Chapter 2:

Love Haunts Us All

Bella's eyes grew wide, and her mouth dropped open. She stumbled back a step, falling backwards and sliding back down the path a ways. She stopped her descent by grabbing onto the nearest tree and holding on.

She laid there for a minute, thinking about what she had seen. Eventually, she got up and made her way to the top again.

But when she got there, it wasn't there. She would have sworn that it had really been there. But it wasn't there now, and there were no tracks to prove it.

Slowly, Bella sat down, a tear making its painstakingly slow way down her face. She brought her knees up to her chest and wrapped her arms around her legs, resting her chin on her knees. She sat like that for a while, dripping wet, tears running down her face, until it began to rain.

As the droplets splattered onto the ground around her, occasionally hitting her, Bella tilted her head back, letting the drops fall on her face as she stared at the dark clouds above her.

"Why?" she growled. "Why torture me like this? Haven't you had your fill of making me hurt?" Her sight was blurring, full of unshed tears. She was angry, now, and she wiped her hand across her face, trying to wipe away her tears. "Haven't you hurt me enough?! Just leave me alone!"

Bella stood up, still staring at the sky. "Wherever you are," she yelled, "just stay there! You've hurt me just fine from there already! So just stay away!" Bella immediately turned and fled down the path, heading for her truck.

In the surrounding forest, a very pale figure raised from its crouch, staring after Bella as she ran from its sight. Its eyes were a deep black color, and were slightly widened after hearing the girl shout angrily at the sky.

It heard Bella get in her truck a few minutes later, and the figure turned and headed for Bella's house. On the way there, it was deep in thought about what Bella had said. It found a convenient vantage point and crouched there, waiting for the delicious-smelling girl to arrive at her home.

Bella arrived, still soaking wet, about ten minutes later, the sound of her truck's engine preceding her. She slid off the seat, slamming the door as she turned to approach her house door. She reached under the eave for the key, unlocking the door before replacing the key. She slammed the door behind her, trudging up the steps to the bathroom.

She slipped out of her wet clothes, leaving them on the tiled floor as she stepped into the shower. She let the warm water wash over her, erasing all traces of the cold and wet.



Half an hour later, Bella walked out of the bathroom, wrapped in a towel, her wet clothes in hand. She walked down to the washer and threw them in before tramping back up the stairs to her room. She threw on an old t-shirt and her favorite sweats. Bella picked up a novel at random and plopped down on her bed, putting her headphones on and turning her CD player on. She turned the volume to max, letting the notes wash over her as she flipped through the pages of a book she'd read twenty times already.

Bella looked up after she noticed that it was quiet. Oh, she thought to herself. The CD's already played through. She slipped off her headphones and glanced at the glowing numbers of her alarm clock. It said 4:30. She stared out her window at the rain coming down in sheets. When she glanced at her clock again, it said 4:52. I need something else in my life, she thought as she got up from her bed, almost tripping as she went down the stairs.

Bella made it to the kitchen in one piece, and decided that dinner tonight would be fairly simple. She pulled out a carton of eggs and a frying pan, intending to make fried eggs.

Bella sat her plate on the table and got a glass of milk to go with it. As she ate, she stared out the window again. Rain always put her in a bad mood. She scowled as she finished and put her dishes in the sink, going back up to her room afterwards.

The figure had crept closer to the house during the time that Bella had been there. Now, it was perched in the tree outside her room's window. It watched as Bella resumed her reading until her father got home, at which point she went downstairs again and cooked him dinner. When he finished his dinner, Bella washed his dishes, as well as the dishes she'd used earlier. Then she went upstairs for the final time that day and got ready for bed.

As Bella lay in her bed, sleeping, the figure inched her window open and crept inside.