C.2
Little Fish, Big Fish

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(_THREE DAYS PRIOR_)

Bella shivered from the crisp morning air and brought her knees to her chest as close as she could in the tight space of the zipped sleeping bag. Her eyes opened slowly to unveil her surroundings. Briefly, she forgot where she was or who was lying across the tent; the alcohol still causing her mind to haze. She blinked once, twice, and finally the reel of last night was coming back to her.

The s'mores and beer.

The warmth of the fire and the smell of burning wood lingered; the cool mountain air causing her to pull her jacket close and Jake closer.

The warmth of his body against hers as he vigorously rubbed his hands up and down the length of her arms, creating friction to keep her from shivering had weighed heavy on her thoughts at the time.

And when Jake helped her to the tent and into her bag, she recalled stroking his hair before moving away.

She was relieved that no embarrassing moments intruded her thoughts. Perhaps she didn't make a fool of herself like she usually did when she drank.

Across the sprawl of the camp other life stirred. Angela stepped out and stretched to the sky, spreading her fingers to the fullest extent as she renewed her body with the morning air. The fire which had kept them warm last night was all but a pile of smoking embers.

Bella emerged a few minutes later, pulling her jacket around her and stepping to the fire to inspect it.

"We're going to need more wood," she stated.

"Yeah, well, that's what the boys are for," Angela said.

Bella smirked and stood up from her squatting position, reining her hand back into her pocket from over the smoldering wood. "What are we going to do today?"

Angela was contemplative for a moment. There wasn't much to do in the middle of nowhere, unless they headed into town, but leaving and wandering far from the site would require them to pack up all their equipment. It was doubtful that anyone would head this far into the woods, and it was less likely they would run across their camp, but better safe than sorry. That was her motto.

"I don't know," she said. "There isn't much to do."

"We didn't think this over really well, did we?" Bella said with a chuckle.

"That's okay. We'll find something. Maybe we can go hiking?"

"I'm down for a hike if everybody else is."

"Do you think the stuff will be okay?" Angela asked, voicing her recent worry.

"It should be okay. We're far enough off the road, and we'll be in the area."

An hour later, after gathering appropriate sized wood for the fire, Mike made cowboy coffee with the pot that he asked Jessica to pack. After allowing the grounds to settle to the bottom of the mug, it was drank with haste, which only left them wanting more, and left Mike asking what was for breakfast.

"Why don't you go catch us something?" Jessica joked sipping the last of her coffee around the grounds.

"I brought my gun," Mike shrugged.

Bella dropped her shoulders and shot him a look. "You brought your gun?"

"Yeah," Mike said with an obvious tone.

"Why?" Bella asked.

"You never know what's going to be out here. Who knows, we could see a nice buck or something."

Jacob laughed. "Where were you planning to put this buck? On Angie's hood?"

"Or your truck."

"Pft. Well, I'm going to be leaving shortly so you're shit outta luck."

Bella hung her head. "So soon, huh?"

"Yeah, unfortunately. I need to do some things when I get home then I have to work early tomorrow morning, so I need sleep. I didn't get a lot of it last night."

"I didn't snore did I?"

A chuckle escaped his lips. "No, you were pretty much out of it."

"That's good," she said and gave him a brief smile.

Hours after the conversation had taken place, Bella found Jake rolling up his sleeping back and packing his stuff away in his truck. She knew it wasn't his choice to leave, but she couldn't help but feel angry at the timing.

"Do you have to go now?" she asked as he placed the sleeping bag in the cab then shut the passenger door. Even she could hear the hurt looming behind her words.

"It's not like I want to go, Bella, but I have to."

"You do realize that you are making me, like, the fifth wheel, right?"

Jake smiled. "Yeah, I'm sorry about that. But, when you get back I'll make it up to you."

"Oh? How are you going to make it up to me?"

"I don't know. I'll buy you dinner or something. Deal?"

Bella nodded once. "Deal."

She found herself engulfed in her best friend's arms. His shirt was traced with alcohol and earth, but underneath a familiar smell ringed around her head, yet it was nothing she could describe, but she wanted to remember it when he was gone.

She wound her arms to his back and squeezed him as hard as she could, and resisted the urge to beg him to stay.

Jake's last words to Bella before he drove off were his usual. "Be careful."

"I always am," she responded, then watched the back of his truck disappear into the trees.

=x=

"Dude! I think it's time to turn back! My feet are killing me and it's kinda hot," Eric said through strained breaths.

"Awe, c'mon, Eric," Bella pleaded.

He sat abruptly on the ground and allowed his head to sag. "No, I'm done, I think."

"We're almost there, man," Mike said, passing his worn friend.

"Where are we going again?" Jessica asked picking up a long stick and bringing it to the ground harshly to test the durability. She kept this one, not throwing it back like the others she had found.

"There is this place that I saw when I was little," Mike said pushing forward. "I want to see if it's still there."

"What kind of place?" Jessica asked.

"It was this huge brick wall and it went on forever."

Jessica rolled her eyes. "That doesn't sound exaggerated at all."

"Mike, that was what...? Like ten years ago?" Bella asked helping Eric off the forest floor. She didn't share Mike's enthusiasm. In fact, she was sure none of them did.

"Come on! We're almost there. I can feel it!"

They followed Mike relentlessly through the weaving maze of trees. After several more minutes of trudging, Mike ran to the object several yards in front of him which seemed to appear out of nowhere. Bella could see the top of the object as it extended mid-way into the trees, almost darkening the entire area from the sun's warm rays. It was a wall, a tall, never-ending wall.

The sight of it caused Mike to express himself with fits of excitement but as Bella stepped into the cool shadows cast by the brick monstrosity, another feeling came over her. There wasn't a word she could use to describe how uneasy she felt then, but it hit her hard and overwhelmed her completely. She drowned in dread and never resurfaced, even when she stepped away from the structure.

She stood in the sun, feet away from her beaming friends and searched for a reason why she had come to feel the way she did. No hint of it ever came to mind.

"What do you think it is?" Eric asked placing his hand on the bricks, like it was a new material he had never seen until now.

"It's a wall, Eric," Jessica said.

"I dunno, man. But it's been here for a long time. I don't remember it being so tall, though." Mike took a step back from it and looked to the top. "They must be pretty hard on about keeping stuff out."

"Or keeping stuff in," Angela suggested. "It could be a retaining wall."

"Guys, can we go? I'm not feeling so good. I think I need to lay down," Bella said holding onto her stomach for show.

"Yeah, we might as well. I'm getting hungry anyway," Mike said. He then produced his handgun from his backpack and wiggled his brow. "Maybe we'll find dinner on the way down."

Bella rolled her eyes and shook her head quickly. "I'm not eating anything you shoot, Mike."

"Why not?" he asked as they began to backtrack.

"One, because hunting season is over and it's illegal, and two, your hunting is wrong," she came back.

"How is my hunting wrong?" Mike mused with a chuckle.

"I can see how a man of your superior intellect wouldn't understand the complex range of emotions that are spread vastly across species, but believe it or not, these animals you kill so cruely have feelings." Bella pushed branches out of her way as she stomped through the forest, anger teetering at her system. She knew Mike and his family for a long time and heard more stories of their inhumane hunting excursions than she cared to remember.

"Bella, animals don't have emotions, okay? They are mindless."

"They aren't mindless, Mike. They feel fear and pain just like you and me. It's a scientific fact! How would you feel if some animal snuck up and shot you?"

Mike scoffed. "That's stupid! Is the sun getting to your head? Get real, Bells. The world is made up of two classes, the hunters and the huntees. God made damn sure that we were the hunters. That's why we have the guns, and that's why the animals don't," he paused as he stepped over a large log lying in his path. "Besides, I don't see you not eating meat... you obviously don't care that much."

Bella turned around to face him, unable to contain her anger any longer. "My dad orders from a butcher that takes special care of the animals he slaughters. They don't suffer, like I'm sure your animals do when you send bullets into them. I've heard how accurate your aim is."

He purposely shot away from a fatal zone just to shoot the animal again once he was closer. She didn't know why he did this. Mike wasn't the smartest or most wonderful person she had ever known, that was obvious, and if it wasn't for him being Jessica's high school sweetheart, she would have been long rid of him by now.

Mike was amused at her spirit on the subject while everyone else kept their eyes to the ground and tried to ignore the awkward moment between the two of them as they stepped over the littered forest debris. It wasn't unusual for the two to disagree.

"Your argument is weak, Bells," he said nearly inches from her face, and then strode past her. "So, does this mean that you would never shoot an animal to stay alive?"

Bella thought about the scenario for a moment, playing the options in her head. Would she? Could she kill to survive? "I'm not sure I could bring myself to pull the trigger," she said and followed him back to camp, neither one of them broaching the subject further.

=x=

Once back at the safety of their tents, they debated on what to have for dinner. While Angela insisted on heating up canned goods over the fire, Mike had a different idea. He demanded Eric to follow him, claiming they'd be back shortly. While Angela and Jessica tinkered around with the fire, Bella claiming she still wasn't feeling well, crawled back into the confines of her tent and zipped it up once inside.

She lay on top of her sleeping bag and stared at the empty place that screamed at her from across the small space. She reached out and stroked the bare plastic where Jake had once been. If he were there, he would lay a warm hand on her stomach to stop the churning emotions; not that she needed him to dig her out of her stint, but he'd make the rigid uneasiness more bearable.

Sleep managed to weave its way into her body with his face on her mind.

Meanwhile, at the large stream that ran close to the site, Mike and Eric searched hard for the small fish carried by the current. Eric wasn't as enthusiastic as Mike was.

"Can't we just have some beans or something? I'm really tired of standing here," Eric said with his pants rolled over his knees and his bare feet sinking into the sand underneath him.

"No!" Mike said, bending over and swinging his hands in the water. "We are having fish! Then that bitch can eat her words when she's eating what we have caught." He wiped his forearm across his nose. "Inhumane my ass."

"Let it go. Pride is a dangerous thing, my friend." Regardless of his stance on the subject, Eric continued to eye the water for signs of movement other than the current.

"I don't care. We... are... having fish!" He clamped his hands together beneath the surface. "Damn! I thought I had that one."

"You realize that this is a stream, right? I think the only fish in here are the itty bitty ones that you would use to catch bigger fish." Eric gestured with his index finger and thumb, creating a barely-there space between the two.

"Then we're going to have fish sticks," Mike said.

"You're friend is right, you know?" An unfamiliar voice pierced into the conversation.

Mike and Eric stood and turned to find the owner of the voice. Their sights settled on a man sitting on a large rock nestled into the ground. His head was diverted to the water in front of him as he leaned down and allowed his fingers to graze the current.

"There are only small fish here. It's what I use to catch the larger ones all the time," the man said.

"Where the fuck did you come from?" Mike asked, quirking his eyebrow.

"I'm sorry," the stranger said. "I didn't mean to frighten you." He kept his head down, angled away from them as he gently swished his finger about the surface.

"You didn't. I asked you where you came from."

"My house isn't far from here," he said. "As a matter of fact, you're on my land."

Eric's mouth told of his mistake as it shaped uniformly into an O. "We're sorry! We didn't know that we were on your property."

"It's quite alright. I enjoy company. As you can imagine, I don't see many people out here unless I wander into town."

"Ya know, it's rude to not yell that you're coming up behind someone." Mike thought about going for his gun on the side of the stream next to a bag he brought for the fresh catch.

The stranger seemed to smile at nothing, but it was guarded, careful. "I was here before you stepped foot in that stream. You just didn't see me."

"No, I would have seen someone sitting there," Mike insisted, feeling somewhat terrified of the man's presence now.

The stranger chuckled again. "I didn't say I was sitting here. I merely said that I was here and you didn't see me."

"Yeah, whatever," Mike said stepping to the bank, but ceased his movement when the man slid his bare feet into the water. His pant legs were folded carefully up his pale calves, and when he stood the water rolled around his newly planted limbs.

"Might I have your names?" he asked.

A shift pulsed through the air, and the man's new stance shocked Eric and caused him to take a few sharp breaths. He felt as if he had no choice but to introduce them since they were on his property. "I'm Eric, and this is Mike."

Mike turned to Eric quickly, wide-eyed with look of disgust. He seethed between his clenched teeth. "Eric!"

"Who are you?" Eric asked, barely giving his friend his attention.

The man raised his head and met their gaze. The sight caused them away, unsure of their proximity to him. "I'm Edward Cullen," he said, his ruddy irises overcome with black hunger.