Starless Night (A Twilight/Stranger Things Fan Fiction)

Chapter 4: Joyce Byers

After I told Jasper, on the first day, of my conviction that Bella was in an alternate realm, it hit me for the first time—just how unreal it all was. I was supposed to be out of Bella's life; she was supposed to be safe. Instead, she was in an alternate realm, and she was probably...

I did not allow myself to think of what was probably happening to Bella.

The brutal irony was that I'd been planning to leave her, convinced that she needed to be protected from me, just as a creature more dangerous than I was had made her his prey.

How foolish, how arrogant I'd been, assuming that if I was out of her life, she would be safe! Of course I was not the only danger stalking her—hadn't I seen that proven ten times over?

But there was no use dwelling on it—because every second spent dwelling was a second I needed to spend looking for Bella.

Carlisle convened a meeting that day, and we made plans quickly: Jasper, Esme and I would research disappearances that bore any similarity to Bella's until we found something that led us to this alternate realm; Emmett and Carlisle would search the forest to see if they could locate anything that looked like the portal Bella had been dragged through—if they did, Emmett was to go into it, and Carlisle was to come back and retrieve me so that I could follow.

We had only made the briefest of plans, though, before Jasper came into the room, somehow even paler than usual, and said, "I can't find Alice."

Carlisle sent the rest of us on our way to begin our work. I began reading—I could read at about 30,000 words per minute when I devoted most of my attention to it, so I would quickly exhaust the articles available to me, but Esme was upstairs on her computer, printing more—but I devoted part of my remaining attention to Jasper and Carlisle's brief conversation.

"She's nowhere," Jasper said anxiously. "It's like she disappeared. She wouldn't answer my calls, and then while I was looking for her, I found her phone lying next to her car with the screen cracked. She didn't leave a note or anything, Carlisle, she's—"

I felt a pang in my chest at the deep distress in Jasper's voice. I understood how he felt right now—how anxious he was for Alice. I was newly and deeply acquainted with the exact measure of fear that the disappearance of a girl you loved could create.

And yet, I had little sympathy for him in this moment. Alice could take care of herself—of that, I was sure.

I was not so sure of Bella's ability to take care of herself.

I hear Carlisle exhale unevenly. "Jasper," he said, "I'm sure she will be alright. For now, we must focus on Bella."

"It cannot be a coincidence, though, can it?" Jasper asked. "That Alice and Bella disappeared so close together."

"You may be right," Carlisle said. "And if you are, then finding Bella serves her as well."

Jasper finally seemed to concede, because a moment later, he had darted upstairs and taken a pile of the articles as well. I was sure he knew all of their contents well enough, but perhaps seeing them through the light of our current situation would give them a newly illuminating quality. He began reading.

For hours, now, this had been our all-consuming focus—the search for Bella and Alice. When Jasper sensed any shift in my focus, any painful emotion, he used his powers to focus me—numbing the pain I felt when I thought of Bella. The pain that came with knowing it was my fault she was nowhere to be found.

Still, there was nothing in any of the articles specific enough to tell us where these creatures may be coming from.

A few times, I found myself reaching for my phone, meaning to call Alice to ask her to look into the future for me—if we were to pursue this lead, would we find anything?—until I remembered that she would not pick up.