Summary: What Emmett goes through during the day he is attacked by a black bear and his first glimpse of an angel.

(A/N: I do not own any works of Stephenie Meyer. There is no money being made. I have used some of the outtakes from her website to make my story more Emmett, they are in italics. I do not intend any plagiarism. Also many thanks go out to Michelle-bronzehairedgirl otherwise this piece of work would have been at the bottom of a trashcan.) Please read and review.

I was not your typical twenty-year old. In my day, the men were lean and tall. I was taller than most and bigger built. I am very muscular. I had thick, dark curly hair. As I woke up this morning, I was ready. I had planned this hunting trip for a few weeks now. It wasn't that I was unhappy at home, but I needed some time to myself to think. When the stock market crashed a few years ago; the depression hit us hard. To help out, I would cut wood for folks that weren't able to. The pay wasn't much. There were many things that needed to be sorted out. There were a lot of young men from Gatlinburg that were joining the C.C.C. I knew the mountains well and knew I could do the physical labor. There was a national park opening soon and they needed roads and bridges built. The pay was forty-five dollars a month. The working conditions, living quarters, and uniforms were a lot better than they had been previously. I wasn't sure what I wanted to do. I wanted to go because it was a chance to help my family. What if something happened while I was gone? What if they couldn't reach me? I was nervous to be away from my family.

The only time that I felt at peace was when I was outdoors, hunting or playing sports. I also loved to spend time with my family. I come from a big family so my brothers and I wrestled a lot. I hated to lose. I was always a competitive person by nature. We played a lot of board and card games. There was a time when my brother beat me at a game of checkers. He hasn't let me forget since. There were even times I remember my mother sitting in the living room sewing some old pants my older brothers had outgrown. She was listening to the radio. Soaps. One of her favorites.

I went downstairs and ate breakfast with my family before I headed out the door. I ate some oatmeal cooked with raisins, eggs, bacon, sausage, a biscuit with butter and jam, and a glass of milk. We sat at the table without a word being spoken. Everyone was on edge. They didn't think I should go hunting. They wanted me to go straight to the C.C.C. I finished the rest of my breakfast and gave my mother a hug and walked out the door. I walked over to the stables and just as I was opening the door my beloved hunting hound jumped up into my face. I stumbled back. She was an old dog and had seen many trips in her day. Today I was going alone.

There was a trail that father and I used to take when I was a little younger. On the right side there was a forest of nothing but green trees that reached towards the sky. On the left was a steep, rocky slope with sharp rocks. Take a wrong step to the side and you would fall off the side of the mountain. The trail was a steep climb that curved as you went up. It burned the back of my legs so I pushed myself harder. I walked down taking my time making sure I didn't fall. There was a stream that ran across the bottom of the ravine. It was sweet, clean, mountain spring water. I stopped and took a drink. I filled my now empty canteen.

I looked toward the horizon and saw a clearing in the massive, tall trees. As I got closer, I saw an outcropping of rocks that looked perfect to take a rest on. I sat down to have my late lunch and just as I was about to take a bite of my salt pork sandwich I saw the bushes twenty feet away start to move. Whatever it was it was big. The wind changed direction and that's when I caught the smell. It smelled musky and musty. It must have smelled my sandwich. Normally bears tend to shy away from humans. A rush of thoughts went through my mind at that moment. How do I get out of here without attracting its attention? It already knows I'm here.

Just then it moves out from the cover of the bushes: an adult black bear weighing about three hundred-seventy lbs, about three feet in height standing on all fours, and about six feet in length. We locked eyes and that's when I knew. Today would be my last. Hunger was in its eyes. I prepared myself for its charge. I got my knife and gun ready. I made the mistake of looking down, it was charging. I felt the ground tremble with each step it rushed at me. I looked up just in time to see its huge paws making their way towards my face. If I let the paw make contact it was all over. I ducked and shot upwards into the bears' chest. It didn't slow down. I grabbed my knife and just started jabbing it into its side. I was determined that this bear wasn't going to take me easily.

It pinned me down on the ground and I felt a sharp pain in my shoulder as its teeth broke the skin. I could feel warm liquid running down. It started to chew and bite and claw at me. It swiped at my chest and its claws went through from the right shoulder down to my left rib cage. The pain was like nothing I had imagined. I knew it was going to hurt. I tried to get out from underneath the bear with no luck. My eyes started to get heavy and fill with darkness.

Just as I was losing consciousness I heard a loud growling that wasn't coming from the bear. He was finished playing with me then, and I knew I was about to die. I couldn't move, and my consciousness was slipping away, when I heard what I thought was another bear, and a fight over which would get my carcass. All of a sudden the bear was torn off my chest and thrown into a boulder near by. The sound as the bear hit sounded like rocks colliding. I could hear its bones cracking at its back hit dead center. It stopped moving. It was getting harder to breathe. With each gasp of air that escaped pain would spread across my chest. The gashes across my chest gaped open and blood ran down my chest. The pain was unbearable. I knew I was going to pass out any moment. I lay there broken. My life was pouring out with each breath.

I felt cold arms reach around my neck and heard a sweet voice.

"Please don't die-"

"-Hang on-"

"-Carlisle will help you but please don't go yet."

Suddenly it felt like I was flying. I figured I'd died, but I tried to open my eyes anyway. And then I saw her. And I knew I was dead. I didn't even mind the pain—I fought to keep my eyelids open, I didn't want to miss one second of the angel's face. I was delirious, of course, wondering why we hadn't gotten to heaven yet, thinking it must be farther away than I'd expected. I kept waiting for her to take flight. And then she brought me to God.

(A/N: Any good critique would be great. This is my first so be kind.)