I heard gun shots from down stairs, the explosion of a bullet, and the tail end of my mother's scream. The noise woke me up. I climbed out of bed and stood at the top of the stairs that led down to the front door. At the bottom there was a trail of blood leading away from the foyer.

"Mommy? Daddy?" I called from the bottom of the steps. I felt sick to my stomach from the smell of blood, but I still followed the trail and found my dad in the kitchen.

"Bella!" My dad gasped. He was standing next to my mother's corpse, pointing his gun at a strongly built man, covered in black who was doing the same to my father. "Run out of the house! Go to the neighbors and tell them to call 9-1-1!"

In a flash the uncaring man covered in black twitched his finger and released a bullet that plowed right in to the forehead of my father. My eyes over flowed with tears. This was all too much for a fourth grader to take. I couldn't breathe, I couldn't think. All I could do was see my dead parents on the floor and smell the stomach-churning smell of blood. The man turned to me and held the gun a few feet away from my forehead. I begin to panic and try to run but I slipped in a puddle of blood. I didn't care how badly I smelled, I ran to the broken back door that led to the woods as fast as I could. I kept running; I didn't look back.

There was a full moon that night, making it easier to navigate in the woods, but not much easier. I still managed to trip over a rock and skin my knees. My over-sized t-shirt and shorts reeked of blood and my legs ached from running. I decided I was far enough away from the house to stop for a while after about a half- hour of escaping. I sat down at the bottom of a tall tree for a few minutes before I started hearing noises. I took that as a sign to start running again. I didn't get very far before falling again. I stepped into a hole the wrong way, causing my knee to hit a rock. I tried to get up but moving sent a wave of pain up my leg.
"Please," I sobbed. "Someone help!" I heard the same tussling sound as before.

Out of the bushes appeared a white man with blond hair. "Help." I begged.
The man took out a silver cell phone from his pocket and dialed.

"Alice, I've found a girl in the forest." He paused for a moment. "Alright, if you could be so kind as to take Jasper out of the house, she is covered in blood." He paused once more before hanging up.

The man walked over to me slowly, as if not to scare me. He picked me up as gently as he could, trying not to move my leg. He was extremely cold; there was almost no difference between the night air and his hands.

"We will be home in a few seconds." He said in a soothing voice.

Sooner than I expected, the bitter cold air turned warm and he set me down on a small table. His hands flashed to my leg and started moving my knee as he studied my reactions.

"Well, it's just bruised. It's going to hurt for the rest of the night. I'm going to wrap it and put some ice on it." He turned around to grab the gauze just as the beeper on his belt went off, "An emergency." He said to himself. "Edward, could you please finish up wrapping our guest?" He said just a bit louder. In a blink of an eye a tall, Bronze haired boy appeared next to the blond man. The boy was as amazingly perfect as the blond man, if not more beautiful. The bronze hair boy was tense and still, not breathing or moving.
"Self control, Edward. You can do it, son." The blond man patted Edward on his shoulder and left not a second after he did so. Edward only glanced to the blond man and stared back at me.

"Hello." Edward said with an obviously forced softness.

"Hi." I said back. I tried to avoid his solid gold eyes, focusing on his hair or any other part of his body. He approached me slowly, either trying not to scare me or something entirely different. Once he was near me he stopped breathing, or it seemed. He wrapped my knee slowly and kept his eyes off of my blood- covered face.

"I'm going to get some ice." He said with the same forced softness and walked out of the room with more grace then a swimming swan my friends loved.
My friends! Will I ever see them again? Megan and Shelby. They were why I loved going to school so much. Now I'm stuck inside of a house full of people made of beauty and perfection. I felt like the outcast. "One of these things are not like the others." Ha.

Edward was back with a bag of ice and handed it to me.

"So," Edward started to talk. "How old are you?"

"I just turned 8." I smiled, trying to lighten to mood. "You?"

"17."

"Oh." I laid down on the empty desk.

"What?" He asked, looking at me for once.

"Nothing." I shut my eyes. I quickly fell asleep.

When I woke up the TV was showing the news. I was changed into a blue night gown, clean, and on the couch under a blanket. Edward was sitting at my feet, watching the screen.

"A few hours ago, a family of three were robbed and murdered. Here's Greg Balter with the details." The screen cut from a brown eyed, blond haired woman in her 40's to a heavy man in his 50's.

"Thanks Dian. Around 8 o'clock, Police chief Charlie swan and his wife, Renee Swan were shot to death in their own home. Their daughter, Bella Swan is now missing." The TV cut to one of my neighbors.

"It's a shame, a real shame. They were the nicest people you could ever want to meet. Bella was such a cutie. I hope they find her and whoever did this." The screen cut back to Dian.

"The funeral will be held at Sacred Heart Catholic Church this Sunday." The TV clicked off. Tears blinded my vision and I started to sob. I could feel Edward's cold arms around me, pulling me to his chest. The way he smelled made me dizzy, but I felt better in his arms.

"It's ok." He rocked back and forth. "It's ok. They're in a better place." He kissed the top of my head.

"I miss them." I choked out.

"I know." He kissed my head again.

I wrapped my arms around his neck and sobbed into his shirt until I fell asleep again.