Ok, so I've been throwing this idea around for a while and, since I'm going out of town for a day or so, thought I'd post the prologue for this. I have chapter one finished as well and am halfway done with chapter two, but it'll still be a while until I post more. I would like to have a few chapter lined up before I update.

Disclaimer: Of course I don't own Twilight… but the characters are just too much fun to play around with!

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"Ok, let's talk." She sounded much more confident than she felt. He had barely spoken a word to her in three days, and now all of a sudden he wants to take a walk? She had been preparing herself for the worst, leaving Forks, and was ready to argue against whatever ideas he'd managed to come up with in that creative head of his.

She looked up into his eyes, fixed on her in a stone cold glare, and she felt her eyebrows furrow in confusion. "Bella, we're moving." His statement was blunt, no emotion in his voice. So he had prepared for the worst, too, then; her bad reaction. No worries, then. She could discuss this with him as the adult she now legally was.

Breathing out a defeated sigh, she looked up at him disapprovingly. She wouldn't argue it if he didn't agree, but she had to try. For Charlie's sake. "Well, can't we wait another year? I mean, at least until graduation-" He cut her off, glaring.

"No Bella. By 'we' I meant my family and myself."

A lump formed in her throat once she understood what he was saying. She wasn't a part of his family. "I - don't understand…" she trailed off, unable to push any more words past her throat without choking.

"Bella, I'm tired. Tired of pretending to be something I'm not and tired of testing my self control. It's just not worth it." He appeared struggled, but vampire expressions were much harder to read than humans'. "You're not worth it."

Her eyes went wide. "But I thought, I mean, you said-" Nothing was making sense anymore. He'd told her countless times how much he loved her and how she was his whole life; the reason for his existence even! How he'd waited a century for her.

"I lied."

And just like that everything fell into place. Like all the pieces of a puzzle were finally coming together to form a great and terrible picture. One she wished she could unsee. He never meant any of it. He had played her as easily as he played his piano. She was his toy, his pet; messing around with her emotions so he could go home and have something to joke about with his family. And she would never notice because she was too dazzled by his beauty and perfection and the fact that he wanted her just as much. That was the plan all along. Just to change up their lives for some excitement. She began to wonder how many other poor girls had been put into her situation before. Probably dozens. So many bright, young, self-conscious women made to believe a beautiful young man wanted her. There was just one little flaw with her theory.

"B-but, then, why did you tell me your secret?" she barely choked out, holding back her angry tears.

He smiled softly, as if he were negotiating with an insane person. As if this whole thing wasn't serious. "Bella, you figured that one out on your own. I couldn't just deny it because you'd never have believed me. You're very stubborn." Her watery eyes tightened into a glare.

"So that's it then. This whole thing has been a joke?!" He nodded once. She laughed bitterly. "I've just been your play thing. Some entertainment in this sodden shithole?!" He smiled 'sympathetically' again.

"Bella, don't be like this." He reached out to stroke her cheek, attempting to dazzle her, but she flinched away. He sighed, dropping his hand to his side and his eyes to the ground. He glanced back up at her through his eyelashes, disappointed to see she'd looked away. She was prepared. "Hey, kiddo, I'm sorry. There's just more for me out there, and, well, let's face it. You're stuck here, with Charlie."

That did it. Kiddo?! Who did he think he was, her father?! She raised her hand to slap him, but he caught her around the wrist. "Bella, stop. That will only cause you to break your hand, and you can't afford a medical bill."

"Why do you care how I spend my money?!" she growled out, and he almost felt afraid of the tiny, fragile girl before him. Almost. The degrading smile returned to his lips.

"Bella, just because things didn't work out doesn't mean I don't care about you, in a way. Save your hospital visits for the next time you fall over and break something, will you?" She nodded at the ground, not wanting to give herself away by looking at him. He let go of her hand.

In a flash she whammed it into the side of his face, feeling the bones crunch beneath her skin and not caring in the slightest. The physical pain gave her a reason to let the tears fall. He looked down at her, as if he was a parent scolding their child. She glared through her watery eyes up at him, clutching her broken hand in her good one.

He made a move to grab her mangled limb, but she pulled away, wincing at the pain that shot throughout her whole arm. "Don't touch me!"

She started marching away from him, farther into the forest, when he called out to her. "Bella, where are you going?!" He was at her side in an instant.

"Does it matter?! Just leave!"

"It's dangerous out there," he argued, his voice level and calm. As if he hadn't just ruined the best part of her life. The part that had been a lie.

She ignored him, stumbling on a branch. He caught her by the elbow, which, once released, slammed into his stomach. She ignored that pain too-now both arms were useless-and continued away. "What are you still doing here?! Just go already!" There was a quick sigh, and when she turned around she was pleased and saddened to see that he was, in fact, gone. She checked around in every direction and found him not there. But that didn't stop her walking.

She continued on for miles, until the already dark of the forest became nighttime. And even that didn't stop her. It wasn't until her foot connected with the root of a tree and she landed on her knees and broken limbs at the edge of a meadow that she gave up her marching. It was a perfect circle; it was beautiful; it pained her more than her broken hand and elbow combined. This was only one of the many places that manipulator had taken her during their half a year together.

That's when the floodgates truly opened. She couldn't stop the waterfall of tears that streamed out of her eyes. They were flooding her cheeks the way memories, all the memories that had ever meant anything to her, flooded her brain. All of the doors he'd opened for her, the times he saved her from her own clumsiness, the few kisses he'd given her… he should have been awarded an Oscar.

She was so busy with her sobbing that she hadn't realized another being enter the premises. Only when a childlike giggle rang out through the open field did she stop crying and look up. Her breath caught in her throat.

"W-w-what are you doing here?" she stuttered as the giggler moved closer.

"You didn't honestly think I'd just forget about you? After everything you put me through?"

"I didn't do anything to you," Bella argued, her tone lacking the severity she'd intended for it. All she could manage was a pathetic whisper.

"Maybe not, but you are guilty by association," the vampire argued, her eerily slow steps never faltering as she approached the broken girl at the edge of the meadow.

"Not anymore." The words were a bitter mumble as Bella's puffy brown eyes glared daggers into the damp earth beneath them. Her aching arms clutched her waist, and the position she was in, combined with her drained face, almost made her look as though she was preparing to vomit.

"Oh, yes, I heard your little spat. How unfortunate. That does put a damper on my original plans."

Bella tried to gulp back the fear building within her. It only made the vampire's twisted grin more wicked. "Plans?" she all but squeaked.

"Oh yes. You didn't think I was just here for a visit, did you?" she asked, her voice a degrading, childlike sound that made Bella's jaw tighten defensively. It was too similar to the tone he'd been using earlier. "You see, last spring, when your mate-Oops!" Another sob escaped Bella, and she pressed her hand to her mouth to keep quiet. "Sorry, it's just that I had this whole speech planned out ahead of time. Improvising has never been one of my strong points. Anyway, last spring when Edward destroyed my mate, yes that's right, James and I were romantically involved," she added at Bella's look of incredulity. "I took off to start planning. I've been lurking in the distance, just out of range of those precious human-lovers of yours-or not-waiting for the opportune moment to strike." Bella's eyes drifted shut, and the vampire was now only three feet away. Her voice got quieter with each step. "I was simply going to kill you, a mate for a mate, you see. But then Edward had to go and complicate things by coming to his senses." She let all of the words sink in to the human girl's annoyingly slow brain.

Bella tried to fight off the blame she felt towards the Cullens, she really did. But if it wasn't for them and their cruel, selfish lies, she could be at home, happily reading a book while Charlie's dinner simmered away on the stove. If it wasn't for their twisted sense of humor, she never would have been introduced to James and his little coven, the Cullens would have never needed to kill James, and therefore royally piss off Victoria, who would have never come to the insane conclusion that Bella needed to die as punishment for a death she wasn't specifically involved in. Funny how chains of events played out.

"But do not fret. I have come up with a different way to pay Edward back for what he did to me." Bella's broken brown eyes looked up into the glowing crimson eyes of Victoria, who crouched down to her level. "Since killing you will no longer even the score, I think I should have to go the opposite way. From the looks of things, keeping you around forever seems to be the best way to get under his skin, wouldn't you agree?" Bella's eyes widened in fear. For the first time in her life she actually feared for herself. Ironic how it would be too late.

Could she bear to live out eternity knowing that one person she had trusted above all else had never actually cared for her? No, she didn't think so. But what other alternative was there? She looked around and spotted a rock nearby.

Victoria grabbed it before her hand had even moved an inch. "Now Bella, do you really think spilling your own blood will stop me? If you haven't noticed, I've recently fed." Bella stopped breathing, hoping to suffocate before Victoria could bite her. "Very well then, I'll make this quick." She reached for Bella's right hand, the broken one, examining the crescent scar left by her former lover only six months earlier. "But first, remember this, and let it be the thought that carries you through the next three days. The pain I am about to inflict on you could have easily been avoided if it weren't for the selfishness of the Cullens." And with that said, the childish, cat-like vampire bit down in the same area James had, her smaller mouth not able to fully cover the scar, and Bella released her breath in a blood curdling scream.

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Hmm, I think that's a decent sized prologue, wouldn't you agree? The more reviews the sooner I update!

~Jazz~