It had taken her three laborious days to come up with the plan, three achingly cold rotations of the earth to formulate something which she still had no confidence would actually work. Jacob and Embry had been more than willing to explain what little they actually understood about imprinting to her once she pledged her allegiance to their wishes. Jacob had told her that Paul would likely know approximately where she was in relation to him at all times, and could possibly even feel her emotions if they were intense enough. Rather than invoking some serious anger or fear to draw him out, she'd decided to give him the opportunity to come to her himself, to prove her friends wrong.

She'd originally arranged to meet up with Embry after school, but after a phone call this morning where his voice had sliced through her emotions with its intensity, telling her something more important had come up to keep their plans, she was now running blind. Instead of paying attention in School, Bella spent each lesson warred within herself whether she should simply give up and sit around the house like every other monotonous afternoon that now seemed to be the fill of her existence.

The decision was made as her body crossed from Forks into the tribal land, only a little after four pm. The few hours left of daylight seemed plenty of time to draw him from the shadows, and of course it was just short enough that if anyone saw her she could simply plead boredom, desperate to feed on air that wasn't stagnantly rolling back and forth throughout her bedroom.

Her plan was simple really and after an intense and quite forthcoming conversation with Charlie about her rights as a human being, as his daughter and regarding her mental deterioration from being held prisoner in her own home, he had sullenly watched her walk out the door that morning. She knew it wasn't the end of their discussion, but he hadn't barricaded the doorway, tied her to a chair, or threatened her at gunpoint, so she figured it had also been wonderfully successful.

The all too familiar road to La Push roared magnificently under the tires of her old truck as she powered towards her destination. She couldn't help a few reassuring glances at the gas gauge every once in a while, shaking her head with humorless mirth.

The forestry had been her initial destination of choice, but as she pulled up to the little strip of dirt used traditionally as a car park for those looking for the more interesting and taxing trails in the area, she couldn't help the little flutter of hesitancy that rose in her chest. Steeling her nerves, she slowly opened the heavy door, her feet coming to the ground in silence as she slid her body out into the chilled air. She stared out into the deep depths of oblivion, unable to bring herself to close the door, to expose herself fully to what lay within the twisted barks and branches that went far deeper than her eye could see.

Minutes passed and nothing changed, Bella's hands gripped firmly, staring through the closed panel of glass, telling herself that there was nothing to fear, nothing she could find in the darkness that wouldn't dare to travel in the light. But her mind had lost its naiveté and what had once been a forest with only a feral mammal or two to respect, was now a haven for all that she had taken for granted, things that had only nestled safely in the black and white words of her revered authors. The word had never really invoked any feeling in her before, but as she stood and mulled it over in her mind, she decided that 'Vampire' was something she should certainly fear. The shiver that ran over her skin as an image of the Cullens eerie eyes flashed through her mind was the final push she needed to slide right back into her truck.

He could find her somewhere else to exercise her plan, she concluded, somewhere that didn't send terror hurtling down her spine.

The day was cold enough that she found the beach deserted, and though she didn't feel particularly positive that he would come to her out in the open, she still set her shoulders back firmly as she marched down to the pebbled shores, the wind whipping unabatedly at her cold tinted cheek bones.

When she reached the rocky outcropping at the end of the beach for the third time, she finally concluded that the day was a bust. On her second lap she'd been sure she felt the strange sensation of hidden eyes on her body, but now she had to admit it had been nothing more than the conclusions of a hopeful mind. She was cold and tired and deeply disappointed that he hadn't come to her, especially as Jake had promised Paul would know when she was near. The ever increasing gaping chasm of her gut finally convinced her that they had been right, and therefore she had been wrong. He simply didn't want her near. The thought tinged all of their previous encounters, and where previously she had convinced herself that he had strode upon her by choice, she now believed each time had been nothing more than an accident of chance.

"Idiot!" She muttered to herself as she pushed her tired feet up the incline towards her truck, pushing her hair, now tangled with salt from the ocean spray, away from her face with irritation. Her truck was a lonely but welcome figure and only when she was feet away, her eyes now focused completely on the sanctuary the old beast would provide, did she manage to spot the white sliver of paper imprisoned under the weight of a wiper.

Her feet stopped, her whole body firing with energy as her head whirled around, looking for whoever had left behind a souvenir. Not a single breathing soul was in sight, and as she spun eagerly on the spot, her eyes found themselves back on the paper, flapping with irritation as the wind picked up violently, rushing in ferociously from the expansive ocean beyond.

It had been so long since the rain had fallen from the sky that she didn't even notice the change in the air, the thick clouds rolling in as the pressure pushed down, warning her that something very powerful was headed her way.

When she could hold back no more, her legs pushed her the few feet forward, her fingers tingling with impatience as she struggled to free the note, her touch clumsy and slow.

I need to speak with you.

Meet me out on the trail where you parked earlier.

Paul

There was no moment of hesitation as she clung ferociously to his words.

He'd been watching her, just as she'd assumed he would, and now she would have the chance that she was looking for; the opportunity to save him from whatever spell Sam was operating under.

Bella threw the truck around the small bends in the road, careless in the moment as she fought against her own impatience, deliberately telling herself that he wasn't the cause of her irrational behavior. He was close, so close that she could almost taste him on her tongue, and knowing that only drove her foot down a little harder, pulling him ever closer. It was a struggle to hold back as she slid the vast vehicle into a presentable parking position, and then finally she was out in the air, her heart fluttering as she slammed the driver's door shut with the confidence she'd lacked only hours earlier.

The forest didn't look so daunting anymore, and as she stepped out of the light, her senses tightened as her eyes darted and her ears strained, searching for him, aware that he was likely already watching her.

She's been sure that he would stop her almost as soon as she'd left the civilized world behind, but she soon found herself scrambling over gnarled roots, tripping into pockets of uneven earth hidden under a blanket of crispy fallen leaves.

A noise behind her had her pirouetting on the spot, a grace she wouldn't normally possess overcoming her in her moment of surprise. The light had dimmed impossibly, the canopy of thick foliage above her pulling the underworld into a living, breathing darkness. The sound of her own heart beat wildly in her ears, but above that only the rustles of nature permeated her mind. She didn't want to believe it, but she had the sinking suspicion that she was alone. She couldn't find the tingling otherworldly sense of eyes on her body, and as she forced her own breaths to slow, she feared that this whole thing had been a trick. Her paranoia went straight to Embry and Jacob, but she squashed that thought as it rose, unwilling to believe they could be so untrusting of her. But then guilt took over and she realized that she'd done something far worse to them, lying as she held their gazes, telling them with her own impression of innocence that they had nothing to fear from her, that she would do as they'd asked.

She didn't know when she'd started walking again, but as she pushed her rambling thoughts away, she recognized that the trail was becoming harder to follow, less of a certain path and more of a hint of something. Struggling with her own rapidly harrowed emotions, she forced herself to concentrate, to look for markers, distinctive points that she could find again. But every tree looked like the next and even more like the one before.

The option of turning around never actually occurred to her, never entered her mind as a possibility, so as she stepped further and further towards a sight she had yet to see, she understood less and less that she was no longer on any path other than her own, drawn to a place by something she was yet to truly understand.

The ache behind her eyes grew slowly from an irritant to an outright pain. The world was becoming harder and harder to see, and as she rubbed her eyes, pushed aside the teary frustration that was building in her chest, she understood that going back was now no more welcoming that moving forward. She was lost. Utterly, thoroughly and intensely lost. The tears that she'd managed to suppress only moments before began to trickle silently down her cheeks. Charlie would probably shackle her to her bed if she ever found her way out of this mess, she decided.

Something was wrong, she decided very suddenly. The undercurrent of sounds which had followed her, accompanied her along this treacherous path; were gone. There was no rustle in the undergrowth, no calls from the animals that lived hidden all around her. The abrupt, deafening silence made her heart go cold. There were only a few things that could invoke this kind of other-worldly reaction from the land; two thirds of which made her heart stop in terror. Straining to find any noise, she tried to suppress the loud timely thunk of her heart, the gasps of air being sucked into her lungs. She was panicking and she could do absolutely nothing to stop it.

"Hello?" Bella called out, her voice ricocheting from one tree to another, bouncing around her and confirming how alone she was. It was the last touch to send her over the edge.

Her feet started out at a fast walk, but all too soon she was running, desperate to get away from whatever was coming her way.

Branches sliced through her outstretched palms, but she was too frantic to feel the pain, her vision blurry from the incoming night and a wash of tears that simply wouldn't abate. She ran until her body was shaking with exertion, adrenaline and fear coursing through her body, leaving behind an inhuman rattle. Slumping to the floor, she knew all last vestiges of her strength were gone from her body. The flashing hysteria numbed to something manageable and as she nestled back against a thick trunk, promising herself she would only rest for a moment, she closed her eyes looking for a second of relief.

Bella woke under a tree that was older than her father, leaves and dirt entwined in her mussed up hair. She couldn't clearly remember falling asleep, but she did recognize the sharp ache that seemed to consume her whole body. It took endless minutes to regain her full mental capacity and when she did, a low repetitive noise invaded her head. She thought for a moment it was her own heart, but then as she held her hand to her fraught chest she recognized the beats didn't align.

Scrambling to her feet, she weaved her way towards the noise, limping with muscles that had been stretched too far, too fast.

The slow drum beat ever louder and somewhere underneath the sound, she heard a low screech, straining fibers rubbing against one another in protest. Curiosity was a powerful foe and though her rational self was screaming for her to turn the other way, she couldn't find the courage.

The night had thoroughly fallen while she'd slept, making it almost impossible to discern one shadow from the next. Extending her hands to feel for any obstacle in her path, she moved around trees, the rough barks scratching painfully against the open wounds on her palms.

Feeling all around her, her hands landed on something cold and hard, foreign from everything she'd felt before. Whipping her hands back to her own body, she gasped. Something or someone was standing right in front of her. Stumbling backwards she landed on the ground, twisting her ankle as she called out in agony and frustration.

Tears fell down her dirt smudged cheeks, on her exhausted body and on the ground around her. And then she realized they weren't tears at all. The sky had finally opened once again, and after months of arid dust, the rain pounded the earth with ferocious anger.

Looking up, she searched for just a fragment of the sky and at that very moment lightening twisted down from the lumbering clouds, flashing focus on the land around her for just a portion of a second. It was long enough to have her on her feet in seconds, fumbling to get away from the lifeless eyes of the man hanging above her head. His dark skin had tinged blue with death, but it was the look in his eyes that had her running; the look of absolute terror.

a/n: Thank you to my lovely beta Twiticulate... you rock hun!

I'll see you all again on Sunday... that is if you can forgive me for not revealing exactly who was hanging in the shadows...

xxx