Chapter 3

APOV

Our old house in Forks looked exactly the same as before. Nothing had changed, it was still beautiful as the way Esme intended it to be over seventy years prior. We left all our possessions here; couches, beds, tables, chairs; you name, it was left here.

I walked slowly through the living room, remembering the events of that fateful day that eventually led to Edward leaving Bella despite my severe protests.

It was Bella's eighteenth birthday party and she was opening the presents we all got her. She was embarrassed, of course, by all the attention we gave her, but she was happy that day. While opening one wrapped box, she got a paper cut. Jasper couldn't help himself, he was still new at our way of life. Besides that, he was very thirsty and Bella's blood smelt good to all of us.

Jasper jumped and, to save her, Edward pushed her out of the way and straight into a table. She walked away with only a few stitches and told everyone she was perfectly fine, but Edward couldn't shake off what he'd done or what Jasper tried to do.

Not long after, Edward left Bella in those woods to be found by the Werewolves from La Push. Bella became a shadow of the girl she used to be until she fought back, became a hunter. I saw all of this in numerous visions and she stayed human in them, for a while. But the one I had yesterday, it was too clear, too premeditated. I knew she would become one of us, there was no stopping it. There was only stopping the information from reaching Edward before she was ready to be presented to the Vampire community.

Not a debutant ball or anything, but I had to at least get her able to hunt safely on her own, and hopefully for animals.

I was sitting on the white couch in the living room when I heard the wheels coming down the drive way. I got up and slowly made my way to the window to watch even though I knew who it would be.

Bella drove up in an Impala, at least it wasn't her beat-up old truck. She looked stable enough, but I smelled human all over her. I prayed that she hadn't stopped on the side of the road for a 'snack' if you catch my drift.

I opened the front door and stood in the threshold, staring at her as she stared at me. My mouth dropped wide open when I saw what she looked like. Jasper, with his southern ways, would have called it catching flies because my mouth made a perfect O.

Bella looked almost exactly the same as she did three years ago. At first glance, I couldn't even tell that she was a Vampire, I could have sworn I had vastly misinterpreted my vision. But at a closer look, her skin had paled considerably, even in the bad lighting of the storm I could see that. Her eyes though, they were the same brown as mine when I'm not fed. They were supposed to be bright red or crimson. This was weird.

"Hello, Alice." she said meekly, taking slow steps toward me. Her voice sounded like her name now. Bells. Thousands of then all chiming to make a beautiful chorus of words.

"Oh, Bella! I missed you so much!" I said, forgetting everything I'd learned about newborns and them being hungry. I ran to her and put my arms around her in a tight hug that even Emmett would have trouble breathing in. At first she just stood there, awkwardly, but then she hugged me back like we'd never been apart.

"I missed you too, Ali!" I pulled away and put my hands on her shoulders so I could get a better look at her. I was no longer stunned by her facial looks, but now by her clothes. She looked chic! My Bella had grown up, fashion wise, and I had missed it all.

"Is that a cashmere poncho you're wearing?" I asked, bewildered. I could have sworn I saw one a few days ago on the runway.

"Yes, it's Ralph Lauren." she said with a smile.

"And are those Jimmy Choo's?" I gasped as I looked down at her stunning boots.

"Yep."

"But together, that's like what? $1,500?" I asked.

"I may not have been Van Helsing, but I did pretty well for myself." She told me, bringing up the infamous Vampire novel Dracula, Van Helsing was the protagonist and Vampire Hunter.

"Right, well I bet you're hungry, huh?" I looked at her hopefully. Please, please, please want to eat animals!

BPOV

"Right, well I bet you're hungry, huh?" Alice said. As if on cue, the back of my throat started to burn as the venom started pooling in my mouth, I felt my fangs pull forward and I knew I wouldn't be able to retract them till I was fed.

"Mhm." I said and nodded fervently.

"Have you given any thought to what you'll…" she trailed off and began again. "To what you're, um…"

"My dietary habits will be?" I offered, she looked really uncomfortable and that wasn't an Alice trait.

"Yes, exactly. Have you given any thought to what your dietary habits will be?"

"Hmm… let me think." I said sarcastically. "Of course, I'm going to be like you, Alice. I wouldn't have it any other way."

"Good, okay, let's go!" she said with a bright smile as she took off running into the woods. "Follow me!"

I ran after her and it was less than a few seconds before I caught up to her. Wow, I was fast.

"You might even be faster than Edward." she said to me. I'm sure the hurt registered on my face after she said his name because she immediately took it back and said she was sorry she brought it up.

"No, it's fine." I told her over and over. "It's not your fault, I'm being a baby." She finally let it go and we kept running. We were coming upon a large creek that a human definitely couldn't jump over. Alice somersaulted over it and came to a halt on the other side, laughing like a hyena.

"Come on, Bells!" she called to me.

"Alright, you asked for it!" I yelled back, she didn't know what to expect. I took a running leap and flew right into her, knocking her down. We both got up laughing like we should be in insane asylums.

"Okay, now for the food." I nodded. "Close your eyes and listen, what do hear?"

"Water, and uh, leaves, and a uh, A HEARTBEAT!"

"Yes, now what do you smell?"

I took a good whiff of the air as I blew around my face. "Blood, animal blood. It's a deer?"

"Don't question yourself. Your first instinct is usually right."

"Okay."

"Now, back to the deer. Where is it?"

I closed my eyes and used the two senses Alice had taught me to use to find where in the hell the little thing had gone. The wind blew from the Northeast with the scent of the animal so I listened that way and heard hooves. "Northeast, that way." I said pointing to where I thought I had heard the hooves.

"Do you know how many there are?"

"More than one."

"Specifics." I listened more intently with my ears and my nose.

"Three, a doe and two fawns."

"Good. Now when you get close to them, be quiet and stealthy, deer have good hearing. When you come upon her, go for the neck and snap it quickly."

"Less pain?" I asked, hoping that was the real reason.

"That's part of it." she said simply. "Alright, now it's time." She motioned for me to run, so I did.

I listened for the heartbeats of the animals and followed their scents. I found them in the middle of many trees; the fawns were playing and the mother was munching on grass. It was a beautiful picture. I felt oddly like the hunter in Bambi, but I knew it was this or humans. One or the other, not neither.

I jumped lithely and quickly down from where I was perched high above the deer on a tree branch. I landed right next her and bit down fiercely on her neck. She died instantly and the hot, sticky, delicious blood filled my mouth. It tasted wonderful, not metallic like blood tastes when you're human. I was unable to describe what it was like.

As I finished and was wiping the blood from my lips, Alice walked into view. She looked at me and smiled.

"Not even a drop on that beautiful outfit." Of course she was only worried about my clothes. I rolled my eyes at her.

"How did I do?"

"You're a natural." she said as she linked arms with me and we strode out of the woods. When we got back to the house I remembered something I needed to talk to her about.

"Is no one else coming?" I asked her. I guessed no one wanted to see me, not even Edward. Though, I wasn't too surprised about his not being here, but not even Jasper came with her.

"I didn't tell them, Bella."

"What? Why? I need help here!" My voice was rising.

Of course she didn't tell them, dumby. One of the voices in my head began. She's ashamed of you, she probably just didn't want you to go on a killing rampage. Don't you remember? The whole Cullen family left you, not just Edward. His leaving might have hurt worse, but they don't love you either.

"I had to get you ready first, Bella." she pleaded with me. "It would have killed Edward to see you as a newborn is supposed to look, though you look nothing like that. Actually, I'm baffled that you look as you do. But you need to understand that Edward is hurting still and he left so you wouldn't be like this."

"No, he left because he didn't love me." I was hurt, had he been lying this whole time to his family about why he left me? Had he not told them that tragic story where left me in the woods after he, unemotionally, told me he no longer had a care in the world for me?

"That's what he told you, Bella. But I had been having visions of you becoming a Vampire from the day he met you. He didn't want this life for you, no matter what you said. He still loves you."

"Well, then, he's just going to have to keep suffering because I'll never make that mistake again." I told her with venom and stalked into the house.

I sat down on the couch in their living room. For a second, I just sat there, not knowing what to do, but I put my hand out and the remote glided right into it, just as my keys and cell phone had done.

"Tell me I did not just see that." Alice said with wide eyes.

"Is this not normal?" I asked, holding up the remote.

"No." She came to sit down next to me. "Do it again."

"Okay." I put the remote on the coffee table and held my hand out in front of me, maybe a foot away from the object. The remote floated straight into it, Alice's mouth dropped open.

Always knew you were weird. One voice spat.

She is not, just different. The other said weakly.

Alice didn't move, she just sat there, open mouthed. I waved my hand in front of her face a few times and she still didn't move.

"Alice!" I called. "ALICE!"

She finally looked at me with a stunned expression. "How long have you known you could do this?" she asked after a little while of silence.

"I found out yesterday when I went back to my hotel before coming here."

"And you just hold out your hand and it comes to you?"

"Well, I haven't tried it on many things, but I suppose that's the gist of it."

"Why didn't you tell me?"

"I thought all Vamps could do it!"

"Did you ever once witness one of us move something with our minds?"

"Well, no, but… I don't know! I'm new at this!"

She laughed at me. "I understand, but it's so cool that you have a power! And this one is one that I've never seen before."

We played with my power for the rest of the week. As it turns out, I could pick up any object, and move it anywhere I wanted. I could even keep it suspended in the air. It was phenomenal and we were even getting to the point that I could pick Alice herself up off the ground.

"Ohmigosh! This is amazing!" she called down to me, laughing. She was now floating high above the house, and it was all my doing.

Then, all of a sudden, she went limp and her eyes rolled back. I was so scared that I had killed her or something, but then I remembered what she looked like when she had visions. I set her down on the ground and waited a few minutes. When she finally came around she was fine, but a little startled.

"Bella, go."

"What?" I was shocked.

"Bella, go inside and sit on the far side of the living room where you can't be seen from the front door." she ordered.

"Why, Alice? What did you see?"

"Edward is coming, Bella. He'll be here any minute. Now go and try to make yourself seem unnoticeable."

I couldn't believe it, Edward was coming!

No, you don't have feelings for him anymore, right?

Yea, that would be bad. He may tell his family that he still loves you, but you can't deny the facts. You saw him that day, it wasn't a cruel joke or a really good ruse, he was telling the truth. So, there are no feeling for him?

Of course not, I told them both. Or do I?

EPOV

I was sitting on the couch in my room when Esme came in, looking lovingly down upon me. I didn't deserve the motherly look, I didn't deserve anything but pain and suffering.

"Hey, hun." she said softly, taking a seat next to me. "Alice still isn't back and she hasn't called much."

"Mmhm." I mumble glumly. I knew where this was headed.

"I was wondering if you would go to Forks and check up on her. You don't have to stay for long, but your father and I would feel better if you at least talked to her and made sure she has everything under control."

"She's a big girl, Esme. The worst thing that could have happened to her would be getting lost in one of her mammoth closets."

"Edward, please. I'm worried about her." She played the guilt card on me, damn.

"Sure, Esme." I said, kissing her on the cheek and walking out the door.

I walked straight out to my Volvo, not saying a word to anyone. I felt bad about the way I was treating them, but I couldn't help it. I just couldn't be happy anymore.

I drove the long drive to Forks in silence, even music reminded me of her. I couldn't take it; how was I going to be in that house when I know that I almost killed her there?

Pulling up to the old house, all the bad memories rushed back to me. Bella bleeding because of a paper cut. Jasper lounging toward her. Me pushing her into a table and cutting her. She was so brave when getting her stitches and she was so lovely all the time. I missed her so much and almost turned around to go look at her old house. I always wondered if it still smelled the same as it used to. If her voice still echoed in its halls.

But it wouldn't now. There is a new family living it, with two children in that little yellow room that used to be hers. They never wonder what went on in the forest right beside their house, never think of the tragedy that took place there.

After Bella ran away, Charlie didn't last long. A few months later, Victoria came and was looking for Bella. Charlie told her he didn't know where she had gone, that I had broken up with her and she ran away and never calls. Victoria didn't take this news lightly and killed him.

After the Charlie incident, Victoria turned to Renée and Phil for answers about Bella. They didn't know anything either and she killed them too.

When Bella got the news of her parents deaths, she became a hunter. Victoria was her first kill, from what I heard. I didn't hear much about her after that except that we soon had a dwindling population because Bella was picking them off one by one. She was now being hired out by other Vampires and Supes to do the job for them.

As I got out of my car, I heard Alice rustling around inside. I also smelt her everywhere. What the hell was this girl doing?

I walked stiffly up the steps to the house that I had hoped never to return to. Alice opened the front door before I even had a chance to knock. She stood in the door frame, blocking my entrance into the house. She acted like she was blocking me from something, or something from me?

I tried listening to her thoughts, but they were filled with clothes. Or was that a ploy to make me think there was nothing going on?

Edward, I told myself, you're being wildly paranoid.

"Hey, Alice. Esme sent me to check up on you. I told her you didn't need-" I stopped mid-sentence. Someone else was in the house, a vampire. But I wasn't getting any thoughts from them. Only one person was able to shield me from their thoughts, and they weren't a Vampire. I pushed past Alice before she saw it coming. "Alice, who else is here?"

And just then, as if in a dream, my angel walked out of the living room and into the foyer. I thought I would never see her again, and there she was, standing in front of me.

"Hello, Edward." she spoke shyly to me. And then it hit me, she was the other person in the house. My angel was now a monster like me. My Bella was a Vampire.