Story Summary: In the Twilight novels, it was hinted at that Maria came to visit. Bella wakes up late for her first day of school at Forks high, and in her rush to get to school she slips and breaks skin while a blood-thirsty vampire runs nearby. Maria bites Bella, and changes her after drinking her to near death.

For 35 years Bella has fought in the south for Maria and her army, but one day, they're gone. While Bella was away from the war on an errand for Maria, the Volturi destroyed the Southern covens, tired of their endless fighting. With no place to go, Bella wanders.

Will she find the Cullen's? Can this Bella find her Edward?

Chapter Music: Don't Let Them See You Cry, Manchester Orchestra

Prologue: Ghost

Her fingers ghosted along the quilt, releasing 35 years of dust from their settlement. It was still soft from a lifetime of use. Its purple colour was faded, like the rest of the room. Everything was faded. The room was dying.

It hadn't been touched for 35 years. The quilt was still in casual disarray, having been thrown off half hazardly one morning. The bedside lamp still laid on its side from when she bumped into it that morning during the rush of finding herself late for school. Rejected possibilities of that day's outfit were still resting around the room, having been flung away in frustration. All of it was still there.

Charlie didn't have the will to straighten up or tidy up. He didn't have the acceptance in him to convert the room into something he could use. He was still in denial, the first stage of grief. He probably wouldn't move from it until he died. He still expected to see his daughter walk in through the front door and apologize for scaring him. He didn't know what really happened.

Isabella Marie Swan died to the human world 35 years ago.

But here she was, moving around her old room like she had never left. A ghost in a ghostly setting.

Moonlight shone down through the window, highlighting a patch of the spotted and dusty hardwood flooring. Sitting there was a math textbook, forgotten in her haste to make it out the door that morning. Charlie had never even returned it.

She wondered what would have happened if she hadn't been late that morning. What if her alarm clock had gone off when it was supposed to? What if she had made it to her truck before it started to rain, and she slipped? What if she hadn't broken skin, taunting and teasing the creature that lurked in the shadows? What if she had stayed...human?

Her nose wrinkled. She didn't like the smell of dust. It's grainy and unpleasant. She was also losing her tolerance of the smell of her father's blood in the next room. It's mixed with the fresh scent of tears. She thinks he cries every night now. Maybe he's mourning the years she had rejected Forks. Maybe he wishes he had more time. Maybe he wishes she would just come home.

He wouldn't wish that if he knew what she had become.

She catched a glimpse of her hand, watching as the moonlight catched the raised scars on her limb, causing them to sparkle the preternatural glimmer of immortal skin. So many scars. So many battles. So many bites.

She stood there for an undeterminable amount of time. Hours are like seconds for her kind.

All she knew was that far too soon, she could hear Charlie shift, his heart beat pulled out of the lulled beating of a sleeping figure and into the alert, sharp taps of a conscious being.

It was time to go. She couldn't be found out.

Before Charlie ccould open his eyes, she was down the stairs and out the front door. She re-locked the door with the key Charlie leaves out in secret, in case she came back and was keyless. It has finally served its purpose, she supposed.

She returned to the shadows of the trees, preparing to make the long and tedious trek back south to where she's needed. She was allowed to come back every year on the anniversary of her human death, but Maria was begrudged to let her leave for long. Bella was her second in command. She needed her.

Goodbye again.

And with that she was gone. Back to the south and their never ending wars. Back to wage war with those who wished to take control. Back to Maria, her master and her only ally – her creator and her murderer.

Unsheddable tears blotted the world out, and the pain finally became too much.

She would not be back again.

Goodbye, Forks; Goodbye, Charlie.

Love you.

And she would.

Until the end of time...

-Maggie