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Standard disclaimers apply all the way to the end.

Chapter 9: This Escape

BPOV

It was almost the beginning of the end.

Five more seconds and we would be gone.

Was this really going to work? We didn't have any physical proof lying around to tell us if it would.

This wasn't like a portkey. At least with those you knew (for the most part) where you were going. Carlisle was like a mysterious portkey. The kind that took you some place you've never been to, a place where you didn't know where you were.

In the midst of all my thoughts, I felt like I was being slightly compressed or squeezed. It wasn't entirely uncomfortable. Only marginally so.

Then, as quickly as it had started, it stopped. I didn't realize that I had closed my eyes. When I opened them I saw that I was still holding Edward and Alice's hands with some sort of death grip. I looked around to make sure all of my family was with me. Then I finally took in my surroundings.

It was probably about noon, but it was hard to tell with all of the cloud coverage. We definitely weren't at a bookstore anymore, either. In fact, it looked strangely like Forks.

I loosened my hold on Edward and Alice's hands so I could turn around.

There it was. The Cullen's large, white house, no different from the last time I'd seen it.

I turned back toward my family, wearing a slightly confused face. We couldn't possibly stay in Forks. Charlie was here and as far as he was concerned I had died in a car wreck in Europe during a summer excursion with my new family. Alice had a little too much fun fabricating the evidence, but it wouldn't do anyone any good to have tried to stop her. Let the little pixie vampire have her fun. What ever made my sister happy made me happy too.

"Bella," Edward said. I snapped out of my trance. I may not be able to sleep and have dreams, but I was very good at daydreaming and tuning people, or vampires, out.

"Yes?" I said somewhat dumbly.

"What are you thinking?" I was still the only person he needed to ask. At the moment he knew what everyone was thinking, except one, who was off in dreamland.

"We can't stay here. Charlie's here. Don't you think it'd be a little weird to see your supposedly dead daughter walking around?"

"Uh, Bella…Charlie's not here." I looked at Alice, not believing her.

"Then where is he?" Why would Charlie ever leave Forks? None of this was making any sense.

"In this would Charlie never existed."

I let that sink in for a moment. I felt a little stupid, to be quite frank. I should've remembered the whole "we're in a different reality now" thing. Then I started to wonder…

"What about Renee?"

"Also a no."

"Is there anyone here we do know?" It wouldn't entirely matter, but I knew it was always good to know people. We could meet new people. Maybe we would simply start again.

"The only 'people' we know are the vampires. They should all be here at any rate, even the ones we've never met." Carlisle's explanation would need a little elaboration, but I knew what he meant. Any humans we'd ever known or heard of had never existed, at least not here. Even George Washington would be absent from the history books. But as long as there weren't any books chronicling my life, I would be happy with where we were.

"I understand, but how is it that all the vampires are here?"

"Vampires are immortal, for the most part, so they'll be in just about any reality. On top of that they're mythical beings, which easily constitutes that they can be anywhere they want. Of course, that means that the werewolves are still around as well. At least that's the theory I have." I'd take that explanation. It was the best I was going to get anyway.

"Are we going to stay here then?"

"Probably not at this time. Unless you really want to. But I thought that you would like it if you got to finish your college education first before we make any other plans." I was pretty sure I could live with that too. I looked to Edward before nodding my head. Then a new onslaught of questions started forming in my head.

"If no one ever existed in this place from the place we were at, does that mean everything has different names?" It seemed like a legitimate, yet somewhat confusing question to me.

"That's right, Bella! Forks isn't Forks. It's actually Pendaser. And this isn't Washington. It's Bemflik. But all the state lines are the same and the cities and populations are the same. And, before you ask, everyone speaks English, but it's called Majfties. In time we're learn the names of everything."

"How do you know what everything's called?" How could Alice know if I didn't know? She'd never been here before.

"Edward and I talked about it while your eyes were squeezed shut and were in a state of dreamland," Alice proudly told me. If course Alice would know.

"Well, let's start life then!" Emmett boomed.

Epilogue: This Love
Life did start. Not the kind of life with beating hearts and babies. The kind of life that meant happiness and rising to your potential. The kind of life where you love as much as you can. The life that goes on for all eternity. Never stopping. Not ever.
I'm all done. Woohoo! Anyway, I was wondering if anyone noticed my rather blatant reference to Harry Potter every chapter, excluding the Preface? I wasn't trying to hide it. I put it out there. But if you got this far and didn't notice then…DONDAKE!! (Japanese for Surprise). Gotcha!

And if you've read this far and haven't left a review, now's the time. Just hit that little button there on the left. I promise it won't hit back :)

I hope this all makes more sense now. I promise I did my best!