The crash of the waves onto the beach was a sound that was soon becoming mundane. It was as deafening and predictable as always. She didn't mind it, though. It was a getaway – a getaway she had been coming to too often.

The sea breeze tossed her hair back over as she walked on. She could smell ozone in the air. It would rain soon. She thought of going back to the big house – to safety and warmth, but she remembered what was there – who was there. She walked on, deep in thought.

The spatter of rain came suddenly. She had been expecting it – surely the sudden shower shouldn't have surprised her so – yet she jumped when the cold water came in contact with her naked skin. Goosebumps raised on her arms. She shivered. Something didn't feel right to her. Eyes seemed to follow her as she kept on walking slowly.

Her figure, wet and shivering, seemed to hunch into itself and now she looked even smaller in the dark night. It wasn't right for her to be walking still, she knew that, and yet she saw no reason to stop. What would the rain do – what could the rain do to hurt her? Hadn't she hurt herself enough already?

Memories flashed through her mind – of him, of her, of them – and the sudden avalanche of pain made her cry out. They were quick flashes, nothing more. His beautiful face, at first laughing at something his brother had said, twisted into something feral – lust. She gave a small smile as the same electricity rushed through her. But then it changed. His face changed, his demeanour changed. He changed. Everything was more powerful about him; his strength; his love; his feelings. And then came that one feeling that became too powerful...

His anger.

But that didn't last long either. Her memories shifted back to a happier time. Yet, a moment came before that. The happiness didn't come, the part after it did. In her mind, his angry face shifted.

Pain. His eyes screamed of the agony inside him. His mouth turned into a ferocious scowl – he was disgusted at his inability to move. His eyebrows furrowed - speaking of his inside indecision as he wondered whether to fight for his pride or stay back for her - and yet, his eyes stayed the same. The pain stayed the same. The ache never seemed to go. Her memory of them never seemed to go.

Marks – they were all over his body. His beautiful, perfect face was scarred. She knew how he had gotten them. She had asked him not to do it – not to fight. He hadn't listened though. Her family – her village had always thought of him as fey. Fairy folk.

She remembered how she had shuddered at the word. So what if his eyes were too green? They were beautiful. So what if he was adopted? Weren't a lot of people? He had never hurt anybody, no matter what they had done to him. And then, the day had come when her family found out about their love.

Hadn't it been that little mistake that led to this? To his body being broken beyond repair and her heart being shattered to pieces because the new him – the powerful him – was not her love? She had slipped out that night with a loaf of bread. They won't notice, she had told herself. She had believed it, too. Their village didn't see dramatics and taking in simple explanations was easy for them. Surely a missing loaf of bread wouldn't cause suspicion?

But, they had found out. The talk of the longing glances shared between them had reached her father's ears. They hadn't been happy. Her father – her own father, who had promised to treat her with care – had disgraced her love's family. Her love had to choose. In the end, the image of his crying mother, his ashamed father and his scared brother had made up his mind.

It hadn't been fair. It had never been fair. They had ambushed him that night. And he had come back unmoving, broken... dead.

Her legs gave out from underneath her and she fell to her knees. The sting of pain that shot through them didn't come even close to matching her internal pain. It was her fault. She had done it. She was the one who had finished everything – killed any possibility of them being together because of that one mistake. That one moment when she hadn't been able to stop herself.

Her tears mixed with the rain until she couldn't tell the difference between them. She tasted the salt of her tears and she reminisced how she had done the same hundreds of times in the past five years. She tried to stop the memories. She tried to stop her thoughts. And yet, one date flashed through her mind again and again.

20th July, 2001

The day he died. Six years to the day since he died. And five years to the day he came back. The slumped girl didn't move from her spot as the thunder crashed and more rain fell down.

It was a clear memory, the memory of the day he had come back. She had moved away from the ghosts of her past only a few months before. However, he was a ghost she hadn't fought. His memory had never died. It had lived on in her. The guilt had never stopped eating her alive. The sun that had shone down from above had been a change from her town's 24/7 overcast weather, but it had done nothing to erase her thoughts; they had stayed the same. She had consumed his thoughts, and he had consumed hers.

It had been another one of those days in the city – Arizona, she recalled suddenly – hot as hell and dry as sandpaper. She would have been free from college in another week had she studied that day. But, it had been the day again. She hadn't thought before of how she'd face the day. She hadn't given herself time to think of it. However, the day the day had come. The time had passed, if not slowly at most times. She had been lost that day – drowning in her sorrows until at around 4 in the afternoon, the knock came.

The girl sobbed louder as she remembered her blubbering state versus his perfect, unscarred face, and the night they had spent together. Why hadn't she noticed? If she could have stopped him that day – everything would have been different! They wouldn't have had to go on like this. He wouldn't have stuck around. He would've gone back to the fey world below the earth. This wouldn't have happened!

It's all your fault, she thought to herself again and again. You were the one who kept him here! You idiot! Why didn't you stop it? You saw what was going on and yet you never stopped it!

They had continued. He never wanted to leave and she never asked him to.

Mistake after mistake!

But that hadn't been their undoing. His power had been. He was new. He was different. And it wasn't only powerful mentally. That night her friends from college had gone for a hiking trip, she and her love had gone along – just to humour them. They were too involved in each other to care what was happening. Maybe too involved.

It seemed ironic that it had been their love that had doomed them over and over again.

He killed someone that night, and she finally saw him for who he was – a monster. He was fey. He was thirsty, and not for water. No, it wasn't water that he wanted, water was what the fey feared. It was a human soul. It was his punishment from the queen, he later told her. Every year, he would have to take a soul – a pure, virgin one – and send it to the fey world, to keep the balance so that he could stay above ground.

How selfish could she have been? She let him do so. Four years came and passed and she watched as he sent four souls to their doom; a death that had come too early for innocents like them. She had cried every one of those nights; she hadn't let him near her.

She knew this year he had been putting it off. She knew it very well. He appeared weaker as more of his essence slipped into the fey world. He seemed less opaque. They hid from the humans on this island – only to go out for groceries and every year for that one soul, and she was glad they did so. Anyone would notice that the man next to her wasn't human.

It had been tonight that it had come to an end. The deprivation from the only thing he needed to live was killing him from the inside – feeding on his mind, weakening his body. Yet, the thirst had been strong.

She remembered the look in his eyes – the desperation and the one final plea.

Run.

And she had. But, he had been too strong. He had always been strong. His clear eyes asked her for forgiveness. The twist of his scowl spoke of his thirst. His furrowed eyebrows spoke of his plea.

Stop me, stop me, stop me, stop me, stop me, stop me!

The pain that had rushed through her tired body had been unimaginable, but the lightness she felt had kept her from screaming. It had been a peaceful feeling – everything had been eerily quiet and the only thing she heard was the rush of the blood in her veins.

Her thoughts hadn't left her, though. Nor had the memories. Why did she keep insisting on remembering them? They only brought her pain, even when she was dying. But she had been in his arms. Pain or no pain, she had believed she was safe, even if he had been sucking her life – her soul – out of her.

The roar that left his chest had been what brought her to consciousness. His green eyes had been red. The pain in them had told her what he had wanted. He had wanted to stop. He had stopped.

"Jasper..." His name had left her lips in a whisper.

She had reached towards him, tears surprisingly absent from her eyes. Her mouth had reached towards his for a last goodbye. And then she had dumped the water from the bottle in her hand on his head.

His hold on her had been surprisingly strong, but as the water had taken its effect, his hold had loosened and he had slumped.

The tears had been unleashed after that.

His body had been left intact. She had been strangely thankful for that. His face had looked peaceful, as if he had just been sleeping. The puddle of water surrounding his fallen body had looked innocent. She had taken one last look at his perfect, unscarred face and done what she had always dreaded doing. She had run.

_x_x_

One week later.

"Bella?"

"Edward?"

"Did he... you know, try?"

"...Yeah."

"And did you...?"

"I killed him, Edward. I... I killed your older brother. Are you happy? Did I do everything right? Make the monster's little brother happy?"

"Bella..."

"You blackmailed me into killing your brother, Edward!"

"You should be happy I did. He tried to kill you, didn't he?"

"Because of the magic drug you made me give him?" she asked sarcastically. When he didn't reply, she continued, "Yeah, I know what it was for."

"Trust me, love. You'll thank me for it."

"Don't call me love! I – I loved him! And you made me kill him!"

"It's not like you haven't done it before. I think you needed to know you can't have a perfect murder."

"You are a monster, the real kind; the kind that takes pleasure in someone else's pain, the kind who hurts people just for the sake of it."

"Ouch."

On the other side of the line, Bella shook her head in disgust. "I hate you," she said venomously.

"Don't get on my bad side, Bella. You don't want to spend the rest of your life in jail because of two first-degree murders, now do you?" Edward's voice took on a dangerous note.

A tear fell down Bella's cheek. She looked out from her apartment window to the vast and open sea below. Her thoughts took a different turn. She didn't say anything.

"I'll keep in touch, Bells," said Edward, his voice turning playful. Monster, Bella thought again. "And don't try to run. You know I'll catch you easily."

Not where I'm going, she thought. You'll never find me there.

Edward didn't wait for a reply and hung up. Bella didn't look back at the phone as she stepped out of the house and sprinted for the beach. She ran as fast as she could, she didn't want to waste any more time. She had spent a week without him already, hadn't she?

She didn't stop until she was neck-deep in water. She looked around her surroundings one last time; the empty beach on one side, holding her empty life and the vast sea on the other, holding her end, and also, Jasper.

I'm coming for you, love. Please forgive me. I couldn't defeat him last time. But I can thwart his plans after this. He won't find us again.

Bella took one last breath and dunked into the water.

She didn't resurface.