Chapter Three- Run.
Beige, cherry brown, white and pale blue. Those were the first things to register in Bella Swan's mind as her eyes blinked wearily open. The images came fast and hard, nearly making her want to slam her eyes shut and go back to that peaceful place of nothingness she was in before. Her head swam, making her feel like she was simultaneously spinning around and flipping upside down. Her tongue felt hairy and heavy in her mouth, a lump of pink useless flesh. She was either sitting or laying, she couldn't tell which with the vertigo she was under, on something plush and soft, the material molding to her skin.
However as much as she tried to move, her arms and legs only came away from the soft fabric an inch before they felt too heavy and fell back into place. Her bones hurt, her skin felt too tight, her eyes burned under the light as she blinked them open and when she tried to stretch once more, something thick and rough dug into her wrists and ankles unforgivably. Her memories and thoughts came to her in shards of clarity. Who she was, Forks, the parents evening... Jessica's lifeless face staring at her from under a car. Like an electric current zapping through her veins Bella jolted to, eyes wide as she tugged and pulled her limbs and frantically searched around her.
Glancing down when something around her wrists pulled taunt, she saw nylon blue rope wrapped around them, the skin surrounding the area bright red from irritation. She was still dressed the same, only her dress had flaking patches of blood soaked into it, her hair, from what she could see, a tangled mane of knotted locks. A twinge of pain fluttered out from behind her head making her grimace hard. God did she hurt. Pushing the pain away as far as she could, Bella tried to focus on figuring out where she was. Looking around her in a panic, she saw she was in a plane of sorts, the carpet a beige fluff, a window with the blind open next to her showing a clear sky with the odd puffy cloud passing by as they flew, the chairs and table made from a cherry wood and white leather. But it wasn't a normal plane, or the economy class she had taken before, but either first class or a private plane because there was only two seats... And both seats were occupied.
"If you don't want any more aches to add to your already impressive collection, you'll behave like a good little girl."
Bella's eyes zeroed in on the voice but blurred momentarily before clearing back out. Foggily she remembered the man, the teacher in the hallway who had ended up slamming her head into the wall and choking her with that chemical ladened cotton clothe. Like a light bulb switching on, Bella remembered his name from the fund-raiser. Mr. Greensworth. Although now the, according to the people who took his classes, placid and nice teacher was sitting in front of her in the only other chair. His eyes danced with amusement as he eyed her, one leg crossed over the other, hands folded in his lap as if he was relaxing and perfectly in comfort. Like he hadn't just bashed her head against a wall, drugged her and helped kidnap her with that Blonde man. When Bella spoke, her voice cracked, her throat felt like sandpaper and her tongue fumbled over the words, but she got her words out in the end, even if it sounded like an 80 year old smoker was speaking through her.
"Where... Where am I? Where's that blonde... Man?"
Bella was sure that Blondey was anything but a man, if she didn't know better and hadn't seen his eyes or feel the heat of his skin, she would think he was a vampire, but she did know better. So she was stuck with calling him a man, for now at least. Panic and a dash of anger flared up in her gut, heating up her sluggish body into tension and clenched fists. She was on a plane, how far from Forks was she? Would anyone notice she was gone by now? How long had she actually been gone? Was anyone else hurt? How the hell was she going to get out of this one?
Bella swallowed deeply, the sound ringing in her ears and if her eyes weren't lying, Mr. Greensworth had saw and heard the action too by the cruel twist of his lips. It didn't matter what he gained satisfaction from, her only worry right now was to get out of this situation and run as far as she could away from these people. To do that she needed her head on straight, she needed to stay calm and keep herself balanced. Logic and thinking would get her out of this, anger and panic could very well end her life
When her attention was back and solely on Mr. Greensworth, he simply jammed his thumb in the direction behind him, towards a large squarish metal... Box? Box was the best way she could describe it, the size of a king size bed with an equal size and styled lid over the top, cutting out all light and outside sources. The blonde man was in there? Doing what? Bella shook her head slightly. It didn't matter what he was doing in there as long as he was out of the way, away from her and couldn't go cutting through Bella like he had done to Jessica. Bella felt a bit sick at the memory, she may have not liked Jessica but no one, no one at all deserved to go out like that. That was all the more reason to get out of dodge, if only not to end up the same way poor Jessica had.
"He's currently sleeping. To be honest we thought you would be unconscious for a few hours more yet, you had a good dose of Chloroform in you. Oh well, we'll be landing soon to refuel, if you try anything funny, when Aldrick wakes up you'll be more than sorry. Understood?"
Trying her best to keep a tight grasp on her slipping composure, Bella forcibly made herself nod. If Aldrick was asleep that meant she only had Mr. Greensworth to deal with. That was the best she was going to get and she would choose Greensworth over taking on Aldrick any day. At least with Greensworth she stood a chance of getting out of this alive and hopefully in one piece. So she would play the part of humble, timid hostage until a chance to act presented itself, hopefully before Aldrick woke up. She could do this, she could get away, she had to believe that. Still, even as she mentally chanted it inside her mind, her fingers dug into the wood arm rests of the chair and she was speaking before she could stop herself.
"Are you going to kill me? Ransom me? Cut me up and eat me? Why the hell have you done this?"
Greensworth head tilted back as he laughed boisterously. If Bella wasn't tied up or in pain, she would have either punched the bastard in the face or kicked him in the balls. Instead she bit into the inside of her cheek to keep her tongue in check, a metallic and slippery liquid bursting forward onto her tongue. She was too tired, angry and in pain to mind the blood in her mouth.
"Trust me, if you're going to be getting eaten there will be no cutting involved. But sadly no. Apparently for some reason or another Aldrick has taken a shine to you. Wants to take you with us."
All his humour was gone in a second as he scrutinized her under slit and accusatory eyes. Huffing, he reached over for the cherry oak table in-between them both, plucking up an opened bottle of water and chugging it back like a man dying of thirst. When he did, the sleeve of his Oxford shirt rolled down his thin arm, the cuff being to large to hold it in place. Bella was greeted with a tattoo of mixed matched shapes, lines and dots all folded neatly into a square, black ink standing starkly against his pale skin and blue veins. Bella filed that away for later, Greensworth didn't seem the type to have a tattoo, especially as odd as the one she had just seen. Once he was finished drinking, he screwed the lid back on tightly, anger still blazing in his eyes as he abruptly placed his elbows onto his bent knees, leant towards her and snarled through his teeth.
"You're so lucky and you don't even realize it, no instead you sit there and have the guts to complain! Do you know how many years I have spent looking for Aldrick's kind? How I've followed every order and command without so much of a blink for decades? One glimpse at you and you have everything I've ever wanted, everything I've ever worked for! God damned bitch...Though I can see why..."
Bella felt more than a little sick when she noticed his eyes had landed and stayed in her chest area. Another burst of metallic flavour filled her mouth as she tried her best to keep her temper in check. She was doing well so far, she didn't need to blow it by getting pissed quite yet. Play the game. She needed to play the game until she could make a break for it and when she did, she wouldn't have to put up with a perverted pig like Greensworth. She just had to play this carefully.
The landing light flared a bright red and Greensworth was hasty in clinking his belt in, fumbling with it a few times before his spindly fingers got it right. The drop feeling in her stomach didn't help her nausea, but thankfully she managed not to spew. Before she even thought about doing anything rash, she needed to know where she was above all else. For all she knew she could be in France or China. She prayed to a god she didn't believe in that she was still in America. How was she meant to get back to Forks from another country without her passport?
"Can you at least tell me where I am?"
Once again Greensworth laughed, the noise grated on Bella ear drums, but she kept still, hopefully keeping her annoyance, anger and over all mood well off her face. As Greensworth eyed her up and down, he tilted his head slightly to the side and sent her a look that Bella could only describe as one you would give a dog before giving the wiggly tailed animal a treat. She really hated this man in front of her. If she was a dog, she held no doubts that she would have bitten the fuckers hand right then and there.
"Fine, fine. You're a nosey one ain't you. We're in New York. Now don't speak or move if you know what's good for you. You're giving me a headache."
Then with a slight bump the plane touched road and Bella glanced at the outside world through the small window by her seat, watching as buildings and other planes zoomed past them, the blurry images slowing down until she could make out the shapes. Greensworth unbuckled his seat belt and stood up, putting a show on stretching his legs to spite her. Bella Swan didn't know what these... People were, what they wanted or what they would do to her when they arrived at the place they thought they were taking her to. None of it really mattered in the grand scheme of things. For as soon as they would drag her of this plane she found herself on when she awoke, as soon as Greensworth's back was turned or his focus slipped for one second, she would take down that sniveling poor excuse of a man called Greensworth and escape. She promised them that... It was time to get the hell out of here before it was too late.
"I need the bathroom!"
It was the first thing Bella could think to say to get herself out of the chair and stop Greensworth from leaving. He had tidied up a bit as the plane settled, stroked his hand across the top of the box thing that housed Aldrick like it was some holy relic and then turned to leave as the door to the plane opened with a quiet whoosh. She needed to get out of this chair now if she was ever going to escape before Aldrick awoken. Unfortunately, the bathroom excuse was the first thing to cross her mind and subsequently her tongue. If her hands were free, Bella would give herself a resounding smack to the back of her own head. Could she get more transparent? She couldn't exactly escape through the bathroom window, even if it did have one.
"You can go once we set off again."
Desperation flooded her system like a tidal wave as Ronny gave her one incredulous glance and then sharply turned to carry on his way to the door. She couldn't wait for the simple fact was she needed off this plane before they set off again. She didn't know where they were flying to, but she was in New York right now, far from Forks but something she could work with. If she waited she may as well roll over right there. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and with worry scarring her tone, Bella shouted to the retreating back of Greensworth.
"Fine! If you want me to piss myself and this chair that most likely cost more than anything I've ever owned! I'm sure Aldrick would just love that."
Bella watched as Greensworth came to a halt, shoulders sagging and neck rolling in annoyance. After what felt like a lifetime, Bella's heart gave a jump and Greensworth huffed in exasperation and turned around, marching towards her with a scowl deeply etched onto his face. He came to a stop in front of her, bent over on his haunches and untied her legs with quick and precise fingers, her wrist restraints following suit as the rope slackened and fell around her. She only had one chance at this, one slip up and it was game over. She needed to think on her feet, and think fast.
Greensworth didn't wait for Bella's tired muscles to start working properly and wrapped a tight hand around her biceps, bringing her to a standing position with a harsh yank, his fingers digging into her tender flesh, almost grinding on her bone. When she was standing, he didn't let go of her arm and dragged her down the opposite way of the planes door, her feet stumbling in a few places. They came to a stop outside a small door and when Greensworth slammed the glowing button next to it, the door slid open. Greensworth pushed her in, almost making her fall and with a snarky grin hit the button, speaking his parting words before the door whooshed closed, separating the two with a thin plate of metal.
"Two minutes or I'm coming in there and dragging you out by your hair."
As the door clicked shut, Bella was still for a second before she sprang into frantic action. Twirling around in the small boxed room, Bella tried to take everything in, searching, hoping to see something, anything that could help her case. The room was white, clinical, a metal toilet bolted to the floor, a cylindrical metal bin, a toilet paper dispenser attached to the wall and that was it. Not even a mirror. Bella stopped spinning and ran a tired hand down her face, trying to fruitlessly even her breathing. A knock at the door made her jump and Greensworth voice sounded from the other side.
"Hurry Up!"
Bella felt like pulling her hair out, giving it a one last ditched effort for freedom, Bella dropped down and searched around the toilet, half hoping about finding a pair of scissors or a gun laying forgotten behind the metal contraption. Just as her hand reached behind the toilet to search blindly, her foot skidded and hit something heavy, sending that too skidding across the floor. Looking across at her foot, Bella saw the bin laying a few feet away from where it originally rested.
It wasn't bolted down like everything else in this god forsaken room. It was no AK-47 but Bella, with how she was feeling, was willing to try this escape with a slinky as her only weapon. Dropping onto her knees and scuttling over to the bin, Bella plucked it up, testing the weight in her hands. It was heavy, especially with her protesting and sore muscles, but it would do. Making her way over to the door, Bella crouched a little so her elbow could hit the open button, raised the bin high and steadied herself for what was to come.
Either her prompt escape or her death. She was likely going to die if she stayed, in her books the risk was worth the end result. Breathing in a deep breath through her nose, Bella mentally counted down from three, urging herself to follow through with her half-baked plan. One, two, three!
With a jab of her elbow, the door began to open with that muted gush of wind. Someone or an all seeing power must have been smiling down upon her as she saw Greensworth... Facing the opposite way to her, his back greeting Bella instead of his miserable and antagonistic face. The noise must have alerted him to her presence for as soon as the noise rang out, he began to turn to face her. Bella couldn't have that, she needed to have the advantage of surprise if she was going to get off this plane. Raising up from her crouched position, before Greensworth could fully turn, Bella swung the metal bin back and brought it forward and down with everything she was worth.
For once her aim was true and the bin hit Greensworth head with a loud thwack. The reaction was automatic and Greensworth fell to his knees, but was still awake and aware, turning and blinking up at her dazedly. Bella felt her anger rising at Greensworth and this Aldrick, at Jessica's bloody death, at herself, at the Cullen's. Before she knew what she was doing, she had pulled the bin back again and sent it flying at Greensworth head, hitting his temple this time. He went down like a sack of potatoes, his head snapping to the side at the force of the hit, eyes finally fluttering shut. Standing there in the entrance of a bathroom,covered in blood and bruises, aching and hungry, Bella's arm fell to her side, her grip slacking and letting the bin tumble to the floor besides Greensworth.
Snapping too and out of the dazed trance she was in, Bella pushed down the sick feeling snapping her gut up like a tornado and bolted for it. Running out of the plane, running to the airport, running through the crowds, running out of the airport, running into the streets of New York, all Bella could think, breath and feel was one simple thing. Run.
Bella had been wondering the streets of New York for hours, her feet and calf's cramping under the continuous strain and pressure of carrying on. Bella couldn't stop, didn't dare to. When she had ran for it the sky had been bright and crystal clear, hours later however and the sun was setting slowly but surely. She couldn't be caught out after night, not in New York and not with people like Aldrick and Greensworth after her. Maybe they had given up on her, the end result not being worth the time to hunt her down, but she wasn't willing to test that theory out.
She had no food, no money and no way of getting home. She was stranded in a state she had never been in, in a busy and dangerous place like New York. She was up shit creak without a paddle. She had tried to ask people if she could use their phone, to call Charlie and tell him she was alive and relatively okay, but with one look at her haggard appearance they had ignored her and carried on their merry way. Bella couldn't blame them fully, Heroine addict was one of the nicer things she could be taken for when looking the way she did.
With the cold air settling around the city like a blanket as night time herald its arrival, Bella had to turn to desperate measures. Desperate measures constituted as turning to the grungier parts of New York and trying to find an abandoned building she could squat in until the sun took its place in the sky once more. Some shelter that doubled as a hiding place was better then no shelter, even if she knew it was going to be a rough and tough night ahead of her. She had no other options, not with her limited, who was she kidding? None existent resources at her finger tips.
She needed to find the place soon or she was going to collapse in the street, damned who could come looking for her or cross her path. She was tired, so very tired, hungry and incredibly thirsty. The kind that gnawed inside you constantly until you answered its call. If someone asked her to speak right then and there, she doubted she would be able to without sounding like she was growling instead.
Turning down another alley way between abandoned factories and dilapidated apartment buildings, Bella kept her eyes out for somewhere to go. She couldn't carry on walking, not in her state, so it was either here or nowhere. Coming to a halt at the corner of one building that was slightly in better shape then the rest of its comrades, Bella braced herself against the wall with one hand to keep herself standing. Looking down at her feet, Bella saw a dirty rectangular window at the bottom of the building, most likely belonging to the basement of what looked like an old apartment complex.
Searching around herself, she almost cried for joy when she spotted a crow bar laying innocuously against a burnt out tire sitting at the edge of the road, a few feet away from her. Walking over, as fast as she could go, Bella plucked up the heavy iron and dragged it back to the window. Bending down, she clasped the crow bar tightly in to hands and jammed it into the locked area of the window, wiggling and pushing the metal as she did so.
Bella wouldn't be ashamed to admit when the click of the lock shattered the silence encasing her she nearly cried. About to drop the crow bar to the floor, Bella thought better of it and kept it close, god knows if Aldrick could catch up to her but she was willing to prepare herself for the worse case scenario. Using her foot to kick the window open the furthest it would go, Bella scooted on her bum, going through feet first with the crow bar still in hand.
Her feet landed onto the ground with a muted thud and it took her a few seconds to realize she had landed on carpet of all things. However her bewilderment and curiosity only lasted for a split second, worry and panic flaring up and taking their place as the dark basement blazed to light from bare bulbs hanging above head.
"What the hell you doing in here?"
Bella blinked rapidly as she tried to clear her eyes from the white spots that had sprang forward in her sight when the lights had come to life. When her vision cleared she saw a large room leading to another. Carpets lining the floor, a dingy couch pushed up to one wall with a old TV resting on a crate opposite it, beer bottles and take out littered on a large cardboard box to the right of the couch. What worried her the most was the man standing in the entrance to the adjacent room. He must have been in his mid twenties, early thirties at a push. Torn shirt over a t-shirt and baggy jeans, a beaded necklace around his neck, shaggy brown hair tickling his chin and falling into his squinted eyes, scruff lining his chin and top lip.
Bella tensed and swung the crow bar up to grasp it in both hands again as she eyed the man. Of course out of all the places she could break into, out of all the abandoned ones, she picked the one that was already being squatted in. Such was her luck.
"Don't come any closer... Look, I thought this place was abandoned, I didn't know anyone lived here."
For someone whose place was being broken into by a five foot, half crazed looking woman wielding a crow bar, the man seemed to be taking it extraordinarily well. He looked her up and down, shook his head and lifted the newly opened bottle of beer to his lips, drinking deeply from the brown glass. Turning back towards her, Bella having backed up into the wall she had just dropped down from, he leant on the door frame next to him by his shoulder.
"For someone thinking they're breaking into an abandoned place, you sure do look ready to fight. Jesus Christ girl, stop waving that around at me, I ain't going to do shit. In fact you're the one in the wrong here, not me."
Bella slowly lowered the crow bar, taking one hand away but still keeping it securely in her grasp just in case he wasn't as friendly as he seemed. Knowing what had transpired over the last twenty four hours, she wouldn't be surprised at this point in time if he turned out to be an alien ready to probe her. God knows she attracted the weird ones. Instead of voicing her inane and slightly insane ramblings, Bella went for trying to get out of this situation without being arrested and locked up in a cell.
"I'm sorry. Really. I've had one hell of a day and I thought this place was abandoned, I was just going to rest a bit. I'm not a burglar, if you can believe that. I'll... I'll just be going now."
Knowing she wasn't going to be able to pull herself back through the window, Bella went to walk for the closed door she thought would lead her up some stairs and out of here but the shuffling of the mans booted footsteps on the thread bare carpet stopped her movements. When she slammed backwards into the wall to get away from the approaching man, he seemed to realize his mistake and hold his hands up in front of him in the universal sign of surrender.
"Hey, I told you I ain't gonna pull anything. You alright? You have blood on your dress and that bruise around your neck don't look so pretty. You look like you've been through a warzone. I... Well if you're looking for a place to rest your head, I have a couch. It ain't much but its something. Better than the streets anyway."
Bella automatically clasped a hand to her throat, wincing when pain radiated out due to her touch. She could imagine just from how much it ached how bad it looked. But could she really take this stranger up on his offer? What if he was some rapist or serial killer. Then again, did she have any other option but the one he had pointed out, the streets? She really didn't want to be back out there, especially now as night had fully fallen. Instead of teaching geometry in school they should teach if you should stay in a complete strangers, that isn't or could be a rapist, house or risk going outside to where a murdering kidnapper could be lurking around hunting you down.
"You offer every break in stray who could be a burglar a place to stay?"
Bella was buying herself time to think about what she should do. she was confused, hurt and tired. Even if she came to the decision to leave this basement flat, she didn't know whether she was actually capable of walking more then twenty steps without hitting the deck out cold. Bella watched as the man strolled forward looking like he didn't have a single worry and dropped onto the couch, the beer in the bottle nearly tipping out onto the floor in his lazy movement, he smiled cheekily as he rebutted her sarcasm.
"Only the pretty and polite ones. Why don't you sit down before you fall, you're looking peaky there tiny."
Bella had to agree but instead of joining him on the couch, needing space after the day she had gone through, she walked closer and sat down on some stacked crates off to the other side of the couch, the same kind holding the old TV up. Finally relinquishing her crow brow, she didn't let it go far but propped it up beside her against the crates she was sitting on, some place easy to reach if the need called. Although, she didn't think she had the energy to put up a fight if it did come down to that.
"Thank you for... You know, letting me stay and not calling the police like a sane person would. I'm Bella by the way."
the man let out a chuckle, the type that wasn't necessarily deep, but seemed to crackle through the air like electric.
"Sanity's over-rated and boring. I'm Joshua Frohmeyer, but everyone calls me Scud."
A.N: Well I hope you guy's liked it, don't worry Deacon will make an appearance very soon. THANK YOU to everyone who reviewed, followed and favourited. PLEASE, with a cherry on top, could you leave a review? They make my day :) ~Sparks94