How It All Goes Down
The Meadow
- When Jacob keeps avoiding her, Bella drives to La Push to see him. She finds their house empty.
- Charlie learns from Billy that Jacob has a very contagious virus – mononucleosis. No visitors allowed. Bella researches mono, but it doesn’t match Jacob’s symptoms. Her suspicion rises.
- Without the proven recipe of Jacob, adrenaline, and distractions, Bella’s hole starts to throb again and her nightmares return with a vengeance. They now frequently involve Sam Uley.
- At the end of the week, Bella calls Jacob. Billy answers. He tells her that Jacob feels better and is gone for the whole day with friends. Bella is happy he’s recovered, but she’s also disappointed that he hasn’t called to tell her. She fears that Jacob might have changed his mind about her and might not want to waste his time on someone who doesn’t return his feelings.
- Charlie worries that Bella might fall back into her zombie stupor. So she lies to him, saying she’s going out with Jessica. In reality, she decides to find the meadow by herself.
- Bella finally finds the meadow, but Edward’s voice doesn’t show. Instead, she runs into Laurent, the vampire who belonged to the same coven as the tracker James, who almost killed Bella in Twilight. Edward and the Cullens killed James to protect Bella.
- Laurent is surprised that the Cullens left their "pet" behind, unprotected. Edward’s voice returns to Bella. He urges her to warn Laurent that Edward will come after him if something happens to her. Faced with death, she follows Edward’s advice.
- Laurent tells Bella that Victoria, James’s mate, is out to kill her in order to get revenge for the death of James.
- But thirst comes first, and Laurent decides to kill Bella himself. But before he can pounce on her, though, a pack of giant wolves emerge from the forest. Their leader is a big, black wolf. Apparently the reports were true. But how can a wolf get so "supernaturally" big?
- To Bella’s surprise, Laurent runs away. As the wolves sprint after him, a reddish-brown wolf locks eyes with Bella:
[…] the deep eyes seeming too intelligent for a wild animal. As it stared at me, I […] thought of Jacob. (10.176) - Bella finds her way back home, but arrives late. She admits to Charlie that she’s been hiking and that the mysterious creatures appear to be giant wolves.
- Charlie tells Bella he saw Jacob down in La Push, but Jacob either ignored him or didn’t see him. He remarks on Jacob’s dramatic growth spurt: "It’s like you can watch that kid growing!" (10.231).
- Alone in her room, Bella panics. Laurent might still be out there…and Victoria is out to kill her and possibly her father. For the first time, there’s no one there to help – except for those wolves, maybe?