Sorry for taking awhile to update guys. I've been getting back into typing after months of not towards the last two months of school. It took a while to get back into writing again, but i've been having a a little bit of road block while trying to figure out what should happen in coming chapters for this story. Hope you enjoy it! R&R!
Chapter 22
The morning sun shone through window grazing over Bella's face rousing her from her deep rest got up feeling the all the blood rushed to her hair slightly making her dizzy momentarily caught the bed stand preventing from falling face flat on the her wood floors that wouldn't be a lovely aftermath with a possible trip to the hospital. Before heading to the bathroom and getting ready, Bella looked for Edward wanted to tell him of her plans of visiting Jacob, who seemed to be gone, so she continued getting ready for a Sunday morning drive to see Jacob, who she hadn't seen since prom few days ago. Despite the tiredness of the little sleep from last night, Bella showered to freshen up not wanted to look weary when she went to see Jacob. Bella walked out of the shower wrapped a towel around her and headed to her dresser grabbing some clothes. Emerging from the bathroom, Bella wore a faded black short-sleeve shirt, dark wash jeans, and a plain grey jacket ready for pleasant day spent with her best friend. Her wet, wavy brown hair was pulled into a messy bun on the top of her head and finally got all the makeup that Alice had caked on her delicate, pale face smiling when she saw Edward lying on his back on his back on her bed staring at her off-white ceiling uninterested waiting for Bella obviously.
"I had to go back to the house and do something, but today I've planned a day of exciting activities for us—"
"I would love to spend the day with you today, Edward, but I was planning to head to La Pusha to visit Jacob if you don't mind. He's my friend and I miss hanging out with him," Bella confirmed gently not to infuriate Edward, who supposedly seemed to hate Jacob.
"That's fine, Bella. I can go hunting today since I cut my hunting trip short to be here with you because I felt guilty leaving you alone after Mike died. All I ask is that you call every couple of hours so I'm no worried about you. Have fun with Jake," Edward commented nonchalantly.
Surprised at Edward's casual statement, Bella responded, "Thanks and I'll call you every four hours so I don't worry you while you're hunting. Are you going to come back at night like usual?"
"Definitely wouldn't miss holding you while you serenely sleep while you dream of whatever. I wouldn't do anything else because I like to spend every waking moment of time with you and everything I'm away from you I miss you like crazy." Edward lightly kissed her lips and deeply gazed into her gorgeous, brown eyes, then cracked the window open and jumped out running at his vampire speed to his silver Volvo parked in front of her house leaving before Charlie woke up disappearing as his silver Volvo faded from Bella's view from staring out her window. Sighing, Bella tore her gaze from the window and grabbed her petite, beige purse along with the car key's to her truck on her desk heading down the stairs sliding on tennis shoes then out of the house. Bella got into her truck and ignited the engine, but it revved then sputtered to stop. Tired, Bella realized that the truck was refusing to cooperate with her, and Edward was gone out hunting unable to give her a lift to La Pusha. Frustrated, Bella tried starting the car engine, but just consistently would just cut off never fully starting the old, ancient truck. Rabidly searching through the contents of her purse for her cell phone, though it deemed impossible with all the junk in her purse but after fifteen minutes she located her out-dated, silver cell phone searching for Jake's home number in her address book.
The dial tone rung once…twice…then a deep male voice answered the phone, "Hello, Bella. It nice for you to call, but Jake ran out for a quick errand can I leave him a message."
"Um I just wanted to know that when Jake when gets home I need a ride to get over there because my truck decided to malfunction not letting me drive it," Bella said shyly.
"Of course, Bella, Jake will be home shortly you when he returns home shortly," Billy explained coolly.
"Thanks." Bella sat on her front door step patiently tapping her fingers against her knees pondering to pass the time. Oddly enough, Billy seemed to sound more uptight when she talked to him than he usually does which made her contemplate what could be wrong. Did something happen to Jake? Is Charlie alright? Her mind ran through thousands of questions and scenarios that would possibly make him uptight since he was typically a laid-back, cool guy. Sometime during her musings, Bella decided it was probably nothing major to worry about otherwise he would have told her and put that concern away in the corner of her mind. She finally resorted to staring at random objects spacing out for a prolonged period of time before she had suffered enough boredom she retrieved her keys to get back into the house to grab Wuthering Heights from her desk to read while laying in the grass in the meanwhile. With Wuthering Heights at hand, she shoved her cell phone in her pocket and lay in the soft, slightly dewy grass reading where the bookmark was placed until she got a call from Jake or saw a motorcycle pull up into the driveway. Bella no longer felt bored now that she had her favorite book with her; somehow books seemed to pass the time along when there wasn't anything to do around the house. Despite that fact, she didn't borrow many books from the library mostly re-reading her own books like Wuthering Heights and many other classic novels by Shakespeare, Jane Austen, and many more. She was so caught up in her book that an hour and half passed by when she snapped out of her intense concentration by her continuously vibrating cell phone folding the page she left on closing laying on the cement. She shoved her hand into her pocket fishing out her cell phone out, that was still vibrating, and flipped it open in one continuous motion with her free hand placing it to her ear.
"Hello Bella. You there…?" spoke a hoarse male voice.
"Um…yes I'm here. Jake is that you?" Bella spoke into the cell phone attempting to get up off the grass using her free elbow keeping a steady balance.
"No this is Embry," the voice corrected. "Jake is still tied up at the moment and isn't able to pick you up unfortunately, Bella. Jake is going to be busy for awhile, so try to come over another time. Sorry for the inconvenience…"
"Give me the damn phone Embry! I will personally come and pry that phone out of you hands myself…" Jake yelled furiously in the background.
"I'm sorry, Bella," Embry said apologetically and quickly hanging up the phone. Before he hung, she hear things crashing the ground violently and angry screaming from what seemed to sound like Jake. She shut her phone and sat bemused of why Jake wasn't allowed to see her which only meant he was in some danger or trouble. As his friend, Bella wondered whether to just leave it alone or investigate this as she was having a mental argument with herself silently. Her instincts were screaming to go to La Pusha herself checking out how Jake was and her logic was telling her to stay at home and just find something else to do around the house or call Alice if there's nothing to do. Her conflicting musings went on for several minutes resulting in a splitting headache eventually giving up on taking that safe option and decided since her truck she was going to walk taking the shortcut through the woods, despite Edward's wishes for her to keep away from the woods which are a dangerous place for creatures like Victoria to lurk for their prey. She drew in a deep breathe and took her purse opening the front door removing her home key and cell phone from her purse and depositing it on the wooden table stand in front lobby. Before closing the door, she re-checked her jean pockets for her home key and cell phone quickly checking her appearance in the mirror grimacing at the still visible scar along her jaw line from the broken glass shards she landed face front when James assaulted her at the ballet studio.
Bella stepped outside again taking in the semi-light skies and partially cloudy skies and glanced at the almost darkened woods dashing to her truck slipping her slim hands into the semi-cracked open window reaching into the inner part of the passenger side door pressing the button rolling the window halfway down snaking her arm into the car feeling for the glove compartment. Once she found it, she opened it ransacking the spare flashlight she always kept in the vehicle in case it was needed. Rolling the window back, Bella glided her hand out of the window starting to make her way into the forest with her flashlight. Bella took cautious steps making her way through the forest without tripping or getting injured in the process attempting to ignore the eerie feeling of the semi-light woods giving her chills. She knew it would take a while navigating through the woods without getting lost or losing track of the desired trail. At that moment, Bella kept her eyes in front of her on the trail but sometimes looked around to assure she didn't have unwanted company following her and taking deep breathes not making much of sound besides the crunching of her tennis shoes against the unleveled ground covered in leaves and small twigs lying around sporadically. The pure silence of the woods made Bella relax as she took as much of scenery she could get with the minimum amount of light from the sky and the dull light from the flashlight. The tension she had in the beginning was slowly diminishing as she eventually was enjoying this walk allowing her to enjoy the beauty of nature surrounding her. Even though she felt relaxed, Bella never failed to get her mind off her sharp concentration to ponder about other things that were bugging her because she would lose her concentration and easily get lost. She didn't have time to re-track her trail so until she was clear past the forest she though of nothing distracting her eye peeled on her trial entirely.
Rosalie sat on her dressing table chair intensely gazing at her flawless complexion in the running her pale fingers through her long, blonde wavy hair admiring beauty. She had a compassionate side but never showed it many only rare occasions and around her family not strangers. Strangers were intimidated of her gorgeous beauty and over statue-like features. She let her intimidated regard down when she was spending time with her family. Despite her hate for humans, she had to learn to tolerate them as Carlisle took the family everywhere to different high schools or colleges. Humans were needy creatures that were cruel by nature from her past human experiences before being changed. Even after the years, she still held the same opinions of humans refusing to be kind and befriend them like her brother, Edward. Humans would normally avoid the Cullens as if they'd shrivel up if they were in close proximity because they were smart not to get involved with them. Though one human in particular, she didn't even care to consider the dangers of getting involved with the Cullen. She had fight the urge to teach Bella a good lesson that would keep here away from her family as some members had bonded with her starting to include her as a member of this family because she was with Edward. Emmett and Rosalie still didn't pay much regard to her like the rest of the family finding ways to avoid contact with unlike the rest of the family. In her opinion, the more time they adapted Bella into their family it was a dangerous situation for her mainly always putting her life in jeopardy and put the risk of their family's identity being exposed to the human world. She had voiced her strong point about the dangers of this association with that human but was proved to be impotent. Despite all her efforts to convince every single member of her family that seems to be close with Bella, they just shot down her worrying concern and told her to lighten up and get to know her before making a permanent attitude of Bella without talking to her. Her family had good judgments but Bella has clouded their judgments making them put their guards down, which is quite risky because other vampires could attack them when their most vulnerable. She huffed in frustration not letting her self think about that human, who was going to destroy her family. She scrambled through her hair accessories and make-up changing her make-up also to figure out what style to manipulate her hair into. Two huge bags of make up and accessories lay in front of her on the table rummaging through the bags picking items she wanted to use and play around with to see which the best looked on her. She was glad she had the gift of beauty and not powers like Alice, Edward, or Jasper because they can be a pain to have at times.
So involved with what she was doing, Rosalie was distracted for a long time. Wasn't until after one and half hours, when Rosalie emerged from her bedroom wearing a crème silk blouse paired with faded charcoal skinny jeans along with three inch stiletto round toe-pump heels. Her hair was curled with a half up twisted into a messy bun and the rest flowed beautifully past her shoulders. A light beige foundation coated her pale face and bold purple eye shadow bringing out her darkened topaz eyes and her lips had a light pink lipstick. She walked down the flight of stairs to the main lobby staring around to see who was still in the house because Edward and Emmett left few hours ago not stating their exact destination only they'd come back sometime tomorrow morning and Esme went the store for material for her new renovation project for a cottage and Carlisle would be gone for a few days on some medical conference in Phoenix, Arizona, and Jasper had left few days ago to hunt up in Canada. So there was only Alice and her were the only people occupying the house at that time until the other members came back whenever they would return. The spacious house seemed emptier and quiet than usual since they never spend much time in it during the mornings and afternoons only were in the house mostly in the evenings.
Alice sat on the couch on a leather love sofa watching the flat screen high-definition television staring blankly at it not seeming particular attentive to whatever she was watching. The remote that had been resting in her hands was resting on her thigh as she continued her vacant gaze either concentrating on something or having a vision. Rosalie saw Alice and headed towards her curious to see what she was watching which a movie on TNT was Wedding Crashers. Standing directly in front of her view of the television, Rosalie stood there for awhile to see how out of it Alice was. After five minutes of standing bored, Rosalie ambled to the sofa where she was sitting and offing the television expecting that to snap her out of her daze, but the attempt failed to succeed with her still dazed staring out at the empty space in front of her. Rosalie got annoyed after her failed attempts and placed a firm grip on her shoulders shaking her out of her daze which finally worked. Alice took a couple of blinks then re-focused on Rosalie's face looking confused.
"Finally! God, you were in that daze for awhile!" Rosalie exclaimed exasperated.
"Huh? I was deep in thought about something didn't realize you were in the room Rosalie. How are you?" Alice said recovering from her daze getting re-adjusted to her current surroundings.
"I got bored messing around with hair accessories and make-up pondering about random things when I got sick and tired of just sitting around not that I don't love to admire my beauty," Rosalie added vainly.
"So you came down to do what?" Alice said curiously rolling her eyes at Rosalie previous comment.
"I've been wandering you'd want to hunt with me because if I didn't distract myself I would have sped out the house for a human," Rosalie stated in a serious tone holding a steady gaze with her.
"Well I don't have anything to do because I went shopping twice just today it isn't fun to go shopping alone," she stated sulkily.
"I would have gone shopping with you, sis. All you had to do holler for me."
"I wasn't sure if you were busy with something. I'd love to come hunting I could use it also," Alice stated candidly her almost red pupils blazing with thirst.
"Let's go then!" Rosalie spoke with enthusiasm pulling Alice's hand dragging her behind her out of the house slamming the front door behind them.
Rosalie ran across the front yard still dragging Alice along as she struggled behind to keep up and get a hold on the ground with her feet. Rosalie let go of her death grip on Alice's hand once she reached the edge of the woods right next to the house. Alice got her balance fixing her windblown hair as Rosalie had whisked her and straightening out her t-shirt and took a huge waft of the wood area to get a sense of animals that they could hunt. The fragrance of pine trees, beautiful blossoming flowers, and earthy soil filled their nostrils as they evaluated their surrounding before entering the woods. Their civilized nature slipped away rapidly as their predator instinct overtook them completely their mouths salivating at the smell of small herd of deer deep in the forest.
Bella had made surprising progress making her way through the forest circumspectly with only few more miles until she passes the forest clearing. During the entire time so far, Bella hadn't tripped over anything or fallen for that matter which was a blazing accomplishment with her clumsy nature which typically landed her into dangerous situations. The forest seemed so serene at this time of the late afternoon and thankfully it hadn't rained, but she wore her rain boots just to be prepared for the erratic weather in Forks. The breath-taking scenery put Bella in complete awe at how such similar terrain could vary in scenery. Majority of her walk the forest was densely populated letting minuscule amount of light through the canopy of trees, but certain spots weren't as dense allowing more light to shine through giving the flashlight a terse break from being used.
Meanwhile, Alice and Rosalie had headed deep into the forest until they located the small herd of deer they had picked up earlier. Even with the deer being lithe and lightweight, they stood not chance of resistance when hunted by vampires who had unbelievably swift speed letting them pass as a blur to human and animal eyes. Bloodlust thrived in them for it was dangerous to for humans to be around them when they were predators hunting for animal prey. The waft of the herd became stronger as they continued deeper into the woods.
Bella felt exhausted from the extraneous walking and decided to take a sit down for a few minutes then continuing on her busy way. Her feet felt like gelatin beneath her feeling like they would collapse from beneath her any moment if she pushed herself to walk more without a brief breather. She fell to the gentle grounds lying on her back staring up at the dense canopy of trees finally letting her mind think about other things she'd been trying not to distract herself while making her way through the complicated trials. She closed her eyes for a quick nap with her weary body instantly relaxing.
They both split up trying to find this herd that was constantly moving not staying in one place long enough for them to ambush them. The herd took a long break by a small stream giving them enough time to pounce and surprise them with no time to escape. They ogled the herd longingly as they saw it within close range of them with their minds going into overdrive as logic not longer existed when it came to hunting. The herd leisurely went on with its business not aware of Alice's or Rosalie's close proximity to them making them on edge. Rosalie broke into a brisk silent run toward the herd with Alice following closely behind their eyes fixated on them desirably. The herd was caught off guard when Rosalie jumped several feet in the air pinning two male deers down effortlessly while Alice pounced an a baby doe the both of them draining them uncontrollable as if they were drinking wine. Rosalie drained one of the deer she pinned down, but pounced on the other deer trying to make a run for it knocking it to the ground with such force and her teeth cutting deeply into the neck of the deer, which was still kicking and bucking rampantly under her. Rosalie searched for a pulse in the neck and bit hard as blood gushed out of the deer into her mouth with her sucking it dry until there wasn't a drop of blood left in it. She got up from the ground brushing the dirt and dust off her outfit wiping the dab of blood dripping from the corner of her mouth with the back of her hand. Otherwise, Rosalie didn't have a drop of blood on her outfit and didn't even look mangy after those kills. With years of practice, she had mastered the art to kill without showing the proof of it on her. Alice was slowly torturing the doe until the body collapsed under her, and then she sank her teeth into it. The taste of blood instantly filled her mouth as uncontrollable hunger wanted more blood still not satisfied after draining the doe. Rosalie and Alice exchanged quick glances then without speaking a word went on their way for more deer.
A tiny ray of sunlight shone through the canopy landing directly on Bella's face stirring her from her peaceful nap. Rubbing her eyes, Bella adjusted her eyes to the little amount of light there still was and got up off the ground using a tree to help balance her as she got up unhurriedly. She stretched out her muscles and joints waking them up to get back to walking, but had when she started to walk she felt a bit woozy. Leaning against the tree for a few minutes to recover from her head rush, Bella recuperated quite rapidly taking a huge waft of the woodsy air then continued on her way through the forest feeling revitalized from that tranquil nap. Momentarily she checked the time on her cell phone then shoved it back into her pocket striding blissfully. She had been walking for the past two hours even though it didn't feel like that long.
Rosalie and Alice got frustrated after several minutes of tracking down for more deer when the waft of something sweeter than animal blood filled their noses. Taking few more wafts, Alice realized that it was not at all animal blood but human blood. Typically their reasoning would have kicked in, they drifted towards the sweet smelling blood before Alice realized what she was doing before she approached the human any closer. Alice stopped dead in her tracks and started to head in the opposite direction reprimanding herself for giving into the temptation of the human blood like that. Meanwhile, Rosalie was still walking vigorously in the direction of this human without stopping to recognize that if she drinks human blood it shows that the temptation has overcome her without her logic telling her to stay away from the human. The uncontrollable hunger wanted a taste of that succulent human blood which would be much more satisfying than animal blood. Her mouth watered at the thought of tasting human blood. It was like tempting an alcoholic with the finest of wines after being sober for the longest time. It had been over twenty years since Rosalie had last tasted human blood and it was delicious and most fulfilling taste like for any vampire that knew the taste. Alice kept walking away farther not bothering to glance back to see if Rosalie was behind her with her too lost in her own thoughts to care.
Bella kept walking energetically feeling refreshed after the nap keeping a steady pace staying on the trail even with the dimming flashlight shining in the darkening forest as it got later in the evening. She didn't have to intently be aware as she was in the beginning now that she knew how the way more clearly. Wondering why she worried so much about traveling through the forest alone, she softly laughed at how she let Edward's own paranoia get to her. She went on her own pondering while she sauntered relaxed feeling light-hearted and blissful. Rosalie stalked closer towards the human with an evil smirk across her face and her eyes blazing with bloodlust. Bella grinned widely loving spending time outdoors seeing how someone could enjoy passing much times outdoors. She thought about getting out and getting some fresh air by taking some walks through the woods more often than being cooped up in the house being bored out of her mind. Rosalie heard the human's footstep only few feet away walking towards her direction, so re-directed her route taking a sharp left turn to follow just closely behind the human without them being aware of being followed. Bella happily went on walking not feeling a sense of a stalker behind her.
The darkened forest concealed the fact the human Rosalie was following was Bella Swan, her brother's beloved girlfriend. Rosalie was strategizing how to ambush the prey and get maximum results without the victim being aware of the danger they are in before being unconscious and unaware of anything. Premeditating her plans, Rosalie planned for a slight taste of human blood not drain them dry and kill them like most vampires. Bella had an eerie sense suddenly breaking her long lasting delight. Her movements became stiff and tense peering around her surroundings to see what or who was lingering around. Chills ran through her as her glee turned into intense fear, Bella took shallow breathes to help from panicking and making any sudden movements or actions to trigger the thing creeping putting her on edge. Rosalie hide behind a tree peering at Bella with a devious grin spread and her eye zoomed in on her with her mind reeling at the taste of her luscious, warm blood filling her mouth. With Bella less than five feet, Rosalie trailed her speedily like a shadow behind here.