AN: Don't own twilight. Still haven't named any chapters yet but hey its Christmas time!
The fire made quick work of Bella's body. It devoured and destroyed, burned and reduced not only her skin, but her bone and nerves, to hot ash. Her bones burned and scattered in the wind, only to rebuild themselves: stronger, thicker, fiercer, all in preparation to be snapped and broken into several little pieces; to pierce through her tight skin and push back into their original place.
Bella's screams were loud and raw, renewed with every break, every smoldering fire inside her. Her gaze blurred and blackened, even as her nerves and veins ignited with sharp red color, exploding within her body and brain. All she knew was pain and it would never end, never be over. It overtook her, drowned her, destroyed her. She was nothing but fire and pain.
Her back arched, her shoulder dislocated, the mark on it turned black and gooey, bubbling over with pus and blood and dirt. Her body thrashed and she travelled the leaf strewn floor simply by convulsing. Time passed, and the sky darkened even as Bella's voice broke and cracked with the effort of screaming.
Her face pressed into the mud as she tried to gain control of her broken body, of the pain and the fire and the fear that punched at her temples. Bella managed to clamber to two feet and stand for the briefest of seconds before her leg twisted outwards, snapping the bone clean in two. "Screaming," was not a good enough word to describe the sounds that left her mouth.
Her vision swum, and darkened around the edges as her body fought the overload of sensations it was feeling. With sobs and tears, cries of anguish and raw sounds leaving her throat, Bella begged everything, and anything to kill her, to just put her out of this never ending inferno. So desperate was she to simply black out, or die, she ran face first into a tree, trying to knock herself out.
The act accomplished more pain and blood running in her tear filled eyes, but no mercy, and no escape from the agony she had become. Bella curled into a ball, fighting the tremors and snapping bones, the tearing muscles and burning veins by tightening her body into itself. Surely, any minute now, she was going to break at the seams; to die.
Even the ball didn't last long against her bodies desire to reshape and break in an endless loop. Bella couldn't fight it as it flipped her onto her back, as the flames licked along her body. There was a point where her body shut down, where she felt nothing but snapping bones and she stared lifelessly, like a broken rag doll, at the canopy of trees above her, and the darkness.
She didn't even feel like a rational being anymore, not a human capable of speech and movement, but a bundle of pain receptors, of nerves tangled in blackness that oozed through her system and changed her, little by little. She felt it, this… something that restructured her DNA, that plagued her mind and dug deep inside, burrowing into her core being. Bella passed out.
When she awoke, she screamed out of instinct, but there was no pain left to feel. It took her a moment to move, too scared to jolt all those broken bones inside her and pierce her skin, or a lung. But before long she twitched, even cried out before she felt anything and then frowned in puzzlement when nothing hurt in response.
Not even the injuries she sustained last week could be felt anymore. Not her swollen feet or sore sides, not her bruised legs. Even the skin on her hands was no longer torn and ragged, red and sore. Her nails weren't bitten and jagged, ripped right down to the wick. Bella raised her hand above her face in childlike wonder, her mind confused and jumbled.
She felt as if she was a computer, and she had received a repair and upgrade. Something felt different about her own body. She felt tired, as if she'd ran a marathon but no longer felt the pain she'd experienced before blacking out, and no longer felt the injuries that had been healing when she went shopping with Tanya.
Was that yesterday? Bella wondered to herself, seeing the bright blue sky above her. How long had she been there? How long had she been burning, and breaking, being destroyed and remade? But into what? She wondered. What was different about her? There were no outward signs, but she could feel it within herself. A presence, beneath her skin and inside her head.
It felt like something dark, and feral… a hunter, a tracker; one that was biding its time. It was waiting, but Bella didn't know what for, and didn't understand what 'it' was. She sat up, rustling the leaves around her, and gasped when she realized she was naked, her clothing completely destroyed.
She was damp with sweat and her flesh felt tight; too stretched over her bones, as if she no longer fit into her own skin. Most of her nude form was obscured by leaves, but Bella was too curious to feel her bones and see her skin after her ordeal to think about her modesty. With an impatient jerk, she threw off the leaves protecting her body from the cold air.
She let out a choked scream that caught in the base of her throat. She was covered, no. Drenched, in blood. On her legs and feet, the blood seemed to be dry and flakey, peeling off her skin, but on her stomach the red liquid slid down her skin and pooled between her legs. Bella screeched and let her legs fall apart, trying to encourage the blood to slide off of her body.
She stood quickly, taking up an armful of leaves that weren't already stained with blood and used them to wipe down her scarlet limbs. They did a poor job, of course but they made her feel slightly better. It was only as she collapsed to her knees did Bella realize she was crying and the tears were cutting through the blood and grime on her chest.
Why is this always happening to me? Bella thought to herself as she cried into her own chest. Her shoulders shook as snot and tears of fear and despair dripped down her cheeks and chin, streaming down her naked body. A part of her wanted to continue to curl up in a ball and wallow in despair.
But another part; that new presence inside her, that darkness, was aware of her vulnerability and her nakedness. It wanted to snarl and hide, to work through its confusion in safety, and the simple realization that something was sharing her brain, her body, made Bella sob harder in fear. I just want a normal life. I just want to be an eighteen-year-old girl. I don't want this!
Bella didn't know how much times passed, but the sky was still blue when she finally stopped crying and focused on her surroundings. She was at the bottom of the hill she fell down yesterday, where she knew that horrible shack was smeared with blood and drenched in horrid smell. The thought of the shack made Bella nearly cry once more. She hadn't even found Lisa!
Clambering to her feet, dizzy with panic and fear, Bella took a deep breath and tried to push past her emotions, to become clinical and detached so she could formulate a plan to get back to the Denali's. But how was she going to do that, in broad daylight and completely naked? She roughly knew how to get back, but her dignity couldn't take her walking around nude.
Bella realized there was nothing she could do. As she began to walk back towards town, she cried again from sheer embarrassment and mortification. How bitterly ironic that she had been complaining about the amount of clothes brought for her by Tanya, and now she had to walk back without a scrap on her, for all to see?
Bella wrapped her arms around herself, nearly at the tourist attraction when she saw a raised lump nestled in the leaves and covered by flies that buzzed around it. Bella frowned and inched closer, only to let out a strangled cry at the sight of a heavily mutated doe, long dead. It must have been eaten and torn apart by some animal. Perhaps by the thing that had attacked Bella.
With her pulse pounding and eyes pushing out of her sockets, Bella wondered why she had reacted so strongly to the dead doe. An animal had done it, and animals killed each other the time. So why did that bother her so much? Bella turned away from the doe and carried on her journey, her back hunched to try and cover as much nudity as she could.
Despite the miraculous healing of her injuries and broken bones, her body physically ached like a pile of bricks beneath her skin. Her muscles and skin felt tender and overused. After some time travelling, Bella stopped crying and realized that she couldn't remember which way to go from the point she was at, and she wasn't in the mood to get lost.
Without any reasoning behind the act, Bella made a decision to continue on the path she was on. Mud stained her feet and she suddenly had the most gruesome idea she had ever had in her young life. She scooped up handfuls of dirty, stinking mud and covered the most intimate parts of her body with it. It didn't do much, but it made Bella feel better than just being stark naked.
When Bella stood again, she began to cry immediately after recognizing her surroundings. She had no idea how she had done it, but she was on the road that led to the Denali's secluded house! If she ducked back into the trees and did a right, she would find herself on the dirt path that led to the large, warm, and safe house.
Bella practically ran the rest of the way, so excited to get inside; to be safe, clothed, warm and lie in her soft bed. To eat food, and have a large glass of water and have a conversation with someone, perhaps cry about what she had experienced. She stopped at half way down the dirt road, not even out of breath, which surprised her, but still aching all the same.
Near the end of the path, Bella's excitement suddenly fizzed out and died as she realized how mad Tanya was going to be, and probably Kate too. She had no idea how long she had been gone; Kate could have lost her job for losing someone in protective custody, they may think her dead. They could have even found Lisa. Bella had no idea what she was walking back to.
The closer she got to the Denali's house, the more she began to sweat; cutting clean tracks through her mud covered body. What was she going to say to them? The truth? They would never believe her; there was no evidence left to prove it, and how would they react to no explanation? Beneath the mud, she was stained in blood, and naked. What could she say?
When Bella finally reached the front door, she hesitated, wondering if she should slip through the garage and straight to her room so that she could be more presentable when she spoke to the Denali's. She turned, preparing to do just that, but cursed when she found that the garage door was locked.
Bella took a deep breath and finally just rang the bell. It felt too rude to walk in; she had only stayed one night, but she felt ridiculous ringing the bell, naked and covered in mud and blood, knowing whoever opened the door was going to bear down on her with their screams of anger and disapproval.
The door flew open, as if the person who was about to answer it had been waiting behind it. When the door was wide open, it revealed Kate, whose eyes glazed with relief before they turned to anger, and then finally settled on shock. "Bella! Where have- are you naked? What happened? Are you alright? Why are you covered in mud? Is that blood on your mouth?!"
Bella didn't have enough time between Kate's hurled questions to answer. The heat from the house wrapped around her, she could smell food and strong coffee and Kate was the first person she had seen since her traumatizing time in the woods. She burst out crying. Kate suddenly hauled her in the house, slammed the door, and started screeching, "TANYA!"
Kate dragged Bella non too gently into the living room and ripped the throw from the back of the sofa off before draping it hurriedly around Bella's naked form. By the time Tanya turned up, with Carmen in tow, Bella's nudity could no longer be seen and this seemed to make her cry even worse.
Kate's face was anguished, as if she was picturing all manner of terrible things happening to Bella before she seemed to smooth it out and become serious; professional. This didn't help Bella's sobs one bit. She didn't want someone detached and clinical, she wanted someone to hold her and let her cry away her fear, and pain and trauma.
Tanya was that person, as she came to Bella's side and sat her down on the sofa, hugging her tightly to her chest as if Bella was her own daughter. "Kate, she's in shock. Get her some water, and put the fire on."
Kate did these things, returning with the tall glass and watching with patience as Bella paused long enough in her sobbing to gulp down the whole thing. When she passed the glass back to Kate, her tears had stopped for the moment, leaving her with only hiccups. Kate took the opportunity to kneel before her, and ask her questions in a smooth, calm voice.
"Can you tell us what happened, Bella? Where did you go?"
"I'm so sorry," Bella moaned, staring into Kate's wide, amber eyes. "I should never have run away like that."
"It's okay, Bella; you're safe now. But I think I need to take you to the hospital, okay?"
Bella didn't have the energy to say no. Wrapped as she was in the blanket, in the welcoming presence of the Denali's home, safe, and warm from the fire, Bella felt drowsy and slow, ready to collapse into bed and say goodbye to the world for a solid twelve hours. Before they left, Kate helped Bella into the bathroom to shower.
She sent Tanya for some fresh clothes, which turned out to be the new ones from Bella's shopping trip while Kate stayed and washed her down in the shower. In any other circumstances, Bella would have protested. But being so intimately washed and cared for by someone else made her feel amazing. She cried the whole way through.
Kate helped her into her clothes, let Bella brush her own teeth and then kindly braided her hair in a single French braid that fell between her shoulder blades. Bella suspected Kate had helped her so much because she wanted to see if there were injuries, and had noticed that Bella no longer even had her previous stitches.
When she was clean, and ready, the three Denali's: Kate, Tanya and Carmen helped and followed her into Tanya's jeep. Carmen phoned Irina once they were on the way to the hospital to let her know Bella had been found. Bella wondered where Irina was, and why she never seemed to be home, but it was a fleeting thought.
When they did arrive at the hospital, Kate stuck to her side like glue, helping Bella out of the car and holding her waist as they entered the building. Bella leaned heavily on her; not for physical support, but emotional, and because it felt so good to be held. She never hugged anyone; only Lisa, and she was starved for human contact.
Kate even held onto her as she walked to the reception desk, and got the attention of an older woman with thick, round glasses who was shuffling papers. The woman looked up and smiled kindly, though it seemed forced. Bella suspected it was due to it being a part of her job, and was a task she had to repeat every five minutes.
"Sheriff, what can I do for you?"
Kate seemed slightly winded, and Bella worried she was too heavy. She pulled away a little, but Kate simply pulled her closer. "I need to see a doctor right now; it's urgent."
The woman's eyes suddenly went wide, as if dealing with people in need of doctors wasn't her job. "I see. Please give me a moment, and I'll see what I can do for you."
Kate flashed a smile and then waited in silence as the woman picked up her desk phone and began dialing. The line obviously connected, because she had a brief conversation with whoever was on the other end of the receiver and then put the phone down with a smile for Kate. "Room F, corridor 9; Doctor Amali, is waiting for you, Sheriff."
Kate gave her thanks and moved from the desk, lugging Bella with her, towards the elevator. Tanya and Carmen trailed behind silently, but Bella didn't feel in the mood to talk. In fact, she felt really sleepy, as if she would pass out on her feet any minute. When they finally got to corridor 9, Doctor Amali was already waiting for their small group.
Briefly Bella assessed the woman, noticing her tanned skin and concerned face as she took a long, hard look at Bella's hooded eyes and slack mouth from exhaustion. She led Bella and the Denali's into her office and instructed Kate to help Bella into a seat close to the window as she shut the door.
"What can I do for you?" The doctor asked as she moved to Bella. She pulled a handheld flashlight from her chest pocket and began to shine it into Bella's eyes.
Bella scowled, forced into waking up somewhat. Tanya looked to Kate before taking it upon herself to inform the doctor of what she wanted to hear. "We don't really know… Bella… got lost. She was missing all night and half the morning, before she turned up at the house."
Kate glanced at Bella briefly before addressing Doctor Amali. "Doc, can I have a word?"
The doctor nodded and then walked back to the office door to speak privately. They seemed to believe Bella was too out of it to hear them, but she heard every word Kate said. "Bella was naked when she turned up. I know it's her choice, but I'm requesting a rape kit. She couldn't stop crying when she got in, and more so when I helped her wash… which, I'm sure you know: is common in rape victims. She was covered in mud too, and blood."
The doctor, with credit to her, didn't seem at all fazed by what Kate was saying. Bella wanted to make it abundantly clear that nothing like that had happened, but she was too scared to deny it because she would then be asked what had happened and the truth just didn't make sense, nor was it believable.
"I'm going to need you all to leave the room while I talk to Bella. I'm sorry," the doctor said, addressing all the Denali women.
All three woman stood to leave, but Kate looked the most hesitant. The door closed behind them not soon after, and Doctor Amali walked back over to Bella, kneeling down to her level as she pulled on a pair of gloves she had taken from her white coat pocket. Without asking, she began to lightly touch and prod Bella, seemingly to see if it hurt Bella to do so.
Bella was beginning to enjoy the soft, cool gloves on her skin when the doctor asked, "can you take your top off, please?" Bella hesitated but finally lifted her top.
In all honesty, she was curious to see her body now that it was clean from Kate washing her. Bella knew that her body hadn't hurt like it was meant to earlier on, but she wanted to see if there was any evidence at all that there had been injuries. Were there still bruises, and cuts? Were the stitches still woven into her skin?
Twenty minutes later, after a thorough check up, but no mention of the rape kit, the doctor removed her gloves, binned them, and left the room while rubbing hand sanitizer into her palms. Bella sat in silence, leaning her head towards the slightly ajar door, where she could hear the four women discussing her, and her health.
"I didn't do the rape kit; she didn't need it. No signs of struggle, or injury. No bruises around her thighs or hips either, but if you truly insist, I can ask her."
There was silence, where Bella presumed Kate had shaken her head in response; happy with Doctor Amali's assessment. "The thing is; she's not injured at all. No fractures, breaks, scrapes, bruises or cuts of any kind."
Kate, Tanya and Carmen's voice seemed to barrel over the top of each other as they all fired statements and questions at the doctor at once:
"That's impossible; she came to us injured!"
"Stitches, cuts, and bruises all over her!"
"So it was someone else's blood?"
There was rustling and then Kate's voice: "this is a sample of the blood on her when she came in. Could you get it sampled, against a sample of Bella's blood?"
Bella's eyebrows raised in surprise. When had Kate gotten a sample from her? And why did the thought of the blood being tested make her anxious, and scared?
"Yes," came the doctors reply, and then: "no injuries, but her muscles are tense, as if she's gone through something traumatic. I can't determine what that is, with no other damage to her body."
"What about the stiches? They can't have just disappeared," Tanya spoke.
"I'm surprised to hear she had stitches. There isn't any there now, and I'm unsure how that is possible."
Someone scoffed, probably Kate. "How can there just be no stiches? And how can you not explain it? You're the doctor!"
"Kate!" Carmen hissed, seemingly mortified at Kate's rude behavior.
"You know what?" Kate hissed back, and then stormed back into the room, startling Bella.
"What happened, Bella?" She demanded at the same time Tanya ran into the room, shouting after Kate, "you can't just treat her like that! You can't force her to tell you anything, Kate!"
Kate ignored Tanya, her ambers eyes staring into Bella's. "Do you remember?"
Bella shook her head, and mumbled a halfhearted, "no," that sounded terribly fake, even to her own ears.
Kate physically seemed to calm herself down and took a breath through her nose. The group was silent after that. Doctor Amali took a blood sample from Bella, and then she was free to go. No one spoke as they discharged Bella, left the hospital and drove home in Tanya's jeep. It was well past midnight when they got home, and Bella quietly took herself to bed.
Sometime later, Bella startled awake to a silent and dark room with beads of sweat dripping from her body and soaking her bed sheets. It was unbearably hot in her room and so she clambered out of bed, her eyes still blurred with sleep and walked to the window to throw it open, and let in the cool night air.
A scream caught in Bella's throat at the sight of a large shadow, just slightly further out than the trees, it's shape so clearly big and creature like. Bella stumbled back from the window, her heart and pulse racing as she stared at the shape, watching it break away from the trees and towards her window, it's pale eyes gleaming.
It was the thing that had attacked her, Bella just knew it, and while it had initially scared it, she now saw it as an opportunity to understand what had happened to her; what that bite had done to her. Sneaking out of her room, and past the living room, where she was surprised to find Kate on the couch, fast asleep, Bella exited the front door quietly.
Bella was curious, not stupid, and so she stayed by the front door, her hand held tight onto the handle in case she had to run back into the house. She stared with brazen, and surprisingly brave insistence at the shadow, letting it be known that she wanted to know it, and understand what it had done to her, but she would not be its prey.
Despite the thing attacking her, Bella felt an attachment to it as if it was… family. Her maker, or creator, or something. Even in her mind's eye, she could see a small thread, linking the presence inside her to this thing that had changed her; remade her. The shadow disappeared into the trees, and stayed gone for a long time.
Bella debated going back into the house, wondering if the thing was somehow the very shadow that had been plaguing her life, and killing all the people she loved. Even possibly, taking Lisa. When she was about to give up, the thing returned, but now it was smaller, and more human shaped.
Bella's heart raced. She didn't know how that thing was changing from creature to human, and she didn't want to. But she knew now, for sure, that it was the person that had been haunting her life, and slaughtering the people she loved. She didn't want to meet that person, but her body locked up, too curious to finally solve the mystery of her life.
The shadow inched forward, seemingly understanding that Bella would not go to it. She held her breath, expecting anything and everything. A man, a woman, a child. A teenager, someone scarred and ugly, someone beautiful and deadly. But none of those things stepped out from the tree line. Instead, the very last person Bella expected to see stepped out, grinning.
Lisa.
AN: Thanks for all the support on this story I really appreciate it and I hope everyone enjoys their holidays no matter where you are!
Special thanks to the wonderful LeighJ11 this story just wouldn't be the same without her she is just too awesome.