Hello my lovely readers!

Welcome to my new and awsomesauce twilight story! I haven't written anything in a LONG time, and I thought HEY, let's finish one I started AGES ago! No, this will not be another one-shot, and no, this will not be another piece of incompleteness! I have a fiew words I must leave you with: Sticky Wicket, Avatrol, Cockyolly, Gilly-gaupus.

Happy Reading!

PS. I have a mission for you at the end of the chapter. Read on.

Hurrying home, Isabella Swan knew that her parents would be mad. She was supposed to be home by eleven, though it being half past already, she knew that wouldn't exactly happen. She wished now, that she had accepted her friend's offer to have a drive home. Everything was so much creepier when no one was around. The wind whistled through the boards that covered the windows and doors as she ran passed an abandoned house. Her mind had begun to run rampant with ideas of stalkers hiding in the windows. There were street lights, giving her some sense of security, though she knew light bulbs wouldn't protect her against a psychopathic serial killer. She laughed as she shoved the thought aside. Her overactive imagination was once again running away. Though it was there, in the back of her mind, like a weight padlocked to her ankle, she was unable to shed the feeling of unease. She laughed again at her own stupidity. No one came out in this part of town, not even during the day. There were no businesses, not even the homeless people of the city came down here. Really, there was no point.

Bella's watch beeped on her wrist as it reached midnight. She paused for a breath. Sure she was skinny, but that didn't mean she was in great shape. She unzipped her blue sweater; she could feel the blood rushing to her face, making it turn bright red. She wiped off the sweat that had accumulated on her brow with her hand, and looked around to see where she was. Still panting hard, she saw that the leaves of the trees in the old overgrown park to her left were almost gone, with the winter frost on its way. The temperature had already dropped somewhat drastically since last month. A strong cold breeze picked up as she closed her eyes to prevent dust from entering them. She opened her eyes to find a small gap in the buildings ahead of where she stood. Perhaps this was a shortcut?

Having regained her breath, she began walking to the alley, her imagination once again running wild. Perhaps a fisherman with a giant hook was lurking behind a corner. She laughed with unease, trying to push the thought to the back of her mind, though unsuccessfully. She zipped up her sweater; shoving her hood over her head as her eyes darted around, trying to see everything at once. She somehow got the feeling that she wasn't alone. Her pace quickened as she traveled farther into the darkness, away from the lights that had given her the smallest sense of comfort. She hadn't realized that the alley might actually be long, instead of a two second walk to the other side of the building, a few steps away from the middle of the ghettos and a few steps closer to her mother, who would probably be in a right state when she walked into the door. What a day to forget her cell phone. Why was she in a hurry again? Oh right, the serial killer with a hook for a hand that didn't exist.

Looking around, she saw that it seemed like the alley hadn't been cleaned for quite a while. Who would bother to clean an alley, much less one that never was used? Bella didn't notice the dark figure sitting on the dank, not to mention disgusting ground until she nearly stepped on it. An almost silent hiss emitted from its mouth. She jumped back, startled at what she almost stepped on. How had she missed it? Her heart began to race once again, like she had just been running a mile. It finally registered in her mind that it was a man who was sitting on the ground, who by appearances, could not be much older than herself, maybe about 19-20. Though this was her very first time taking this alley as a shortcut, she hardly expected to find a person sitting on the ground. She made a mental note to bring a flashlight next time she was wondering through alleys on her way home from the cinema.

She took a step back. Even though she was 17, the thought of being wary of random strangers one met in an ally or offered her candy had been drilled into her head since kindergarten, and she couldn't quite shake the ever increasing feeling of unease. However, though she was frightened, she still had an extremely trusting nature. Instead of running past the man to head home as her instincts were screaming at her, she stood there, trying to catch her breath; trying to figure out why he was sitting in the middle of a dirty alley way.

"If you don't mind me asking, why are you here?" his voice was like silk, each word perfectly pronounced. It took Bella a moment to figure out that it was actually the man who had just spoken. She was unable to see his entire face since the majority of it was hidden by his hood, but it seemed to her that his voice suited his hansom features well.

"I was in a hurry to get home," she said softly. Her voice naturally warm despite the cautious tone. Bella had always had a gentle voice; her shrieking mother constantly said that she would get abducted one day if she wasn't careful. She silently hoped that this day was not that day. Clumsy, quiet, and curious were the three words that suited her most.

A nearby light in the alley flickered weakly on, startling her and once again, sending her adrenaline pounding roughly through her body. She was able to see the man now, barely. He made no other acknowledgment of what she said, other than a brief and shallow nod. His eyes were on his hand as he began tracing pictures into the dirt beside him that had accumulated over the years.

Bella was only just able to make out what he was wearing in the dim flickering of the old hanging lamp. Covering his figure was a grey hoody, as well as dark wash jeans with rips in a few places. She was able to see his hair was relatively short and dark, though the exact shade was rather difficult to make out in the current light. He turned to look at her with emerald eyes that were unusually bright, almost glowing in the shadows. Her heart started pounding in her ears; unable to tare her own brown eyes from his.

She pushed her own dark hair out of her face as she relaxed a little. If he was going to attack her, wouldn't he have done it already?

"I'm Bella by the way." She wasn't sure why she introduced herself. Maybe it was the fact that in different circumstances, she may have tried to get to know him.

This time the man made no response to her words, still keeping his unusually colored eyes on his fingers. Bella was wondering why he was sitting there. For all he knew she could be a serial killer, yet he sat right in front of her, barely noticing her existence. The wind picked up then, caressing her back, almost gently pushing her forward to the stranger. She complied by taking a step forward to regain her balance. Still he did nothing. He turned his head away from the wind, preventing the dust and debris from entering his eyes. The two of them were silent for a minute longer. Bella knew that she should be on her way, though she was unable to bring herself to leave. Eventually the man glared at her with his vibrant piercing eyes; she now swore that they were contacts. How else could they be like that? Time continued to ebb by in uncomfortable silence, only to be finally broken by the silky tone that emanated from the stranger.

"Didn't you say you were heading home," he paused for a moment. "Bella?" His voice wasn't hostel, just cold enough to send shivers down Bella's spine. He stopped drawing in the grunge of the cobblestone alley floor to stare at her a moment. She didn't like how his face seemed to be scrutinizing her, almost like she was a child who may have done something wrong. She didn't like the feeling of being treated like a child by someone who appeared to be the same age as her, if a couple years older. She shoved her hands into the pockets of her hoody, her curious gaze never parting from the sight of the stranger. She began to plot a way to drag him down to her level, or claw her way up to his. The man leaned back against the wall, his eyes now closed. She shrugged before answering.

"They don't seem to notice I'm gone. No reason to rush home now that there is a reason to stay out," she spoke one again, with the same soft warm tone as before, even though she was lying about her parents not caring.

The man looked at her for a brief moment, then back at the wall opposite to him. She had started to count the number of times his vision had flickered from her, to somewhere else, and back to her. The two of them were opposites. He was trying to distance himself, while she tried to worm her way past the emotional shield he had placed between them. She didn't know how brutally curiosity had killed the cat, but if she didn't tread lightly, she would soon find out firsthand.

"Why are you here by yourself? This isn't really the kind of place to sit and relax." She didn't ask for his name, because she knew that if he wanted it known, he probably would have said so. She probably could call him Mary Poppins and have it not make that much of a difference. She did, however, begin to question his character, which was something she should have done from the beginning, though her naivety prevented it. Knowing what brought him to the middle of the abandoned ghettos, not to mention an alley in the middle of the ghettos was more interesting to Bella. Her skin began to prickle as once again thoughts about the stranger being a psychopathic murderer crept into her mind.

He stared at her with her hard, cold glare once again. His eyes in such a mixture of emotions she was unable to even make out one. She was still trying to decipher them when he spoke.

"I like the dark and quiet. I would go to the cemetery but I got kicked out last time." From what Bella could see, his face was now emotionless. She thought he was joking about the last sentence but she remained unsure. He continued to stare at her, when his expression changed from hardened to slight surprised amusement. This frustrated her to no extent, once again she felt like she was being treated like a child.

She hid her frustration with a soft laugh that escaped her painted red lips. She had never cared much for cemeteries, other than the obvious fact that they were the perfect place to go on Halloween night; scaring the trick or treaters who walked by, by running up to the fence with zombie masks on. Mainly the reason why she didn't like them was the thought of rotting corpses beneath the ground made her feel slightly queasy. Who knows, a real zombie might jump out of the ground and drag you into their grave, eating your brains to keep their unholy afterlife going. She stopped herself before her imagination ran wild with images of zombies chasing the town's people and eating their brains.

To say Bella was innocent would be of the upmost falsehood, yet would also hold the upmost truth. She was innocent with the sins of the flesh that so many could plead guilty to today, however her personality was wickedly manipulative. She had made others shrivel up inside because they had tried too hard to crack the hard shell she had wrapped herself in. She was an artist of the worst kind when it came to words.

"You are strange, but in the best way possible," she spoke with a hint of a smile apparent on her lips. An amused look placed itself gently on the stranger's face, when he in turn spoke, while shrugging.

"I tend to get that quite often," it was a simple statement, though she was unable to tell whether or not he was speaking the truth.

She began to not mind the man staring at her, or examining her, whichever the case may have been. Bella only watched him with the same stupidly vague grin on her face. She didn't know why she was smiling, but it was the expression carried on her face when she was thoroughly confused. She began to shuffle toward him, the cold getting to her now that she wasn't moving. She didn't break eye contact as she slid down to sit against the wall opposite to him.

"Since my curfew is now extinct, do you want to go get some food?"

He didn't seem to acknowledge her question as he stood up, staring at the ground as he did. A confused expression swept across her features as his eyes once again locked on to hers. Having just sat down, she didn't particularly want to stand up, but she did anyway.

"You should go." His tone was hard and monotone; his voice loosing its silk like quality. His once curious emerald eyes were now in a hardened glare. Her change in mood had happened so suddenly, Bella took a step back with surprise. He didn't utter another word as he left, turning the corner at the mouth of the alley

"Hey come on…" She chased after him, turning the corner only seconds after the stranger only to find that he had disappeared. Spinning in circles, her skin began to crawl. What had she just seen? Had she just spent the last few minutes talking to a ghost? With her imagination once again running rampant, she broke into a sprint, running as fast as she was able, home.

Well done, well done! You have made it to the end of this chapter! You're mission, should you choose to accept it, is to guess (and tell me your guesses) as to who exactly the lovely Bella happened to bump into! Your answers could shape the very plot like of this story! It is up to you my dear readers. *This message will self-destruct in 10 seconds.*

I have a side mission, not nearly as important, but a mission none the less. Whomever tells me the correct meaning of the words at the top of the page, gets a cookie ;) (yes...these are actual words...I am unsure if they are in the current edition of the dictionary however...)

Snaboon King 3