Disclaimer

I do not own any characters, they all belong to the brilliant Stephanie Meyer. I just get these ideas sometimes and I just have to write this one down.

Please review as your comments and opinions are valuble to me. I hope you like this first chapter, if you like it please please please review it. I intend to update at least every week but may update more often if I get lots of reviews! :-)

Aea

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Chapter One: Last Letter

My Dearest Isabella,

Congratulations on your new job darling, we are so proud of you honey! For all your hard work these last three years. Look at you now a fully fledged Interior Designer! You know you're father really could do with his office decorating any ideas? Oh and I would love to update the kitchen, as much as I love the yellow walls and blank white cupboards, I think we need a change! Anyway if you get a chance to come up you could help us choose a colour and new units. Your father has of course informed the whole town of your new job. Everyone sends their congratulations. Mike Newton was a little disappointed that you are not coming back to live in Forks. Jessica Stanley however is ecstatic. I think she has a thing for him. Poor boy is half in love with you! You're father is now telling me to stop rambling and get to the point.

So here it is.

You will find enclosed a set of keys which you will find belong to the house at the address written on the label attached. You're father and I wanted to give you a gift. We found a beautiful old house near your new job. It needs a lot of TLC and hard work but we know you can restore it to its former beauty. We both know how much you love old buildings. We know you will be very busy when you start your new job next month and with having a house to restore but don't leave it too long before you visit as we miss you terribly. Your father wants to install a burglar alarm and check the building is secure enough so he is going to fly down to you this weekend. You know what he is like sweetheart. I wish I could come too but Billy Black is in hospital again so I will be keeping an eye on Jacob. God knows what mischief he and those boys would get up to! I caught them trying to barbeque steaks the other night, they nearly set the yard on fire! But as soon as Billy is well and home we will come and spend a few days or so with you. I can't wait to see the house. I know you will bring it to life again.

Call as soon as you can. I miss you so much and Chicago is so far away.

Love always

Mom & Dad

The dark haired young women sighed as she read her parents last letter again. It had been written just three weeks earlier, when they had both been alive and well. A single lonely tear slowly fell from her deep chocolate eyes and ran over her pale white cheek.

She smiled slowly, sadly as she pictured her father. He had been true to his word, had flown all the way to Chicago that weekend. They worked together in a comfortable silence while they installed her burglar alarm. She had cooked his favourite fish pie and then spent the evening reading while her father fiddled with the engine on her old truck. The house her parents had bought though run down and neglected was perfect. She had already fallen in love with it. The Sunday morning before leaving for the airport he gave her his usual lecture on security.

Charles Swan, her quiet, strong father had been the chief of police in the small town of Forks, Washington. Known as Charlie to his friends, he had been born, had grown up, married, worked and died in the town he had loved. He had always been overprotective of his only child and though both of them were quiet and reserved their bond had run deep.

The pain of her parent's loss was a physical ache. Death came too early for them. It was winter and Forks had heavy snow and Ice. This was never much of an issue; the residents were well used to these conditions. But when an Ice storm hit with little warning many of the town's residents lost their lives. Trees, some hundreds of years old, fell under the weight of the ice onto houses, cars and people. The town lost all power plunging it into freezing darkness, many older residents died in their beds from the cold.

Her Mother and Father had been driving back from a shopping trip in Seattle when the storm hit. As far as the rescue teams could tell the freezing rain had caused a truck to slide out of control into oncoming traffic. Along with the truck, four other cars and one motorcycle were involved. There had been no survivors, by the time rescuers could get to the scene; those that had survived the initial crash had succumbed to either hypothermia or their injuries.

Her small and only comfort came from the post mortem on her parents. Both had been killed instantly. They would not have suffered, might not have even known that death was imminent.

Two police officers, colleagues of her father had come to Chicago to break the news of her parent's death to her. She hadn't cried, she had been numb with shock. She returned with the police officers, driving through the devastated Forks. Everyway she turned there was damage. But it was the look she saw in the eyes of the survivors. The grief for those they had lost and a hint of guilt because they had survived. But still, she didn't, she couldn't cry.

When they reached her parents house it was undamaged by the Ice Storm. She made her way in and slowly walked around, her fingers trailed softly over her parents possessions, over photo's of their life together. Every room held memories of her childhood and they assaulted her without mercy.

A tortured screaming shattered the silence in the house, she realised the sound was coming from her. She ran to her parent's bedroom, flung herself on their cold untouched bed and cried until she could cry no more. She no longer cried hysterically but her body shook as she continued to sob silently.

One of the police officers came into her parent's bedroom and gently covered her trembling body with a blanket before leaving her alone. He made his way down the stairs with a heavy heart laden with the grief of friends lost, he turned on the heating before he and his colleague left the house. He had worked with the Chief for sixteen years; he had watched Isabella Swan grow up. He swallowed the lump in his throat and blinked away the tears in his eyes as he walked back to his cruiser.

During the next week she buried her beloved parents in the town's graveyard and packed up what was left of the life they had shared. She took clothes and shoes to the charity store in Forks along with some of the furniture. The rest of the house she packed up and had it delivered to her new home in Chicago.

She attended the funeral of the town's doctor and her parent's friend, lost in the storm when he tried to save another's life. She couldn't bear to attend the many others but she laid a single white rose over each of the thirty seven new graves. She said goodbye to her parents surviving friends and her childhood playmate Jacob Black. They wished her well, told her she would always be welcome and they were there should she ever need them.

But she was alone in the world now and all she had were a few items and her memories. But she had her house, their last gift to her, and she would never, ever let it go.

Isabella opened the one letter in her mailbox that morning, it was from the family solicitor. Her parent's finances had been finalised, after the funeral expenses had been paid and a few other bills settled the money left would be transferred to her account.

Isabella already knew there would be enough to finish restoring the house and furnish it. So far all she had done was clean years of dust from every room and a little research into its history. Masen House had a long entrance hall with a dining room, front sitting room, a smaller sitting room, a study and a large kitchen leading off it. Up the beautifully carved staircase on the first floor was a master bedroom, two smaller rooms and two large bathrooms. A smaller staircase led up to a large open attic room, currently filled with the previous owners unwanted items.

Her house had been built sometime in the 1880's it had been owned by a Mr and Mrs Bickerly briefly before being sold to the Masen family. Mr Edward Masen and his wife Elizabeth bought the house in 1900. The house was named Masen house in February 1901. In June 1901 Edward and Elizabeth Masen's son Edward Anthony was born at the family home.

The Masen's lived in the house until September 1918. Edward Snr died from the Spanish influenza that had besieged the city on the ninth, his wife followed him on the seventeenth. Edward Anthony died two days after his mother. The house passed hands a few times in the intervening years. The last owner was an elderly gentleman who had been in a nursing home for the last twelve years. In that time the house was neglected and unloved.

No more though she would make this a home again, she had had little chance to explore the house and its rooms but she would remedy this starting in the morning with the Attic room.

Isabella locked up the house and set her burglar alarm before trudging up the stairs to the master bedroom. She changed for bed and climbed between the freshly washed sheets, before turning to switch out the light. Snuggling into the bed her thoughts turned to her parents, she whispered goodnight to them before her eyes shut. Just before she drifted into sleep she thought she heard a whispered reply but put it down to her imagination and quickly fell into an uneasy sleep. She didn't see the shadow in the far corner of the room or the lips that whispered a soft goodnight in return.