Chapter One: Solitude

I live in a world of darkness...I've been blind since I was a few months old. The darkness that blindness brings is my one constant companion in a world that is always uncertain. The solitude that the darkness brings is comforting rather than an enemy that leaves me in isolation. I was never much of a talker I preferred the silence that being antisocial brought rather than the awkward silence of having someone trying to make conversation with me. Everyone always seemed to not know what to say to me as if they were afraid that they would say something to offend me or afraid that I wouldn't like the same things as they did because of my 'disability.' Which was totally ridiculous i simply preferred other things not because of me being blind but because I had aged faster than they had. My mentality was that of an adult not a hormonal teenager. Though I had been forced to be that way and though at times I wished I could be more like others around me I knew I never would be...in more ways than one.

My mother was a person who liked to have fun and having a blind daughter hindered that. She refused to give up her partying lifestyle but did not want other people to think of her as a bad mother she decided to hire a helper, someone who was educated in helping the blind. In fact my first birthday consisted of my helper, who's name was Annie, and me and it was the same for my other three following birthdays and Christmases, New Years, and Easters. No one else attended because I had no playmates and Annie didn't want to invite strangers into her employer's home. I loved Annie even though now so many years later I have only vague memories of her, my mother decided that Annie wasn't helping me at all and fired her. I feel guilty still about that she was rather poor but loved helping people and she had needed the money that my mom was paying her, but I slipped one day in front of my mother and called Annie mom. I had cried and held onto her pants leg begging her not to go, not to leave me with the woman whom though was biologically my mother was a complete stranger to me. She had sobbed as she hugged me tightly and whispered into my ear not to forget to count to 15 every night so I would remember how to. Then she was gone. Out of my life forever never to be seen again and suddenly the woman who had not truly spent more than 10 minutes with me a week had put me into school. Kindergarten to be exact.

I didn't know how to count twenty and I didn't know write or read because I couldn't see to do either. Annie had told me that she was going to start teaching me Brail in the next few months but she never did thanks to my slip up. So during school I sat in the Principal's office or in the secretary's office and waited for school to end. I endured this agony for three days, three long slow days, before my mother pulled me out and found me a new helper. His name was James and he was like my father slash older brother. He was the one to teach me Brail and plan my birthdays and every other holiday for the next five years, until he met a woman and fell in love, then he could no longer live at my house and care for a blind girl. They moved and I remembered the day he told me they were leaving and he wouldn't be coming back. I had cried and screamed at him hating his girlfriend for taking him away from me but hating him more for letting her. He told me to be good and that I'd always be his little sister but I had to learn that people would come and go into my life and I couldn't stop it.

I went another three days without anyone to help me get around at home. At nine years old I still wasn't used to moving around without help. My mother wouldn't pay for me to get and learn hot to use a cane, so I stuck to the walls mostly. It was a miracle that i didn't break anything. Three days of having to crawl up the stairs to get to my room...my mom never even considered giving me her room even though it was on the first floor. I couldn't see them but I could feel them and I knew bruises covered almost ever surface of my body. Those three days were a lonely transition period for me but it was those three days that I believe the change happened; that I grew up and faced reality in a sense. Of course there were more helpers who were nice but I treated them indifferently. Most of them tried to tell my mother that I need to see a therapist because I was obviously angry about being blind so I was pushing others away. I had laughed when I had heard them suggest it...they didn't understand that it was better for them and me if I remained indifferent and no bond formed. Because though I didn't know when I knew at some point they'd leave forever and there was no reason to cause them and me the agony of saying goodbye. No it was better if they assumed I was the bitter blind girl even if their assumption was wrong. I had been nine years old when that change occurred.

That's one of the reasons that I'm now sitting on an airplane thousands of feet in the air heading to Forks, Washington. Mom said it was for my own good and than like always she'd left with her new boy toy Phil. She said that I needed to make friends but I knew that she was just tired of having me around. I hadn't had a helper in three years instead I had a guide dog...that was given to me by the hospital for the blind. Though the term dog fits very loosely seeing as she was a purebred wolf. She'd been born in captivity and had been going top spend her whole life their but when she had started flipping lights on with her nose and opening fridges. The volunteers at the center had been stunned and a little puzzled until someone suggested trying to teach her how to guide the blind. She passed through the program with flying colors and became the first wolf seeing eye 'dog.' with in a matter of weeks she had been given to me.

I loved her dearly she was the first anything that I had allowed myself get close to in eight years. She was my constant companion and not only was she a great guide dog she was an intelligent friend. Unfortunately she had to stay below with all the luggage that belonged to the other passengers on the plane. Looking around uselessly as I felt the plane start to descend I felt my stomach flutter. This was my first time on a plane and it was also the first time since my birth that i would be meeting Charlie. We'd talked over the phone of course but never had we met in the flesh.

A flight attendant tapped me on the shoulder and told me that we had arrived a few minutes later. She helped me get my bag and then guided me off the plane. I didn't know how I would find Charlie I couldn't see him and even if I could I wouldn't know who to look for.

"Bella!" I heard him call my name I could tell it was him by his voice. It calmed me in a way that my mother's voice had never been able to. I smiled slightly and then i felt him hug me awkwardly. "I've missed you so much Bells." He had I could hear it. His voice was thick with emotion though i did not understand why. I might by blood be his daughter but in every other way I was a stranger. I pushed those thoughts away hurriedly.

"I've missed you to Dad." The name sounded odd on my tongue seeing as I referred to him as Charlie within my mind. "Um...I did tell you about Moonlight my guide dog?" I asked a little worried.

"Yes you did. Though you didn't explain why you called her Moonlight." He laughed a little and I let myself let out a small sigh of relief but then I tensed up again.

"Well, you see she likes howling at the moon." It was a lame excuse but I wasn't about to tell him why called her that...it was to personal.

"Likes to howl at the moon Huh? What is she a Wolf?" He asked jokingly. Crap so there was something I forgot to tell him. Thinking quickly I nodded.

"Yes dad she is a purebred Wolf. She's completely tame though she acts like a dog mostly except for the howling thing and I've even gotten her trained to be quiet until I tell her not to be. She's been around tons of people since she was a pup. I promise she's harmless." I told him in a rush. I decided not to tell him that she had a very bad or good tendency, pending on who you ask, to protect me to the point of ridiculousness. She even had tried to bite a man when he had grabbed my arm to stop me from leaving the room that I had been in. He hadn't done it meanly he'd simply wanted to ask me a question but Moonlight hadn't known that...or perhaps she had and just hadn't cared.

"Bella, I don't know if the school will let you have her guide you at school...I mean they have to think about the other kids." His voice was uneasy and i felt my stomach churn. They couldn't take Moonlight away from me...they wouldn't.

"Dad, for the last three years she's been guiding me around my school. And need i remind you that one whole sophomore class consisted off over a thousand people. Not counting the freshman's, juniors, or seniors plus the faculty and staff. She never had a problem their that school is three times bigger than Forks High. This was what she was trained for to guide people who can't see and I can't see." I finished my speech desperately. "Please daddy let her guide me I don't want to be home schooled anymore." It was the truth I didn't want to be but not because of the people i encountered at school but because I learned from actual teachers. Not Brail textbooks. I'd never had a tutor just helpers...who would get assignment from the school and turn them in when i was done.

"Fine I'll talk to them though they won't like you can keep her and let her help you. Anyway lets go get her." I nodded and felt him take my arm and begin walking.

One hour and thirty minutes later I was up in my bedroom that I'd never slept in and thinking. I was petting Moonlight wondering what school would be like tomorrow there was bound to be gossip and talk. There had been at my old school so there would be some now I was sure of it. I just hoped that they wouldn't think me a freak and that they would leave me alone in peace to learn and enjoy Moonlights company. Laying down I closed my unseeing eyes and drifted off to sleep with Moonlights head resting on my now calm stomach.

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As you can see this story is AU. But please tell me if you like it hate it or are indifferent. I don't care I cherish every review I get. Also this is my first attempt of Twilight fan fiction ever. Also I'm not sure if a Wolf could be trained for this job but for the sake of the story just imagine that this wolf could.