A word of forewarning: This goes by a time schedule and while most of it is linear, some scenes are not so pay attention to the time please! It goes; date, time and person's POV. Thanks so much for the reviews guys! Love ya'll all!

I didn't make clear who go shot last chapter until i edited it, partly, it was supposed to be ambiguous but it is Elliot thats hurt guys.

Hours, Minutes, Seconds and Instants

November 31st, Friday

The present time, 7:43 PM

James

James grins as if he's checkmated, aims the rifle down and pulls the trigger.

November 31st, Friday

7:01PM

Bella

When Bella wakes up she knows it's not a dream.

It's not because she can feel the plastic binding of the strap scrape against her skin, the frigid cold air curling around her, the tips of her fingers becoming numb and tingling. She knows this because when she looks over to her right, Alice is sleeping soundly against her shoulder, chest moving steadily up and down whereas Elliot, to her left, is leaning on Hal, barely breathing at all.

The bullet had hit her shoulder but someone had dressed it with bandages, James probably. The bleeding hadn't stopped though because the gausses were wet and red with blood. Bella wanted to turn and throw up, faint even, but something held her to the ground. She looked at Hal briefly to notice the awkward positioning she was in, partly turned, half beneath and curled around Elliot.

Of course. Body heat.

It had to be below 30 degrees in the room.

Bella shifted closer to Alice.

"Are you alright?" Hal asks, gingerly shifting herself upwards so they could meet eyes.

"I'll be fine." Bella replies. It's never occurred to her but she has never spent quality time with Hal, every time she had seen the other girl it was at a group setting and Hal seldom made herself the center of attention. "Is Elliot….?"

"Fine." The wounded girl says curtly, opening her eyes, "It's not everyday that you get shot and live to tell the tale. I'll be fine though."

"Did he take the bullet out?" Her girlfriend asks. Bella can't even look at the bandages.

Elliot snickers and rolls her eyes, she's trying to be strong but the lack of color in her skin, the slowness of her reaction, the rough sound she makes every time she inhales and the hoarseness of her voice says she's fighting a losing battle.

"Nope." She answers, "James probably left it in there so I'd suffer some more."

"That bastard."

A pause.

"I'm sorry I got you guys into this mess." It takes Bella by surprise because Elliot rarely apologizes and when she does it's typically done in some mocking, joking tone.

Hal must have caught on to this too because she glares down hard at her girlfriend, "No you shouldn't be." But before she could say anymore, Alice abruptly wakes up, yelling "Bananas!" head shooting up so fast that it hits Bella's chin.

"Ow!" They say in unison.

Relief floods Bella's heart to see Alice alive and moving. It might have been the emotional stress or the physical fatigue of staying in one position for too long or maybe both that got to them but when she and Alice meet eyes, they begin to laugh.

"I'm sorry." Alice manages to say between giggles, "I had no idea you were…or that I was…Sorry." She moves closer to Bella, snuggling back into her shoulder.

Elliot must have caught onto the affection or maybe the body language but she manages to smile too.

"It's about time you two got together." She says, smirking, eyes shining in that 'I-knew-it' sort of way. She turns to Hal, "You lost the bet, baby. Guess I'll be on top tonight."

"Bet?" Alice asks, a single eyebrow heighten in curiosity and disbelief.

Elliot's smirk widens mischievously, "Yup. Hal said that it'd take at least a year before one of you two could spill the beans. I said six months."

"Yeah, but what about the whole…'being on top' thing?" Bella asks, confused. Elliot doesn't say anything, no one does and everyone simply stares eyes wide, amazed at her. Bella feels as if she's some exotic exhibit at a museum and uses all her might to find the one thing that they know but she doesn't.

"Wait.." Everyone watches as the light bulb clicks. "Oh….Ohhhhh…. Eww! Elliot! Gross!"

They burst out laughing at her.

And for a moment, the world is alright. Bella can't feel the binds cutting into her skin or the cold, frigid air. Alice is giggling into her shoulder, the other girl's body so close and so comfortably conformed around her own. Elliot is laughing her full hearty laugh, not the thing that everyone does when they laugh nervously or laugh when they think they're supposed to laugh, she's doing a genuine, deep throat, rock your body laugh. Hal is too, the setting sun shining into the room and hitting her in a way that makes Bella stop and stare. She can understand why Elliot likes Hal, in that moment, she sees Hal's true nature; not the calm, collected girl that Bella knows but the fun, the exciting, the dirty blonde hair glowing in the sunlight, the hazel eyes and full lips that contrasts so well with Elliot's dark hair and eccentric personality.

They match each other.

Bella hadn't realized it before but when she looks at Elliot and Hal, it's what she hopes she has with Alice. She hopes that with an exchange of eye contact she's able know every thought that's going through Alice's mind, she wants to believe that every touch can calm her down and yet excite a burning flame that no one else knows. She sees it every day between the two; the way Hal naturally takes Elliot's heavy AP Physics book and countless binders into her one of her arms and encircles the other around Elliot's waist. The way Elliot approaches Hal during lunch, like a bee finding a treasure trove of nectar, eyes set on Hal the moment she finds her and never straying to another being. The world could end and as long as they had each other, Bella was pretty sure that they'd be quiet okay with it.

She takes in her surroundings for the first time, trying to find an escape route. It's a relatively small room; a bed, a table, two windows, one partly broken that face the woods and a dirt trail, she realizes from her point of view that they're on the second story of a house, one that's dirty and racked with dust, smelling of mold and oil but the walls, it was the walls that caught her attention. There are pictures, dozens and dozens of pictures, of Elliot, of her, Hal, Alice, everyone. Some newspaper clippings, maps, hand written papers and it dons on her that James wasn't some impulsive murderer out from prison for revenge, he'd been planning this for months.

November 31st

6:47 PM

Elliot

James roughly drops Hal down next to Elliot and leaves the room fuming. He's angry but Elliot doesn't care because she's finally able to loosen enough room around her wrists to squeeze her hand though the one thing that's keeping her tied down. Thankfully, James had cut the binding on their feet for some reason, maybe because he'll need them to walk later she thinks, carrying four full grown girls can be a hassle. When she tries to move, a sharp pain shoots through her shoulder, down to her abdomen and across her chest.

"Baby…Please don't try to…" Hal starts, tears in her eyes, a sob coming out to stop her in mid-sentence. "Please don't…"

Elliot is still struggling, her hand halfway through but the most tense she gets, the more pain she's feeling and now, its just enough to make her pass out. It feels as if she can't breath, can't talk and that the moment she's released her hold on her breath everything will fade away without even getting those damn things off of her. So she concentrates on Hal's deep hazel eyes, brown with so many fleck of green, she concentrates on how they dreamed of growing up, growing old together as Hal breaks apart in front of her.

"Ellie. Please stop." Hal is shaking her head viciously, "I don't care if I die here." She tries to not hear the words and let the tears fall, James doesn't deserve that. "If…If I distract him- you can go and I don't care if I die because it'd be for you baby, just please stop hurting yourself." Elliot lets the hot tears fall and tries her hardest to pull her hand free.

"I'd die for- "Her hands are free and she wraps them around Hal, pulling their lips together.

"Don't you dare say that." Elliot says, crying, breathing hard, feeling her shoulder squeeze out more blood. "We'll make it out of here."

She doesn't believe those words but she says them anyways in hopes that she will. Because Elliot had never believed she'd ever let anyone in, because she never believed in love or happiness after James, she never believed that she'd stop having nightmares until but she does now and those dreams have come true.

Elliot moved to try break free Hal's arm but the sharp pain that comes from moving at all makes her gasp and flinch. There aren't any knives around…

"I…" She shook her head, the world getting dark and cold.

"Elliot!"

She swallows. "I'll be alright….Just…Lemme rest for a moment…"

November 31st, Friday

7:10 PM

Elliot

When the girls stop laughing, something catches her eye at the far corner of the room. Elliot doesn't know if she's hallucinating or if it's for real, but she sees the glass reflect the sunlight and it hits her like bricks. She beings to get up, using her good arm to push her forward and surprises Alice and Bella who doesn't know that her hands are untied. Slowly, she makes her way across the room, picking up the largest piece of glass, about the size of her hand.

Her vision is fuzzy and she has to blink a couple times to see her way back to Hal but she does. The adrenaline is kicking in, her heart rate increasing; everything is slowly becoming clearer than before.

No one says anything, maybe out of fear or relief. Still, they don't want to risk a chance of rousing James if he is nearby. She squeezes the glass until it cuts into her skin a little; just enough for it to hurt so that she knows it's real. Elliot cuts Alice loose first because she's the closest then Bella and by the time she gets to Hal, her hand is bleeding. Her girlfriend embraces her briefly before they both turn to Bella and Alice, standing guard by the door.

November 31st, Friday

7:15 PM

Alice

Alice feels cold sweat pour out from her hands as they open the door.

Too quiet.

She spots the stairway down to the first floor and listens even harder for James. Still nothing. Alice nods at Elliot, motioning them to go. She nearly makes it to the stares, just behind Hal when a cold hand reaches out from behind her and covers her mouth and nose, the other hand holds a pistol to her temple. Still, she's able to whimper loud enough to make everyone turn around in time.

"Stop." James commands. "Another movement and I'll shoo- "

Hal hooks James in the face just after knocking the pistol out of his hand. Alice hears the gunshot and it nearly deafens her but there isn't any pain and she's pretty sure she's not dead. Instinctively, she turns over and nails James in the stomach just as he's grabbing Hal and throwing her into the wall.

"Alice." Her former foster father says, "You're going to regret that."

November 31st, Friday

7:18 PM

Bella

It's the worse mistake she's ever made in her life. And any chance that she might have taken it back, she probably would have. But at that moment in time, when James' loaded pistol fell next to her feet in the staircase, Bella bent down to pick it up.

"You're going to regret that."

Her stomach drops.

Alice.

Bella looks up in time to see her get flung towards the stairs' railing, she reaches out to grab Alice's hand only to have it pulled away from her when the railing gave way. She screams Alice's name but hears the breaking wood. She doesn't see anything except Alice's eyes, wide open, terrified, arms outreached, imploring her to catch her. Except Bella doesn't.

Bella couldn't.

Her insides go numb. The sound of wood hitting the floor followed by an echoing thud will forever haunt her but right now, she can't feel anything but pure rage. The pistol is suddenly aimed at James and it takes Bella a second to realize its her hands that are gasping it, finger on trigger.

She's seeing red but its blurry because tears are rolling steadily down her cheeks. There's so much hate inside of her that she's shaking from keeping it in, struggling to not shoot James in the head and then herself.

James isn't scared. She sees it in his eyes. She wants to make him hurt. She wants to rip him limb from limb and let him slowly bleed to death. Shooting him would be at his mercy and Bella knows it won't bring Alice back but she's still gripping the pistol's trigger and can't find the will to take her finger off of it.

Slowly, she moves up the stairs, making the man move backwards. "Down." She orders when she gets to the top and watches James gets on his knees.

Elliot is rushing downstairs to Alice as fast as she can and very dimly she hears her say that Alice is breathing.

It doesn't calm her one bit.

"You can't do it, love." James interrupts her thoughts and leans forward towards the barrel of the gun. "I've watched you for months Bella. You can't do it. You're too nice, sweety. Imagine the life of someone, taken away by your hands. Can you bear that thought?" Fiery tears are rolling down her cheeks out of pure hatred, at the fact that James had ruined the most perfect day and at the fact that he's right.

Slowly, Bella lowers the pistol. "That's it." James cues, "That's it…"

Bang.

The force of the pistol knocks in her back a little but she's able to see James grab a hold of his thigh and howl in pain as Hal moves next to him and knocks in hard in the head with a broken piece of the stairs railing.

He passes out. Bella looks down at the body of James, as if expecting him to get up.

He doesn't.

Content with the thought in mind she rushes downstairs to find Elliot pulling the fallen girl into her lap. When she approached to help Elliot, the other girl refuses. "No, Bella." Her breathing is faint and erratic, hand crusted in red moving over Alice's lifeless body, "Cellphone. On the kitchen counter..."

She looks over to the kitchen, a bare and small one separated from the living room by a wall, and nods. Bella doesn't need further instructions, she'd much rather prefer it if Elliot didn't talk much at all.

Finally the operator picks up.

Bella cuts her. "This is Bella. I need to speak with Charlie." The person must have known what was going on because the line is immediately transferred and a worried, throaty voice comes onto the line.

"Bella? Bella are you okay?"

"Dad." She can breathe for a moment. "Y-you need to track this number. James is here but I shot him, Dad, I mean, he's still alive I think…. Hal knocked him out and Alice is-Alice is hurt badly and Elliot is bleeding. Dad…you need to get here, Alice is…" She's crying in hysterics and sobbing between words. It's not until now that she's able to drop the pistol she's been holding. She had shot another being. Another person, a living, breathing human.

"It's okay honey. It's okay. Just give me a moment okay? Let me track the phone."

Silence.

"Bella?"

"Dad."

"Is Elliot…?"

"She's…okay." Bella looks over to Elliot and the girl smiles reassuringly and mouths 'I'm good' to her. "Alice. She got shoved over the staircase, Dad. What do I do?"

"Is she breathing?"

"Yes."

"Try to wake her up, Bella. Check for bleeding, any broken bones, a bruise, something." Charlie swallows. "We have your location now Bella but it's a 25 minutes before we get there."

Bella looks around for James' keys. They had to have gotten here somehow…There. On the kitchen table she sees a set of keys, the biggest one having a black, bulky top with buttons on it. She looks outside to see a truck parked on the dirt. "What if I can meet you there Dad? Can you get two ambulances?"

Charlie sounds proud when he responds, "Yes, we can manage that. Take a right and keep onto the street. We'll meet you somewhere there in the middle."

"Okay, Dad. Thank you. And…"

"Yes?"

"I love you Dad. I know we haven't spent a lot of time together but I want you to know that."

"Love you too, Bella. Bye"

"Bye."

Elliot already has the keys in hand as Bella comes to help shoulder Alice's weight with Hal. They're almost out the door when a bullet hits the wall next to Hal that startles them all.

"Go!" Hal says and shoves them all out the door, slamming it shut and locking it. Elliot pushes her out of the way and presses herself on the door where the two locks eyes and a silent agreement passed between them in a fraction of a second. It's that sort of understanding Bella can only describe as something there and, at the same time, intangible. By the time Elliot turns around, her face is sturdy and determined.

"Lets go." She says.

"But Hal is.."

"She'll be okay." Elliot sounds like she's trying to persuade herself.

They make it to the truck and she helps Bella take Alice into the passenger seat and then hands her the keys.

"Elliot…"

"Please." Elliot looks straight into her eyes, "Promise me you won't do anything stupid alright?"

She feels a ball of metal hit the bottom of her stomach and nods.

"Keep yourself safe and make my sister happy alright?" She nods again. "I'll see you later, Bells."

Bella starts the truck up and slams onto the accelerator. She concentrates on driving and the rise and fall of Alice's chest. She doesn't look back. Only forward, the windshield getting hit by little flakes of snow, one by one, melting from the heat of the car. It's warm, Bella thinks. Its warm now...

November 31st

7:43 PM

Elliot

Thankfully, the back door is unlocked and Elliot slips herself in.

It's strange.

She's not scared.

She should be but she isn't.

Not even when she sees Hal in the living room, getting gunned down by James with a rifle in his hand.

She doesn't have any regrets.

"You don't know it yet." The blonde haired girl announces into Elliot's dorm, "But I'm the one for you."

She grabs the pistol that Bella had dropped as James questions the love of her life, "Do you regret loving her now, Haley?"

Hal launches her into the pile of fallen leaves, the force of her landing pushes all the things they've raked together apart but it doesn't matter. What does is when Hal lands next to her, eyes alight and pulls her into a deep kiss.

"No." Hal breathes out. "Never."

Elliot wakes up yelling to another nightmare. And, usually, she grabs a pillow and lays there until sunrise, wishing the images and memories to go away. Instead, Hal gets up, kisses her temple and brings her back down to earth. The dark circles around her eyes had been lightening up since then.

The dark haired girl breaks into a sprint, putting her arms around Hal just in time.

"Are you sure this isn't going to break?" Elliot asks, looking down at the ice lake she's skating on. Hal takes her hand reassuringly.

"Would never let you fall in, baby."

The bullet pierces her lung but she's able to turn just enough to aim at James head and pull the trigger several times. She doesn't have to look to know that he's dead; the sound of his body falling onto the floor was enough.

Elliot turns back again and takes in Hal's beautiful face one last time.

November 31st

7:44 PM

Hal

She can never describe the feeling of seeing Elliot go limp in her arms. It feels like it's more than the world for falling apart, louder than any sound, more painful than poison or sickness. Hal feels the bullet in her own chest, feels the life drain out of her, and feels her entire world collapse that very day.

Elliot brings a weak and cold hand to cup her cheeks. She barely manages to smile. "I'm sorry."

"You'll be okay." Hal shakes her head, "They're going to be here on time baby, you'll be fine." She begins to pick up the limp girl but Elliot tightens her grip on her collared shirt in refusal.

"No they won't come in time." God she sounds so tired.

"We can try." Why do they always bicker? They always bicker, even now.

"You can't do this to me Ellie" Hal begs. "Please…baby…"

"I don't want my last memory to be watching you carry me fruitlessly somewhere..."

She can't help but fight it, "Its not your last moment, Elliot. You're so much stronger than that." But somehow, she's stopped trying to pick up the smaller girl, cradling her in her arms. Looking back now, even then, a part of her had known Elliot wasn't going to live.

"I want to stay with you," Elliot pushes her free hand into the pocket of her coat and produces a necklace. It's a small locket, the outside engraved with two birds circling each other but the chains are red and crusted with blood. "I wanted to spend every waking moment with you, I want to go to college and get fat and make you make me feel better about it. I want to get old with you and..."

Hal is crying and the knot in her throat is growing bigger and bigger but she can't stop herself, "And we'll get married." She says, "We'll get married and get this big old fashion house, somewhere out in the plains like you wanted, Ellie. And you'll wake up to birds and we'll make breakfast-french toast and ham- and…" A sob cuts her off.

There's just so much red everywhere now.

"And we'll live a long and happy life together." Elliot smiles and Hal nods frivolously, trying her hardest to believe it all. "I know it's selfish of me. I know that it's going to be more painful for you to live on than it ever will for me right now." she coughs up more blood. "You need to though, Hal. You need to because I never could have."

"Don't, please…"

Elliot pulls in a short breath. "Love…you…"

Her body goes limp and Hal's entire world collapses onto itself, shattering into a million little pieces. She doesn't even hear the scream she lets out, later Bella says she did since many things echo in the woods of Forks, but Hal doesn't.

I'm a super bitch. If you know me as a person and as a writer, you'd know this was coming a long time ago. You just don't introduce a likeable character unless you want to kill them off later (I credit Joss Whedon for this, he has mastered this trait). Anyways, this chapter is more plot heavy than fluffy Bellice moments that we all like and if you want those you can go back any chapter from now and read.

NOW TELL ME WHAT YOU THINK OF THIS! :D I'd love some feedback on this chapter and the plot. If i could go back and add more crazy James in, i think it would've been better. Somehow, that just didn't make it in there though. Plus, i mean, Elliot dying, did ya cry? What about Hal? I think she got some limelight in here.

My favorite is next chapter, the aftermath of all of this. We can't forget about what happened to the Cullens and Co. I mean, did ya forget about Rosalie? Where is she? Is Alice dead too? SO MANY UNANSWERED QUESTIONS! And i love it! Stay tuned guys and thanks for reading!