That day I'd gotten a ride home from Jessica, because Bella was heading straight over to the Cullens after school and wanted to drive separately from Edward, for whatever reason. I asked why, but she just claimed that she wanted some time to think.
Pretty soon, the sun began to set. I was in my room doing homework when I heard Dad's car pull into the driveway.
"Y/n?" he called a moment later, the sound of the front door closing following his entrance.
I headed down the steps to greet him. "Hey, dad. How was work?"
"Fine," he shrugged. "Where's Bella?"
"At the Cullens'." I crossed into the kitchen, suddenly hungry, and Dad followed me.
"The truck is in the driveway."
My hand froze halfway into the fridge, all the terrible possibilities of why that could be running through my head.
But I forced myself to relax and continued browsing the leftovers in the fridge. "I'm sure she and Edward just came to drop it off." It wasn't unusual for them to do that. Sometimes when they went on dates out of town Edward would follow Bella in the Volvo to drop the truck off, then they'd take Edward's car. It had much better mileage than the truck.
But the sun set. Hours passed. And still Bella still hadn't shown up or called.
I could see Dad was getting worried, too.
"I'll call the house," I said, heading towards the phone. I dialed the number I had memorized by heart, then waited for it to be answered.
It wasn't.
A pit started growing in my stomach. I tried again, waiting for Carlisle or Esme or Emmett or someone to pick up, but they never did.
I turned to Dad as I put the phone down. My voice was weak. "They didn't answer."
His face went slack.
"I'm sure they're just out playing baseball or something," I said, even though I knew there wasn't a storm around for miles. "I'll drive over real quick and see what's going on."
"They live quite far. Maybe I should—"
"It's okay, Dad," I said, knowing that if he went instead of me he might see something that could expose the Cullens. "I'll be fine, I know where it is. I'll call you when I get there, too."
He didn't like the idea, but he relented in the end after more convincing.
I took the truck and drove as fast as I could without the car breaking down. My knuckles were white on the steering wheel.
What if something had happened? Something else like what had happened with Jasper on our birthday? What if Edward did something to her?
Oh my god.
What if James had escaped somehow? What if he came back to get Bella?
I shook my head at myself. No, that was ridiculous. I heard his neck get snapped. Carlisle told us all that he was dead. Emmett and Jasper had taken care of it.
When I pulled up to the house, it was dark. Their front lights weren't on or anything, so I had to use the flashlight I kept in the truck's glove compartment for emergencies. With a pit in my stomach that was growing bigger and bigger, I walked up to the front door and knocked once. Twice. Three times.
Nobody answered.
But when I tried the door handle, it was unlocked.
A stab of fear cut through me.
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. . .
I parked the truck with a screech and then sprinted up to the door.
"Dad?" I called the moment I was inside.
"In here," he called from the living room. I dashed in that direction, passing an ungodly amount of strangers who were crowding the front room and kitchen, then came to a stop.
There were a number of people in the living room. I recognized Mike and his dad, Mr. Weber (Angela's dad), and three tall men with dark faces who I knew were from the Quileute Indian reservation. Dr. Gerandy and Dad were there, too, and in the middle of it all on the couch, wrapped in a blanket, was my sister.
"Bella!" I exclaimed, darting forward and crouching beside Dad."Oh my god, are you okay? What happened—"
"That's what we're trying to figure out," the doctor said, cutting me off. He turned to Bella once more. "Did you get lost in the woods?"
Me and Dad leaned in close to hear her answer.
"Yes," she whispered. "I got lost."
The doctor nodded, thoughtful, his fingers probing gently against the glands under her jaw.
"Do you feel tired?" Dr. Gerandy asked.
Bella nodded and closed her eyes obediently.
"I don't think there's anything wrong with her," the doctor muttered to Dad and I after a moment. "Just exhaustion. Let her sleep it off, and I'll come check on her tomorrow.
There was a creaking sound as they both pushed off from the couch to get to their feet, and I stood as well.
"Is it true?" Dad whispered to the doctor. "Did they leave?" He must have told the doctor what I'd seen at the house in the time I was driving.
"Dr. Cullen asked us not to say anything," Dr. Gerandy answered. "The offer was very sudden; they had to choose immediately. Carlisle didn't want to make a big production out of leaving."
"A little warning might have been nice," Dad grumbled.
Dr. Gerandy sounded uncomfortable when he replied. "Yes, well, in this situation, some warning might have been called for."
Slowly everyone left the house, Dad thanking them for their help one by one as they did. I was surprised Jacob wasn't in the mix, I thought he'd want to help. But maybe Billy didn't want him to come out this late. Bella stayed asleep through the whole of it.
The phone rang several times, and Dad hurried to catch it before it could wake Bella.
Did Bella know the Cullens were gone? She had to have, she was over at their house earlier.
Unless she never went in the first place.
I groaned, frustrated. What was going on? Why was she in the woods by our house? Edward wouldn't have let her be out there alone this late. And why had the Cullens left in the first place? From what the doctor said, it sounded like Carlisle told them he got a job offer somewhere else, but that couldn't have been the real reason they left.
The phone rang again.
Dad groaned as he struggled to his feet, and then he rushed, stumbling, to the kitchen, where I was eating a late-night snack. I couldn't go back to bed with everything that had happened, so I settled for just staying up.
"Yeah," Dad answered, yawning.
His voice changed, it was much more alert when he spoke again. "Where?" There was a pause. "You're sure it's outside the reservation?" Another short pause. "But what could be burning out there?"
My head snapped up.
Burning?
How do you kill a vampire? I'd asked Edward, back when we were running from James.
The only way to be sure is to tear him to shreds, and then burn the pieces.
My heart started beating faster. Was that why the Cullens left? Were there more vampires to worry about?
I looked through the hall into the living room, where Bella was sleeping.
Were they going to come here?
"Look, I'll call down there and check it out," Dad was saying.
I listened intently as he punched in another number on the phone.
"Hey, Billy, it's Charlie—sorry I'm calling so early...no, she's fine. She's sleeping....Thanks, but that's not why I called. I just got a call from Mrs. Stanley, and she says that from her second-story window she can see fires out on the sea cliffs, but I didn't really....Oh!" Suddenly there was an edge in his voice—irritation...or anger. "And why are they doing that? Uh huh. Really?" He said it sarcastically. "Well, don't apologize to me. Yeah, yeah. Just make sure the flames don't spread....I know, I know, I'm surprised they got them lit at all in this weather."
Dad hesitated, and then added grudgingly. "Thanks for sending Sam and the other boys up. You were right—they do know the forest better than we do. It was Sam who found her, so I owe you one....Yeah, I'll talk to you later."
The moment he hung up, I spoke. "Something's burning?"
"It's nothing," he assured me. "Just some bonfires out on the cliffs."
"Bonfires?" I asked.
"Some of the kids from the reservation being rowdy," he explained.
"Oh," I said. Relief filled me. So it wasn't the Cullens, or anything vampire-related. "Why?"
"They're celebrating the news." His tone was bitter.
The pieces snapped together. "Because the Cullens left," I said knowingly.
"It's ridiculous."
I looked over at Bella again. "Is that why she's so. . ."
"Yeah," Dad answered. "She and Edward must have broken up and decided long distance was a bad idea, or something."
I was quiet.
This was good, I told myself. This meant that Bella wouldn't be in any more danger, and Edward wouldn't get her into any other trouble. Bella would be safe.
So then why did I feel. . . regret?
"After you told me the Cullens were gone, I called the hospital," Dad was saying. "Dr. Gerandy told me Carlisle took a job with a big hospital in Los Angeles. I guess they threw a lot of money at him."
Sunny L.A. The last place they would really go.
This year Alice and Edward were seniors again, so the Cullens' time was already running out. Is that why they left, maybe? Because they needed to start over? That idea was better than the alternative, that they met more unfriendly vampires.
Still, I couldn't rule it out.
"Is Bella going to be okay?" I asked quietly.
Dad didn't answer for a long while.
Then finally, he sighed. "I don't know."