(An; Hi there, Here is chapter 2. *says a very caffeinated Justy* If you want to chat my Twitter is (at) Justy_13 . Tell me your from Fan Fic and I will add you. Thanks to Mist and Conner, you two rock me sideways! Again if you are under 18 please DON"T read. I do monthly updates. Ta ta )

At the edge of a forest, where trees overhung the last gas station on the way into a small Oregon town, three forms perched in the high branches of a Douglas fir.

A woman - not that she thought of herself as that, any more - leapt to the end of her branch, and thought of falling, headlong, and she wished that, when her head struck, she would feel the pain.

But she wouldn't feel the pain, and she didn't fall.

Instead, she craned her neck down at the gas station beneath her, seeing people - or prey really: just little blobs of nothing but fat and blood busying themselves. She didn't see anyone worth the trouble, though, despite watching and smelling the meaty stench of each roving body.

For just a moment, she glanced at the two men - again, only men in the loosest of definitions - sitting on the branch below her, and she checked to see if they, too, were watching the prey. James, closest to her, was looking at his own knuckles on his right hand, rubbing them with his thumb. He was trying to appear nonchalant, she knew, but the way his long hair, drawn back in a ponytail, sat on the flexed muscles of his back, she could see he was tense. Past him, Laurent pushed his dreadlocks out of his face and turned the page of the newspaper he held.

And then, past the both of them, far below and on the road approaching the gas station, she saw a red-orange car. Red-orange like her own hair. She liked red-orange, and hated it. She began to hum, and tip-toed back to the wide tree trunk to get a better view of the approaching car. Was that a woman inside? She liked women, yes she did. Very very fun fun.

When her fingers touched the bark of the trunk, part of her mind begged her to look at the patterns in the bark and see them. She didn't look. She wanted to follow the car and see if it drove into the gas station.

Another rustle of the newspaper page in Laurent's hands. It seemed loud. Everything seemed loud. Clicks of the gas pumps, and the ring of the bell over the gas station door, and smells: sickly smells, of oil spills and fumes and open toilets that never flushed.

Finally the red-orange car signalled, blinking its silent song, saying, right, right, right, right, and the woman hummed louder.

At last, knowing the car was indeed parking below her, she pulled her eyes away and looked at the bark. She splayed her hands on the tree trunk, tracing the words she saw. Always the same shapes. Faces. And words. Nasty words, like whore, bitch and cunt. And all around the words, the song. She saw it everywhere, now. The words escaped from her lips, breathy, and she knew she sounded crazy, but she sang anyway, because it felt good. "In a cavern, In a canyon, excavating for a mine dwelt a miner forty-niner and his daughter Clementine."

"I don't like the smell of ink," James said.

His words appeared in bark patterns. Ink, hate, bitch, and the song, her song. She traced the new word and sang her song still. "Oh my darling, oh my darling, Oh my darling, Clementine! Thou art lost and gone forever Dreadful sorry, Clementine."

"Victoria. Stop" James said.

Victoria, bitch, stop and die, whore, gone forever, Clementine, the bark read.

She stopped, and concentrated all her thought on the people below at the gas station.

And while she concentrated, Laurent folded back the newspaper. "The smell of ink is the smell of thought, James, and I for one like to know what is occurring in the towns we visit. Like here," Laurent said, pushing his dreadlocks back again and pointing to a section of the newspaper. "'LONE LOCAL TEEN SAVES DROWNING BOY'. It says the boy was almost half a mile from shore when his saviour saw him drowning and swam out to him."

Victoria heard him close the newspaper. She glanced back at him and James. Laurent was smiling at James, but it didn't look like a kind smile, and he continued speaking. "And this was all made possible by a rush of adrenaline? I have seen humans and their bouts of panic; I doubt adrenaline has ever granted torpedo-like speed. Think about it, James. Do try. Something is off, here."

Before James could reply, and the tree bark could form new abuses before her eyes, Victoria sniffed the air. "Smell my lovelies," she said, and pointed down to the woman getting out of the red-orange car. "The one with the scars, smell her."

She had drawn their attention to avoid the conflict, but when she smelled the air, she had smelled something new. Something musky, and sweaty, and somehow meaty. Something different, both human and beast. Something fun.

Victoria clapped hard and jumped up and down on her branch, shaking dust onto Laurent and James.

Laurent shielded himself from the dust, but he seemed distracted. He was sniffing the air, too.

"No, it can't be. I haven't smelled that scent in two hundred years," Laurent said.

James leapt into a crouch on a lower branch, and Victoria could hear the wood cracking in his grip.

"Its smells of a were-Wolf. This Must be why the Cullens left the area-." Laurent said.

"Sad as the moon the Cullens are gone, I was hoping to enjoy the torment I had for them but this-" pointing to the woman pumping gas. "-Should be far more fun then them Cullen's." Victoria said.

"You think the Cullens fought?" He didn't seem to be asking. "I'll tell you what happened. The Cullens sat around in there fucked up Mansion and probably talked each other to death about what they should do about the Mutt, and the all the pretty Cullens just laid down and then the mutt rip them to shreds." He paused. "But we don't get to deal with this every day, do we? Fuck it. Let's have some fun."James said.

"We should proceed carefully, when not knowing much about the beast. Like are there more than one... is that its mate?" Laurent said pointing down to the dark woman with the scars that had finish pumping gas and now rounding the back of the station.

"Careful boring, boring Dead, I want to feel" she said, as she glided down the tree watching the woman walk into a door way with a sign that said 'Ladies' . "A foot is the game." She said and watched James slip his sunglasses on and follow her down the tree,

"We will find out soon then Friend," he said looking from Laurent then to Victoria "Shall we mingle with the meat."

'Fun Fun Fun," she thought.

A big orange truck rounded a bend in the road and pulled into a gas station a girl slipped down from the cab. She was on the phone.

"I want peace… I wanted familiar things… To hear the rain outside, to snuggle under fluffy blankets -'with someone next to me' - … its too hot in Phoenix for that… Mom I do love you… you were on the road with Phil all last school year … and you are not even home still… I just kinda snapped loaded up every thing in the truck… It is reliable Jake put a new engine in it… No not mad… I did tell you were I was… messages… yours and dads… 3 days driving… I am safe… slept in the truck… I am okay… It's just 15 minutes from Forks now… I do love you. ..yes…yes I have my transcripts for next year… no you are a good mom… I do love you.. I know… okay… I will call after Cha-Dad tells me off too… Yes… Love u… Bye mom."

She shut the cab door with an 'with a grunt' fast walked towards the back of the gas station 'restroom please be here' she thought and smacked right into a man with sunglasses, 'Holy crow he's Hard as a wall-' She looked up '-gorgeous, too-' she watched him sniff her. '-gorgeous and strange' she thought.

"Sorry" she said, the man just nodded; Bella continued her fast walk to the back. 'Eureka, we have Gold, the Ladies' she opened the door to the and walked over to the toilet stall.

"Ocupado" someone said.

She crossed her legs and did the pee dance.

"Eke." she caught a glimpse of her hair in the tin paper towel dispenser over the full trash can.

The toilet flushed and the stall door opened, a woman stepped out and walked to the sink, Bella stood up from her pee dance and walked in to the stall.

She thought she recognised the woman, or knew her, except for the scars covering her right cheek.

"I'm sorry do I know you?" The woman said

Bella pictured the woman's face and tried to place it. There was definitely something familiar about her features, but Bella found it hard to not think of the diagonal scars, and the way her right eye drooped just a little in the socket. Bella also noticed that she was out of toilet paper.

" I don't know ? Bella said.

"I'm Harry Clearwater's niece." she said

"Oh.. Oh-." Bella shook her head and forced a smile on her face. "Yes I do remember. You know my dad. and make the great cookies my friend Jake is always talking about, any chances I can get the recipe?" Bella felt her smile widened.

"Oh yes, I know Jacob. And it's funny you should mention the cookie recipe. I happen to have the ingredient list with me. I'm on my way to the store. But I'd have to be on my deathbed before I share it." She laughed easily

"Do you want me to hand threw toilet paper for you,?" the woman said

"Sorry, Yes Please" Bella said. The womans hand appeared under the stall adore with a wad of paper towels.

"No need to apologies Bella, I was the one who used the last of it.

"Emily… Emily Young, I remember your name now."

Bella heard the water turn on.

"Well soon to be soon to be Uley" she said.

"Oh, you are gonna to Marry a Uley, too? Is he related to Leah's fiance? Exciting." Bella said

Bella heard another voice speak, and she startled. "Emily, what a sweet name I had a pet of that name once. It sound a little like Red Riding Hood. You know the one that got her self eaten".

Bella laugh and rested her elbow on her leg then her forehead on the palm of her hand . "-No, no it was her grandmother that got eaten by the Big bad wolf" she said threw the closed stall door.

"What do you know of dogs and food?" The woman said to Bella.

"She knows nothing" Emily said.

"Hey I know enough, My mum was crap, but she did do bed time stories" Bella said.

She heard the woman "I like her Don't you Em- "

"Bella… Tell Sam and Leah I love them" Emily said, and Bella was surprised at the tension in her voice. She sounded half choked, like her words were too big for her mouth.

Bella opened the stall door.

"Emily?"

That was weird way to leave she thought.

Bella walked to the sink and found a yellow sticky note stuck to the mirror with the Emily's cookie Ingredients on the it.

'Vinegar?'