As the vampire who was carrying me ran, I tried to catch my breath enough to scream. It took me several moments, but I was finally able to let out a piercing scream.
"EDWARD!!!!!" I screamed at the top of my lungs as I tried to squirm from her grasp. "EDWARD!!!!!"
"Save your breath, sweetie," the vampire carrying me said as she tightened her grip on me, making it impossible to escape. "He can't hear you, and even if he catches up with us, he can't see us. You're defenseless and helpless. You're at my mercy."
"What do you want?" I demanded, trying to jab my elbow into her stomach. It didn't even phase her.
"I'm here on orders, hun, but I will tell you that my boss has all of her information straight. She knows that you aren't affected by most gifts, she knows your husband can read minds, she knows that your sister can see the future and your other sister can confuse people. She knows that your leader is immune to human blood. She knows everything. So she picked the best people to confuse your family. You were our only problem, but since your family doesn't believe you, that isn't a problem anymore. I could kill you right now, if I wanted to, but I don't. I think it will work nicely if it looks like you ran away, so I'm going to drop you right here." She dropped me, and I landed with a grunt and then rolled a few feet before I hit a tree and stopped rolling. "See you later, Isabella, darling. See you right before your first family member dies," she called back, and then she was gone.
"Bella?" Edward asked as he ran up to me. "Oh, Bella, don't do that again. I was so worried that you were going to run away and not come back." He knelt down beside me and held out his hand to help me up.
"I didn't run away," I told him as I sat up. "Well, I did at first, but then the other vampire came. She knocked me over and then grabbed me, started running, and then she hid me, using her gift, and I tried screaming but you couldn't hear me and I was so worried, but she let me go because she said it would look like I had run away, and since you guys don't believe me about the writing she didn't think you would believe me about this. Edward, don't you see, she's the one who's hiding the writing, and the only reason why I can see it is because I'm immune to her gift!"
"Bella, there was no one else out here," Edward gently told me. "I would have heard their thoughts."
"So you don't believe me?" I asked incredulously. "You think I'm making this up too?"
Edward picked me up and started running back towards the house. I heard Jasper not far behind us. "I would have heard somebody, either them or their thoughts, and I didn't hear anybody," Edward said.
"I didn't feel anybody, either," Jasper added.
"You guys, you have to believe me!" I exclaimed. "The same person who hid the writing on the wall just tried to vampire-nap me, and she told me that she hid the writing, and she hid me, and I'm pretty sure that she hid herself too, and since I'm the only one who can see her, you have to believe me! Vampires can't hallucinate, Edward! I saw her! She knocked me over and took me!"
"Bella, calm down," Edward commanded. "I'm sorry I don't believe you, but I find it hard to imagine that there was a vampire here that we didn't even sense."
"What did Alice see that made her tell you to come find me?" I asked, desperately searching for something to help me.
"She saw you running away and never coming back," Edward answered. "We couldn't let that happen."
"She didn't see me getting kidnapped by that vampire?" I asked.
"No," Edward answered. We had arrived back at the house, and he took me inside.
"Oh, Bella!" Alice threw herself at me and gave me the biggest hug I'd ever received. "Don't EVER do that again!" she scolded me.
"Alice, I didn't run away," I told her. "There was another vampire out there that took me. She took me and hid me while we ran so that Edward couldn't fine me. She's the same one who hid the writing. The only reason why she let me go is because she knew you guys wouldn't believe me."
"I saw you running away," Alice countered. "I was so worried that they wouldn't catch you in time."
"In time for what?" I asked.
"To stop you," Alice answered patiently. "I can't lose you as a sister."
"Just leave her alone," Victoria ordered. She gave me a look I couldn't understand and then turned back to her job of ripping up the portions of the floor that had been destroyed. "She's had a long day. We just need to keep an eye on her."
I gasped in understanding and ran over to Victoria. "You know about the vampire I'm talking about, don't you? You know! Why don't you tell them?! Tell them who it is and that I'm not hallucinating!"
"I'm sorry, Bella," Victoria said. She turned to look at me, and the look in her eyes was flat and emotionless. "I don't know who you're talking about."
"Edward, why don't you take her hunting?" Carlisle suggested.
"Come on, Bella," Edward commanded. He grabbed my elbow and started pulling me towards the door, but I kept staring at Victoria in disbelief, so he was dragging me backwards.
"Bella," Edward commanded, and I turned and began running.
I wasn't running away, I just wanted to be alone. So I ran as fast as I could, trying to lose Edward.
But having the fastest vampire in the family for a husband doesn't help when you're trying to get some alone time. He easily kept pace with me.
"Bella, what's wrong?" Edward asked.
I stopped and punched a tree. A loud crack resonated around the woods, and the tree snapped where I had hit it.
"I don't know, Edward," I fumed. "Maybe I know something that could help save my family's lives, and they don't believe me. Or maybe I just got abducted against my will, and my family doesn't believe me about that either. Or, perhaps, my husband, MY HUSBAND, doesn't believe me and just thinks that I'm hallucinating! Or how about this one? One of my family members knows, at least vaguely, about what I'm trying to tell everyone, and she won't talk! Could any of these things be wrong?!" I gave a frustrated growl and took off running again.
"Bella, calm down," Edward commanded as he caught up with me.
"Just leave me alone!" I snapped. "I don't want to talk to you right now."
"Bella, be reasonable," he pleaded.
"No!" I snapped. "I'm not the one being unreasonable. Leave me alone! I don't want to talk to you until you believe me." I found a sudden burst of speed, and I sprinted ahead before looping around again and dodging around trees. By some miracle, I lost Edward. I continued to run for another twenty minutes, until I finally broke down and cried. I sat on the ground, leaning on a tree, and let the dry sobs rack my body.
I'm not sure how long I sobbed, but I eventually felt Edward's arms wrap around me. He lifted me effortlessly onto his lap and I curled up there, sobbing into his chest.
"Why won't you believe me?" I sobbed. "Why is it that everyone thinks I'm insane? I'm not hallucinating, Edward, I'm really not. I know the writing is there, and I know that vampire grabbed me. Why can't you just accept that I'm the only one who can see these things?"
"Bella," he started hesitantly, "We can't see anything. We can't smell anything. Our gifts can't find anyone. We just have a hard time believing that there's someone out there."
"I'm the only one in the house immune to even a few vampire gifts," I pointed out. "I'm the only one who might not be affected by this vampire's gift. Had you thought of that?"
"Bella," he said, frustrated, "There's no one there. You're just imagining things."
"No. I'm. Not." I said, enunciating every word.
"Yes, you are," Edward told me.
"I'm done talking with you," I said, shaking my head and standing up. "I said I didn't want to talk to you until believe me, and you obviously don't believe me, so I'm going to go hunt on my own. You can go back and help your family clean up the house."
"Our family," Edward corrected me.
"Families support each other," I told him, "and you guys obviously don't believe me, and thus support me, so it's your family. I'm going to hunt. I'll meet you back at your house."
"Bella," he pleaded.
"I'm going hunting, on my own and I'll meet you at your house," I repeated. I took off running again.
He didn't follow me. I was grateful. I had hoped that he wouldn't be difficult.
When I returned to the house a couple of hours later I saw that Emmett had arrived. Judging from the sympathetic look he gave me, I assumed that they had filled him in on what was happening, or at least their version of the story.
"Bella," Edward said in relief when he saw me. He started to move across the room to embrace me, but my glare stopped him.
"I don't think she wants to talk to you yet, Eddie Boy," Victoria cackled.
"Or you," I said, turning my glare to her. "Until you tell everyone what you know, you're on my poop list too."
"Poop list?" Emmett laughed. I glared at him and he stopped laughing. "Sorry," he muttered before returning to carrying the piles of ruined house materials out to the truck.
"Bella, why don't you come upstairs with me and we'll start cleaning up there?" Esme suggested softly. "I'll let you clean the wall since you're the only one who can see the message," she smiled at me, trying to make me feel better.
"Fine," I agreed shortly. I grabbed the cleaning supplies by the door and went outside to jump up onto to the balcony. Once I was upstairs I went to work trying to remove the message written on the wall, shuddering the entire time. I heard Esme behind me cleaning up all the stuffing and feathers from the floor.
As soon as that room was clean we moved on to the next. And then the next, and the next…
I spent the first week in my new home cleaning every surface that was still in tact until they were spotless.
I also spent my time ignoring my family. I refused to speak with any of them unless they addressed me first, and then I ended the interaction as quickly as possible.
I heard them talking about me as they tried to reconstruct the house. I ignored them, and all of their conversations about how they were worried about me.
Edward was the most worried. I refused to kiss him or hug him, or even let him touch me. It was torture, but I couldn't give in. They had to see that I was serious, that I really knew I had seen the message and been kidnapped, and that I wasn't going to forgive him until he believed me.
But my distance only worried them more. Edward started to blame Alice for suggesting that I move everything in the house. He thought the strain from moving everything had messed with my head.
I caught Carlisle watching me worriedly every time we were in the same room.
Esme pretended like she believed me, but I knew she didn't. Emmett kept trying to make jokes about it, but would stop every time when I made the cleaner come flying to me, taking a path that hit him in the back of the head every time. Rosalie was indifferent. She didn't really care one way or another. All she wanted was for the house to get done so we could move in. Jasper would occasionally send me calming waves, but they didn't do much. I just glared at him, and he'd shrug.
Alice came close to believing me. After all, she had been accused of being insane before, and she was willing to give me a little bit of credit. But she was still skeptical.
Victoria never said anything. She refused, claiming that she didn't know who, or what, I was talking about. But I knew that she at least had a basic idea. I just wasn't sure why she didn't talk.
Exactly one week after we arrived, the house was finished. We moved everything inside and took a break from building.
Edward and I were moving our things into our room. Edward refused to let me use my power to call things to me because he thought I was still recovering from the strain the week before. I growled at him, but he didn't seem to care.
"I wasn't hallucinating," I muttered under my breath as I stalked past him to go retrieve more of my clothes so I could hang them up.
"Just drop it already, Bella," he moaned. "We've been over this multiple times."
"But you still don't believe me, so we obviously haven't been over it enough," I told him.
"Bella, there was nothing on that wall. There was no vampire in the woods besides us and Jasper. You were imagining it all."
I grabbed the box with the clothes I hadn't put away yet and walked out the door.
"Bella, where are you going?" Edward asked warily.
"The guest bedroom," I answered. "I'm staying in there from now on."
"Bella," he protested, "don't do this. Come back. I'm sorry I don't believe you."
"But you aren't sorry enough to actually listen to me," I said, "so I might as well go where I can talk to the walls. They listen better than you do."
"That would just be creepy, you know that, right?" Edward asked. "If walls could actually listen to us?"
"At least they don't tell me I'm imagining things," I retorted. "I'm putting my things in my room and then I'm going hunting again. I want to be alone, if you don't mind."
"You're not going anywhere alone," Edward told me.
"Why? Are you afraid that I'll hallucinate there are some trees surrounding me and I won't come home because I think I'm trapped?" I scoffed at him and threw my box in the guest room.
"If there really is someone out there that wants to hurt us, then I don't want you out there alone," Edward admitted.
"Oh, now you start to believe me," said disbelievingly. "So we can go a whole week without talking or even touching and you have no problems saying I'm just imagining it, but the second I want to go anywhere on my own you start to wonder if I'm actually right. I think that's just an excuse to keep me here, or for you to come with me. But I don't want to go with anyone. I'm going alone."
"You've been hunting every day, Bella," Edward said softly. "We don't have to hunt every day. What are you really doing?"
"Spending some time by myself," I answered. "I've been spending my time out there trying to come up with a way to make you believe me. I've been trying to gain my husband's trust back." I looked at him sadly and finished, "But I haven't found a way yet. I keep hoping that if I spend enough time thinking about it that I'll finally come up with something."
"Bella, I want to believe you," he insisted.
"We've established that," I said coolly. "Now move out of my way so I can go hunting."
"I'm coming with you today," Victoria told me. She popped her head out of her room and said, "I've been wanting to hunt for a week, but I haven't been able to yet. I'm going today, and I'm coming with you."
"I want to go alone," I insisted.
"No suck luck, babe," she told me. "The baby of the family doesn't get to tell the others what to do."
"Fine!" I snapped. "I'm going now. Come if you want, because I guess I can't stop you."
I ran out the door, and I heard Victoria close behind me.
"Bella, wait up," she instructed.
I ignored her and ran faster.
"Bella, I want to talk to you about the message on the wall and why I refuse to say anything about it!" she called. I stopped immediately.
"So you do believe me," I said, turning to glare at her.
"I know who left it there, and why you're the only one who can see it," she agreed. "But I have a good reason for playing stupid. Will you please sit and let me tell you, without getting mad or running off? You have to promise to listen to me and let me get all the way through my explanation before you react. "Please?"
"Talk," I commanded, plopping down on the ground. She gracefully sat next to me.
"The vampire who took you is Luella," she explained. "Luella can hide things, people, or the truth from anyone she wants to. But her gift doesn't work on you, because you're just odd like that." She gave me an amused smile, but I glared at her, so she became serious again and continued, "Luella wouldn't come after me on her own. She has to be working for someone-"
"She is," I interjected.
"-someone who really hates me," Victoria finished. "I'm not sure who I pissed off enough for them to want to hurt my whole family, but apparently I have. I received a note, before we even left Forks, telling me that if anybody except you figured out what was going on that they would start the killing ahead of time, and no one would stand a chance. So I'm keeping everyone confused about it until I know exactly when they're going to strike. I'm trying to come up with a plan to prevent anyone from dying, but I don't even know what these other vampires want. I'm not sure what I've done, or what I can do to keep them from killing everyone. If I leave, they'll still come after you guys. If I don't leave, you'll be in the middle of it. But if I tell anyone but you, the killing starts immediately. They'll know if I tell anybody, too, so it's not like I can do it secretly."
"So you've made my life a living hell for the past week because you don't want us to help you plan this out?" I asked in a strained voice.
"I'm sorry, Bella," she said, "But I don't see any other way. Do you want them to start killing everyone as soon as I open my mouth?"
"We're a family, Victoria," I told her. "We're strong. We can get through it. Just let us know everything that you know, and we'll come up with something."
"That's the thing, I don't know anything," she admitted. "Luella's keeping everything hidden from me. I only know she's involved because I can't figure anything out. And because you could see that message and no one else could."
"Let me snoop around," I suggested. "I might be able to find something that no one else can see."
"Be careful, Bella," she warned me. "If you find out too much they won't hesitate to make their warning to you false. They'll kill you on the spot."
"Give me some credit," I scoffed. "I can take care of myself if I'm paying attention."
"They'll catch you when you aren't paying attention, then," Victoria said. "They'll know all of our weaknesses."
"I think," I mused, "that I need to work on controlling my gift."
"How do you mean?" Victoria asked, aware that I wasn't just talking about the usual "call things to me" function.
"I need to try to figure out how to keep things away," I said. "If I can figure that out, then I can try to keep these people away."
"You won't be able to keep it up for very long," she warned me. "If it weakens you to move the entire contents of the house, how are you going to fare against a group of vampires trying to get to you? You only give a suggestion to 'living' beings when you call us. You've never actually made one of us come to you. Just a suggestion to stay away won't do much against someone who is truly bent on coming after you."
"It might buy us more time, though," I said. "You go ahead and hunt, and I'll work with my gift."
"I'm not leaving you alone," Victoria told me. "Not after this conversation. I'm going to stay with you."
"Then I'll call the wildlife here," I offered, having already taken care of that. "That way you can hunt and I can just sit here and work."
"Alright," Victoria agreed. She heard an animal come crashing towards us, and she took off, running a short distance to meet it so that she wouldn't distract me. I leaned against a tree and prepared to meditate.
I found that meditating helped me control my gift. Clearing my mind and focusing only on my breathing for a short time before turning my attention to my gift seemed to be the best way to both explore and strengthen it. The only downside to meditating was that I would occasionally get so caught up in clearing my mind that I would forget to stop things from coming to me. I tried to prevent that on this particular day. I didn't need to call anyone or anything to me.
With this thought in my mind, I began my meditation exercises.