Chapter Sixty Six

Bella

I heard the words but they made no sense to me, all I could think about was that cellar, that man and how angry he would be when he found us. I wasn't sure I could take any more pain, any more beatings, I just wanted to be left alone, to huddle in a corner quietly and hope he wouldn't find me or if he did that he wouldn't be so angry that he beat me to death.

I had no idea where Aggie had gone, when I woke up she was missing and that signed my death warrant. I knew that, when I allowed myself to think about it at all. Daddy wouldn't forgive me for that, she was my responsibility but I dare not ask the man in front of me where she was and I didn't think if I did that he would give her back to me. At times I thought I heard her crying but I had no way of getting past him to look for her. Why had these people snatched us from him? Were they his enemies? Did they plan on holding us ransom or worse still kill us to get back at him for some reason.

This man seemed to know me, he told me about all the things he and I had done but none of it made any sense, I couldn't go back before, I didn't want to remember anything, it might be too painful and I had all the pain I could stand right now, I felt confused, weary and I couldn't think straight. I just wanted to close my eyes and pretend I was dead. Then no one could hurt me, no one would want things of me, things I couldn't face. At least then it would be over and he couldn't reach out and hurt me, it would all be over.

I looked at my hands, they didn't seem familiar, the scabs and weeping sores, the ragged and split nails that caused me to wince when I tried to use them. My clothes, they didn't seem familiar either, perhaps I didn't know me at all, maybe I was two people who had got confused in one body. Maybe the other one recognized me and my family, him, because I didn't remember. There was nothing I understood any longer, I didn't feel attached to anyone or anything, any place, this room wasn't familiar. I was so scared yet I couldn't make the effort to cry out or tremble, I was detached from my own mind, my emotions and so...so very confused.

When the man moved in a blink of the eye and was gone I should have felt something surely, fear or relief but then there was a terrible crashing noise and he came back through the door faster than he had left fighting with another man and as they fought I saw him rip off one of the newcomers arms but there was no blood. What was happening? As the stranger flew across the room to hang pinned to the wall like a fly caught on flypaper and he too was missing a limb but no blood, were these two aliens?

With that thought all my emotions came crashing down on me again like a huge heavy wall and I screamed in pain, confusion and terror curling up in a ball, sure he was here, daddy had come looking for Aggie and I had no idea where she was. I waited trembling violently for the first blow to land.

Then I heard a new voice, but it sounded vaguely familiar, not from here and now but from a long time ago, when I was little. I saw a flash of half forgotten memory, a little girl much like Kat running into the arms of a man was she running to daddy? I saw his face float before me and that memory brought another crashing down on me. A limp hand and fingers sliding off a ring and replacing it with another. My hand? No, I was the one changing the rings but then it flashed again and was gone once more leaving a feeling of dread. I didn't want to remember if memories hurt like this, a nameless dread that sat heavy upon me.

The other voice, the one I thought I might know spoke again and used a name that sent me spinning back in time to a place and an age when there had been no dread, no fear, and no pain, only joy at being alive,

"Hey Bellie Boo, look at daddy."

Daddy? At first I visualized him, the man in the cellar but then it dissolved and there he was, the man in my memory holding his arms out to me as a little girl. I remembered,

"Daddy?"

I had to explain, make him listen before he raised a hand to hit me or took off his belt to chastise me again,

"I'm sorry daddy, it wasn't my fault. He took me away and I couldn't do anything about it. Please don't hit me daddy, I'll be a good girl I promise."

He looked at me horrified as if he didn't believe me and I started to cry closing my eyes against the pain I expected at any moment. As I did so pictures began to unfold before my eyes like a silent black and white horror film, a man laying on the ground blood all round his head, a woman who lay dead from a cut to her throat, another covered in blood lay on a filthy floor her eyes open and staring, a man stalking towards me with a belt coiled in his hand ready to lash out and I screamed struggling to get away from the sights.

I cringed away from his arms as they touched me and sobbed more loudly anticipating the punishment I knew would soon begin until unable to take any more I tumbled down into blackness.

Charlie

I had thought I'd got through to her, that she recognized me until she spoke and when I tried to comfort her, tell her everything would be OK she started to struggle in my arm and scream so loudly I thought she might crack the glass in the windows but then she slumped unconscious and as I held her I saw a movement behind me. I had released control of my shield as Bella screamed and freed Jasper who walked over to me.

"I sent her to sleep Charlie, she couldn't cope with the horrors her memory was forcing her to relive."

I nodded grateful he hadn't attacked but surprised when he squatted down beside me and stroked her face.

"You were right, I failed her. Instead of helping her to face her terror I took the coward's way out. I tried to prevent her feeling the pain when I should have helped her understand it and learn to cope with it."

"She's my baby Jasper and I know her, she has to face her terror and live through it, she's never been one to hide, it doesn't do any good, even when her brain was telling her she couldn't she still needed to. I've seen this with other victims of abuse, if they don't face their fears and learn to move beyond them it eats them up, destroys them. So what do we do next?"

He stiffened then stood up and walked over to retrieve his arm picking mine up at the same time and throwing it over. I caught it unsure how to heal myself but after watching him hold his own to the wound I copied him and felt as the flesh knitted together again. It was painful but not unbearable although I felt my thirst becoming worse and knew I would need to hunt again soon.

"I know what I have to do now Charlie. I'll take Bella somewhere she was happy and I'll help her through the trauma and memories, draw her back to me slowly but you need to leave now…... before she wakes."

"Where will you go?"

He didn't answer my question immediately, instead he told me to ask Carlisle to have a private plane waiting at the airport. Then he simply said,

"I'm taking her home."