Please enjoy!


Chapter Eight:

A shrill screech of an alarm clock fills Bella's room as she sits up in bed with a start, head pounding and eyes straining from the sunlight seeping through her curtains. She hastily rubs the sleep out of her eyes and investigates her surroundings, noting the blanket covering her was one she usually kept at the end of her bed to warm her feet at night. She shrugs it off her body and places her feet on the ground, frowning down at the her wrinkled jean clad legs she wore the following day… and apparently through the night.

Frowning, Bella looks around the room again and thinks back to the night before, head still throbbing like a mother. She has no memory of going to bed, at least not in her own room. She swears she fell asleep on the kitchen floor with Red.

As she checks the room out, she notices her door shut.

Bella never shuts her bedroom door.

Her heart pounds at the thought of another visit from Yellow. Swallowing back the bile creeping up the bottom of her throat, she grabs a knife from inside her dresser, walks over to her door and whips it wide open. She sees nothing suspicious however, and continues slowly down the hall to the rest of the house.

The living room is clear of any unusual activity, the book she threw laying closed on the couch cushion, exactly where she left it. The front door deadbolt is locked tight, like it always is when she's home alone and it's when she steps into the kitchen and finds Red curled up next to the fridge that she truly remembers being dead to the world right next to him.

Were her dreams causing her to sleepwalk? What the fuck?

Looking over towards the island opposite the fridge, she sees a nearly empty wine bottle sitting safely upon the counter. Too safely, she thinks, wouldn't sleepwalking Bella just put the bottle on the floor?

"Red?" She voices, her voice breaking the silence in the quiet house. Her giant dog yawns before lifting his large head towards her and greeting her with a thump on the pantry door, courtesy of his massive tail. "Red," Bella repeats, disbelief coloring her face, "what in the fuck sake happened last night, pal?"

He answers with another tail thwack.


One hour later, Bella is showered, dressed and brushing her damp hair. Throughout her routine, her mind replays every single suspicious thing that has gone down in the last couple weeks. The hole, Yellow's appearance, Edward, the book, last night and her supposed sleepwalking... What was the connection she was missing?

Her phone beeps with a message notification and she opens it with her free hand.

It's from Rose. how was your second night back home?

Bella gnaws on her bottom lip, wanting to tell Rose what she experienced but for some reason feeling the need to withhold information. She hadn't told her best friend about Edward yet, and though she wanted to, how was she going to explain feeling the strangest pain whenever the two were in the same room?

Fine, she finally writes back, I actually slept the whole night.

Might as well incorporate as much truth as possible.

Her phone beeps again as she's brushing her teeth; 'Rosie' brightly popping up on the screen. She spits into the sink and opens the message, walking out of the bathroom and towards the kitchen for her backpack and keys.

nice! meet up at Ollie's before english? The text reads.

Bella looks at the time on her phone, just now realizing she still has thirty minutes to kill until class starts.

For sure, be there in ten


Exactly eight minutes and fifty seconds later, Bella pulls into Ollie's gravel lot with her rusty blue truck, smiling as she parks besides Rose's green hatchback. Some things never change.

She locates her friend immediately once she's inside the restaurant. Rose's long, platinum hair is a beacon, reflecting whatever light may fall upon it. She waves when Rose spots her and makes her way to the counter, pouring herself coffee with two creams and a sugar, before joining the golden goddess in their favorite booth.

"To what do I owe this pleasure, Miss Hale?" Bella says with an exaggerated drawl to her words, sipping from her mug with one pinky up.

Bella was expecting a smile from Rose, maybe even a laugh. She was definitely not expecting the large grin that nearly splits her friend's face in half. Nor when she sighs dreamily and exclaims with enthusiasm, "Bella, I met someone!"

Taken aback by her outburst, Bella cocks her head at Rose. "What?"

"I met someone. Last week. We've been so busy lately that it skipped my mind to tell you, my bad," Rose says, shrugging her shoulders before moving on with, "His name is Riley and we've been texting each other constantly since we met. I was thinking if the first date goes well, I'd like for you to meet him. Girl code and all that."

Bella laughs and nods, internally feeling guilty with her reluctance to share her own experience with a guy she found sorta kinda interesting. None of the college boys around here captivated Rose enough to get such a reaction, so while Bella was worried about her own problems, she was delighted to see genuine happiness radiating from her friend.

"When are you guys going out?" Bella asks

Rosalie grins and answers, "Tonight. We're going to the drive-ins."

"How romantic," Bella answers, "Are you gonna let him drive it in?"

A howl of laughter erupts from Rose's mouth as she slaps the table. "God, I hate you. No, bitch!"


English class flies by quickly as Bella and her classmates furiously work on their final draft essays. She finishes with minutes to spare, surprised she was even able to complete it considering the mindset she was in today.

She constantly zoned out thinking about the book and the paragraph she read last night. Was it real? Is this all a joke? Edward said he wanted to explain further but couldn't, what did that even mean?

She is the last one to leave the classroom, Rose rushing out first to prepare for her shift in the coming hour. Bella trails behind eager to-get-home students, lost in her head and watching her feet shuffle along the pavement.

In a moment of pure coincidence, she glances towards the trees across the parking lot… and freezes.

For once, she sees Edward before she feels him.

He's casually leaning with his arm crossed against the thick trunk of a spruce, roughly a football field away. Even from where she stands, she can clearly compare the deep green of his eyes to the leaves surrounding him - his bronze hair a lovely contrast to the tones of the forest behind him.

She walks closer, entranced with curiosity like a moth to flame. Once she feels the sharp sting of their strange connection, she stops.

Bella watches the tilt of Edward's lips as they curve into a slight smile, and continues to stare as he turns and treks into the dark shadows of tree cover.

She doesn't hesitate to follow.


A/N: rude cliffhanger I know. thanks for reading! -sondor