Chapter Sixteen

Bella

Across the car park was a dark panel van and she opened the back doors and put me inside

"There's a blanket and a mattress in there so you should be comfortable enough for our little road trip. If you're a good girl I may even stop in a while so you can get something to eat."

As the door slammed shut I began to cry, I felt so helpless, my body was still recovering from the beating it had received from Tad and Victoria's less than gentle mode of carrying me had started the muscles and bones aching again. My jaw was very tender and I could feel a jagged pain in one of its hinges so I tried to keep my mouth as still as possible. I had no doubt that Victoria planned to kill me but first she wanted me to play cat and mouse with Edward. I wondered if Jasper would smell Victoria's scent in my room and recognise it. Even if he did though I had no idea how he could track me. Once in the van my scent would be lost and he would have no way of knowing which direction we had taken.

There was a small gap in the door close to the bottom and thinking quickly I pulled off the strapping from my wrist and bit through it, leaving a small. patch that I pushed through the little gap hoping it had hit the road and not snagged on the vans bodywork. Working slowly because I couldn't tear the strapping easily but the initial bite had caused too much pain to try tearing it that way, I wasn't able to leave a trail as often as I would have liked but I did manage to tear strips off and push them out at irregular intervals until I felt the van slow to a halt. I could hear voices in the distance but too far away to be alerted by banging or cries for help so I stayed silent but carried on working on the strapping.

The door opened slightly a few minutes later and a wrapped burger and plastic bottle of soda were pushed in before the door slammed closed once more. By the light that had given me a chance to look round the interior better I had seen a patch of rust around a hole in the panel separating the driving compartment from the back. I prayed it would be sharp enough to cut through the strapping and slid over there on my belly, my ribs protesting at the hard surface. I sawed back and forth and pieces of strapping fell to the floor. When I thought I had enough and we had traveled too far from the last piece I slid back across to the hole by the door and started feeding them out one at a time at five-minute intervals, checking the timing by counting slowly in my head.

When the strapping was all gone I started on that around my ribs hoping they were mended enough to be without any protection now. As I sawed through it I cut my finger and wrapped a piece around it. I didn't need to be bleeding when Victoria finally opened the doors. We drove on for what seemed hours only stopping once more to throw me another bottle of soda and a sandwich. I felt hot and uncomfortable, my muscles ached and my jaw was becoming more painful by the hour. Biting the strapping had been a really bad idea. I felt the painful side of it and could feel it was swollen again so I tried laying down with the good side of my face against the thin mattress but it jolted too much so I sat up and held my face in my hands which helped a little but I'd now run out of things to leave a trail and I felt too sick to do more. I just hoped Jasper and Peter would be able to follow as far as I led them then hunt for me.

Soon after I decided this we came to a halt and the doors were opened and I was pulled out to stand unsteadily in the middle of an old warehouse complex. The sun was out but weak and watery, I could hear dripping so I guessed it had been raining. Birds flew between the buildings and the wind blew scraps of paper and plastic across the concrete roadway which was choked with weeds.

"I hope you like your new home Bella. I went to a lot of trouble to make it comfortable for you. All we gave to do now is wait."

I looked at her questioningly.

"I sent Edward an invitation to join us, of course I didn't tell him exactly where we were, but he's a clever boy. He'll work it out eventually and until then you can sit and think about what I'm going to do to you. I will be killing you, an eye for an eye but I decided that Edward should watch, it will be fun. Now come on."

She dragged me limping into one of the buildings which had lost part of its roof and in one corner was a metal container obviously used as an office at one time. Now it contained a mattress, a bucket, and a table full of sealed packets of food and bottles of soda. There was no form of lighting, only a window into the warehouse which gave a little light through the grime. Smiling Victoria pushed me in and slammed the door shut.

"Have fun Bella. How long you are here and how long you live now depends on your boyfriend Edward Cullen."

I heard her move away and tried the door but it was thick wood and locked from the outside. Moving to the window I cleaned a peep-hole and realized it was made of plastic so I couldn't break it with a table leg if I could even break one off. Looking more closely I saw the table was metal and bolted to the floor. I couldn't see any way out so I sunk down on the mattress and sobbed my frustration eventually falling asleep despite my pains and dreamed not of Edward but Jasper coming to rescue me.