Inside A Book 2011 (Discontinued)

Chapter 2: Fictional Characters

Chapter 2: Fictional Characters

I didn't know when I woke up again, but when I did, I was sure I had been dreaming. Bella Swan in my closet? Someone must have hit my head pretty hard or I had hit my head worse than anticipated, today in Gym. Or I could just be hallucinating?

My eyes slowly opened themselves, only to find a brown-haired girl standing over me and looking worried.

I immediately closed my eyes again and groaned. I was hallucinating. Bella had not gone away.

"Are you alright?" she asked me in that shy voice again, and I seriously had the urge to reassure her that I was okay. Then it suddenly hit me that she could be pulling a prank on me and not really be Bella Swan at all.

But then how do you think she materialized into your closet? I asked myself. There are security alarms all over the house, and you haven't left the room since you got home. Sheesh, you were even in your closet a couple of hours ago! I pondered this new information of mine, and decided that as long as she wasn't being unfriendly, I was going to allow myself to hallucinate about Bella Swan.

"I'm fine thanks," I said, while opening my eyes and trying to get myself to sit on my elbows. Bella was very eager to help me, and it reminded me of Edward's observation about her; she liked to take care of others and hated to be taken care of herself. I almost didn't notice that she was actually touching me, and I began to wonder if hallucinations could feel real. I had to look that up later when she was gone again.

"I'm sorry to ask again," she said while biting her lip, "but how did you know my name? I don't think I've seen you in any of my classes, or actually anywhere in Phoenix."

I smiled a bit at the thought of how precise Edward's observations of her had been in "Midnight Sun" - she wasvery perceptive - but then I started to laugh.

"What?" she asked, her brows furrowed.

I was still laughing a bit, but controlled myself enough to answer her question. "You haven't. But I know a great deal about you."

Her brows were still furrowed, as she was still looking at me thoughtfully. I knew I hadn't answered her original question, but then again, I knew I shouldn't. There was just something inside of me that told me not to tell her about "Twilight". I purposely avoided looking in the direction of my bed, as I was sure she wouldn't hesitate to walk over there and discover everything about her life.

"You never did answer my question," she said and for a moment I was actually annoyed at how stubborn she seemed. But I could be stubborn too - I could play her game...

"I never said I was going to answer it."

Her eyes narrowed a bit, but then she closed them and sighed. "I don't suppose you could tell me the way to Scottsdale?" she said as her eyes opened and focused on me again. "I'm sure my mom's worried about me, and frankly I have no idea how I ended up in your closet anyway."

The smile that had graced my lips for some time now, immediately disappeared. "Umm, that's going to be quite a problem you know," I almost whispered, but I knew she heard me, because her eyes widened a bit at my news.

"How?" her voice was a bit shaky.

"Well," now it was my time to bite my lip. I looked a bit around in my roomy closet and then decided to just get it over with. I took a deep breath before continuing, "you've kind of landed in Salem, Massachusetts."

"But that's not possible," she contradicted me, and I was sure she was going to try and argue with me, if I hadn't gotten up and gently grabbed her by the shoulders. By now I had already trashed the hallucination-theory - Bella Swan was in my closet and now I had to help her get home.

"What about going back the way you came?" I soothingly asked. I didn't want her to get into shock in my room and wake my parents. I could already imagine what they would think, seeing another girl in my room in the middle of the night. Sigh. That was a mental image I had to wash from my inner eye very soon. "I'm sure you'd be home in no time."

She seemed to realize something, since her head snapped up in a flash and her face turned all panicked again. "You know what? Maybe I'll just stay here after all. Forks isn't really my thing." Her voice was coming out in a flash and I almost didn't catch everything she said.

My own mouth opened in shock. "Are you completely out of your mind!" I exclaimed as loud as I dared. "You have to get back there, go to Forks and meet Edward Cullen!" By now I had let go of her shoulders.

"Who's Edward Cullen?" she curiously asked, and she was frowning in thought again.

Oops... Major slip up Katherine. I'm sure every twilight-fan out there must love you right now... you just got yourself one billion hate-points...

"Oh, nobody," I answered as nonchalantly as I could, since I had always been a good liar. But I wasn't so sure that this was one of my good ones.

"Really?" Bella asked, and I sensed that she didn't really believe me.

"Yeah," I answered and looked nowhere in particular.

It was silence after that, and the minutes ticked by excruciatingly slow. I had no idea what more to say to her, and I noticed that she was standing with her arms crossed, while that characteristic 'Bella-frown' was showing on her forehead.
At last she finally sighed.

"Alright, I'll try and go back the way I came," she said and I smiled widely in her direction. "if you promise to go with me, and tell me everything about this Edward person."

My smile crumbled as she told me that. Was she insane?! I was going to mash up the story even more than I already had! "I can't do that," I said, yet it only came out as a whisper.

"Of course you can. It's just this way through the-"

"No," I interrupted her. "I mean I literally can't go with you." I sighed and tried to find the right words. "You're like a... pretend person, while I'm a real person."

A tiny smile graced her lips, and I understood why guys would find her pretty. She had a very pretty and natural smile. "You know you stole that line from "Lost in Austen", right?" it looked like she was about to crack with laughter.

However, I didn't find it funny at all. She was a character in a book, while I was a real person, who's thoughts Edward Cullen would certainly read, making him leave Forks forever, Bella would never marry him and have Nessie and I would have ruined one of the best romantic love stories of all time. Way to go Katherine!

"I know," I told her, "but I'm telling you the truth! Me going with you is not a good idea!"

Suddenly Bella got a glimpse in her eyes, "But you said you literally couldn't go with me before." And I knew I had dug my own grave now. So much for not wanting to ruin the story.

"I can't go," I said again, and hung my head. "I'll mess everything up," I continued in a barely audible whisper.

"Sure you can!" Bella contradicted me. "Amanda Price pretty much messed up "Pride and Prejudice" but the story was at least just as good and ended well for everyone," she smiled genuinely in my direction.

"You can't know if it'll be the same way for me. You can't see the future," Or hear everybody's thoughts...

"That's true," Bella said, "but I don't see why you're comparing me to a character in a book. I'm as real as you are." She stood there, with her arms crossed, and I knew she was somehow speaking the truth. I had touched her shoulders, and they had been of flesh and blood - like myself.

"Then tell me something I couldn't possibly know about you," I begged her, hoping I would be mistaken and that she wasn't as real as me.

"Well," she began and moved her finger to her chin in thought. "My mom divorced from my dad, when I was only a couple of months old-"

"I already know that. No personal things please."

"But how did you-"

"Please just tell me Bella," I tiredly told her while holding the brick of my nose between my my thumb and forefinger.

She seemed to deliberate for a moment. "Well, there's this ice cream store, just at the end of my street, where I like to go in the summer and read a good book."

It sounded so Bella, that I simply had to believe it. Besides, I had no idea if there actually was an ice cream store at the end of her street in Phoenix. God lead me into purgatory if I mess up this story, I thought to myself, while mentally preparing myself for the upcoming journey.

"Alright," I told her, and her eyes were glistening, while her smile was as wide as I had ever seen it yet. "But I'm not going to Forks with you."

Her smile disappeared again. "But you were going to tell me everything about this guy."

I sighed. "I can't and I won't," I told her. "I'm more tightly bound to secrecy than you can ever imagine! I'm literally bound by ink!" I almost smiled at my secret joke. I was bound by a book and that was as good as ink.

She now sighed too. "Can't you at least come to Forks with me?" she begged, and her eyes were like a puppies. I could not stand those eyes - they made me do anything their owner wanted me to. Did she even realize she was making them? "It's not like I'm going to fit in with anyone in a school that small. And besides," she hesitated, "I like your company. You're... different from anyone else our age. I'm beginning to think Forks would be endurable if you stayed there with me."

I had to admit, I was flattered. When Bella Swan told you she felt you could be her friend when she didn't connect well with other people, you felt like you were something special. Then again, Bella and I weren't as different as she thought.

I sighed and looked down in defeat. Damn Bella for being so persuasive. She had just doomed her love life into oblivion. I sadly smiled at my Harry Potter joke. "Alright, alright, I'll go." I looked up at her and was secretly hoping she would do something very unlike Bella - like hugging me - so that I could be sure she wasn't real. But she didn't. Instead she only smiled brightly and thanked me.

My eyes quickly darted to the alarm-clock I kept in the closet and I groaned. It was 2 AM in the morning. No wonder my eyelids were stating to feel like they were getting heavier and heavier. I suppressed a yawn.

"Do you think we can go tomorrow? I think I'm about to fall asleep standing upright." I asked and actually failed to suppress the yawn that escaped me this time.

"I don't think my mom would fully appreciate that I stayed away the whole night," she said. Translated to: I'm going to be worried about my harebrained, erratic mother all night, so let's get going right away! I thought. God Kathrine, you're slaphappy! Not good when you're with Bella! Just watch your sarcastic tongue around her will you? Another part of my brain told me, and I wondered for a moment if I was becoming schizophrenic, now that I was beginning to imagine Bella in the same room as me. But I quickly dismissed the thought, as I was too tired to dig deeper into it.

"'Kay," I said, turning around and staggering in the direction of my school bag. If I was going to Forks I might as well pack a few things anyway.

"Why don't you just lay down for a few seconds while I pack some of your things?" Bella surprised me by asking.

"S' okay," I slurred. "I can pack." But I surely didn't feel like it. I never stayed up until this late, so naturally I was tired to my bones.

"No no, just let me," Bella soothed and guided me towards the bed. "I'll just pack a few things into your bag and then I'll wake you up, okay?" She helped onto the madras.

I just yawned and mumbled a thanks before I could hear her rumble about in my room. I was about to fall asleep, listening to the soothing sound of footsteps, when I suddenly felt something hard just underneath my back. I rolled over and eyed the object I had lain on with interest, as my eyes suddenly widened and ,my sleepiness immediately disappeared. I was looking directly at "Twilight", the one book Bella was never to find.Not the only one, I reminded myself, and looked over at Bella in shock. She luckily hadn't touched any of the books on the shelf behind her, but she was packing some of my clothes, my iPod it seemed and my cell. I appreciated her for that. She knew what I would treasure most, at the least.

"Do you mind if I pack a couple of books for myself?" I asked her and she started. "Sorry," I apologized.

"It's alright, I just thought you were getting some sleep," she said and resumed packing my things.

In the end I packet more than just a couple of books. I ended up taking the whole Twilight-Saga, my underwear(since I was sure Bella did not want to pack those for me, and my purse. I made sure that I had enough money on me that I wouldn't starve, but I took my credit card with me for safety reasons. You never knew if you had an alternate bank-account in a story you were about to enter.

"Are you ready to go?" Bella asked as she opened the door to my closet again.

I took a deep breath. "As ready as I'll ever be." I walked towards Bella and prayed a silent prayer to God - if the man even existed - that if he was truly there for me, then he wouldn't let Edward Cullen read my mind, when I got to Forks. Please God, I begged. If you exist, I'm asking you to not to let him read my mind.

I reached the door and Bella smiled at me. "Let's go," I whispered and she took my hand leading me to the back end of the closet.

We need to go through the door here," she explained and I frowned, removing my hand from hers.

"There is no door there," I explained. "It only looks like that."

Bella just shrugged. "It's where I came through, I'm sure. The attic of my mother's house is on the other side."

I raised an eyebrow. "And what were you doing in the attic of your house?" It sounded very unlike Bella to go exploring inside her own house. She seemed more like a stay-in-one-place-at-a-time person.

She blushed. "I was just trying to find a way not to go to Forks." I couldn't help but to giggle just a bit at her embarrassment. Edward had been right, it was amusing.

She glared at me for a moment, and I desperately wanted to laugh even harder. She did look even funnier when she was angry! (Edward and I were so going to share a private joke there). Then she sighed and said, "We should hurry up, I don't want to have my mom find my bed empty."

I stiffened beside her as she mentioned her mom. What the heck was I going to say to mine?!

"Are you alright?" Bella had turned around to face me again.

"What am I going to tell my mom?" I blurted. "She's going to flip if I'm not here in the morning!" I could easily picture the scene, my mom coming into my room and finding my bed empty. She would immediately suspect Jack of being reason behind my disappearance, but soon she would begin to believe I had been kidnapped. And then when I came back again she would ground me for the rest of my life - not really something I was looking forward to.

"Well," Bella bit her lip and I waited for her to continue. She didn't though.

"What?" I asked. Couldn't she just tell me and then we could get it over with?

She looked at the ground for a moment, sighed and then looked at me again. "I'm not sure you're going to like the idea but... you could always fake that you've run away from home."

I starred at her in shock. Damn right she'd been that I wasn't going to like the plan. "Have you lost your mind?" I exclaimed as loud as I dared in a house full of sleeping people. "That's going to hurt them more than if they thought I had been kidnapped!"

"I know," she sighed, and her eyes moved to stare at the floor. "But at least they'd know that you were safe."

I pinched the brick of my nose and breathed in deeply. The plan itself was good enough, I had to grant her that. It was just... I hated seeing my family in pain.

But perhaps this was just some adventure for the greater good? Shouldn't I take the offer and make some sacrifices along the way? Maybe leaving my family behind was the biggest sacrifice of them all.

"Fine," I sighed and let my arms fall to my sides.

I wrote the letter informing my parents of my 'intentions', laid it on my pillow and went over to Bella once more. For once in my life I didn't care about the tears streaming down my cheeks.

"Are you ready?" she asked as we once again stood before the door at the end of my closet.

"As ready as I'll ever be," I managed to choke out, before I dried my eyes, Bella opened the door and we both went through it, unaware of our future adventures together.