Ebb and Flow (Twilight x Reader)

Chapter 18

Slowly, I pushed the door open. The house was dark, no lights were on inside. It was deadly quiet.

Carefully I flicked on the front room light.

The sudden brightness hurt my eyes, and I blinked rapidly as I surveyed the room. Everything looked. . . normal.

"Carlisle?" I called, stepping into the house. "Esme? Emmett?"

No response.

"Bella?"

The house was silent as it had been before I arrived.

I cursed and began exploring the lower level. Each room's lights were off. With growing desperation I darted up the steps, and slammed open the doors of everyone's room. Each was empty, lights off like the rooms downstairs.

"Bella?" I shouted, louder now. "Emmett? Carlisle!"

No response.

Breathing heavily, I ran downstairs and sprinted to the garage door.

Their cars were still there.

"No," I whispered. I took a step back and covered my mouth. "No, no, no."

They couldn't have kidnapped Bella. Carlisle would never allow it. So what had happened? Were they forced to run again? Did another less friendly vampire catch her scent?

I could feel my face pale. Horror slowly dawned on me, and I sprinted to the Cullens' house phone. With shaking hands, I dialed Dad's number.

"Did you find her?" were the first words out of his mouth.

"No!" My voice was panicked. "She's not here, none of them are! The house is completely empty."

What had happened? Was Bella in trouble again? Did more vampires come to visit?

"Come home at once." Ever the police officer, Dad was staying calm, being very cut-and-dry and focusing on what needed to be done, but I still could hear the worry in his tone. His voice shook a little bit. "I'll get a search party going, we'll start at the Cullens'—"

"No!" I blurted.

"What?"

"I-I mean we should probably start in the woods by our house, right? That's where Bella left the truck, so she'd already left the Cullens." If any vampires were around, then sending a search party out here would be like sending a buffet.

Sudden realization hit me.

I was here.

A human, alone.

A curtain of icy panic embraced me. I needed to get out of there.

"—y, we'll start there," Dad was saying. I didn't hear the first part of his sentence. "I'll have someone meet you at the edge of the woods—"

"Okay, see you!" I hung up and dashed out of the house as quickly as I could, not even bothering to turn off the lights I'd switched on. With shaking hands I unlocked the truck and slid inside.

As I gunned the engine and tore down the dark abandoned road, I had sudden visions of James running alongside the truck, shattering the glass of my window and snatching me from the driver's seat.

He's dead, I reminded myself. He's not coming back.

Freeway traffic was bad, and I had tried to navigate it as best as I could, but even then I'd made it back into Forks significantly later. An hour later than I should have been there.

When I pulled up to the house, there were a number of other cars parked on the street and in the driveway beside Dad's cruiser. I recognized one of them as Mike's, another Angela's. . .