Forks was boring Bella to tears, so she was going to search for the town's only allegedly haunted house to break the tedium. She sat in her ancient truck listening to rambling radio advertisements interspersed with blasts of white noise. As she reached to turn down the volume, she hit a particularly bumpy patch of dirt road and accidentally switched on the turn signal as she hurried to get both hands back on the wheel.

Flustered, she over-corrected. The truck swerved too far to one side. She felt rather than saw the moment the left front tire dropped from level ground into a mucky ditch.

"No, no, no… Come on!"

She tired to coax it out, easing her foot onto the gas pedal, babying it for several minutes, but the old red dinosaur wasn't budging. Finally she gave in to frustration and floored it. That had about as much impact on the mud as one would expect.

She slammed her hands down on the steering wheel in defeat, glaring at herself in the rear-view mirror. "Why did you do that?" In her thoughts, she berated herself.

Bella climbed out to inspect the damage. It was wedged in even more deeply than she feared. She would have to call Charlie. There was no getting around it.

She dug the phone out of the pocket of her faded jeans and scrolled through her contacts to find his name. She didn't have the number memorized. Until recently, she and Charlie hadn't attempted to talk very often.

It rang four times before he picked up. "Hi, Bells."

"Hey, Char—Dad." She looked at the dirty, stuck tire, her face getting hot. She stalled. "Are the fish biting?"

"Not a one. Billy and I called it quits bout an hour ago."

Crap. "Billy's not with you now, is he?"

"No. Why?"

"Just, uh..." Bella drew in a deep breath. "I got the truck stuck. In the mud. I don't want him to regret selling it to you."

Charlie's voice was no longer casual. "Are you alright?"

"I'm fine. I'm gonna need a ride, but I'm not, you know, hurt or anything."

"Good. That's good. Where'd you get stuck?"

"It's on the side of the dirt road that branches off Timber Street. The one that's kind of hidden by all the trees."

There was a pause. "There's nothing down that way."

Bella shuffled her muddy sneakers back in forth in the tall grass on the other side of the ditch. "No, I know. I was actually looking for the old Cullen place."

"Them kids at school trying to scare you off already, huh?"

"Just heard a few ghost stories."

"Wouldn't have pegged you for the superstitious type, Bell."

"I'm not." Bella gave up on her shoes, peering ahead into the woods. As if on cue, a flash of bright white caught her eye, a harsh and sudden departure from the otherwise uninterrupted drapery of solid green. "Mom went through a spiritualist phase about a year ago. It… kind of got me curious about all that stuff. Even if I remain a skeptic."

"Ha." Charlie's short laugh was a little wistful. "Sounds like Renee. Well, I'll head that way, then. Wait in the truck. When I get there, we'll figure if we have to call in some reinforcements."

"'Kay. Thanks, Dad."

"Yep."

Bella ended the call without any intention of getting back inside the truck. At least not before she figured out what she'd glimpsed between the trees.

Keeping her phone in her hand just in case she needed to call for help, she crept slowly forward. It was dim beneath the canopy of heavy, waterlogged leaves. The grass was incredibly long and thick in places. She had to take great care not to get her feet tangled in unruly snarls or stumble over unearthed roots.

It was moments like this that made her miss Arizona the most.