"Bells? You have a visitor." She heard Charlie's muted voice call out from within the house.
Lifting her head from her forearms, Bella twisted her neck so she could peer over her shoulder. She hadn't been expecting anyone, but after almost a week of intense Charlie time, she was of the opinion that any warm body was going to be a welcome relief.
It wasn't exactly warm enough to be lying around outdoors, but with enough layers and a stubborn will, it was a damn sight better than sitting cooped up in her bedroom for the fifth day in a row. Watching as the back door crept open, she couldn't help experiencing a little flutter of disappointment when a petite body emerged, and certainly not the one she was hoping for.
"Hey Alice." She greeted, lifting her arm into a little half wave as the strange girl skipped forward. There was something unusual about the Cullens, that much was obvious, but there was also something intriguing about them too.
Alice didn't wait for an invitation. She simply threw herself down on the neat little rug, sitting close as though they were the best of friends. Bella didn't want to be obvious in her actions, but she also didn't stop herself as she moved slightly, hitching back just a little from the attack on her personal space. If Alice noticed she didn't say anything, she just kept on smiling in that awkwardly innocent way.
"What're you reading?" Alice asked, nodding down to the book that was now fluttering in the breeze.
"Oh, nothing, just some crime thing of Charlie's." Dismissively she tucked the book away, hiding it from view. She didn't want to admit that it was a trashy romance novel, one of many she'd found while rummaging out of pure boredom in the attic. She suspected they had once belonged to her mother, a thought which hadn't yet failed to make her smile.
"How was the camping trip?" Bella asked casually, not particularly caring for the answer even though she hadn't seen Alice in over a week.
"Oh it was good. We did a lot of hiking." Alice smiled pleasantly but Bella just couldn't picture it. The image of Alice tramping up mountains wasn't cohesive with the girl who was sitting in front of her, pristine and polished.
Rolling her eyes over the forestry which surrounded Charlie's little backyard, Bella tried desperately to think of something to say next. It didn't seem to bother Alice that they were sitting there in silence, but Bella was categorically uncomfortable.
"So, did you get your essay done for English yet?" Bella finally asked, falling back on school work when she finally figured out it was the only thing they had in common.
"No, I'll probably start on it tomorrow. I already know exactly what I'm going to write so it won't take long. How about you, are you done?" Alice asked back, her eyes bright as she stared intently at Bella.
"Umm, yeah I got it over with a couple days ago." Bella said as she twisted her body to sit upright, unconsciously moving further away from her companion.
"So, did you ever find out about that weird phone call? You know, the one you got when I was over here last time?" Bringing up that day invoked a whole host of emotions in Bella, not least a heated longing that she couldn't quite place.
"Umm, no, not really. I thought maybe it was Embry, but now I'm not so sure." Bella shrugged her shoulders as she spoke.
"Who's Embry?" Alice asked smoothly and Bella couldn't help the feeling that she was being gently coaxed.
"He's a friend. He lives down in La Push." Bella replied, her eyes trailing down to her hands as they toyed with the edge of her thick coat.
"Did you go down there after I left that night?" Alice pressed and Bella lifted her eyes, wondering whether she was being paranoid or not for wondering why Alice was so interested. She wasn't sure why it felt so necessary but as Alice's body leaned forward, her attention wrapped up in the answer she obviously felt was forthcoming, Bella struggled to find something, anything to distract her.
"It's getting pretty cold out here; do you want to go in?" Swiftly standing, Bella gathered what she could in her arms, all but throwing Alice from the rug so she could sweep that up too. She'd already taken a few steps towards the house when she felt a cold hand wrap around her upper arm.
"Wait." Alice commanded, her touch sending a shiver through Bella.
Seeing her reaction, she removed her hand, knowing it was unnecessary now that she had her attention. "I need you to listen to me Bella. I need you to promise me you won't go down there again." Her voice was programmed into something easy and sweet, a simple request from one friend to another, but even Bella could sense that behind the honeyed words there was something more.
Turning around, Bella eyed the little girl standing behind her speculatively. The last thing she needed was another person telling her to stay away from the reservation, especially since miraculously Charlie hadn't sent her to live with her Mom like he'd promised, but she had Billy to thank for that. How he'd managed to appease her father, she still hadn't truly figured out.
"Why Alice?" Bella finally asked, shifting the weight in her hands as she waited impatiently for the answer.
"I just don't think it's safe for you down there, I have a bad feeling." Alice grimaced and though the expression was intentional, it didn't offer Bella anything more than an intense feeling of discomfort.
Furrowing her forehead, Bella waited to see if she would say anything more, but as usual she was left with only a morsel to savor. "I don't think it really matters anymore Alice. I mean, it's not like I'm allowed out of Charlie's sight anyway."
However, that simply wasn't enough for Alice as she crept forward. "But that doesn't seem to have made a difference to you so far." Alice offered cautiously, but the look in her eye was nothing if not combative.
"Why do you care Alice? What's it to you what I do?" Bella persisted, growing more and more annoyed with the conversation.
Alice sighed dramatically. "I care Bella, because I don't want anything to happen to you. Look what happened to that girl Emily. Do you really want that to be you?" Her voice was soft, lilting almost.
With so much time alone, Bella had been afforded every opportunity to really consider everything that had happened to her recently. Conclusions hadn't exactly been forthcoming, but the one thing she had ultimately deduced was that there was far too much spoken, with nothing actually being said at all.
Narrowing her gaze, Bella picked her words carefully. "I'll give you one chance to tell me the truth, Alice, the real reason why you don't want me to go down there." Her uncharacteristic confrontational spirit took a lot to uphold and so she gripped the blankets in her hand to stop herself from backing down.
"I can't." Alice finally admitted, the sadness in her voice drawing Bella in.
"Why? Why can't anyone just tell me what the hell is going on?" Internally she knew that she was pushing part of her insecurities out on the girl in front of her, but she wasn't about to apologize for it.
"It's complicated Bella. You just have to trust me on this, okay?" Alice really did seem to be pleading now, but all Bella heard was another collaboration of words full of mystery.
"Fine Alice, I promise not to go down there again. After all, you've produced such a winning argument to convince me." Bella sneered sarcastically, her patience worn too thin for courteous tones. Stalking the last few steps towards the house, Bella mentally prepared herself to send the little girl on her merry way.
"Fine, I'll tell you…" Alice sighed unhappily. "You'll find out eventually anyway."
Turning around, Bella tried to figure out if this was just another level to the game everyone seemed intent to play with her, but her attention was captivated as Alice began. "This isn't the first time we've lived in Forks." Bella was about to tell her that she was stating something patently obvious when a third, much deeper voice, joined the fray.
"I hope those are only your own stories you're planning to share."
Instead of being rightfully annoyed by the interruption, Bella watched in a hypnotic daze as he stepped forward, the exposed muscles of his chest and abdomen rippling under his skin as he stalked towards where they stood.
"Have we met before?" Bella heard Alice ask from somewhere in her periphery, her world still rotating around the man crossing her ever decreasing backyard.
"No, we've never met." His eyes didn't once stray from Bella's as he spoke, purposefully dismissing Alice and her prying mind.
The intensity of his stare left Bella with a soft rose touch to her apples of her cheeks, one which didn't pass the attention of her curious friend. "Bella?" Alice called angrily and when she finally did manage to pull her eyes away from the ever encroaching man, she found Alice glaring at her pointedly. She understood the intent, but she didn't care to comply.
"Come here Bella." Paul drawled out, drawing her attention back to him instantaneously.
"Bella!" Alice countered aggressively and Bella felt herself trip backwards, away from the primal look in Alice's eyes.
"I think you need to remember where you are pup, this isn't your land." Alice sneered and Bella was grateful that for the moment she was forgotten.
"New rules sugar..." Paul growled happily, holding his hand out for Bella to take.
Looking between the two of them, her decision wasn't hard to make, especially when she caught a moment in Alice's eye, a flash that screamed danger. Dropping the blankets bundled up in her arms; she flitted over to Paul's side, feeling a sense of composure with his broad frame so close. It was another thing she marked down to think about later, but for now, she was mainly concerned with seeing how this played out.
"Paul?" Shouted a voice Bella knew well and as she whirled around, she watched as he stepped out into the light, the shadow of his former self hidden in a much larger frame.
"Embry?" Bella asked, uncertainty tainting her tone.
"Bells, just stay behind Paul okay?" Embry commanded sharply as he crossed her lawn in a few steps, the sight of him leaving her full of disbelief. She couldn't take her eyes from his new supersized body and when he drew to her side, standing almost a foot over her head, she reached out her fingers, prodding his bare arm to verify that he really was real.
"What new rules?" Alice asked from nowhere, her eyes blank as they jumped back and forth over the wall of muscles standing between herself and Bella.
"Now isn't the time." Paul huffed, and threw a pointed look over at Embry. Catching his intention, Embry lifted Bella's small hand into his own and when she looked down to see what he was doing; she realized nothing about him was the same.
"Come on Bells, let's go inside." Tugging her slightly, she allowed her feet to follow, her head still turned around on her shoulders until the very last minute when the door closed and blocked her view.
"What's going on Emb? And what the hell happened to you?" Bella asked impatiently, her eyes following the lines of his new body.
"Nothing Bells, I just had a growth spurt… you know." He attempted a soft grin but it came out somewhat lacking.
"No, I don't know. I mean, seriously Emb, I saw you less than two weeks ago and you expect me to believe you just grew a foot and gained like a hundred pounds of muscle, all because you ate your broccoli? You know you can tell me." Bella beseeched, her eyes wide and expressive, but Embry just laughed her off easily.
"Is it drugs Embry? Because you can tell me that too, you know?" Bella said warily, trying to keep her voice welcoming. His flippant laughter only grew more pronounced and she found herself becoming increasingly irritated by the sound of it.
"Are you kidding me Bells? What kind of drugs do you think do this, steroids?" He scoffed facetiously as he waved a hand over his impressive physique and she shook her head, because she didn't really have an answer, only more and more questions brewing.
Frustrated with him and herself, she turned to the window just in time to catch Paul walking towards the house, no sign of Alice anywhere. She watched as he unabashedly opened the back door and stepped inside, foregoing any formal invitation.
"Embry, we have to go."
Taking one last long look at Bella, Embry sighed and walked away, his head low as he angrily brushed Paul's shoulder on the way out the door. She thought Paul would simply follow in his steps, but instead he just stood there, his eyes trailing over her skin.
"If she comes around here again, I want you to call me." He said evenly, his emotions carefully contained.
A hundred thoughts filtered through her mind, but the only one she allowed out was quite clearly the most inane. "I don't have your number."
"Here." He said, stepping across the room in easy steps. Reaching past her to pick up a pen from the counter, his arm touched hers, producing little sparks of red hot energy underneath her skin.
His fingers twisted her palm over and then with a slovenly scrawl he laid out seven digits on her exposed wrist. Having him so close, she tried to remind herself that she didn't know him at all, that she still hadn't pressed him to answer any of the questions she'd lined up in her mind.
"Thanks." She mumbled when he set the pen back down again. And though she felt uneasy doing it, just as he was about to walk back out the door she stopped him.
"Paul?"
His eyes were full of their usual dark warning when they met hers and she found the words she'd prepared dissolving as she found her focus fading.
"Why does Alice want me to stay away?" She finally mumbled out, the words not flowing the way they had in her head. His eyes were heavy, and for a moment she thought he might just walk away, leave her with nothing more than what she had when the day began.
"Because she thinks we're dangerous." He answered, thick with resentment.
"Are you?" She responded, her voice clearer now that she knew he wasn't going to just brush her aside.
"Sometimes."
The word swayed in the air as he stood there, and then in a moment he was gone, the muscles in his calves rippling as she watched him jog back out into the forest. Drumming her fingers on the kitchen counter, she watched him go until she was staring at nothing. Try as she might, she couldn't figure him out, figure any of it out. Her fingers idly began to run up and down her wrist, tracing the characters he'd drawn on her skin as they webbed their way into the recesses of her mind. The day had brought more confusion then clarity and it seemed clear to her she was the only one being chained in the shadows.
She was still standing in the kitchen an hour later when Charlie walked in. His fatherly eye, heavy from an afternoon nap, followed the path of hers as she looked out into the dark.
"You okay kiddo?" He asked, emotion marring the simplicity of the question.
"I don't know." Turning to face him, she wondered if the answers might be available a little closer to home; after all, it was hardly possible to run a small town and remain clueless to its inner workings. However, something held her back, some unknown loyalty that she couldn't place. He seemed slightly amused by the passing emotions on her face, so when the phone began to ring, interrupting their silent exchange, she gratefully ran to pick it up.
"Hello Swan residence?" She answered politely, aware that nine times out of ten, the caller wasn't looking for her.
"Bells. Hey, I don't have long. I need you to meet me!" Embry sounded out of breath, his words severe and rushed.
"I can't Embry, you know that." It was annoying just knowing she was trapped, let alone having to repeat it all the time.
"Oh yeah." He said, realization setting in. "Okay, meet me outside your house in ten minutes. At the edge of the forest." She opened her mouth to ask what the urgency was, but then she caught the echoed thrum of silence and she knew he was gone. Looking back over her shoulder to where Charlie was watching, she shrugged her shoulders dramatically and then strode back through to the kitchen, resuming her position looking out over the ever darkening back yard, waiting for a body to slide from the abyss.
a/n: A big big thank you to my beta Twiticulate who is, as always, simply amazing! Secondly, I feel like this chapter hasn't moved us forward enough. I tried to work out a way to compress everything in 8 and 9 together, but it just wouldn't happen. So, instead I've decided that I'm going to post chapter 9 either tomorrow or friday, and then go ahead with chapter 10 on Sunday. This way we'll get to those answers you've all been craving all that much faster! Anyway, thanks to all you lovely readers, I'll hopefully see you again very soon...xxx