You all have been wondering where our favorite character is Rosalie—did you honestly think I'd leave her out of this party? She will make her fashionably late entrance in a few chapters. You're also asking if Jasper will be nice to her….have faith, kids.

Chapter 17

With staggering awareness, I inhaled sharply and my eyelids shot open; my eyes darted across the dimly lit room with a mix of shock and confusion. One minute, I had been staring at the jail for the first time, letting dread sweep through me, I had blinked, and appeared here.

My muscles were stiff, indicating I had been asleep; so strange, it felt like I had slept for quite awhile. A chilly dampness was seeping into my underside, I realized I was lying down; my body reacted slowly by lifting my torso off the ground. My fingers began to feel along the ground, it was uneven and made of stone. It felt wrong though; I was lying down, but my head and neck were slightly elevated, and they weren't as cold as the rest of my body. I propped myself on my elbows, and I felt movement under my head; I rolled my head back to look at what I was resting on.

A gasp ripped through my aching chest as I saw it was a woman, and my head had been on her lap; and not just any woman; the last woman I ever thought I would see again.

"Miss Garratt!" I exclaimed, feeling my face light up as she stared back at me with a small smile on her lips and her eyes dim.

"I see you're awake," She grinned her Miss Garratt grin, remembrance washed through me. "Hello Isabella."

In my excitement, I scrambled to my knees so I was sitting beside her; I couldn't take my eyes off of her, still in denial.

I was so elated; I never thought I'd see her again. It seemed like at any second she would evaporate, leaving me here. I suddenly felt like I wasn't alone in the world anymore.

I tried to scoot closer, but my ankle caught on something, and made a rattling sound.

I turned my head slowly, knowing what I would find. I saw a heavy, chain shackling my ankle to the wall. I let out a whimper in crushed spirits.

"You get used to it." She said somberly, glaring at it as I did.

For the first time, I had a chance to take in the room; if I squinted my eyes, I could see other women, but they were unresponsive and didn't react to our conversation. Their eyes were glassy and empty; I would have thought they were dead if I didn't see their chests move up and down.

Fear struck through me, was that how I would end up? Miss Garratt followed my gaze.

"They're already gone, lost in their own minds." Right on cue, a hysterical giggle laugh through one of them in the corner; I jumped, startled by it. But it hadn't sounded like a happy laugh, it sounded like an insane, lost laugh. It frightened me; I instinctively cringed into her side.

"Now young lady," She started to scolded. "Would you like to explain what you're doing here?" She asked hopelessly; I paused, tearing my eyes away from her gaze.

"I don't know, I guess I lost it. Kind of like you did…?" I admitted shamefully, she sighed empathetically.

"I didn't lose it Bella, I found it." She whispered into the sky. "I don't regret it one bit, I'd rather die on my feet than live on my knees." A low gasped escaped me. What did she mean by that?

"What do you mean?"

"Nothing." She muttered, staring off; suddenly her eyes turned to me with sudden curiosity. "You know, I almost didn't recognize you. What did you do to your hair? I thought you took pride in it."

"I cut it." I answered simply, twiddling my thumbs.

"Why would you do that?"

I couldn't tell her. I didn't know if she would be happy, disappointed, shocked; it was too secretive. After seeing Alice's reaction, there was no way I could ruin this relationship too. Maddy's name brought back a fresh wave of hurt.

"It was necessary." I murmured, choking back the memory.

"Hm." She let her head rest against the back wall, and she closed her eyes. My eyes wandered around the bleak, damp room.

"How did you know to call me Bella?" I asked, it dawned on me that I'd never told her to. Had she overheard Alice and I?

She giggled a musical trill, except that the time in this place had taken its toll on her, so it sounded raspy and worn.

"Way back in the day, Isabella was quite a common name actually. And many nicknames were often derived from it, not just Bella." She explained; my eyebrows knit together.

My name had been common once? I was the only one in Hollow Wood who had that name.

"Really?" I asked, perking up.

"Yes, other nicknames were taken from it such as 'Izzy' or 'Isabel', or even 'Bell'." She said softly. "I wish I could have lived in that time."

"I wish I could have lived there too Miss Garratt; you know you were my favorite teacher right?" I felt the need to add the last part, though it seemed trivial now, pitted up against the circumstances.

"Not anymore I suppose after my display." She smiled to herself. "You know, when The Wall went up, I had to take back my maiden name." Sadness was laced in her voice, as if remembering it hurt her.

"Really?" I couldn't understand the intense melancholy in her voice, but I wished I could.

"Yes. They, being the Volturi, made the teachers take back our maiden names if we were married. I guess to break whatever last bond we held to our loved ones on the other side."

We talked about such things for a few more hours; without the school environment, she truly was easy to talk to. She was understanding, and I felt a certain kind of warmth I'd never felt before; something I'd craved my whole life but I hadn't known I lacked. Like I was finally on the same page with someone.

"That day," I started later on. "The day you were taken. It was the most…I don't even know how to describe it. Soon afterwards everyone forgot about it, but I couldn't. I've missed you." I disclosed, with a sad sigh, my head was once again in her lap, and she was stroking my hair in a tender, protective way.

Time passed. I wasn't quite positive how long though, could have been five minutes. Could have been five years. I was getting lost in our conversation; Miss Garratt said that she's able to keep track of time, because the Hawks bring in our scraps of food at a certain time.

Even later on I couldn't help but ask.

"What happens all day, here?" I asked, wondering what could possibly happen when you had eternity to spend in a place as wretched as this.

"You're living it." She let her hand rise pathetically and wave at the open space in front of us; I wasn't surprised. I didn't expect any special treatment besides the obvious.

"Oh."

"I know." There was a long pause, as I began tracing my finger across the wrought iron of the chain connected to my ankle.

"I knew you were different." She sighed breaking the silence, resting a hand on my knee. "I'm just sorry it led you here." 'Here' being the end of my life as I knew it.

My eyes trailed to her arms; long gashes that were red around their edges stretched up her forearm, big purplish bruises were sprinkled up her arm.

"What happened to your arms?" My words came out in a jumble of syllables, not being able to pronounce coherent words. A sad smile in her eyes, she replied.

"This is jail; they don't just leave us here to rot. They have their recreation. We're here on punishment, remember?" She groaned, gazing pathetically at her arms, and looking toward me apologetically.

I supposed she expected me to be worried about my own safety, knowing that my own punishment would soon come. I, however, was more concerned with her injuries. She wasn't an old woman, but she wasn't too young either.

I looked down, at the ground beneath her, it was stained dark; I gawked and leapt back on instinct. I had thought that was water. It was her blood; it stained the bottom of her dress.

"Oh…" I moaned, and she just stared at me with hopelessness in her eyes. It angered me that they could treat her like that, could treat anyone like that. With empty courage, I sat up straight.

"We'll get out of here, Miss, just hang in there." I put my arm around her shoulder and rubbed her freezing cold forearm, and rested my head on her shoulder.

"Your optimism is inspiring, honey, but I'm afraid that it's blind. Even you can see the end is upon us." She took my hand in hers and left them there. I set my eyes downcast and pressed my lips into a hard line.

I didn't say anything after that; for I knew, no matter how injured she was, no matter how much blood was lost, how much of her mind was gone, she spoke the bitter truth. It was plain to see she was slowly slipping along with the others, and I would eventually be in a vegetable state. This place truly was a hell, an infinite hell full of nothing but time.

The only thing left to do was wait. Rot in stifling emptiness. Rot, and wait without purpose except to pray for death.

Six hours. Twelve hours. A day—maybe two or three even. The minutes blended into days, for the only reason I knew so was because I experienced tiredness every so often. It was all irrelevant; for now I could see Miss Garratt's method for time keeping was flawed. For I tried to wait like she had to know the specific time they brought us food, and it seemed much too long to be merely twenty-four hours. We ate once a day. Or so I guessed.

They must have been aware of our attempt at time-keeping, for they would go a day without giving us food—or was it a day? Was it merely an hour? I wasn't sure.

Miss Garratt tried to keep the madness at bay by starting up meaningless conversations with me; I tried to play along for a while, but I stopped for it seemed hopeless.

I cried; a lot. Cried for many reasons, one being sent here. Yes, that was an enormous one; but I also sobbed for Alice, and how I'd lost my best friend, and by the simple betrayal of the woman in the shop. Oh how I'd been so easily tripped up by a pebble after leaping over mountains.

But I didn't cry for the blatantly obvious, for I had no more tears for him; I couldn't find a place for him this moment, for I had so many other things to be sorry for. Anything else would be too much. Now, my tears had to be rationed, each terrible situation would receive equal amounts of pain and sorrow. He would receive no special treatment.

All through this, Miss Garratt just held me by her side, in an affectionate way. Not uttering one word; I supposed that was a good thing.

I'd never felt so close to the woman I'd only seen as a teacher before; even when I had expressed my admiration, I never truly felt such a connection. I had no idea what I would have done without her.

When we were sleeping, the Hawks would clean our living space; an embarrassing aspect. But that's when I noticed. Noticed some of the women no longer let out cries of laughter; then they would take the bodies out.

I knew then, that I had been witnessing deaths for however long I'd been in here; and I hadn't realized it. I wanted to be sick, I wanted to throw up, but I couldn't; I had no more energy for such a thing.

Time slipped seamlessly into itself, stretching out as far as the eye could see; the routine being set in stone by the hawks that were to watch us.

But something had been bothering me for quite awhile; Miss Garratt had been as stable as can be for as long as I could remember. What had caused her to snap that day? I recalled nothing that could have set her off…that's what I had spent my time wondering about. Why she decided to stop holding back, and lose control. Did it have something to do with that calendar?

"Miss?" I whispered, although there was no need to; I nudged her shoulder, she mumbled incoherently before she rolled over to face me. Her eyes were empty.

"Yes?"

"I was just curious." I twiddled my thumbs once more. "It just doesn't make sense to me."

She closed her eyes before answering. "What doesn't make sense?" I took a deep breath before answering.

"That day, the day you were taken, it seemed like something inside you had finally let go. And, although it isn't my business, I was wondering if you would tell me what that was, if there was something." I finished, careful to read her reaction, a corner of her mouth turned up a fraction of an inch.

"Ah Bella," Her hand stroked my mine. "Dear, sweet, cautious Bella. You always worried if you would get a backlash from your actions." Her hand clutched my own. I didn't register what she had said, although it was probably true, that wasn't my focus. I was careful to ask again, afraid if asking once more would upset her.

"Um…"

"To answer your question," She cut me off, obviously knowing what I was going to say. "Yes, something did cause me to snap. But it was something you would not be able to comprehend."

I gasped, intrigued. "Oh, please tell me!" I begged, ready to beg for hours on end (I had plenty of time).

"It was my son." She sighed; I automatically froze at the mention of the opposite sex. "His birthday had been on that day. Before, on his birthdays, I'd been able to hold off the pain by not coming to school. But the head of the school had noticed this pattern and ordered I worked. I thought I could do it, but I just couldn't. So it resulted in what you saw."

The only thing I could hear was the sound of blood pulsing in my ears; yet my conscious mind wasn't aware of why yet. A reflexive tightening in my stomach began, and my hand clamped down on top of it.

Another memory ran toward me at lightening speeds, but it was a memory that had never been lost in the first place.

"'Cool, so Edward knew about you? When did he find you?' Emmett looked with happy eyes.

'He's been very nice. And about three days ago.'

'I would expect so, and that's kinda funny.'

'Why?' I answered in a puzzled way.

'More ironic than funny really, that's the day after his birthday.'"

Even in the low light, I tried to find his features in her.

Her green eyes shone, like a mirror of him. Her hair was as bronze as his.

"I love my boy so much." She breathed. "You couldn't comprehend it for you have never met a man, I'm sorry you have been deprived of that experience…"

Please, please, don't let it be true. I silently begged.

"… I love my Edward more than life itself."

The very dark room began to spin precariously, and I lost my balance. I fell back from my sitting position, and hit the chilly floor with an unceremonious thud.

Lots of you saw this coming. In fact, pretty much all of you saw this coming.

Anywho, this chapter is short, so what does that mean? *readers scream "An Epically Long and Dramatic Chapter is up next!"*. That's right, kids.

Review for the rest of the teaser:

"Ma'am?" I called out the front window to the driver, she didn't respond. "Where are you taking me?" She didn't even bother turning around. "Hey, lady!" I called, abandoning any attempt at politeness. "Where are you taking me?" I screeched. She whipped around, her eyes on fire.

"You are so lucky you are in the position you're in now or I would strangle you right here and now for such utter disrespect!" She scolded the desire to kill in her eyes.

"What is my position?" I yelled back, pressing my face to the glass; her face hardened even further and she turned back around.