AN: Sorry it took so long. School has come yet again, and high school I now know is no joyride. This was going to be two separate chapters, but I felt bad. I don't own anything, just the idea. Reviews are appreciated. Enjoy!

All Around Me

Taken…

"Bella, you sure you up to going to school today."
"Yes, dad. Really, I'm fine, see." I stood up from the kitchen chair to enforce my message. Sure I was still weak, but I could manage. It had been a week since I left the hospital, I was just happy knowing I wasn't back in it already. Even if it was only because Charlie wouldn't let me leave the house.

"Okay…" Charlie said a bit hesitant.
"Dad, I'm fine. Have a good day at work okay?"
"Okay…" He repeated, but he listened to me. He leaned closer to me and gave me a reassuring hug, that didn't feel quite right, and left the house.

--

School. Was. Hell.

I know I told Charlie I was fine and physically I was. Mentally, on the other hand, is a whole different story. Crazy thoughts swam through my mind, torturing me all day long.
My head was like a disaster zone.

Edward.
English.
The "invisible" vampire.
"Got you."
Math.
Jacob.
Charlie.
"I will always be alright."
Edward.
Biology.
"I'll be back."
And Edward were only a few. The whole day past in a daze and by the time I realized what went on all day I was at home again lying in my bed, reflecting upon everything.

--

Tap…tap…tap. Taptaptap. I sat straight up on my bed. Taptaptap. I knew that sound.
Outside my window was a familiar shape. Edward! My heart screamed.

I scrambled out of bed. He's back! He's okay! He's back! I ran to the window, my head spinning, and lifted it up. I was so happy at first sight I barely saw his face smiling at me.

Maybe if I had seen his face I would have noticed that the face looking back at me wasn't the one I sought. The eyes were blood red. "Got you, again."

If only I had noticed in time, my scream might have left my throat. But it didn't.

His hand gripped my neck, choking me. His other smothered my face into a white cloth. The fumes in the cloth intoxicated my senses. I used all my force. Nothing happened, his hand didn't even have to try to restrain me, yet there I was, hanging on to life by a string. I couldn't see. I couldn't fight back. "I told you I'd be back." A voice whispered in my ear.

I. Couldn't. Breathe.
I. Couldn't. Scream.
I knew it was over.

Goodbye Charlie. Goodbye Jacob.
The pain was excruciating. Everything was going black.

Goodbye Edward. I promised. I know you're okay, no matter what.
I love you.

Everything was white.

So this is heaven. Nothing like I pictured it. My head was spinning and my breath came ragged through a cut throat.
Doesn't it ever leave? The pain, doesn't it ever go away. My ankles and wrist are tied and swollen. My eyelids are heavy and refuse to open.

Why can I still feel? Why do I feel binding ropes against…everything. Every part of my body was tied down somehow. I felt like I couldn't breathe again. This wasn't supposed to be happening again I had already died…right?

"Who knows how that kid was able to put up with her for so longer? How can he stand it!" A frustrated female voice angrily interrupted my thoughts. Who can that be? I'm not alive…am I?

"That smell, Mark please, only a little one; I'll stop after." The same voice pleads, clearly upset and annoyed, in not getting her way. What's going on? Who's Mark?
"We have to resist." A different voice said – a male voice, Mark's voice. "If that bloody kid can do it so can we." Bloody kid?

The male continued. "She has to stay alive; it's the only way of getting to him. She is his weakness." So…I'm not dead? Again. My god how many times must this happen. Am I immune to dying or something, just feeling all the pain, but never the release from it? I don't want to die, but this is getting annoying.

"Ugh." A tortured cry of desperation escaped the female's lips. What's happening? "Please, Mark just one little bite." Suddenly there was another sound, like a rock smashing into another and a small gasp of pain.

"Now Vanessa, you can't. But…" Mark, I believe, softly added evilly; "there is a few stray hikers not too far. Care to join me?" Vanessa seemed to like this. And I realized what they were going to do.

"Of course." My breath hitched audibly. There was an uncomfortable pause and I finally was able to open my eyes. I was staring at a gray wall. I was…sitting? Yes I was sitting, no tied, down on a chair. In the corner of my eye I could see a metal door.

No one else was in the room, thankfully. But I couldn't move, ropes had my ankles and wrist tied behind me, binding me forcefully to the chair, just as I had thought not too long ago.

There was a sound from behind the metal door. I closed my eyes again and tried to breathe evenly- not that it worked, but I had to try. My heart was making the most noise, even louder than my breath, but nothing I tried could lower my body's natural reaction.

"Did you hear something?" The female, Vanessa?, asked uncertainly.
"I think it's the girl."
"Should we check on her?"
There was no answer, only the sound of the metal door opening in the corner of the room.

My body went rigid. I kept my breaths even as possible, but my heart wouldn't comply. No other noises came. Only the soft tap of a foot, much too close.

BAM! I screamed. Something just ruthlessly slapped me across the face, something that felt like an iron bulldozer. Blood filled my mouth and I coughed and spit it out. My body trembled uncontrollably. More blood in my mouth. I felt my jaw break and another scream escaped my unwilling, broken mouth in pain.

There was a loud intake of breath, but very distant, as something else in this room stopped breathing, just as I thought I was about to. I opened my eyes in utter agony.

An evil chuckle escaped the man, Mark, which was standing right in front of me. His eyes were purely midnight black and glaring straight back at mine. He looked down at me horribly smiling at my pain.
His soft whisper chilled my ear; the voice I never wanted to hear filled my mind again.

"Now, now, now" Mark said with a bittersweet smile as he licked his lips thoughtfully. "Don't play stupid with us, kid. We're professionals.

Vanessa, I could see now, was in the corner of the room, gripping the concrete wall, staring at my blood on the floor and all of the blood covering my body now.

The man moved so fast I barely saw it, his hand came up suddenly and grinned my chin, violently, destroying any bones there and releasing blood with his scratches along my face.
Mark twisted my face to look him right. I screamed again and he smirked in pleasure. My wrist tore inside the bindings behind me in pain as I tried to escape it.

"We could hear your heart, thumping like that from miles away. You're a terrible actress." He held my face tighter, making sure I looked right into those bottomless pits and I screamed again not only in pain, but my body reacted to the comment too. Edward.

Vanessa seemed to regain control of herself and let go of the wall, through she still took not one breath. "Hope you're comfortable." She said as tears escaped my shaking body. "Because this is as good as it's going to get for you." Now she looked at Mark, whose black eyes were still locked on mine.

"Let's leave her; I can't stand the smell in here."
Still looking straight at my face and neck Mark held up his hand and answered her.
"Wait, you go. I think I'm going to have a little fun with our guest."

"Mark, we have specific instructions. The girl is no use to us dead." Vanessa said her hand now on the door. My body shuddered violently at this answer, which only hurt me more but I bit back my gasp and scream. Even fighting back tears hurt me.

"Oh, I don't plan on killing her..." He face never left mine and I heard Vanessa leave the room as I froze with fear because he had not finished his sentence yet.

"Just making her wish she was dead."
Then he was gone. He just vanished into thin air.

I felt something brush against my exposed lower back, beside my screaming wrists. I felt something pushing up the back of my shirt and I gasped frighten, at the unseen force, which I thought I heard smirk back at this. Something, a hand, I thought. A hand I couldn't see was pulling my ripped, bloody jeans.

Something was right beside my face. Breathing down my neck. "I'm your worst nightmare." Mark's voice whispered.

--

Vanessa shut the door behind her. She knew what Mark was going to do and went to sit at the small kitchen table to wait.
The second she sat down, Vanessa heard tearing, of fabric, she believed, and the girls bloodcurdling scream.

Screams. Screams, she thought. He's going to kill her. The girls tortured cries filled her mind. Vanessa tried not to concentrate on the screams or tormented cries escaping the room behind her. Minutes passed.

Abruptly, it went quite. She thought it was over, and she was thankful she could take it much longer. It secretly killed her inside whenever this happened, but Mark must never know that. In desperation to escape it she had almost broken the table in half, but again thankfully it was quite now.

She thought too soon. One final agonized high-pitched scream escaped, louder and longer than all the others. Minutes passed.

Finally Mark exited the room, wearing a smirk. "Well, I had fun. Let's go."

Vanessa followed, obediently. Yet she cringed as she passed the metal door and painful, distressed, sobs that were trying so hard to be hidden reached her ears.

AN: Love it? Hate it? Review it!

harrysgrll