And here's the next chapter... please review folks, just a few words, and the next instalment comes faster for your trouble.
Title: Masquerade
Fandom: Twilight
Genre: Drama/Romance
Pairing: Alice/Bella
Synopsis: Alice and Bella are students. They attend the same college, and are flatmates. Alice harbours a secret crush for Bella, and one night, under the influence of perhaps just too much alcohol, makes a move. Bella, though tipsy too, seems to reciprocate, but then disappears the following morning. Alice fears she has scared her away, but could it be anything more sinister?
2
Alice looked sidelong at Bella, sat cross-legged next to her on the hardwood floor of their apartment, downed another shot of vodka, and giggled at nothing in particular. She tried to turn back to face the TV, and instead fell sideways into Bella's lap.
She looked up into Bella's eyes, hesitant and surprised, as Bella smirked down at her, and didn't push her away.
"I think you've had a little too much to drink," commented Bella, still smiling a condescending smile. She took a much more conservative sip from her glass.
"No... way. Not yet," replied Alice, trying not to slur her words, and failing.
"It's a wonder someone so tiny can drink so much and still remain conscious."
"I'm not so small," said Alica, indignant, and made a huffing sound, pouting. She tried to right herself, and failed, slipping further into Bella.
On the TV was a gooey romantic comedy; Alice's choice, and as their eyes met for a second time, a lovey-dovey moment was just reaching it's conclusion. Bella saw the light from the TV sparkle in Alice's now wide eyes. She didn't know whether it was the alcohol in her blood, or the mushy, over-acted romance playing out on screen, or the sheer attraction she felt, very occasionally, at girly times like these, but she bent down to kiss Alice very briefly on the lips.
Bella pulled away with a smile on her face, pleased with herself, until she saw Alice's shocked expression; like a deer frozen in headlights.
"Bella..," said Alice, wistfully, eventually, slipping out of Bella's lap. And then she was beside Bella, kneeling. And then they were kissing, Alice leading, her lips hard against Bella's. The kiss was fierce until Bella broke away to stand, pulling Alice upright roughly with her.
They tumbled backward, searching blindly for the doorway to the bedroom, never once thereafter parting their lips or bodies; Alice's smaller frame curled into Bella's arms. Bella fell back onto her bed, pulling Alice on top of her. Moments later her tank top was off, bundled in Alice's dainty hands and thrown away across the room. And then Alice was unfastening her bra, cupping her breast, and kissing her chest. Bella tugged at Alice's shirt, at last unbuttoning it, pulling Alice's arms back behind her in order to cast off her top, baring her flesh.
Alice was back, crushing her lips against Bella's, drunkenly missing and kissing her nose on the first attempt. Bella tried with busy hands to find the clasp on Alice's belt, and had her jeans halfway down her legs in moments. She slid her leg up, slipping it between Alice's, and Alice let out a low moan of longing, and...
…woke, alone again. Alice moaned a second time, this time grumpy she'd woken from the dream just as it got to the best part. Was it just a dream? thought Alice, hopeful it wasn't just. Alice didn't remember much from the last time she'd seen Bella, even now. All she was sure of was that she missed her, terribly. It had been a month, and the police had found nothing. Her hope for news grew slimmer each passing day.
Alice showered, dressed, had breakfast, and was about to leave for college. Her keys weren't in the usual place; not on the kitchen top, so she looked about and found them on the dresser, on top of a sheet of paper. Curious, and more than a little concerned someone might have been in the apartment while she slept, she pocketed her keys quickly and picked up the note. With a shock, she recognised Bella's handwriting at once. Delight in Bella's survival soon gave way to more melancholic feelings as she read on.
Alice,
I'm sorry I disappeared. I meant to come back, but something happened. Something I can't take back. Please don't come looking for me, and please, please don't tell anyone I sent you this letter. I'm not in any danger, I promise. Please trust me. I just can't come back, no matter how much I might want to.
Bella.
Alice began to hyperventilate. She had to sit down, and did so on her bed. Bella's alive! But... she's... not coming back...
And then the pain came, at first a twinge beneath her temples, then quickly more defined; a headache, unfurling itself against her mind. Not this, thought Alice, not again.
She wasn't seeing her bedroom any longer, but instead another room; an office perhaps, it had a desk and chair, and another chair opposite... where someone sat... a young woman... with auburn hair... but, the vision was blurred, unclear. Alice struggled to see, straining herself. The pain in her head built and built, stronger than ever, like the vision was too much for her merely human brain to contain. She'd never tried to see before, to clear the image, always refusing it, pushing it away and denying it instead... but, this was Bella. She was sure.
And the vision became clearer, and it was Bella... Bella, but... different. She was more pale, if ever that were possible. White as snow, and just as beautiful... more so now than ever before, if that were possible. It brought a tear to Alice's unseeing eyes, to be separate from her as Bella was now; she wanted so much to reach out and touch her, to kiss those icy lips, to make the vision real... but when she saw the eyes... Bella's eyes, no longer their rich, chocolaty brown, but a deep, crimson red, Alice was afraid. Afraid of... Bella.
The door opened, and a man entered. A young man, very handsome, with short blond hair. Alice gasped; this looked to be the man who had abducted Bella. He crossed the room to sit, and Alice noticed his clothes, his white coat, and then assumed he was a doctor, and that this was in a clinic; in a room for appointments. The man smiled a pained smile at Bella, and Bella stared back blankly. Alice saw then the lines of reflexive need etched around Bella's eyes, as if in stone.
The doctor handed her something, something red. Alice looked closer, and to her horror, saw a blood pack in the doctor's hands; the kind she'd seen in hospital dramas, used for blood transfusions. Bella grabbed at it, tore it from his hand, and brought it straight to her lips, biting into it. She drank, frenzied, sucking it dry in moments leaving only a bloody red residue remaining in the empty plastic pack.
The doctor was on his feet, holding his hands out, flat, palms down toward Bella, as if to calm her. To show her that he was no threat. Bella threw the empty pouch aside, bursting out of her chair as if to fight, pausing only millimetres from the doctor.
"More," she said, in Bella's voice still, but changed, made deliciously musical, and airy.
And the vision finished, and Alice was lying on her bed, exhausted and shivering, the throbbing under her temples only a memory of the prior pain.
Alice lay there, awake, but exhausted, all day, missing classes. It took her all the while to process what she had seen; shocking and gruesome, like her own personal horror movie, and it had lasted less than five minutes. Eventually she fell into a light and uneasy sleep, having nightmares full of blood red eyes and their newly changed and frightening owner.
When she woke, of three things she was absolutely certain: one; Bella had changed, precisely to what Alice wasn't sure, but that it was something sinister nonetheless, two; that she still loved Bella, and would no matter what she had become, and finally; that she wouldn't be able to rest until she found Bella, and told her as such.
And Alice had a plan to find her: she'd seen a clinic, so she'd poster the street of every clinic in the city with 'Missing' notices until someone saw Bella, and told her where she was hiding, and she'd start first thing in the morning.