Stephenie Meyer owns everything Twilight.
Thank you to everyone for reading and for coming back for more! I especially appreciate the reviews. I hope you enjoy this next chapter too.
Massive thank yous to TheaJ1 and my sister, who not only beta my stories, but more importantly put up with me in general!
Slips Away
2: Tears Down
Bella
But I did wake, still exhausted and still in so much pain. As I groggily recalled my most recent memories, I began to wish I hadn't. I tried to will myself back into unconsciousness, but when I couldn't, I reluctantly cracked my eyes open. It made no difference. I was in pitch blackness and I could almost feel my other senses rallying to compensate. The air was bitter, stale and musty and I guessed I was underground. Maybe a basement? I was lying on my back, on something stony and hard, shivering uncontrollably. I was still in my wet clothes, which now felt freezing. The cold had penetrated to my core and numbness had set in, so that I could barely feel my hands or feet. At least the pain in my ankle was dulled as well, if only the same could be said for my ribs. I tried to move, but my arms and legs were useless dead weights and pain gripped my chest like a vice.
"Shit!" I hissed, but froze as a hollow chuckle echoed around me. The sizzle of a match sounded and the initial spark of light brightened as Victoria lit a rudimentary torch in the corner of the room. The flickering of the flame set eerie shadows dancing over every surface. The deep orange light licked at a variety of tools hanging on the walls. Blunt shovels, sharp cleavers, actual pitch forks. I let out a low groan.
"I wouldn't want you to miss anything," Victoria smiled sweetly at me, but the piercing menace in her eyes made her innocent expression fearsome. "So Bella," she continued in a slow drawl. "You are providing me with quite the dilemma." Her eyes held mine, watching my reactions vigilantly. She came in close beside me and took my hand gently, stroking it carefully. To my frozen skin, her hand no longer felt cold at all. I tensed waiting for her next move. I vowed to try and stay strong and silent, not to give her the satisfaction of hearing my fear or pain.
"I have invested a great deal of time and effort into getting to you," she told me with simmering fury. "I had big plans. The only thing that has kept me going since I lost James is imagining all the tantalizing ways I can torture you to death." She gave my hand a sudden pulverizing squeeze and I heard a flurry of pops, as several of the bones in my hand were crushed. It actually wasn't as painful as I had feared because my coldness was acting as an anesthetic. I bit the inside of my lip and held on to all my emotion, balling it up and bolting it down, detaching myself as best I could. This would only be the beginning and I needed to be prepared.
At least my family was safe now. I clung onto this idea. I had known that Victoria was coming for me. I had tried to prepare myself but I had spent so many of the recent days dreading that Charlie would be killed as well. Here, in isolation, I was so relieved that I was the only one suffering. Once this is over, then it's over.
Victoria narrowed her eyes at my lack of reaction, then tilted her head. "But then I have to drag you out of the water, after watching you try and kill yourself." A harder squeeze and this time the bones crunched. I held her gaze still, digging for every reserve of strength to get through this.
"You're taking the fun out of this, Bella," Victoria pouted. There was something about her that was almost childlike. Like Chucky! The big red hair, the dead, glass-like eyes that impossibly managed to shine with fury, the corruption of a face that when still seemed so innocent, but when contorted and animated, curled into an ugly sneer. Exactly like Chucky. The Child's Play comparison hit me from nowhere, but it fit so perfectly that I actually gave a strangled giggle. Victoria looked furious for a second, before composing herself, although there was a new tight edge to her tone when she spoke again.
"I've been keeping tabs on you Bella, even before the Cullens left Forks and despite the best efforts of your wolves to keep us apart. I know how much you've been suffering alone. Edward left you because he chose to leave you. James had no such choice, he was stolen from me, because of you! Edward kills my James to protect you, a pathetic human and then what does he do? He rips your heart out himself! I am so angry that James was destroyed over you when none of them obviously care one way or another what becomes of you!
"What is it about you, Isabella Swan? That James risked his life to get to you, even after I warned him! I have a gift that he had always respected before! It is all your fault that he left me all alone!" She was rambling now, almost incoherent and contradicting herself at each turn. I drifted into unconsciousness again, to the sound of her ranted descent further into madness.
I startled awake, opening my eyes to find Victoria's gaze boring into me once more, her face only inches from mine. She had gathered herself together again.
"So weak, so fragile, so pathetic," she sang to me. "I've come to realize that whatever I do to you will never be enough. When I eventually kill you, I will be putting you out of your misery, giving you exactly what you want…and that is simply unacceptable." She leaned in close to my face. "But there is one way that I can kill you that will make your pain and loneliness permanent…just like mine." She swooped down and gently kissed my neck. Despite my best efforts to stay detached, the threat was too much to bear. A tear slid from my eye and froze on my cheek. "After that, you'll be able to jump off as many cliffs as you like, but the pain will never end."
Then, in a movement too fast for my eyes to follow, she was gone and the light extinguished. I was in darkness again.
xXx
Jasper
We had set up a base at the house in Forks. All of the family had responded to Alice's frantic call to arms, except for Edward, who was predictably not answering his phone. There was no time to go in search of him. We had to stay focused on looking for Bella.
I had immediately taken charge, feeling calmest in that role and had no dissension among the family. Even Carlisle who was used to leading and Rosalie who usually balked at taking orders were resolved to follow my directions. I had turned the 'dining' room into a command post. Large maps of the whole of the coast line for hundreds of miles were spread out in front of me. Esme was the last to the strategy meeting, but the first to speak.
"Bella spent most of her time on the Reservation recently. They think that's where she disappeared from and it's where all of the search parties are operating," she reported, her words rushed and her demeanor harried.
"That would explain why I couldn't recognize the area in my vision," Alice stated, relieved that at least one of our questions had been answered.
"It'll be hard to navigate that area without raising suspicion for our sudden reappearance. While we could deal with that in the long term, the humans will slow us down," Emmett added. He was right. I could tell the majority of the family were more concerned for Bella's safety than the risk of exposure or the boundaries set by a defunct treaty, but both issues were interdependent on each other.
"We start at the boundary line and work outwards." I interjected decisively. "Alice thinks they were in the water a long time. It makes sense that she got as far away as possible. She doesn't want to have to worry about humans forcing her to rush. She's further way than they are looking, I am sure of it." I looked at the map another moment.
The family accepted my lead and my orders without hesitation. We were all grimly determined. We had to find Bella and we had to find her very soon. She did not deserve any of this. No one on this earth could ever deserve the kind of punishment Victoria was putting Bella though. Alice was living through it too, in a way. Again and again as she had trawled her visions for any clue that might help us find Bella, watching the girl she loved before anyone else did, suffer.
I intended to make sure Victoria was made to pay for everything that Bella and Alice had had to endure.
Thanks for reading.
If you review, I promise not to find you for a huge hug, despite the fact that it will be very tempting for me!
Next chapter will go up tomorrow or Saturday.