**Sorry everyone for the delay… I've been extremely busy!

Thanks for reading :)**

Pick Up

~Bella~

I stepped out of my rusty truck and welcomed the warm breeze that touched my face. I felt goose bumps rise up on my arms when I smelt the dense forest around me, I was still smiling. I reached for the black gym bag that was in the back of my truck and searched inside for my flashlight. Once I found it I pressed the ON button and swung the bag over my shoulder.

I closed my truck door and turned to walk quickly toward the place that I ached for when I wasn't there. I bypassed the front door and went around back until I reached the sliding doors –or what was left of them. When I first came back to the Cullen house after he left I wanted desperately to go inside. To see what –if anything– was left of the place that I once thought of as my second home.

***

November 18, 6:05 p.m.

What the hell am I doing here? I thought to myself as I was walking around the big white Cullen house. I shouldn't be here. It looked the same as the last time I was there weeks ago, except the grass was longer. I had circled the empty house at least a dozen times when I finally took a break and sat on the front step.

I tried to forget about him before, but as if I could. As if I was that strong. It seemed like the harder I tried to forget about him the more it hurt. It was like my brain was begging me to remember. Like it was screaming to me Why would you want to forget him?? I guess the truth was I didn't want to forget him, even though I should –it just hurt too much. So I finally gave in, I realized I could never move on, and I really didn't want to. Even if I could only be around somewhere he once was, I thought that could keep me, not happy, but sane, stable. And I was right; the feeling that came over me when I pulled up to his old home for the first time since he left was incredible.

I was sitting on the step and decided to lay back and enjoy the sun that just started to shine through the clouds for the first time in weeks. I laid back and closed my eyes, feeling the setting sun on my face. I stretched my arms out over my head but quickly retracted them when I felt something rough touch my right hand. I sat up and looked at what I had felt; it was a piece of paper, stuck between two wooden floor boards. I picked the paper carefully out of the porch and examined it. I couldn't believe it; it was the goodbye letter he had left me, the one I had thrown to the ground a month ago. It was still there, and still legible. I took that as a sign I was doing the right thing by going to his old place. It was what I needed to convince myself that it was normal. I placed the letter on the deck and smoothed it out the best I could. I read it four times before I carefully folded it and put it in my back jeans pocket. Seeing his hand writing again had extracted a million memories of him from my brain. I stood up and thought to myself, I have to get inside.

I stared at the front door and decided that trying to break it open would not only be impossible, but if anyone came by, I didn't want it to look like the place had been robbed. I remembered the sliding glass doors around the back of the big house and decided in an instant that I was going to smash my way in.

I went back to my truck and searched for something that I thought could break the glass. I found an old tire iron that had been in the back of my truck since Charlie bought it for me. It must have been Billy's, I never got around to returning it to him, and I was now glad I hadn't. I picked the rusty piece of iron up and started running back to the glass doors. I hope this works.

I was standing in front of the two glass doors. I couldn't see what was on the other side of them, and I hoped there wasn't a pile of furniture there or something else in the way. I also hoped the Cullen's didn't believe in bullet proof glass. I gripped the tire iron with both hands and swung at the right door. The heavy thing bounced off the glass and flew out of my hands. "Ow!" I said out loud, sucking on my pinky finger. I looked at the door and noticed there was only a small scuff mark.

"I'm getting in whether you like it or not," I said out loud to the door. I picked up the tire iron and gripped it more securely this time. I bent my knees, with my left leg in front of the other, and swung as hard as I possibly could. This time the glass made a loud screeching sound and cracks spiraled out from where I had hit. "No use fighting," I said to the door and swung again. The tire iron slammed through the glass and hit the curtain that was on the other side. There was a baseball sized hole now in the door and I knew it wouldn't be long until I was inside. I started to laugh as I beat the rest of the glass out. I let the tire iron drop to the ground as I tried to catch my breath, "Told. You." I said in between gasps.

I pushed the curtain and was relieved that there was nothing behind it. I lifted it up and ducked in below it, entering the Cullen's kitchen. I gasped as a flood of new memories came over me. I looked at the oak table in the center of the room and remembered watching Alice and Edward play chess there. I looked at the fridge on the opposite side and remembered it being stocked full of all my favourite foods. I smiled and started walking forward. I can't believe all their stuff is still here. I thought to myself as I walked through the vacant house. They were in such a hurry –he was in such a hurry, to leave me. I frowned.

***

I smiled at the memory of me smashing the glass, it had been more fun than it should have. I stopped when I was outside what was once a glass sliding door. It was now a wooden sliding door. I had measured the door and ordered a piece of pine from the Fork's lumber yard. It took a while, three hours, but I finally figured out a way to mount it. I used a lot of nails, and glue. It looked like hell but it kept the rain out.

Since I didn't have a key for the door, and I did search the entire house for a spare key, I had to makeshift a door lock. I bought the strongest chain and lock I could find and when I left the house I wrapped the chain around the two door handles and put the lock on. It looked horrible, like something an eight year old boy would have on the door of his tree house. But it was the best I could come up with; I certainly couldn't ask anyone for help, or even for advice.

I stuck my key in the bulky lock and unwrapped the chain from the door handles. I slid the left, uninjured, door open and ran in quickly. I closed and locked the sliding door from inside and sighed in relief. I headed straight for the stair case at the front of the house. When I first started going to the house every night I explored every inch of the place, but now I usually just went straight to one specific room, his.

It was pitch black in the house because all the windows were covered with thick drapes, so my flash light was my only source of light until I reached Edward's room. I allowed myself to say and think his name only when I was in the house, not sure why, maybe it was another sign of me going insane.

I ran carefully up the stairs and down the hall to his room, once I entered his old space I shut the door behind me. I inhaled deeply as Edward's scent filled my nostrils. Even after all this time I could still smell him. It was pure ecstasy. I reached inside my gym bag and grabbed a hand full of candles. I set them up carefully around the room and lit them one by one. There were probably around 50 candles in all, enough for his entire room to glow. In case of emergency I had a mini fire extinguisher in my gym bag. When I first started coming here I did try the lights but not surprisingly they didn't turn on.

I had previously explored everything in Edward's old room, I had left nothing untouched. Everything was still there, his clothes, music, journals –everything. I thought long and hard before I read his journal the first time, I thought it might be rude, but I couldn't help it, I just had to read it, I wanted to know everything about him. I wanted to know every detail of his past, I wanted to know all his thoughts. I was currently on journal number six, dated one year after he had become a vampire. I found four large boxes of journals in his closet, totaling 229 journals in all. I guess when you can't sleep there isn't much to do with your time.

His early journals were full of anguish. He loved Carlisle but he wasn't sure about being a vampire. He wrote about all the criminals he killed, and he wrote about how he thought Carlisle was disappointed with him. I usually couldn't get through one page without a tear falling from my eye. I picked up journal number six and flipped to page 88 where I had left off last night.

December 12, 1919

I killed again today. His name was Emone Harshire, I heard him raping a young girl behind the popular pub downtown, where all the lonely men go to get lucky. I heard his disgusting thoughts; he intended to kill her after he made her suffer for a long while. He was a heartless killer, he deserved to die. But at the same time, what does killing him make me? I am the biggest hypocrite of all, I drank the blood of a killer, he and I are essentially one in the same.

I let the girl, Bridget, go. Her blood smelt magnificent though, it was a close call. I wanted so badly to kill and drink both of their blood. But I knew Carlisle would be disappointed, more so than he already is with me.

I am forever damned – I have no soul – I am nothing

I wiped a tear away from my left cheek and put the journal down. His entries were a lot of the time short, but they shook me to the core. I wiped my eyes and was about to continue reading when I heard a sound come from outside. I stood up and walked to his window, I pulled back the drape a bit and looked outside, there was nothing there. Hmm probably a deer or something I thought to myself. I had seen my fare share of wildlife since I started coming to the house in the forest at night.

I listened for another minute and after hearing nothing more I sat back on his couch and picked his journal back up.

~Alice~

"Jasper! Aw thank you!" I said as a vision of Jasper buying me a new Gucci bag came into my head. It was absolutely beautiful.

"You're welcome honey," Jasper said from the other room with a soft chuckle. He was shopping online in the living room. I was in the kitchen with Esme and Rosalie debating whether we should take a family trip to Paris, France.

"I think we should wait to go in January," Esme said, "Paris is stunning in the winter."

"Ew," Rosalie said, "It's winter here all the time, lets visit somewhere nice." Rosalie was painting her nails a dark red colour while sitting at the kitchen table.

"I like the Paris idea too," I proclaimed, "the shopping there is astounding!" The idea of shopping in Paris once again had me screeching with excitement. "I can get Jazz to order the plane tickets right now!" I said while dancing around the kitchen.

"Ok, whatever," Rosalie said shaking her head at us. "You're right though Alice, the shopping is amazing there!" she let a smile cross her flawless face.

"Alice, come here dear," Esme said as she gestured for me to come over, "come and smell this candle I bought. Usually scented candles smell awful, well to vampires, but I really think this one is great, Tanya recommended it."

"Be right there," I said and twirled over to Esme who was hovering over the purple candle that was glowing on top of the kitchen counter. I closed my eyes as I bent over the candle and breathed in deep. The smell was familiar, and in the next second a violent vision made my body freeze.

"Alice, what is it honey?" I heard Esme say in the background while she put her hand on my shoulder to try and comfort me. However, this image was so bloody, so vile, so gut wrenching, I could not pull away from watching it. I stayed frozen, watching.

It was Bella, in our old house, being brutally murdered. I couldn't see at first who was hurting her because they were moving too fast, but when they were done they stood still and laughed. Laurent. He had come back to the Cullen house looking for us and had found Bella there. What the hell was she doing there?

"Alice?" Emse said more urgently this time, she was now shaking my shoulders. "Please, what is it?"

"Bella," I whispered, but it was loud enough for him to hear.

"Alice!" I heard him holler from outside, and then again half a second later from right in front of my face. I replayed the vision for him and his knees gave out.

"What happened?" Rosalie said, now standing in front of me, with a worried expression.

"It's what's going to happen Rosalie," I said slowly. It was going to happen in exactly three minutes. Edward had ordered me not to watch for Bella's future so I didn't anymore. But smelling the lavender candle must have been enough.

Edward was on the floor, leaning against the wall. He was in shock. He knew there wasn't enough time to save her. I wasn't going to give up that easily though. I had three minutes to think of something dammit. Esme was sitting next to Edward still trying to figure out what was going on.

"I have to talk to Bella," I thought out loud, "right now she is in Edward's old room, about to be killed by Laurent. How do I reach her?" I asked everyone while I paced quickly back and forth in the kitchen. Carlisle appeared just then with the answer I was so desperately looking for.

"Call her," Carlisle said to me, handing me his cell phone that was already dialing our old home's number.

"I don't understand," I said when the phone started to ring in my ear.

"I never cut off the second phone line," Carlisle said simply.

I nodded and listened carefully into the receiver, Please pick up! Bella! Pick. Up! I thought frantically to myself.

~Bella~

As I opened the old leather journal and found my place I heard a faint ringing sound come from the opposite side of the room. I didn't remember finding a phone in Edward's room during my raid.

It rang again.

I stood up and walked quickly towards the sound, it was coming from inside his closet.

It rang again.

I pointed my flashlight in the direction of the ringing and noticed a small phone attached to the wall at the very back of the closet. It blended in perfectly and if I hadn't heard it ring I would have never of noticed it.

It rang again.

Now that I knew it was indeed a phone ringing, I started to wonder number one: why wasn't the phone cut off? And number two: who would be calling here? I stared at the black phone some more.

It rang again.

Whoever it was, they didn't seem to be getting the hint that no one was here. It also seemed like the Cullen's old voice mail was not on. Maybe it's a telemarketer. I thought to myself. Who else would it be?

It rang again.

I gasped out loud, Charlie. He must have found out where I had really been going. I started biting my lip. I extended my hand out to pick the phone up, but then decided not to.

It rang again.

In case of emergency. I remembered Charlie saying before. What if something was wrong? I could always pick the phone up but not say anything. I told myself while reaching out for the phone. I picked it up right as it began to ring again. I put the receiver to my ear and said nothing. I just listened for whoever was on the other end to talk first.

"Don't speak. It's Alice. Be quiet. You are in danger. Do everything I tell you, and you will be okay. Quickly blow out all the candles. Then collect your stuff and go back into the closet, shut the door and lay under Edward's old clothes. Hang up the phone now, I will call back when it is safe to leave. Until then do not move or speak. Go now Bella!"