Bella

"Open up! We know you're in there!" Voices of men bang on the door and we all jump to our feet, preparing ourselves. We'd heard the sound of an approaching engine, but thought it was just Edward, coming back. It wasn't. Alice bites her lips and hides her face. She saw this, she saw it.

"Why didn't you warn us?" Rosalie hisses.

"I didn't see!" Alice cries, sobbing and shaking. Carlisle glares at Rose and helps Alice to her feet, as I answer the door.

"Jake?" My voice goes high pitched, gets caught in my throat, as I see who is with him, and what he is holding. The tanned… man, who is the boyfriend of my daughter, is standing at the door holding a gun, and flanked not by Sam and the others, but by police and army members, and all of them are armed. Carlisle comes to my side and though shock flickers across his face, he doesn't let it show. "Ah, Jacob. It's been a long time- a few years anyway. How is your father?" The shock on my face is nothing compared to the shock on his.

"You know these criminals?" The officer next to Jacob grabs his shoulder and turns him around to face him. "You know what that would mean? That you were helping to harbour these fugitives and face the same punishment as they do?" Jacob is too shocked to defend himself and is stripped of his gun and bulletproof vest, then made to stand with us. The other officer takes his place and cocks his gun.

"We're going to need you guys to come with us- all of you." He adds, as he looks into the house and sees the entire family huddled around the fireplace, pretending to be trying to keep warm. He points the gun at us and we move. Though a bullet could do us no harm, being discovered wouldn't be too great either. Jacob clambers into the truck first, with a scowl on his face. Inside the truck are more people like us, wearing ragged clothes and looking very pale, in the same situation. The whole family clambers into the truck and we sit silent, though our thoughts are raging. Renesmee takes Jacob's hand and strokes it, resting her head on his shoulder.

"Where are we going?" She whispers, after the door is shut and we are left in the dark.

"District 12." He answers, pulling her close to him. "Well, District 12 for most of us, but some of us will end up in District 3." I hear him exhale heavily and bite my lip.

"I'm sorry Jacob." I murmur. Carlisle squeezes my knee reassuringly and I feel him lean forward to do the same to Alice.

"It's okay, you didn't know." He whispers, and despite the darkness I swear he's smiling at me, laughing at me. The engine of the truck starts and with a jolt, we begin moving. A thought enters my mind and I try to push it away, but it's lodged itself into my frontal lobe and won't budge- where is Edward?

Hours pass and with every minute, I become more and more stressed and worried. Jasper tries to calm me down but he can't do so when he is this stressed without calming everyone else down, all the humans, and if he does that then they'll figure out things aren't exactly how they seem- and so I have to cope.

By the time the truck grinds to a halt, I have bitten into and re-healed my lip about 50 times. I feel Carlisle shift uncomfortably beside me and breathe out heavily. I wonder if he's been holding his breath all the way here. "Everyone on this side of the truck, get up and get out." I squint through the dark at the officer and wonder if it is night- but then realise it's just raining. Carlisle has stood up, and so has the stranger on the other side of me, so I too get to my feet. We shuffle from the truck and I expect the officer to order the other side out of the truck too, but they close the door and lock it, and the officer points his gun at us. "Move." The position of his lips barely changes and his command is no more than a whisper, but we all hear it. I grab Carlisle and Jaspers hands and we walk with the crowd towards a square where another group of people is already assembled.

The rain pounds down on us as we stand in the square- everyone else is shivering so we copy, and I can't see anyone else apart from Jasper and Carlisle. I try and think who is stuck in the truck, and who is here, but a loudspeaker sounds and our attention is diverted up to the stage. I notice that we're outside a town hall, and everything is grey. And I mean, everything. The person with the microphone is a little round, but looks just as intimidating as the officers with guns. Although he isn't armed- there are plenty of officials who are. "Welcome to District 12. As some of you will be aware, America is no more. What many of you have done these past years is live out in the open, isolated and alone, and we have allowed that. But with recent rebellion, we have decided that every person in this country is to live in one of the 12 remaining districts. I will allow you all a few minutes to find any family members that you arrived with-it'll make housing you easier. However if you have found yourself stuck here with no other family members, that you have somehow gotten separated or have no family, then please form a group here under the stage and you will be assigned a house and family to lodge with."

I grip Carlisle's hand harder, so much that my nails begin to dig into his skin and he gasps in pain, but does not object. Jasper looks around and Rosalie pushes through the crowds over to us but that's it. We're alone. Officials walk past the groups taking names down and after just ten minutes we're assigned a house, given the key and sent on our way. The house is a two-story thing, with two rooms on the bottom floor and two rooms on the top floor- plus a bathroom. Rosalie looks at in even more disgust that she looked the other house with, but then she's lived plenty of time in luxury, I suppose she's not used to living rough. Though looking at the house, it's not really a problem. There are four of us- none of us need to eat or sleep, or use the toilet or any of those silly human things, so really it's not that bad. I point this out to the others and Jasper and Rose nod in agreement but Carlisle's face is set. "It's bad, Bella. Very bad." A knock on the door diverts our attention and I turn to answer it- it can hardly be as bad as last time I opened a door, can it? An official stands at the door with a bundle and thrusts it into my hands.

"Your clothes and your monthly grain allowance." He grunts, and then walks away.

"Pleasant." I mumble, as I unfold the grey mass of cloth that is my new wardrobe. Somehow I think I'd prefer Alice's creations. Alice. Panic grips me. "Carlisle. The others. What…"

"You heard what Jacob said, district 3." He replies, his face still set as he looks at the dull shirt and overalls on the kitchen table.

"What about Edward?" If I could cry, tears would have flooded the kitchen. Jasper controls my emotions and calms me down- it's going to be helpful having him around.

"I don't know." Is the only answer I get, and it's not enough, so I explore the rest of the house. A door from the kitchen leads to the living room and the stairs. The living room has a fireplace set in one wall and three couches in the middle of the room, around a wooden coffee table. The room has no windows. Upstairs is much the same. The front bedroom has one small window on the front wall and a double bed. The back bedroom has no window, and another double bed. Sheets are folded on both of the beds but there's no sign of anything else. The bathroom contains a cracked toilet, a sink and a bathtub. I return downstairs in time for a second knock on the door. Carlisle answers it this time.

"Hello there. Yes, I understand. Of course, they're very welcome. We'll manage." The door shuts and I walk back into the kitchen to find out what happened. A small family of bedraggled humans- sorry, people- were standing by the door, looking at us with wide eyes and fearful faces. I smile at them and move to join Jasper and Rose at the kitchen table. "This is the Smith family. The district has run out of houses so we are having to share until they build more. Despite wanting to control us all, they so seem to be bothered about our welfare." He turns back to our new housemates and smiles. "I'm sure we can work out some kind of arrangement, come to some kind of deal. We will not require use of all the rooms in this house and none of us can eat grain- so you are very welcome to our share." He points to our sack of grain on the table. Another sack of grain lies at their feet and they look at us with question in their eyes but Carlisle smiles in a friendly manner and some kind of look in his eyes persuades them to smile too, despite everything.

I approach the family and ignore the stinging in my nose as the scent of blood reaches me. The youngest child- there's two, two little girls- moves away from me and hides behind her mother's legs. "I'm Emma. This is Steve, and these are our children, Anna and Louise." The woman extends her hand to me and I shake it politely. She shivers and I remember how cold Edward's skin used to be against mine. Edward. I push the thought out of my mind and kneel to the height of the children- seeing as I'm the one out of our 'family' who is closest to their age, really.

"Shall we go and explore our new house while we leave the grown-ups to talk?" I extend my hands to them and they look up at their parents with wide eyes. Steve and Emma nod and the girls step forward hesitantly, each taking one of my hands. The smaller one, Louise, has blonde hair tied into pigtails behind her ears. Her sister Anna has brown hair in the same style. Both of them are very pale and skinny, as though they've not had any food even before they got here. My stomach contracts a little as I remember the little human things that I now don't have to cope with, but that these people do. We walk through to the living room and the girls walk around cautiously, examining the furniture. When they've had enough, they come over and this time, willingly take my hand.

"You're very pwetty." Louise says from my side, as I help her up the stairs. The way she speaks makes me smile and feel a little tingle inside me.

"Not as pretty as you two princesses." I reply, pointing out the bathroom and the two bedrooms. "I'm sure the adults have finished now." Even though it's probably barely been five minutes, I feel strange being alone with these two children. When we get downstairs, the adults have moved to the sitting room and are conversing like old friends. I'm a little grateful that they get on but still… worried about how we're going to do this. I can almost hear all the whirrs of the cogs inside Carlisle's brain as they turn and overheat trying to figure our way out of this. The letterbox in the front door clatters and I walk through the kitchen to retrieve the envelope that has fluttered to the floor.

"We've got mail!" I holler, opening it and walking back through to the front room. "Welcome to District 12. You have been given a change of clothes and your monthly supply of grain. In the next 24 hours, please change out of your 'old' clothes and deposit them in the bin in the town square. In exchange you will be given six more sets of clothing and some fruit. All male members of the household aged 14 or over are required to report to a place of work and apply for a job within the next week, or your household's next grain allowance will be lessened. All residents will report to the town square on June 12th at 2pm for the Reaping. Any residents that do not attend will be disposed of. Formal dress is required. Signed, the Mayor." Immediately I regret reading the letter out loud. Carlisle puts his hand out for the letter and I place it in his palm, and wonder why I'm not more worried than I should be- then I look at Jasper, who winks at me.

June 12th arrives more quickly than if we had not been anticipating it. We awoke and dressed as usual and Carlisle, Jasper and Steve all left for a half-day at work. Louise and Anna were in the living room playing with toys Rose and I had fashioned for them and Emma and I were baking bread in the kitchen while Rose made sure our clothes were prepared. Carlisle and Steve work together in the mines, but Jasper joined the special group that is allowed to hunt. He takes some blood from each of the animals he kills and stores it for us- this is the only thing that keeps us going. The men all return at the same time and go to the bathroom to wash. Rose and I go upstairs to one of the bedrooms to change our clothes while Emma re-plaits Louise and Anna's hair. We take our time but still get back downstairs before everyone is ready. Rose walks to by Jasper's belt on the hook and takes two vials of blood from it, which we down in one and replace. Fox blood today- not that it matters. Just as we replace the empty vials the rest of the household enters the kitchen. Emma is wearing a pale blue dress to match mine and Rosalie's. Anna and Louise are wearing matching pink dresses and Carlisle, Jasper and Steve are all wearing pressed black trousers and crisp white shirts. We all wear brown leather shoes, the only pair of shoes we own- the money the men have made has almost all gone on our clothes and food. Rosalie takes my hand and we step through the door into the street. For once it isn't raining, but the sky is still grey. It always is here, but I still see it as an omen.