Mysterious Ways

A/N: The mysterious 'Rachel'. She pops out of nowhere, and we think Bella Swan has been replaced.

She had a wide, pretty smile. If it wasn't pretty in the obvious way, it was when you saw the twinkle in the eyes and decided what there was to love and fear about her. There was a sense of self-confidence, and a pride many mistook for arrogance, conceit. She wasn't impassive or restrained. She could flirt and make a man think she was out to get him, as quickly as letting him know that he was just a useless fling for her.

Rachel wasn't a Bella Swan, or a Paris Hilton…or the Angela Webber Edward had met in one of his high schools…she was different, if not intriguing. The previous night they had sat at the bar till the early morning and then she got up around 3 A.M, not piss drunk entirely, but surely unable to move without falling conveniently into Edward's lap.

He remembered hoisting her up over his back, her legs dangling invitingly in front of him as he walked, trying to get some information about where she lived.

Laughing uncontrollably and pointing fun at the back of his designer jeans, she was irresistible. Did Edward need her? No. He didn't feel the same intense longing as he did when without Bella, instead – he simply wanted her.

He smiled slightly as she began tracing circles on his lower back provocatively, lifting his shirt up…

And then came the rude awakening –

He was a vampire.

Vampire. Just the word reminded him of his incurable disease. He sternly told her to stop tickling him so that he could get her to wherever she lived and leave for more important, useful things. Harsh….but it was needed.

Walking home, he questioned himself, was there anything he actually needed anymore?

But Rachel didn't occupy Edward's thoughts for long. In fact, when his head hit the pillow and he looked up at the ceiling, counting the cracks as he did with every small, rackety motel room, he remembered the tune Bella always played when she was out of sorts or troubled about something. It was slow in the beginning, took up a fast tempo and then returned to a leisurely pace. It always suited Edward's heartbeat – which accelerated whenever he met her.

Rachel lay down on her big, spacious bed and closed her eyes…unable to sleep; she couldn't stop thinking about the unresponsive guy she'd just flirted uncontrollably with. She never regretted her open, friendly behavior with everyone, but didn't she just completely reveal her feelings for someone probably playing hard to get?

She knew that wasn't it. He was different, definitely. Maybe. Her thoughts were like a wild cyclone, going from one theory to another.

Hayes…she would have to ask him about this one, only if he was actually there with her for once.

Thud thud. Thud thud.

She jerked up at the sound of the pounding at her hotel door. "MISS? Miss Rachel? Miss Rachel Ripe?"

Her surprise went to laughter, as she heard her 'new' last name. "YES?" she called out, muffling her laughter. The weirdness of her last names never grew old on her.

The pounding increased. "YES? Yes I'm coming, I'm coming!" She knew what she was in for; She'd been through it so many times anyway.

Rachel opened the door and peered out, meeting the eyes of a large, well built young man, in a uniform with 'Manager' sewn in blue letters. He blushed at her scanty attire – a pair or mini shorts and a tank top. She smiled flirtatiously and looked up at him. It was starting –

"Do you…" she feigningly thought hard for a moment, "Need something, Sir?"

"I..er," the poor boy cleared his throat; Rachel continued her irresistible movements, "I am sent on the report that you haven't paid for your stay this past month." He looked away from her legs and into her testing eyes.

She knew he wouldn't last long. Rachel sighed and pulled him into her room, slamming the door behind him.

She'd fought with the devil and lost.

She gave up and went down. She lost him and forgot. The thoughts and the strain, made her fade, and then she went under. She faded out and lost somewhere there.

Wasn't she Bella Swan? Wasn't this whole vampire business a pain but never described as so painful and, hopeless? She was the rotting egg and then she became the dead bird.

Who survives forever?

Edward made it, she thought sadly. He was probably somewhere figuring out his next move and succeeding because he had always been the lone, brooding type. Bella was the misunderstood misfit meets interesting and popular in high school - and then she became mature, serious, invincible and everlasting.

But what's the use of everlasting when you have no one to appreciate that? Or even if you do, you're tired.

Bella was tired of changing clothes and finding jobs, making money and gambling on everything just because she knew she'd live with it.

The sadness of it all was that she had all the time in the world to go from perfect to ruin to perfect.

Slipping and sliding.

Maybe it was time to fall.

A/N: Yeah, it went from a chilling, flirty Edward and Rachel to a suicidal Bella Swan. I wanted to make it longer but I just didn't want to write about Bella in first person right now.

No songs in this one! Although you could try Street Spirit by Radiohead. OH, and the long descriptions will be replaced by dialogue sometime soon. Definitely. Maybe. (Yes, I saw the movie and now I can't stop saying it)

Anyway, Review Please!