Chapter 2: I Swear I Saw Them

Disclaimer: Don't own the rights to Twilight or New Moon

"April? April? Are you okay?"

April looked straight into the eyes of her concerned father, Walter, who was crowding her pale face.

"Where am I? And where is that girl? And that…creature?" she asked.

"What on earth is she talking about?"

April's father turned to her mother, Celine, with a confused look on his face. The tight-lipped woman merely shook her head in the same bewilderment while April looked on, shocked.

"You mean you didn't see her?"

"April, you must have imagined something while you were unconscious…"April's father explained gently.

"Unconscious?" April interrupted

"Yes," responded Celine in her southern accent, "We found you lying near an old tree root. You bumped the back of your head on a rock, I suppose."

April raised her head, which was formerly rested on one of her grandmother's embroidered pillows, only to find a shooting pain pierce her skull.

"Ouch!" April screamed.

"Let me get you some ice," replied the still-worried Celine.

"Yes, you gave us quite the scare, peanut. Being your clumsy self, you must have tripped and fallen head-first onto that rock. We came looking after you never came home for dinner and found you lying next to that old oak you loved so much when you were little. Named it something like Essie, I think…" Walter said.

"It was Esme, Dad! And I never bumped my head and I was never near any tree! I was in a meadow and saw a couple there. The girl was normal but the guy...he couldn't have been human! He shone in the sunshine like a million diamonds diamonds and…and they were in love and…I can't even begin to explain…"

"Is that what your dream was, honey? How interesting!"

"It wasn't a dream, dad! It was all real…I….I have to find them!"

At that, April jumped up out of her nest of pillows only to be halted by Walter's tender hand.

"Not so fast, April. Dr. Wyatt came while you were still unconscious and stated very clearly that you are not to move from this spot for at least forty-eight hours."

April sat back down like a puppy obeying its master when Celine came in with a bag of ice, a towel, a bottle of water, and two aspirins.

"Here, honey. Take these and lay back so I can put this on your head"

Celine was a capable nurse at the local hospital who knew, from ten years of experience, how to treat nearly every illness. Every day, she cared for patients in the ER where she needed to be on her toes and ready for anything.

April took the pills almost cautiously with the water and laid her head back on the pillow. She leaned into the cushiony couch and thought carefully about the day's events.

Maybe it was just a dream. I was probably just imagining it. But, it's so odd…I swore I saw them…that couple. They were in that meadow…clear as day.

The whole day reminded her of things she used to experience as a child. She recalled days when she would see people, just like the man in the meadow, and talk to them. They were her friends although everyone around her insisted she was imagining them. At least they were my friends, thought April, until they moved that spring and left me behind. She remembered longing to know just what they were and wishing she were one of them. They never revealed anything to her, however and one May day, they left, never to return again.

Perhaps they really were just imaginary. Otherwise they would have stayed with me…pondered April. She used to recall times when she would swear up and down to people that these creatures were real. No one believed her, though and eventually she gave up the notion of convincing people that they were not just in her mind. And, after they left, she herself gave up the idea that they were true beings.

But, what if they were real? What if they came back to find me again, April wondered wistfully. No, now I'm talking foolishly…those creatures were never real and never…will…be

With that final thought, April laid her head upon her pillow and automatically felt heaviness within her skull. It traveled down her forehead and to her eyelids which shut instantly. And, despite her mother's warnings about the dangers of falling asleep with a head injury, she fell into a deep, dream-filled slumber