more than I actually saw it. I was still running at top speed and although dug my heels into the ground the second I caught the movement in my peripheral vision, it was too late. I was too fast and the ground too slippery and the vampire was directly in front of me.

I crashed into him with the force of a wrecking ball, but he didn't budge an inch. He didn't even flinch. He just stood there unmoving, head cocked slightly to the side, watching with red eyes as the force of impact sent me flying. Twisting in midair, I managed to land land on my feet—and slipped.

He caught me before I hit the ground.

His eyes stared into mine with a hint of curiosity as he hovered above me, his hands on the small of my back. He had a handsome face—square, with high cheek bones, full lips that were curved into a polite smile and a perfectly straight nose. Light brown hair fell into his forehead. Only the look in his eyes was unsettling. Cold and hard and cruel and a disturbing contrast to the kind expression on his face. And strangely familiar.

As his gaze slowly wandered across my body, something else flickered in his eyes. Hunger. When his eyes found mine again, I had to force myself not to look away. Slowly, he pulled me up, then he stepped away, a frown on his face. I should have turned around and run like hell, but fear kept me frozen in place.

"Interesting," he said eventually, with faint amusement. His voice, a deep baritone, was a pleasant as his face, but seemed at odds with his build—he was very slender and not very tall. His shirt, at some point white, was as covered with mud as my own clothes, as were his black pants. His blue tie was blotched and hung crooked. His black shiny shoes were badly scratched and ruined beyond repair. Not exactly the kind of clothes suitable for running.

I knew with absolute certainty that he hadn't been in any of Alice's visions because she had described every vampire she had seen. Was that a good thing or a bad thing? Given the disturbing look in his eyes, I was leaning towards the latter.

I should never have run.

"You must be Bella," he said pleasantly, but now there was something in his voice, ill-concealed excitement, that sent a shiver down a spine.

I clenched my hands into fists and instantly regretted it when his smile widened. My stomach knotted in paralysing terror. My instincts were screaming at me to run, but I couldn't move. The fear seemed to override my brain's orders to my limbs.

His disturbing gaze was fixed on me and although he showed no outward sign of it, I was sure that he revelled in my terror. After a moment he reached out his hand and gave me an encouraging nod when I didn't take it immediately.

My eyes slid to his hand, then back to his face. He was still smiling.

"I don't bite," he chuckled. If not for the expression in his eyes, he might have fooled me, made me think he was harmless. But he wasn't. This was a predator through and through and he was on the hunt. Suddenly, I remembered why the look in his eyes seemed so familiar. James. He reminded me of James.

Is this Craig?

For a moment we stared at each other, his hand hovering between us.

"So," he said after a moment, still suppressed amusement in his voice. "Jackson and Ian are pissed that you gave them the slip." He frowned. "Though I imagine that's more because of what you did to Jackson's car and not really because you actually escaped. I completely understand why you had to." He grinned. "Make it less obvious that you being here is not a coincidence and all that."

My breath caught in my throat. What? What was he saying? That he knew why I was here? But how? Was it my fault? Or was he only guessing? Please let him only be guessing! Otherwise I'd be royally screwed.

"I have no idea what you're talking about," I grated. "And I'd really like to know what the hell is going on here. I don't even know you." On the last word, my voice broke. Yes, that would definitely convince him.

His grin widened. He was clearly enjoying himself. "I think you're a fairly sensible woman, Bella. So why don't you just drop the act and come with me? The others would just love to find out what all the fuss has been about. Also, maybe you can help me out. Can you tell me what happened to Austin? You see, when I went to Anchorage this morning to check up on him, I was surprised to find that he seemed to have vanished and since he was so smitten with the girl, I doubt that he just took off. So any idea as to where he is?"

I fought to keep my face even and expressionless, but my shock must have shown because his eyes hardened and his grin turned into a terrifying grimace. His bared teeth looked unnaturally white in the dull light. I took an automatic step back and he followed, hand still outstretched.

"Come on." He jerked his chin at his hand, but he was looking at something over my head.

I didn't look up. I knew what I was going to see. More vampires, who'd snuck up on me while I had been distracted.

I placed my hand in his, glad that I had enough self-control left to keep my fingers from trembling. Pull yourself together, I told myself, but even my mental voice sounded weak and feeble. What little control over this situation I had left was quickly slipping out of my grasp.

For a moment the vampire smiled at me and I relaxed ever so slightly—then he yanked me forward so hard that I tripped over my own feet and stumbled directly into his arms. Twisting my arm behind my back, he spun me around and pressed me against his chest. Grabbing my left wrist, he pulled my free arm behind my back as well. I strained in his grip as self-preservation finally won out against the paralysing panic, but every time I tried to get away from him and wrench my arms free, his grip tightened.

"Behave," he said very softly and pulled me closer still. Then I felt his lips brush across the back of my neck and my stomach turned. My breath quickened as panic took over again. My mind was a mess of muddled, jumbled thoughts. Get out get out get out get out, was all I could think, the only thought my mind seemed capable of holding at the moment. I couldn't think, couldn't shake off the panic to formulate a new plan of action, to think of something—anything—that would get me out of here unharmed. Because one thing became painfully clear as the vampire started pushing me forward, back the way I had come from. Alice's vision was no longer valid. They knew why I was here, either because of my stupid fake escape or because Austin was 'missing'—or because of both—and that meant that the future Alice had seen would no longer come true. It also meant that Victoria probably already knew about our idiotic attempt to lure her into a trap, but right now I couldn't bring myself to worry about that. I had to get out before he hurt me because something told me that whatever his plans for me were, it was going to be much, much worse than what Alice had seen in her original vision.

The vampires, invisible up until a moment ago, fell in beside us. They were both male and I recognised neither from Alice's description. They didn't talk to each other or address the vampire holding me. In fact, it almost seemed as if they were trying desperately to avoid making eye contact. My heart sank. What had he done to them that they were so intimidated by him?

"I am Craig, by the way," he said after a while, conforming my earlier suspicion.

"I figured," I managed. My voice sounded strangled.

He chuckled. "So I do have a reputation?"

I didn't answer and he didn't ask again. I merely felt him shrug.

It was slow-going as we were moving only at a moderate human speed, yet to me it only felt like seconds until the forest began to thin and light seeped through the trees. I caught glimpses of something white and dirty blue that quickly morphed into more distinct shaped as we got closer—the farmhouse Alice had seen. It sat at the far end of a large clearing, looking as dilapidated as Alice had described it to me. Except for a single patch beside the front door which had probably been protected by the sagging greenish roof of a tiny porch, the white paint had almost completely peeled off and the brown wood underneath was black with mould. Ivy crawled up one side, hiding the damage the building had sustained over time. The paint on the window frames had faded from dark blue to dirty grey; only the door frame still had its original colour. One window still had glass in it, so dirty that it was practically blind. The others were empty. The slanting roof was sagging dangerously and would probably cave in soon. A gravel road snaked around the house, opening into a driveway where the black SUV parked, a gaping hole in its side. The remains of a fence framed the clearing. The rain had plastered the waist-high yellow grass flat on the ground. The farmhouse had clearly been abandoned a very, very long time ago, but the original occupants had left behind an oppressive sense of despair and sadness.

I saw at least five vampires at first glance. The two males from the airport were standing beside the SUV, shouting at each other as they assessed the damage. Another male stepped out of the house at our approach, looking annoyed. Two females were sitting next to each other on the broken fence, staring at me curiously and at the same time guarded, as if they were afraid their expressions would betray thoughts they'd rather keep to themselves. After getting a good look at me, they exchanged a quick glance and I thought I saw sympathy on their faces, and relief.

The implication made my mouth go dry.

Everything had been for nothing. The plan had failed—Victoria knew why I was here. She'd never show up now and she'd make us pay for trying to trick her. There was no way in hell things would still work out the way we had planned. We'd try to make it better and had ended up making it worse. And I was at the mercy of a sociopathic vampire who was probably already thinking about different ways to torture me.

Had Alice seen what was going on? Were they coming to rescue me? Alice's original vision had been set sometime in the evening and normally they'd still be in Anchorage, but surely they had left the moment Alice had seen what would happen. Eight vampires were hardly a challenge, especially with Jake and Sam's packs to help.

I desperately clung to that thought as Craig led me into the building.

None of the vampires followed us.

A/N: So? Ideas? Comments? Pitchforks? Please, please, please review! I love hearing what you think. Everyone who reviews will get a teaser for the next chapter! I'll even try to send them out sooner than an hour before I post the whole chapter…