Second Chances

Chapter 2

She woke up to the sound of purring and soft fur brushing against her face. The sun was just starting to come up and she was cold. Bella sat up and stretched the stiffness from her muscles. As she looked around, she noticed that she was no longer in front of the mausoleum. She was sitting in front of her mother's tombstone.

"How the hell did I get here?" she said out loud to the kitten that had crawled into her lap. "And how did you get here you furry little thing?" She looked around but she didn't see the other kittens. "That's strange."

She noticed that there were fresh flowers lying on the ground in front of her. 'Someone has been here' she thought. She sat there staring at the words etched into the cold granite and was unable to stop the sob that left her throat as the tears fell uncontrollably down her cheeks.

HERE LIES RENE SWAN

BELOVED WIFE, LOVING MOTHER

June 13, 1972 to October 1, 2004

It had been almost seven years since she had lost her mom and it still hurt so much. She sat there leaning against the cold stone lost in thought and after a long while she remembered the night before. The golden eyes. She got up, grabbed the kitten, and started walking toward the direction she thought she might have come from. As she looked down to unzip her jacket to put the cold kitten inside in hopes of warming him up, she noticed that the jacket she was wearing was no longer her own. This one was brand new and a dark blue in color whereas her's had been a faded black and quite used. And there was no rip in the sleeve.

Unnerved by the fact that she had seen those eyes, saw the door opening, hearing her name being called, beckoning her inside, and then waking up in front of a tomb that she clearly didn't find herself and on top of that she wasn't wearing her own jacket? She was scared.

She kept walking and the only building she saw was up on her left. As she got closer she saw that it was definitely the same one she saw the night before. Only, there was no door. 'Okay' she thought, 'maybe its on the other side.' But as she walked around all four sides, she saw no door. And no possible door. It was sealed up like the tomb it was. "What the hell? I know I'm not crazy." She looked around to see if there were any other buildings but she only saw tombstones and statues.

"Hey girl. What are you doing here?" She heard in a rough voice. She turned around to see who could only be labeled as the care taker, standing there giving her a questioning look.

"Isn't there a door to this place?" She asked the old man.

"What? No, that place has been sealed up for over 300 years."

She looked back at the stone structure wondering if she really was going crazy. She knew what she saw but the man was right. There was no door. She decided to ask about the flowers.

"Hey, do you know who put those flowers on the Swan grave?"

He gave her a long hard look. "Swan?" he asked.

"Yeah, Renee Swan. Can you tell me who put the flowers there?"

Stone cold eyes looked back at her. "Yeah. Me."

She stood there with her mouth gaped open. He turned around to walk away but she went after him.

"Why?" she asked, a little too loudly.

"Because no one has been to that grave in years. And because I knew her." That shocked her.

"How did you know my mom? I don't even know who you are!" she said as she tried to look at him a little closer. He wasn't as old as she had originally thought. A few wrinkles around his eyes, salt and pepper hair. Tan skin from working out in the sun for too long. He looked like he had had a rough life.

"No. But I know who you are and you shouldn't be spending the night in grave yards."

"How did you know that?"

"I heard you scream. When I checked on you, you were asleep."

"Did you move me?"

"No."

He was walking away but without looking at her, he called back over his shoulder.

"Best come along if you're hungry and I'll see what I can get for the kitten."

"How did you know my mom?" But he didn't look back and he didn't answer.

They had gotten to the Gator that he kept his tools in. He sat down motioning for her to take the seat next to his and he drove them back towards where she had walked from. They were coming up on the woods to a worn trail through the trees and after a few minutes he drove them through to a clearing. Bella could hear water somewhere in the distance but all she saw through the tall grass was a big, beautiful white house with perfectly aligned evergreens on three sides of it. When they got around to the front, she saw that the house was three stories tall and it had a wrap around porch decorated with potted plants, hanging ferns, and white rocking chairs.

"It's beautiful" she breathed out.

He pulled them up to a four car garage and got out.

"Help me with these." He said as he grabbed a bucket full of soil and a shovel.

She followed him into a side door on the garage with two buckets of her own and set them down. Through another door in front of her, she saw several cars under canvas covers.

"Put them over here." he said as he headed back out the door they came in and walked toward a door on the side of the house.

She followed him into what she saw was a mud room outside of the kitchen. She was immediately assaulted with the smells of frying eggs, apple-wood bacon, pancakes, and biscuits. Her mouth watered and her stomach growled.

"Have a seat. Want some coffee?" He asked pointing to a table on the far side of the kitchen.

"Black please."

She sat down and pulled the kitten out of her jacket.

"Do you have any milk for the fur-ball?" She asked and that's when she remembered her her poster.

"Oh crap! You didn't see my poster around anywhere did you?"

"Walt Whitman? He's on the dinner table."

"The dinner table?"

He pointed to the door in front of her as he bent down and put a bowl of warm milk in front of the kitten.

She got up and walked through the door to see a long oval table, made of dark colored wood and wider in the middle than on the ends. There were eight chairs on each side and one on each end. When she got closer to the table she saw that carved into the middle was the Cullen family crest. And next to that was her poster and torn hoodie.

She picked up her things and walked back into the kitchen just in time to see him set down a plate of food and a steaming cup of black coffee. She sat quietly and ate her food while the kitten played with her shoe strings.

"I'm gonna have to name him soon if I'm gonna keep him." But nothing came to her mind and the strange man didn't say anything.

"Do you have a bathroom that I can use?"

"Up the stairs to the second floor. First door on your right. If you want to take a shower, just put your clothes outside the door and I'll have them washed."

She didn't ask any questions as she walked out of the kitchen and to the foyer on her right. On her left was a staircase and in front of her was a living room. The floors and the front door were made out of the same dark wood as the dining room table. There were other doors around but they were all closed. She took a left and headed up the stairs to the first door on her right.

She stopped briefly at the top of the stairs and thought that she heard classical music coming from the third floor. Bella walked into the bathroom and after closing the door behind her, she immediately began disrobing. Holding a thick towel around her body, she stuck her head out of the door and looked around but didn't see anyone before dropping her clothes into a pile on the floor. Bella closed the bathroom door again miffed at the fact that she still didn't know who this man was or how he knew her or her mom. She started the shower to let it warm up.

Taking a look around, she noticed that one whole wall was covered in a floor to ceiling mirror and where the counter met the mirror, was two sinks the color of frosted glass sitting on top of a black marble counter. The walls and the floor were colored in the same cream color and the shag rug beneath her toes was the same color as the walls. The shower and separate jacuzzi tub were the same black marble as the counter top.

Bella stepped back into the shower closing the glass door behind her. She stepped under the water streaming down and immediately felt her sore muscles begin to relax. She wet her hair and picked up a spa worthy shampoo bottle. The contents smelled like lemongrass and cardamom. It smelled like heaven. She lathered her hair twice to get all the dirt and oil out before picking up the conditioner and repeating. The body wash that she found smelled like a man's cologne but she didn't care. There was a travel pack of razors and Bella used two of them to shave off the 6 months of hair growth on her legs. Being homeless had its disadvantages but it was better than being stuck in the system, bouncing around from foster home to foster home.

Bella rinsed off the remainder of the soap and feeling like a new person, she stepped out of her little moment of heaven. She found a hair brush and a new tooth brush laying next to a soft bathrobe that she hadn't noticed before. 'Weird. I didn't hear anybody come in.' she thought as she brushed the tangles out of her hair and cleaned the scuzz off her teeth. Looking at herself in the mirror, and seeing her chestnut colored hair fall down below her waist, she decided that she was long over due for a hair cut.

As she was tying the robe around her waist, she heard muffled footsteps above her. She poked her head out of the bathroom door and heard them again. 'That is definitely classical music.' Bella padded softly over to the bottom of the stairs and slowly began to walk up. When she got to the top of the third floor she looked to her left noticing a beautiful bathroom with no door but to her right was where the music was coming from. As she walked through the door way, she saw a wall full of windows taking up two sides of the bedroom and in the center was a rot iron bed with a gold coverlet. Behind the bed on the wall was a very expensive looking stereo system.

Bella heard a low angry growl from over her right shoulder and as she turned around, she peered into a pair of angry, glowing, golden eyes. Blackness consumed her and she felt the world slip away once again.

A/N So here's the second chapter. It's been edited but I still feel it's too short. Funny thing is, it's the longest one I've written so far. Okay so maybe not so funny. I'll try to have the third chapter up soon. Have a great week! :D