Twilight Moon (1)

Chapter 1 - LaPush

"Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, we would like to welcome you to Forks, Washington. Please remain seated until the seatbelt sign is turned off, on behalf of the captain and the crew, we hope you've had a pleasant flight and a wonderful stay in Forks."

"Neveah, we've arrived." Ms Miller shook my shoulder gently. But I was awake, I had been awake the whole three hours of the flight from Phoenix to Forks. It was just easier to pretend that I was asleep, easier than talking to Ms Miller, easier to pretend that what had happened, didn't actually happen.

"Come on, we'll be getting off soon." Ms Miller said as the seatbelt sign pinged followed by the loud snapping of seat belts and murmured stretching from other passengers. I remained seated, my forehead pressed against the cool window glass of the aeroplane, staring outside. I heard Ms Miller sigh as she got up to take our luggage from the overhead compartments.

"Neveah, please, let's go now." Ms Miller pulled me up and turned me to face her. Automatically, I dropped my gaze, but her warm fingers propped my chin up so that I should look into her heart-shaped face. "It's been a hard journey, I know, but we're here now, so let's go okay?" I nodded reluctantly and her hand dropped from me. She walked down the aisle briskly with me trailing behind her.

"Thank you for flying with us," said the flight attendant as we passed by, I followed Ms Miller through the airport and pass security without a word. Outside of the airport, A British man wearing dress pants and a pinstriped shirt stood outside of a car, holding a sign that read Neveah Sanchez.

"Ms Miller?" he swapped the sign under his arm and held out his hand to shake hers. "My name is Charles, Charles Welder. We spoke on the phone earlier."

"Yes, I remember, well, this is Neveah, her uncle is waiting to pick her up at Forks." Ms Miller exchanged information, envelopes and papers with Mr Welder before turning to me. "Right, this is where we part, Neveah," she chucked me under the chin. "Chin up darling, it'll all be okay, don't worry, Mr Welder will take good care of you."

She opened the car door for me and helped me inside, shutting the door neatly behind me. After a minute, Mr Welder joined me.

"To LaPush," He instructed the driver. The rest of the drive was rather boring, he asked me about my old school, about my friends, whether I liked to read, who was my favourite author. The typical try-and-make-conversation-with-the-poor-distraught-kid kind of stuff. I mumbled answers barely aware when he moved on to different topics, I stared out of the window, watching as the scenery changed from long roads to towns, to forests, thick dense forests. I had never seen a real live forest in front of my eyes before, it wasn't like what it looked like on the tv, not the rich tropical green kind, with monkeys swinging from each branch, no, this was a rich earthly brown forest with tall trees carrying bushels of brown-green leaves.

"Have you ever been to a forest, Neveah?" asked Mr Welder, I shook my head in response and he let me open the window, I inhaled a breath, it smelt like fresh rains and cupcake frosting. Soon, the forest thinned out and we were driving across a cliff, I couldn't see anything, Mr Welder was sitting on the other side, but I certainly could hear a lot of things. I heard loud roaring coming from below the cliffs, crashes and bellows from bellow. It sounded terrifying, but entrancing all the same. I listened carefully, trying to memorise each note like it was a piece of special music made specially for me.

The drive progressed further and the noise died down, leaving me in a quiet car, with a stranger I barely knew. There were a few minutes of awkward silence before Mr Welder sighed.

"Neveah, you know we want what's best for you right?" He said I nodded, it was always better to go along with what grown-ups said, nobody got frustrated that way. "It's a job for us social workers, like Ms Miller and I, to make sure kids like you are safe."