Okay, so here's the first chapter!

Enjoy!

(This IS in Renesmee's POV by the way)

The Fire and The Water

FIRE. ITS SOMETHING I FOUND MYSELF THINKING ABOUT A LOT LATELY, I dream about it too. It's taken me until now to realise how much fire I've witnessed and felt in my life. It's not just a burning mass of something, or a light at the tip of a candle- it's so much more than that.

It's not the fire that burns the flesh that I worry about; it's the fire that burns on the inside that scares me the most. I've felt a lot of fire in my eighteen years - some positive, but mostly negative.

There's the fire in someone's eyes when they're angry.

Revenge.

I've witnessed that a lot and god knows I've felt it too. But I tend to convert that anger to adrenaline so that I can destroy its cause and find peace, tranquillity... Water.

I am surrounded by elements; fire, air, earth and water. I am water. I can be hot or cold, still or sparkling - I'm a bit of both.

There's the fire in someone's soul when they're hurting.

Pain.

I've felt that and I know I've caused it a lot too. When I feel that pain, I need to find my water - that generally means running back into the heart of the flame and putting it out.

But there's one fire that water should never touch. The fire that burns in the heart could dry out the water.

Passion.

Love.

Protection.

I've felt that too and it's the fire that has led me to make some of my biggest mistakes. Some of my mistakes have even led to a real fire, a body fizzling, snapping and burning inside a cage made from bright, purple flames.

That could have been me too - but it wasn't. Instead I was blinded by darkness and the fire was put out. But even now, months on, I feel that there is still a fire lurking in the shadows and it's growing. And over time, the fire in my heart grows stronger - waiting for the opposing flame to fire.

The overcast humid weather was odd for La Push beach. Well, I suppose that the overcast wasn't much of a surprise. It was warm for August nonetheless and it helped keep a smile on my face to feel the warmth brush my skin.

I watched the waves crawl up the beach and retreat to the water with my friend Claire.

"Will that mark ever go away?" she asked, staring in disgust at my bare calves. I didn't need to follow her gaze to know what she was referring to. Of course she was referring to the screaming bite mark on the back of my left calve.

"Probably not." I answered, gently placing a hand over it.

"Does it still hurt?"

I titled my head a little either side, "Sometimes, when I'm hunting it starts to hurt - it strains the skin and pulls the scar."

She shuddered. "Yuk. That's gross."

I scoffed, "You're telling me. But I always remember that it can only get better. It hurt more when it happened than it does now."

I lowered my gaze from the waves to look at the tips of my shoes. As I grew silent, Claire put her hand on my shoulder.

"Do you ever think about it?" she asked, "Reoccurring nightmares or something? Y'know, like you did when Jake was away?"

I shook my head. "Not really." I lied. "It's not something I would like to keep revisiting. It makes me feel... Guilty."

"Guilty?" she repeated. "Ness, why the hell do you feel guilty? You did the right thing-"

"I did the right thing to get myself out of the wrong thing I did in the first place-"

"Will you ever stop kicking yourself?"

"You asked."

Out the corner of my eye I saw a grin on her face. She dropped her hand and leant back against the rock.

"So," I began eager to change the subject. "How're the wedding plans going?"

She grinned. "Pushing me to the brink of insanity. What about you?"

I felt my cheeks flush as a smile broke onto my face. It was always the best thing to think of when I wasn't in the best of moods. I was getting married and I was getting married to the greatest guy possible. Admittedly, he'd been coming and going pretty fast in the last few months - but that didn't matter to me. He was there when I needed him and I loved him.

"Five years, Claire." I reminded her. "We're getting married in five years."

"But why?" she whined. "I'll probably be old and fat and have kids and I'll be going grey and god knows what else."

I chuckled. "You're such a drama queen, Claire. You'll be twenty five - I think that's hardly ancient. If it makes you feel any better my dad's a hundred and twenty eight, he'll be in his thirties by then."

She laughed. "You do realise you'll be marrying a forty-year-old, technically."

"So will you."

"Quil isn't forty-"

"He's near enough. Besides, it's still not as bad as my mom, right?"

"Touché." she grinned. "But I think your mom wins by a long shot."

We walked slowly up the beach arm in arm. The wind was strong and sent our hair flying back off our faces. It was nice to spend the day with Claire, it was rare nowadays seeing as her wedding day was drawing near and she needed to tie all the loose ends before then. Her mother didn't want me interfering; although Claire had told her countless times that she wanted me to be involved. It reassured her to know that it wasn't just her and her mom organising the wedding. Of course, all I was doing was supporting her until the day, I wasn't helping at her numerous fittings, picking out food and the cake or anything. So it made time drag.

I had graduated now, so there was no school work to be done. I wasn't allowed to go to college anymore so college preparation was out of the question. Like I said, Jacob was being...weird. His absences were much longer than his visits, and even when he was with me he didn't seem all there. He'd already asked me to marry him, so that couldn't be what was distracting him and he'd pretty much sworn an oath to me some months ago that he would never leave me again. I tried not to let it bother me, because I knew that as soon as I did it would occupy my mind twenty-four, seven. Eventually I'd end up doing something I'd regret. It was time for me to turn a new leaf and to trust that whatever Jacob was doing it was for the greater good and wasn't putting him in danger.

Claire and I walked through acres of forest, lost in conversation. It was strange how much it made me feel like a kid again.

"How much longer do you reckon we'll be able to do this?" she asked, kicking a twig.

"Do what?"

"Y'know, just walk and talk."

"Probably until you start squeezing out babies." I grinned.

"What makes you think I'll be first?"

"Because you're the one who's getting married in a week. And after a wedding follows the honeymoon." I twinkled my fingers in her face and laughed as I skipped ahead a little.

She grinned, "Of course, you would know all about that wouldn't you, Renesmee?"

I scoffed, "I believe that once upon a time I may have played a reasonably significant role in a honeymoon that went from paradise to hell."

"You're a curse. I'm thankful you're not coming on my honeymoon too."

"You and me both."

After that we walked in a blissful silence. As we stepped through a mass of shrubs, I heard a low thudding in the distance. For a moment I slowed my pace to try and hear better. The thudding grew louder and I could feel it coming closer.

As she continued forward, I grabbed Claire's arm. Slowly, I looked over my shoulder to find a group of deer bounding towards us.

I grabbed Claire and threw us aside as the deer ran over our tracks. They'd barely passed us when four of them disappeared almost spontaneously from the group.

I should have guessed. My family were due to hunt today, but it was one of those hunting trips that had become a frequent kind – the ones where I literally wasn't allowed to go with them. And I couldn't understand why.

I had always been welcome on hunting trips and I would generally go, but since I started dating Jacob I might hold back on some of the overnight hunts. But considering these were during the daytime and that nowadays Jacob was gone more than here, I didn't have much else to do besides stuff my face with deer blood.

Another thing that made their hunting trips so peculiar was how frequent they were. My family were out nearly two or even three times every week. I told my parents repeatedly that if they kept this up they would get fat.

As the deer scattered and the coast was clear I turned on my side to Claire.

"Are you okay?" I asked, hooking my arm under hers.

"What was that?" she breathed, trying to catch her breath.

"That was vampires hunting. Sorry you were in the middle of it-"

"Renesmee?" I heard my mother's voice and I got Claire to her feet. The second I stood I could see Bella on the other side of the tracks. Blood was smeared around her mouth and at first glance the blood made her look almost ugly. Almost. Seconds after Edward joined her. He too was in a similar state.

"Hi." I said innocently, letting go of Claire.

"What are you doing here?" she asked, offended. "I told you that you couldn't come with us today."

"Well, I didn't really have much else to do-"

"You were meant to stay in La Push, with Claire." Edward interrupted.

"You didn't tell me that." I said quietly. I was biting my tongue. Holding back with all my strength not to ask why I couldn't hunt with them – it wasn't as if they were hunting to the extreme or anything.

"We're telling you now-"

"Edward, Bella!" I heard Emmett call from far away. "Hurry up! We gotta go!"

"Gotta go where?" I immediately asked.

Bella looked at me in a way that practically yelled that she'd rather be anywhere else but here right now.

"We just have to go." Said Edward. "Claire, can you make sure that Renesmee goes home now. Please?"

After a few hesitant moments, she nodded and linked her arm around mine. Then, without another word, my parents disappeared spontaneously.

Claire shivered.

"I hate it when they do that." She said and we turned and walk back the way we came.

The journey back to Claire's house had been silent. Claire knew that I was irritated by my parents' odd behaviour and figured it would be wise to not interrupt my thoughts. But there wasn't much for me to think about. I knew no more now than what I did when I woke up this morning and I wasn't expecting to know more anytime soon.

"Whatever you're parents were talking about – its bugging you isn't it?" she asked as we arrived at her house. I ran my fingers along the side of my Mustang until I reached the driver's door.

I shrugged, but I couldn't find the words to reply.

"Ness?" she walked round to my front and tried to get me to look at her.

I sighed. "Claire, every time I'm kept in the dark it means that something bad is either happening or is going to happen." I looked at her then. "And it has something to do with me-"

"Hey!" I jumped at the closeness of Quil's voice and almost cracked the window with my nails.

Claire wanted to give her fiancé a stern glare for interrupting me when I was trying to verbally express my thoughts, but she didn't. He came over to us and put an arm around Claire and kissed her. There was a sudden awkward tension that rose between the three of us.

"Sorry," said Quil. "Did I interrupt something?"

"Well-" Claire started but I interrupted her.

"No, no." I insisted. "It's fine. Listen, have you seen Jake recently?"

When Quil hesitated I felt something in me drop.

"Er, yeah. I just saw him – he's heading over to your house, actually."

I nodded and opened the car door.

"Wait!-"Claire grabbed the door as I stepped in. "Renesmee, are you alright?"

I quickly nodded again and started the engine. "I'm fine, Claire. Seriously. I'll call you later or… something. My parents might want you to babysit me."

I gave her a small reassuring smile and she returned it. I left Quil and Claire on the driveway and pulled out.

My speed changed throughout the drive. When I was thinking it slowed and when I was reminded that Jacob was waiting for me I sped up.

I started to think about my parents in the forest again. Sometimes it bugged me more than Jacob's absence, but I never said anything. Like I said, new leaf, I knew that I probably didn't want to know what was going on. But it would only be a matter of time until I couldn't help myself anymore.

Hope you enjoyed it!

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and I'll update soon :D x