Wave of Heat (A Paul/Bella Fanfic)

Chapter 3: Choices

Lol, almost got this update done early. Looks like this story will about 10 chapters?

Thanks for reading!

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I shut the laptop and sighed. Online school was boring, but the idea of driving back to Forks High School had been nauseating. Nothing was left for me there, and LaPush was just about the only place I could stomach being. Even going to Port Angeles left me an incomprehensible mess, too fearful and depressed to really function.

Leaving once Charlie's house was sold and my schooling was finished was going to be agony.

It was now seven months since the Clearwaters had taken me in, and I was more at home than ever. From eight to three, the public library served as my safe haven, and then I beelined to Sue's kitchen table. Then I would spend the rest of the evening scouting colleges, trying to find a place that didn't sound too scary. The routine was soothing, and kept me grounded.

Each day was a step forward, but trying to uphold my decision to withdraw from Jacob had made every inch of progress a million times harder. It wasn't personal, but whatever was going on with Sam and the other young men of LaPush wasn't something I wanted involved in. My heart couldn't take knowing if they hurt people or if fate was as cruel to them as it had been to the Cullens. On top of that, Jake needed someone who would only have eyes for him.

Asking him to wait for a miracle was cruel and I couldn't keep hurting him.

Which was why I always slipped out of the back of the library rather than the front. He had figured out my never-changing schedule a while back, but he had stopped coming in when I'd quietly requested that he let me study in peace.

The forest faced this exit, and I was careful to hug the edge of it rather than cut through it. Paul's words about the woods had stuck with me. In fact, that entire encounter was always in the back of my head, guiding me when I needed to emotionally check-out. If I approached the disasters in my life with the attitude that it was out of my control, it made the shitstorm of my life easier to bear. Victoria, my mother, my father, Sam's group, the Cullens, and most of all Edward were out of my control. At the end of the day, the only person who listened to me was me.

The walk back to my safe haven was uneventful; Birds chirped, kids laughed and played, and I relaxed as the stresses of the day melted away. My favorite part of the path was when I hit the Clearwaters' half-mile long driveway. Sue landscaped the edges with fireweed which made all of the daisies and dandelions look plain, along with rock purslane. A sea of purple.

A beautiful day. I slowed down once I saw the Clearwater house to savor what time outside I could. There was still quite a bit left to do --

An inhuman screech broke out from the house.

Victoria. Terror filled me as I sprinted across the remainder of the gravel drive. I fell across the steps to the house and clawed open the door. Not them too.

Instead of seeing blood, guts, and an angry vampire, I was greeted with Leah on all fours on the floor, sweat marring her flawless skin and feverish eyes peeking out from long dark hair. Fur, coarse and silver, covered her face. Sue was on the other side of the kitchen with Harry leaning against her, his face ashen as if he had seen a demon.

Her shoulders, exposed from her ripped tank top, jutted out as if trying to rearrange themselves by about ninety degrees. The shrieks pouring from her mouth confirmed the agony that she was in.

It was a slow, awful process and her whimpers alone reminded me of when James had snapped my femur with his bare hands. And all I could do was stand there  and watch, transfixed. A witness to someone being tortured.