They were all staring at her.
Bella hadn't turned since she'd watched Jacob disappear into the trees, but she could feel their gazes on the side of her face, and she took an unnecessary breath before turning to address them.
"So…you come here often?" Bella may have been the first vampire in history to flinch at her own words.
Luckily, it seemed to soften the tense atmosphere, and most of the coven started filing into the large, a few stray chuckles being released on their way. Soon it was only Bella, Tanya, and Irina, and Tanya laid her hand on Irina's shoulder for a moment, and when she received a nod, followed the rest of her coven into the house.
The silence that rested over the two remaining vampires was far from comfortable. Bella fidgeted, more a habit from her human life than an actual need for movement, and Irina glanced at her before letting out a sigh, and heading off into the trees in the opposite direction the wolves had gone.
Well, Bella thought, I guess that's that. And she turned to head back home to update him on everything that happened, but she was stopped by a gentle 'wait.' And Bella looked over her shoulder to see Irina gesturing for her to follow after her with a wave of her hand. Bella bit her lip and weighed the odds of the vampire attacking her once they were far enough away from anyone who could hear.
Irina must have seen something on her face because the blond rolled her eyes and sped over, taking Bella's hand and pulling her along, not giving her a choice in the matter.
"Honestly. If I wanted to kill you, you'd already be dead." Irina said over her shoulder to Bella.
Somehow, the cliché movie line didn't exactly comfort Bella, but she let herself be dragged along without resistance. When they reached a small opening in the trees, Irina let go of Bella's hand and sat down on a fallen tree, crossing her ankles and managing to look like she was in a fashion show even while covered in dirt and in the middle of the woods.
Bella waited another moment for the vampire to speak, and when all she got was a wave at the spot on the log next to her, Bella took the seat offered, staring out at the woods in a much more comfortable silence than before.
"I don't blame you, if that's what you're thinking." Irina broke the quiet, and Bella turned to look at her, but the blond was still facing the trees. "I'm sorry for what happened earlier. The man I believed to be my mate had lied to me, manipulated me, and for what?" She let out a humorless chuckle. "For some other woman that wanted revenge against a girl who'd done nothing but keep dangerous company?"
She turned to Bella then. "I know it might not mean much, especially after I attacked you earlier, but thank you." A crinkle formed in Bella's brow as she stared, confused, at the blond. "For saving me." Irina finished.
"Saving you?" Bella stuttered out incredulously. "I haven't done anything."
Irina gave a small smile to the brunette. "You told me the truth." She said. "You told me what he never did. You stopped me from running straight to my death by entering into a fight to avenge a man who didn't deserve it." Irina's smile grew at the nonplussed look on Bella's face. "So, thank you."
That seemed to indicate the end of the conversation, as Irina stood from the log and started heading back in the direction of the house.
"Now, come on! We've got more to hear from you about everything that's happened, and my whole coven needs to hear it."
Bella had hoped for a moment when Irina dragged her into the woods that she might be able to skip that 'talk', but she was proven wrong. With a disgruntled groan, that drew a laugh from Irina, Bella stood from the log. And immediately sat back down.
Her fingers were tingling.
Irina glanced down at her, confused by the sudden stillness of the newborn. When Bella flickered from view suddenly, her eyes widened, and she blurred back to the sitting vampire just in time for her to disappear. All that was left were carved out sections of the log from were Bella had tried to hold herself to this place before she was whisked away.
OOOOOO
She was by the sea again.
It was a more distant smell this time, lingering in the air but not overwhelming Bella's sense of smell. And the crashing of the waves wasn't the first thing Bella heard. Instead, as Bella regained her senses, all she could hear was a furious pounding. The rhythmic 'thumps' were like a song to Bella, calling her to the source, and when she turned, she found it.
Or rather, her.
That little girl from before, the one with the dragging dress and tear filled eyes, was sitting with her back pushed up against the side of the house, her fingers pawing at the wooden grain as her wide eyes stayed locked on her.
She was staring at Bella.
Bella's red eyes widened. Shit.
The girl was a bit older, growing her from small and chubby body to one with awkward, jutting elbows and knees. She must've been about 14, hitting that part of her life where her body doesn't quite seem to fit her. Her bare feet were covered in dirt, and the callouses on them demonstrated a different kind of life than what Bella was used to.
What really caught Bella's attention, though, is her heartbeat. It had been racing before, probably from the shock at having a random red-eyed woman appear out of thin air before her, but now it was slowing down to a calmer pace. It was still faster than it should be, but the smell of fear that had filled Bella's nostrils was starting to dissipate.
Bella remained motionless, still as a statue, as she stared at the teen in front of her, waiting for her to look away, or even blink long enough for Bella to sprint from view. If she moved quickly enough, the girl might think she was just a figment of her imagination, but the girl's blue eyes remained unblinking, fixed on the apparition before her.
Hesitantly, a bony hand reached out, coming toward Bella's face at a pace so slow that Bella was worried that she'd somehow triggered her vampire speed in those drawn out moments. When they finally made contact, the air in the teen's lungs rushed out of her and her heart started to speed up again.
"I'm not going to hurt you." Bella spoke the words quietly, like she was afraid of spooking a wild animal, but the girl's breath hitched at the musical sound anyway. She spoke something then in that language Bella had heard her using before, but her complete lack of understanding must have shown on her face, because the teen gave a confused look of her own before repeating her foreign words.
Bella didn't really know what to do in a possible scenario where a time traveler suddenly interacted with a girl from a period long gone, in a language long dead, but apparently sitting there with her mouth open, gazing at the girl like a brainless idiot wasn't the correct response. So this time when the girl spoke, she gave a shrug of her shoulders in response, wearing an apologetic look.
The crinkle that had formed in the girl's brow smoothed out, and a small, understanding smile replaced it. She pulled her hand back from where it had stayed on Bella's cheek, and brought it to her own chest, palm against her heart and fingers splayed wide.
"Didyme." She only spoke one word, and Bella really hoped that she was interpreting her correctly and that was the girl's name. It was a beautiful name.
Bella repeated the gesture, hand to her heart. "Bell—" She cut herself off, suddenly. Bella wasn't exactly a common name in Ancient Greece, was it? What was a more common name? Is that something a person can even google? Are there enough records of Ancient Greece to know the 'most common girl names'?
"Bell." The girl, Didyme, repeated with a grin growing on her face, and the effect her sudden happiness had was like being hugged by sunshine, so Bella let it go and gave a small, sheepish smile of her own.
The laughter that rose from Didyme's chest seemed less amused and more startled and slightly hysterical about what exactly was happening, and Bella couldn't blame her. If a random girl just dropped out of nowhere and practically landed in her lap she'd be a bit off center, too.
A sudden voice from inside the house yelled out, and Bella froze in place. She'd already let herself be seen twice, once by a child and once by this strange teen in front of her. She couldn't let it happen again. There had to be some kind of rules for time travel. Everyone's heard of the Butterfly Effect.
She needn't have worried, though, for as soon as the voice called out, Didyme responded in kind, yelling back something that must've been an assurance, because the person inside the house settled back into silence. Didyme turned back to Bella then, and Bella finally noticed the small knife in her hands and the wood shavings covering the ground. The girl had been out here carving something.
Before she could see what exactly had taken shape before Bella had so rudely interrupted, Didyme shoved something behind her, giggling, and put all four fingers to her mouth, covering it in a strange way, and Bella took this to mean that she had to be quiet.
She gave an acquiescing nod, and Didyme leapt to her feet, wiping her hands on the front of her dirty dress over her thighs, and reached forward, grabbing Bella's hand, before taking off into the trees. Bella let herself be pulled along, her curiosity of this girl who had skipped right past any kind of rational reaction to a girl appearing from thin air and went right to holding her hand moving her forward.
Soon, Didyme brought them to a path that wound through the trees, and Bella was surprised to see it was the same path as last time, this one slightly more worn down. Before they reached the end of the path, however, Didyme stopped. Belatedly, Bella was thankful they hadn't gone past the trees. She'd been I the cover of their looming shadows since she'd come to in this place just minutes before, and all she had to do was look up to see that the sun was out in full force today.
She didn't need to see this girl's reaction to seeing her in the sun.
Didyme, unaware at her inner musings, plopped herself down on the ground right in the middle of the path and still holding on to Bella's hand, forcing her to bend a bit. The girl stared up at the vampire, eyes expectant, and after a minute of silence passed, Didyme rolled her eyes – a thing even in ancient times apparently – and yanked on her hand twice.
Bella finally got the hint and sat down, cross-legged on the dirt. She received a smile from Didyme, and another string of words in that strange language, before Didyme seemed to heave a sigh at the lack of response from her new companion, and looked at her with a frustrated frown, crossing her arms over her chest.
Weirdly apologetic, despite the fact that she really should have been expected to know a dead language to call upon at random, Bella gave Didyme a sympathetic wince before releasing a sigh of her own and just waiting for that strange that signaled her power was about to yank her away from the past again.
A light sparked behind the blue eyes in front of her then, and Didyme grabbed at Bella's sleeve excitedly before grabbing both sides of her face. Bella's eyes widened, confused at the sudden turn of events, before those hands directed her vision downward…to a foot.
Bella glanced back up at Didyme's face, letting her confusion show plainly, before those hands once again guided her gaze back down, this time with a word accompanying the action. She let go of her face, and a hand entered her view along with the dirt covered foot, pointing at the appendage and repeating the word again.
Bella suddenly understood, repeating the word slowly, trying to make sure she got the pronunciation right, and looked back to Didyme's eyes. An enthusiastic nod of her head was her response, and Bella pointed at her own foot, repeating the word once more. Didyme once again nodded, a gigantic grin taking over her face, and Bella got it. That was the word for foot.
Her excitement at her understanding lasted for a second before the wariness set it. She was going to have to learn another entire language, one that wouldn't be useful at all in the modern world, just to communicate with this girl. One last look up at the teen's face wiped her dread away though. Nothing that could make her look that happy could be a waste of time.
Bella set her jaw determinedly, she was prepared to spend the rest of her 'trip', however long it might last, trying to learn to communicate with this Didyme and her bright smile, until she was forced back into her time once more. She nodded at Didyme, and pointed to her hand, waiting for the next word.
OOOOOO
It had been three days, and Bella was still here.
She'd spent a majority of that time with Didyme, the little ray of sunshine. Bella was used to teens being meaner, stuck in their own world, and generally self-oriented. That's just how most people are in their teenage years. But Didyme was a beacon of hope for her hopes of ever interacting in a pleasant conversation with one. The girl was just kind.
Every time that Didyme could get free time from washing the clothes and preparing the food and the other household chores, she was in the woods, calling for 'Bell', ready for another lesson.
They'd progressed a bit since starting, most of that having to do with Bella's new perfect memory and abundance of free time, and Bella was finally able to speak small sentences to the girl.
"Busy?" Bella asked, the words still feeling foreign on her tongue.
Didyme skipped over to her, having finished her weaving for the day, with a large smile on her face.
"Never for you, Bell." The teen replied.
Bella raised an eyebrow at the girl. "Really? What about Ancus?" The teen's smile drooped just slightly before returning to its full glory, albeit a bit more strained than before.
That was something Bella had noticed in the few days that she'd been stuck wandering the woods and living in the past, the surprisingly large amount of visitors her little friend got every day. It seemed that every hour, on the hour, a new boy or their father would come strolling up to the front of the cabin, ready to court the smiling teen.
Bella had even seen some elderly men, their graying hair slicked back and sleazy smiles sliding on their faces when they looked Didyme up and down. She'd had to stop herself from following a few of them back to their homes once Didyme had sent them away. She didn't trust them around the girl.
One thing that never happened though, was Didyme responding with her own affections towards any of these men. Some of them were obviously rich, their rings and gaudy necklaces declaring their wealth for all to see, and many were quite handsome as well. Bella's favorite was a cute looking kid from the village just beyond the trees. Ancus was the son of the local healer, and his nurturing personality showed his aptitude for the trade.
None of them seemed to garner the attention of Didyme, however.
"He didn't come today." The light blush on Didyme's face was appealing, the rush of blood singing to Bella, and she cringed a bit as she swallowed back a mouthful of venom. That bright smile was turned on Bella at that moment, and Didyme's next words halted her in her path as she followed behind the girl to their place in the woods. "My brother is coming home tonight! I can't wait for you to meet him."
It wasn't the change of topic, too sudden to be anything but a misdirection, that brought Bella up short. It was her image of that man, crouched over his father's body, blowing smoke into the dying man's lungs and holding his crying sister with a gleeful smile on his face. Bella tried to repress a shudder.
Didyme walked ahead, oblivious to her inner struggles.
"I can't meet him." Bella's words were the ones that stopped Didyme this time, and the teen looked back at the vampire, confused.
"What? Why not? He'd love you! He's always loved the stories of wraiths and goliaths and—"
"That's why." Bella interrupted, seeking an out to having to deal with the twisted man. "I have to be a secret, Didyme. I'm…" Her rudimentary grasp on the language failed for a moment. "I'm not something you can tell people about. If people know, they could get hurt. Do you want your brother to get hurt?"
Didyme's head shook so fast that Bella was a little afraid the girl might get whiplash. "No!"
"Then you can't tell him, alright?" The teen pouted in a very teen-like manner, her lower lip jutting out and her foot stomping the ground as she looked at her toes, mumbling. "What was that?"
Didyme let out a sigh. "I said fine, I won't tell Aro, or anyone else about you."
Bella smiled widely in response, brushing her fingertips fondly over the child's cheek, and that blush came back full force, along with a slightly dazed look in her eyes.
"Thank you, Didyme. Now…" Bella tilted her chin up. "Where's that smile?"
Didyme let out a small giggle, muffled in her throat as she tried and failed to suppress her smile.
"There we go. You have such a lovely smile." The boys in the village really were doomed from the start, the kid was just too…
"Wait, did you say Aro?" Bella's words were strained, and the sudden shift in tone caused Didyme to frown.
The tingling was back in her fingertips. Oh god, not now.
"Yes, that's my brother." Didyme's words were getting harder and harder to hear, being drowned out by the sudden ringing in her ears. "Bell, are you okay."
The boy. His face had looked familiar, Bella remembered. She'd been trying to place where she might have seen it from, and the answer hadn't come to her, how could it? He looked so different in the painting.
He looked so different as a vampire.
"Didyme." Bella tried to speak, but it felt like she was just mouthing the words, deaf as she was to the world around her. She could see hands clutching at her arms, she could see Didyme yelling at her, a terrified look on her face, but she couldn't do anything. Bella could only stand there, staring at the girl in front of her with a sad look in her eyes as she faded from view.
OOOOOO
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