No, you're not seeing things. No, you're not going crazy. No, it's not some sort of cruel joke. ... Yes, I have updated TWICE in ONE week!

However, not sure how fast I'll be able to update again because I'm back at school - but only for 24 more days (and counting) until I have 8 weeks of SUMMER holidays! (But first I have to endure the depressive, Old English "Romeo & Juliet"... and put up with my sister, who due to my whingeing about R&J, has decided to crack EVERY Romeo/Juliet joke in the book.)

Anyway, onto the chapter. Thank you to everyone who reviewed chapter 6! Really love reading your reviews and I would love to know what everyone thought about this chapter too - reviews = inspiration / inspiration= writing/ writing = new chapters!

Chapter 7 – First Instinct

Will's POV

Almost as soon as Rikki had left to answer the door, the TV program I'd been watching went to ad breaks again. I was only half-heartedly watching the Carpet Giants ad that I I'd seen numerous times before, when suddenly the TV wasn't the only loud noise in the quiet night.

"Rikki!" echoed into the lounge room from the front door, and although the voice was female, I could definitely tell that it wasn't Rikki who was crying and yelling her own name. I got up to see what the fuss and drama was about, and check that everything was okay.

"What's going on?" I asked, walking towards the entry way and front door, before I saw the two girls.

Rikki and Bella.

Rikki appeared dazed, leading Bella inside, upstairs and as she turned when I spoke, I got a better look at Bella, feeling absolutely sick to my stomach.

"Oh my god, what the hell happened?"

Even from a distance, I could see the red blood that was slowly trickling down one of her eyebrows and the side of her head, the red bruises that framed her eyes, scratches leading down from one cheek to her jaw.

Tears were still rapidly streaming down her darkened, smudged-mascara face as she battled with her breathing. Her clothes and hair were a mess, some parts coated in blood and the majority of her skin that was exposed on her arms or neck was either red, dabbled with blood, scratched or bruised.

I felt like I'd been winded and punched in the gut. I was so, so shocked and a million questions were darting through my mind. What happened? Who did this? Why Bella? Would she be okay?

My first instinct felt no different to as it would've a year and a half ago, when we were still together. That kicked in and I raced over to follow Rikki and Bella upstairs, to protect and comfort her. However, Rikki had other ideas and she stood in-between me and my target.

"Leave us, Will. I'll tell you if she needs anything" she said softly but firm enough for me to obey her.

I watched Rikki turn around and urge Bella slightly forward, leading her to her room. Watching from a distance, I still felt as if I could read every expression, every movement and every gesture of Bella's and my instinct was telling me that she was hurting bad. That alone was hurting me too.

#

Zane walked back into the lounge room as I did, from the other side of the room.

"Is Rikki alright? I heard crying" he asked, shaking dry his wet hair much like how you'd expect a dog would.

I nodded and sat down on the lounge again, taking another much needed skull of beer. "Rikki's fine."

He nodded and sat down next to me, looking slightly relieved. "Oh okay. Good."

"Yeah, but Bella's here."

"What? Why?"

"She came to see Rikki. She's been beaten up... or rap-", I started to say, but just considering the awful, stomach-churning thought had paralysed me from being able to say the rest of the word aloud.

"Should we call the police or ambos or something?"

I sighed and shrugged. "I don't know. I don't know how bad she was and I don't know what happened."

"Okay, let's just wait for Rikki to come back down and tell us more" he said and I responded with a nod, so we waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Then finally, close to an hour later, Rikki came back downstairs.

Hearing the footsteps, I bolted upright from my slouched posture on the lounge.

"How is she?" I asked eagerly.

"Well I tried to get a better look at some of her injuries, but you can't really tell much. Everything was too swollen or bruised."

I nodded, trying not to dwell on what I'd just been told and instead, diverted to another question that had spiralled in mind as we waited. "Do you know what happened? Did she say anything?"

Rikki shook her head. "No. She barely said anything and whatever she did say I couldn't distinguish through her crying."

"Do you have any idea of what might've happened?"

"Not really, no, but I'm pretty sure that she was just attacked or assaulted. I don't think that she was raped."

I let out a little exhale of relief. Thank goodness. I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy, let alone Bella, but it still didn't change whatever the person had done.

"Who would want to hurt her?" I asked myself aloud, but softly under my breath.

"What?"

"Who would want to hurt her?" I repeated.

"I don't know. She didn't have any enemies that I was aware of. She might've been mugged on her way home from work."

I nodded at the likely possibility. I could count on one hand the number of people that I'd ever known to hate Bella (with a list that mostly consisted of my sister), and much less who want to do something like that to her. A stranger was a much more feasible possibility.

"Wait a minute. She said she had a boyfriend. It could be domestic abuse" I realized, with another, even more likely option flashing through my head.

"No. No way, Dan would never hurt Bella" Rikki said, shaking her head firmly.

"Are you sure? Sometimes things like that can be really unexpected and if they had a fight or something..."

"No Will. There's no way. That's like me accusing you of doing that to her."

"There's no way in hell that I'd hurt her!" I said, getting angry and taking her suggestion personally, which was probably supposed to be proving a point.

"Well, there's no way that Dan would do that either."

"Some guys can play you like a fiddle and get you to believe everything they say."

"Yeah, I know, jerks like you two, but not him."

"How do you know that he wouldn't?"

"Because I know Daniel and I'm friends with him too."

"Still..."

"'Still' nothing, Will!"

"At least count it as a possibility, Rikki. I mean, why'd she come here, to you and not to him?"

"Because Dan's 3 hours away!"

"He might've visited her..."

"He doesn't live 3 hours away, he lives here, but he's in Cairns for 2 weeks, so what's the chances that he made a fly by visit just to bash his girlfriend, who the last I knew, he's in love with!"

I started backing down. My theory sounded stupid now and I was left feeling bruised on the inside, realizing again that Bella was in such a serious relationship with someone else.

"Whatever. We'll just ask her in the morning. Goodnight." I said, ending our conversation and leaving the room.

Walking up to my room, still trying to nut everything out, I felt a magnetic-like pull towards Rikki's bedroom, seeing that her bedroom door was ajar and slightly opened.

Softly pushing the door open to a point where I could fit my head through the space, I looked over to the bed that was occupied by a sleeping Bella.

It was like a sweet sorrow seeing her there. I smiled slightly observing how peaceful she was asleep, but the pretty picture was tainted by the red and other dark, unnatural colours and wounds that glazed her face, acting as reminders of her intense & obviously traumatic night.

I closed the door and left the room, walking towards my own room, with my brain still pumping full of unanswered questions.

#

The next morning I woke at about 7:30, even though I'd gotten barely any sleep from the constant tossing and turning with thinking about last night.

I got up and I assumed no-one else was, due to the lack of noise and presence of anyone else. I read the paper and checked Facebook until about 10 when Zane came downstairs too.

"10? You're up early" I commented as he sat down to me.

"Who cares?"

"No-one. I was just pointing it out."

"Okay. So, is Rikki up yet?" asked Zane as he fiddled with the lid of a beer bottle that was nearby

"Maybe, but she hasn't been down here" I said, before remembering what Rikki had told him before. "You might not want to check whether she is or not. I think you're skating on pretty thin ice with her."

"I know, but it's so damn hard though."

"Tell me about it."

We heard footsteps coming down and Zane & I simultaneously looked up to see who it was. I knew exactly what I was going to ask, before I saw who it was, with the only variation being who it was that I directed my question at.

"How's Bella?" I asked as soon as saw it was Rikki.

"No 'good morning Rikki' or 'how'd you sleep?'" Rikki said with annoyance.

"Morning Rikki; how's Bella?" I asked with a sarcastic cheeriness that just ended up with me being ignored.

"What were you saying about thin ice before, Will?" Zane smirked, getting a light shove in the shoulder as a response from me.

"So is she okay? Are you taking her to the doctor or anything today? "

Rikki rolled her eyes in annoyance before stopping and slamming her hands on the bench as coolly as possible. "Bella's fine. Now shut up. Don't ask me, don't ask her. Go back to your own little worlds."

"Fine, whatever" I said, unconfidently knowing what I needed to, despite the difficulty with retrieving the information.

"Wanna come out and get some brekkie and coffee with me?" I asked Zane, snatching my car keys off of the top of the fridge. "The milk's out of date."

"Sure" Zane said getting up and following me out to the car.

"Zane? Does this seem weird to you at all?"

"What? Out of date milk? No, I'm used to it now" he dumbly responded, on a totally different wavelength to me.

"No. I mean this whole Bella thing, you idiot!"

Zane shrugged carelessly. "Nah not really; it happens."

"But why'd she go to Rikki?"

"I don't know Will! The only things I know about Bella are that she's a good singer, she dated you and she's invading my house right now! Stop over thinking things, you'll give yourself, not to mention me, a headache."

I nodded and pulled out of the driveway.

#

We'd gone to the closest fast-food restaurant and each gotten a cooked breakfast and coffee before we went back home to face our no longer bachelor pad.

"Where's mine?" Rikki asked immediately as we walked back in.

"I thought you'd gone all 'Miss Independent' and anti-us" I half-heartedly replied, looking over to a now turned away Bella who was sharing the couch with Rikki.

"I have."

"Exactly, so why would we do you a favour?" Zane added with a failed attempt at a smirk, which just turned all smiley.

"Bella, are you okay?" I asked, walking over to the coffee table in an attempt to get a better look at her, but she just kept turning away from line of sight.

She silently nodded, and Rikki's defensive friend guard seized up again. "I told you, she's fine. Now rack off!"

"This was our house first Rikki, you can't tell us what to do..." Zane said, crossing arms.

"Fine, stay; we're just sorting a couple of things out" she smirked.

Zane uncrossed his arms and walked over to the other couch. "I will!"

"Now, Bella... did you see that tampons are on special at Woolworths this week?"

I cringed and briefly watched from afar as Rikki smirked, while Zane's face scrunched up. "Eww! You could've warned me!"

He got off the couch and Rikki smiled as he walked upstairs, not looking back. I took one last glance at the girls before following him.

"Oi, Zane" I whispered loudly, trailing behind him in the upstairs hallway.

"Yeah, what?" he asked, stopping and turning around to face me.

I self-consciously looked behind me, just to double check and ensure that neither of the girls were walking upstairs or were behind us. "How weird was Bella acting? I mean she didn't say anything and she didn't look anyone in the eye.

Again, my 'helpful' friend just shrugged. "I don't know, mate. I'm not a psychologist."

I rolled my eyes and walked off. "Thanks anyway."

#

I'd retreated to my room after that, in an attempt to start thinking about something else.

I surfed through the channels on the small TV in the corner of the room before leaving it on a re-run of an old 80's crime show that I zoned in and out of watching.

"Will" Rikki said, just walking into my room. "You need to move your car. It's blocking mine in and I need to go out."

"Can it wait?" I frowned, having sunk into quite a relaxing and comfortable position on my bed.

"No, I need to go out and pick some stuff up... for Bella" she added at the end, increasing the incentive for me to do what she wanted, in a clever, but manipulative way.

I sighed and exhaled before pushing myself off the bed. "Fine, you win."

We walked downstairs and I grabbed my keys. "Wait, where are you going?"

"None of your business" she said crossing her arms defensively.

I smirked, realizing that I had the upper hand in yet another of Rikki's games. "I won't move my car unless you tell me where you're going."

I teasingly hung my keys off my pointer-finger, rocking it back and forth in front of her face. She watched the keys, mesmerized and silentl for a few moments, before quickly and unexpectedly snatching the keys for herself. "Fine I'll do it for myself."

"Hey! That's stealing! I'll call the police" I threatened, trailing quickly and closely behind her as she walked away from me and towards the front door.

Stopping and turning around suddenly towards me, she held the keys behind her back, clenched in one palm. "You wouldn't call the police. You're too much of a softy."

"Oh yeah? Try me..." I taunted trying to subtly and slowly circle around to her back.

She moved my keys to her other hand and nodded confidently. "I will."

"ZANE" I yelled out while Rikki walked out the front door. Befor long at all, I caught up and ran past her and headed towards my car before stopping resting my back against the driver's side door.

Rikki rolled her eyes, slowing her pace and I waited for Zane.

"This is so immature, Will..."

I shrugged at her as Zane sluggishly walked outside and over to us. "What?"

"Rikki's got my keys" I pointed. "They're behind her back. Can you grab them?"

I noticed the little sparkle in his eyes as he nodded and walked closer to her, pulling her into a bear hug-turned-wrestle.

I laughed a little watching the two as Rikki fought angrily, whereas Zane was tackling with a smile.

After a little over a minute, Zane pulled away and ran over to me, like it was some of relay, passing the keys from one person to the other.

Flattening her hair and clothes that were impacted from the wrestle, she obviously wasn't happy with either of us. "Hurry up and move the damn thing. I need to get to her place before the cleaner gets there."

My interest increased. Bella's place...

"Do you a deal. I was going to go out and get some more beer before, so I can take you" I said, getting an 'as if' eye roll.

"No."

"It saves your petrol and I'll get you a drink on me too" I added, in an attempt to add more self-appeal for Rikki to my offer.

"No."

"I'll stay in the car and out of your way" I quickly added in desperation.

She didn't knock back my offer as quickly this time, and I took it as a good sign when she looked down and kicked a small rock that was in the firing line of her foot.

"Fine... ONLY if you stay out of the way and buy me a box of Cruisers at the Bottle-O."

"A box? I meant a bottle!"

She raised an eyebrow and shrugged. "It's up to you..."

"Fine, a box it is."

Rikki smiled and got in the passenger's side of my car when I unlocked it and as I opened my own door, Zane stopped me.

"Hey! Hold on a minute... You two aren't going alone. I'm coming too, and that drink offer better apply to me as well, Will" Zane said while he got in the backseat.

"Fine" I agreed, getting in and driving off.

#

We'd gone to the Bottle-O first, and Rikki chose the most expensive box of Cruisers for me to buy her, reminding me to make a mental note of never offering something like that to her again. I'd also gotten Zane a bottle of some liqueur or whatever he'd chosen, along with my beer.

Walking out of there, a stranger would've thought we were alcoholics.

Once we left, Rikki gave me a street name, that I knew was just off one of the main roads in Central Business District, or CBD - the busiest, most established and most expensive part of the Gold Coast.

We stopped in front of a tall sky rising apartment block that was in a row with about 8 others that were identical or similar and each housing several apartments within it.

"Alright, I'll be back in a while, I just have to get some of her stuff."

"Why?" Zane asked from in the backseat, before I had the chance to.

"Bella's staying with me until Daniel gets back."

I smiled and looked back at Zane, who was far from impressed. "Um, thanks for running it past me Rikki..."

"I thought Will would be all for the idea, so I'm sure he's going to be able to convince you otherwise" she smirked before getting out of car and walking off.

#

When Rikki left, she left me with a whiny, nagging 22 year old, grumbling about having someone else staying with us and continuously begging me for a beer that was in the car boot with all of the other alcohol.

"Zane if you don't shut up soon, I'll get out and child-lock your door" I threatened after half an hour of putting up with it.

However, he kept going and after another 10 minutes of looking up at the apartments through the window, I gave into my temptation and curiosity of wondering what it was like inside.

"Zane. I'm going in" I said, getting out and locking the car after Zane had self-decidedly chosen to follow me out.

"Do what you want, but Rikki's not going to be very happy..." he reminded me simply.

"Stuff Rikki" I said walking up to the door and knocking.

A few seconds later, Rikki opened the door and frowned. "You said you wouldn't get in the way and you'd stay in the car."

"I know, sorry, but it was getting hot in there and can I quickly use the bathroom while we're here?"

She looked at both of us, frowning. "Fine, but go straight there and come straight back out."

I nodded as Zane & I quickly rushed inside and past her.

"The bathroom's the last door straight at the end of the hallway" she said, pointing towards an arch, before disappearing off into the room that was closest to the front door.

I looked around the neat and well-decorated living room. The deep, modern colours and multitudes of decorations were a far cry from the look of me & Zane's house's 'barely there' theme.

In the lounge room, I looked around at the huge, flat, wide-screen TV, two long leather lounges, massage chair, bookshelf, coffee table and a smaller box about the size of a bedside table which didn't really fit in with the rest of the decor.

Walking through to the hallway wasn't eventful, with about 4 or 5 of the same doors, all the same colour, all closed shut, except for the one that was the second to last door before the bathroom.

As I walked closer, I noticed how this one differed, being the only door that wasn't blank aside from the lick of light brown paint. It was the only decorated door and the only door with a hanging, plastered and childishly hand-painted 'A' that was a combination of hot pink and baby pink, with a small decorative silver butterfly on the bottom corner of the letter.

Unusual, yes, but I ignored it and made the final few steps towards the bathroom.

Opening the door, I was expecting a room just as nicely decorated as the living room, and my prediction was spot on... apart from the odd splodges of dried up blood around the room that I had not been anticipating.

A hand towel lay balled up on the floor, against the spa-bath with several visible patches of red blood staining it. Random streaks of the same coloured red blood lead to the corner of the sink where there was another mark tainting the edge of the perfect bench.

I looked around the room in shock.

Bella wasn't attacked on her way home from work. My bet was that it happened somewhere at her place... or even here in the bathroom.

Unless, she'd come home and attempted to clean herself up before she went to Rikki...

No. One of my first instincts and gut feelings was that her boyfriend had hurt her and that made sense after having found this too... but Rikki said he was in Cairns, which totally blew my theory out of the water.

I'd had enough and was sickened by the sight. It wasn't because of the gore, but rather it was just a reminder of what someone actually had done to her.

Seeing that was a turning point for me and I made the decision that honesty was the best policy. I would just ask Bella straight out about what had happened and who had hurt her when I got home.

As I walked out, I thought that was enough revelations for one day, but obviously not.

"Will" Zane said walking up to me from the other side of the hallway, through an arch that opposite to the one I'd come through, past the living room.

"What?" I asked, thinking of whether I should tell him about the bathroom or not.

"Come and have a look at this" he said, taking me into the kitchen, that was lead to through the arch he'd come through.

I followed and we stopped at the fridge, wordlessly.

My mind surged as I tried to take in all of the pictures, childrens finger paintings and drawings that were on the fridge which you'd think was acting as a photo album.

There were numerous photos of 3 people.

There was a guy who was maybe three or so years older than me. He had dead-straight, bleached blonde spiked tips that faded into a medium brown colour at the roots, from where his hair was slicked away from all over his head with hair gel.

I was guessing that he was Daniel. The repetitive kissing, cuddling and general closeness in the photos with Bella suggested & supported this theory too.

The other person aside from Bella that was in the majority of the photos, was a little girl with mousey brown hair and blue eyes. Her age varied in the pictures ranging right from the photos of a small, sleeping baby but in the oldest, she looked like she was slightly older or younger than 1. I had to admit, she was a pretty cute kid with a seemingly never-ending smile, but that didn't stop the fact that she was there... all over Bella's fridge.

I looked over all of the photos quickly, mostly focusing on that one little girl until Zane interrupted me and stated a variation of the question that had been going over into overdrive in my mind.

"You never told me that Bella had a kid."

So... another cliffhanger, just because I can. Any thoughts/feelings/advice/ANYTHING that you'd like share with me on this chapter? I would LOVE to read it and I appreciate reviewers more than you can seriously imagine.

Have a good one and enjoy this beautiful weather!