WHO: Bella Swan and Link WHAT: Comfort RATINGS: PG [sorry :(] WARNING: Not proofread. Will edit later. Asides from that, nothing.
Had she known things would have turned out this way, Bella wouldn’t have bothered. It was all Charlie’s fault: he had insisted, through phone and mail, that she got along with her peers. He seemed to believe that common, simple distractions would be enough to make her forget Him. Still, she had indulged, shyly addressing one of her classmates, suggesting visiting the motel she had been eyeing for some time now: the old, creepy building in the outskirts of town. Much to her surprise, the blond-haired girl (Andrea… or something like that) had jumped at the idea, immediately spreading it through the class, with the enthusiasm common amongst cheerleaders, saying ‘like’ and ‘totally’ in one sentence more times than Bella did in one day. Still, at the interest arisen, she had allowed herself to be excited, if only slightly.
That attitude had lasted little when, an hour after bringing up the subject, Bella had found herself as out of it as she always was when it came to high school parties, the ones she was never invited to (not that she would go, anyway). She had ended up sitting in a corner, staring at the group chattering and fighting over simple topics. So banal. So normal. Back in Forks, such a thing would have brought nothing but contempt in her, but now, she was almost jealous. She wanted to be like those girls, with no worries, no ache in their hearts. Because Bella knew. Knew she had lost the Love of Her Life, the One. Some days, she still woke up at the sound of her own screams, product of the nightmares that left her feeling restless, tired and depressed.
And to think she had been nothing more than a passing interest for Him. For… Edward. The simple act of thinking about him was enough to bring tears to her eyes, so Bella bit her lip, hard, to stop the tears from falling down her cheeks. Not that anyone would have noticed. Just like before, she was sitting in a corner of the room, playing with the lamp she had brought with her, switching it on and off. The rest of the group was paying her no attention: they had made a circle, telling macabre horror stories she was barely paying attention to. The only person who seemed as detached from the group was her was one of the college boys.
While he wasn’t the only college student there, he still got Bella’s attention. He had accompanied the few exploratory groups, laughing at the jokes and every now and then making a comment, but still managing to remain absent and aloof. He hadn’t seemed to notice the looks thrown in his direction, accompanied by excited whispers and muffled, shrill giggles. Bella rolled her eyes: he was attractive, with his blond hair, light swagger and those almost-unnaturally blue eyes. But, she thought stubbornly, he was no match for Edward, his marble skin, Greek profile and deliciously silken voice…
With a shaky sigh, she stood up. Last time they had gone for an ‘expedition’ around the motel, one of the girls had clung painfully hard to one of her arms, scared of her own shadow. She had given Bella no chance to listen for sounds of possible ghosts or monsters lurking in the dark. The blond college kid had merely laughed, but the way his shoulders hunched, ever so slightly, and his eyes pierced through the dark hadn’t gone unnoticed to Bella. With anyone else, she would have assumed they were scared of those stupid ghost stories, but the boy seemed tense, ready to jolt, with an attitude she had only seen in fighters and animals when readying for an attack.
Or maybe he really was scared, and she was putting too much thought into it.
Whatever the case was, it didn’t matter, and she was now bored. And, when she was bored, thoughts of Edward plagued her mind. And when that happened… well.
After glancing briefly in the group’s direction –from what she could tell, too focused in listening to a story about a zombie dog to pay any attention to her –Bella disappeared down one of the unhinged doors of the room, venturing down a pitch black hallway, only illuminated with the dim light coming from her flashlight. The chattering soon died in the distance, and the thought of losing herself in the meandered passageways crossed her mind, yet she didn’t turn back. It was an exciting idea, the one of running into one of the spirits that were, supposedly, haunting the place. Life in Harmony was dull and repetitive, and she wanted… something else. Wanted to hear Edward’s voice again, begging her to be careful, or ordering her around, with that twinge of concern in his voice. Even if it was nothing more than a hallucination, she thought sadly as she turned a corner, completely uncaring of where she was heading to.
Eventually, after what had to be more than fifteen minutes of aimless walking, too deep in thought to look where she was going (the motel wasn’t that big. There would be no problem coming back, right? …Right?), barely minding the stumbling over pieces of furniture or things she couldn’t and didn’t want to recognize; Bella came out into a bigger room, different from the narrow hallways from before. Sheepishly, she looked around, absently considering turning around to leave when something, too fast for her to see, ran from her lantern’s light, hiding back into the shadows with a rustling sound.
Biting her lip to stifle a shriek and with her heart hammering on her chest, Bella took a shaky step back (a rat. That’s all it was) and promptly stumbled over something. She barely had time to curse her klutziness before she fell to the floor with a startled yelp, the flashlight rolling out of her hand and falling along with a clattering sound, blinking a few times before going off completely.
“Crap!” she gasped, reaching for it in the pitch-black darkness. The sound of tiny, hurried footsteps echoed in her ears, sending her into a panic. “Crap!” she repeated, voice shaky with fear, hands flailing around, trying to find the source of light. Something brushed against her leg, and this time, she couldn’t hold back a loud, terrified shriek. Back in Forks, she desperately thought as tears pooled in her eyes, she had had Edward to look after her, like a knight in shining armor, always there to save her. But here, she had nothing. Not even a reminder of his voice…
There was a sound somewhere in her surroundings, something between a growl and a screech. Even in her state, Bella could notice- it didn’t sound like a rat. And it was coming closer.
Abruptly, a disembodied voice rang out, tone soft but commanding, in a language she couldn’t recognize; and a spark of light lit up the room, brief with sudden, accompanied by the sound of a pained screech and the smell of burnt hair. The voice’s owner was by her side in a moment, hands wrapping around her arms, seeming to check there were no apparent injuries. “Edward?” she whispered dumbly, tears apparent in her voice.
The boy’s –she was assuming it was a boy, and her suspicions were confirmed a moment later –movements stopped. Even in the dark, she could tell he was considering what to do. “No,” he finally said, voice gentle. His hands released their grasp, and one of them reached to wipe the tears from her face. Bella drew in a shaky breath at the gesture, feeling oddly comforted by it. “Are you alright?” the voice continued. “Are you hurt?”
“No,” Bella sniffed, trying to regain her lost composure. “No, I… what was that? You… you… what…?”
“Shh,” even as it shushed her, the voice still had that caring, gentle connotation. Strong arms wrapped around her, pulling her into a hug. Even if it had it been daylight, Bella thought, momentarily dumbfounded, and hadn’t she been so scared, the gesture would still have been comforting and warm. Without further thought, she hugged back, only a small voice in the back of her brain complaining about hugging a stranger. “It’s okay,” said the boy, dispelling those thoughts. “You’re safe, now.” And though he was avoiding the subject, Bella couldn’t bring herself to mind, still reveling on the embrace after so many months without someone to console her, simply discarded and sent away, both by Edward and both her parents.
It took her a moment to realize she was crying, shaking with restrained sobs. The arms around her tightened, its owner still making those shushing, comforting sounds, one hand running up and down her back. Later on, Bella found herself unable to tell how much time had passed. It could have been ten minutes, or it could have been one hour—but at the moment, she couldn’t mind or care that she was hugging and crying on a stranger’s shoulder in the most absolute dark, or that she had seen what looked like lighting cross the room and fry whatever had been there. All that mattered was that, for the first time in months, she felt safe, happy and at ease.
Finally, she pulled away, trying to babble an apology, flushing with embarrassment when realization started to sink in. All she got as a reply as the same hand wiping at her tears, and a wrinkled Kleenex. “It’s alright,” said the voice, and Bella could almost believe it. It was stupid, but it was like this… person, like he knew she had cried, not only because she was scared, but because of something else. Something more.
It mattered little. After she dried her tears and wiped her nose, the boy helped her up, guiding her back to the group with a strange lack of hesitation, even in the dark as they were. When they reached the dimly illuminated area, Bella winced, peering at her companion with a mixture of embarrassment and fascination. “You!” she gasped, recognizing him as the college boy from before. “I…” she looked down. “I’m sorry for that, back then, I… I don’t know what came over me, I…”
“It’s fine,” he replied easily, a hand squeezing her shoulder. “Bella, right? I’m Link. You shouldn’t wander off like that…”
“Yeah. S-sorry,” she sniffed, trying to smile and being awarded with a sympathetic grin.
Afterwards, and after replying to a few questions of ‘where were you, we were wo-o-rried, Bells!’, she sat back in the same corner. And, much to her surprise, Link sat next to her. Was it pity or in case she walked off again, it didn’t matter, and for once, Bella indulged, even accepting some of the marshmallows one of the other girls had given him in hopes of catching his attention.
Something that didn’t hit her until she was back in her house, and that she failed to notice as they talked until the wee hours of the morning, and as she woke up with her head on his shoulder, kept warm by the green coat he had draped around her shoulders, and even as they said goodbye, exchanging phone numbers, with him promising to visit her again and jokingly warning her against ghosts; was that, from the moment he wiped her tears to the moment she sat back in the couch, smiling at the thought of seeing him again, she hadn’t thought about Edward. Not once.