Chapter V
“Couldn’t find anything,” Jacob announced, jumping easily over the last three steps.
“Yes, I believe mentioning something like that before you hurdled up the stairs.” Edward shot him at irritated look, and Jacob suppressed smirk.
Anything up there you didn’t want me to notice? he gloated silently.
As if guessing Jacob’s thoughts, Edward turned away, surveying the room. “I don’t know why we had to come back here, Alice. We’ve gone over the house a hundred times.” His head lowered slightly, face shadowed. “There’s just nothing here.”
Jacob watched as she moved wordlessly, in one fluid movement, placing a white hand on his arm. The silence grew, and not even Jacob dared to break it.
Sera jabbed at her salad moodily. “I don’t understand why he brought us along if he was just going to leave us at the hotel. We’re not bloody twelve year olds.”
Micah sucked on his straw, looking thoughtful. “This is all a little mysterious, isn’t it?”
“You can say that again,” Bella mumbled, staring down at her plate. “He’s not letting us in on anything.”
Sera set her glass down abruptly, making everyone jump. “Why don’t we just go to Forks on our own, then?”
“Have you gone insane?” Micah asked incredulously. “We don’t even know what we would be looking for. And Ben would never trust us if he found out.”
“He’s not exactly trusting us now,” Bella pointed out dryly, slowly spinning the ice in her glass with her straw. “But Micah does have a point, Sera. We would just be wandering around aimlessly.”
“So we just go to get a feel for the place.” Sera’s dark eyes sparkled. “Don’t you want to see what we’re here for?”
“Yes,” Bella admitted, stilling her hand. “Ben wouldn’t have come all this way if it weren’t important.”
“And he said he’d been planning this trip for ages.” Sera reached across the table, brushing Micah’s hand with hers.
“Fine!” He leaned back, throwing up his hands in exasperation. “But don’t expect miracles, Sera. Ben’s the only person who can explain what we’re doing here.”
Sera twirled her spoon between her fingers idly. “We’ll see, love.”
Jacob preferred running.
The spongy ground felt satisfying under his paws, and the mid-day sun warmed his back as he easily darted between trees. His tongue lolled forward, his furry chest heaving from the effort, and still it wasn’t fast enough for Jacob.
He pushed himself harder, feeling his leg muscles strain to keep up as the trees hurtled by. He’d known from the expressions on the leeches’ faces that they were losing hope. There were no traces of Bella anywhere outside the house, no indications of where she had gone or who had done this to her. She was just, quite simply, gone.
Jacob knew that people didn’t just vanish, knew that he owed it to Bella-no, owed it to himself and Bella-to run himself ragged trying to find her. But deep down, a small voice reminded him that the days had become weeks, the weeks had stretched into months, and they were still no closer to finding her.
It was as this realization hit that his front paw snagged on a tree root, and his whole body pitched forward. Jacob came crashing down and lay still for a moment, stunned.
Far above his head, sunlight poured down between leafy branches. Birds twittered cheerfully, unaware of their oversized visitor. Jacob growled as he righted himself, an irrational wave of anger surging over him. As long as Bella was missing, he seethed, the world had no right to pretend everything was fine.
Pain shot through his leg as he stood-if he had been in human form, he would have gasped. Still, there was nowhere to go but forward, so he limped on.
Bella watched the landscape speed by, head propped against her hand.
“Are we there yet?” Sera asked for what was presumably the hundredth time, tapping her cards against her knee.
Micah shot her a wry look. “Apparently not, what with the train still moving.”
She tossed her head, making a face. “I’m starting to get sick of these stupid trains.”
“Your idea,” he reminded her, laying down a card. “Your turn, Bella.”
Bella blinked, her friends’ concerned faces gradually coming into focus. “Um.” She looked down at the cards in her hand. “What are we playing again?”
Sera tossed down the rest of her cards and leaned back. “Forget it, the game was getting boring anyway.”
“Sorry, guys,” Bella apologized, rubbing her palms against her jeans. “I guess I was somewhere else.”
Sera rolled her neck around, wincing slightly, and didn’t say anything. The silence stretched out, long and impenetrable, and Bella turned back to the scenery outside.
The gunmetal sky loomed ominously above, all traces of earlier sunlight vanished. Bella pressed her fingertips against the cold window, watching as they made five perfect ovals on the fogged glass. Her gaze fell on the dangling charm that had slipped out of her sleeve, and Bella felt a pang of guilt. The wolf’s eyes seemed to bore into her accusingly. You aren’t doing enough, they seemed to say. You aren’t trying hard enough.
I’ll find you, Bella swore silently, tucking the charm back into her sleeve. It was half promise, half prayer.
“Well,” Micah declared, appraising their surroundings, “Ben was right. It is small.”
Sera tucked her hands into her sleek brown coat, looking doubtful. “Are you sure there isn’t more than one Forks?”
Bella turned around slowly, umbrella dangling by her side. “There isn’t more than one Forks, Sera.”
Beneath the dismal gray sky, fertile grass spread out as far as the eye could see. Trees towered above cozy, one-story buildings, and not far away from where they stood, a battered sign declared AIRPORT 1.5 MILES.
Bella squinted. “It’s-strangely beautiful, don’t you think?”
Sera twisted around to stare at her friend, aghast. “Maybe if you came to look at a timber museum.”
“Let’s just… explore for awhile.” Bella tore her eyes away from the landscape.
“Well, we haven’t got any better plans,” Micah responded, shooting Sera a pointed look, which she ignored.
Sera rifled through her large shoulder bag for a moment, then triumphantly pulled out her compact umbrella. “Lead the way, O fearless one.”
The three of them shuffled down the sidewalk, Bella inspecting the town closely from underneath her umbrella. A light rain had begun to fall from the sky and she shivered, tightening her scarf.
“Forks Outfitters,” Sera read aloud, sounding a little disbelieving. “For all your fishing and sporting needs. Christ, this can’t be the Forks Ben was talking about.”
“Your idea,” Micah repeated, scooting closer as they huddled underneath her small umbrella.
“Will you please stop saying that? Bella wanted to come too, you know. Isn’t that right?”
“Hmm?” Dragging her eyes away from the sign she had been trying to read, Bella looked over her shoulder.
Sera heaved a sigh. “Oh, for God’s sake. Never mind. Alright, I admit that I may have been a little hasty in my suggestion. Look, there’s some kind of coffee shop. Please, let’s go in before it starts to rain more.”
Once inside, Bella decided that using the term coffee shop to describe the establishment was being generous. They stood in a dimly lit room with a single booth and two battered tables. Behind the worn counter stood a short, squat woman who looked as though she had seen better days herself. She eyed the small group suspiciously.
Sera sidled up to the counter, shaking the water off her coat and giving her a sunny smile. “Hi. Could I have one regular coffee, black?” She turned to Bella and Micah. “What about you two?”
Bella waved it aside. “Nothing for me, thanks.” She leaned forward a little. “My friends and I were wondering if you knew any good places to, you know, visit in Forks?”
The woman’s beady eyes flicked from Sera to Micah, then back to Bella again. “‘Fraid I can’t help you there,” she said at last, apparently deciding they looked like a trustworthy enough group. “I’ve only been living here a few weeks. That’ll be two fifteen.”
Sera reached for her purse, but Micah stopped her and handed the woman some bills. “Thanks anyway.”
The three of them slid into the single narrow booth, Bella tucking her cold hands between her knees.
“It’s getting bloody cold out there,” Sera commented as she blew lightly on her coffee, seeming to read her friend’s mind.
Bella nodded in agreement, then took a deep breath. “Maybe we shouldn’t go back to Port Angeles tonight.”
Sera stopped, and gaped at her from across the table. “Come again?”
Bella met her friend’s gaze unwaveringly. “I like it here. It’s-comfortable, somehow.”
Sera shook her head in amazement and took a sip. “I know you’re in a difficult spot right now, but try to keep it together, love.”
Bella turned to Micah, pleadingly. “What’s the harm, Micah?”
“Bella…” Micah shrugged regretfully. “I’ve got to agree with Sera on this one. We’re not even supposed to be here.”
“Ben never said we couldn’t come to Forks.”
“Yes, well, I don’t think he’d be too happy to discover us sneaking around behind his back, now would he?” Micah flattened both palms on the table, lowering his voice. “I wasn’t going to tell you this, but this town makes me nervous. I feel like it’s... hiding something.”
Sera snorted. “Hiding something? Fishing and sporting central? I don’t think so.”
Bella frowned, tracing a small circle on the table with her index finger as she thought. Micah’s instincts had never been wrong before, but how could two people have such different impressions of a sleepy little town?
“Alright,” Bella lied, feeling a small pang of guilt. “We’ll go back to Port Angeles together.”
Micah relaxed. “Thank you.”
Chapter Six