A/N: Sorry for the delay in updates, but the holidays just got a bit crazy. Anyway, on with the story - and Happy New Year to all of you!

(Previously):

Just before stepping out of Emmett's cabin, I turned to look into Edward's eyes. "When we get home, I think maybe it's time Emmett find a hobby…I don't think the video games are really cutting it anymore," I mumbled.

"Clearly," Edward murmured back, pulling the cabin's door securely shut behind him.

Back outside, the rest of us finished removing the remains of the carnival and just as we were finishing, Sue, Carlisle and Esme returned with the campers. They also brought more sandwiches for those of us that hadn't gone up to dinner. Conveniently enough, Emmett followed close behind them, almost as if he'd been watching from a distance to see when he could safely return and not have Rosalie be able to yell at him. She glared at him as she welcomed back her girls, and looked over her shoulder once more before closing her cabin door behind her.

After I had eaten and the kids were all in bed, the usual group found ourselves settled in at Jasper's. Emmett had been the first to leave the campsite – he'd gotten his kids quickly settled and taken off before Rosalie had finished reading her nightly story to her campers.

With the long day we'd had, I couldn't wait until I could curl up on one of the plush couches. Granted I'd be more likely to get a solid night's sleep if I stayed in my own cabin, but there was no resisting the pull of that luxurious shower, not to mention being able to sleep in Edward's arms again…no, there was really no choice in the matter anymore, regardless of the quality of sleep.

Chapter 22:

Hours later as I lay half-asleep in Edward's arms fighting against the variety of sounds surrounding me, I began to question my own ability to make the right decisions.

"I can't believe him – why is he so incredibly annoying?" a voice hissed from somewhere nearby.

"I say we have some fun with him," another voice replied.

"I don't know…maybe we should just go sit upstairs for a while, and when he looks in the window he'll be satisfied that it looks boring here and go away," someone else said. Wait – that one was Edward. Stretching, I opened my eyes to see what was going on.

"Bella! You're awake – just in time, we're going to have some fun," Alice said, landing daintily on the couch next to my feet.

"Leave her alone, Alice. It's the middle of the night. Just ignore her Bella, and try to get some sleep," Edward said, narrowing his eyes at his sister, who was leaning directly over me, staring enthusiastically.

I propped myself up on one arm. "Forget it Edward – I'm up now. What are you all whispering about anyway? Who's incredibly annoying?" I asked, curiosity getting the better of me.

"Mike Newton, that's who – he saw us leaving camp earlier, and has been waiting to see when we would come back; we've been gone so long, he's decided to come to Jasper's cabin and see what's going on," Alice said, rolling her eyes. She must have had a vision of his decision. "He's so irritated with most of us that he thinks he's going to be able to sneak up on us and TP Jasper's cabin."

"Yeah, and instead, we're going to have some fun with him," Emmett chuckled, elbowing Jasper in the side.

"What are you going to do?" I asked.

"We're going to scare him to death, that's what," Emmett said. "Jasper – you got that key to the storage shed? I'm going to look for some props. Alice – how long till he gets close?"

Alice concentrated briefly. "About forty minutes – he hasn't left camp yet, he's looking for something…a flashlight, I think," she replied as Jasper tossed Emmett a key from his pocket.

Emmett was gone and back in less than five minutes. "I found some awesome stuff – I set is out back. Now, who's in? I know my job, but what about the rest of you guys – any takers?"

"Me!" Alice answered, throwing her hand into the air as she bounced in place.

"Definitely me," Jasper agreed, nodding his head. "That kid's been a constant nuisance since we got here."

Everyone glanced from Edward to me. I didn't see the harm, and I was wide awake now. "Ok, I'm in," I said, shrugging my shoulders. I was still kind of mad about Mike for having those thoughts about me during the kite episode anyway.

Edward sighed. "All right, we're in, but we're staying on the sidelines of the action," he said, studying Emmett; he was obviously listening to Emmett's plan of attack in his head.

After a moment, Edward started nodding, chuckling to himself. "Nice plan, Em. That gives me an idea… Alice, can I borrow your Blackberry?" he asked. She tossed it over, mumbling about suddenly not being able to see how things would go.

Edward turned on the device and punched in some numbers. "Hello – Seth? How are you? Good, good. I was wondering…are you busy tonight? Say about thirty minutes from now?" he nodded in response to whatever Seth said, then began reciting our location and specific directions, explaining our situation. He was laughing along with Seth as he disconnected the call.

"Come on, let's get outside so we can get ready," Emmett said, taking the lead. We all followed, Edward carefully guiding me out the back tunnel through the wide cellar doors. When we emerged, I saw that we were about thirty yards from the storage shed behind Jasper's cabin.

Alice pointed out the direction she had seen Mike coming from earlier, but said she couldn't guarantee anything since Edward had involved Seth.

"Edward, Bella – you two follow me," Emmett said. He was clearly in charge of the situation. We followed him into the main, rundown level of Jasper's cabin, where Edward settled into a chair in the corner and Emmett told me to lie on the couch. He disappeared into the kitchen, then was back seconds later. He had two knives in his hands, and I watched as he effortlessly snapped the blades off of each – once again reminding me of how impenetrable their skin was. He pulled some tape from his pocket and secured the first bladeless handle to the front of Edward's chest, then had me roll over onto my stomach, with my arms dangling off the edge of the couch and taped the second knife handle to the center of my back. Snorting, he pulled a bottle of something out of his other pocket – ketchup.

I barely had time to wince before he splashed the cool stuff all over each of us, effectively pooling it around our 'wounds.' I had to admit, if someone glanced in the window it would look pretty gruesome.

Emmett stepped back to admire his work. "Nice," he commented. "All right – I've got to get out there. You'll hear him coming Edward." A second later, he was gone.

"What exactly does he have planned, Edward? I mean aside from having it appear that we were brutally murdered, of course," I asked.

"Well, Jasper's hidden out in the woods – he's going to be messing with Newton's fear levels. Alice is up in the trees; she'll be following him as he runs through the woods, rustling the branches and leaves to make it seem like something is tracking him from above. Seth said he'd be on the forest's edge, ready to add to the fun in his own way," Edward explained.

"What about Emmett? What's he doing?" I asked.

Edward paused, listening to something I couldn't hear. "You'll find out soon enough, Bella," he said, leaning back and closing his eyes, motioning with his hands for me to do the same. Mike must be close.

*THUD* I cracked an eye open, and Edward lightly shook his head at me, as if silently telling me not to move.

*THUD…Thud-thud-thud-thud-thud*

The sound of the roll of toilet paper bouncing off the tin roof of the cabin was distracting, and I wondered what Emmett was waiting on. A second later, I had my answer.

Mike must have wondered if he was being heard, and decided to peek in the window. He must have seen Edward and me, because he suddenly let out an ear-piercing scream that broke the silence surrounding us. As if on cue, a motor ripped into life from behind the house, and the back door to the cabin slammed shut, as Emmett came tearing through to the living room.

My head still down, I couldn't help but peek out of the corner of my eye. Emmett was making his way to the front door, a hockey mask covering his face, waving a roaring chainsaw above his head. He tore the front door open, waving the chainsaw threateningly, and Mike stood frozen in shock for a second. He stumbled back, then turned and took off into the woods, screaming at the top of his lungs as he went, with Emmett pursuing him.

The second they were gone, Edward and I erupted into hysterical laughter. "Did you see Emmett? That would scare anyone," I managed to spit out in between fits.

"Forget Emmett – I was facing the door, you should have seen Newton's face," Edward said, shaking his head. "That was absolutely priceless. Come on – let's go see the damage the others cause," he added. He pulled me off the couch and slung me over his back before running into the darkness of the woods.

He came to a stop behind a tree about five minutes later, and I peered into the darkness. We'd stopped hearing the chainsaw a minute or two ago, and for a second I wondered what I was supposed to be seeing. Edward inclined his head in the direction of a series of bushes, and when I looked closer, I saw that they were trembling.

Suddenly, a lone wolf howl erupted into the night. From somewhere above us, the tree limbs began to shake and rustle at an unnatural rate. The howl switched over to a menacing growl, and at that, Mike popped up from the bushes and began running again, branches caught in his hair, his eyes huge and looking all around him in panic.

The rustling followed him from above, and we followed on the ground. Edward kept us in the shadows, following his every move. Mike made it to a sort of clearing when he had to stop to catch his breath. He clutched his sides as he leaned up against a massive tree.

I wondered where Jasper was and if he was even bothering to make things worse for Mike at this point – I doubted it was necessary given his appearance. When Mike had stopped at the tree, Alice had stopped too, and Seth must have taken a break. It was absolutely silent - aside from Mike's gasping breaths. Once he'd managed to catch his breath, he seemed to notice the silence too, and for a second relief crossed his features.

That was when a shining silver hook swung around from the back of the tree and sunk into the bark right beside his head.

*WHACK*

Mike's eyes slowly turned to the side and looked at the hook. He stared at it for half a second, and then, with another ear-piercing shriek, took off into the forest again. Emmett glanced over at us, the hockey mask resting on top of his head now; his entire frame was shaking in silent laughter.

"Edward, where the heck did he get that hook?" I said in wonder.

"It was in the shed – it seems they used to do skits here or something – there were a lot of odd bits of costumes, and he found it in a pile of pirate paraphernalia," Edward whispered back.

Alice hopped down from a nearby tree. "Yeah, you should have seen all the stuff he found in an old trunk. That hockey mask for instance – it was with a bunch of knee pads and stuff; they must have had Field Hockey as one of their activities one year," she said, skipping over to us gracefully.

"Well that was certainly entertaining," Jasper said, stepping out from a tree behind us. I didn't even know he'd been there. "I didn't have to influence his emotions at all – he was truly terrified," he added.

"That was a lot of fun…thanks for the call, Edward," Seth said, emerging from the shadows back in his human form.

"Where did he go? Do you think he went in the right direction? I'd feel kind of bad if he got lost," I murmured.

"Don't worry, Bella. We've been steering him back towards camp the whole time. Five more minutes in the direction he went and he'll break the tree line and be back at the cabins," Edward assured me.

"Isn't he still going to be freaking out when he gets there – aren't you worried he'll wake up the whole camp screaming about mass murderers?" I wondered aloud – I hadn't really thought about that.

Alice smiled. "While I was up in the trees, I took a few minutes to return to camp and sneak into his cabin. I left one of the rolls of toilet paper he dropped and a note for him on his pillow," she said simply.

Edward leaned in close to my ear, sensing my confusion over her odd reply. "The note said, 'After the scare you've had tonight, we thought you might need this more than Jasper's roof. Nice try though.'"

Having overheard his explanation of Alice's note, Seth erupted into loud laughter. "You're something else, Alice," he finally managed to get out.

Alice tentatively smiled back at Seth, her expression a mixture of satisfaction and wariness; she seemed to like being told she was incredibly clever, but Seth's ability to prevent her from seeing the future was obviously still irritating her.

Edward invited Seth back to Jasper's cabin to play video games with them, and he happily agreed. Edward looked truly happy to see Seth – they'd formed quite the camaraderie after the confrontation with Victoria. He seemed like a good kid.

Seth was quite impressed with the improvised living conditions, and marveled at all the same things I had before he settled in for a racing match with Edward, Emmett and Jasper. After I showered yet again to remove the sticky residue left by the ketchup, I changed into a pair of pajama's Alice had for me – she'd ordered them just in case, of course, and Alice curled up next to me on the couch, happily turning through the pages of a design magazine seemingly content that we'd had enough excitement for the night. She was making a separate pile to give to Rosalie in the morning. My eyes began fighting me and before I knew it I'd drifted back off to sleep.

A/N: Only one more chapter left - please review!