I spend the next few days away from school. I hunt, I visit the Denali's, and I do everything I can to keep my mind off Bella, but my thoughts wander back to her each time, to every version of her, her many faces racing through my mind.

By the time I return to school I've made my decision. I'll get to know Bella, I'll be her friend and nothing more. Maybe that will break the curse, maybe I got too close before, too involved.

When she appears in the doorway of our Biology classroom, she looks conflicted and it doesn't take a mind reader to realise that she's considering asking someone to switch seats. Her brown eyes dart around the room, like a deer in the woods, looking for a way to escape its predator. Eventually she makes her way over to our desk and dumps her bag at her feet. I introduce myself and I offer some small talk. She engages, almost reluctantly and tells me her story of how she ended up in Forks. It's always the same tale. Her Father is always in a position of authority, the place where I meet her is never her place of birth and there is always one feature, or one quality which remains the same. I watch her as she talks, trying not to be overwhelmed by that glorious scent. She is most like Mabel, poor sweet Mabel. Both with long, lustrous, dark hair, as soft as silk. Mabel met me at a bad time. I had just returned to my family, after leaving them for a while on a path of self-destruction. Even with my new found strength and power I was a half man, stricken with grief and guilt, dragging myself through an eternal life without Isabella. My family lived on the blood of animals but I longed for the taste of human blood, hoping it would extinguish the flames which burned within me. I only drank from those who would hurt others. I read their minds, sensed their thoughts and I drained them before they could carry out their hateful acts. It didn't help and in the end I realised that Isabella would not want me to live my life like this, so I returned home, but some of my old habits were hard to shake. My parents gave me a sister, Rosalie. I think they thought she would help heal me, she would be someone I could love, but we were never anything more than siblings. Rosalie was grieving too, for the life she had lost.

As Bella talks, I notice that there's something different about her story. Her parents aren't together. She had a choice of who to live with, a 50/50 chance of moving here, of meeting me. What does it mean? That it wasn't just fate that brought her here?

Later in the parking lot I watch Bella as she makes her way to her car. I search for a part of Isabella, for something more than just her scent. I realise then that it's in the way she dresses. Isabella had that same, carefree sense of style.

I hear the thoughts of the driver before the screech of tyres. The truck veers off the road towards Bella and without thinking I speed to her side, planting myself between her and the oncoming vehicle. I register the look of shock on her face as my hand sinks into the metal of the truck which grinds to a halt before us.

It's the same look Mabel had when she realised what I was, what I could do.

The first time I saw Mabel it was through the thoughts of someone else, a predator stalking her in the night. His thoughts were so loud, it was like he was screaming, but I couldn't hear anything in her mind. Her thoughts were shielded for me, the only hint of what she was thinking was in the nervous looks she passed over her shoulder as the man behind her advanced.

He had followed her for about five blocks when they passed me on the poorly lit street. Her high heels clicked against the pavement as she picked up the pace. I stayed back in the shadows, waiting for an opportunity to strike. Near the park, I saw him reach a hand out towards her and I swooped in, slamming him against the railings. I tore into his throat as the rage and the feeling of loss surged though me, his blood spilling over my lips. I heard a small whimper and I turned to find her sitting on the ground, a look of horror on her face and a small trickle of blood on her leg where her knee had made contact with the pavement. She must have been knocked to the floor during the scuffle, her hair falling loose from the elegant knot it was twisted in earlier. A gentle wind lifted the thick strands of hair which framed her face and her scent hit me. That familiar scent of roses, of sunshine on her skin, summer nights and evergreen. I let go of my victim. He fell to the ground and lay there unmoving. I stepped over him towards the girl. She cringed away from me as I crouched down in front of her, studying her intently. Could it be her?

"W-what are you?" She asked.

"A monster."

She looked taken back by my admission and she cocked her head to one side, studying me with a kind of morbid curiousity..

"I don't believe that. You saved me…I think."

She looked over my shoulder at the man lying on the ground.

"He was going to hurt me?"

I nodded solemnly. I searched her eyes, they were a vivid green like mine before I was turned. I longed to hear her thoughts, but as much as I concentrated, there was only silence. I was curious to find out more about her, to find out why, in her presence, it was like Isabella was still with me.

"May I walk you home?"

She looked wary at first, then she nodded and scrambled to her feet. I held the crook of her arm to help her up, the thick wool of her coat protecting her skin from my ice cold touch.

She told me her story on the way to her house. Her father was a pilot in the Air Force. He'd been captured during the war and spent some time in a POW camp where he orchestrated the escape of the American and British soldiers being held there. He was something of a hero. Mabel hoped to be a writer and she had already helped to write her Fathers memoirs. She wanted to make a living for herself, she was fiercely independent almost to the point of stubbornness and I realised that her wary look when I offered to walk her home was probably because she didn't want people to think that she couldn't take care of herself. She didn't ask anymore questions about my condition, instead she asked about my family, my likes, my dislikes. It was like deep down she already knew I was a vampire and there was nothing left to say on the matter.

We stopped before her porch, her house was set against the backdrop of a huge forest.

"It inspires me," she said, gesturing towards the trees, "I'm writing a story about a pack of werewolves who dwell in the forest and terrorise the inhabitants of a small town."

She laughed, a tinkling sound with the same musical quality of Isabella's.

"It sounds great. I hope I get to read it."

She held out her hand towards me.

"I'm Mabel, by the way, Mabel Waters."

Without thinking I took her hand in mine.

"Edward Cullen."

She gasped at my stone cold touch, I waited for her to say something, to turn on her heel and run into the house, locking the door behind her, but she smiled.

I was naïve then, I didn't realise that history would repeat itself. I thought that meeting Mabel was my second chance at love. I didn't know that saving her would set us both on a path to tragedy, one that would keep repeating itself until I accepted that I was destined to an eternal life alone.

Bella is taken to the hospital, it's just a precaution. I see her a couple of days later at school. She thinks I regret saving her. I can't bear to see the look in her eye, but what would I tell her? That she is my dead lover reincarnated? That every reincarnate before her died? I get one chance to save them, but the next time they die. Instead, I tell her that we can't be friends. She looks at me like a wounded animal and my heart aches.