Stolen

By: Skyela Rickman-Walters

Disclaimer: I do not in any way own any of the Twilight Saga. It belongs to Stephenie Meyer. They only thing I own is the story plot and a few original characters I have created.

A/n: This story takes place during New Moon, after Bella had her motorcycle accident and had to get seven stitches. She is on her way to hang out with Jacob.

A/n: This chapter and a few to follow, will completely revolve around Bella and what is happening to her. There may be little glimpses of some other characters, but for the most part this IS Bella's story. Thank you.

Chapter 6: An Ordinary Day

Bella's POV

March 2nd 2006

Once morning came and Tilly and Vince had left for the day, 'Madelyn' finally stopped crying. We stared at each other from across the basement, my eyes watchful and hesitant, hers fearful and watery. I couldn't help but feel for her. Her sobs sounded broken and empty; they reminded me of myself several months ago when he left. Something tugged at my heart as I remembered the cold forest floor on my back, but I pushed it away and looked into this girl's eyes.

They were blue and all seeing. They reminded me too much of the eyes I had gazed into since the moment of my birth. Those eyes had seen me through a lot; my first steps, my first words. They followed me on my first day of kindergarten and stared at me with such sadness as I boarded the plane to Forks last year. I had to fight back a sob as memories of my mother rushed forward, nearly crushing me from their intensity. I swallowed hard, pushed my fists into my eyes and took a deep breath to calm myself. I decided that I would have to look above her eyes until I was ready for the swell of pain again.

"You're-you're that Swan girl," 'Madelyn' said suddenly. "The one who disappeared from Forks."

So I was known as 'that Swan girl' now. Huh. I tried to sit up a little bit better, but my arm was still handcuffed to the heater. Slumping back against the cool metal, I watched as 'Madelyn' inched towards me, slowly at first. She nervously wringed her hands together, waiting for me to speak.

"Yeah," I replied softly. "And it's Bella, please."

"Sorry," she said sheepishly. Her eyes widened as if she had just realized something important. "Oh." 'Madelyn' reached up to her hair and pulled out a bobby pin. She then inched towards me again and jabbed the pin up into the cuff. It snapped open and I was free.

"Thanks," I mumbled, rubbing my wrist. "Neat trick."

"My brother is a magician…he taught me how to do a couple things…"

There was an awkward silence between us as if someone had just realized a horrible truth about the other. I could tell Brendelyn was thinking that she'd probably never see her brother again. I redirected my attention towards the different shadows on the cement wall.

"My name-my real name-well, its Brendelyn…" the girl whispered softly.

I looked up at Brendelyn in awe. Well that's weird-our fake names kind of sound like our real names. Isabella, Isabelle. Brendelyn, Madelyn. Olivia, Lydia…

"Do you know where we are?" I asked. I felt euphoric, as I became aware of the fact that where we were being held captive would no longer be a mystery to me.

Brendelyn's face screwed up as she thought. Her wrinkled nose reminded me of a rabbit's. "No, no I don't know. I was kinda hoping that, well…maybe you knew where we are."

Damn, I thought. The excitement that was once inside me deflated almost instantly-as if it needed a moment to realize that Brendelyn was telling the truth.

"I'm sorry!" Brendelyn said at once, her voice sounding almost fearful at my change of expression. "I-I wish I did know…I really do…"

"It's okay," I told her, standing up on my own two feet. My head throbbed as my blood pulsed through my body, but I suppressed the pain. "Do you remember anything?"

"Yeah!" Brendelyn said quickly, jolting up as if she had been touched by some unseen electric current. "I-I was asleep in my room when I was woken up by this awful scratching noise-as if something was being torn in two or something. I got out of bed, wandered down the hall and-" She clapped her hands together, causing me to jump in surprise. "And then something was pulled over my head. I didn't have time to scream."

"Did it take you long to get here? Where are you from?" I don't know why it felt like where she was from was important information. Maybe I could figure out where we were by how long it took Brendelyn to get here."

Brendelyn blew out a lot of air as she thought. I could tell she was mentally counting in her head, trying to decide how many hours it took to get here.

"Well, I'm from Flagstaff-"

"Arizona? Are we in Arizona?" I asked excitedly, my heart practically skipping a beat in my chest.

"Well, I don't think so…" Brendelyn sounded unsure. She tapped her chin with her finger thoughtfully. "It took hours to get here, maybe even days."

I deflated for the second time that morning. Damnit again.

"I'm sorry," Brendelyn apologized sadly, looking distraught. "I really wish I knew where we were, I really do!"

"Don't worry about it," I said in a somewhat emotionless voice. I gently pushed past her as I made my way towards the stairs. Brendelyn stayed rooted to where she stood. I placed my hands on my hips and cleared my throat. "Come on, Brendelyn. We've got work to do."

"Work?" Brendelyn looked puzzled, but she followed me any way.

And so, we began to clean bit by bit. I caught Brendelyn staring at my swollen face, but ignored her glances and her pushy eyes. Over the course of the morning, I learned that Brendelyn was sixteen, she played on her high school varsity basketball team and she danced. I chuckled a little bit and told her that I had taken dance lessons myself as a little girl, but didn't have the coordination of a ballerina.

"Did you fall?" she asked abruptly as I scrubbed the skin with the burning bleach. I turned to look at her only to find her staring at my face again. I sighed and looked at my reflection in the toaster. My cheek was about the size of a softball; black and blue discolored my pale skin and the hollow of my eye socket looked purple and swollen. I could tell that Brendelyn was slowly putting two and two together by my prolonged silence, but I didn't want to be the first to tell her what had happened. By the way she reacted last night when she had arrived, I was sure she'd be put into a panic once again.

"No." My voice was slow and withdrawn as I tried to draw attention away from my face. I didn't have to say anything else. I watched out of the corner of my good eye as Brendelyn swallowed hard and returned to staring at the floor, her hand clenched tightly around the scrub brush, slowly rotating in circles.

I bit my lip slowly went to polish Tilly's finest silverware. My footsteps were slow and sluggish as they dragged against the wood. I felt terrible having to introduce Brendelyn to everything this way. Olivia had done such a good job, keeping me calm and level headed. She was a natural, she was motherly and nurturing. I just sucked.

Something creaked behind me and I heard Brendelyn gasp. I spun around quickly, ready to hold my ground if need be. But there was no intruder, no Vince or Tilly. Not even sweet Nicky. Instead my eyes met Olivia's green ones and she knew instantly how I felt. I adverted my attention to the silverware as Olivia introduced herself to Brendelyn.

"You're huge!" Brendelyn's voice was loud with surprise. I winced awkwardly and held my breath as I wondered how Olivia would respond to Brendelyn's blunt remark.

"I am eight months pregnant," she replied, nonchalantly as if Brendelyn had casually remarked about the weather.

"But-but you're like-" Brendelyn became two sheets paler than what she was originally as she stared at Olivia in disbelief. "You're-you're…oh my God…"

"I know I'm fifteen," Olivia said, placing her hands on Brendelyn's shoulders to brace her. "I've already had a baby though. See?" Olivia pointed to Nicky as he raced through the doorway. Brendelyn blanched.

"But-he's…" Her eyes rolled dangerously and her body swayed drunkenly. "Oh, I think I have to sit down…"

Olivia helped her to a chair and I went to get a glass of water. Brendelyn chugged the water and slammed the glass against the table. Instantly she began to massage her temples with her finger tips and mumbling incoherently. Olivia and I exchanged worried looks.

"I heard her when she came in last night," Olivia whispered out of the corner of her mouth. I nodded, my eyes still locked on the top of Brendelyn's head. "She's really upset, isn't she?"

I shot Olivia a look that said, 'Well duh!' and Olivia understood the facial expression. Olivia watched her with anxious eyes for a few more moments before looking back up to meet my apprehensive gaze.

"Do I really look that fat?"

I shot Olivia a slightly irritated look-the kind I used to give him when he was being unreasonable. A twinge of pain shot through the whole in my heart and he was almost instantly forgotten with a terrible pang.

"Livi, you're eight months pregnant. What do you expect?" I snapped a little irritably. Olivia's shoulders sagged a little and I was instantly sorry for my short temper. I gave her an apologetic smile.

We continued to watch Brendelyn rock back and forth in the chair, hands now clenched tightly in front of her, lips moving as quickly as his used to. I shuddered again, pressing my hands into my stomach. In a few moments, I realized how different everyone handled things. Olivia tried to repress, I tried to live on while being too afraid to repress and Brendelyn…Brendelyn just panicked. I had never, in my life seen anyone react to something in this manner. Something small and soft touched my leg and I looked down to see Nicky, looking up at me holding his stuffed bear under his arm. I patted his head gently and continued to watch Brendelyn melt down.

And then I realized something; I stared at Brendelyn's hands, clenched tightly together in front of her heart. Her eyes were shut so tightly, I could see creases where there should not of have been any at all and her lips-well, it was her lips that gave it away.

I had never been any good at reading lips-I guess I got that from my father too. I could remember numerous times when my mother would mouth to me little bits of information and I would just grin and nod to pretend as if I had heard her. But every now and then, I would get little phrases right just by watching the way the mouth moved. Whatever Brendelyn was mouthing, she was mouthing it over and over again, repeating every phrase in silent homage. My mouth dropped a little bit and looked to my side to stare at Olivia.

I nudged Olivia to get her attention and mouthed, "She's praying!"

Olivia's eyes widened and returned back to Brendelyn. Brendelyn's lips had stopped moving and she was now doing the sign of the cross; fingertips to her forehead, middle chest, left shoulder to her right. Her eyes reopened and she tediously watched Olivia and I again. I gave her a grim smile.

"Do you feel better?" I asked gently.

Brendelyn grimaced a little but reluctantly nodded. She sighed deeply and stood up, taking at look at her surrounding as she did. Olivia went on to explain her story and I went on to explain mine. Brendelyn listened sympathetically, nodding and ohhing at all the right places."

"Well, I was just taken in the middle of the night, right out of my own home," she repeated to me and Olivia. I had heard her story before, but Olivia hadn't. "I-I don't even know why someone would want me-I don't even know that Vince guy or his wife-whatever she is to him." Brendelyn shivered a bit and rubbed her shoulders. "I don't talk to strangers, I go to church on Sundays, I go straight home after basketball practice…"

"I didn't know anybody either," I shared. "I mean, Vic and Roland-I had no idea who they were! Never even met them before."

"They're Vince's hit men," Olivia went on to clarify as we exited the kitchen a few moments later with Nicky in tow. "Vince pays them to find girls that he'd like. It's like trading and buying and stuff."

"Sort of like human trafficking?" I asked, my brain stirring as I remembered something from history class. Why didn't I pay attention then?

"Yeah," Olivia said in a somewhat bright voice. She rubbed her belly and I saw that Brendelyn couldn't help but stare.

"So they strike at random or something?" I asked, trying to shift the conversation away from Olivia's growing belly. Olivia didn't seem to notice that Brendelyn was staring. Maybe she didn't care.

"Well I don't know about that," Olivia wondered out loud as she lowered herself into the recliner. "But I do know that they trade us-there have been quite a few girls to pass through here; some have stayed for weeks, others months. But no one has stayed as long as me. Probably because I've been the only one to get pregnant."

Brendelyn gave Olivia a quizzical look so Olivia went on to explain why the Shuman's were to keen on having children. I took a moment to look around the living room. I had been here for a month-a whole month and I had never actually taken in the security precautions the Shuman's had set up. The windows were locked, I knew, but the curtains had been pulled tightly in front of them. How easy it would be to peel them open and possibly see where we were. I stepped toward the blue curtains and reached out, slowly towards them, ready, yearning to see the outdoors for the first time in a month.

"Don't touch the curtain, Bella."

My hand was just inches away from my possible freedom. I turned around, hand still outstretched and saw Olivia and Brendelyn staring at me from across the living room. Olivia shook her head from side to side, her face looking a little startled.

"If I pull it back, we'll be able to see where we are!" I protested anxiously, my body trilling with unexpected joy. But the look on Olivia's face made my ecstatic emotions dissipate into the air.

"They have something equivalent to an electric fence hooked up through the walls," Olivia said solemnly. "Trust me, it nails you pretty damn hard."

My hand dropped quickly, my heart fluttering to my stomach. So they had thought of everything. My mind suddenly fell on Nicky as I watched him play aimlessly with his toy sailboat. "What-has Nicky touched it?"

"Nick was taught at a young age never to go near the windows," Olivia said. "This whole house is wired and tapped and hooked up with all the latest security devices. But I hear that they're planning on putting an eight foot fence in the back yard so we can go outside once in a while."

"When?" I asked, my heart fluttering excitedly once again. "Maybe we can dig out or something-or pull a board loose or-"

"We'll have to plan it very carefully." Olivia looked at the two of us with very serious eyes. Any childlike tendency she had, was gone forever, thanks to the Shuman's. I wondered for a brief moment if Olivia would ever act like a teenager when we escaped. "It'll help a lot with the two of you being here. If any neighbor gets any word they you two are over here, the cops will be here in seconds."

"Who's to say that I'm not going to be traded?" Brendelyn asked in a scared voice, looking around at Olivia and I. "Isn't it risky for both Bella and I to be here?"

"It's been done before," Olivia confirmed brightly. "You've just got to have a little bit of faith, Bren. Put your faith in that God guy that you were talking to earlier."

Brendelyn went a shade of pink before nodding in agreement.

***

Within a few hours, Tilly was home, hollering about how horrible her day had been. Tilly was a registered birth and labor nurse at the nearby hospital. I had strained to hear at exactly which hospital she was located at, but Tilly was good at being secretive. Like a herd of animals, Tilly lead us to the bathroom and checked out Olivia.

"Almost there," she said with a firm pat on Olivia's head.

Tilly had her days. Where every woman had their special time of the month for a week, Tilly seemed to have hers for weeks at a time. This week was good; she gave us all a good dinner before Vince came home. I shuddered as Vince pressed his lips to the side of my temple; I couldn't help but look away at Bren's startled stares.

Sometimes the Shuman's treated the three of us like daughters, asking us how our days were, inviting us to come up and watch a family movie, playing board games with us...I felt sometimes as if I was staying the night at a friend's house-perhaps I tried to imagine the Shuman's as friends to try and better the situation. At times, I could look at Vince and Tilly and see the good in them-the kindhearted people that they acted like. I often wondered why they put on such an act some days.

And then Vince would drink and Tilly would take her drugs. Some nights Tilly would be beaten until I thought she would bleed to death and other nights she would take out her anger on Bren and I, leaving Olivia alone for moments at a time. She would never hit Olivia, but the words that would fly out of her mouth when she went on a rampage were often very crude and hurtful. Some days Bren and I were chained downstairs for days at a time and then when we were brought up from the sewers like starving dogs, we were made to work while the family ate. Olivia always tried to save us food, but I assured her that she needed it more than we did.

We were made to keep diaries. I used well of mine, scrawling across the page with colorful words about how wonderful my stay was just so Vince would be happy with me-and possibly leave me alone for another night. I had taken some French in school, so on some pages, I would write how I truly felt about being held prisoner. I hated my life. I wanted so much to die some days, but I was too much of a fighter not to. I made a promise and I intended to keep it.

I began to count my good days by how many days it had been since Vince took me to his room. Whenever those horrible nights happened, it was like my soul would leave my body and my mind would take me to a happier time-a time when life was simple. A time when I was protected by the one I truly loved. The whole in my chest still hurt every now and then, but my sorrows were drowned out by my will to go home. Home was now a distant place-a place I knew that I had been before, but couldn't quite remember.

Pictures of Bren's face covered the news almost as much as mine did. I held her one night while she cried, listening to her father beg for her safe return. I don't think Bren would have been able to make it if she didn't have someone to lean on. Sure she believed in God, but she was convinced that she had sinned somehow and this was God's idea of punishment. I thought God was doing His best to keep her safe from harm's way. I was sure she would just let herself the week after she arrived. Vince took her then-and with her dignity gone, she crumpled the same way she had the night she arrived.

Thankfully for me, I got my period the same week Bren's innocence was snatched from her. I felt bad for her, since Vince wouldn't touch me, but I couldn't help but feel jubilant that there wasn't a creature living inside of me. I don't think I had ever been so happy to feel the cramps and back ache that came with my period. Olivia was put on bed rest a few days later when her contractions came back and she was told that she had dilated three centimeters. This was a good thing for Bren and I because when we were working, we didn't have to think about our families and our friends. We didn't have to think about much at all.

There were times when I thought about Edward (and I tucked my legs up into my chest every time I did to hide the pain). On those nights when the air was cool or the time I was sick with chills and a fever, I imagined Edward there, holding me tightly in his cold, stone arms. I always felt safe whenever I tried to remember what it was like when he was there; it was a different kind of safe then I had felt when I was with my mother, father or even Jacob. No, this safe was overly protective and cradled me when I thought I was too weak to go on. On the nights when I stayed in Vince's room, I went to a place deep inside my mind, to our meadow where we would lie among the wild flowers, staring into each other for what seemed like an eternity. Sometimes Jake would be there, keeping his distance of course, but still there with me…my very best friend.

About two weeks after Bren's arrival, I saw on the news that my family was holding a national candle light vigil. It made me feel good to know that they were trying to preserve me somehow, in someway. But I felt terrible as I snuck a glimpse at the screen only to see that Edward wasn't there. I thought I had seen a glimpse of the back of Alice's head or heard Emmett's booming laughter, but I could have imagined it. In fact, my Jacob was there either. I saw Billy Black, wheelchair and candles in hand, but Jacob was missing. Had he given up on me? Had he decided that I was lying dead somewhere in a lake or a local pond? I longed for the good old days…I longed for home.

But that was the past. Everything that I had been terrified to forget seemed to be slowly forgotten as the days grew longer and the nights grew shorter. My life was being a slave now. My only friends and saviors were Olivia and Bren. They had become my family. But sometimes I felt that our few happy times together were slowly coming to a close.

Please, please PLEASE read and review guys! I love to read your feedback and your voice encourage me and always put a smile on my face. Also, I put up a myspace for those of you who want to maybe get the inside scoop on this Trilogy. Please give me an add!

All my love,

Skye