Hey everyone! I'm back sooner than I expected!

I want to say thank you to my reviewers, old and new! Really guys, reviews put a smile on my face! :D

Also, I might not be updating for about a week, maybe, I'm not sure yet, I have my finals and well..I have my finals :)

Well, nothing more to say but enjoy the chapter people!

Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does.


The cloaked, redheaded, vampire stood motionless, as Lizzie gasped at the sight in front of her.

She knows her? I thought, puzzled.

"Lizzie?" I called her, uncertainly.

The girl frowned a little at the mention of Lizzie's name.

Lizzie, however, didn't seem to have heard me, and Jasper and Emmett were suddenly positioned between us, and the newcomer.

"Who are you? What do you want?" they both asked respectively. A threatening snarl escaping Jasper's throat.

The girl stayed silent, paying no attention to them whatsoever, and staring intently at Lizzie instead, her crimson eyes appeared confused before shining with recognition and disbelief.

Lizzie stepped around Emmett to stand face to face with the redhead.

"Liz–" Emmett started reaching out for her, but stopped after she shook her head.

"Hello, Lizzie," the girl greeted her awkwardly; as if it was the first time she'd called her that.

"I…" Lizzie stuttered, "I thought you were dead," she managed to whisper, an astonished look still etched on her face.

"And I thought, I'd never see you again," she replied, taking a hesitating step forwards, eyeing my husband and sibling.

Lizzie surprised us all then, by running forwards and embracing the girl, who grinned and returned the hug fiercely.

I exchanged a quick glance with Rose and let out a sigh in relief, at least they seemed to be friends.

"What's going on out here?"

I turned around at the sound of Edward's worried voice. He was hurrying towards us, his eyes scanning the scene that lay before him, assessing the situation.

"That's what I'd like to know," Jasper muttered, looking pointedly at Lizzie.

"Oh! I'm sorry," she said sheepishly, "Guys, this is Anna," she said, "Anna," she addressed her, "These are the Cullens, that's Alice, Rosalie, Jasper, Emmett, and Edward," she pointed at each one of us.

I noticed how Anna's eyes flashed when Lizzie pointed Edward, but I didn't make anything out of it.

"Why can't I read your mind either?" Edward bluntly asked Anna.

The question caught her off guard but she recovered and answered easily, "Because I'm a shield too," casting a glance at Lizzie, who was watching her out of the corner of her eye.

Jasper opened his mouth to say something but I beat him to it.

"How do you two know each other?"

Anna made a face and turned to look at Lizzie again, as if asking for permission, she just shrugged in response.

"We met in Volterra when–"

"You were working for the Volturri?" Jasper guessed.

"Yes," Anna said, stretching the word, "I don't work for them anymore, so don't have anything to worry about," she said, "I was as much prisoner there, as Lizzie was,"

"How did you escape?" Lizzie asked her.

"Well, after the old man told me you were gone, I decided I'd make a run for it too," she said, then she chuckled lightly, "Everyone was so busy searching for you, that they didn't even notice I was gone till it was too late,"

Lizzie smiled a little, "I guess we were both lucky to get away,"

"Yeah," she coincided.

Silence settled in before Lizzie broke it.

"Hey, Anna, don't get me wrong, it's not that I'm not happy to see you," Lizzie started. "But, what are you doing here?"

Anna's eyes traveled through the members of my family before answering, "That can wait, you had plans I see," she pointed at the Porsche and the keys in my hand.

"Shopping," Rosalie said, speaking for the first time.

For some reason, Anna seemed to find that absolutely amusing, because she burst out laughing.

"Shopping?" she smirked at Lizzie, her eyebrows raised, "That sure sounds fun," she said, laughter in her voice.

I watched the scene playing before my eyes confused. What was so funny?

"Don't pay attention to her," Lizzie told us with an eye roll, "I always thought something went wrong during her transformation, I think she kind of lost it, if you know what I mean," she said.

"Oh Lizzie! Don't be so mean!" Anna laughed, "I just never thought I'd see the day you actually wanted to go shopping you know,"

"You don't like shopping?" I asked Liz, disappointed.

"No, Alice I do–"

A snort interrupted her.

"But I didn't use to," she finished, "And for your information," she glared at Anna, "I've recently developed a liking for shopping, thank you very much," she said.

"All right, all right," Anna replied lifting her hands in surrender, "Whatever you say, my friend," she said, the smile on her face never wavering.

Jasper finally relaxed, Emmett was even smiling at the girls and Edward just stood there, a sad look on his face.

You okay? I thought.

He looked at me and forced a small smile.

We'll talk about it later.

He gave an almost imperceptible nod.

I turned around and invited Anna to our shopping trip.

"Oh, no I could never," she started, "I don't want to be a bother,"

"You wouldn't be,"

"No, really," she said, "But thanks anyway, I think I'll just wait here, maybe go and look around town," she looked at Lizzie then, "I'll come looking for you later, if that's okay," she faced Jasper.

He nodded.

"We have a lot of catching up to do," Anna told Lizzie with a smile on her face, despite the seriousness in her eyes.

"I know," Lizzie replied.

"Well, see ya!" she waved goodbye before vanishing into the woods.

Lizzie sighed and shook her head disbelievingly, "I can't believe this," she said quietly.

"You seemed to be close," Edward said.

"We were, until Aro told me she was killed in a mission,"

"Why would he lie?" Rosalie asked, confused.

"I don't know," she sighed.

"Well, at least now you found each other and you know she's okay," Emmett said.

"Yeah," she smiled at him, "You're right,"

I decided to change the topic, now that she seemed to be taking well her friend's sudden appearance "So, you still up to our trip?" I asked her.

"Sure" she said, "Let's go"

"Be careful," the boys said as we got into the car.

"We'll be," we said, as I drove down the driveway.

We'd been driving for about an hour, just talking nonsense, we'd had a great time shopping, and I sincerely enjoyed dragging Lizzie to every store I possibly could. It seemed to be, her recently developed liking for the sport wasn't that much developed yet. I stifled a laugh at the memory of the horrified expression on her face when I told her I was buying her enough clothes to refill her closet, she had been even more horrified when she saw I meant it. I sighed, she reminded me so much of Bella.

I shook myself out of my reverie and noticed Lizzie was a little down. She must still be thinking about Anna, I thought to myself.

"Oh come on Lizzie! We didn't shop as much as we could have, don't tell me you're tired," I said in a teasing voice.

She just gave me a weak smile and returned to staring out the window.

I frowned "Are you okay Lizzie?" I asked concerned.

"Me? Yes, why?" she said all too quickly.

I made an: 'Are you really asking me that question?' face.

She sighed, "I'm fine, it's just, Anna suddenly coming back from the dead…I'm a little overwhelmed. She was someone I loved very much and…when I got word of her 'death'…" she shook her head, "I don't know, I guess, losing a friend like her, after having lost so many already I felt…Ah! I don't know…I'm sorry, I'm not making any sense am I?" she frowned.

I waited a couple of seconds before answering her question, while I debated if I was ready to share Bella with Lizzie. I looked at Rosalie, and I could tell she was wondering the exact same thing. She nodded her head and I voiced my thoughts.

"We do understand," I said, "The loosing a friend part, you remember what Esme told you last night? About what happened forty two years ago?"

She nodded, "You lost someone,"

"Not just someone, she was Edward's love, and she was human," I said slowly, "Her name was Bella," I added softly.

"But, isn't Sabrina Edward's–"

"No, not by a long shot," I said, "Sabrina comes later into the story, much later," I said, my dislike for her clear in my voice.

"Oh, so, what happened to her? Bella I mean" she asked quietly.

I took a deep breath, "She was…" I started, "She was killed by some wild animal and, we should've been there to save her, I should've been there I…I couldn't, I didn't…" I stuttered my eyes filling with unshed tears. I blinked them back and scolded myself for not being strong enough to utter a single coherent sentence, without tearing up.

"I think to better understand, you have to know everything, from the very beginning," Rosalie said, taking over and squeezing my hand.

I saw a stunned Lizzie nod at Rosalie, but she never took her wide eyes off of me. So many emotions were swirling inside of them, that I couldn't pinpoint any in specific.

"This all happened in a small town called Forks," Rosalie began, "We had a good life there, Carlisle was a renowned doctor and the rest of us were happy, I was happy. We got to be almost normal you know, going to school and all, everything was going smoothly, till Isabella Swan chose to exile herself into the very core of our lives."

Despite the guilt and sadness that were building up inside of me I chuckled under my breath. Leave it to Rosalie to be such an overdramatic.

She ignored me and carried on, "You see, she had the worst luck ever, and as expected from a person with such luck, or lack thereof, she wounded up in the same classroom as my thirsty brother," she rolled her eyes, "I still don't understand how he managed to resist the pull her blood had on him. At the end of that day, he ran away to visit some friends of ours and stay away from Bella. He came back though, and ended up saving her from being crushed by a van, almost exposing us for what we really were, I was so, furious at him,"

Lizzie stayed silent, waiting for Rose to continue.

"I despised her there and then," she said, "How could an insignificant human, threaten my family so?" she asked, clenching her fists at the memory, "Anyway, the night after the accident, we all sat down and addressed the situation in our hands," she shook her head once, "If it had been up to me or Jasper, she would've been dead by the next morning"

"What?" Lizzie gasped, "You really would've killed her?"

"Try to see it from my point of view," Rosalie replied calmly, "If Bella chose to talk, we were all goners. I was only trying to look out for my family, and she was just a human," she shrugged.

She seemed to consider it before saying, "Yes, I see your point,"

"Anyhow, even aware of the danger that girl posed to all of us, Edward wasn't going to budge, he was dead set on protecting her, even if it led to a fight with his family," she said.

"So, he loved her enough to go against all of you?" she asked in a low whisper.

"He hadn't realized it yet," I answered before Rosalie could, "But he would,"

"You see, that night, Alice shared a vision with us, a vision that changed everything," my sister said. "It made Jasper's resolve to take Bella out of the picture waver, just enough for Alice to see that she wouldn't talk, that we'd be 'safe'"

"What did you see?" Lizzie asked me.

"I saw, Bella and I standing together," I said, smiling as I remembered that vision, the apparently rock solid future we had had in store, "Arms around each other, both smiling, no difference in our appearance but her eyes, hers were red crimson, a newborn. She would become one of us sooner or later. I told Jasper, we'd be friends, that I'd love her someday, and I did," I said softly, "I did," I repeated, "But only to lose her soon after."

I felt Lizzie staring at me intently; so much it made me nervous.

"Well, we will not bother you with the details, the important thing here is Edward and Bella fell in love," Rosalie said. " We got to know her and, well, I hate to say this but, she was actually kind of…nice," she managed to say.

I smiled at my sister. I knew how much it cost her to say that out loud.

"I, though," she continued, "Being the way I am, did nothing to make her feel welcome," she said, regret seeping through her voice. "I'm ashamed to say this, but I never treated her like I should have, because I felt…" she stopped and took a deep breath, "I felt jealous of her," she finished with a sigh.

"You? Jealous of her?" Lizzie asked, incredulous and confused, "A human?" she raised her brows, as if questioning my sister's sanity.

"I know how that sounds," she said tiredly, "But you must understand, I never wanted this life for me, true, I have Emmett now, but I always wanted to have children, to experience life as a human would, to be normal," she emphasized. "She had everything I couldn't have, every possibility, and yet there she was, ready to throw it all away for immortality," she closed her eyes for a moment before speaking again.

I saw understanding flash in Lizzie's eyes and I knew she didn't think ill of Rose.

"I know it's not an excuse, but I felt terrible about it after she died and I saw the repercussions her death had on my family," Rosalie said.

"You said you weren't there for her when she needed you," Lizzie said in a low voice, and it surprised me to hear the tiniest hint of accusation in her sentence, "Why weren't you?"

I gripped the wheel tightly, the guilt washing over me, "We wanted to celebrate her eighteenth birthday," I said, "But things took a turn for the worst when she got a paper cut from the wrapping of a gift, Jasper couldn't take the bloodlust and he lunged at her. Edward was fast enough to bar his way though, and Bella didn't suffer any life-threatening wounds.

"But that incident was enough to confirm Edward's doubts about the danger Bella was in, just because she spent time with us, he made the decision to leave right then. Jasper felt so guilty, he still does," I said, shaking my head, "He made us swear we wouldn't intrude in her life anymore, and he banned me from ever searching for her future again. He thought he was protecting her, but he couldn't have been more wrong"

"You should've seen what leaving did to our family," Rosalie muttered, "Edward left, to track down and take out a vampire that held a grudge against him and Bella, this made Esme sad which, in turn, began to cripple the family"

I had been too lost in the story that I didn't notice we had reached the house already.

"Rosie!" Emmett's voice boomed from the forest, "You're right on time love! Everyone's hunting! Let's go!"

"I think I'll pass," I said.

Rosalie turned to Lizzie and said, "I'll let Alice tell you the rest. I'm glad you came along," she smiled, "I had a great time,"

"Yeah me too," she smiled back.

"See you later," she said, running off towards Emmett's voice.

I rested my forehead on the wheel and let out a long breath.

"You don't have to finish if you don't want to," Lizzie said, touching my shoulder in a comforting manner and gazing at me with concern.

"No, I'm almost done," I stopped the engine and got out of the car.

"Okay," said Lizzie, as she went to stand beside me.

"Six months passed since our departure," I mumbled, "And I couldn't take it anymore, I'd had enough of Edward's nonsense. I missed my best friend. To be honest, I thought he wouldn't be able to stay away from Bella that long, but he proved me wrong. I took the first flight to Forks and went straight to her house, I–"

"Wait," she interrupted, "You came back?" she asked, surprise and something like dismay written in her features.

I nodded, choosing to ignore her reaction, "But I was too late, she was already gone," I whispered, "Mauled by an animal of some sorts,"

"How did you know that?"

"Because I was there when Charlie, her father, was told the news," I said, "I couldn't believe my ears, so I went to the clearing were they had found her blood, and shreds of her clothes. I couldn't find anything, it was raining, and there was nothing left for me to see but crashed trees and markings made by claws," I shuddered, and looked up to see Lizzie.

Her eyes were glued to the ground and her mouth was slightly opened, as if what I'd just said had shaken her world. I decided to carry on, without disturbing her.

"I went to her funeral," I said, "But I couldn't find the strength to comfort Charlie, nor to read her name on that grave," my voice wavered, "I guess, I was afraid if I did, then everything would be real, and I didn't want it to be real yet," a sob escaped me, "I know what it's like to have a friend ripped away from you unexpectedly. The blow comes so fast you…you barely know what hit you," I choked out, shutting my eyes.

My body started to shake with sobs and suddenly, I felt two comforting arms wrapping tightly around me. Lizzie was hugging me with as much strength as she could muster, sobs racking her body, the same as me; normally I would've protested, but right now, it was all that was keeping me from falling apart.

When I made de decision to share this story with Elizabeth, I hadn't thought something like this might happen. I thought I was over this, or at least, past the stage were I couldn't talk about it. Also, I was a little confused at Lizzie's reaction to Bella's story and my pain. But what she said next, threw me out of the loop.

"I'm sorry Alice," she whispered, "I'm so, so sorry," she sobbed, increasing her grip, "I…I wish I could…I really wish I could tell you…I" she broke off and let out a few more sobs. She kept crying, and apologizing over and over again and I couldn't shake the feeling that there was something more to her apology. Despite this thought, I clung to her as if my life depended on it. I let myself cry without tears until I could no more.

A couple of seconds passed and,

"Lizzie?" came Anna's uncertain voice.

We both let go of each other and sniffed.

"I'm coming," she said.

"You go," I told her reassuringly, "I'll be okay…thank you and, good luck," I said gesturing in Anna's direction. "I'll talk to you later,"

"I'm so sorry Alice," she whispered one last time, her eyes confirmed my suspicions, that apology meant so much more than a simple offering of condolences.

I nodded my head once and she joined Anna, they got into Lizzie's car and sped away into the quiet night, leaving me alone with my thoughts.

Haha I had you going there huh?

Did you think our cloaked figure was Kurt? :P

Thank you for reading everyone! Tell me what you think!