Disclaimer: I don't own anything…not even a funny disclaimer.
I know I said I'll update faster, and it's been three months, but it was so hard to write this chapter! I deleted and rewrote this so many times that it boggles my mind; this was supposed to be an easy chapter…but apparently my writing mojo disagrees. Anyhow, enjoy the efforts of three whole months of tearing my hair out! Lol ; D
(This continues from the end of chapter 5, where Bella and the girls are getting ready to go over to Edward's house)
Bella POV
I sighed as Alice made me model yet another of her purchases from yesterday. I had asked her not to go overboard with my makeover – when I said I lived in jeans and jerseys, I was serious, and not even a makeover by Alice could change that. Right now, Alice had me put on a pair of dark blue jeans (one of the few I really liked) and a white t-shirt with a funny slogan scrawled on to it.
"That looks great on you, Bells," Alice said, "but put a little more oomph in your walk! You know you have it in you; just let that diva out!"
"Thanks for the encouragement, Al, but the only thing I have right now is patience, and not much of it," I retorted.
"Just a few more to go then," Rosalie said.
"A few more? You said it was a few more ten minutes ago too!"
"Did I? I don't remember…" Rose said while tapping her chin with a mock thoughtful look on her face.
"Of course you don't," I said sarcastically.
Alice rolled her eyes. "Cut it out you two, and Bella, you win. We're going over to Edward's house right now, just let me get changed."
"Oh thank you Alice. I'll owe forever for doing this marvelous favor on me. I never thought I'd get to see my best friend ever again! But you have shown such mercy that- Ouch! What was that for?" I yelled as Alice smacked my head.
"That was for being a smartass," she replied, grinning.
"I'm not a smartass! I'm just an extremely-"
"Annoying girl," Rose interrupted. "Now shut up and get dressed."
I sighed but grinned and went to put on some of my usual clothes while Alice and Rose stuffed the new clothes into a large bag.
We walked over in a comfortable silence over to the Cullen house. Alice skipped like a little girl, twirling around the sidewalk unselfconsciously, while Rosalie and I watched her with smiles on our faces.
The barely five minute walk was soon over and I rang the bell, while the other girls took in the neat white house and the beautiful flowers. Esme's passion for gardening was only overshadowed by her passion for decorating, and so both the inside and outside of the Cullen home looked stunning.
No one answered the door for a good five minutes. We all were just standing there looking at each other in confusion when the door was abruptly yanked open by a flushed and panting…girl?
"Hey….," I said, and then trailed off awkwardly as we took in each other.
The unknown girl was dressed in distressed jeans and sneakers and wore a shirt saying "Port Angeles Cleaning Company – You want it clean, we'll give you clean!" Her bright red, possibly dyed hair was tied up in a ponytail, with bangs falling down into her eyes. She was undeniably good looking – a smooth face, straight nose, and pretty green eyes framed by long lashes.
For a second, I felt a pang of insecurity and jealousy while looking at her, and I wondered why Edward would even spare me a second glance when he had such gorgeous girls to feast his eyes on.
Then I remembered that the Cullens never hired maids, Esme wanted her family to be able to take care of their house by themselves, so the girl obviously had been invited here by someone other than Edward. Emmett, maybe?
A sound of a throat clearing snapped me out of my reverie, and I saw Rosalie give me a curious look.
"Wouldn't you introduce us, Bella?" she asked politely, but with a slight annoyed tone underneath.
"Oh, yeah. I'm Bella Swan, and these are my cousins, Alice and Rosalie. We were going to hang out with the boys…" I said.
"Yes! Mr. Cullen told me you would be coming over. Please, come in. My name is Tanya, and I was here to clean some stuff up," the girl said. She had a thick British accent and an unusually husky voice.
We three nodded and stepped into the house. It was eerily quiet and empty, as I was used to hearing some noise or the other when I came – Esme singing, Edward playing his music, or Carlisle watching TV.
"Who called you here?" asked Alice inquisitively.
"Just one E Cullen," Tanya replied vaguely. "Oh, I remember now! I was supposed to take you up to the attic," she exclaimed unexpectedly.
"I didn't know the Cullens had an attic," I mumbled. How could I have been friends with them for two years and missed that little fact?
Tanya smiled, or smirked would be more appropriate as she headed up the staircase and gestured for us to follow her. She seemed pleased with herself, as if she were laughing at some inside joke, but the expression on her face did nothing to lessen my anxiety.
Charlie's incessant lectures about "Stranger Danger" were making their appearance known, and I chided myself for not asking Tanya for some sort of identification. For all I knew, she could be a serial killer who had tied up the boys and was planning on torturing all of us together.
The second floor was empty too, the sound of our footsteps resonating against the wooden floor. We walked in a tense silence past Carlisle's office, Esme's workshop, the bedrooms and the bathrooms. Finally Tanya stopped in front of the guest room.
"Come in," she said while holding the door open for us, then closing it securely after we walked inside.
Alice was bobbing up and down on her toes, while Rosalie was taking in the room. My eyes flashed to the windows and the door, looking for ways to escape; while my mind was busy coming up with gruesome scenarios of Tanya murdering us in an assorted variety of ways.
Tanya pulled up a chair next to the window and then climbed on it. We watched in silence as she pulled on a latch in the ceiling and a trapdoor swung down. So this was the entrance to the mysterious attic…Edward certainly never mentioned it.
Tanya gestured for one of us to climb on the chair. I shrunk back, my heart beating fast as I dredged up even more horrific scenarios of out death. I opened my mouth to scream but my voice disappeared as Alice jumped on the chair, her expression carefree but her eyes wide open.
Tanya boosted her up into the dim darkness of the attic, and Alice scrambled up.
"It's okay, guys, there's nothing much up here except dust and a few boxes. Maybe there are some baby photos of Edward here!" Alice's voice floated back to us.
I gulped.
Rosalie saw my expression, shook her head and climbed on the chair. Tanya was going to help her up, but with a flip of her hair, Rosalie went up without a backwards glance into the attic.
"Alice's right, Bella, there is nothing much up here. Come on!" her disembodied voice said.
I climbed up with my heart drumming a terrified beat in my chest. Up till now, Tanya hadn't said a word. I looked down on her as I climbed up into the opening, and she had a blank expression on her face.
For some reason, that blank look scared me more than the evil smirk…
Rosalie grasped my hand as the rest of my body went through the trapdoor. My eyes were just adjusting to the darkness when the trapdoor swung shut behind me with a low thud.
Tanya had not come up with us – she had trapped us in!
"Ohboyohboyohboyohboyohboy," I mumbled, trying not to panic and start hyperventilating.
Rose let go of my hand and ran over to the door, the dust swirling on the floor as she ran. She tugged on the door, but it couldn't be opened from the inside. There were no windows either, and the only light was a dim glow from the edges of the trapdoor.
Alice was standing stunned in the corner, next to some cardboard boxes, looking for all intents and purposes like a goldfish out of water. Rose's frustrated grunt pulled both me and her out of our reveries and we frantically ran along the perimeter of the attic. The room was a lot bigger than we had expected, and by the time Rose gave up on the trapdoor and joined us in our search for an escape, we had barely reached halfway across the room.
Creak!
We all stood stock still as the floor creaked.
"Who did that?" asked Alice, her voice just a slight whisper.
"Not me," Rose whispered back, and I shook my head in the negative. Alice gulped, her eyes widening as another creak echoed through the dust filled room. My heart was somewhere in the vicinity of my throat, and it was beating hard enough that it was a miracle no one else could hear it.
"Bloody hell!" Rose screamed as a hand shot out of the darkness and grabbed her waist. At the same time, another hand shot out and grabbed me.
I wiggled and kicked and screamed as loud as I could as my captor dragged me back through the dust and clapped a hand over my mouth. Neither Alice nor Rose were in sight, but someone was sobbing loudly, wildly and without interruption.
"W-whoever you are…p-please l-let us go…we d-don't mean a-any harm, I swear," Alice's frightened voice rang out. I assumed no one had caught her yet, as she continued, her voice broken by jagged sobs.
"D-don't hurt us, just l-let us go, I-I promise we wouldn't t-tell anybody…just let t-the boys and us go, please," she said, and my mind immediately leapt to Edward, Jasper and Emmett. Were they dead? Had Tanya locked them in the basement to torture them? My mind raced as tears started to well up in my eyes too.
A single drop fell down on the hand that was holding my mouth. The hand jerked away, as if it had been electrocuted, and simultaneously, a loud groan came from the opposite end of the room.
"Holy crap, but that hurt like hell," a familiar voice growled.
"Emmett?" Rose and I asked.
"Aw man, looks like the game's over," the voice replied back.
The distinctive sound of static over a radio broke the shocked silence that had settled over us after Emmett's reply.
"Blondie…can you hear me? What happened? I heard some noises-" Edward's voice came from behind me, interrupted by a short burst of static.
I turned around as the arms holding me fell back, and standing behind me, with a very sheepish expression on his face, was Jasper.
"Blondie?" was the only thing my dazed brain could come up with.
"Jasper?" Alice's voice was like cold steel.
"Crap," muttered Jasper. "Run, Emmett," he yelled, and he shot off like a bullet with Emmett passing me just a few seconds later.
My frozen brain kicked into gear, and as Alice and Rosalie brushed by me, I ran behind them, my anger at the stupid prank fueling me.
"You bloody idiots! Come back here!" Rose yelled, her shout echoing off the walls.
In front of us a golden rectangle of light glimmered suddenly – Emmett and Jasper had managed to open the trapdoor and had jumped down into the guest room.
"They found out, Edward! Run for your life!" Emmett's shout reached up faintly into the attic. Alice reached the door first and she swung down gracefully. Rose followed next but I hesitated. The drop down to the guest room floor seemed awfully big…
"Get over yourself, Bella, and jump down this instant!" Rose yelled.
I took a deep breath and followed her advice. The wooden floor thumped against my shoes and I faltered as I took in the scene inside the guest room. Three walkie-talkies were lying on the floor and a pair of ski masks were flung haphazardly on the bed.
"Come on, Bella," Alice shrieked, the anger in her voice plain.
I followed the sound of her voice, running down the stairs into the living room.
The boys were so dead.
Yeah, yeah, I know. Evil place to end the chapter…especially after three months delay. But this chapter was over 2,000 words – two thousand! – making it the longest chapter till date.
About my posting schedule: I envy those authors who can churn out chapters on a fixed schedule, without delay…but unfortunately, I'm not one of those. You might have to wait a few months for it, but the chapters are going to be at least over a 1,000 words, I promise. I hope that's one more reason for you to stick with this story – apart from my fabulous writing, of course ;)
So, what do you think the girls are gonna do to the boys? Got any ideas/suggestions? Give me a review – I promise to reply to each and every one of them :D Also, I have a poll on my profile – which character do you want to see more of in this story? Go and vote! Votes + reviews = happy me = longer chapter = happy you :)
And because I'm bored, what sun sign are you? I'm a Virgo :)
Cullensroc.