Disclaimer: The plotline belongs to Charles Dickens and the rest is Steph Meyer's. I'm just playing in their awesome world.

Chapter 4 Christmas Yet to Come

I set the phone back down for the tenth time and stared morosely out the frosted window watching the snow fall hypnotically. I'd sworn that I would never bother Bella again, vowed to let her live her life without my interference, and now, because of one uncouth ghost, I was inches from breaking that vow.

Was it wrong that I was both pleased and torn up that Bella still thought about me to such a degree, that she hadn't moved on any more than I had? Instead of a bevy of nameless lovers she had one, but she felt no more for him than I did for the women I bedded.

No, I had to push all thoughts of her out of my mind. It never led to anything good. The last time I'd had a sliver of hope for us, I'd had it whisked away by Alice agreeing to turn Bella. That had been the darkest moment of my existence.

I pushed the phone away certain in my decision to refrain from contacting my family.

The power flicked off leaving the darkened room aglow by my computer screen and then even it blanked out which shouldn't have happened since it did have a battery.

I could hear the crackling sound of ice forming a thick coating across the window keeping even the dark night sky from filtering through.

I sat back down on the couch and crossed one ankle across my knee and waited for the last of my otherworldly visitors to reveal herself. "You guys really do have a flair for dramatics," I said to my hidden visitor.

The fire in the fireplace roared to life and just as quickly snuffed itself out. From the smoke a woman clad in a long, leather coat formed, her ghostly pale skin the only thing shining in a sea of darkness. Her mane of hair was barely perceptible even to my vampire eyes as it seemed made of the very darkness itself.

She looked down her straight nose, arrogance a cloak around her, and motioned me forward.

"What, no introductions?"

"To what point, Vampire? For the next few hours you are under my dominion. Do captors often make introductions? I see no point in such trivial niceties."

She drew one hand from her pocket holding a black cigarette with a gold band and raised it to her dark lips. When she exhaled, everything vanished. Time lost all meaning as I plummeted through space. There was nothing to see or hear and it felt like days had passed when I finally crashed into frozen earth outside of a decrepit house. I managed to get to my feet and immediately recognized the house of an elderly couple. I was back in Forks.

Amongst the holiday decorations, hung… "No," I whispered mortified and stumbled closer. But wishing didn't make it any less vile. Intestines were strung up from one end of the porch to the other right along side of the multicolored Christmas lights.

Several squad cars pulled up and Charlie was the first one to the porch.

He took some calming breaths, but no amount of deep breathing was going to make that scene any more bearable. I had to hand it to them, they pulled themselves together and began processing the crime scene.

My chaperone, or captor as she called it, seemed to have disappeared, so I used the time to search for clues, but I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt what had done this. I hadn't realized what the vampire in my last vision had been doing while whistling so happily, but he'd been decorating another house with his victim's entrails.

Seemed likely that one who'd go to such lengths would stay to watch the show. I searched the nearby woods, but there wasn't even a hint of him.

Charlie was getting back in his cruiser when I saw the vampire standing but feet from where he was parked inhaling his scent the same way I'd done with Bella. But I'd been trying to get used to her. This thing was memorizing Charlie's smell and the only reason he'd bother was if he planned on hunting him.

I started to chase after them, but the ghost's blackened fingernails were suddenly embedded all the way to my bone as she yanked me from that place only to drop me off at the local cemetery.

"Please," I scoffed as I glanced at my surroundings. I was not Scrooge. I did not fear death any longer, in fact, I almost wished for it. "Death would be a sweet respite for me," I sneered thinking she meant to show me my grave to threaten me into submission the way Ebenezer had been, but I couldn't have been more wrong.

She smiled, and it was a smile that left you with the feeling of worms and other creatures crawling over you. "You are quite right, Vampire. You do not fear your own death, but there are others that you care for…humans that you would mourn." She pointed and the headstone lit up showing Charlie Swan's name etched into the cold granite with a date of death of Christmas 2009.

Her decaying hands grabbed my hair and forced me to look into her opaque eyes, eyes that resembled dead fish more than anything human, and she said, "You could stop this, but it would mean crossing paths with your family. Would you allow an innocent woman to be hacked to pieces and wrapped up in a pretty box? The old couple that you passed by on your way to school each day…does their death mean nothing to you? Could you truly stand by and let Isabella's father be hunted down by the same loathsome creature that has murdered hundreds of nameless humans?"

I'd have answered her, but darkness swallowed me and when the light chased it away, my Bella was in a crumpled heap on the floor, Jacob and Alice by her side. The only tears flowed from Jacob, but the others were crying inside, their shoulders shaking with the weight of their emotions.

"There is still time to avert this tragedy. Unless…" she trailed off walking closer and closer to Bella studying her pained expression. "You do nothing and you will get your wish. This woman will grow to hate you more each day. She will learn that a vampire was to blame and rationally or not, she will link that to you." She gave me a hard look, a cruel smile on her lips as she spoke her next words in a voice that sounded very much like Bella's, "If not for you, her father would be alive because the Cullens would have been there to protect him. No one would have had to leave Forks. It was, after all, on your order that they all packed up and left the town defenseless," she spoke, her voice full of satisfaction, but at least it was her voice and not Bella's any longer.

Her words hit me like Emmett running at full speed. Was I truly to blame for all of this? Could it have all been averted if I'd just stayed in Forks and agreed to change Bella? I was lost in thought, my head shaking back and forth slowly as I examined different scenarios. "No. Carlisle was already supposed to be much older than he appeared. We would have had to move on eventually."

"I'm not saying it is truth, just that this is what she will tell herself each night before she lies down with that boy, lets him wrap her in his warmth chasing away all thoughts of you." She grasped my chin, her nails digging in. "You'd be free of her. She will finally be able to do what you wanted her to do – move on. Do nothing and this will happen, intervene and it could be your arms enveloping her each night."

Whatever she saw in my eyes irritated her, fore she flung me aside. "I watched you," she whispered, her back to me, "as you picked up the phone to call her. I waited in the shadows hoping that my sisters had made you see the error of your ways, hoping I wouldn't need to get involved, but in the end you hung up the phone, coward that you are."

"Your words are nothing but lies," I spoke softly, tearing my eyes from Bella and facing my ghostly companion. "The Volturi are here, they will dole out justice."

"Not before he kills that couple…before he feeds on your love's father, guts him like a pig, and delivers his head to Renee," she countered.

"How am I expected to get all the way across the country in time to save Charlie? And besides, last I saw, the Volturi were closing in on him. You think they will fail to bring him to justice? And if they do, how will I manage what they cannot? You're insane."

When she turned back her skin was rotting away leaving part of her high cheek bone peeking through, which glinted in the moonlight.

I recoiled at the sight of her. "What is happening to you?"

"My time is ending. I am being unmade," she replied simply. The wind blew and clumps of her hair floated on it before landing at my feet.

Her voice was distorted as the decaying process hastened. "You can do what the Volturi cannot because you know where he will strike. They have lost track of him. Their powers do not work on him, as you already witnessed. He possesses something very much like your Isabella. He is a shield of great magnitude."

"Shit!"

"Indeed," she mumbled as part of her mouth began to droop away. "You will not be able to read his mind, but we have aided you enough that you could destroy him and save a few lives in the process."

She placed the rotting flesh of her hand against my cheek. "These murders…they give you the perfect excuse to find your way back to your family. I do hope you make some good come of this creature's mess."

Bella whispered my name against Alice's shoulder. "Where is he, Alice? I need him."

"I'm coming, Bella." The words were barely spoken and I was thrust back into my living room. Racing through the room at full vampire speed, I gathered up everything I'd need to travel across the country and face down an adversary that even the might of the Volturi seemed unable to destroy.