EPOV

The phone call came about a day after our return to Forks, a month after I had left my sweet innocent Bella. It was Charlie. Carlisle picked up the phone and when he put it down he looked horrified. He called us all into the living room and I tried to read his mind to get some sort of hint as to why he had called upon us but he was reciting the bible in Japanese. He looked at everyone, sighed and then looked me in the eye "I hate to tell you this, but Bella" his voice cracked with emotion "has passed away. A week after we left. The Swan family had been trying to contact us, they didn't want to have the funeral without us. Now that they have gotten a hold of me, well, the funeral is tomorrow morning at 10:00 am." Everyone was shocked into silence until a screech that I'm sure scared all of us, and that's hard to do as we are vampires, echoed in the house. It was Alice. She had fallen to her knees with Jasper holding her to his chest screaming "My Bella! My sister, she's dead!"

Everyone averted there eyes from my face as the females cried and their mates tried to comfort them. I stood and for the first time since I had left Bella and walked to the piano. The second I began to play, my family fell silent letting the music calm and surround them. It was anything but calming to me, I had been playing Bella's lullaby. When I was finished I simply broke down in sobs. Seeing as vampires don't need to sleep, my family stayed like that the whole night.

In the morning we all showered and got ready for the morbid event. We all took our own cars and on the way, I stopped at a florist and picked up a huge bouquet of freesias. When my family had seen what I had brought Carlisle nodded in approval at my gesture and Esme began to cry. The mood was extremely melancholy as the master of ceremonies began to read and call up people for speeches. By noon the service was over and everyone had left, we of course, had stayed. I bent down and read the tombstone:

Here Lies Isabella Marie Swan
September 13th, 1990 – October 2nd, 2008

Beloved Daughter and Friend
The girl who's life should never be forgotten

We were still standing at the gravesite when a mountain lion just walked out of the surrounding forest. I was about to attack as that is my favorite food when I stopped. It may have been a mountain lion but it wasn't normal. One because it wasn't the normal golden yellow color it was a golden red. And two, the animal came towards us it was purring. Now, mountain lions are predators who sense danger, if anything, it should have run away. I voiced this to my family and they straightened out of their attack crouches to see what would happen. The weird mountain lion walked up to the grave were I had just placed the freesias and picked them up in its mouth. It turned around, nudged me with it's head and began walking into the forest, signaling that we should follow suite.

I looked at Carlisle but he was just as bewildered as I was. We all began to follow the lion silently as it entered a clearing after about a fifteen minute walk. The lion turned around and growled signaling for us to stop. It sat on its haunches and after a tense minute a female figure stepped out of the shadows. She beckoned to the lion and it stood up, walking to her. The lion then dropped the flowers in the girls' outstretched hand. She smelt them and then began to pet the lion which began to purr in contentment. The whole time she had been looking down so when she looked up I was shocked and felt my dead heart constrict. It was Bella.

"Bella!" Alice exclaimed she ran forwards to give her a hug but she just past right through her. The Bella and smiled and her voice as quite as wind on dry grass she said "I'm nothing more then a shadow, a memory preserved, a ghost if you will. I;m sorry Alice, I wont be able to get any hugs"

The Bella standing in front of us was so pale it put some vampires to shame. Her body was more noticeable with all the right curves and she was wearing a off the shoulder white mini dress with gold embroidery and had on knee high white and gold stiletto boots. Her beautiful mahogany hair was more luscious then before and was pinned elegantly on her head. The bones in her face were now perfectly angular and symmetrical. Her eyes were brown like they had always been but were now lighter; they looked a little clouded over.

Bella gave a soft laugh; her voice had a high soprano quality and it sounded like it belonged to an angle. She lifted her other hand to again gently stoke the mountain lion standing obediently by her side.

"It's been so long since I've seen the Cullen's. They had left and I almost died, in the end, I did die." she spoke quietly. I couldn't tell if she was speaking to us, the lion or to herself.

"It all began with my Edward, a wonderful vampire boy. I loved him so much, he was so gentle towards me, and his family was amazing, but one day just out of the blue they left me all alone without notice. I thought they would come back, but they didn't and I was left alone. I refused to eat, drink or speak to anyone. I gave up on life; in other words I was cationic. I couldn't feel anything after a while; no happiness, no sadness, nothing. I could only feel extreme physical pain so I began cutting." She turned her arm around and sure enough, a row of scars ran down her arm.

I was frozen in spot, my Bella was right in front of me; dead. I was officially traumatized; I had driven the girl I loved to suicide.

"My mind shut itself off. My mind just wanted to leave my infernal body to go wander. I send my thoughts to far off destinations so they may have a chance of finding a place where they're far more suited than here. I prayed every night that I would die but not for ever. Even if I couldn't be a vampire like my love that I could still walk the earth how I wished I could have been viewed until I could properly say goodbye. I didn't want to leave without telling my family my story. I got that wish. I eventually died from blood loss and starvation but when my soul left my body I didn't just disappear."

She looked up from her little rant/trance and walked towards me she spoke again "My pet, my helper is a mountain lion Edward, your favorite snack. I thought if I picked your favorite food to be my best friend I could help keep some memories of you. I'm nothing but Bella's soul. Just listen to me know; I forgive you. I realized once I had died that you did what you did for my own good. Don't blame yourself." As she said this she kissed me on the cheek. If I thought vampires were cold it was nothing compared to her kiss. She proceeded to kiss everyone in my family and then she turned to her lion. She beckoned and the lion stood up. She placed a hand on the lions chest, mumbled something that with my vampire hearing even I couldn't comprehend and the lion dematerialized into what looked like into her hand. When the lion was gone a locket lay in her hand. Bella gave it to me and said "Read the inscription." I looked down at the locket and read out loud Too my masochistic lion, love, your stupid lamb. On the inside was a picture of my and Bella sitting in our meadow. I began to tearlessly sob and I said "I love you my Bella, I'm so sorry I never meant for this to happen. How can you forgive me? I always said that you were to kind." She shrugged "You said a lot of things." I was sure that I wasn't the only one that got the double meaning to her words.

She turned and addressed us as a group. "The only reason I stayed on this planet was because I didn't want to leave until I had seen you, my family again. I needed closure before I left, and closure is what I now have. Edward, remember me and remember this: I forgive you no matter what your crime. I was a soul just wandering without purpose, now I am found; now I may finally rest in peace." With that she smiled and slowly walked away, disappearing into the woods. My sweet innocent Bella was gone forever. There was no more questioning, there was no more doubt, she was gone, and I needed to accept that; somehow.