Hello earthlings! I know, I know, I've been gone for WAY too long. I will spare you the ugly details of my RL and just try to say that I won't go so long in between updates again! *Hopefully*.
Thank you so much to all of the kind words from everyone for the last chapter and a HUGE thank you to ChrissiHR for being my beta/wonder woman on this chapter. She really made this one sparkle and I am forever grateful! *virtual hugs and bottles of wine* :) Enjoy the new chapter everyone!
Disclaimer: I don't own the Twilight Saga or any of the characters in the story.
Chapter 6
When Jacob pulled up next to the curb in front of Charlie's house, I suddenly felt much more anxious than I had previously been. I could only imagine what Charlie would have to say. Not to mention I prayed that Jake said nothing about how he had slept in the same bed as my drunk ass.
My thoughts were a jumble of nervous assumptions of what punishment was awaiting inside that shabby white house and the memory of Jake's half naked body assaulted my mind. There was no denying that he was a good-looking man. He exuded an aura of power no matter what state of dress he was in. With his large frame, his body had taken up nearly the entire space on the bed, despite the fact that the bed itself was one of the largest I've ever seen.
And then there was the way that his caramel skin flowed over those sinewy, thick cords of muscle that roped up and down his arms and around his torso. Jake Black was definitely drool-worthy.
"Come on, little girl," Jake's voice cut through my thoughts like a razor-sharp knife. I jumped at the break in silence and nodded, not daring to look over at him. After he'd told me not to avert my eyes from his anymore, I found myself in danger of getting stuck in those warm molasses pools more than ever.
Pushing open the door of the truck, I sidled up towards the house. Behind me, I could feel Jake's towering presence and the heat that seemed to radiate off of him in waves. Once I got to the front door, I reached into my front pocket and found the key I had stashed there last night.
Gulping down my anxiety, I opened the door and pushed my way inside, Jake following right behind.
I could hear the television on in the living room and upon entering it, I saw that Claire was sitting on the couch, her eyes staring directly at me.
"What are you doing up so early, Claire?" I asked, walking over to her.
"I was watching TV with my new friend," Claire responded simply. I stared at her for a moment and then turned to look at Jake. However, his face was not as confused as my own. Instead, his features were severe and pulled into a frown. His dark eyes bored into my own and then flickered to Claire.
"I have to go," he said suddenly, his voice tight. Without another word, he turned around and I heard the front door open and close behind him.
Stunned, I could not understand what had just happened. Upstairs, I could hear Charlie shuffling around, but my mind was still whirling.
Turning back to Claire, I saw that she had returned to watching cartoons. Looking at her carefully, I spoke, "Who exactly is your new friend?"
Claire shrugged her little shoulder, "She doesn't have a name, but she's sad. I said she can be my friend."
Putting a hand through my hair, I knelt down in front of Claire. Her big forget-me-not blue eyes turned on me.
"Is she an imaginary friend? Because that's okay to have an imaginary friend, baby," I said softly, pushing her blonde curls back from her forehead, but Claire pulled away, a little pucker appearing between her eyebrows.
"She's not imaginary! She's real! She's my friend," she growled at me in her little voice. I backtracked quickly.
"Of course she is. I'm sorry, Claire. When did you meet her?" I asked, playing along. The last thing I needed was for her to run around telling everyone that her imaginary friend was real.
"Last night. She came in through the window. She wanted to go for a walk in the woods, but I was too tired, so we watched cartoons instead," Claire said matter-of-fact and then promptly turned her attention back to the TV.
However, my eyes were narrowed in suspicion. Claire had never been much of a liar growing up. Turned out she was just as bad at lying as I was, but after all of the trauma that we had both gone through, I wouldn't blame her if she wanted to have some kind of imaginary friend to talk to.
The clomping of Charlie's boots on the stairs made me aware of the fact that I still hadn't told him about last night. Thinking about Jake's warning not to lie myself made my palms sweat. He walked into the living room, a glare set on his face. After seeing Claire contently watching TV, he pointed at me and then pointed down the hall to the kitchen.
Sighing, I gave Claire a kiss on the forehead and then walked towards my doom in the yellow-painted kitchen.
Charlie's face was red as I turned to look at him.
"Where the hell did you go last night?" he asked, arms crossed.
"I went to a party out by the falls with some kids in my grade. Apparently, it was on Quileute territory, though, and so it got broken up by the guys down there. Jacob Black took me back to his house since I wasn't feeling well enough to come home. He just dropped me off," I said to him. Telling the truth made me breathless and terrified for the reaction that Charlie would have, but some small part of me felt proud of the fact that I had done as Jake had said.
Charlie didn't start yelling as I had expected, although I was concerned over the shade of red that his face had turned.
"Bella, I know that I was wrong to react the way I did yesterday in the car, but that doesn't mean you can walk all over me and the rules of this house. I'm still your father and I expect you to respect that which means that you follow my rules until you move out of this house. Is that understood?" Charlie asked, his voice deadly calm. I nodded my head, looking down at my muddy black boots. "Now… I assume you've already guessed it, but you're grounded… Until further notice. Give me your phone, please and the only places you'll be going are school and back home again. Got it?"
With another nod, I handed over the cell phone in my pocket.
"Good… Now get upstairs and clean up or something. You look like hell," Charlie said gruffly.
I sighed and nodded again in defeat, but before I left the kitchen I paused.
"Did you know Claire was down here all night watching TV? She's going on about an imaginary friend… So just don't say anything to upset her, alright?" I said. Charlie looked just as perplexed as I had, but I just turned and walked upstairs. A shower was exactly what I needed to clear my head.
xXx
Since the day was unexpectedly sunny, once I had gotten out of the shower, I'd dressed in a pair of jeans and a T-shirt. I then changed Claire out of her pajamas and into a pink sundress that had been her favorite to wear in Phoenix. Despite the fact I tried to explain to her that it wasn't as warm out here just because the sun was out, she wouldn't listen and donned the dress anyway.
Gathering up a blanket and some of the homework that had been assigned for the weekend, I scooped up Claire and set up in the small backyard.
The grass was slightly damp, and squished between my bare feet, but it was oddly comforting to be outside and feel the sun on my shoulders. Laying down on the blanket, I made sure that Claire was content in her adventure to find the perfect sticks, then opened my books and started to read.
Listening to Claire murmur to herself, I tried to absorb what the pages of my American History textbook were trying to tell me. Unfortunately, the words that told me all about the Allied and Axis powers of WWII weren't quite keeping my attention. The dull ache in my skull from drinking last night made my head heavier than usual. My eyelids drooping, I faintly heard Charlie say that he was going to work. I raised my hand in recognition of what he'd said, and tried to focus again on the words that seemed to blur together on the page.
Claire's little voice began to grow softer and eventually she stopped all together.
Glancing up with squinting eyes I looked around the yard to see what she had gotten up to, only to find that she was nowhere in sight.
Jolting upright on the blanket, I looked around. She wasn't anywhere in the backyard nor was she in the yard of the house next to ours.
"Claire?" I called out loudly, spinning in place. I half-expected her to come out of the house and tell me she'd gone in for a snack.
My heart beat louder in my chest. She had just been here! I hadn't fallen asleep, had I?
"Claire!" I screamed, a note of panic in my throat.
And then I heard it.
Claire's giggle coming from the forest beyond the edge of the backyard. However, it was accompanied by the sound of a woman humming.
"Claire, come back!" I shouted again, not wasting a moment as I jogged towards the tree line. The humming and Claire's giggling started to drift further away on the wind, but my feet felt as though they had turned to stone. Stopped at the edge of the forest, my body's natural instincts were telling me not to even attempt going back into those woods. Something evil lay within the cover of the underbrush.
But as Claire's small giggle turned into barely a sound in the distance, I pushed aside my raging instincts and thrust myself into the dark forest for the second time since arriving in Forks.
"Claire! Come back! Please, you can't go in here!" I shouted as I pushed my way through the thick bushes. It was much different running through the woods during the day. Although the canopy of leaves blocked out most of the rare sunlight from the day, there was a feeling of dread that was much more real. While within the darkness I could have made it all out to be a dream, out in the middle of the day, there was no denying what was happening.
Keeping my pace, I listened and heard Claire's giggle a bit closer this time, but the woman's humming had stopped entirely.
"Claire, we can't play games like this!" I shouted anxiously, pausing briefly in the underbrush. My breathing was ragged from the run and my ears strained to hear the next giggle. With a sinking feeling, I realized that there were no more sounds. I felt entirely alone in the middle of the forest.
From behind me there came a snapping sound, as if someone had stepped on a twig a few feet back from me. It was in that moment that the feeling of absolute horror washed over my senses. My spine tensed and the hairs on the back of my neck stood up. By some twisted compulsion, I felt the need to turn around and see what was stalking me.
The footsteps that approached slowly from behind me were deliberate and shuffled the leaves around just enough to give a bit of warning. Twisting my body, my breath shakily left my lungs and I could feel my palms grow slippery.
Turning my head all the way around, my eyes met the source of the noise and a scream tore up my throat.
There before me was a woman dressed in a hospital gown. Her eyes were wide and void of any pupil. Blood stained her clothes and the skin of her pale arms. Her long hair was dark from what looked like dripping blood from her scalp.
I barely had time to look at her before I felt my body being slammed into the ground. The air left my lungs and I was unable to scream again as the terrifying woman had her cold hand wrapped around my throat. I could feel the slippery blood that coated her fingertips as they tightened their hold around my neck. My eyes widened as the woman's face drew closer to my own. Terror shooting through my veins like heroin, I could do nothing but stare at the ghastly, pale and bloodied face. The white eyes stared into mine as if they really could see, and to my horror, the woman's cracked pale lips drew into a smile, revealing several missing teeth, and other bloody ones.
Grasping at the ground, I struggled against her hold, but black spots began to swim on the outside edges of my vision. I could almost feel my consciousness leaving me when out of nowhere a burst of thunder seemed to roll over us.
The vibrations shook my bones and, to my surprise, the woman's head snapped away, looking towards the forest. Still struggling, I clawed at her wrist to try and get her off of me, but when another roll of thunder shook the ground beneath my body, the hand was released, and the body above mine vanished as if she had never been there in the first place.
Coughing and gasping, I drew the air back into my body. My throat felt raw and I couldn't shake the slimy feeling as if the woman was still holding onto me, but I lay there on the ground and tried to breathe.
Listening to the forest around me, I focused on the air that went in and out of my lungs. In the distance, I heard other things. There was the pounding on the ground that sounded like horses running a race, a high pitched shriek of some kind of bird that I'd never heard before and the rumbling of thunder that settled into the very marrow of my bones.
However, when I looked up at the canopy of leaves above my head, the sun still filtered down weakly between the leaves.
And then suddenly there was silence.
My fuzzy brain was not able to keep up with what was happening, but when I heard more leaves shuffle, my fight or flight instincts kicked into high gear.
A warbled shriek left my throat as I flipped my body over and crawled through the dead leaves on shaking arms and legs. Frantically, my eyes sought out cover to hide my body against, or a weapon of some kind. I didn't take the time to notice that the footsteps were heavier and that a rumbling accompanied the person walking towards me.
When I felt a thick arm reach down and grab me around my torso, I did not take a moment to realize that this arm wasn't pale and bloodied, but thickly-muscled and tawny. I screamed again through my raw throat and thrashed against their hold, although it didn't do any good.
"Bella. You're safe now. It's alright," rumbled the deep voice that pierced through my terrified state. I knew that voice. Whipping around, I came face to face with Jake Black.
A very shirtless Jake Black.
His long hair was unbound around his shoulders and his dark eyes flitted over my face, taking stock and extremely concerned.
It was almost as if his presence made all of the terror drift away from my body. My muscles relaxed and my mind slipped back into a calmer state and to my utter embarrassment, I threw myself into his arms. I wrapped my arms around his neck and pressed my chest against him, ignoring his naked form for the time being. There was something undeniably safe that I recognized about this man. It was a drastic change from my first thoughts about him after witnessing how he acted in the general store.
In this moment, my body and mind recognized that I was safer in his arms than anywhere else in the world.
He reached around and held me closer to his warmth. Stroking soothingly down my back while he murmured words I did not understand. I was unsure of how much time had passed in his arms when I reared back and began to shake again.
"Claire! Holy shit! We need to find Claire. There's some crazy bitch on the loose! I need to call Charlie!" I rasped the frantic words through my raw throat, struggling to get down from Jake's arms. He did not relent, though, and instead cupped the back of my head to steady it's swiveling as I looked into the woods.
"Your sister is safe. She is with one of my brothers and I can assure you that she is safer with him than with anyone else in this town," he said. The tone of his voice was hushed, and calm. In the back of my mind I suspected that he was trying not to show his concern for what had just happened, in an attempt to get me to calm down.
"That woman! You saw her, right? I'm not going crazy! There was a woman, she had white eyes! Oh God, I think I'm going to be sick," I mumbled, letting my head fall forward onto Jake's broad shoulder as a wave of nausea washed over me.
"You are not crazy, Bella. Everything will be explained when we get back, alright?" Jake said. His voice rumbled through my body and soothed my frayed nerves. I could do nothing else but nod, and let him pull me into his arms. Securing me against his burning hot body, he started walking through the woods again, back through the thick tangle of branches and towards the sunshine once again.
Are you thoroughly creeped out yet? I hope so! ;) Leave some feedback if you'd like and thank you so much for reading!