Chapter Two------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

"Uh....So...", I attempted to fill the long silence between us but it just was not working, she'd been silent for minutes. The longest damn minutes in my entire life.

It takes two people to make conversation and Shannon was just staying quiet the tears streaming down her face like a river. What the hell was going on, how did I get myself into this position.

Even though I knew it was stupid I had the inevitable urge to comfort her. Ugh was the only thing I could think of that would fit this situation. Screw it. I slowly brought my arm around her shoulders, they were tiny but somehow still set in a proud position, I could tell that she'd been through a lot and we'd barely exchanged a hundred words.

At first she flinched when she felt the warm contact of my arm on her back, she leaned into my shoulder eventually but she still held herself proudly, like she didn't want anyone to think she was weak.

"Its ok" I said quietly. "I wont hurt you, you know".

"I know Jacob" she said with a quick glance up at my face, her eyes were glistening and wide in their sadness. I wanted to reach and wipe away the cold tears from her beautiful face, I wanted to make her smile, I wanted to, whoa Jake.

What was I talking about. I loved Bella, shes the one, not his unknown girl... well woman. She looked in her late teens. Curves had already formed on her body and all of the childish roundness had left her features.

The sun suddenly appeared through the thick gray cloud cover and her pale skin glowed like a pearl from the sea. I lifted my left arm without thinking to stroke her delicate cheekbone, see the contrast between the dark russet and the beautiful white. I realized what I was doing and wrenched my arm away but left my right one around her narrow shoulders. I was completely losing it.

She leaned against my chest, her breathing calming and the tears slowing to a stop. Finally, I thought to myself. It was hard to comfort someone you just met, especially when you had no idea what the hell was going on.

My long arm reached all the way to the other side of her body and I moved my thumb across her opposite arm in a rhythmic pattern. I didnt just want to calm her down, I wanted answers.

"I need to know whats going on Shannon, you know I do." I suddenly spoke, my words coming out in a jumbled mess. "Your a mess, not just mentally but physically too, if you want any help at all I need the truth", and she was a mess. Her clothes tattered and her long hair knotted and matted with leaves and twigs. She look like she'd been to hell and back again...maybe she had.

Her pale red lips were set in a line, she had them mashed together like she was trying to solve a difficult math problem... or just trying to find the right words to confront me with.

"Jake...I...I dont know what to say....what to start with, what to tell", her mouth then turned into a frown and she cringed away from my arm. I pulled it back, not wanting to make her uncomfortable.

"Shan...," the corner of her lips twitched into a sad smile at my new found nickname. "I only want to help you, take it slow you dont have to give me your life story just a few freaking key details....like maybe where you came from?" I said my statement turning into a question at the end.

"Erm...Next" she said, "What....thats the easiest one, cmon." My voice grew louder in its agitation, I didnt have all night. Alright, well I did. But still.

"Next" she repeated. "Fine" I huffed out. "Where are you living?" I tried again with another question.

"Uhh... thats a bit unknown at the moment" she said quietly.

"You have got to be kidding me, you dont live out here do you?" I was judging by the look of her hair and clothes, such a mess.

"If out here means the forest of La Push then yes is the answer to your question", Looks like the cocky attitudes back, I thought to myself.

"Someone just left you here with nowheres to go?" I asked questioningly.

"Uhh not exactly."

"How did you get here than?" This girl managed to avoid any type of a straight answer to my questions. Women!

"I ran here from...home" Her blue eyes glanced up to my brown ones to see what my facial expression looked like. I was guessing it looked pretty shocked cause thats how I felt. I was dumbstruck My mind in a state of a warped oblivion. She couldnt have ran here, this little proud creature. Shes not a bloodsucker...or like me. What the hell is going on in the world.

"How did you run here? your...not like me" my voice in a inaudible husky whisper. I was still in shock.

Somehow she heard me because her response was "Its just something I can do, I...run faster than humans...Im.... different than my family" she kept stuttering, her voice was bitter, angry even, she almost spit the last word.

I broke free from my state of mind, I needed to be semi conscious for this girl. I needed to understand how everything I knew that existed just got ripped out from under my feet like a rug. I didnt know how to respond so I just stayed silent. Seconds turned to minutes and I still had no idea what to answer her with.

"Please Jacob, say something....I can't stand the silence anymore"

I still stayed quiet. What was I supposed to stay? Im glad I just met a new species? What do you say in this type situation. Thats just it. There is almost no words to respond with. None. The minutes just kept ticking by.

Her face was pointed towards the ground. The blue bore into the green wet grass. She started making invisible circles on the rock with her finger.

Suddenly I spoke in a whisper, "What are your parents?"

She looked back up at my face and she looked so tired, so old, so much mature then I was. "I dont know, their dead, I was adopted when I was five." I stayed quiet waiting for her to continue.

"Its not a sob story Jake my new parents were great people, I barely remembered my old ones. My new family was loving and caring towards me...at least for a while. They were heavy church people, very religious, very old fashioned. They loved me...so much, as did my siblings."

"Why are you here then if they loved you so damn much?" I said, responding to her story.

"Well Jake, they started to notice that I stopped aging after I hit seventeen, it took them almost a year to figure it out, but they did."

"Oh." I was back into the not knowing what to say zone. Great.

"They figured some really freaky shit was going on, religion and freaky shit dont go hand in hand, they couldnt kill me or hand me over to the church to "fix me", I was there daughter whether they wanted me to be anymore or not. They did the only thing that would help me and them I guess. They left." She was staring out at the deep green forest the evidence of her sadness dripping down her cheeks.

"They just left you?" I blurted out.

She looked back at me as though she was searching for something before she looked down again and started speaking. "I went back home one day and everything was gone, everyone was gone... they left all my stuff in my room, the one I shared with Anna. Her bed was stripped and all her posters of her favorite bands were ripped off the walls, the only thing left was the nails that hung them. No money, no food."

I stayed silent.

"I went in my old kitchen and slumped down the wall, I had no idea what I was going to do. On the counter written in black permanent marker was writing. It said "Goodbye, Please dont try to find us, we will pray for you." I didnt know what to do, I just went out the back door and didnt look back."

Her shoulders bent down and I could tell her story was finished. There was nothing more to tell. She was completely lost, not physically but mentally. I moved my arm back around her shoulders and she slumped against it completely this time. Her head rested on my bare chest, I stroked her hair gently. I could hear her breathing start to slow, she started to calm down.

We stayed like this for a long time, I had no watch to tell the true number of minutes. When the sun started to set over the west and it slowly became night I looked down at her. She was asleep, her eyelids fluttered every now and then as though she were dreaming. I was completely holding her up.

I knew I had to get home soon before Billy started to call around, but I also knew I couldnt leave her out here. I wondered how Billy would take to a new visitor staying at the house, my lips turned up into a smirk. Looks like we were about to find out, I was going to take her home with me. The girl I'd only known one day was coming home with me. I hadnt even asked her.

I slowly stood up and pulled her into my arms, bridal style. She didnt stir, she didnt even twitch. The dark shadows under her eyes were evidence she hadnt slept in a while. I wasnt going to wake her up any time soon. I started to lope off into the forest heading home with her still in my arms.

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