Disclaimer: Everything from the Twilight series belongs to Stephenie Meyer.

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It was her.

The tears no longer threatened to spill over. Perhaps this reaction was from shock. Maybe I knew it all along, in the back of my mind, that it was too good to be true.

It was reasonable to believe that I just wanted all this to end. Maybe, I was unconsciously screaming for death. It didn't matter if I was betrayed anymore- wouldn't my heart be stopped anyway? It didn't really matter who did the final deed.

The anger had subsided as quickly as it had rose. I still felt its sting, metaphorically- even if Mrs. Masen always had the intention of killing me, a relationship did form between us in the process. Even I couldn't deny that. In fact, I was grateful. She understood me. My story. Or, at least, she had pretended to. But that sweetness just made this final moment so much more horrible, and left such a bitter taste in my mouth.

But I knew that I wouldn't change anything that happened in the past few years. I didn't regret meeting this woman.

"Strange, isn't it?" Surprising myself, even, I looked into the face of the angel that had hidden so much from me. And I smiled.

My words confused her. Mrs. Masen's eyebrows knitted together in confusion. Her eyes, still trying to search mine, held what seemed to me like many different emotions at once. It was like she was trying to search me, my soul- for the answers to my recent behavior.

Her voice was cautious. "Strange?"

A slightly hysterical laugh escaped my lips. I pulled away from her- she hadn't held a grip on me like the other man. I took a few steps back, farther away from the clearing we were in. Thinking of that stranger, I wondered where he was- nowhere in this clearing, that was for sure. I shook it off; it didn't matter anymore. Nothing really mattered anymore, I realized...

I began talking again anyway. "I tell you everything about me- to the point where it's like you can see inside me- and what do I get? I get fed lies. Or nothing at all."

She had tried to speak, but I cut her off. I was not a coward, and I would stare death in the face, if need be. I would yell, just so that she would remember me in a few years. I would make her remember that I put up a fight. I'd make her guilty that she killed me.

Despite all that I had thought, I didn't yell. I still couldn't find the anger that I so wanted to latch on to. All of my words came out as statements. It was like we were having a conversation over lunch, with my tone of voice.

"What's the best way for me to die, Mrs. Masen? You can hurl back all that I've told you; remind me that I trusted someone when I shouldn't have. You can bring back that red-eyed savage and ask him to assault me again- that got me scared out of my mind, if you didn't know. Or, you could take advantage of our location- I'm sure my parents wouldn't hear me scream..."

She was successful in cutting me off this time, just by the look in her eyes. Pathetic, isn't it? My rant was going on so well...

"I wouldn't. I wouldn't even think of harming you, Mel."

The words cut like little daggers.

And yet, my voice was still calm. "How do I know that? I don't know you, Mrs. Masen."

She grimaced. "Ask me something. Anything."

My eyes widened- I was caught off guard. Of course, I had thousands of questions, some of them so simple... but I decided to stay with the task at hand.

"Who's here with you? Where did that guy go?"

"Daniel Adams took him away." Her head tilted to the side.

Daniel was in this too. Things just got better and better...

I continued with our conversation, with my brisk questions and her calm answers. I asked her the stupidest things- the things that I thought of first. This took all of thirty seconds.

"What are you going to do with me?"

"I'm going to get you home as soon as possible."

"Why can't we leave now?"

"I need to wait for Daniel."

"Why?"

"My husband's orders."

All of these took me by surprise. She could lie so well, so fluidly. Like she's done it all her life.

And then I heard it, again. The growls, the shrieks. The terrifying animal sounds that were unexplainable.

I didn't believe that any of this was happening. I couldn't.

The sounds got closer and closer. It took five seconds for the growls to move what seemed like hundreds of yards.

Mrs. Masen's eyes widened, and snatched me up in her arms again. At once, I felt my back come in contact with a tree. And she was standing in front of me, as if to shield me from the blows that were about to come. I could tell, from our closeness, that she was holding her breath. I couldn't move, even if I tried. I was pinned against the tree.

"Don't look." Her voice was no more than a whisper. Of course, I didn't listen.

Two figures entered the clearing. One, I realized, was the beautiful red-eyed man. His eyes, which shone somewhat unnaturally in the twilight sky, were furious beyond belief. The other figure's presence brought even more chills to my spine, more goosebumps to my skin.

It was Daniel Adams, crouched low, like he was ready to fight at any moment. The curve of his spine, the positioning of his legs... he looked sick, twisted. Like he had rabies. And that was ignoring the expression on his face.

His teeth were bared, and they glistened in the remaining light that was left. His eyes, pools of molten gold, held such concentrated hate that I was terrified to even look at him. Half of his face was dirtied, somehow. I couldn't see what the substance was.

He was still beautiful.

The stranger's voice rose. "What does she mean to you? Your yellow eyes... you wouldn't drink from 'er. Why can't I have 'er?"

"She's only a girl! There's billions of humans in the world- why not take their blood? What does she mean to you?" He turned the question back around.

He smirked at this. "But doesn't Melanie's death make this all more fun?"

The stranger growled, then- his face contorting into something completely insane. That, I realized, was where all the sounds were coming from. There was no animal.

Insanity.

Daniel growled back, even louder. And then he lunged.

A/N: It's like I can never say what I want to in these past few chapters. I thought there was going to be so much more explained... but apparently not. Reviews would be so, so very nice.