I'm so sorry guys for the long wait. I would have updated on Saturday when I finished the chapter, but the stupid wind disconnected the internet. But I'm back now, so be all excited or read the next chapter. The latter I think . . .


Chapter 1

Pearls

Wales—1841

It's been exactly five years since I first woke up. Nothing has come back to me. I've had funny dreams of palaces and luxurious items, but of course that's the only place I could ever have such things; in my dreams.

The air was warm tonight as I made my way to the trellis beneath Alice's bedroom window. The breeze blew the luscious scent of freesia in my direction. I inhaled the heavenly aroma.

When I got there Alice had her head stuck out the window and was gazing towards the moon. Her eyes looked a million miles away. She was probably having another one of her visions. I giggled at her dreamlike expression.

It took her a second to come back and when she did her head looked down at me. She smiled.

"What is it, Alice?" I whispered.

She held up her finger to her lips; signaling me to be quiet. Even as she did so she was smiling. She then hopped out of her window and began her descent. Even though I had seen her do this many times before I was always in awe in the skill and grace she had when doing so.

She hopped down lightly, only receiving a dull thud from the ground below. She linked her arm with mine and we began walking to the place right below the bridge farther upstream.

I didn't that like place. And because my mind was evil, I had no idea why. Every time I went there though, I had this feeling. This place seemed to hold a tale of tragedy. Why was this significant to me? My mind didn't allow that information to flood my current thoughts.

When we got there we sat on the natural stone bench. Alice's face was of pure joy. I had a feeling that she was about to tell me everything.

"Bella," she smiled. "You'll never guess what's going to happen."

I rolled my eyes. "What is it, Alice?"

Despite how much I hated it when she taunted me like that about what was going to happen some time in the near future, I felt special. I felt special because I was the only one who knew about them. The only one she was able to share them with; without being called insane and thrown into a straight jacket.

She pulled something from behind her back. It was a velvet box and when she opened it I was dazzled. I felt my eyes go as wide as saucers.

"Oh Alice, that's so pretty! Thank you! But I can't accept this."

Inside was a hairclip. It was beautiful because it had a flower on it and each petal was a sapphire and then the center was a small diamond.

"Yes you can."

"I really can't. I can't even imagine how much this must have cost."

"I want to give it to you," as she was saying it her face turned into a full on pout.

I could never deny that face and she knew it.

"Fine," I gave in. Of course it was a win win situation.

"Do you like it?" she asked innocently.

I laughed at her. "Of course I love it! It's gorgeous!"

"I knew you would. I also knew that you would give in."

"Is that what you saw?" I asked in disbelief.

"No, but I just know how you are. You're very predictable, you know that?"

I was about to answer when I heard the horses and the sound of distant wheels turning. Alice tugged on my hand leading me from the underpass. Our conversation long forgotten.

She dragged me to the top of the bridge. When she squatted down behind the pillar she dragged me with her.

We peeked around and looked into the far darkness. The clattering of hooves grew louder. A couple minutes later the wagons appeared in the moonlight. The people's faces were obscured in shadow, but I already had a fairly good hunch of who they were.

When they turned off the road my worst fears were confirmed; they were gypsies.

I turned to Alice to see if she knew what I did. I instead found her with her eyes glazed over. A second later her features twisted in horror, her eyes wide.

"Alice, what did you see?"

She didn't say anything and my imagination became my worst enemy. What was going to happen to us?

"Oh no."

I looked back to the gypsies to see if anyone was coming near us. Another wagon was about to turn off the road when the driver's face was thrown into the moonlight. It was the most beautiful girl I had ever seen. She had stunning white skin and shiny, silver locks that curled loosely to her waist.

The second passed and she was once more in shadow.

"It's her," said Alice.

"Who?"

"The girl in the wagon. Come with me." She grabbed my hand and for a moment I thought she was going to take me to the gypsy camp, which would be suicidal. I was relieved when she turned the opposite way.

She dragged me to the underpass again and hid our items behind a loose stone.

"We have to hurry there isn't much time," she whispered franticly.

"What's going on, Alice."

"There's no time to explain," her eyes glazed over for a split second and she looked like she was close to tears, "we have to leave now."

I didn't object when she dragged me up the hill and down a dark alley. She peeked around the corner looking directly at the forest surrounding the road on each side across the river. We were watching for a minute or two when a dark shadow appeared and started making its way towards the bridge. I gulped.

It stepped into the moonlight and the girl was shown sneaking across the river. I visibly exhaled in relief. I thought it would be something worse. How harmful could she be?

As soon as the thought was finished a stumbling man in handsome clothes staggered by; completely oblivious to us—thank goodness. He started going down the hill towards the underpass. He stumbled until he sat on a rock and took a swig from his bottle. That's when I noticed the girl going towards the area where the man sat. That wasn't going to end well. I was sure of it.

I was hoping—as well as Alice, no doubt—that she would look over here by some chance. To save herself from any imposement that would scar her for the rest of her life—and if not, the end of it.

Alice stepped out from the shadows and threw a large rock at the wall gaining both the attention of the girl and the drunken man. She looked over, curious and my guess would be that she was now confused for all Alice was doing was shaking her head. When the drunken man had looked over he looked as if he were in a daze not exactly sure of what he saw—for as soon as he looked over Alice jumped back into the shadows, quicker than I ever would have thought was possible.

The girl not understanding continued on her way, going around the side that displayed no drunken man. As soon as the bridge cut off her sight I suddenly felt scared. Shivers were running up and down my spine in a premonition type of way.

"Alice!" I whispered frightened.

Her eyes were glazed over once again, except now tears were slipping out of her eyes. A grave foreboding. I shook her out of her trance and all she said was, "We have to help her."

I nodded my head in agreement. I looked to the stone and found it empty. We dashed down the hill as a cry sounded. When we turned the corner the man had her by her throat against the wall of the bridge.

"No one's going to come and help you now, gypsy," he whispered into her ear.

Tears were slipping out of her eyes and she had string of pearls clutched tightly in her hands. I looked at the wall and saw a dislodged stone on the ground and an empty square hole. She wasn't the only one who knew about the loose stones.

Everything then happened in slow motion as Alice picked up a stone and started hitting him with it. "Let go of her!" she yelled.

The man cried out in surprise and dropped her. She fell to the ground spluttering and we turned to the man.

"Some more pilfering gypsies, eh?" he growled.

"Stay away from us," Alice hissed.

I ran over to the stone containing our own items and quickly grabbed them. Then both me and Alice picked up the girl and ran. I noticed the man was on the ground groaning. I didn't even want to know what happened.

I followed Alice the entire distance, not bothering to figure out where she was headed. We stopped when we reached another alley. I didn't recognize where we were despite my constant wandering.

We laid the girl softly on the ground and both hugged her. We didn't even have to know her. It was a traumatic experience for us all. I wasn't sure how long we sat there, hugging and crying.

It wasn't until the moon seemed at its apex in the sky that we stepped back and looked at the girl. She didn't look too bad, except for the bruised hand print around her neck, puffy red eyes, and disheveled—well everything. Despite all of that she still looked like an angel.

"I never liked him," Alice said.

"You know who that was?"

"Yes, that was Royce King. He may seem pleasant and charming, but there was always something about him . . ."

After finishing with her rant I turned my attention to the girl. "How are you feeling?" I asked.

She looked up. She hadn't looked at either of us until now and she looked down again. "I feel so stupid! How could I have possibly not seen the panic in your eyes? This is my entire fault!"

"It's not your fault at all," comforted Alice. "It was going to happen despite my warnings. I knew that, but I just felt the need to try."

The girl looked confused. "What do mean? Besides that, why would you want to help me? I'm just a gypsy, and look at you; you're not exactly a meanderer."

"But I am," I whispered.

She looked at me, "With your pretty dress and strict posture I will easily believe that."

I was never conscious of the way I stood, but when she said something I became aware of how straight I stood. It just seemed natural to stand in that position—nothing forced. After she mentioned my posture I could feel my shoulders slump into an uncomfortable position.

After I did that she gave me a knowing sad smile.

"This dress isn't my own," I defended. "I borrow all of my attire from Alice ever since . . . well as long I know of anyway."

"What do mean?"

"I had just woken up one day and I couldn't remember anything; where I was, who I was. All I had was a name that was being replayed in mind again when I first woke up; Bella. Alice found and helped me; she gave me a bath, a warm one. Ever since then I had been wandering around during the day and with Alice by night. I believe this is longest Alice has been out with me actually. The moon is visibly lower . . ." I trailed off.

"So you can't remember anything?"

"No."

"That must be awful."

"Not as bad as what almost happened to you," I countered.

"Well yes . . .thank you," she said sincerely. "I'm Rosalie."

"We should get going, your brother is going to come looking for us soon," Alice interrupted. She had this sort of dreamy look in her eyes as if for our entire conversation she was somewhere else; which she probably was.

"How did you know I had a brother?"

"I can see the future," Alice said bluntly.

I gaped at her. I couldn't believe she would just blurt it out.

"It's alright," she told me. "We're all going to be good friends, I trust you," she said directly to Rosalie.

Rosalie looked as if she were going to cry again, but for a different reason entirely. "Thank you, I don't know what to say, no one like you would bother to even talk to me and then you help me. Thank you," she repeated.

Alice smiled warmly at her. "We'd better get going."

I extended my hand towards her and she gratefully accepted by allowing me to help her up. Once the three of us were on our feet, Alice began leading the way. Probably having already done this while I was speaking with Rosalie.

I followed Alice and Rosalie for they both seemed to be neck and neck, knowing absolutely where they were headed. I, not having any special gifts of my own, merely followed. We stayed silent the entire way.

After we crossed the bridge I couldn't help but feel exposed as the moon displayed us plainly on the short open stretch of land between the river and the looming forest. I wasn't oblivious to the quickened pace of our steps as we made our way across.

Once we were in the cover of the trees I saw a figure in the distance, merely a shadow, but it was large and menacing in the way that most unknown things are. They both continued staring right at the shadow. I wasn't sure if they noticed its presence or not, but I knew that it was definitely there and becoming evermore closer. But if it was perilous to any degree than Alice would definitely have stopped.

As we grew closer to the figure it became more defined and slowly became the form of a young man. As the space between us decreased it showed more details of the boy, offering that it wasn't just a young man but a rather handsome young man. His beauty rivaled Rosalie's and when he moved into a patch of moonlight I saw that he had the same silver hair. It wasn't difficult to piece that he was her brother; the man Alice had seen in her vision.

Alice lingered behind with me and Rose dashed up to her brother embracing him in a tight hug. He returned the gesture, but all the while staring at our hidden forms. When Rose stepped away and walked back to us—after probably whispering about us in his ear—Alice stepped forward. As she crossed the threshold into the small patch of moonlight she looked even more beautiful and she looked at him, but was even more was that he stared back. They seemed to communicate wordlessly staring into the depths of each other's eyes. No one said a word wanting to disturb such a moment. But then fittingly Alice opened her mouth to speak:

"You've kept me waiting a long time."

"My apologies miss," he replied in a smooth deep voice.

Nothing else needed to be said between them. I looked at Rose and smiled. She returned it. I knew that this had to be what everyone described as love.

So how was it? Should I continue? Give me your answers in reviews. Please?