Lost Souls
by Laura Spudzmom
Chapter 01
The walls of the old house creaked and moaned as the storm raged outside, causing goosebumps to rise on Bella's skin as she toured her new digs, an uneasy feeling filling her as the lights flickered and thunder crashed.
"God, what a day you picked to move in Bella." She murmured to herself as she peeked behind a partially open door into what looked to be the study. She walked in fully, flipping the light switch a couple of times with no results before shrugging lightly and continuing on, walking to the shelves to peruse the titles by flashlight.
She jumped and almost shrieked when lightning flashed and thunder cracked right outside the window next to her, her hand clutching to her chest as she struggled to calm her racing heart and ragged breaths. "Jesus… I really should have done this during the day."
When she'd calmed, she turned and left the study, deciding to leave the bulk of her explorations for the more inviting light of day. What she needed to find now was a decent bedroom and bathroom. The rest could wait until later.
She climbed the staircase, just now realizing how bone weary she really was. She had driven all the way here from Washington State, with minimal stops for rest and food as she'd just wanted to escape the place that had been so unkind to her since she'd moved there at the age of seventeen.
She'd fallen in love there for the first time and had her heart shattered mere months later. After that, she'd been hunted by a ruthless and vengeful female vampire intent on killing her and Charlie for the death of her mate. She just thanked whatever deity responsible, for protecting her and Charlie and allowing the wolves to finally catch and kill the bitch.
Charlie.
Her heart clenched painfully at just the thought of him. To have unknowingly survived a vicious, vengeful vampire being after him, only to succumb to the gunshot of a common human criminal.
She swiped at an errant tear as she reached the second floor, the pain of his loss still fresh in her heart and mind.
They'd eventually become very close after Edward had left her, Charlie's unending love and support seeing her through her darkest days and back to the light of life, such as it ever could be in dreary Forks, WA.
He'd been her rock, recognizing in her the pain he'd dealt with himself when Renée had left him all those years ago, taking his only child with her.
After dealing with such an ordeal herself, Bella was much better equipped to understand just what it was Charlie had gone through and her love and respect for him had increased exponentially while her scorn for her selfish mother had grown to such proportions that they never spoke any more. She just couldn't stomach her mother's penchant for talking about herself and her wants and needs constantly. What was the point? She didn't see one, so she quit and instead of being bothered by it, she'd felt freed, as if a weight she hadn't known she carried had been lifted.
She flipped on the lights at the top of the stairs and looked down the long hallways that branched away from where she stood, taking the one to her right with a shrug of indifference. One seemed as good as the other, and this one seemed as though the bedrooms would face the street side of the house. Much better to keep an eye on what's coming, or so the thought occurred to her anyway and so she began opening doors.
The first was filled with boxes and she nodded to herself. So that's where the movers had put them. She'd wondered when she'd first entered the house and hadn't seen her things from Charlie's house anywhere.
She struck gold with the third door she opened. Flipping the light switch illuminated what seemed to be the master bedroom, complete with a huge attached bath. It was perfect so she set about removing the dust covers from the furniture, including the massive, four-poster bed that was, thankfully, made up with bedding that looked to be clean. At any rate, she was way too tired to worry with anything but falling into bed and finally getting some solid sleep.
Hurrying back down stairs, she grabbed her suitcase she'd left in the foyer and made her way back up.
Entering the bathroom to change and get ready for bed, she quickly slipped into an old pair of Forks High sweat pants and one of Charlie's t-shirts.
Grabbing the flashlight she'd left on the dresser, she flipped off the main light and climbed into the huge bed, setting the flashlight on the night stand.
She huddled under the blankets just as lightning flashed, the eerie shadows it cast throughout the room punctuated moments later by the loud crack and boom of thunder.
She blinked, curling up into a tighter ball with a shiver of unease, murmuring to herself. "Welcome to Mystic Falls Bella. Seems the place is happy to have you.", her eyelids finally growing too heavy to keep open as she drifted into the dreamless sleep of the weary.
She was up early the next day despite having felt as though she could have slept for a week straight. Something had woken her… a feeling, a heaviness, as if eyes were upon her, but when she had looked around the room, she'd been completely alone.
Sitting up with a shudder of unease, she wrote the feeling off to the dreariness of her great aunt's old house and her overactive imagination. "Shit Bella, pull yourself together. You've faced vampires out to kill you for fucks sake. It's just an old house."
With that, she got up and went into the bathroom, turning on the shower, finally giving a sigh of relief when the water ran warm. Seems the home inspector she'd hired had done his job in readying the house for occupancy. Well, with the exception of some of the lights, that is. She'd have to go pick up some bulbs when she went shopping later.
Stripping quickly, she stepped under the spray, her thoughts going immediately to her future as she began to wash.
At this point, she hadn't thought much beyond getting the hell out of Forks. That had been her priority. It was just too painful to stay there. Too many memories haunted her there, the weight of them almost smothering in intensity. She'd been more than happy when Charlie's house had finally sold.
With the money from that, combined with the double indemnity clause of Charlie's life insurance policy, she was now quite well off. She wouldn't have to work unless she wanted to and that was a relief. She really didn't want to have to deal with people.
After Edward had left her, she'd pretty much retreated from all unnecessary contact with anyone; the less she had, the better she felt, and so moving here to the old house she'd inherited from her great aunt had been an easy decision to make. It was quite a ways from town, on one hundred acres of land, no neighbors for a couple of miles in any direction. In short, it was perfect for her.
Finished with her shower, she stepped out, dried and dug out some jeans and a shirt to wear from her suitcase. Dropping the towel, she dressed quickly and finished up getting ready for the day, throwing the damp towel in the basket in the corner as she left the bathroom.
She made up the bed and straightened up the room before walking out into the hall.
Curiosity set in as she glanced down the hall, so she began opening the closed doors. A couple of them were closets, but most were bedrooms.
Shit, but this place was massive.
She found herself feeling thankful that she didn't have to worry about furnishing it.
The very next room she opened had her breath catching in her throat and she entered it slowly, her eyes taking in details as they adjusted to the low light that barely filtered in around the sides of the heavy drapes over the windows.
"Holy hell, just what were you into Great Aunt Isadora?" she murmured as she stared around at all of the strange artifacts in the room. There were too many candles to count, all of different colors and varieties, lined up on shelves and just under the shelves of candles were jars upon jars of what looked to be herbs and… other things. Shit… pieces and parts of animals, maybe? She shuddered.
She walked toward the shelves, wanting a closer look, and tripped on the edge of the rug that was spread in the center of the wood floor. Recovering herself, she looked down, seeing that the edge of the rug was now folded over and that it had been covering something on the floor. Squatting down, she turned back more of the rug and sure enough, there was some kind of pattern there.
Rolling the rug back almost completely, her eyes widened as a huge pentagram was revealed. "Damn. You really were into some freaky shit weren't you?"
Glancing up and around, she spied what she could only describe as an altar and on it was a book. She got up and walked over to it, running her hand over the old cover but jerking her hand back when some sort of… energy moved through her entire body at the contact. Her heart sped, her hand now on her chest as her breathing picked up. What the hell had that been?
She backed away, almost tripping over the damn rug again in her haste to get the hell out of the room. There was just something about that book that was already drawing her back to it, and it was freaking her out.
Now safely back in the hallway, she closed the door firmly and looked down, trying to slow her heart and breathing. God, how she wished she still had Charlie to ask about this. He'd known his Aunt Isadora very well from what he'd told her, but she'd never asked him about the woman on any of her summer visits with him and she'd been too wrapped up in all things Edward after moving in with him to concern herself with anything else, to her everlasting regret.
She shook her head, a pang of pain gripping her once again at all the things she wished she'd done and shared with her father, a few tears hitting the floor before she took a deep breath, wiping her eyes as she looked back up, determination filling her.
She had to stop this. Her life is what it is and there would be no going back; no do-overs. Fuck ups were what they were and it was all too late to fix, especially with tears. They solved absolutely nothing. She should know; she'd shed enough of them in her short life after all.
With that mental pep-talk, she made her way down the hall toward the staircase. Time to go shopping and get this place set so she wouldn't have to leave it for a while.
She'd been feeling the itch to write for a few days now and she was looking forward to getting to it. Would she ever produce something worth publishing? She wasn't sure but she really didn't care either. Writing was her outlet; her connection to a world beyond, where she could express her pain, her anger, her… darkness. It was cathartic; needed.
She grabbed her keys from the small table in the foyer and left, locking the door after herself with a grim smile. Who would break in after all? She hadn't seen a soul around here, and even the home inspector had commented on the isolation of the place.
She shrugged mentally as she climbed into her truck. Maybe she'd get a dog. She thought maybe she could tolerate the company of a dog, even though she'd never had one.
She smirked to herself as she pulled out onto the main road into town. Jake had been the closest to owning a pet she'd ever come, and she had to admit, even though she owed him a lot for protecting her and Charlie, he'd been a huge pain in the ass.
Even with the whole wolf imprint thing and the fact that he hadn't imprinted on her, he'd still hounded her relentlessly.
Snorting a laugh at her bad pun, she flipped on the radio, quickly finding an alternative rock station and cranking the volume.
Setting the cruise control, she relaxed back and tapped her fingers on the wheel to the beat of the music.
At least now she had a decent vehicle to drive. She'd taken some of her money and purchased a new candy-apple red F-150 loaded with all the options before making the trip here. There was just no way the old rust bucket would have made it, so she gave it back to Jake and Billy, gladly.
She tapped the break, canceling the cruise control as she got closer to town. Beginning to see some actual traffic, she slowed even further as she looked for a grocery store amongst the store fronts, pulling into the parking lot of the first one she saw. Maybe she'd be picky later. For now, she just wanted to get what she needed and get home.
Pulling into a spot, she shut off the truck and hopped out, hearing the chirp when she locked it on the way into the store.
She tried her best to ignore the curious looks of the people around her as she grabbed a basket and headed into the produce section. Time to get this over with as quickly as possible, and get out of here, as she was feeling a bit like a bug under glass with all the stares.
Making her way through the aisles in what was probably the fastest feat of shopping she'd ever performed, she rolled her cart up to the line for the only open register in the place.
Great. She was now trapped; the unwilling recipient of avid glances and whispered speculations.
In a bid to avoid being open to inquiry, she grabbed a gossip rag and began to page through it as the line slowly inched ahead. It didn't work and she glanced up at the not-so-subtle clearing of a throat.
It was a girl—well, a young woman—roughly her same age if she were to venture a guess, and she was standing with another girl, both looking at her curiously. "Um, hi I'm Elena and this is my friend Bonnie. You're new around here, aren't you?"
Bella gave them a reluctant half-smile and nodded. "Yes, just moved here. Arrived last night."
Elena stuck out her hand. "Welcome to Mystic Falls. It's nice to see new people move in. I didn't notice any moving trucks though. Are you with family?"
Bella moved forward a bit and shook her head. "Nope. I'm alone."
The other girl, Bonnie, spoke up. "Did you get an apartment here in town then?"
Bella moved up and began to unload her groceries onto the conveyor belt. "No, I live quite a ways out of town in a house I inherited from my great-aunt. No close neighbors out there, but I like the solitude."
She glanced at Bonnie whose eyes had widened a bit. "The old Swan place?"
Bella met her eyes. "Yes, you know it?"
She saw Bonnie glance at Elena quickly before looking back at her with a tentative smile. "Uh, yeah. We grew up here, so we kinda know everyone."
Bella nodded and moved her basket through to the end. "Right, small towns. Seems they're the same everywhere."
She smiled at the cashier and handed over her debit card, waiting as the transaction was complete. She put it away when she got it back and looked back at the two girls. "Nice meeting you."
They both gave half-hearted waves as Elena spoke up. "Hey, we didn't get your name!"
Bella stopped pushing her basket and looked back, a bit of a blush on her cheeks. "Oh, sorry. It's Bella, Bella Swan."
She began walking again and Elena called out, "See you later Bella!"
Bella made it out the door, letting loose a sigh of relief. Jesus, she was such a social reject any more. She rolled her eyes at herself as she made her way to her truck. Like she was a fucking social butterfly before her stretch in Forks…
She began loading her bags in the truck and her thoughts went back to her new house and all that she needed to get done. She wanted to go through it and see all the rooms by the end of the day at least. She planned to make a list of anything that she would need over the next few months too, that way she could hopefully keep any trips into town strictly to food and personal items. If they only had a grocery delivery service… she'd jump on that shit too.
Finally done with unloading, she rolled the cart to the side, hooking a wheel over the planter curb and hopping in her truck. Starting it up, she released a sigh as she put it in gear and pulled out.
Thoughts of just how relieved she was to be on her way home got her to wondering if she had some sort of disorder, because this seemed to be way beyond the bounds of simple shyness. She actually experienced panic when faced with meeting and speaking to new people. That wasn't normal… right?
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Yeah, it was time to face facts. She was a freak and always would be, thus this place was perfect for her. She smirked bitterly and hit the gas once she'd cleared the town limits. Time to get back to her safe haven.
She quickly unloaded when she got home, putting everything away in the kitchen and even changing out the bulbs in the study.
She then went through all of the rooms on the ground level and was delighted by the study in the light of day. It was filled with books and comfortable seats for reading. It even had a fireplace that, according to the inspection she'd had done, was now clean and in perfect working order. She quickly jotted down firewood on her list and moved on.
Having now gone through the entire lower level, she eyed the stairs with a bit of dread. She'd been doing her best to ignore the upper floors all day, the pull of 'that room' and the book within it drawing on her mind heavily.
"Come on Bella, don't be so paranoid." She rolled her eyes at herself. "Yeah, like talking to yourself isn't fucking weird at all."
With that, she began to climb the stairs, her gaze cast down at the stair treads. When she reached the upper level she looked up and her breath caught in her throat in fright. Every door, as far as she could see down the long hallway, was standing wide open.
Her heart took off after skipping a beat and she struggled to breathe properly. She had closed every door securely after looking in each room she was certain, and these were wide open, not just ajar as if they hadn't latched properly.
"What the hell is going on?", she mumbled to herself as she began walking slowly down the hall. She had just passed the first open door when it slammed shut, drawing a scream from her as she whirled around to stare at it, her hand clutching the shirt over her heart. "Shit." She looked all around, glaring at the rest of the open doors. "Keep it up and I'll find a way to kick your ghostly ass, even if you are my dearly departed Aunt. Shit's not funny."
She began her walk down the hall again, muttering, "Especially since ya got me talking to thin air."
She inched her way past the next door, staring at it from the corner of her eye all the way past, breathing out a breath in relief when she was by it and it hadn't moved.
"Must have been a freak breeze…"
No sooner had the words passed her lips than the door slammed shut, causing her to freeze where she stood.
Icy fear trickled down her spine at the heavy feeling of a presence and not only that, but the undeniable absence of any sort of breeze.
"All right", she mumbled. "You have my attention, not that it's going to do you any good." She glanced around, still seeing absolutely nothing. "I mean, I have no fucking clue how to help you, ya know?"
She started searching her memories for any information she could recall on ghosts and held up a finger as an idea came to her. "Hang on!" She looked around again, feeling like a bit of an idiot. "You do know you're dead right? Because you are, okay? Dead. Which means that you don't belong here any more so shoo! Find the light and go into that bitch and leave me the hell alone."
The next door she came to was the door to the room with all the weird stuff in it; the room that she'd been avoiding all this time and she passed by it without even glancing in, determined to avoid it.
Her brow rose a bit as she came to the next door without the last one slamming shut. Could it be that the ghost or whatever the hell it was had listened to her? Could getting rid of it really be that simple?
She hadn't even made it past the next door, when it slammed shut with a bang, the force of the movement enough that her hair was blown across her face. She was really becoming freaked out now, and her voice trembled as she spoke. "Why are you doing this? Why can't you leave me alone?"
Her breath caught as, one by one, each open door slammed shut, with the exception of one; the room with all of the weird stuff in it and the book on the altar; the book that still tugged on her consciousness for reasons she couldn't explain.
As she watched, light flooded into the hall from that open door and she moved slowly toward it, her curiosity overriding her fear.
Peering in, she was able to see that the light was from the window, the drapes having been pulled back, and she mumbled to herself as she slowly walked in. "This is when any sane person would be grabbing their shit and running like hell Bella. Only stupid bimbos in b-grade horror flicks stick around to investigate."
Yeah, this was freaking her out and yeah, she probably should be hauling ass outta the place, but there was one thing stopping her and that was the fact that she hadn't felt any malevolence from this presence. It felt heavy, sad, desperate even, but not evil and so she continued on, drawing closer to the book and only stopping with a gasp as it flipped open on its own, the pages fluttering to a certain point and stopping.
Shivering now in the sudden icy coldness of the room, she inched forward, curious as to what page it had settled on.
As she took in what was written there, her eyes widened, the pieces falling into place. She straightened and scoffed. "You want me to what?! Have you lost your mind?!" She shook her head, one trembling hand covering her eyes as an hysterical laugh escaped her. "Never mind. Stupid question, I know." She dropped her hand, peering around the room as she spoke. "Look, my Aunt was obviously the witch, not me. I have no fucking clue how to do any of this shit, and I probably don't have the power required anyway, so…"
Her voice trailed off as she stared at the frosted over window where an unseen entity wrote, the words seeming to form on their own:
NEED TO COME BACK
PLEASE HELP ME
The walls of the old house creaked and moaned as the storm raged outside, causing goosebumps to rise on Bella's skin as she toured her new digs, an uneasy feeling filling her as the lights flickered and thunder crashed.
"God, what a day you picked to move in Bella." She murmured to herself as she peeked behind a partially open door into what looked to be the study. She walked in fully, flipping the light switch a couple of times with no results before shrugging lightly and continuing on, walking to the shelves to peruse the titles by flashlight.
She jumped and almost shrieked when lightning flashed and thunder cracked right outside the window next to her, her hand clutching to her chest as she struggled to calm her racing heart and ragged breaths. "Jesus… I really should have done this during the day."
When she'd calmed, she turned and left the study, deciding to leave the bulk of her explorations for the more inviting light of day. What she needed to find now was a decent bedroom and bathroom. The rest could wait until later.
She climbed the staircase, just now realizing how bone weary she really was. She had driven all the way here from Washington State, with minimal stops for rest and food as she'd just wanted to escape the place that had been so unkind to her since she'd moved there at the age of seventeen.
She'd fallen in love there for the first time and had her heart shattered mere months later. After that, she'd been hunted by a ruthless and vengeful female vampire intent on killing her and Charlie for the death of her mate. She just thanked whatever deity responsible, for protecting her and Charlie and allowing the wolves to finally catch and kill the bitch.
Charlie.
Her heart clenched painfully at just the thought of him. To have unknowingly survived a vicious, vengeful vampire being after him, only to succumb to the gunshot of a common human criminal.
She swiped at an errant tear as she reached the second floor, the pain of his loss still fresh in her heart and mind.
They'd eventually become very close after Edward had left her, Charlie's unending love and support seeing her through her darkest days and back to the light of life, such as it ever could be in dreary Forks, WA.
He'd been her rock, recognizing in her the pain he'd dealt with himself when Renée had left him all those years ago, taking his only child with her.
After dealing with such an ordeal herself, Bella was much better equipped to understand just what it was Charlie had gone through and her love and respect for him had increased exponentially while her scorn for her selfish mother had grown to such proportions that they never spoke any more. She just couldn't stomach her mother's penchant for talking about herself and her wants and needs constantly. What was the point? She didn't see one, so she quit and instead of being bothered by it, she'd felt freed, as if a weight she hadn't known she carried had been lifted.
She flipped on the lights at the top of the stairs and looked down the long hallways that branched away from where she stood, taking the one to her right with a shrug of indifference. One seemed as good as the other, and this one seemed as though the bedrooms would face the street side of the house. Much better to keep an eye on what's coming, or so the thought occurred to her anyway and so she began opening doors.
The first was filled with boxes and she nodded to herself. So that's where the movers had put them. She'd wondered when she'd first entered the house and hadn't seen her things from Charlie's house anywhere.
She struck gold with the third door she opened. Flipping the light switch illuminated what seemed to be the master bedroom, complete with a huge attached bath. It was perfect so she set about removing the dust covers from the furniture, including the massive, four-poster bed that was, thankfully, made up with bedding that looked to be clean. At any rate, she was way too tired to worry with anything but falling into bed and finally getting some solid sleep.
Hurrying back down stairs, she grabbed her suitcase she'd left in the foyer and made her way back up.
Entering the bathroom to change and get ready for bed, she quickly slipped into an old pair of Forks High sweat pants and one of Charlie's t-shirts.
Grabbing the flashlight she'd left on the dresser, she flipped off the main light and climbed into the huge bed, setting the flashlight on the night stand.
She huddled under the blankets just as lightning flashed, the eerie shadows it cast throughout the room punctuated moments later by the loud crack and boom of thunder.
She blinked, curling up into a tighter ball with a shiver of unease, murmuring to herself. "Welcome to Mystic Falls Bella. Seems the place is happy to have you.", her eyelids finally growing too heavy to keep open as she drifted into the dreamless sleep of the weary.
She was up early the next day despite having felt as though she could have slept for a week straight. Something had woken her… a feeling, a heaviness, as if eyes were upon her, but when she had looked around the room, she'd been completely alone.
Sitting up with a shudder of unease, she wrote the feeling off to the dreariness of her great aunt's old house and her overactive imagination. "Shit Bella, pull yourself together. You've faced vampires out to kill you for fucks sake. It's just an old house."
With that, she got up and went into the bathroom, turning on the shower, finally giving a sigh of relief when the water ran warm. Seems the home inspector she'd hired had done his job in readying the house for occupancy. Well, with the exception of some of the lights, that is. She'd have to go pick up some bulbs when she went shopping later.
Stripping quickly, she stepped under the spray, her thoughts going immediately to her future as she began to wash.
At this point, she hadn't thought much beyond getting the hell out of Forks. That had been her priority. It was just too painful to stay there. Too many memories haunted her there, the weight of them almost smothering in intensity. She'd been more than happy when Charlie's house had finally sold.
With the money from that, combined with the double indemnity clause of Charlie's life insurance policy, she was now quite well off. She wouldn't have to work unless she wanted to and that was a relief. She really didn't want to have to deal with people.
After Edward had left her, she'd pretty much retreated from all unnecessary contact with anyone; the less she had, the better she felt, and so moving here to the old house she'd inherited from her great aunt had been an easy decision to make. It was quite a ways from town, on one hundred acres of land, no neighbors for a couple of miles in any direction. In short, it was perfect for her.
Finished with her shower, she stepped out, dried and dug out some jeans and a shirt to wear from her suitcase. Dropping the towel, she dressed quickly and finished up getting ready for the day, throwing the damp towel in the basket in the corner as she left the bathroom.
She made up the bed and straightened up the room before walking out into the hall.
Curiosity set in as she glanced down the hall, so she began opening the closed doors. A couple of them were closets, but most were bedrooms.
Shit, but this place was massive.
She found herself feeling thankful that she didn't have to worry about furnishing it.
The very next room she opened had her breath catching in her throat and she entered it slowly, her eyes taking in details as they adjusted to the low light that barely filtered in around the sides of the heavy drapes over the windows.
"Holy hell, just what were you into Great Aunt Isadora?" she murmured as she stared around at all of the strange artifacts in the room. There were too many candles to count, all of different colors and varieties, lined up on shelves and just under the shelves of candles were jars upon jars of what looked to be herbs and… other things. Shit… pieces and parts of animals, maybe? She shuddered.
She walked toward the shelves, wanting a closer look, and tripped on the edge of the rug that was spread in the center of the wood floor. Recovering herself, she looked down, seeing that the edge of the rug was now folded over and that it had been covering something on the floor. Squatting down, she turned back more of the rug and sure enough, there was some kind of pattern there.
Rolling the rug back almost completely, her eyes widened as a huge pentagram was revealed. "Damn. You really were into some freaky shit weren't you?"
Glancing up and around, she spied what she could only describe as an altar and on it was a book. She got up and walked over to it, running her hand over the old cover but jerking her hand back when some sort of… energy moved through her entire body at the contact. Her heart sped, her hand now on her chest as her breathing picked up. What the hell had that been?
She backed away, almost tripping over the damn rug again in her haste to get the hell out of the room. There was just something about that book that was already drawing her back to it, and it was freaking her out.
Now safely back in the hallway, she closed the door firmly and looked down, trying to slow her heart and breathing. God, how she wished she still had Charlie to ask about this. He'd known his Aunt Isadora very well from what he'd told her, but she'd never asked him about the woman on any of her summer visits with him and she'd been too wrapped up in all things Edward after moving in with him to concern herself with anything else, to her everlasting regret.
She shook her head, a pang of pain gripping her once again at all the things she wished she'd done and shared with her father, a few tears hitting the floor before she took a deep breath, wiping her eyes as she looked back up, determination filling her.
She had to stop this. Her life is what it is and there would be no going back; no do-overs. Fuck ups were what they were and it was all too late to fix, especially with tears. They solved absolutely nothing. She should know; she'd shed enough of them in her short life after all.
With that mental pep-talk, she made her way down the hall toward the staircase. Time to go shopping and get this place set so she wouldn't have to leave it for a while.
She'd been feeling the itch to write for a few days now and she was looking forward to getting to it. Would she ever produce something worth publishing? She wasn't sure but she really didn't care either. Writing was her outlet; her connection to a world beyond, where she could express her pain, her anger, her… darkness. It was cathartic; needed.
She grabbed her keys from the small table in the foyer and left, locking the door after herself with a grim smile. Who would break in after all? She hadn't seen a soul around here, and even the home inspector had commented on the isolation of the place.
She shrugged mentally as she climbed into her truck. Maybe she'd get a dog. She thought maybe she could tolerate the company of a dog, even though she'd never had one.
She smirked to herself as she pulled out onto the main road into town. Jake had been the closest to owning a pet she'd ever come, and she had to admit, even though she owed him a lot for protecting her and Charlie, he'd been a huge pain in the ass.
Even with the whole wolf imprint thing and the fact that he hadn't imprinted on her, he'd still hounded her relentlessly.
Snorting a laugh at her bad pun, she flipped on the radio, quickly finding an alternative rock station and cranking the volume.
Setting the cruise control, she relaxed back and tapped her fingers on the wheel to the beat of the music.
At least now she had a decent vehicle to drive. She'd taken some of her money and purchased a new candy-apple red F-150 loaded with all the options before making the trip here. There was just no way the old rust bucket would have made it, so she gave it back to Jake and Billy, gladly.
She tapped the break, canceling the cruise control as she got closer to town. Beginning to see some actual traffic, she slowed even further as she looked for a grocery store amongst the store fronts, pulling into the parking lot of the first one she saw. Maybe she'd be picky later. For now, she just wanted to get what she needed and get home.
Pulling into a spot, she shut off the truck and hopped out, hearing the chirp when she locked it on the way into the store.
She tried her best to ignore the curious looks of the people around her as she grabbed a basket and headed into the produce section. Time to get this over with as quickly as possible, and get out of here, as she was feeling a bit like a bug under glass with all the stares.
Making her way through the aisles in what was probably the fastest feat of shopping she'd ever performed, she rolled her cart up to the line for the only open register in the place.
Great. She was now trapped; the unwilling recipient of avid glances and whispered speculations.
In a bid to avoid being open to inquiry, she grabbed a gossip rag and began to page through it as the line slowly inched ahead. It didn't work and she glanced up at the not-so-subtle clearing of a throat.
It was a girl—well, a young woman—roughly her same age if she were to venture a guess, and she was standing with another girl, both looking at her curiously. "Um, hi I'm Elena and this is my friend Bonnie. You're new around here, aren't you?"
Bella gave them a reluctant half-smile and nodded. "Yes, just moved here. Arrived last night."
Elena stuck out her hand. "Welcome to Mystic Falls. It's nice to see new people move in. I didn't notice any moving trucks though. Are you with family?"
Bella moved forward a bit and shook her head. "Nope. I'm alone."
The other girl, Bonnie, spoke up. "Did you get an apartment here in town then?"
Bella moved up and began to unload her groceries onto the conveyor belt. "No, I live quite a ways out of town in a house I inherited from my great-aunt. No close neighbors out there, but I like the solitude."
She glanced at Bonnie whose eyes had widened a bit. "The old Swan place?"
Bella met her eyes. "Yes, you know it?"
She saw Bonnie glance at Elena quickly before looking back at her with a tentative smile. "Uh, yeah. We grew up here, so we kinda know everyone."
Bella nodded and moved her basket through to the end. "Right, small towns. Seems they're the same everywhere."
She smiled at the cashier and handed over her debit card, waiting as the transaction was complete. She put it away when she got it back and looked back at the two girls. "Nice meeting you."
They both gave half-hearted waves as Elena spoke up. "Hey, we didn't get your name!"
Bella stopped pushing her basket and looked back, a bit of a blush on her cheeks. "Oh, sorry. It's Bella, Bella Swan."
She began walking again and Elena called out, "See you later Bella!"
Bella made it out the door, letting loose a sigh of relief. Jesus, she was such a social reject any more. She rolled her eyes at herself as she made her way to her truck. Like she was a fucking social butterfly before her stretch in Forks…
She began loading her bags in the truck and her thoughts went back to her new house and all that she needed to get done. She wanted to go through it and see all the rooms by the end of the day at least. She planned to make a list of anything that she would need over the next few months too, that way she could hopefully keep any trips into town strictly to food and personal items. If they only had a grocery delivery service… she'd jump on that shit too.
Finally done with unloading, she rolled the cart to the side, hooking a wheel over the planter curb and hopping in her truck. Starting it up, she released a sigh as she put it in gear and pulled out.
Thoughts of just how relieved she was to be on her way home got her to wondering if she had some sort of disorder, because this seemed to be way beyond the bounds of simple shyness. She actually experienced panic when faced with meeting and speaking to new people. That wasn't normal… right?
She sighed and ran a hand through her hair. Yeah, it was time to face facts. She was a freak and always would be, thus this place was perfect for her. She smirked bitterly and hit the gas once she'd cleared the town limits. Time to get back to her safe haven.
She quickly unloaded when she got home, putting everything away in the kitchen and even changing out the bulbs in the study.
She then went through all of the rooms on the ground level and was delighted by the study in the light of day. It was filled with books and comfortable seats for reading. It even had a fireplace that, according to the inspection she'd had done, was now clean and in perfect working order. She quickly jotted down firewood on her list and moved on.
Having now gone through the entire lower level, she eyed the stairs with a bit of dread. She'd been doing her best to ignore the upper floors all day, the pull of 'that room' and the book within it drawing on her mind heavily.
"Come on Bella, don't be so paranoid." She rolled her eyes at herself. "Yeah, like talking to yourself isn't fucking weird at all."
With that, she began to climb the stairs, her gaze cast down at the stair treads. When she reached the upper level she looked up and her breath caught in her throat in fright. Every door, as far as she could see down the long hallway, was standing wide open.
Her heart took off after skipping a beat and she struggled to breathe properly. She had closed every door securely after looking in each room she was certain, and these were wide open, not just ajar as if they hadn't latched properly.
"What the hell is going on?", she mumbled to herself as she began walking slowly down the hall. She had just passed the first open door when it slammed shut, drawing a scream from her as she whirled around to stare at it, her hand clutching the shirt over her heart. "Shit." She looked all around, glaring at the rest of the open doors. "Keep it up and I'll find a way to kick your ghostly ass, even if you are my dearly departed Aunt. Shit's not funny."
She began her walk down the hall again, muttering, "Especially since ya got me talking to thin air."
She inched her way past the next door, staring at it from the corner of her eye all the way past, breathing out a breath in relief when she was by it and it hadn't moved.
"Must have been a freak breeze…"
No sooner had the words passed her lips than the door slammed shut, causing her to freeze where she stood.
Icy fear trickled down her spine at the heavy feeling of a presence and not only that, but the undeniable absence of any sort of breeze.
"All right", she mumbled. "You have my attention, not that it's going to do you any good." She glanced around, still seeing absolutely nothing. "I mean, I have no fucking clue how to help you, ya know?"
She started searching her memories for any information she could recall on ghosts and held up a finger as an idea came to her. "Hang on!" She looked around again, feeling like a bit of an idiot. "You do know you're dead right? Because you are, okay? Dead. Which means that you don't belong here any more so shoo! Find the light and go into that bitch and leave me the hell alone."
The next door she came to was the door to the room with all the weird stuff in it; the room that she'd been avoiding all this time and she passed by it without even glancing in, determined to avoid it.
Her brow rose a bit as she came to the next door without the last one slamming shut. Could it be that the ghost or whatever the hell it was had listened to her? Could getting rid of it really be that simple?
She hadn't even made it past the next door, when it slammed shut with a bang, the force of the movement enough that her hair was blown across her face. She was really becoming freaked out now, and her voice trembled as she spoke. "Why are you doing this? Why can't you leave me alone?"
Her breath caught as, one by one, each open door slammed shut, with the exception of one; the room with all of the weird stuff in it and the book on the altar; the book that still tugged on her consciousness for reasons she couldn't explain.
As she watched, light flooded into the hall from that open door and she moved slowly toward it, her curiosity overriding her fear.
Peering in, she was able to see that the light was from the window, the drapes having been pulled back, and she mumbled to herself as she slowly walked in. "This is when any sane person would be grabbing their shit and running like hell Bella. Only stupid bimbos in b-grade horror flicks stick around to investigate."
Yeah, this was freaking her out and yeah, she probably should be hauling ass outta the place, but there was one thing stopping her and that was the fact that she hadn't felt any malevolence from this presence. It felt heavy, sad, desperate even, but not evil and so she continued on, drawing closer to the book and only stopping with a gasp as it flipped open on its own, the pages fluttering to a certain point and stopping.
Shivering now in the sudden icy coldness of the room, she inched forward, curious as to what page it had settled on.
As she took in what was written there, her eyes widened, the pieces falling into place. She straightened and scoffed. "You want me to what?! Have you lost your mind?!" She shook her head, one trembling hand covering her eyes as an hysterical laugh escaped her. "Never mind. Stupid question, I know." She dropped her hand, peering around the room as she spoke. "Look, my Aunt was obviously the witch, not me. I have no fucking clue how to do any of this shit, and I probably don't have the power required anyway, so…"
Her voice trailed off as she stared at the frosted over window where an unseen entity wrote, the words seeming to form on their own:
NEED TO COME BACK
PLEASE HELP ME
DISCLAIMER: Twilight and its inclusive material is copyright to Stephenie Meyer. Original creation, including but not limited to plot and characters, is copyright to the respective authors of each story. No copyright infringement is intended.