Firestarter

Hey guys! It's been years since I've written anything on this site, so I'm trying to bring myself out of this rut. Maybe I'll become more motivated to finish my own stories if I get a little encouragement from you wonderful people.

As my name suggests, I'm a fan of Stephen King, so obviously some of my work will be influenced by him. Firestarter is a really cool movie, but it's more sci-fi than scary. The special effects are really good though, considering what year it was made in. You can check it out on youtube if you want more information.

I've always been annoyed by how weak Bella was in comparison to vampires. Call me a feminist, but I really wished she'd been able to take care of herself more and not have to rely so much on Edward, not that I have anything against the guy. Like pretty much every story ever written, my idea started out as a question, "What if…", what if Bella wasn't so weak? What if she had a talent? Would she still be the same person? Suddenly I was thinking of the movie Firestarter and I could easily picture Bella waking up from a nightmare and finding the walls of her bedroom charred beyond recognition. This is what I think about while I'm in school people.

I hope I do a good job and not waste any of your time.

Disclaimer: as if I would dare to take credit for Mrs. Meyer's hard work. This is just for fun.

-

Bella plucked the bandages on her arms while her father, Charlie, tried to make his way to the bathroom on the airplane. She hissed as she pulled at the raw skin of her arms and stopped immediately. She sat back and tilted her head up, trying not to remember that they were moving, again.

Fresh tears built up behind her closed lids as she remembered the reason why.

Her talent.

Her gift.

Her nightmare.

Charlie sat down next to her and wiped the blood from underneath his nose on a Kleenex and stuffed in his pocket before the smell could reach her.

"Charlie," Bella's voice came out louder than she thought it would and several passengers turned to look at her. She blushed and pulled her hair over her face, "what did you do?" she continued, whispering. She really didn't need to, most of the people near her probably spoke French as a first tongue and wouldn't understand her hasty words, but she'd learned early in her life to be cautious.

"Just being cautious Bella, someone was looking at you in a way that didn't sit well with me." he smirked a little, "If you weren't so darn beautiful I wouldn't have had to."

"I'm not beautiful." Bella muttered under her breath and shivered. Charlie didn't "push" people for stupid reasons like that, not since his last trip to the hospital. "What really happened?" her eyes were accusatory.

Charlie shifted nervously and ducked his head a little, "He was whispering under his breath about killing himself because of the people at the office. I just gave him a little push. He's going to go look for a new job tomorrow. Honest Bella." he gave her a sidelong glance and she nodded.

You stupid, wonderful, decent human being. She sighed and pulled out her book, Un Enfant, One Child.

Bella began reading as the plane soared over the Atlantic Ocean. Destination; Seattle, Washington, and then a two hour drive to their new home in Forks. Bella had to laugh a little at the name. It was so peculiar.

She was starting in the second semester of her junior year of high school. It would be nice to be back in America, and not there against her will like last time. She pushed that thought out of her head brutally. It wasn't that she hated France, or Italy, or Mexico; all of the countries they'd lived in over the years, but she wished they had gone because they were explorers or people who wanted to become more cultured or something like that. She wished they weren't hiding from people who wanted to kill them or use them as weapons.

She grabbed her father's arm as they hit turbulence. He muttered a soft, "It'll be okay." and both of them knew it had nothing to do with the shaking plane.

-

Charlie walked onto the used car lot in Seattle and managed to come out with two vehicles for under $30,000. One was a dark blue 1981 Volkswagen Derby that had a dent on the back fender. The other was a large red Chevrolet pick up truck made sometime in the 1960's. Bella had never understood why people became obsessed with cars until she saw it. It was huge and bright as a fire truck. Charlie ordered a black cover for the back compartment and they were on their way.

Bella listened to the sound of the engine as it roared to life. The truck wouldn't go over 60 miles an hour. Bella fought the urge to ask Charlie if they could stop at a bookstore and pick up a how to book for repairing cars. The last thing she wanted to do was to seem ungrateful.

They made it to Forks just before sunset and Bella saw their new house. It was a two storey building, a definite upgrade from their usual one storey homes. It was painted white and it looked so big and beautiful in the darkness. She looked around for the neighbours and was surprised to find that none of their houses were even visible. "It's so isolated out here."

"Yep," Charlie agreed, "You can play your music as loud as you want and no one will care." she smiled, but it felt too painful to keep up for long.

The house already had the basic furniture necessities. There was a mid-sized television that would likely need to be hooked up with cable or a satellite. The fridge would need to be stocked tomorrow. She hoped that their meagre funds would last them until her father's first pay check. The law firm that hired him in Port Angeles were hesitant when they read about his exploits around the world, and Bella could guess that they were expecting a rebel with big plans. Charlie was definitely a wonderful person, but he was no Matlock. He'd do his job well, better than most of the other lawyers simply because of his ability to force people to tell the truth. As long as he didn't overdue it, no one would be any the wiser and he wouldn't end up in a hospital with a subdural haematoma. (A/N it's a collection of blood within the inner meningeal layer of the dura(the outer protective covering of the brain).

"There's only one bathroom, sorry." Charlie gave her a sheepish look.

"That's okay, this is the nicest house I've ever lived in. I love it daddy." That was the truth at least. It was a nice house, but all the same she wished she'd never seen it and that they were back in France, or even better, Italy.

America was where they used to live, before Renee was killed by The Bad Men as Charlie had put it to her when she was still too young to understand the reasons. It was because of The Bad Men that she lost her mother before her third birthday. It was The Bad Men who made them leave America the first time to go hide in Mexico City. It was The Bad Men who kidnapped them and kept her isolated for her father for months when she was only seven. It was The Bad Men who made them into what they were.

She shook her head of that thought. It wasn't time to dwell on things that couldn't be undone. Right now she had more important things to worry about.

High school.

Bella was not looking forward to being the center of attention. At her old schools, dozens of new students showed up every year. She knew for a fact that most of the kids around here had grandparents who were born here. The people here would be all too curious about a girl from another country who just dropped in during second semester.

Her grades would be the least of her problems. Her parents were both intelligent and this trait had been passed onto her with vigour. Her only problem would be paying attention to things she already knew. She could ask for some harder classes if things got too boring, although in a town as small as Forks, it was unlikely they had funding for accelerated classes.

She walked up to her room, or what she assumed was her room. It was equipped with a new bed and a desk. The walls were painted blue, a nice enough colour. They were bare of any posters that would indicate that a teenage girl lived their. She wondered if she could pick some up in town. It would be nice to have something to make the blank walls less boring.

She opened her suitcase and pulled out the picture of her family before their nightmare began. A toddler version of herself beamed at the camera from the safety of her beautiful mother's arms. Her father had his arm wrapped awkwardly around Renee's shoulders, but they still looked like they were in love.

She set it down on her desk, which had apparently been equipped with an ancient computer. She gave it a patient and tried to remember when their phones would be hooked up so that she could have internet.

She placed her alarm clock on the end table and set it for 6:30 a.m. The last thing she wanted was to be late on her first day, and she loved the snooze button after a plane ride.

Her stereo and the few CD's she had went on the desk as well, and the room looked vaguely lived in. Once her laundry started piling up on the floor it would look less like a stage and more like a sanctuary.

She sighed and pulled out one of her notebooks. She sat at her desk and began a quick sketch of her new truck and smiled faintly. Her book bag was packed and ready to go. She would receive her class schedule when she arrived. She would be fine.

She was almost convinced that she would be okay when the rain started. She gave the fire extinguisher on the wall next to her bed a long look before collapsing onto her bed. She cried herself to sleep.

Okay. How was that? I'd forgotten how awesome writing made me feel. I've been at it for over two hours and I feel like I could keep going. I'll try to be vigilant with my updates, but I have never left a story unfinished no matter how long it took so you don't have to worry. I'll be explaining more about Charlie's "push" later on so don't have an aneurism trying to figure it out. I'm trying to keep Bella in character as much as I can. I hope that she's believable.