EPOV

I didn't understand why Alice seemed less than thrilled to hear my voice. I guess it was natural that she would be stunned after my neglecting her and everyone else all this time.

"I didn't see you picking up," she said. Some greeting that was. Not even a Hello! How are you? Long time, no see.

"I didn't."

"I know," she replied quickly. "I know that you called me back. But… I didn't see that either."

"Why did you call if you didn't want to talk, Alice?"

Almost thirty seconds of silence passed and I wondered if maybe I shouldn't have asked such an open-ended question. Though, her track record for exercising her gift of gab showed perfectly well that she had never fallen short before. Why the long silence?

"It's not that I don't want to talk. It's just that…"

"You think I'm crazy?" I asked, raising one eyebrow to match the crooked grin and getting ready to laugh when she did. No laughter came. More empty distance between us: complete silence.

"I didn't see you saying that," she said. She sounded alarmed, which indicated that it was true; she thought I was a lunatic. Well, I guess when all was added up, she was right about that. She could at least be polite about it and laugh a little. Still though, nothing. Just another long, awkward silence. Usually it was she who prompted me. I wasn't used to playing the game the other way around.

"Why don't you tell me what you did see, then?" I suggested sharply. I probably made it clear that I was a bit offended by her seeming indifference to hearing from me at last and by her strange mood that was affecting how we usually interacted. There was nothing playful between us as was typical. Nothing warm or endearing, or even half-heartedly welcoming.

"I don't know what you're planning on doing," she said. "I don't know what you're going to see or hear or whatever. I just think that maybe you should come up to Alaska for awhile. Esme has decided to renovate a mansion in Paris and we'll be moving out there in about a week. A week would give you plenty of time to get here, right? You liked Paris once, remember? Maybe you could join us there and we could all…"

"Actually, I have a different idea. Brace yourself for this one, Alice, because you probably haven't seen it coming: Let's all move back to Forks."

I don't know why it just slipped out that way. I honestly hadn't planned on actually moving back. I was just going to slip in and see how things were going since I'd left. I wasn't even sure if I was going to let Bella actually see me again, but now that the idea was out there, hell, why not just move back? It's what we all really want anyway.

"I knew you'd say that," she said.

"Don't sound like such a kicked puppy, Alice." Why was she not elated over the idea? "And what do you mean you knew I'd say that? I didn't even know I was going to say…"

"I don't think it's such a great idea," she said, cutting me off.

Hell, what was up with her? She knows I'm depressed, and I'd be willing to wager that they were all depressed at being torn away from the one human who could bring us home and make us feel alive again, so how could it not be 'such a good idea?'

"What are you talking about?" I nearly laughed the words out, but only because I was becoming frustrated with how she was acting. "It's the best idea I've ever had. Moving away was the worst idea I've ever had, and this would fix it."

"No one is disputing the fact that us moving away from Forks was the worst idea any of us have ever gone along with, but I don't think moving back would fix anything." She sounded angry this time. Well, at least it was something instead of the complete nothing she had been putting out until now.

"What are you talking about?" I asked. Then, it hit me. She must know something that I didn't. She must be in the know regarding Bella and any new relationship she might be in. Only a very few seconds of silence had gone by in total this time, but I couldn't wait any longer to ask once the idea struck me, for it pained me so deeply to think on it. "So, is she with someone else now, then?" God, that sounded so desperate. I should have waited longer to actually ask.

"What?" she snapped.

"Is Bella in love with someone else now?" I asked like a half-scared, half-angry, but one hundred percent stupid little boy. "Alice? Is she?" Hell, did I have to beg her to tell me the worst news I'd ever hear in my life? Come on, Alice. Get with it. What the hell do you want from me?

"No," she said after yet again, another awkward silence. "It's not like that."

"Not that you've seen, anyway," I said, referring of course to her visions. I felt pathetic at letting my sister hear me mope this way – over the mere possibility that what I had once said I wanted for Bella (to move on and be happy) had finally happened.

"I have seen, Edward. I went back. No one knows. I haven't said a word to the family and I don't want to have to say a word to you. All I have to say about the matter is stay away from there. It's not like it used to be and it won't ever be again. I've given you fair warning. That's all I can say about it. I have to go Edward. Just… just promise me you'll at least think about Paris, okay? You've made your clean break out of that town. It would do no good going back. I can tell you one thing I've seen in my visions and it's that no good will ever come from your returning there. Paris is a fresh start for all of us and we all need a fresh start at this point. Okay?"

I didn't know what to say. She waited for about twenty seconds and must have seen that I wouldn't come up with any kind of answer soon, so she hung up. The clicking sound that signaled the end of the call wrenched at my core initially, but I was glad to be rid of the awkward silences and the strange, unreadable tones of my sister's usually-happy – but not so much now – voice.

I looked around my empty room. The lights of the enormous statue were fading as the sun dragged its way over the horizon once again. I couldn't live like this anymore. I couldn't be without her anymore. Empty room… empty heart… empty mind… God! Everything was just so damn empty without her.

I didn't know what Alice saw in Forks, but I didn't much care at that point. I figured that nothing could have ached more than the dull, ongoing emptiness that was eating away at my mind every day and every night. Our being away from one another had nothing to do with the choices she has made, I reasoned. It's all on me. I'm the only one drawing a line in the sand – making boundaries where there doesn't have to be any. I didn't want to draw that line every single day anymore. I couldn't draw that line anymore. I had to be with her again. Pure and simple.

I'll move home alone then. You can all go to Paris if you want to, but count me the hell out. Forks is the only place I am meant to be. With Bella is the only place I am meant to be.

I didn't bother packing clothes or any of the crap I accumulated, except for a necklace I bought her a month or so earlier thinking I would never actually give it to her. I bought it from some old gypsy-hag in some alley market. She seemed more than interested in reading my fortune, but I think we all know why I can't let mortals touch my cold hands.

I grabbed my phone and wallet, slid on my jacket to cover my skin and ordered the plane ticket over the phone on my way to the airport. I was out of that hovel and in the air within the hour.