Chapter 25: Baiting the Beast
Before the Thanksgiving incident, I had been in a grand total of two automobile accidents. The most recent had been when Tyler Crowley's van had hit a patch of black ice and almost crushed me to death. Of course, that was when I had discovered that there was something unordinary about Edward Cullen, making it a rather exciting event.
Unfortunately, my very first encounter with a car wreck was not as pleasant as the second. I had been about thirteen years old and Renee had been a little hung over when she got behind the wheel. Despite my incessant nagging, she decided to force the two-seat coupe through a busy intersection, which turned out to be a horrible mistake. We were broadsided by a massive truck and our car was almost flipped over. I can remember, in great detail, trying to wake up my mom as I was pulled out of the car by the paramedics. The resulting fights between my mother, father, and Child Protective Services were something that never left me; it's not every day you get to watch your mother crumble before your eyes.
I wasn't exactly sure why these memories came to mind, especially with what had just happened. Eric was driving me home, and had just explained that he would come back for me, when we hit something—or someone—in the middle of the road. After that, everything went black. Now, as I slowly began my ascent into consciousness, the first greeting I received was from a harsh chemical aroma, which burned my sinuses violently, forcing me to cough. The odor smelled of bleach, copper, and, something else—what was it—wet cement. The air was tight and moldy, like I was in a closet that hadn't been opened in years, which caused
more coughing fits.
My eyes fluttered open, revealing unknown dank surroundings and barely any light. The only illumination came from a few sporadic cracks in what I guess were the walls. My vision was still very blurry, and my head felt like a moose had sat on it, so I could hardly make out my surroundings.
My first instinct was to stand up; however, as I tried to rise from my seated position, I found myself stuck. Twisting my torso from side to side, I soon discovered I was tied to an object—tied tightly too. As I groaned, I heard what sounded like a tiny voice.
"Hello?" I called, and blanched at the echo my voice made. With what I learned about sound waves and such, I quickly realized that I was in a very large room, which didn't make me feel any better.
"Shh!"
I gasped as the sound of someone's voice flowed through the silence, and my entire body tensed up. The sound had come from a few feet ahead, which made me wonder if the person who brought me here was still here.
"Who's there?" I called warily, wondering if I truly wanted to know the answer.
answer.
"Please, keep still," a soft, pleading whimper answered and fell back into silence.
"Where am I?" I wasn't about to be quiet just because a stranger asked me to. As I stared off into the darkness, my stomach began to knot up, and I wondered where I was.
"Please," the voice begged and, as I heard a shuffling of what sounded like chains, I saw the face of a very young girl in a sliver of light. Her right cheek was puffy, badly bruised, and her forehead was trickling blood near her hairline. "Don't make her come back."
"Who?"
"The white-haired demon," the girl whispered, her voice trembling the entire time. She shifted and appeared to lie on her back, and I immediately recognized her.
"Susan?" I knew this girl from the previous year at Forks High School. She had been a senior, while I was a junior, and had graduated alongside Rosalie and Emmett. What on earth was she doing here? "Susan Mayfield?"
Her eyes turned in my direction. "You know me?"
"Y-Yes," I stuttered as I tried to sit up, and, whatever was restraining me, dug deep into my stomach, forcing me to slouch again. As I turned my eyes down, wincing at the discomfort I was in, I noticed that Susan was staring at me expectantly. "Not personally, but, I knew you from school."
"I r-remember you," Susan breathed and let her hand trace across her face. As the light caught the delicate fabric of her white shirt, I immediately noticed the dark marks that littered her blouse. My stomach churned as I realized that they were, in fact, blood stains. "Y-You spent y-you're t-time w-with the C-C-Cullens."
Her teeth began to chatter and I was completely confused why; despite the cold wind whipping outside, it was strangely humid inside wherever we were. In fact, if I could untie myself, the first thing I would do would be to take off my jacket, which was causing my skin to bead with sweat.
"Yes, that's me," I answered her question, briefly remembering all the time I spent with Edward and Alice at Forks high school. Taking a deep breath, as the memories returned with full force but without much pain, I forced a smile in her direction. "I'm Bella Swan."
Susan's face fell. "B-Bella?"
The tone in her voice made my stomach twist in fear, though I didn't know why.
"Yes?"
"Y-You s-should n-not be h-here," she wailed softly, and turned her attention to the darkness that surrounded us. "Y-You s-should l-leave."
"I can't move," I confessed and tried to shift my body again, only to be met with more discomfort. As I refocused on Susan, my lips trembled as I noticed the look of utter horror on her face. "What is it?"
"Bella," she whispered and shook her head. "We're both going to die."
"How do you know?"
All at once Susan's eyes bulged and her mouth twisted in a horrible grimace. Just as I was about to ask her what was wrong, a blood curdling scream came from her lips. I continued to watch in horror as she began coughing violently, expelling blood with every gag. Nausea twisted my gut, and, as I leaned forward, I vomited on the floor.
"Susan," I choked out in between heaves, "what is—"
Her nails came forward, gripping at the cracks in the old cement floor, and she coughed, spitting blood a few feet from me. I tried to push my chair away from her, but it was impossible, almost like I was glued to the floor.
My eyes found Susan's seconds before she started screaming again. Three of her finger nails snapped off under the pressure, but she still continued to claw at the ground, attempting to get away from whatever was harming her.
I shut my eyes and balked at the sound of her horrifying cries and the gurgling noise she was starting to make. My eyes popped open at the sudden absence of her yelling, and gasped. There was a slim figure on top of Susan's body, bent slightly, drinking from her torso. Tears came to my eyes, and my stomach began to ache again, as the poor girl's body twitched three times before falling still.
The white-haired stranger dropped Susan's body with a careless gesture, dropping her into a heap on the floor, and exposing the open wound she had left behind. Susan's torso had been ripped open, mangled and mauled, from the middle of her back to just about her lower back. A stream of blood was traveling across the wooden floor, making its way in my direction. I gagged as the tiny bit of light, from the cracks in the wall, shined directly on her spinal cord, which was protruding from the gash.
"I'm so happy you've awakened, child," the stranger cooed, hauntingly, staring intently at me with her blood red eyes. "We can finally begin."
"Who are you?" I demanded, though my quivering voice revealed the fear I was trying to keep bottled up inside.
I silently wished that there was more light, and I, almost instantly, felt a surge of air above me. Half a second later, the sounds of breaking glass filled the silence, and I gasped as a waterfall of moonlight crashed upon me. My eyes adjusted and I realized exactly where I was: the old Forks warehouse.
The building had been closed in the fifties, and should have been torn down, but a few of the old employees were fighting city hall to have the old building restored as a "historical marker". The dust, unsettled by the breaking of the glass, found its way to my lungs, making me cough violently. I cried out in agony as I hacked and gagged, and groaned when I realized that the car accident probably injured me more than I was aware of. If only I could get up, I could see how serious my injuries are.
"That's more like it," she said, and I turned and gasped. Her white hair seemed to glitter in the moonlight, and she grinned malevolently in my direction. "It's always nice to see who you're talking to, isn't it?"
"Y-You, I know y-you," I stuttered and the cloaker cocked her head to the side. "Y-You're the s-scout."
Her eyes widened and she laughed, which I found very odd. After a few seconds of her booming hysterics, she shook her head. "No, my dear, I am not. The scout has already come and gone."
"Then who are you?" The McRaes had assumed that the scout was also the cloaker; who else could she be if she was not here to find them?
"My name is Ehdrid, just like the goddess," she responded, bowing slightly at the waist, "although my masters prefer to call me 'the hider'."
"Why are you here?"
"I'm here to find the two abominations," she said, her features becoming stern, "and destroy them."
I swallowed hard, knowing exactly what two she was speaking of, and fidgeted in my seat. My eyes turned down, and I realized my body was tightly bound in blackened chains. I glared at her openly, as I twisted in my seat, and asked, "What do you want with me?"
"You can't catch a beast without bait," she answered and moved closer to me.
"Are you going to kill me?"
"No," she sighed, her expression contorting to bored grimace. "Your death will bring me no more pleasure than drowning kittens."
"Then why—"
"I'm sorry, Bella," she said quickly, cutting off my question, and seized my arm. "I'm on a tight schedule, so you won't mind if I speed things up, will you?"
Before I could answer, she broke the top half of my restraints, pulled my arm out violently, which caused me to yelp, and drew a line across the top of my arm with her index finger. I cried out in pain as a dark line formed across my skin, and my stomach began to churn at the acrid smell of my own blood. Ehdrid pulled a piece of cloth from her back pocket, and dabbed my fresh wound with it. At first, I thought she was actually making an attempt to clean the area, but, when she lifted the fabric to her nose, I realized exactly what she was doing. Ehdrid was gathering my scent.
"Now," she said, moving away from me, "try not to move around, and don't make too much noise. You don't want to end up like them."
She pointed behind me, and, after turning my head, I spied three bodies lying on the floor. The first was male, and his body was almost torn in two, his entrails leaking out of his open stomach, while the second, a female, had been decapitated. My eyes welled up when I spied the familiar body of Susan, whom I had just been speaking with, strewn across the ground.
I turned back, wanting to curse the violent creature responsible for these killings, but she had already vanished into the dark. I kicked at the floor, feeling completely helpless, and howled as a sharp pain radiated from my torso. The tears began to stream down my face as I imagined the horrible trap Ary and Argos could walk into—or Eric. A long extinguished feeling erupted in my chest, filling me with dread and a soul crushing agony. If anything were to happen to Eric, I didn't know what I'd
do. He'd become so essential to me, that life without him was seemingly impossible—because I loved him.
Why do I have to realize this now?
Why did grand epiphanies always come at the worst possible time? I felt like Scarlett at the very end of Gone with the Wind; finally seeing the light when it was too late. Despite the pain it caused me, I began hopping up and down in my chair, trying to make as much noise as possible. The McRaes had advanced hearing, so maybe they'd hear me before they fell into Ehdrid's trap. Unfortunately, every time I forced the chair off the ground, more blood appeared to pump from my arm. I turned my eyes to the wound, and was slightly grateful that it wasn't as deep as I thought it
was—wouldn't require stitches at all. However, the sharp stabbing pain near my ribs was what concerned me the most. It didn't feel like anything was broken, so I deduced that it was probably a huge bruise that covered the entire right half of my body.
Seeing as I couldn't move the chair without damaging myself further, I started thinking about yelling as loud as I could. Maybe someone on the highway would hear me. I grew nervous, remembering that Ehdrid had asked me to be quiet, but my worry for the McRaes superseded my fear.
"HELLO!" I cried, cringing at the booming echo it caused. "PLEASE CAN ANYBODY HEAR ME?"
Despair filled me though when I realized that it was the middle of the night on Thanksgiving; no one would be traveling on the highway this late. No one was going to hear my screams. I sobbed heavily and leaned back against the chair, almost surrendering to my fate. Then again, she had said she wasn't going to kill me; so what would happen if Ehdrid's plan didn't work?
A twig snapped outside, rousing me from my thoughts, and I gasped as Ehdrid came sailing midair through the dingy, broken windows. As she landed, her face turned in my direction, and she strode across the floor, closing the distance between us. Once she was close enough, Ehdrid placed her foot on the edge of my chair, and pushed me back. I sailed backwards, too shocked to scream, and hit the wall with an excruciating thud.
"I don't like being toyed with, Isabella," she growled and grabbed the back of my hair. "When I ask someone to be quiet and not to move, I expect them to obey."
She let go of my hair, and I groaned as my scalp began to throb mercilessly.
"It doesn't matter," Ehdrid said and moved away from me. "The trap is set—and someone's already taken the bait."
My head snapped up, but, once again, Ehdrid had vanished into the darkness. My body trembled and I wondered who had found their way here. Argos? Melena? Avarice? Or was it Eric? I twisted against the chains, regardless of the pain, and groaned when I heard the familiar voice.
"BELLA? WHERE ARE YOU?"
My heart was beating like a drum, and I couldn't decide whether I should answer Eric or not. I shut my mouth tight, hoping that he'd move on and not fall into the trap that Ehdrid had set. However, his voice continued to get closer, and it dawned on me that not only could he smell my blood, but could probably hear my heart.
Sure enough, a few moments later a shadow came through the window, and I immediately recognized Eric's shape. I sighed and groaned at the same time; I was happy to see him, but terrified that he was about to be killed trying to save me. After a few steps, Eric turned and we made eye contact.
"Bella!" Eric rushed towards me and cupped my face. "Are you all right? What happened to you?"
"Eric," I whispered urgently. "Please, leave."
"What?"
"Please, Eric," I pleaded, the tears pouring down my cheeks. "Trust me; you need to get out of here."
"I'm not going to leave you," he insisted firmly.
"How enchanting." Ehdrid's voice resonated throughout the entire warehouse, and Eric immediately turned to shield me. Across the way, she stepped out of the shadows and chuckled. "I'm sorry, but please enlighten me, who the hell are you?"
"You," Eric growled and took a step forward. "You're the one who's been around our home."
"You're a McRae?"
"I'm Erickson McRae," he hissed in response and continued to take small steps forward, his back arching as he moved closer. "If you know what's good for you, you'll release Bella. This is between you, my family, and I."
"Hmm," Ehdrid hummed and scratched her chin. "I was supposed to find the two beasts, but, I guess you're better than nothing. All right."
She blurred forward, a feral snarl ripping from her, and made contact with Eric's awaiting form. The two immediately began swiping and ripping at the other's clothing and skin, roaring and grunting during their struggle. Eric broke away from Ehdrid and flipped through the air, landing a good three yards away, and crouched low to the ground, breathing heavily.
"Is that all?" Eric laughed and straightened up. "I expected more—."
Eric was cut off as Ehdrid rushed forward, and, after a quick kick to his legs—knocking him off balance—she wrapped her arms securely around his midsection. I shouted in protest as Eric began to cry out in agony, and my eyes bulged when I saw Ehdrid started tearing at Eric's flesh. The moonlight made the venom, pouring out of his wounds, glitter brightly.
Once the clear liquid touched the floor, it began to sizzle and scorch, filling the space with a sulphuric odor that had my head spinning.
"Please, no!" Despite my incessant pleading, she continued and even brought her lips to his neck, ripping a piece away from his shoulder and spitting it across the room. "STOP IT! HELP! SOMEONE HELP!"
Eric grunted and reached back with his arms, attempting to get a grip on her, but failed. Ehdrid reached forward and bit into his forearm, forcing another pain-filled grunt from my Eric. She stood up slowly, carrying Eric's still-struggling body along with her, and moved to another corner of the room. With a simple flick of her foot, she knocked over a jar of liquid, which spilled everywhere. One sniff told me exactly what was in the jar; it was gasoline.
Almost on cue, Ehdrid produced a small match, lit it, and tossed it, immediately forming a wave of fire a few feet away from her. My heart ripped in half, knowing that no one would hear our shouting, realizing that I was about to watch Eric McRae die. My cries turned into begging, as I desperately called for anyone or anything to help. Eric's howls were ripping away at my soul, and, as he attempted to pull himself away, Ehdrid pulled his arm up, ready to rip it off and cast it into the fire.
I closed my eyes, unable to bear the sight, but, above the screams, the snarling, and the hissing, I heard the sound of hope. Out across the darkness of the forest, I heard an inhuman roar.