Hey all! I know that the last chapter ended on a confusing note--it was supposed to get you to ask what was going on, and I promise you that you will find out why Bella was not kissing Edward in the last chapter. (One of you kinda figured it out...Edward had not been acting himself at all. *hint hint*)
Also, writing about Edward hunting is, like, uber awkward for me since I'm a vegan and not a hunter and kinda cringe as I write that scene...and I haven't read the books in a while (and I've only read the first chapter of Midnight Sun) so I apologize if Mrs. Meyer has described at some point what hunting is like for them and I didn't get it spot on.

Edward's POV

Bella and I stayed on Isle Esme for about a week, then we got the all-clear to go back to Forks. My family had left to Italy to confront the Volturi before the Volturi were given the chance to pay them a visit, and the Italian vampires had answered with confused looks. Apparently, Alice's vision about the Volturi being after Bella was not meant to come true after all, and we concluded that the vision of Bella's death was most likely not true, either. This was more than welcoming news to me. Now we could relax and enjoy our marriage without any worries. And I didn't have to rush to turn Bella.

I went hunting soon after Bella and I returned from Isle Esme; I had gone longer than usual without hunting and was beginning to test my endurance with the thirst.

I left Bella at Charlie's and went to my usual place—a mountainous forest where I had plenty of places to hide if any humans were to stumble upon me. If I got lucky I might even find some mountain lions here.

This place was so easy for me to come to. It was peaceful. No one's thoughts but my own resided here to ruin the silence. Here, isolated from towns and cities, was one of the few places where that river of noise from others' minds did not interfere with my own thoughts.

Here, I could fantasize about Bella with no interruptions, daydream about the way her soft fragile body draped around mine when she held me as she slept, about the way she muttered my name as she dreamt…I could nearly imagine her sweet flowery scent perfectly, almost to the point that I could swear she was really there. I breathed in reality's air, and smelled my prey. A deer, only yards away. It wasn't mountain lion, but it would do. I was satisfied with whatever would get me home to Bella quicker.

The dear started to run away—shying away from a different kind of predator, no doubt. That was fine with me. It wasn't as if it would have made the hunt any more challenging. I set off at my fastest speed and caught up to the animal in a second. It probably didn't know what had happened to it before I had started sucking it dry.

The blood of the deer was soothing to my fire-ridden throat; the heavenly liquid slid down my throat as a cold cup of ice water would slide down the throat of a human that had been trapped in Death Valley for days. The taste of it sent my into a frenzy comparable to the passion that I felt when I kissed Bella, though I could never allow myself to release all of my emotions around her for fear that I would hurt her. I sucked in deeper—

—and a realization set in. My eyes opened as if awakening from a dream but I could see nothing. Slowly my senses returned to me; colors brightened and sounds intensified. I could see the blueness of the sky, the whiteness of the clouds, the greenness of the leaves in the jungle I was in. A small mammal rested dead in my hands, unidentifiable from the mutilation I had caused it.

Worry broke through my mind immediately as I realized that something horrible had happened. Where was Bella? I thought that I had left Isle Esme for Forks, and that Bella was safe in her old home with Charlie. Now that belief was completely shattered.

I ran to Carlisle's and Esme's house in the middle of the island, wishing that I could hear Bella's thoughts so that I would know sooner whether or not she was safe here on the island.

When I reached the house, my worst fears were confirmed. She was nowhere to be seen, and her scent was not even fresh. How long had I been delusional? I wasn't even aware that vampires could become delusional…

Panic washed over me. If Bella had not come back here to sleep, then where was she? Had she gone off on her own to explore the island, only to become some other creature's midday meal?

Worse, had I made her my midday meal, without even realizing it? The very thought sent sickening chills running through my already cold body.

I explored the island twice, three times, four times, keeping track of even the slightest change in the strength of my wife's scent. Throughout the island, it varied—it was strongest at and near the house since we had spent so much time there, but moderate at the beach since the sand tended to get blown around and distributed it more. There were a few areas that neither of us had visited before that had her scent along with a few unfamiliar scents, but after checking and rechecking those places I was forced to dismiss them from my list of possibilities of where she could be.

After scrounging the island ruthlessly for any signs of my wife, I gave up on the search and headed back to Forks to discuss the matter with my family, still dazed and desperate.

"Bella has gone missing," I said in one breath to my family as I walked through the door. "Please, please, please, tell me that you know where she is." Everyone stopped what they were doing and looked towards me, shocked expressions on their faces.

"Edward? What are you doing back already?" Esme questioned.

"Please tell me that Bella is here," I begged.

She shook her head. "Bella was with you. She hasn't come back."

"No..." I didn't want to believe it. She had slipped through my fingers so easily, without me even realizing that it had happened at all. Where had I gone wrong? I thought back to the island: we had stayed only days before my family had called and informed me that the Volturi were no threat. That, though, had been only an illusion—how much of the past few weeks had been real?

"Tell me..." I started, sitting down on a chair out of habit. "How long was I gone? Did Alice ever tell us that Bella was in danger?" My hope now was that Alice had not seen anything wrong with Bella...but if my family believed that she was with me, then there was still the possibility that she could be in danger, especially with her luck.

"Edward, what happened to you?" Carlisle inquired, concern etched into his face.

"I...I can't honestly say I know."

He kneeled in front of me, always the doctor, and made eye contact with me. "Alice saw that Bella was in danger from the Volturi, so you and Bella left for Isle Esme. We have been here to wait for them to come.

"I don't think they're coming," I stated.

Carlisle looked confused. "What? Why not?"

"I..." It was so hard to tell him. I could hardly believe it myself. And now...Bella was gone. I gathered my thoughts together and started speaking again. "A few weeks after we left, you called me and told me that you had visited the Volturi, and that they meant no harm. So Bella and I came back to Forks. You guys hadn't come back from Italy yet, so I left Bella at Charlie's house so I could hunt. At least...I thought that that was what had happened."

"You haven't come back until now."

"I realize that now. I was on the island the entire time. I never left."

"Is there any clue as to what may have happened?"

I shook my head. "No idea at all."

"Alice!" Carlisle called.

"Alice's visions aren't working…" I said softly, but the harsh reality of the words did not allow me to say it loud enough for Carlisle to hear me. It didn't matter, anyway. Alice was and probably always would be our best tool to see what would happen to us next.

"Have you had any visions lately? Bella is missing and—"

She shook her head slowly and regretfully. "I haven't seen a thing," she said sadly.

Carlisle's expression turned thoughtful, trying to sort this out. "If Bella were in danger, surely Alice would have seen something…" he eventually mused.

"No. I don't think she would have," I told him.

"Why not?"

"There's something going on here. Someone involved here. Someone who can manipulate either minds or reality."

"But would that affect Bella? Would she be able to fall into that kind of trap?"

"Something odd happened here, Carlisle. Didn't you listen to what I was saying? I thought that I was here, in Forks, when in truth I was still on the island. I don't know for sure whether or not that affected Bella, but I can be certain that it did. If she knew I was acting off, she would have suspected something. She would have called you. She wouldn't have just sat around."

"If Bella was affected by it…"

"And we don't even know what 'it' is!" I groaned in frustration.

"No. We don't. And 'it' may also be affecting Alice."

"Alice?" Her visions weren't working, but did this really imply that it had been someone else causing that?

"Yes…If whoever this is is manipulating reality, it makes perfect sense that her visions are blurry. She's seeing an altered reality."

"Of course. But he couldn't really be manipulating reality if I was able to break out of it, could he?" Am I broken out of it? I questioned myself. It was difficult to tell—this was the kind of reality that I did not want to accept.

"There's something tricky going on here."

"There's no question about that."

"None at all…" Carlisle looked pensive for a few moments, then said, "I wonder if the Volturi are behind this."

"Why would they be?" I asked logically. It was out of character for them to go after someone so quickly. It should be years before they decide to check up on Bella. That fact made me question the validity of Alice's visions even more.

"Alice's vision—"

"We need to disregard Alice's visions for now." Out of the corner of my eye, I could see by her facial expression that her feelings had been hurt by that suggestion. I touched her shoulder in a sign of comfort. "Just for now. You know that we want with everything in us for your visions to guide us."

She nodded weakly, ashamed that her gift was no longer functioning correctly.

A thought came into my mind from hers: a memory from when she and Bella had gone shopping for Bella's wedding dress. Bella's eyes had met with a stranger's. I remembered the two of them telling us that story, and we had tried to evaluate…

I gasped, alarmed. "Alice? Didn't you say that you and Bella saw another vampire when you went to Seattle?"

"Yes," she whispered, meeting my eyes.

Carlisle made the connection immediately and gasped as well. "My god!" he exclaimed, "You don't think…"

"I do. You've smelled Bella…You know how tempting she smells. Any vampire…" My voice broke. "She…"

"Maybe the Volturi know something about this."

"So we're going to Italy?"

Carlisle nodded. "We're going to Italy."