Rip Tide: A Twilight Fanfiction

Chapter One: Welcome to Forks

"What's your name?"

"Where are you from?"

"How did you get here?"

"What are your parents' names?"

"Where do you go to school?"

"Why are you covered in blood?"

The same questions were thrown at me for five stressful, tortuous hours. When I couldn't answer them, the interrogator would leave for an hour before coming back with the same rephrased questions. Which, of course, I still couldn't answer. 

Inside the soundproofed room, I couldn't hear what was said outside while I was left alone, but I knew the crime investigators were all just as exhausted. They had no answers, but there was one thing established as a certainty. One thing that kept me here, handcuffed to the interrogation table.

The blood all over my dress belonged to a group of dead kids.

Kids my age--or what was assumed to be my age--who were all brutally murdered at their camp site. Their bodies were discovered a few miles deep into the forest, not far off from where the police apprehended me; their prime suspect.

Muddy hands trembling, I stared at the delicate paper cup the interrogator brought in earlier. My throat burned with thirst, but I ignored it; punishing myself, or just practicing self-control. Idly, I tapped my soil-caked feet over the carpet. Water still dripped down my bare legs from the rain-steeped dress clinging to my skin. It had once been pristine white, before it was sullied by dark earth and the gruesome, crimson stain of blood.

No more than five hours ago, I woke up in the forest without the smallest inkling of how I came to be there. After wandering aimlessly through the overgrown wilds, I discovered a trail out of sheer luck. Shivering in the rain, I followed the dirt path to a tranquil little town. A place called Forks.

Emerging from the trees right across the street from a cozy diner, I wandered inside like some mangy stray. The pretty waitress was kind enough to bring me some freshly brewed sweet tea, clean towels, and a warm dinner roll. Not a single word left my mouth the entire time she tended to me. I must've been quite a strange sight for the locals.

"Poor girl...do you think she's hurt?"

"She's covered in blood..."

Although I did my best to ignore them, their voices were too loud even when they whispered conspiratorially across their table.

"Do you think it's really hers?"

"Please, she's just a girl. She can't be out of high school..."

Part of me wanted to shout at them, or answer their questions out of spite, just to make them feel ashamed of their rude gossip. Problem was, I shouldn't have been able to hear them from where I was sitting, with the rain pouring so loud. Besides, I knew as much about myself as those strangers did.

Nothing made any sense in the dark, rainy world. I had knowledge; like the falling water was food for plants. Judging by how lush and green the flora around town grew, it must rain constantly in Forks. I also knew the sky was an endless black, because the stars and moon were hidden behind storm clouds.

I knew the sirens wailing in the distance were police, coming to take me in handcuffs.

The streams of rain were illuminated with red and blue as the police cruisers screeched into the parking lot. Motionless at the table, I waited, staring down at the steam rising from my mug. I swallowed a dry lump in my throat, wishing I drank the beverage while I had the chance.