Disclaimer: The characters of Twilight are owned by Stephenie Meyer. The original content and ideas of this story are those of TheGirlNtheYellowShoes.


The Yellow Brick Road

Prologue

"Because I could not stop for death, He kindly stopped for me; The carriage held but just ourselves and immortality." ~ Emily Dickinson

We were laughing out loud so much it hurt! Callie had just made the single most hilarious joke I'd ever heard. In that moment I realized I could not have asked for a better friend when I'd made that wish at my third birthday party, she had been there.

"Help! Please!" a panic cry filled the air from the riverside.

I sat up in my snow angel, Callie sitting up beside me. We were in a small park down by the river 5 miles from my house. It was a saturday and we'd had a ridiculous amount of snow the night before. And in true Callie-Bella fashion, we had decided to go channel our inner child by making snowmen and snow angels.

I squinted to see a girl running up the embankment at the side of the river. I jumped to my feet taking off towards her before I realized what I was doing, but when I turned to look for Callie, she was right beside me having had the same reaction.

"What's wrong?" a mother said reaching her just ahead of us.

"It's the Dashen daughter, Stacey. I took her and Conner on the old bridge. I thought it was safe. she was climbing on the edge and slipped. Now she's stuck. I heard a train horn a few miles away. I didn't even realize it was still active," Carmen Harper busted into tears at her own words. She was babysitting for the Dashen's, I knew the parents were out of town this weekend. She'd been really excited about the idea of making some extra money.

Ms Camp gasped looking towards the bridge as Mrs Summers pulled out her phone and dialed 911.

"I honestly thought it was just an old bridge, I didn't know," she said shaking her head, distraught. I felt horrible for her.

"I can get her," I blurted out narrowing my eyes at the bridge and seeing where Stacey was sitting. The crowd of kids and mothers all snapped their head in my direction.

"I don't think that's a good idea, Annabella," Mrs Camp turned and shook her head at me.

"The fire department is on their way," Mrs summers nodded in agreement.

I started walking forward when Callie grabbed my arm, "Bella."

"Callie, how many times have we played on that bridge? We jump off it every summer! I know the bridge the best, I'm light weight and don't take up much room, I'm the best person to do the job!" I said continuing to walk and dragging her along.

"The police will be here soon though."

"And what? We just leave her alone up there terrified while a trains rails over the top of the bridge?" I snapped before sighing. "I'm sorry, but I'll be fine. C'mon."

Callie stared at me for a hesitant moment before nodding. We took off running down the embankment with half the kids following us, parents calling after them in panic.

Once I was there I had to climb up the rocks without slipping and killing myself in the process. While Callie and Leanne Hast, who seemingly came out of nowhere, stayed behind to watch from the embankment and making sure the kids stayed back. The railroad bridge couldn't hold all of us anyways when the train came roaring down the mountain.

When I made it to the railroad I started running as fast as I could and as I got to where Stacey was clinging to the frame under the wood planks, I crawled over the side railing of the bridge. I took in my surroundings to try to decide what was the best way to get her, taking off my gloves in the process. Where she had fallen were five old planks that looked like they hadn't been replaced last time maintenance was done on the bridge, so I worried about how they would hold up using them as leverage. Especially considering I could see the 2 foot piece that had given way since she'd been stranded below.

Not seeing a way around the woodwork, I locked my feet around the pieces of wood that made up the fence railing, mentally begging them not to break. Once I felt secure I leaned toward the edge of the bridge where Stacey's hand was clamped down. She was crying.

"Stacey.... can you look at me?" I tried to focus only on her and not on the sheet of ice far below her. I heard the train blow its whistle again and conceded there was no logical way we could get off the bridge before it got to us. So I looked to my side where one of the larger metal pillars that lead to the over hang of the bridge was a few inches from the fence. I knew Stacey could fit in between the fence and the metal. "Okay Stacey, can you talk to me?" I asked leaning further over the edge so I could see where she was. I put my hand around her wrist.

"Yes," she choked. She was shaking. Crotched into a small metal hull.

"I need you to stop crying, okay? I need you to use that energy to help me get you up," I followed her gaze to everyone on the bank as I spoke. "Don't look at them, this is about me and you," I tried to keep my cool, knowing if I didn't I would make her even more scared.

She looked at me and shook her head lightly, "okay," she said quieting down and focusing on my face.

Once I had her gaze I spoke again, "I'm going to pull you up, give me your other arm. I want you to use you feet to try to push off anything you can get leverage with, alright?" She stared at me in horror as I reached my free hand towards her.

"I can't let go, please don't make me let go," she started shaking her head and begging me as her other hand clamped down on the metal even tighter.

I sighed, "You have to Stacey, I can't pull you up with one hand, it's too dangerous."

She started crying again and her gaze wandered back to the bank for a brief moment.

"Stacey, I'm not going to let you fall. You can trust me, you know that right?" I sighed again.

She stopped crying after a moment and looked at me nodding.

"Okay then," I held out my other hand for hers again.

She hesitated, staring at it for a moment before finally letting go of the metal beam and reaching out as far as she could. I leaned over a little more and grabbed it quickly as soon as I could reach it. She stretched out her legs trying not to let go of the beam quite yet, but it was no use.

She screamed as her foot slipped and she swung loosely from the edge of the bridge. I pulled her other wrist up to allow her to grab the wood and hold on to it.

"Okay, Stacey, I'm going to pull you up. Try to find anything to push off of with your feet," I said as I started pulling, using my leg muscles and my feet wrapped around the fence as leverage. When I could reach it, I grabbed the waist of her jeans and before I knew it She had her arms around my neck and just her top half was hanging over the ledge.

"Thank you," she sobbed in my ear as I gave one more tug as the rest of her made it over the edge onto her knees and into my arms. She started crying again and I did too.

"You're okay," I whispered moments before the bridge began to shake.

That's when I started to panic at the thought of the vibrations tossing both of us from the bridge, "Stacey get over there..." I pointed to the crevice between the pillar and the railing. Something was giving way under me as the stress against the old wood was making it protest. "Get between the pillar and the fence, now!" she crawled over and locked her legs and arms around the Pillar as the train finally made the bridge. The vibrations where unnerving. I dislodged my feet and positioned myself to get to the other side of the pillar when two pieces of wood under me broke. My head hit the edge of the wood bridge and I gasped as the ground beneath me disappeared.

I could hear the screams from the shore line as I fell... but before I could grasp the extent of what had happened I hit the ice and a searing pain made it's way through my body as I went into the cold water beneath it.

The water hurt.

I opened my eyes unintentionally and found myself looking up towards the lighted ice above me; the world around me was of complete desolation and darkness. Panic hit me like a rock and suddenly the need to survive this was searing through me. I started swimming upward and grabbing at the ice as the current pushed me down stream. I hit it as hard as I could manage to try and break it or find a weak spot or opening, my fingers burning as I scratched at it and pain made its way up my arms as I tried to hit it. I pushed at the ice a few more times, air escaping my lungs in the process.

The water was so cold... I was so cold. I couldn't die this way, but I couldn't hold my breath much longer either. I could tell that hypothermia was setting in and I started to allow myself to sink in defeat. There was nowhere to go and I knew I'd never find an opening. Not in January. I opened my eyes once more in the cold as I took a breath in and I saw something. It was the most beautiful figure I'd ever seen, shirtless with bronzed disheveled hair... the face of an angel. I thought I was dreaming or that maybe I was already dead, but then I felt something tug at my waist before I slipped into unconsciousness.

...."bella".....

"Annabella!"

I could feel my body purge cold water and it stung as it came up. I was so cold. My eyes fluttered open as I swung between consciousness. I saw two blurry figures and I saw a hole in the ice at my feet.

"I ........she's goi...... okay,......... get her warm. We should.............. hospital," A girl was speaking as I felt arms snake underneath me and someone picked me up.

Then, I was moving. I opened my eyes forcefully this time and I was looking up as the trees overhead moved as if I were in a car riding through them.

It reminded me of driving down the coast towards northern California with mom the summer I was 13. It was nice out and she had put the roof down on the car. I remember her laughing, that high-pitched ring that would put a smile across anyones face, as I turned up the music to let chopin fill the air. The wind had whipped through my hair and I put my head back on the seat to stair up at the mix of white and blue scattered across the sky with the tips of the trees on either side of the road coming into vision. We had been in Oregon and that moment... had been one of the single most beautiful moments of my life. Beauty and tragedy all in one. No irony there, just reality.

I tired to move and I groaned. My whole body ached.

"Wait, stop," I heard a man say. He adjusted me in his arms so that my head was resting against his shoulder. I sighed, pain touching my lungs again at the exert of air before my eyes rolled back into my head, my conscious clearly telling me I was safe now because it refused to let me swim back out of the darkness.

I was safe.

I had an angel watching over me.


Hope you guys like my prologue! This is an Edward/Bella, Vampire/human, romance/adventure, AU/RPF/fantasy story. So, don't give up on it just yet because you might just be surprised ;).