"Rain hangs about the place, like a friendly ghost. if it's not coming down in delicate droplets, then it's in buckets; and if neither, it tends to lurk suspiciously in the atmosphere."-- Barbara Acton-Bond

The rain drizzled down the edge of the world… if you looked at it from far enough away, you could see it streak down the glass. It fogs up, leaving clear lines… lines that aren't big enough to see through. It's unclear and oh so distorted. When you think you've figured out what you're seeing, it turns out to be all wrong. Rain can do that… it can turn the world into a different place. Magical or dismal, Haunting or relieving, depressing or enlightening, a dream or a nightmare. It all depends on your attitude. If you take the time to step back, you can see the real beauty of the world, I hear, but you can also see the dirty, smelly, smudged up edges, and sometimes the beauty isn't worth it. You have to be willing to look at the whole picture… you can't have light without darkness, happiness without sad, a rainbow without the rain, sunshine without the storm, love without hate. That's what often goes unrealized by the human mind. When you get the chance to look at Earth from far away, you can finally see the truth that humanity hides. You don't always like what you see, but it's bearable because you know you aren't living a lie, deep inside. It's better and worse. And I wouldn't trade it for anything, but I'd even go back, for the right reasons. Because little reasons can make all the difference.

In the small, wet town of Forks, Washington, Bella Swan wandered the old grounds. A soft golden glow surrounded her, hardly noticeable, yet still there. Her skin was a translucent white, with a bluish tinge. Her hair was dark, chestnut brown, and waved out behind her in wild tendrils as the cold wind whipped around her face.

For a moment, it looked as if she had a bubble surrounding her… the rain didn't touch her. And while her hair swirled around her, she remained dry and untouched by the bone-chilling, almost soul-chilling, precipitation. It seemed as if her golden glow protected her, as if she was in her own little world.

She walked forward, through the cemetery and stooped to touch a weathered, chipped gravestone. The name was worn and hardly visible, and the date showed it was at least a hundred years old.

Cl ra El za b t Al en

1 th of Sept mbe , 1 90- 8th f May, 1909

The moment Bella's hand brushed the old stone, whatever force or illusion surrounding her burst, and the water falling from the sky soaked her through. As her memory was transported and brought up, her body remained still, touching the stone.

Ever since she had died, she had been … special. When she touched a grave, she could see exactly how that person had died--sometimes multiple people's deaths in cemeteries built over cemeteries—and she could see glow-y hazes of the lives the person had touched… a map of the world with lights dimly shining from certain points. The stone she was touching now showed her that this person had lights all over the world, lots of them. The number of lights this girl had rivaled some movie stars'. The girl in this grave was killed by a drunk. The glow from her lights was a different color because she had died prematurely. The grave emitted an energy to Bella; that's why she touched it, and it meant that the spirit of the deceased had failed to move on. Bella had gotten where she was going, and then chose to turn around… she was what some people call an angel, though she would argue that with anyone that termed her as such.

The ghost that had belonged to the now decayed body in the grave was forcefully brought before Bella, but only her mind, from the outside, it looked like Bella was hunched over, crying at a loved one's burial site.

"Young vampire watcher," Bella addressed the ghost.

"I'm not young!" the ghost said defiantly.

"I beg to differ," Bella responded. Bella glanced at the headstone her body was touching. "You are young yet, in more ways than one, Clara."

The ghost, Clara, stood there, gazing at Bella in shock.

"What are you?" she demanded, looking for an explanation for why she had been dragged away from her activities, and how such an individual could drag her away in the first place…back to this… 'final resting' place of so many. She smirked. If only the humans of the world knew just how many spirirts wandered the earth…

"That is something you will find out soon enough, but for now will remain one of the mysteries of... life for you," Bella told her. Clara tapped her foot in the air impatiently.

"Why'd you pull me away from them?" she asked.

"Them? The vampires? You've no right to watch them, as fascinating as their alternate lifestyle may seem to you, many actually, it's not your job to watch them."

"It's not my job to do anything!"

"You may think that now, but soon you will find your place in this world." Clara stared at her. "There is life after death, you know," Bella said softly, knowing it was one of Clara's deepest fears… disappearing.

"How would you know?" she snapped in response.

"Child, I've been there, and I've seen many just like yourself. You do have a place to go after this. There's no need to linger here any longer."

"This is my home."

"No it's not," Bella looked at Clara, seeing her about to protest. "It may have been, once, but it's not your home now. You are simply intruding. And there's nothing you can do in the state you're in, you know that, you can't touch any one, contact them, anything. They can't see you or anything you do, nor can they see the effects of anything you do to their possessions. To them, you don't exist. Even the vampires' enhanced senses can't detect you. Not even a faint whiff of your scent that lingers in the air, though you know as well as I that it's there. Your home is not here, young one."

"And why are you telling me this?"

"I'm what you would call… an angel," Bella shuddered lightly at the terminology, "I help lost souls like you."

"I'm not lost! And why has it taken you so long to find me…? News flash… I've been dead for a hundred years!"

"It's time to move on now, it wasn't then. You no longer have any ties to this world. None at all. Your time here is over, your stay has been extended but the clock has run out."

"What if I don't want to go?"

"I'm sure you will find you are dissatisfied of living on the edges of humanity. But is up to you to decide, ultimately. I'm simply here to tell you there are other options."

"How'd you get to come back?" Clara asked, calmer now.

"It was my choice… I didn't fit in so much there, my place is here, just not as a ghost."

"How do you know I'm not supposed to be here too?" Clara inquired.

"It may be, but remaining here like this," Bella gestured, "is not the way to do it. You have to see all your options before you can make such a choice."

"All I want to do is make a difference," Clara said, almost inaudibly. "I lived for myself as a human, it can't have been enough. That's why I didn't make it all the way to heaven… why I've been stuck here. I didn't do enough with my life."

In a soothing voice, Bella chastised her. "No, dear, no. Heaven (if that's what you want to call it) did not deny you, you subconsciously denied it. You weren't ready to leave yet. It happens a lot with premature deaths. And don't you know how many people you've affected all over the world? Your personality is dispersed across the planet. Your writings were found."

"They… they were?" Bella nodded. "And people… appreciated them like they were meant to be?"

"Yes, my dear, they are well loved. People still read them today. They won't soon forget you, until you want them to, that is."

"I.. I can't believe I've made that much of an impact. All this time I thought I was just… nobody."

"You are anything but. You're special. Which is how I know it is time for you to move on and really do what you were meant to from the start."

"Can… can I say goodbye?"

"Only if I can come with you," Bella conditioned.

Clara nodded. Her spirit lingered, floating in air, invisible to anyone that would think to look, while Bella returned to her body. After ensuring that no one as near, her body slowly faded until she was invisible as well, nothing but a very fine mist.

They moved through town, Clara asking Bella questions about her after-life. Bella explained everything but how she died and the reason she returned to earth.

When they reached the meadow containing Clara's favorite haunt, she went straight towards the window in the back of the house. Bella followed. Clara went towards the window in front of the big open living room, touching the glass.

"Goodbye," she whispered sadly. "I hope to see you again someday," she told them, though nobody knew she was there.

Bella continued drifting upwards, to a window on the third story. There, floating in midair, she watched the boy in the room. He sat at a keyboard, long pale fingers dancing over the keys in a melancholy tune. She stared longingly at him. Slowly, she moved closer, passing through the window like it didn't exist, so she could sit next to the bronze haired man with black, burning eyes.

"Edward," she whispered in a moment of weakness. Though he didn't comprehend that he had heard her, he looked up, and straight at her. Clara, who had floated up without Bella knowing watched from outside as Edward, the second oldest vampire in the house, looked straight at Bella.

"You love him, don't you?" Clara guessed, coming up behind Bella and startling her. Bella simply nodded.

Knowing she had stuff she needed to get done, she moved forward and kissed Edward on the cheek.

"One day, my love," she promised. "I'll visit again as soon as I can," Bella said in a hushed voice.

Clara, knowing she had just figured out all that Bella Swan was, smiled. She also knew, deep inside, that she wouldn't return to Earth anytime in the near future like Bella did. Everyone had their reasons, and now that she knew Bella's she knew she didn't belong in this world like this… she had other places to be and much better things to do.

"Come on, Clara, are you ready?" Clara nodded, knowing she was now, yet also sad to leave the place she'd spent the past one hundred plus years of her life.

Bella directed her towards the edge of town. Bella knew all the secrets, however harsh they may be, and she knew it would take a while to get Clara used to the place they were going. Humans had piled so many beliefs into their heads that the transition was often difficult. But, there was no heaven. There was no hell. There were no angels, or demons. They only existed in the mind. There's no light you move towards. You don't live in the clouds and you don't have wings. Not everyone can have the job of an "angel". But everyone has a place, and happiness can exist if they want it. It's completely indescribable; the human mind is so convoluted as well as polluted to even comprehend explanations of it. It's nothing they've ever known or could guess. They would try to put a name on it, but it can't be named, or compared to anything. Clara was going to have to realize that. But she would like it, Bella knew, she knew she'd find her place, and get the opportunities she deserved.

Bella wasn't going to stay with her, she would leave as soon as she could and return to Earth, waiting for her love. In truth, Edward could see her when she let him. He loved her too, but she had also told him that she would never forgive him if he killed himself to be with her. One day (both Fates ((if you could call them that)) and Bella knew) they would be together completely, as two beings of the same … species. But the time wasn't right now, but in time it would work itself out. She had waited for Edward for millennia. Throughout the centuries, she had wandered the world, helping the inevitable lost souls that haunted a half-life on the fringe of the old lives they had. She had always been with him… he had crossed over to the other side many times, only to return to the world again, without her, and there was nothing she could do about it. He had things he needed to do before they could be together, as did Bella. But one day, they'd be reunited. Until then, she had Lost Ones to help. She and Clara walked towards the passageway to the other side. It wasn't a doorway, or a tunnel, it just… was. As has been said, it's nothing the human mind can perceive or name. Clara grabbed Bella's hand, slightly scared, as they disappeared from the world of humans.

Epilogue: Clara did return to Earth, though not in the same form as Bella. She was reborn as a human, one hundred years after she was born, eighteen years before her lost soul met Bella. Though she knew it would simply be an echo of her old life, that it would have the same ending (well, minus the ghost part… she knew where she was going), she wanted to return, just once. By returning, all record of her previous self disappeared. But she got the opportunity to make a difference just as she had before. With technology of the 21st century, her personality spread farther, her impact deeper. When she died again as the result of a drunk, she was happy with her life. She would live on and continue to make a difference. Bella peaked at her map every once and a while. It glowed brighter each day… Clara continued to make a difference despite no longer being there. She found her place in the other world, and left her impression on Earth as well. She would be remembered across the globe. She had made history. She wouldn't soon be forgotten. Her stories, though unfinished, would be read as long as there were fans… she would be in stories people told for generations. Without even realizing what she was doing, she influenced too many lives to count. Her dent in their minds would remain, and her presence would always be there in the papers of the books she got published in her short return to earth.

A/N:

I'm sorry if that was confusing at all. I may continue this story, I'm not sure. In any case, the idea belongs to me. Bella and Edward are Stephenie Meyer's characters, but they're only there so this can be put on fanfiction… Maybe one day you'll see something like this on a shelf in the bookstore, written by yours truly. You never know.

Kasey