Branded: Prologue

THE LAST THING ON ANYONE'S MIND THAT DAY WAS THE PAIN, SEARING THROUGH HER ARM. Of course no one ever knew of the pain, but it still should had been obvious, her wringing her wrists the way she did. And of course her mother would only tell her how stupid it was to get those tattoos after she was forbidden. But what bothered Bella the most was that she was never forbidden; she never brought up the concept of a tattoo in her entire seventeen years of living. And another thing was, she didn't want these…tattoos to begin with. If her mother would only have listened to her, she wouldn't have been looked down upon. Bella had simply been at the wrong place at the wrong time.

It was clear, not vague at all. She remembered how she had begged her mother to let her go to a book signing. But the problem wasn't the book signing, it was the author. Her mother worried for Bella. Bella was one of the most normal girls, but with more of an attitude that she could take care of herself, and she could. But ever since Bella came back from the book signing, she was different. This worried her mother to the highest extent. Before she had attended the book signing, she was happy, almost smiling, but after…she wouldn't speak for weeks. She wore the same clothes, was interested in the same things, and hung out with the same people. So it wasn't a matter of 'hanging with the wrong crowd'.

So her mother passed it off as Bella being angry with her. But it wasn't that. If only her mother really knew what was happened that night…after the book signing. The chanting haunted her dreams. The man that grabbed her wrist and left his mark haunted her. And the thought of not making it out alive at that shed haunted her everything. Bella learned that ever since she had been "branded" – how she puts it – things had been happening. So her mother thought it nice to let Bella get away for a while – which is how Forks came into the picture.