Runaway Girl {A Twilight Love Story}

When Your Soul Embarks

Riley

My mother left us when I was seven. I can still remember trying to grab on to her legs as she walked out the door with her heavy bags in hand. I followed her out into the lawn pleading with her as she loaded up a beat up Bronco. She kissed the top of my head and told me be a good boy and stay out of trouble. No promise of her returning and no explanation. I stood in the patchy brown lawn crying and screaming so loud that our next door neighbors, the DeFluer's came out to peak around the pillar separating our townhouses. I screamed until I lost my voice and croaked like frog for over a week. It was Alec who came out to drag me back in the house. At the ripe age of twelve he was strong enough to get me into the entrance way before I collapsed into a puddle on the floor. He stood above me and shook his head.

"Rye, you couldn't stop her, she wanted to get out of here and so she did. But don't worry; I'll take care of you. We don't need her; we don't need anyone but each other."

That night when my father came home and found that all her stuff was gone he flew into a violent rage, punching a hole into the walls and smacking me so hard that he knocked out a tooth in my mouth. Then as usual he left to go to the bar and didn't return for two days.

When he came back his shirt was stained and reeked like sweat and a scent I wouldn't recognize until I was older as Vanilla Fields body spray. (When I was sixteen I met a girl who wore that perfume. I took her aside to fuck her at some party and then told my whole school how she let me put it in her ass. She changed schools after that.)

My father sat across the table from us and shook his finger at us. "This shit with your mother, that's what women do. They will fuck up your life. She wouldn't have done it if she loved us. Remember boys, don't let those bitches get the drop on you. Take my life as an example. Don't ever let some cunt shit all over your life."

We nodded at him solemnly and under the table Alec grabbed my hand, just to let me know that we would be okay. That he would be there, no matter what shit happened to us. That we had each other, that was all I could hold on to.

Ryland sat on the floor of Alec's apartment watching some cartoon; his hands still clasped in front of him in that silent prayer pose. Jane had run into town and got him clothes that hung baggy on his skinny frame.

Alec leaned back on his couch and chuckled to himself. "Well, little brother. You have certainly outdone yourself this time. I mean, it was only a matter of time before one of us knocked a girl up..."

"You did, remember? Danni Crawford? She was fifteen and got an abortion," I reminded him.

He furrowed his brow for a moment and then laughed. "Right, I forgot about her."

"And this is more than just me knocking some girl up. It was Bella. My Bella and then Jane..." I lowered my voice to a whisper. "Jane shot her. We took the kid and left."

"What?" Alec sputtered. "Jane did what?"

"You heard me, Alec," I mumbled.

Alec glanced at Ryland and leaned forward towards me. "What do you need bro? Because I got to tell you as much as I love you, I can't be having this shit come down on me. I'm still keeping a low pro after that scuffle in Chimacum."

We stared at Ryland for a while, the TV changed to some scantily clad preteen singing at a mall. I had devised a plan, but I knew that I couldn't do it alone. It was going to be expensive, highly illegal and I hoped that Alec would help me.

"Don't worry, if you'll help me, I'll be out of here in few days. You'll never have to see us again."

Edward

It was 216,000 seconds - 3,600 minutes - 60 hours. Two and half days since we found Bella in the woods. As a vampire I had always been skilled at keeping track of these little numbers. It wasn't hard when your mind was opened exponentially. Up until that point, it was a nice trait to have, but seeing Bella struggling against the venom, I would have done anything to just close my eyes and shut out the whole world. Every sound coming from her reverberated through my body, a painful cadence that I was sure would become my unraveling.

Jacob had stayed away after that day, only stopping in to give us updates on the pack's progress and check on how our investigation was going. We were both completely useless against this threat. We couldn't call the police, we couldn't tell Charlie. How would we explain Bella? How would we explain how we got there to find her? In our despair neither one of us could think of one logical excuse.

It didn't help that we were blind to what was going on with Ryland. Alice tried her best, but because she had never met Riley she had a hard time pinpointing his location. Every few hours she would get a vision of Ryland, often sitting in front of a TV while voices argued behind him. It seemed that wherever he was, that he was safe, if albeit a little neglected. Alice was frustrated with the lack of her gift in this situation. In lieu of Alice's visions we went to the cabin several times, trying to find anything to track Riley. We triangulated his cell and found that he had dumped it in Lake Crescent. The fucker was smarter than I had given him credit for. Emmett had researched Riley's family and the only information he found was Riley's mother living in Nampa, Idaho. He staked it out for day but couldn't see any activity suggesting that Riley had contacted her. Quite the opposite actually, it appeared she had a small replacement family that didn't involve Riley at all. Emmett said there wasn't one picture of Riley in the entire house.

Throughout it all I stayed by Bella's side, holding her hand and waiting for her heart to stop beating and her new life to begin.

Bella

I knew the moment that I stopped living, it was a pain I had never known and then a cool wash of air was blown out of my lungs for the last time. I opened my eyes to see Edward and I knew I had come home. Embracing him in a way that was so new and yet the most familiar thing to my heart, he kissed my neck with lips that felt both soft and warm.

I smiled to myself, this was an incredible feeling.

Edward's shoulders began to shake and I pulled away to look at his face.

"What is it? What's the matter with me?" I asked.

"Don't you remember?" he asked softly.

I thought back on what happened before I died. It was all so soft and muddled as if I was looking through a silk screen. I was sure I had everything I needed here with me now. Everything except...

"Where's my son?" I asked.

Edward shook his head and looked away from me.

I began to piece it together. The woods, Riley, a gun and a high pitch hiss in my ear.

I didn't want to hurt you and now you have to die...

Fumbling for Ryland against my chest and holding on to nothing.

I pushed Edward away and clenched my hands into fists. This wasn't happening, not now, not ever. The only thing I could see was Ryland's face, his smile on all those sunny days in Phoenix. The smooth skin of his palm inside mine. Everything I had to live for and everything I had died for. I began to scream so loudly that the windows shattered around me. So loud Edward covered his ears, so loud all of the town would come crashing to its knees. So loud the world would stop on its axis.

"WHERE IS MY SON!"