^^ sorry about uploading late...completely lost my marbles. here's chap 2...please enjoy!

-isabell the looser-

"Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place.

If I quit, however, it lasts forever."

--Lance Armstrong--

Burnt Rubber

My own face was the break that slowed me down.

Vaguely, I heard my body hit the tarmac; felt it scrape along the ground pinned beneath the still moving motorcycle. Vaguely, I felt the agony that rolled through me as I lay face first on the ground beneath a white hot engine that seemed to be slowly burning away my skin; I could smell myself charring.

Vaguely, I knew that my story would be posted on the front page of every newspaper in Washington, no matter what Edward or any of them did, and it would show only a helpless girl beneath a smoking motorbike; just another road accident that caused roundabout routes and traffic jams.

Vaguely, somewhere in the farthest reaches of my mind, I heard Jacob crying out to me.

At first he tried to get me free; trying to lift the motorcycle off of me, and then trying to pull me from underneath. Neither worked. The bike it seemed, had imbedded itself in the ground as it twisted and turned, trying to stay upright, and now held my legs prisoner; pinned between heavy metal and sandy pavement. When Jacob tried to heave it off me it caused unexplainable agony in my legs, and he couldn't move it.

I was conscious the entire time.

Jacob, having given up hope, sat beside me on the hot tarmac; stretching himself out beside me and promising that everything would be alright. He didn't touch me.

The ambulance arrived in an explosion of red lights and earsplitting sirens. I tried to breathe slowly to calm myself, but something filled my mouth and I could hardly breathe or talk. The minute the EMTs saw me they grimaced and exchanged glances.

As more and more heavy set men gathered around me I became more and more anxious; how were they going to get me out?!

Three men each grabbed part of the bike, ignoring Jacob's wild yelling, and heaved it upwards. I heard nothing except the scraping of the bike as it began to rise. I opened my mouth to scream, or thought I did, but nothing came out.

Someone shouted encouragement, and another exclaimed: "It's working!" Somewhere in the background I heard Jacob yelling.

"You're hurting her!" Out of the corner of my eye I saw Jake fighting his way forward, fists raised. "Stop it! Can't you see it's hurting her?!"

A policeman shoved him back. "Son, we're doing all we can. They've got to get her out somehow."

Why not in pieces, I thought as the men heaved, You could cut me up, store in a little box to take to the hospital, and then put me back together again like Humpty-Dumpty.

After what seemed like hours they hauled the bike off me and exchanged more glances. They flipped me over and laid me on a backboard on a narrow stretcher. Cervical collars were put around my neck, forcing me to lay still. I was lifted slowly into the ambulance; automatic floor clamps locking the wheels in place.

The moment I was in, an EMT sat beside me and put one of those dental tubes (only much much bigger) in my mouth and began sucking crap out. The door slammed shut, the sirens flicked on, and the ambulance shuddered to a start.

I flinched and the EMT smiled down at me. "It's okay, sweetheart. Everything's going to be alright." I knew it wasn't.

"What's in her mouth?" asked a second EMT, sitting down on the other side and pulling out a clipboard.

The other shrugged. "Blood. Gravel. Teeth."

I convulsed and the EMT glared at the second, shaking his head.

I couldn't talk with the tube in my mouth, and I could only see what lay right in front of me, and most of that was just blurry faces and huge hands moving across my body. I wished I could see what they were doing.

The ambulance turned beneath us, and I had a strange sense of vertigo as the world spun.

They started cutting off my clothes.

Scissors cut through my jeans and underpants.

Was I going to be naked in front of these strangers? One of whom was a man!

I wanted desperately to yell at them to stop, that my legs were fine, that I didn't want my jeans taken off, oh please no!

Nothing seemed to be left of my shirt, and the tiny bits they cut from my feet didn't seem to be enough shoe. Exposed in the air, the road burns seemed to ignite. Something cool and slimy covered the agonizing burn where the exhaust pipe had touched my leg, and I moaned slightly at the pain.

The EMT said, "It's a Jell-Pac. It'll cool off the burn and make it clean so the doctors can look at it."

Another was placed on my shoulder, and the scream that built up inside was almost more painful. Almost.

"How much oxygen you giving her?"

"Fifteen liters…think that's too high?"

"That's what I would give her."

None of what the EMTs said made any sense until the woman leaned over and said gently, "We're going to pour water on you, sweetheart. You've got a lot of junk stuck to you and we've got to get it off. Hold on, this is going to sting."

It stung…bad.

"You're going to feel a sting," the other said, "I'm starting an IV in your left hand."

I felt nothing, and that was almost worst than the pain.

"She's got a wallet," said the first EMT, "Driver's License says this is Isabella Swan. Eighteen."

Bella, I wanted to correct, but I still couldn't talk.

"We're at the ER!" called the driver.

A mad scrambling began around me, and I couldn't make any sense of it. Everything seemed to blur together into one giant mass of white. I vaguely felt a sheet being laid over me, and then I was being lifted out into the cool night air, and I closed my eyes as the pain engulfed me.

please review!!! tell me how you liked it, or not. let me know if i'm doing okay! any pointers on story plot would be greatly appreciated!

thanks, isabell the looser