"Bella, I need to talk to you." my father told me as he entered the house. He sat down at the kitchen table. I stopped making dinner and sat across from him.

He looked at me gravely, "I want you to be careful for a while, okay? Yesterday, a young couple was reported missing. A body was found this morning."

"Have you found the other body?"

"No. The girl is still missing. We don't have a trace of evidence. I'm putting some pepper spray in your bag, but I want you to be careful. Don't be going out alone."

I didn't argue. Charlie was often overprotective, but nothing like this ever happened in Forks. I would be visiting Phoenix soon, so I wouldn't have to worry about his over-protectiveness for long. This case would blow over and Charlie would be back to normal.

That's what I thought, but I didn't notice just how worried Charlie looked. I didn't know what the future held, either.

~o~

"Do you ever feel like you're being watched?" Alice asked me as we walked from our cars down to a flat field near the Cullen house.

"Yeah. Jacob's been staring at my ass since we got out of the Jeep."

"Not like that," she rolled her green eyes, "But remind me to kill him. It's just like...I don't know. Have you heard about the murder near here?"

"Yeah. Charlie's freaking out about it. He didn't want me to come today."

She shrugged, "Maybe he was right. Something weird is going on, Bella. I can feel it."

"In Phoenix, stuff like this happened a lot. It sucks, but nothing's going to happen. They'll catch the guy and it will blow over."

"It's different. I know it is."

I didn't argue. Alice had a sixth sense when it came to future events. As her girlfriend, I knew this better than anyone. If she said something odd was to happen, chances are she was right.

"Hey, will you two stop stalling and hurry so we can beat your asses?" Emmett called from the mock baseball field. He was swinging a bat and tapping his foot.

"Yeah, yeah." Alice ran out to the field while I sat in a grassy spot to watch the game. If I played, I'd end up falling and breaking something.

Emmett ended up with a home run and a chorus of boos from the opposite team. I was told to keep score but honestly knew nothing about the game. Alice kept missing the ball, but got mad at Jacob laughing at her, so ended up running off with the bat until everyone playing chased after her. Rosalie tackled her and the game resumed.

I was enjoying myself, watching the game until a dark chill fell over the field. The others felt it too.

"Crap, it's going to rain." Emmett complained.

Jasper glanced around, "I don't think so." He looked deeply disturbed.

Alice ran to my side and laced her fingers through mine, "Let's go. Now."

"Guys, nothing is going on." Edward said.

"Yeah. I don't know what drugs you guys are on, but..." Rosalie tossed her blond hair and laughed.

Then it stepped out of the woods.

I didn't get a good look at it, because Alice had grabbed on to me more tightly and pulled me away. The others ran behind us, but I don't know if they saw or not. My mind was a mindless roar. This was just not right.

We practically threw ourselves into the two cars we had brought, tearing out of the clearing in the woods. I felt like I was outside of my body. Alice was focused, driving away, concentrating only on our safety. Rosalie was staring out the back window, "It's not following us. Jesus Christ, what was that?"

Alice shook her head, "It doesn't matter. We just have to get out of here."

"Alice, was that what killed that couple?"

"Rose, I don't fucking know. We just have to get away. Okay? It's probably nothing."

But it wasn't nothing. We all knew that, really.

~o~

It was three weeks before anything else happened. Our group had taken over the Cullen living room for a sleepover. Alice and Edward's parents were upstairs watching a movie while we had popcorn fights and obnoxious games of Truth or Dare. I had just been dared to eat a handful of wasabi peas that had been found in the back of a cabinet when the lights cut out. Esme and Carlisle fumbled their way downstairs while the rest of us huddled on the couches.

"It's really fucking dark." Emmett grumbled.

"Language, Em." Esme reprimanded while searching for flashlights in the kitchen.

Alice curled up beside me, my arm around her, "I don't like this, Bella."

"The lights will be on again, babe."

"I don't know about that." Jasper mumbled.

"My cellphone service is out too!" Rosalie screeched.

There was a chorus of groans. Carlisle lit a couple candles that cut through the darkness, allowing a soft light, "Heaven forbid you can't text for a couple hours. How will we ever survive?" he teased.

We tried to stay lively after the power went out, but it was forced. Everyone tried, except for Jasper and Alice. They huddled next to each other, whispering back and forth. Edward and I made eye contact, showing unspoken concern. We had made no mention of the creature in the woods since that day, but I knew it was on everyone's mind.

"I wonder if we should drive out to town. It's only ten. We could see if anyone else has power, maybe hang out at the diner if they do." Esme suggested.

Alice was hesitant, but the rest of us agreed.

It was a mistake.

We piled into two cars, Emmett's Jeep and Edward's Volvo. Alice sat next to me and held my hand tightly. I kissed her briefly, but she was distracted. Carlisle looked concerned, but I just shrugged.

The town was deserted. Not a single person was out, and lights were out everywhere. We went store to store, all with open signs but not a single person inside. We tried a few homes, but our friends had disappeared. There was an unspoken fear among us. Hesitantly, I asked Edward to drive to my home. Charlie's cruiser was in the driveway. The door was unlocked, but Charlie was no where in the house.

"Where have they all gone?" I asked.

Alice shook her head. Carlisle tried to ease our fears, "Maybe there was an evacuation."

Alice lost her temper, "For what, Dad? They're gone. We have to fucking go. We need to get back to the house. Please!"

We drove back. No one spoke a word. Emmett followed us. There wasn't a single car on the road. We just became more and more worried.

Edward nearly missed the road to the Cullen house. The long trail from through the woods was like a barrier.

"This is probably the only reason why we haven't been taken. Because we're not in the immediate area. But they probably will find us now."

"Who, Ali?" Carlisle asked.

"No one. Them. I don't know."

"Baby, it's okay. No one has taken anyone."

Alice didn't argue. She just stared out the window, looking small and scared. I tried to pull her into me, but she jerked away. We all ran into the house, shaken and scared. We all looked to Esme and Carlisle for what to do next, but they had no advice to offer. Our phones didn't work and we still had no power.

Alice summed up our situation perfectly, "It's hopeless. We just have to sit and wait for them."

"Who is them, though?" Rosalie asked.

"I don't know." Alice said quietly.
"They're not from here." Jasper stated matter of factly.

"Then where are they from?"

"I don't know. They just feel different."

"I feel like I can see them, but I can't. I know something is going to happen, I just don't know what!" Alice cried. Her face crumpled and she looked miserable in the light of the candles.

"So, are they like...aliens?" Emmett asked.

Esme shook her head, "That's ridiculous."

"I don't know. They're different. I can feel it. But they're the same." Jasper told us.

We went on like this. Alice stopped crying, but fell to hugging her knees and staring off into space.

Eventually, we all fell asleep. I don't know if it was willing. They gassed us, or the equivalent. They came for us.

~o~

We woke up far from Forks. Far from earth. I say they came for us, as if they took us away from all we knew, but honestly, they were just coming back.

We are them and they are us. Thousands of years ago, the first human stepped onto earth. We weren't human then. We were different. Earth was a trial, as our first world was failing. The human race was started on planet Earth, but forgotten and left by our origin. We grew and evolved. We forgot the race we came from and gained our own identities. We became human.

But now, they were back for us.

The original humans were special, the best in a line of the race we spawn from. They possessed special abilities that suited them for survival in alien Earth, but it was forgotten over time. Occasionally, it showed up in those special few, like our Alice and Jasper.

I don't know why they came back. Perhaps they are dying out. Perhaps we are needed. Or maybe they'll just use us and kill us.

We don't know. We don't converse. The language of our origin is completely foreign and this alien race has difficulty with English. They can speak with us, but choose silence. They have been scanning for years for the perfect place to start the abduction, but they have bothered to learn little of our ways.

We are kept in special rooms, completely white and soundproof. We have been separated by sex. Alice does little but sit on her bed and stare at the blank walls. Esme tries to comfort us all, but fails. Rosalie is dead, or worse. They have kept her separated from us.

Alice told Esme and I all of this at the beginning of our journey, then fell completely mute. We have no explanation about how she has this information. I feel she will be killed and my heart aches.

I've seen them. The race from which we originated. The aliens. They're humanoid, but dark, smaller. Their eyes are small and beady, their heads large. They look...twisted. Damned. Like every demon from hell imagined in the minds of humans of Earth. They give off a feeling of wrongness, something so alien and yet so familiar that it does nothing but revolt me. I fear for any life that is ahead of me.

There is no way to kill myself. Though this race may know little of the human race, they must know enough to know where we would turn first. The comfort of death. They must need us to serve some purpose.

I am afraid.