Second Chances

Chapter 1

The bell on the library door rang as Bella walked inside. "We close in 15 minutes." the stocky woman said without looking up from her paper. "I know, I only need a minute. Can you tell me where the city map is?" The woman finally looked up and gave Bella a long look. Finally, she directed her to the hallway on the right. "Through those glass doors."

As she walked down the hallway she noticed all of the different posters depicting authors from the past. She stopped in front of Walt Whitman and briefly thought about stealing it off of the wall but when she looked back at the front desk, the woman was staring at her. She found the map she was looking for and it took her a good ten minutes to find the Forks City Cemetery. 'Main and Columbia...shouldn't be too hard to find' she thought. As she turned around to walk back out the doors, she glanced briefly at the poster of Whitman again.

"Hey, do you have those posters for sale?" She asked as she walked back to the counter.

The woman gave a very curt "No." followed by a "We're closed now." and turned around and walked away.

Having noticed the exit at the end of the hallway, she walked back through the glass doors, ripped the poster off the wall and shoved a $5 bill under a thumb tack in its place. The woman still hadn't returned to her desk so apparently she had never noticed.

As Bella was walking along the street, she rolled up her poster but had nothing to secure it with. She took the rubber band off of her wrist, the same rubber band that she used to help herself through a panic attack, and wrapped it tightly around the poster. She still had nightmares about that night and she had long ran out of Ativan. She didn't want to think about it now. Not after seven long years of the same nightmare night after night. Everyone in town thought she was crazy because she avoided all human contact. Truth was, if they knew the truth, they would have had her committed already. She didn't want to get close to people because in the end, they all left. Everyone always felt sorry for her but she didn't want their pity. She wanted a warm bed, a hot shower, and good food. Knowing she was Chief Swan's daughter, no one was willing to offer her anything.

Bella huddled inside of her faded hoodie from the cold fall winds. She could still smell the afternoon shower in the air and thought she could feel a storm coming back. 'Great' she thought as she made her way quietly to the cemetery. She didn't know why she decided to go tonight and why she couldn't wait until the sun came up and it would be easier to find the tombstone. 'I am my father's daughter.' Patience definitely wasn't a virtue in most areas. But alas, her feet kept moving one in front of the other until she took a right on Main and looked both ways before crossing the street. It was futile because no one was out this late at night, at least not to come to the cemetery.

When she got up to the gate, she gave it a solid tug but it was chained and locked. "Damn. Guess I'll have to climb over." She looked up and down and thought it would be simple enough. She shoved the poster through to the other side and stuck one foot up onto the stone ledge. With one hard push off, she was up and straddling the iron fence. As she brought her other leg over to drop down, she snagged her sleeve on a piece of broken iron. With a loud rip ringing in her ears, she landed on the ground, snatched up her poster, gave a look around and started walking straight ahead. There was a path and maybe, it would be alphabetized. It was a very old and very creepy cemetery. Refusing the obvious signs that the cemetery might not want her in there, she was starting to think that maybe not coming with a flash light was not such a good idea.

Something cut across her path making her stumble on her own feet. She grabbed hold of the side of a mausoleum that was strangely out of place and tried to calm herself down. As she leaned against the cold stone, she heard a scuttling noise around the side and whatever was causing it pressed itself against her legs. She let out a loud yelp and tripped over her own clumsiness out into the moon light. What she saw surprised her. Five little black and white kittens. "Awwww" she couldn't help it. She was a sucker for cuteness. Feeling stupid for being such a pansy, she sat down and started petting the little furry critters. The mother cat came around the corner then and pressed itself into her hands before laying down with her kittens. "So you're the one that tripped me." she thought not even trying to acknowledge the fact that she was a total wuss and the cat had made her scream like a little girl.

She sat there for a few more minutes and couldn't help but starting to feel a little paranoid. Like something was watching her. She looked up as if being compelled and saw two very glowing, golden eyes staring at her from the other side of a door on the tomb. It whispered one word before the door opened beckoning her inside. "Bella" was all she heard so very softly before darkness came in all around her and she passed out.

A/N This is my second attempt at writing. I always have a story playing in my head but I've never written it down before. I plan on finishing this one and hopefully, some time in the future, I'll finish the one I started. Please tell me what you think and REVIEW! Thanks! :D