Burning Candles

Summary: (Set during Twilight) Curious because of Edward's strange behavior towards her, Bella decides on her second day in Forks to confront him and decides to pay him a visit… to his house. She never expected him to attack her though.

Chapter 1: Deathbed

Edward Cullen was a strange character.

Not only was he strange, but he was also disturbing. Just the thought of being next to me repulsed him so much that he didn't even want to be in the same class as me. Was I that bad? I thought that I was just a normal girl, but Edward made sure to give me the memo that I was not a normal girl at all. I was so repulsive that he couldn't even be near me. Uh-huh, that's how bad it was. I walked into the biology room and noticed that Edward was sitting as far away as possible again. Great, I muttered to myself in my mind, he hates me and this is going to be another fun class! I tried to stay positive, but it was impossible if you were sitting next to somebody that hated your guts for no reason.

"Bella!" Mike Newton greeted me and I smiled, turning away from Edward so that I didn't have to watch him be repulsed at me. "I was wondering if you wanted to do something with me after school." Mike said quickly and I nodded, thinking this over.

"Sorry Mike today's not really a good day for me. Maybe some other day?" I lied through my clenched teeth. Mike was not really—uh—my taste.

Mike didn't seem to mind though. "That's alright, another day for sure." He waved and moved to his seat.

I breathed out in relief, forgetting that Edward was still sitting next to me. The thoughts were rushing through my mind and I wondered what I had just gotten myself in too. Oh well, Mike wasn't that bad for a guy, but he certainly was not a potential boyfriend or anything like that. Sorry to get your hopes or anything like that, but Mike would just be always Mike. I glared at the clock, waiting for this block to be over since Edward was still not talking to me and the teacher was as boring as ever. Finally, when the bell did ring, I shot up from my seat and ran towards the nearest exit, not waiting for Mike or anybody. I was out in the parking lot before anybody else was there. I leaned against my truck, my eyes following the student body as they all walked out towards their own cars. Edward Cullen walked out and slipped into his Volvo before speeding off at an ungodly speed. I turned my head and watched as in seconds, the silver car was out of my sight. The car was gone, just like that. What if he crashed? Why should I car? He was repulsed by me! Mike stalked over to my truck and I glanced up at him and smiled slightly. My eyes were still following the path Edward Cullen's car had taken.

"Hey Bella," he greeted, "you ran out of that room so fast, I thought that Cullen had done something to you. Do you need somebody to take you home?" Mike questioned and I smiled flakily.

Uh… "No thanks Mike, remember I told you that today really wasn't a good day for me." I repeated and Mike nodded. Edward was so strange; I had to figure out why he hated me so much. I had to figure out why I repulsed him so much that he wanted to leave the science class because I repulsed him that much! A plan was already forming in my mind; I was going to put the plan in action today. The sooner, the better is the saying that I always hear. "I'm just going to go home Mike, hey, can you tell Jessica to call me if you see her?" I questioned and Mike nodded again, his blue eyes were sparkling. I bit my nip nervously.

"Catch you later Bella!" Mike saluted and I nodded as he walked away.

I hopped into my truck and thought my plan over. I parked my truck in front of my house and walked slowly to the front door, being careful not to trip on anything that would delay my plan. Being a klutz and everything, I had to be careful of everything. Charlie wasn't home when I got in, shoot! That was going to delay my plan. Charlie knew where the Cullen family lived, so now what was I supposed to do? The phone! Right, closing the door, I pushed towards the phone. I made sure not to trip over anything because I knew that I was prone to do something like that. I picked up the phone and dialed Charlie's work number. It rung two times before Charlie picked up.

"Chief Swan here," Charlie greeted formally and I was glad he had picked up.

I smiled slightly. "Hey Dad, its Bella."

"Hey Bells! You're back from school early! Is something wrong?" Charlie asked and I shook my head before remembering that Charlie couldn't see me. "Bells, you still there?"

"Uh-huh, sorry about that. Everything is fine. I was wondering if you could give me directions to the Cullen family's house. You see, I met the youngest today and he left something at school and they asked me to return it. Except the problem is, I don't know where he lives." I explained through my clenched teeth. I hated lying, although I was supposedly good at it. "So can you help me?"

Charlie hesitated before saying anything. "Well… I don't want you staying there too long though Bella. They are the kind of family that is a little strange. Five minutes at the latest Bella. Alright, you go down…" He continued to give me the directions to the Cullen household. I drove along the different roads and I was grateful to finally reach the Cullen's house. I stalled my truck as I realized that I was in the driveway. I looked up at the amazing house and gasped. It looked like it was right out of a magazine. It was so wonderful, that I could hardly breathe. I stared in awe until finally; I got the courage to go to the front door. I knocked hesitantly, noting that the silver car was nowhere in sight. The door swung up and I saw a woman of around thirty who was as beautiful as the rest of the family. She had light brown hair that curled beautifully and her eyes were the same color as Edwards. She was in regular clothes, jeans and a t-shirt.

She smiled at me. "Hello there dear!" The woman said cheerfully, I opened my mouth to speak – but I was speechless. Who was this? Another sibling? Wouldn't that be ironic? "Do you need something? Are you lost?"

I couldn't speak. The words were sticking in my throat. She looked at me worriedly. "S-Sorry," I finally managed and the woman nodded, leaning against the door-frame slightly. "I was—um—looking for Edward, is he here?" The woman nodded and pushed the door open for me, letting me into her house. It was amazing and again, I stood speechless. The two spiral stair-cases were unbelievable beautiful and this was just the foyer! She closed the door behind her and I turned to look at her. "You have a beautiful house." I said breathlessly and she laughed.

"Thanks, I'm Esme Cullen by the way," she introduced herself as she led me farther into the amazing house. "I'm Edwards' mother." She explained and I gasped at the comment. Edwards… mother? But she was only around thirty! How could she be a mother of seventeen? Isn't that illegal? She would have been like thirteen when she gave birth to Edward and what about the older kids? As if she had read my thoughts, Esme was explaining herself further. "Don't worry dear! All my kids are adopted."

I sighed in relief and then laughed it off nervously. "Oh, um, well it's nice to meet you Mrs. Cullen." She led me to the dining room and let me sit down at a red-wood chair. It looked vintage.

"You can call me Esme, darling. Sorry about the mess, I wasn't really expecting anybody." I looked around and noticed that there was no mess at all. She must have been joking with me, but she seemed pretty serious. "Edward is actually out right now, but he's due back any moment. So why don't you wait for him…?"

"Isabella." Whoops, I just said my own name wrong. "I mean Bella, Bella Swan."

"Oh!" Esme cooed. "Charlie Swan's daughter! I head that you were coming into town! It's so nice to meet you Bella." She said quickly and I smiled at her cheerfulness, she was so nice! "Well I have some things that I have to attend too, but there are some magazines on the table. Call me if there is anything you need Bella!"

"Thank you." I replied gratefully and she smiled before stalking off to the left doorway.

I still had a chance to get out of this. I could run to the door and then dash towards my truck and nobody would even notice because nobody except for Esme knew that I was here. I stood up to leave, but then sat back down. I was not going to be disgraced by Edward Cullen and I was going to get to the bottom of this. I reached over to the magazines and picked one up, flipping through it. I flipped back to the cover page that read: 'People'. I was glad that they had some regular people magazines. Charlie had all these weird fishing magazines. I looked at the different pictures of the different celebrities and smiled. They had it so lucky, how I wished that I could be there with them. The house was perfect; I wondered what I was doing here. It was strange, but somehow I felt I was destined to be here. I looked around the house, tearing my gaze from the magazine, going over what I would tell Edward when he appeared. He would probably be so angry to see me here, but I had to do this. He was the one who was making me do this! It was his fault that I was here! I flipped through the pages again, not paying attention anymore. It wasn't until I felt a little jolt of pain on my pointer finger that I realized that I had cut myself. Stupid paper-cut. I stood up, trying to stop the bleeding as I walked towards the left doorway that I had seen Esme disappear into. I heard an unfamiliar voice as I approached the doorway.

"…but what is she doing here?!" It was a girl's voice and as I stalked towards the doorway, I realized that it was the blonde girl from the lunch table. My eyes widened at her beauty. Her hair was perfect, her eyes were the same color as Esmes' and Edwards', and I wondered if everybody else had the same eye color. She was wearing black pants and a loose knit sweater. Her pale skin was so fascinating; it looked like Esmes' and Edwards' again. Okay, now that was weird. "Mom," the beautiful girl groaned. "It's dangerous that she's here! Jasper is going to go crazy!" Who was Jasper?

Esme was standing at the counter, completely idle. "Don't worry Rosalie," that was a pretty name. I sighed, a pretty name for a pretty girl. "Emmett has Jasper, correct?"

"Uh-huh, but Mom if something happens, we will all be in a lot of trouble." Rosalie said and her head snapped towards me. My eyes widened even farther when I realized that she was glaring at me. "How much of that did you hear?"

"Not much." I mumbled and stepped into the light. "I actually cut myself on the magazine, Esme do you perhaps have a band-aid?" I questioned and looked down at my hand and then back at Rosalie and Esme. They both looked wide-eyed and panicked. "You guys, it's not that bad actually. It's not even that much blood!" I explained and held up my pointer finger for them to see – a tiny drop of blood feel towards the ground in the process. "Oops!" I exclaimed and bent down to wipe up the blood. Before I knew what was happening, I looked up and saw that Esme and Rosalie did not look so friendly anymore. Suddenly, I was being slammed against the wall, my hair being pushed off of my throat in the process. I looked towards Rosalie and Esme, but they did nothing to move the person off of me. What was happening? A hiss erupted from the silence and then a shooting pain shot through my every limb. I screamed bloody murder, but Rosalie and Esme did nothing. They actually were approaching me. Suddenly, the body was pulled off of me.

"Edward! What do you think you're doing?" A harsh voice questioned as I closed my eyes and fell towards the ground.

End of Chapter 1: Deathbed

Authors Note: So this is my newest story and I hope that you like it! The summary and all will be explained further and longer chapters will go up when it gets more into the story! WARNING: SOME CHARACTERS ARE OOC! Just a warning, so don't get too worked up about it! Feed-back is very much welcomed!

Review please!