Twilight: Murder At First Sight

The Alarm

Two days later, the police officially declared Victoria missing, leading to an investigation into her whereabouts. Charlie questioned me at home the night before. I could barely look him in the eye as I lied to him. I told him I didn't know anything.

Students whispered among themselves, wondering what happened to Victoria. Mike, who looked white as a sheet, was escorted to the principal's office, where the police awaited him.

The next day, everyone's attention turned to James, who had just returned from a week-long camping trip with his dad. He sprained his wrist and had multiple cuts and bruises from fighting off a cougar at their campsite.

Luckily, his dad brought his rifle with him to scare it off. Charlie told me about it. He was worried that the animal might have attacked Victoria.

I had to fight the urge to tell Charlie what I saw. I didn't want Edward caught. It disturbed me that the only person I had grown close to was the one I suspected of murder. 

Though he had his quirks, he was never mean to me. He seemed to know when to step back or step in. I found we had a lot in common as I tried to gather any information from him that could prove that he did indeed kill Victoria.

As the days turned into weeks, the community rallied together, organizing search parties and distributing flyers with Victoria's picture. The support from the community gave the police even more determination to bring Victoria home safely. 

I was jealous that a dead girl could receive so much attention. Even Charlie became obsessed with finding her. But that should be expected of the Chief of Police.

In biology, we had begun dissecting pig fetuses. I seemed to be the only student genuinely interested in learning the subject.

I looked up at Edward, who was studying the pig and looked back at the textbook. "If you, uh, don't want to cut it, I can do it," I said.

Edward smirked. "I was just about to offer the same thing to you." He slowly grabbed the scalpel.

The small, thin blade suddenly looked more threatening in his hand.

Suddenly, he flipped it over, and the handle pointed toward me. "After you." He handed it to me.

"O-okay." I slowly reached for the scalpel, and one of my fingers grazed his.

I noticed my hand trembling as I hovered the blade over the pig's stomach. I tried to breathe deeply when Edward's hand covered mine.

"Maybe I should do it. You should see me handle a knife." He said in a low voice.

I gasped. My hand opened, and the scalpel dropped on the table and bounced onto the floor.

Mr. Banner observed another group's pig when he heard a scalpel drop. As a clumsy student, everyone knew me to be, he immediately glanced at me. "Are you alright?"

"Y-yes, Mr. Banner." I froze. Everyone stared at me and snickered.

Edward quickly kneeled in front of me and picked up the scalpel.

"Mr. Cullens, make sure you handle the scalpel while Miss Swan watches and takes notes."

"Yes, sir. It won't happen again." Edward said as he glanced up at me.

We stared at each other for a moment. At that moment, I was sure that he knew that I knew. It was like he was daring me to say something. Mr. Banner's voice snapped us out of it.

"Listen up class! Even if you don't want to cut, you have to watch and take notes! And for heaven's sake, be careful! Otherwise there's a big fat F in your future." Mr. Banner walked to the front of the class and observed everyone.

During the rest of the class, there were only students groaning and snickering at the pigs. Usually, I would be okay with this sort of thing. But imagining Victoria in the pig's place made me nauseous.

In the last few minutes of class, Mr. Banner walked around each table and examined each group's work.

"Well, well. It seems Mr. Cullen was the only one who carefully read the text. That's the finest dissecting I've seen in some time." Mr. Banner beamed.

Edward smiled at me. "Well I am interested in becoming a surgeon."

My jaw dropped. Of course, he does. He enjoys cutting and stabbing people.

The bell rang shortly after, and everyone gathered their things to leave. I noticed Edward was watching me. What was he planning on doing?

I didn't stop to see what he wanted and quickly left the room. This was confusing for me. I didn't know what to do or feel. I needed to talk to someone.

As I walked down the hall, I searched for Angela. She would help make sense of all of this.

I spotted her talking to Jessica and Mike. They noticed me walking toward them.

"Oh, you're finally trying to swoop in now, huh?" Jessica snarled at me.

"What? What are you talking about?" I looked over at Angela, who averted my eyes.

"You did something to her didn't you? So you could try to get Mike?" Jessica asked.

I rolled my eyes. "No, if anyone did that it would be you, Jessica." I laughed and hoped Angela would laugh along with me like she used to. But she didn't.

"How can you laugh when Victoria is missing? How messed up are you?" Mike asked, standing between Jessica and Angela.

"You see what I mean now? She's psycho!" Jessica turned to him.

I kept looking at Angela for support, but nothing. She wouldn't look at me or say anything.

"Don't think she'll stand up for you Bella. We all know you have this obsession with Mike! All Victoria and I did was play a prank on you. Are you going to come after me next?" Jessica backed up closer to Mike and grabbed his arm. I could see her ruse.

He put his arm around her. "It's okay, we'll find out what happened and find Victoria."

There it was. I saw Jessica's lips twitch upward as Mike's arm wrapped around her waist.

"You know, you're all disgusting." Through my watery eyes, I glared at all three of them.

The last shred of hope for Angela to speak up was shattered as she walked away from the scene. Other students gathered around to see what Jessica was yelling about.

After Angela turned down another hallway, I wiped my eyes and ran out through the emergency exit behind me. The alarms blared behind me. Seconds later, I heard teachers asking students what was going on. I ignored them and kept running. I ran into the parking lot before I knew it.

Once in my truck, I hesitated as I didn't know where to go. I couldn't go home to Renee. I couldn't go to the police station to see Charlie. After a minute, I thought of one place to find some peace: La Push beach.