Chapter twenty: legends
Bella felt heavy in Charlie's arms. He struggled as he stumbled back towards the house with her unconscious and limp form held tightly against him. Her skin felt icy against his clammy sweaty skin. They had waited for what felt like hours, but had only been less than 10 minutes in reality before Billy cleared his throat, rousing Charlie from the fog which had filled his brain.
"We should take her back inside, Charlie." Billy had said with a rough but gentle voice. His hand hesitantly moving out towards them to touch the top of Bella's head. Noting how the gashes on her neck and arm were still bleeding heavily.
Charlie made an attempt to keep Bella pressed against him with one arm whilst trying to take off his plaid shirt, leaving him in his dark grey t-shirt. Bella's blood quickly made interesting patterns on the dark grey, he would probably feel sick later on when he had more time to think about it. He made quick work of ripping the shirt in two with shaking hands to gently bind the fabric around the pale skin of her arm and attempting to stop the blood coming from her neck.
"Are you going to explain what the hell just happened?" He said whilst tightening the makeshift bandage a little.
"I don't know-"
"I deserve to know." Charlie snapped angrily as he adjusted Bella so his hands supported her back and her knees. "She's barely an adult, how does she know about whatever the hell this is?"
"I'm afraid that's not my secret to tell." Charlie had sighed deeply before getting to his feet with a grunt, nearly stumbling over as her weight rested against him.
"Do you need-"
"I've got it."
The distance to the house seemed to get greater with every step that he took but he refused to ask for help. Bella's blood slowly crept through Charlie's make-shift bandages, dripping on the frosted grass beneath them. The slam of the backdoor stood in contrast to the almost deafening silence between the three of them, albeit only two of them were conscious, which made Billy flinch. A red smudge in the vague shape of Charlie's hand decorated the backdoor. His fingers fumbled against the armrests of his wheelchair when his phone buzzed from where he had shoved it under his left leg less than twenty minutes ago.
"We'll be there in 5." Billy released a tense sigh.
"Right," Charlie huffed when he felt the ache in his arms after putting Bella down on the couch and eyeing the trace of red drops in his living room. "I'm going to call an ambulance."
"I don't think that's a good idea, Charlie."
"Yeah, you're right. I can put her in the back of the cruiser and drive her over myself, would probably be quicker too."
"That's not what I meant." He said heavily, "I don't think it's a good idea to get her to a hospital."
"What?" He shouted as his brows shot up on his face, his cheeks reddening with anger, "My daughter has gashes on her neck and arm, of course I'm going to get her to the damn hospital Billy! What the hell's the matter with you!"
"I think you should wait until Sam and Jacob get here, they can explain-"
"What the hell do they have to do with this, Billy! I need to get her to a hospital! She's bleeding all over the place!"
"No, that's-"
"Sam and Jacob will be here any minute."
Charlie moved back up again, his knees cracking as he straightened himself, his face stern and livid. "How do they know about what's going on with her?"
"I'm afraid that also isn't my secret to tell."
"Oh for fuck's sake, this is-" Charlie started when a loud and urgent knock rapped against the door, neither of the men inside had time to reply when the door opened and Sam and Jacob's tall, looming and heavy-breathing forms stalked in. Charlie stared at their bare feet, chests and shorts with furrowed brows and wondered if they hadn't been freezing in the December cold when he noticed the scratches, scrapes and dirt all over them.
"Where did you guys come from?"
"We're here to explain." Sam said tensely making noticeable eye contact with Billy who sighed but nodded knowingly. "The majority has agreed." He said mumbled heavily.
"I think you should sit down now, Charlie." Jacob said as he moves passed Sam and Billy to get closer towards Bella in the living room.
"But Bella needs-"
"We're here to talk about Bella too." Sam added.
"But she's still bl-" he started when he turned around to see Jacob crouched over Bella with a soft look on his face, pulling the makeshift bandages aside to inspect the gashes on her neck and arm. "She'll have even more scars." He said sadly.
"She's alive, that's all that matters for now." Billy murmured to him with a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Did any of the others get hurt?"
Jacob shook his head, "Just some scratches and bruises, nothing more."
"What do you mean, did any of the others get hurt?" Charlie asked tensely, crossing his arm against his chest as he stared at the men in his living room with a hard face.
"Did you ever tell him about the legends?" Sam asked Billy, who nodded sheepishly in return. "How much?"
"Just the basic legends, but that was decades ago when were just kids."
"What damn legends?"
"The Quileute legends, our legends."
"Our history." Sam said, his voice filled with burden and tiredness.
"Listen, I'm not going to sit here and listen to some old-wives tales whilst my daughter, who just did something I can't explain, is bleeding out on my couch." He was about to hoist Bella up to get her into his car when Sam stopped him with a warm hand on his shoulder.
"Just listen, Charlie. It'll make sense in a minute."
"They're not just old-wives tales." Sam started, a nervous visible in the way he wrong his hands together in front of him, "Those stories aren't just stories we tell around a campfire. They're our history, they're real."
"They're real." Charlie said dryly as he stared at them, anger bubbling in his chest as he roughly rubbed his hand over his face. "For god's sake, I don't even remember half of those stories. I was there for a few campfires when we were still teenagers."
"Try to think back."
"Look I don' have time for this, my daughter needs help and I've been feeling like I've been on the brink of having a panic attack ever since I saw Bella standing in the middle of my backyard with those people running at her."
"Bringing her to the hospital won't be a good idea, Charlie."
"Why the fuck not! She was attacked, there's blood all over my house. We're leaving, I can't deal with all of this right now."
"The bleeding's almost stopped." Jacob said quietly as Charlie moved closer again.
"What?" Charlie said as Jacob gently pulled back the pieces of fabric, the gashes Charlie had previously covered no longer gaping open widely. "What the fu-"
"You need to listen to us first." Jacob mumbled as he moved his eyes to Sam, who in turn attempted to get a now heavy breathing, red-faced Charlie to the armchair opposite the couch his daughter was lying on.
"I know it's a lot,-" he started.
"You haven't told my anything yet." He grunted out, the back of his palms pressed against his eyes as he tried to take deep breaths.
"Try to think back to those campfires we went to all those years ago."
"I don't know, Billy-"
"Try to remember, I know it feels like centuries ago now." He said with a smile in his voice, "Remember how you didn't want to come at first because you were the only person not from the reservation who was invited."
Charlie shook his head, "I still don't know why you kept asking me to come over. They obviously didn't want me there."
"Because you were one of my only friends," Billy stated quietly, "and because I didn't believe in any of those stories until later."
"Believe what-" Charlie started when the penny inside his head finally dropped.
"I still don't understand why you keep asking me to come to these things." A nervous-looking, sixteen year-old Charlie said with his hands pushed deep into the pockets of his scruffy jeans. "It's obvious nobody wants me there."
"I want you there. So does Harry." Billy chuckled as he pushed his shoulder against Charlie's.
"You guys only want me there because you don't have any other friends." Charlie grumbled.
"Rude," Billy laughed. "The older kids just don't really talk to Harry and me."
"Maybe it's because you're such a ray of sunshine."
"Maybe you should stop with sarcasm."
"Never."
"Charlie!" Harry exclaimed as he saw the two of them approach from the edge of the tree line. "I'm glad you decided to come!"
"What am I, chopped liver?"
"I see you every day, Billy."
Charlie shook his head with a grin and followed his two friends with a deep nervousness in the pit of his stomach. He tried to ignore the glares of the older kids when they finally arrived at the campfire, the flames already high and hot. "Ignore them," Billy whispered as Harry nodded at someone, "I don't know why they're so stuck up about all of this. They're just some old stories."
It took twenty more minutes before everyone had arrived and sat down on the slightly damp logs around the fire. One of the elders, his face deepened with wrinkles, started to talk in a deep, demanding voice.
"According to our ancient legends. The Quileutes were once changed from wolves by a wandering transformer. They-"
"So you're related to dogs?" Charlie had teesed with a grin, wincing when both Billy and Harry elbowed him, both trying to keep their grins off of their faces.
"Wolves." Charlie muttered as he removed his hands from his face, "Wolves?" He repeated when he eyed the scratches on Sam and Jacob's chest, the messiness of Jacob's hair and the dirt everywhere he could see and a wave of terror washed over him. "Wolves!"
"You guys were-" He said as he waved his hands towards the backyard. "You turn into wolves?"
Sam stared at him for a long time before nodding once. Charlie's eyes stopped on Billy, who raised his hands "I don't turn into a wolf."
"You guys took care of those people."
Jacob scoffed, "They weren't people, I can tell you that much."
"Jacob." Sam warned with a stern voice.
"What were they and what did they have to do with Bella?"
No one spoke but everyone tensed, "I'm afraid we can't tell you."
"I'm sorry, I thought you said they were going to explain everything to me but I still don't understand shit about all this." Charlie said angrily.
"Charlie-"
"So you tell me you guys are wolves, which I'm not sure what to think of. Either you guys are insane or I'm loosing my shit. And then you don't want to tell me anything else? I just watched my daughter freeze red-eyed people with her mind!"
"They weren't actually frozen."
"Jacob, you're not helping.' Billy said tensely.
"Charlie," Sam said, "Is it so hard to believe that there are other supernatural things out there, knowing we can change into wolves."
He shook his head, "How is she connected to all this?"
"We can't te-"
"She used to know people like that."
"Jacob." Sam said angrily as an angry ripple shook through is body, "You can't tell him."
"I'm not telling him what they are. I'm not breaking any rules."
"No but you're walking a fine line, Jacob."
"Never in my entire life have I seen people with red eyes."
"You have seen them with a different eye colour."
"Jacob, enough! I need you to wait outside if you can't keep your mouth shut."
Charlie frowned and stared off into the distance for a good few seconds before his eyes widened, "No," he mumbled, his heart picking up again, "no, they can't be."
"See what you've done!"
"He still doesn't know what they are!"
"We made a pact with them for a reason, Jacob. The rules are very simple and clear."
"The Cullens?" Charlie murmured, meeting Billy's eyes who just moved his head down with affirmation. "The Cullens were like them?"
Billy nodded whilst Sam and Jacob kept arguing loudly behind them.
"And Bella knew this, all this time?"
"She did."
"Why did she-"
"She trusted them. She loves him."
Charlie sighed, "I though he loved her too. But he still left her."
"I think he really did." Jacob said quietly, Sam pacing angrily in the background now. "I think he left to protect her. To keep her away from their life."
"But the Cullens seemed so different from those people."
"They-"
"No." Billy said pulling Jacob back. "No more, you can't tell him any more."
"I feel like I've aged twenty years today." Charlie sighed before looking at Bella again with weary eyes, "Why is she different now? Why isn't she bleeding anymore."
For once Jacob didn't say anything, "I'm afraid that isn't our story to tell."
"Why can't I take her to the hospital?"
"Because she's too different now."
"Different from-"
Jacob didn't finish his sentence but eyed Charlie with a knowing look.
Charlie bit his lip and chuckled darkly whilst shaking his head, "She's never going to tell me everything, is she?"
"I doubt it." Jacob finally said.
"I need a damn shower." Charlie said hotly as tears filled his eyes, and his hands started shaking.
Jacob tried not to gag whilst cleaning the blood from the floor and backdoor.
Sam scoffed, "You've just helped rip vampires apart with your bare teeth but you're turning green over some blood?"
"Shut up." He grunted, trying not to breathe.
"He handled it better than I thought he would." Billy murmured.
Sam sighed and leaned against the fridge behind him, his eyes tried. "You can't hear him hyperventilating in the shower right now."
Billy sighed and pinched his nose. "He'll be fine, he's had a lot to take in."
"I still can't believe you took Charlie to the campfires back in the day."
Billy flushed, "Don't you start with me Jacob Black, you also didn't believe those stories until you found out the truth."
"How is she?" Sam asked, looking towards the living room.
"I think she'll be okay." Billy replied.
"She'll have more scars."
"She's alive, that's all that matters for now."