Chapter 4: The Request
Bella sat on a hard wooden bench in the crowded courtroom, flanked on each side by Charlie and a prestigious team of lawyers. Despite their presence and Charlie's unwavering support, she felt the distance between herself and her parents, the distance between herself and the judge, like long, dark, echoey tunnels where only her panicked breaths bounced off the walls. The harsh glare of the flashing cameras temporarily blinded her. The deafening murmur of the journalists clamoring for a story, their questions overlapping chaotically. "Why. Did. You. Do. IT." They shouted at her, their voices merging into an accusatory chorus. Bella's hands trembled in her lap. unable to lift her head up to answer.
"There is a difference between self-defense and an overreaction. And there is a difference between what constitutes reasonable doubt and what amounts to excuses by the defendant. May this verdict be a somber reminder that, even when found not guilty, the repercussions of one's actions endure far beyond the confines of a courtroom. The Court is adjourned."
Bella navigated the dark stretch of I-5 until the city lights disappeared behind her, a pervasive fear settling in her gut. I'm going to get caught. She knew it. She saw the black car a quarter-mile behind her. She slammed the back of her head against her head rest and screamed. I fucked up so bad.
And if whoever was in the black car stopped her, they'd see how badly her hands shook. The shovel sticking out at an angle in the backseat of her Corolla. Her sweaty face and wide eyes. They'd ask her to pop the trunk, and she'd have to comply. And then they'd see Christine and all her doll parts in a still-damp duffle bag. Christine had stopped bleeding by the time Bella had managed to drag the duffel bag across the underground parking garage at her apartment complex with her bloodied comforter underneath to prevent any blood stains leading straight to her parking spot.
The black car behind her slowed down and turned left onto a single-lane road. Bella exhaled in relief. It was another ten miles before she rolled to a stop beside a desolate stretch of highway, lined by thick trees standing like silent sentinels, casting long shadows in the moonlight, hiding her from the prying eyes of passing cars. The oppressive darkness engulfed her as she stepped out, though more than the cold night air sent shivers down her spine.
With great heaves, she pulled the duffel bag into the dense treeline, her exhausted breaths visible in the frigid air. Her clothes clung to her damp skin. Christine had been about the same height and weight as Bella, and Bella hadn't been to a gym since high school. The forest seemed to hold its breath as she fumbled with the shovel, the metal clinking against the frozen ground.
Desperation set in as the cold, hard earth resisted her efforts. Bella's hands ached, the shovel barely scraping the pebbles on the unyielding soil. She already had a blister on her left palm. She sobbed in frustration, doubt gnawing at her resolve as she wondered if this was the right course of action. She knew, deep down, it wasn't. Of course it's not…but it's too late.
In the solitude of the forest, a heavy realization struck her chest like lead weight: she was alone, facing an unknown threat. She listened to the wind whistling past her ears, the squeaks and movements of nearby critters, the hoot of an owl.
Even a mouse, cornered and chased, fights for survival doesn't it?
Bella grappled with the stark reality: "I don't have anyone to fight... no, I don't even know what I'm up against," she whispered to the silent trees. The shovel dropped from her hands, clattering against the frozen ground as she stood in the darkness. She leaned forward and placed her hands on her thighs, tears threatening to fall. In a swift motion, she slapped herself across the face. "Get it together. Don't you dare cry."
She stuck the shovel into the ground where she stood to mark her spot and continued to pull the duffel bag deeper into the forest. After thirty minutes, Bella collapsed against a tree, gasping for breath, her clothes clinging to her sweaty back. The duffel bag was nestled in a thicket next to her. With her flashlight off and by her side, the forest was pitch black, so much so that she almost couldn't tell the difference between when she opened or closed her eyes. But whether her eyes were open or not, the dismembered body of Christine had seared into her retinas forever.
"I'm so sorry, Christine," Bella pleaded to no one. "I'm so sorry."
Click. Click. Click.
A flash of light blinded her, and Bella lifted her hands to shield her eyes. She peered between her fingers and saw a tall, broad silhouette ten feet away. She quickly turned back on her flashlight. "What are you doing?" Bella exclaimed.
"Caught in the act, aren't we?" Jasper taunted, his tone dripping with mischief and a hint of superiority. He glided towards her, holding up his phone in front of her face. She scrambled up to her feet. The video started with her facing into the forest as she dragged the bloody duffel bag further in. "You are so different from the Bella I once knew," he said. "I thought you were a soft, kind-hearted person." Bella was now struggling to shove the duffel bag into the bushes. "But trying to hide a corpse, and with your bare hands!" He laughed at the absurdity. The video continued: the camera zoomed to Bella, resting against the tree, her face upturned and her pale throat exposed. A horrified chill ran down her spine. "And without even realizing someone was taking a video of you—"
Bella instinctively kicked Jasper's shin and swatted away his phone. It landed with a soft thud in the snow a few feet from them. As she rushed to reach for it, Jasper stuck his foot out, and Bella tripped and fell face-first. She didn't even bother worrying about the pain blooming from her left shoulder, but she stretched her arm out for the phone in front of her.
Jasper clicked his tongue. "You're so cute, so full of energy, scurrying off."
A strange aloofness overcame her, concentrated below her neck. Every muscle in her body relaxed into a puddle, and warmth spread from her chest, similar to the sensation she felt when his lips hovered over her throat two nights ago. In horror, she felt the warmth creep down her body to her core, the heat coiling in her lower abdomen before reaching its tendrils further down. She cried out, uncertain if in terror or with pleasure.
Jasper crouched in front of her and gently pulled the phone away from her weakened fingers. Tilting his head, he studied her and remarked, "Such an interesting reaction to fear." He sighed and gazed up at the clear sky. "Bella, you have such a way of making me so angry. Twice now, you've gotten between me and my next meal. Calling law enforcement on me? You've got some nerve. Now it'll be much harder for me to stay in town with this girl dead. Didn't peg you for a murderer, Swan."
"I didn't… You're the one who —" Trembling under him, Bella's blood began to boil, the warmth spilling down her legs. She felt herself balancing on the knife edge of pleasure. It was too intense; she couldn't stand it—
"Why are you doing this?" she screamed, her words muffled as she tried to stifle a moan. "Because I tried to save my classmate, you fucking psychopath?"
"How did you get in contact with them?"
The pleasurable sensations pulsating through her body ceased abruptly. Bella groaned in relief. "Huh?" She weakly turned her head to face him.
"Denali," he said curtly.
That surprised her. "They run a very public nonprofit in a very tiny town." At his expression, she laughed humorlessly. "What kind of friend are you? You didn't know that?" Serious now, she added, "Edward told me they were 'vegetarians.' None of you would avoid killing humans if you didn't care for us. You'd want to be among them, be a part of their community, not holed up in some cave, waiting for your next meal to walk by."
Jasper seemed impressed. "What did you tell them?"
"Everything," she spit at him. "Why? Are you scared?"
He grabbed her chin and forced her to meet his scarlet eyes. "You don't want to go back to prison, right, little swan? For something you didn't do?"
As quickly as the pleasure had dissipated from her body, icy fear replaced it, though this time she knew he wasn't using his powers. He knows about last year.
Her gaze fell on the gleaming cufflink, which contrasted sharply with his light yellow button-up. The Cullen Crest. She couldn't fathom how she had ever accepted him as a Cullen. This man was a monster.
"One person."
Bella's heart leapt to her throat.
"Only one person a week." He pulled a small, folded piece of paper out of the pocket of his denim jacket and shoved it gently into the collar of Bella's sweater. "Bring them to the place I've written here."
Bella stared at him in horror.
"What? Don't you want to give me an answer?"
Compassion and agreeableness replaced the horror. She felt her head nod back and forth several times, involuntarily. With tears springing in her eyes, she tipped her face up to see him once more, his towering figure casting a haunting silhouette against the twisted forest branches. His skin almost glowed against the darkness, reminding her of the vampire he used to be. A thick cloud veiled the moon, shrouding the forest into an impenetrable darkness, yet through the pitch-black void, Bella could still see the predatory gleam of Jasper's piercing ruby-red eyes.
With a gasp, Bella woke up in her dark, cold, and empty bedroom as the nightmare's grip began to loosen. The sudden movement sent a searing pain through her shoulder, the one she had landed on and heavily bruised. The bright green digits on the analog clock on her bedside table revealed the dreaded truth—it had been half a week since Jasper's request in the forest, and she hadn't complied. Her heart plunged into her stomach.
She went as far as signing up for the Buddy Walk, a program offered by the campus to walk other students home to increase safety. Demand had increased exponentially since Christine's "disappearance," so she had taken shifts the first three nights of the week but either could not work up the nerve to take drunk college students to the rendezvous spot behind The Diner or didn't know how to lure students away from their destination.
Especially since most of them didn't trust her to begin with.
On a couple occasions, she thought she saw Jasper walking past her nonchalantly, only to find out they were random boys trying desperately to pull off Heath Ledger's haircut. One time, she walked a small freshman boy who requested a Buddy Walk to The Diner and heard Jasper's sinister laugh behind her ear. She had spun around wildly, scanning her surroundings desperately to find him. There was no one behind her. She convinced the freshman there were rats in the kitchen, though deep down she believed he had run off after seeing the crazed look in her eye.
Jasper was playing with her.
Rachel and Rebecca had a tabby cat when they were kids. Bella remembered how the girls would scream and run away when the cat would bring home a small animal, usually a mouse. It would plop down on the porch and trap the mouse by its tail, giving it just enough freedom to believe it was almost free before the other paw dragged it back to its death.
Then two nights ago, Bella had almost passed out when she saw Christine's parents place flowers on a vigil for their daughter at the quad. When she returned home and made a short comment about it to Jen, Jen immediately told her to stay away from Christine's parents.
"A few people said they saw you and Christine argue in the library the night she disappeared... I think if you want to avoid trouble, keep your head down."
Bella had laughed as if the rumor was absurd. She hadn't left her apartment since.
Bella stared at her clock again. She had less than two days, and her time was up.
Thoughts of his scarlet eyes piercing through her in the dark forest flooded her mind. In the nightmares, the twisted trees surrounding them enveloped them, trapping her inside with the devil. Christine's chalky white face, haloed by hundreds of pale limbs, loomed over them.
She couldn't believe that, less than a week ago, he seemed almost pitying and almost kind when he met her. It was as if he had come to see her just to comfort her as she processed Edward, Alice, and Emmett's deaths.
Calling the campus police on him had been a horrific mistake, she thought. Christine might be alive today, completely intact, if she hadn't tried to play a hero. Her parents wouldn't be on campus everyday handing out missing posters. Her friends wouldn't be tearing up as they walked to classes.
No, she thought, her head dropping into her hands. It's because I called the Denali coven. He must not have wanted them to know he was alive.
She had thought he was angry at the party, but that was nothing compared to the animosity rolling off him like a thick miasma in the forest. Why couldn't you mind your own business?
Every moment felt like it could be the one where the police handcuffed her or Jasper released the incriminating video to authorities or the media. Or to Chrstine's grieving parents. The moment for Jen or Stephanie to turn their accusing eyes on her, branding her as the monster.
Jen had knocked on Bella's door a couple times since her warning about Christine's parents, to check in on her, which only heightened Bella's anxiety. Feigning having the flu, she said she didn't want to pass it on to Jen right before finals, but Bella could tell her friend was suspicious by the way she kept returning. Bella knew she had made a colossal mistake by saying anything about Jasper to Jen. With Christine missing, Bella knew Jen was intelligent enough to connect the dots between Bella, Jasper, and Christine.
A soft knock pulled her from her thoughts. "Bella?" Jen's concerned voice had seeped through the door earlier that night. "Is everything okay? I was going to make some tea before bed. Do you want to join me?"
Bella stilled on her bed. "I'm okay!"
"Sweetie, I haven't seen or heard from you in days." Jen's voice sounded desperate. "What's going on? Can I come in?"
The door handle to her bedroom jiggled, and Bella immediately yelled, "No! I-I'm still not feeling well! And I'm a little behind on studying. I'll talk to you tomorrow." She knew she was being irrational. Jen already knew something was wrong. But the thought of Jen seeing the guilt on her face was unbearable.
A heavy silence lingered on the other side of the door. Bella sat up in her bed, her gaze fixed on the closed door.
"Okay," said Jen in a hurt voice. "Um, you got a letter from your mom... I'll just…slide it under the door." A small white envelope slipped under the crack.
She listened to Jen's footsteps retreating to the kitchen and the sound of her cleaning up. She waited to move until she heard the door to Jen's bedroom slam shut before she let out a long sigh of relief. She sat still for a few minutes on the edge of her bed, staring out of her window. The world looked frozen, like time stood still. Nothing would move forward again.
This is my life now.
Finally, she got up and picked up the envelope. The letter inside the elegant white eggshell envelope was made of thick card stock. Bella's heart sank.
You are cordially invited to the wedding of Renee Dwyer and Patrick Collins.
December 22, 2008
Bella knew better than to feel hurt, but it stung anyway. While Charlie made the effort to call her once a month, Renee had ignored her entirely since Bella's incident last year. It was mostly due to her new boyfriend Patrick's influence—Patrick, who didn't want his name associated with a "drunk college student" who used "excessive force in self-defense." However, the ultimate choice to disregard her daughter's existence had been made by Renee. The wedding was in two weeks, and she was only now getting her invitation. The intent was crystal clear.
"That's too cruel, Mom," she said out loud. She tossed the invitation on her dresser and curled back into bed.
Unable to sleep, Bella's restless body pulsed with nervous energy. Glancing at her neglected pile of books, she sighed, realizing she hadn't touched them since last Saturday afternoon. She imagined Charlie's disappointed "Oh, I see" when she would call him and tell him she failed every exam her first semester back in school.
Determined to distract herself, she dressed quietly, gathered a couple of books into her backpack, and left her apartment. The library, open 24/7 during finals season, offered a quiet refuge, despite the unsettling thought of a detective stopping her in her tracks to handcuff her. It had been five days, though, and if tonight marked the end of everything, Bella preferred getting arrested while most people were asleep, unlike last time.
Wearing a thin sweatshirt against the biting cold, she lamented that it didn't seem to numb her anymore than she already felt. When she finally reached the library, she settled into an empty corner, spreading out her physics notes. As she immersed herself in reviewing Newton's Laws, a small folded paper slid in front of her. Bella flipped open the note with one hand, reading a familiar request in familiar handwriting—the same note from Saturday night that she had left on her desk back in her bedroom. Looking up, Bella found Jasper sitting at a nearby table across from her, arms crossed, lazily waving at her.
Frustration boiled within her, and with a noisy scrape of her chair, she charged towards him. "This is fucked up. Why do you keep doing this?" She threw his note back at him, a bit too hard, slightly upset when it fluttered down at her feet. "I won't blindly follow your orders.. If that video gets out, I'm not the only one going down. So stop this nonsense, right now!"
"I hear what you're saying," he replied, his tone condensing. "But you did the job very well last week. Without even being asked, might I add." He rested his elbows on the table, fingers steepled over his mouth, hiding an amused grin, as if reveling in her suffering.
The blood drained from her face. "Jasper, why did you do that to her? How could you? You already fed on her, so why did you have to do that to her?" She lowered her voice. "Did you see her parents hanging posters all over campus? Don't you feel an ounce of guilt?"
For a moment, she thought his eyebrow twitched, as if what she had said actually bothered him. But quickly, Jasper's lips formed a perfect "O" and his eyebrows drew together in mock concern. "Really? Did I do something? Are you sure?"
Bella let out a crazed laugh. "Are you saying you didn't? You attacked her the night before!"
He smiled kindly, though the pleasantry didn't reach his eyes. "There is more than one monster that goes bump in the night."
Bella didn't know how to respond to that. "And if I don't?" she challenged.
He lifted a languid eyebrow. "Hm?"
"I'll expose you. I'm going to tell everyone what you did. People remember the Cullens and —"
"Pfft!" Jasper chuckled. "You're going to tell everyone?" He suddenly turned in his seat and called out to a sleepy student shuffling by. "Hey, kid, there's a murdere—"
Bella surged forward towards him, her face burning at his mockery. Jasper rose from his seat before she reached him, the lingering smirk playing on his lips. Leaning in, he sent a cool breath whispering past her ear, and a shiver danced down her spine. "Good luck," he taunted.