Archive of Our Own

Out of her window, she could see the flashes of lightning illuminating the sky. For the last couple of days it had been storming in Forks, the weather report seemed to believe that the worst had passed by now—she respectfully disagreed.

A thunder crack rolled over the hills as she sat down on her bed. The distant booms had become a lot more comfortable in the last couple of days than she had anticipated.

Lightning lit up the room again, counting she waited for the thunderclap. One, two, three, four—boom, and there it was not even a mile out from where she was sitting.

As she sat back putting a pillow under her back for support she returned to reading her book; ‘in the library I found, to my great delight, a vast number…’

The rain switched directions as it started to tickle onto the window when the howling winds picked up, the house old as it was, creaked just a little having set its walls over the years steadfast in the foundations.

Turning the page as she looked out of her window into the dark skies outside. There was still some grey left between the white flashes of lightning, but she suspected that the sun had set a bit ago. As she looked over to the clock on her wall she saw that it was pushing ten, not exactly late but time to get some rest.

Putting the book down and pulling her shorts off, making herself comfortable in the twin-sized bed. She was happy that her dad didn’t question her ‘can’t have enough pillows’ mentality. Returning from the store with three regular-sized fluffy pillows and then an extra-large sized, very fluffy pillow.

Wrapping herself around that one, deciding to shed the shirt she had been wearing up till that point. A bra would do she thought, tossing the piece of clothing to the side. It was something she’d pick up tomorrow.

Reaching out to turn off the light, she flicked it off as lightning lighted the room, shadows of trees projected through the window for a split second. Not paying much attention she missed the outline of a figure standing halfway up the tree, in its branches.

Rolling over she pushed the blanket down so she could sleep in what she hoped would be somewhat cool circumstances, temperatures had been pushing the low thirties during the nights for a while now and with the broken AC, any kind of cooling had been welcome.

The blanket was piled up around her ankles as she found a comfortable position to sleep in. Hugging the pillow with her arms and legs as she floated off to sleep.

The figure outside was still there, now sitting on the branch as they waited. Their hair soaked in the rain as it was falling in front of their face. The night was young and as they were getting settled in, Bella entered the first dream of the night she would forget about in the morning.

A figured towered over her, tall as the shadows trees had in the moonlight. As she tried to look up there was a way that their face stayed out of sight.

Seeing it would mean something. It would give some insight into what was going on.

The figure stepped back, moved back, shrunk? It did one of these things, maybe two of these or all. But it got smaller from where she was sitting.

Looking up now was easier, the figure had a face.

It was a dark face, hidden in shadows. There was a dark spot on the side where something like hair was covering it. She only had an eye for the eyes. They shifted between a bright gold and a dark red from side to side.

Neither colour ever had the complete domination but both got close from time to time.

It was when the gold diminished that there was a light leaking from the two holes that had been eyes before.

Realising that she was falling towards the ground the light showed what was waiting for her, impact imminent….

The morning brought grey weather and rain, not notably more or less of either but as the sun rose the darkness of night retreated for the shimmer of daylight. Again, not taking any notice of the trees that were across the street missing the mysterious figure who was still planted firmly in the branches, she descended the stairs.

Her dad had already departed earlier in the morning had left her a rare note; ‘Bells, the main highway is not accessible, a couple of trees fell on it and cars aren’t expected to pass it till the late afternoon.’

Charlie was an alright guy, she might not have given him the credit for being there earlier on in her life but now she saw what she had been missing out on. A middle-aged dad who cares about her but leaves her space to be her own person. That they were a bit distant with one-another but didn’t bother them as much. They weren’t talking people on the best of times, but they lived with each other just fine.

Making and eating her breakfast didn’t take much time, as she walked out the door with her hood up she flicked off the light that had been burning in the kitchen. As the house plunged into darkness she ventured out into the storm to her car.

The cabin miraculous wasn’t all that hot inside, just humid as all hell. Turning on the motor she could feel the flow of air hit her face as the car came to life. It was refreshing if not a bit wet as there was nothing but water in the air around her.

Reversing out of the driveway, making sure there were no other cars on the road she might hit. Finally getting on her way to school, low-key hoping that the weather was worse for her teachers so they could just have free periods all day. It was an idle hope as all of them lived in the same general area as her.

Taking the smaller roads along the forest trails she made good headway towards the institution that was still holding a vice grip on her day. Pulling into the parking lot she could see that a bunch of people hadn’t gotten the nota that the highway would have been impassable for the day. She could see that most of the people that she hung out with were still missing, but they would inevitably turn up eventually.

As she had the chance to park pretty much wherever she wanted, she decided to roll up to the closest entrance to the building and leave her car there. parking it next to a red Mercedes whose driver seemed to have had the same idea.

Dashing through the rain curtain into the building she didn’t get as drenched as the days earlier, the rainfall had tempered slightly. Inside it was as busy as the parking lot had eluded to, not a lot of the students or faculty had managed to arrive on time.

Walking past the welcome desk she could read the absences listed per class group.

Stopping to inspect the list, she saw that her first and second period would be free. The same was true for her fifth one. It seemed that PE was still on track to happen but that didn’t bother her much, by now most of the classmates had learned to keep a safe distance from her. She was not only a menace to the people she was playing with, but she also had the wonderful talent to hinder the other side as well.

As she didn’t have to rush anywhere soon, she made her way to the library. Thanking the rain for the first time she found that the lights were still turned off inside the room. Testing if the door was loose she tried to hide her excitement when it gave way.

Slipping inside she made her way over to the reading area. Aside from a couple of tables with chairs, there were also a couple of beanbags scattered in the corner of the library.

As she plopped down on the cushion, her bag being set on the floor next to her, she relaxed and let out a sigh. She wasn’t expected to appear in class till a couple of hours later so a nap wouldn’t hurt. She closed her eyes and slipped back under to sleep.

The bell rang, stirring her from sleep.

She looked up from where she had laid down. Lights were still turned off and any lights coming from the windows had diminished again. The lessening of rain had been temporary, it wasn’t that much a surprise, the earliest the storm is supposed to stop would be in a couple more days.

Rolling over onto her back she stretched.

“Nice nap?” a voice asked.

Looking over she saw her classmate Alice sitting on one of the chairs nearby. She was holding a book loosely before her. She probably had been reading it prior to her waking up.

“Nice enough, I think it had a kinda weird ending though,” she spoke before she really realised what she had been saying. She didn’t remember her dream but the lasting feeling had stayed.

“How so?”

“I don’t know, can’t seem to remember now.”

“Yeah that happens,” she replied as she nodded.

They both sat there in silence for a moment, until a yawn decided to push itself into the narrative.

“Still tired or was that a wakeup yawn?” Alice asked amused.

 “Probably a bit of both,” she admitted, leaning back into the bean bag, “You don’t mind if I?”

“Not at all, I’m here to read and it’s nice to have company that doesn’t interrupt that every couple of seconds.”

“I guess I was good company then till a couple of moments ago,” Bella said as she started to realise she might be starting to annoy her company here.

“You’re fine,” Alice replied, “if you leave it at this you’re leagues ahead of my bothers.”

Nodding Bella sat back in the beanbag, leaving Alice to return to her book. For a moment the only sounds echoing in the room was the rain trickling onto the windows. There was still a very calming atmosphere hanging over the space.

Lunch was a rather dull experience, catering was as hindered by the current stance of weather like everyone else. She herself had decided to skip the meal as there was little appetising about someone heating up day-old stew.

Now sitting on the edge of the cafeteria she had pulled out her legal pad. Flipping a couple of pages back she saw what she had been looking for, in the margin she had some notes from the Bio class from last week.

“…where pulmonary circulation begins:—Bella!”

She looked over to where she had heard a voice calling for her, in the entrance she saw Charlie standing. Making sure to gather her things she walked over.

“Anything wrong dad?”

“The weather is throwing its last couple of punches. Pity for us they are the most powerful,” he said in a low voice.

“Are you here for me or did you let the staff know so they can tell the others?” she asked.

“The staff will talk to them after the lunch period that school is suspended till the storm clears, I’m just here to get you, so I know you’re safe.”

She nodded when he said that, Charlie was a good guy. As the police chief, he was in charge of keeping everyone in the town safe. But it was moments like these where he took a moment to check on her that she apricated that family was still family for him.

“I’ll grab my truck,” she told him as she put on her raincoat, ”see you at the station.”

An affirmative grunt sound came from his direction. Both of them walked out into the pouring rain. She could see the police cruiser hiding on the curb behind a curtain of rain. Nodding his head towards her truck they split ways.

Climbing in she took a moment to acclimate to the pressing wet heat that was inside of the cabin. One of these days she’d have to drive up to the reservation to have Jacob look at the truck. The fact that there was some water seeping in needed something to address that. But as it stood it could wait till after the storm had passed.

As she looked over her shoulder, she could see the police lights flashing atop his car. Making sure to reverse out of her parking space and getting herself ready to take the short drive over. Blinking her lights, signalling that she was ready to take off to the station. Her dad saw that as he turned on his lights and drove off the parking lot onwards to his place of business.

The inside garage was packed, from the space she had found in the back of the structure she could see that at least five vehicles weren’t supposed to be there. Those would belong to the family and friends of the police, she reasoned as she locked the truck's door.

There was little chance of someone stealing something but she didn’t want to take that chance. Putting the key in her bag she made her way into the office part of the building, there was only one window that she could see out off. All the others had been boarded up.

“David, you seen my dad?” she asked the greying officer who was reading a report in the corner of the room.

“Hiya bells, haven’t seen him since he left a couple of moments ago to get you,” he replied as he closed the report and put it down, ”he had said something about going to the school and city hall to let them know to hole up and wait out the storm. I’m guessing he hit the school first?”

“seems like it, they are gonna let the other children out after lunch,” looking over to the clock, “which is about now. It true that the worst is yet to come?”

“It’s what they say, I’m not that sure it will be as bad as they say, but better safe than sorry.”

“Isn’t that right,” she replied, “anyway, gonna see what state the breakroom is in, want me to get you something?”

“Na, I’m good. These files really make you lose appetite,” he said as he picked up the file, a grim look on his face. For a moment she considered getting him a doughnut if she could find one, but she decided to leave it. David had been on the force since before her dad had made sheriff years and years ago. If he said he was good it meant he wanted to be left alone.

The breakroom was full. Her guess that the miscellaneous vehicles were friends and family wasn’t far off. She could see a couple of older women talking in the corner over a magazine they had open between the two of them. There was a younger boy, she guessed around fourteen to fifteen, who was playing with a toddler. Keeping her entertained by hiding his face and showing it off with a booing sound.

“Isabella, nice to see you,” One of the old ladies spoke to her.

“Hey Mary,” she greeted her, “how are you?”

“same old, same old,” she replied turning to face her, “David put me here cause of the storm, fearing it might blow me away.”

“You live in a wooden house on the coast mom,” she could hear David yell across the bullpen.

“That house has gone through more storms you can count David!” she yelled back with a smile. “You looking for a place to sit?” she then asked.

“Not yet, Charlie asked me to help with his computer before he got back,” she lied, in some ways, it was a lie, but not a lot. There had been several times that her dad had asked her to help with the machine, as he called it.

“Alright, I’ll be sure to save you a seat for later though,” Mary said before returning to the conversation she had been having.

Waving goodbye to the toddler that had been distracted by her entering the breakroom, she walked over to her dad’s desk. It was messy, a good messy, but still messy. Pushing a binder out of the way to get access to the keyboard that bad been hiding beneath it, she quickly entered the credentials and logged in.

The desktop flicker onto the screen, freezing the cursor for a couple of seconds after. She watched as a map from the National weather service. There was a big red blob to the west of Forks in the centre of the screen. Looking at what the colours responded to she gulped. If the predictions were right there would be a couple of feet of rain falling out of the clouds in the next couple of days.

“Fuck,” she muttered out loud.