A/N: So here's Chapter Two of the story, I swear things will start to get interesting soon. Updates will be every Friday, just in case you were wondering.

Chapter Two- Monsters of All Shapes and Sizes

Bella POV

I yawned, sitting up from my warm bed. The murky sunlight was streaming into the room through the open window. I looked around the bright room- well, bright for Forks. I looked over at Edward; he was sitting in the armchair in the corner. His lips quirked up into a grin as he watched me staring at him.

"Good morning love. Did you sleep well?" He asked softly.

I beamed at him, "Perfectly. Have you checked Charlie's journal to see if there are any interesting facts about the crime scene?"

Edward grinned, "Normally I would. But I figure since it was your idea, and it is your father..."

My smile widened, maybe he was finally backing off on the over protectiveness a bit. "Let's go then." I said cheerfully, despite the fact we were going to look at a diary full of dead people.

I seem to be spending most of my life with dead people. Am I the only one who finds that there's a problem with that? Really, it's a very good thing that Charlie is in the dark right now. If he had even an inkling about what I've been getting myself into in the past few months then I would be in so much trouble.

I climbed out of bed. Untangling myself from the blankets was always an interesting thing to watch; my tossing and turning at night create a fairly huge mess. I'm surprised that I haven't fallen out of the bed yet.

We walked through the hall into Charlie's room, I looked at Edward, "do you know where Charlie put it?" I asked.

"It's under his bed- he knows that you don't have the strength to lift the bed up to get at it. I don't think he was expecting me to give you a hand." He replied.

I grinned, "I doubt he knows you and your family are vampires either."

Edward chuckled, only saying "It would be really bad if he did know- could you imagine the look on his face if he figured out you were marrying a vampire."

"I can't even imagine the look on his face when I tell him I'm getting married to a human being." I shuddered.

Walking over he lifted up the bad and pulled out a small book. It was the same one I gave Charlie last night. He handed it to me, "Will you do the honours Bella?"Nodding at him, I sat down on the bed and flipped the book open.

July 15, 2007

Today we discovered another body- that's three in total. All were female, with brown eyes and brown hair. The first thought is a serial killer. They repeat the same crime over and over again to relive the memory of killing someone they really hated. They just can't stop killing.

The MO is always the same too- stab wounds. There's a very little amount of blood on the scene- even less than if the victim was stabbed somewhere else and allowed to bleed out. It's as if they were drained dry and all the blood was sucked out of them.

The crime scenes are all annoyingly clean of evidence- there's no fingerprints, no hair, not even any footprints despite the muddy soil. It's like the bodies just magically appeared there.

I'm worried about Bella- she matches the victim profile exactly. Plus her luck isn't the greatest. All of the victims had broken bones and bruising that would come from immense pressure. That's not a way I would want anyone to go, let alone my daughter. No human strength can do that; some kind of tool must have been used .But there were no tools on the murder sight, and I've never heard of anything that could do that type of damage.

This diary idea of Bella's is a very good idea, she was right about how it would help to write my feelings down. She's an awesome kid. I just hope that she never stumbles upon this and accidently reads it. She would never do it on purpose, not unless it was a life or death matter.

I winced and closed the book with a snap; that was the end of the entry. "I'm going to have to say that it's pretty clear. If the whole 'bodies with the blood sucked out of them' wasn't clear enough for us then the 'victims being subjected to immense pressure' would be another set of warning bells." I felt kind of bad for intruding upon Charlie's personal thoughts. After all, he believed that it was totally private. He wouldn't have voiced his fears about me being murdered otherwise. Then again, it really was a life or death matter- we might even be able to stop the monster.

Edward nodded, "I guess we should head over to my house and tell everyone else now. They'll be really irritated with us if we take too long to give them the news." He lifted the bed back up for me and I stuck the book back in exactly the same way it was before. Edward put the bed back down and we fixed the sheets- it soon looked exactly like it had before we snuck in.

I got changed quickly, pulling on a pair of plain blue jeans and a light brown t-shit. I went to head towards the front door and Edward cut me off, grinning slightly, "I doubt that it can hurt to wait five minutes for you to eat breakfast."

"I thought that you just said that your siblings would be getting impatient." I reminded him.

"They have an eternity- they can wait five minutes too." I sighed and grabbed one of the pre-made sandwiches I made for Charlie in the fridge.

Gulping it down I looked at Edward and said, "What kind of idiotic vampire turns a serial killer."

Edward chuckled darkly, "A dead one- handing over the ultimate weapon to someone who can't stop killing and then letting them loose is just asking for the Volturi to become involved."

"What if it's an older vampire? It's a good way to hide behind a human nature. All he would have to do is just repeat the same kind of crime over and over again and the humans won't look sideways at it. Well, it would get a lot of media, but it wouldn't be the kind of media that says 'hey- that dudes a vampire.' If I were a human eating vampire then it's probably what I would do."

Edward shrugged, "I think that it's an actual serial killer. The vampire that's doing this has a bad choice in placement. Our scent and the wolves' scent- and trust me, they reek- is all over the territory. A vampire that's wily enough to think up a plan like that would not do it here."

"And you're sure that it's a serial killer, not just some newborn with twisted hobbies because...?"

"Serial killers live to repeat the same crime over and over again. They may be reminding themselves of a crime they committed a long time ago, repeatedly giving victims the same name as someone they really hated. Or they might be seeking to rid the world of a certain group of people. Or they just can't stop. A newborn with twisted hobbies wouldn't be that specific, or that repetitive. In fact, he'd be the exact opposite- he'd want to come up with new and creative ways to kill every time. And why are we even talking about this over breakfast?"

"So you're telling me that it's better to talk about Victoria's recent demise, or the Volturi... Oh shit- I just had a kind of scary thought. They just came for a visit and found me human. What if the murders came back and they came to investigate and I was still human-"

"Let's not talk about the Volturi over breakfast either." Edward said, cutting me off. "Alice would see them coming, and fleeing from the Volturi beats trying to stay low key, so at that point we would just leave town and run like crazy."

"Too bad for you," I said, gobbling down the remains of my sandwich, "because I'm done breakfast, so anything we talk about isn't over breakfast."

Edward rolled his eyes, "Let's go see my family."

"Oh, so now were all eager to get going," I teased, following him out to my truck.

Edward sighed and looked at me forlornly, "I don't suppose you'd mind if we ran instead of driving that thing." His eyes were like melting butterscotch as he tried to dazzle me into it.

"Hah- no." I said shortly. "That will make me feel like I'm about to throw up, plus I like my truck. It's the perfect thing."

"Remind me to buy you a fast car." Edward said, smirking.

"Don't even think about it!" I snapped at him, "There is no need for you to do that- I like my truck, it's sturdy and impossible to turn into a pretzel around a tree. You worry about my safety constantly, and yet you go to buy me a fast car- it's hypocritical!" I ranted.

Edward sighed, "Fine." he said, "I will not buy you a fast car."

I smirked and turned the key in the ignition, letting the truck roar to life. I loved it- the smell from the leather of the seats, it's insane durability, it handles well on wet roads... it was a very sturdy, very good truck. I can't see why Edward has such a problem with it.

We pulled into the Cullen's driveway, my huge truck squeezing down the twisty lane. We both climbed out of the car and headed towards the front door of the huge house. When I opened it the door seemed to be ten times creakier than usual, and the house was totally silent. I had assumed it would be like it was when Victoria was in Seattle- they would all be crowded in the living room around the T.V. discussing ways to take out the threat. Instead it was like there wasn't a single living thing in the house (and I use the term living very loosely).

I turned and looked at Edward, "Where is everyone?" I asked; I assumed they must be in one of the back rooms, or maybe they went out to hunt a little bit.

"They're in the attic," he said calmly, leading me to the stairs.

"You have an attic?" I asked. "How did I manage to miss that?" In the past few weeks, especially with all of the Bella-sitting going on here, I had been all over the house. It didn't even seem all that huge anymore. And yet I had managed to miss something like an attic.

Edward and I started heading upstairs while he explained, "It's inaccessible to humans, even if you knew where it was you'd never be able to get up there unless we lifted you up. There isn't really all that much up there- just all of the papers and memories that we can't risk anyone finding. We don't really care about what would happen if a burglar stole something, but if one of them stumbled upon a bunch of old family photos then we'd be in serious trouble. We also do all the illegal stuff up there, and since breaking into police databases counts as illegal... well, I'm sure you can see why they're all up there right now."

"I doubt all of them need to be up there to break into the database." I said, grinning.

"Ah, but catching deranged serial killing vampires is fun. We haven't had anything as interesting as this happen for years." Edward said, faking a cheerful smile. "Minus the vampire army trying to kill us, the Volturi looking for reason to kill us and you being hunted, of course. All the fun stuff happens when you're around."

"You do realize you're family probably needs therapeutic help, right?" I smirked.

Edward snickered and patted me gently on the back, "You do realize it's your family too. And that since you're included in it, you would get to come to see the shrink too."

"Touché." I said, laughing.

We reached the end of the hallway and I looked up, seeing only white ceiling with a curvy texture. "I see no attic..." I said jokingly.

Edward smirked and reached up, just seeming to brush the ceiling with his hand. A panel of the ceiling slid back as he brushed it, reviling a hole. Edward lifted me up part way, I grabbed the floor and tried to pull myself the rest of the way, but I didn't have the upper body strength. Carlisle saw me and lifted me the rest of the way, "Hello." He said calmly, looking as if he was trying not to laugh.

"Hello." I said in response, looking around the attic. It looked just like any attic, wooden floor and ceiling beams, except that there was some equipment in it that looked extremely advanced. There were some boxes over in the corner, I was guessing that those had the photos and papers in them that Edward had mentioned. "What is all this stuff?" I asked.

"Some projects that we made when we got bored." Carlisle said with a shrug, "Sometimes we'll sell the ideas to humans, but for the most part it just ends up here until we find somewhere to get rid of it."

Edward walked up behind me, "So I suppose you all want to know what the diary said..." he trailed off playfully as seven pairs of gold eyes focused on him.

Rosalie rolled her eyes, "No." She said sarcastically, "We'd much rather stand here listening to you make evasive comments. Spill, Edward. There's a monster out there."

"It all points to a serial killer that got turned into a newborn vampire, but still managed to keep his unsavoury habits." said Edward, "He stabs his victims to death and then drinks their blood. And that's lovely enough to terrify any sane cop, but then throw in the other things that indicate one of us- like bones snapped under intense pressure- and you'll have the Feds in town in no time." All of the Cullens winced.

There were a few minutes where everyone stood there thinking. Rosalie looked at Carlisle, "Should we leave town?" she asked.

Carlisle shook his head, "We can't. We've become more involved in this town than ever, if we were just to leave again, then everyone would automatically start pointing at us, and if we become then prime subjects in a murder investigation that'll probably get a lot of publicity. We're already on thin ice with the Volturi because of Bella, and they have a tendency to kill people who have as many problems with the rules as us. It's dangerous even with us totally removed from the case."

I frowned, "I have an idea. Let me finish before you start saying no, Edward. What if you were to change me now, and then stay in town? I match the victim profile for the serial killer perfectly, so everyone would just think it got me. It would be just as effective as getting caught in a car crash, and since no one is ever going to catch this serial killer, everyone would just assume he killed me. Then that takes away at least one problem with the Volturi, so if they walk into town in the middle of everything then we have a clean slate."

Emmett nodded, "It's a good idea."

Edward shook his head, managing to keep his voice calm even though the way his eyes suddenly turned black showed how absolutely furious he was, "It wouldn't work that way. They'd come into town and kill us all, they don't really look at it the same way we do. They'd see it as us breaking two rules in one year, they've already given us a chance- something they never do- and giving us yet another chance is impossible. We might as well hope for the grass to turn blue. Besides that, in a murder investigation, the first person the cops always look at is the boyfriend. We'd just end up getting even more involved."

I sighed, "I guess you have a point. Any other ideas?"

Alice shrugged, "Kill the newborn, the only question is how. With the exception of Jasper and Emmett we were out all last night looking for it, the wolves were out too, but we couldn't find him anywhere. His scent was all over the crime scenes, but we couldn't find any trails leading off of them. He's been travelling through the water systems- lakes, rivers, streams... we can't find him. He could be anywhere. We only assume he's still in Forks because he's stayed for the past three weeks. If we've scared him off then we'd never know."

Jasper shook his head, "He won't leave until we've made ourselves a serious threat. He probably just assumed you were all out hunting last night, unless you made it clear you were looking for him. Did you?"

Alice shook her head, "No, we figured the same thing you did. We all made sure not to mention why we were really out there, and we all stopped to hunt at least three times each. I've never felt so full in my life- I think we probably should have just pretended we were going for a run instead."

I let curiosity get the better of me, "How can you be full?"

Alice chuckled, "I'll always be thirsty, but there's only so much blood the body can hold. If I drink seven deer in one hour, then I literally can't hold anymore and I feel sloshy, like I've just chugged seven glasses of water."

"Oh." I nodded, understanding.

There were a few more minutes of hopeless discussion before everyone went back to their various activities. I sat down on an old couch leaning up against the wall. Then a thought came to me- if the vampire was really a newborn, then he wasn't killing just one victim a week. A newborn would have to hunt at least once every two days, assuming it didn't lose control. So that led to one more question.

How many victims were there?