CHAPTER 15
The darkness in Forks was wrapped in red and blue lights, reflecting across the puddles as if the whole town were holding its breath.
The damp smell still hung in the air—heavy… strange.
The sound of car engines and police sirens pressed down on the atmosphere, sending shivers through everyone present.
Edward parked the Volvo abruptly. His gaze stayed locked ahead, the dim yellow streetlamps barely illuminating what was happening.
His hands were still tense on the steering wheel. Bella felt his body go rigid immediately, like a cold punch in the chest.
She looked at Edward…
Something troubled him—something he wasn't saying.
She stepped out of the car, and the night air wrapped around her with a chilling, unsettling weight.
— What's wrong? —she whispered, but Edward didn't answer.
His attention stayed fixed on the crowd in front of the police station… on something Bella still couldn't see.
Forensics walked back and forth, talking with distressed, shaken expressions. The police crest on their jackets flashed under the lights…
— It's the second one… —a nearby officer murmured.
— Why him? Why did this happen to him? —she heard someone say from the other side.
And then she saw him.
Logan.
He walked out from between the dark streets, weaving through people. His clothes were soaked, his breathing unsteady, but his body was rigid, alert…
His eyes were serious.
It was him, yes. But also… not.
Bella felt a strange jolt in her chest, like something inside her stepped back.
There was something different about him.
Not just that he seemed a little taller, a little stronger beneath the wet clothes.
It was something she couldn't name.
A feeling…
An aura.
A pressure.
A sense of danger that prickled her skin.
And yet she knew it was still Logan.
Her friend.
The boy who had saved her from being crushed under that van in the school parking lot…
She tried to smile, to call out to him… but her voice didn't come out.
Logan had seen her too.
His eyes darkened for a second.
He recognized her scent.
Her presence.
But when his gaze shifted toward Edward…
Bella felt the air split.
They stared at each other.
Silent.
Tense.
Like they recognized something…
Something Bella wasn't meant to understand.
Her mind drifted back to her conversation with Jacob.
Quileute and Cullen?
Edward's expression turned cold.
Too cold.
Bella had never seen him like that—not even when he saved her earlier…
Meanwhile Logan…
Logan felt something swell inside him, a rage he barely contained. His body still ached from the transformation he had been holding back for hours.
The aura he almost unleashed in front of Rosalie was still there—alive, burning under his skin…
His inner animal wanted out.
And Edward sensed it.
Bella took a step toward them.
— Logan… are you okay? —she asked, gathering her courage, though her voice trembled.
She couldn't call him Jimmy this time. Something felt different.
He looked at her for only a second.
His expression softened, but something still vibrated inside him—something she had never seen before.
— Yeah… —he answered, his voice low and rough, as if he'd run across all of Forks under fear and fury— I'm fine.
But she knew it was a lie.
She knew him too well…
Logan had never stopped being that Jimmy—the boy who always made her forget her problems.
Edward stepped closer to Bella, almost instinctively, as if he wanted to pull her back, protect her… or keep her away from him.
She noticed.
And her mind began to connect things she hadn't meant to:
The talk about reading minds.
The "followed your scent."
Logan's strength.
Edward's darkening eyes.
The coldness of his skin.
His shifting eye color.
The Quileute–Cullen rivalry.
The legends.
Edward reacting strangely to her scent today.
And the way these two were staring at each other.
They didn't look like two high-school boys.
They weren't normal.
Both were hiding something.
Bella swallowed hard, a tremor running down her arms.
The tension in the air became so thick she could taste it.
A cold current wrapped around her body.
— What happened here? —she asked, trying to break the tension. Her voice sounded small between sirens and murmurs.
Logan slowly tore his gaze from Edward.
— Someone… died, —he said with a frown, inhaling that metallic scent burning in his chest— I overheard the officers when I walked by.
Edward clenched his jaw.
Bella noticed.
They were hiding something.
Both of them.
She stepped closer to Logan, but again felt that strange aura—pressure in her chest—that kept her from approaching fully.
A buried instinct…
Recognizing something wrong.
Logan noticed her hesitation.
Edward did too.
Both stared at her.
Bella felt her heartbeat stop for a moment.
And in that silence, she understood something:
Whatever was happening between Edward and Logan…
Whatever they weren't telling her…
Whatever they were trying to hide…
Was something unnatural.
Something that made her skin crawl and her chest tighten with a foreign force.
And she was standing right in the middle of it—
Between two predators.
Two wild beasts.
And she felt small…
A tiny prey between two lions.
The tension kept rising until a voice cut through it.
— Jimmy… —Bella whispered hesitantly, trying to break the atmosphere.
Logan looked at her one last time.
It hurt him a little, hearing her voice sound so distant…
— Bella… I just came to see what happened, —his voice was deeper now, stronger, rougher— But with you two here… —his gaze snapped back to Edward— I'd rather leave this place.
As he walked past Edward, their shoulders collided with a sharp, deliberate impact.
— Let me know what you find out, —Logan said before disappearing into the dark streets of Forks.
---
> Police Station
Inside, Charlie and Dr. Cullen stood under a harsh light, studying a series of photos and pieces of evidence.
Charlie's face was strained.
His eyes tired.
Every movement looked as though he was carrying a weight on his back.
They stared at the photos one last time.
Charlie looked down at the floor, shaking his head with an expression of deep anguish.
Dr. Cullen rested a comforting hand on his shoulder before stepping away.
Outside, h
is face darkened, and the cold air carried a familiar scent…
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To be continued…
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