(A/N I have never written fan fiction before, so this is my first shot. Let me know if I'm doing okay or not, I'd love to know that you are a reading my story. I plan to update at least once a week if not twice. I am keeping the love interested in this story a secret for now because I want it to be a surprise, but it won't be Edward. He's dead in this story.)
Disclaimer: I do not own the characters or world. I just like to play in it.
I am really not sure what possessed me to come back to Forks after all these years. It had been ages since Charlie's death, even longer ago that Edward and I fell in love. The earthquake that took place after the Cullens and I left Forks 75 years ago shook the entire west coast; from Washington all the way down through California. Parts of California sank into the ocean. It was an earthquake that was unmatched in strength and power anywhere else. So many had died, Charlie included. Forks was deserted now. Piles of over growth and rubble stood where all my memories had been.
10 Years Ago
Memories flooded through me as I walked up to where my old house once stood. I remembered Charlie giving me my old truck, Edward coming up into my room so many times, being frightened so many nights as I lay in my room alone worried that the red headed vampire might soon come to avenger her lover, and I remember Jacob. JACOB.
I never heard from anyone in the Quileute tribe after the earthquake. He was only 18 years old when we left. He should be in his nineties now. He should have been able to get married and have children and grandchildren. He should have had all that, I shuddered at the thought.
"Bella, we should be going." Edward said to me as he put his icy hands around my shoulders. His cold didn't affect me anymore. I had gotten used to it. I nodded to Edward as I turned past the old broken house and walked to the forest. I inhaled deeply the deep humid air and looked around at the mossy trees. Some trees had fallen, others were still growing high and strong.
"Edward, I know we can't stay here. I just feel like the answer we've been looking for is somewhere in Forks."
"We can't risk being seen, love. Neither of us have aged." he said
"Being seen by whom, Edward? The trees? The rubble? There is nothing left of the past."
Present Day
Once again I am in Forks. Each year somewhat masochistically I travel to my long ago home. Only this time, it is different. This time I am alone. For the most part I have gotten used to being on my own. What I hadn't gotten used to was my aging. Even though I had chosen never to become a vampire, I still remained young. I aged for awhile, but then somehow it just stopped. Yearly I make my pilgrimage to this mystical place in my history. I am still hoping to find answers to why I never aged, why I still look and feel as I did at 20 years old.
The Cullens and I left Forks soon after Edward and I were married. A few days later the earthquake happened. I had planned to stay with Edward and my new family until I died, married forever to my immortal husband. I couldn't go through with the change to be a vampire. To live on a diet of blood still put shudders through my body. Becoming something I wasn't for him; and leaving my family and my friends was something I couldn't do. Little did I know the earthquake would take so many that I loved. Only now do I feel the pangs of my loss. Not just my friends and family from years ago, but recently Edward was killed; a final revenge of the Volturi for not turning the human who knew about the secret world of killers. We had been married 74 years. I am okay with being alone for the most part. It isn't easy to develop friendships with you remain forever twenty something without even been a vampire as an excuse.
So now I sit as alone as I have ever been staring into the rubble of my old house in a town that brought me into a mystical world. It appeared to be deserted even though I knew that wasn't completely true. I had seen a few people here and there. It had been a small town to begin with. Now all that was left were people holding onto what once was. Trying to resurrect the small town or maybe just trying to survive. I breathed in that smell a few more times just trying to hold onto the memories and cling a bit to the past. The green earth stretching out for miles invites my depression. All I have to do is breath deep and remember. I turn and walk back to the car.
Here it comes again; I feel my dreams coming on before they even occur. First the smell woodsy and humid, then the panic. I am running through the forest being chased by something awful and still unknown to me. I hear growls, hissing, and a howl. I stumble and fall my hands soaked in mud and pine needles. Then I am up again running. My chest is burning as I try to make my escape to somewhere...anywhere but here. I fall again. Then I awake screaming and in a cold sweat. Edward is right there as I wake stroking my hair.