A/N- Thank you so much for reading and a huge thanks to Acrosstheskyinstars for her superb beta work.

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Chapter 10-

The Story of Free Will

Isabella Swan

The world around me began to fade. The sounds around me became muffled. I was moving. The bumping underneath me was familiar, a wagon. How did I get on a wagon?

I sat up to take in my surroundings. Yet there was nothing familiar to see for as far as my eyes could reach. The only person around was a man driving the wagon, and though I couldn't see his face, something felt oddly familiar about him.

"Sir?" He remained stoic when I called out to him, though my voice sounded oddly softer than I intended it to, so I cleared my throat and attempted again.

"Excuse me!" I knew I was yelling, I could feel it, yet the sound that left my voice was no louder than it had been before.

Enough was enough. My legs felt sluggish as they moved, but move they did. Clumsily I managed to stand up and pull myself onto the driver's seat next to...

Jackson?

My breath caught in my throat as my mind raced to catch up with what I was seeing. It couldn't be him, and yet it was. I had a multitude of questions, like how he was here, why he hadn't moved on, but then the wagon stopped. I tuned to ask him why we had stopped, but he was already leaving, and somehow, I had managed to get out of the wagon without even moving.

Having no better idea as to what was going on, I began to look around in earnest. Besides a ton of trees, and a quiet school house, there was a yellow post it hanging in mid air. I quickly looked over my shoulder to make sure that no one else had seen it. I didn't need to bother, though, I was alone. Completely and utterly alone.

"What is this?" I yelled out into the open air, but just like before, my voice seemed to be muted. The post-it flapped in a teasing manner, and I knew that I would get no more answers than whatever it would offer me. Slowly I approached it, but even though my steps were small, I seemed to approach it faster than I should have been able to.

I. Swan

Behind You
It's too late.

My eyes widened at the words before me, it took only a moment to realize what the words meant. Leaving the post-it to float away with the summer's breeze, I turned expecting to find someone being killed before my eyes. Indeed I saw a woman, but she wasn't being killed. Had the post-it been wrong? Would another appear in front of me saying rescheduled?

Somehow I knew that wouldn't happen. He wouldn't pass her up. My gut told me that she would die today. I had known that as soon as I first saw her. She was exactly his type, she was standing out in the middle of nowhere, as if she was just waiting for him to end her life. She was brunette and had a kind of resigned look about her. Did she know she was going to die today?

As I approached, I realized she was watching me, freezing me in place. The color within them hit a chord, causing a whisper of words to play across my mind. I shook my head. To argue with the words or block them out, I wasn't certain, all I knew was that I didn't want to hear them.

"Such a unique shade of brown."

Right as I opened my mouth to argue with him, I witnessed a movement so fast that it was practically a blur. Jasper had arrived. The post-it was right. I was too late. I attempted to move forward and pop her soul before she had to suffer anymore, but something was restraining me. I tried to pull away from the bars holding me back when I realized that they were hands.

His hands.

Jasper's hands. The girl was me. How had I not seen it before? A brief flash of light pulled my vision towards the golden frame surrounding the mirror before me. I didn't worry about what it was doing here in the middle of nowhere, instead I was mentally preparing myself for the painful feeling of being drained yet again. My eyes closed as his head lowered towards my neck, but the pain I was anticipating never came, instead of teeth sinking into my neck, I felt lips gently pressing themselves against my skin.

What the hell was he doing? My eyes flew back open, as my heart began to race, but instead of the golden haired soldier who had ended my life nearly two centuries ago, my eyes were met with the bronze locks of the man who had managed to see through my facade mere hours before.

I should have been scared.

Even if death wasn't a possible outcome, pain was. The fear never came though, instead all I could feel was comfort. My body relaxed into his embrace. Soft, cool lips danced rhythmically across my pulse point followed by whispered words so soft that I would not have heard them if we had even been an inch farther apart.

"Can't you tell me yours?"

I shook my head, hoping he would drop it.

"But you know mine."

That was true, and the presence of his lips on my skin was confusing me. It was almost as if my lips were betraying me. They opened, ready to spill all of my secrets.

…

"Bella."

The tenor of my own voice surprised me almost as much as the word that came out. I hadn't intended to say my own name, had I?

"Bella, it's time to get up."

Why did I sound like Mike, and what on earth was that knocking sound?

"We're heading over to the reservation. If you want to join us better hurry up!"

At this point I realized that it wasn't Edward's arm wrapped around me, but a body pillow, and instead of his words, the only thing ghosting across my neck was a breeze coming from the slightly open window. A chill ran down my back at the thought of what my dream self had almost done.

While I wanted to feel relief that I hadn't actually spilt the beans, the fact remained that I really was letting Edward get too close. How much longer could I keep him from finding out? There was something different about him. Aside from the obvious fact that he was temporarily immortal like myself and other select supernatural beings, he had also been able to see through my disguise.

I spent the entire night looking into the mirror trying to find some hint of Marie, but there wasn't any. My eyes flickered once again to the old photograph of my human self.

Heart-shaped.

My face then, before my death, had been heart-shaped.

Once again I wondered if it was possible that he saw me, the real me, beneath the reaper disguise, and if he did, could he see Mike and Charlie as well?

"Last chance, Bella!"

Mike's voice called from below, letting me know that he and Charlie were leaving for the day. Originally I had planned to go with them, but after the nightmare...was it really? It hadn't been unpleasant, though then it probably wouldn't have been as disturbing.

After seeing my subconscious issues, I realized that I needed a day to remember why I was keeping my secret to begin with. Pretending to be a normal human was obviously getting to me, why else was I fantasizing about romance, and spilling secrets, after a few well placed kisses?

Charlie and Mike were disappointed when I informed them that I wouldn't be joining them, but didn't push the issue. It only took me a few minutes before I was ready to leave the house. Unfortunately, finding my destination wasn't nearly as easy.

Somehow I had managed to convince myself that if I could spend time with a real reaper, the ones who actually do more than pretend to be human, that I'd remember how it wasn't just my secret I was keeping. Little did I know that Nessie would be anything but helpful.

"So why don't you just tell him?" If she wasn't a child I would think she was teasing me.

"It's not my secret to tell, it's bigger than just me. Besides, what good does making friends with a vampire do anyway? I'm moving on eventually." I rolled over onto my belly so that I could watch the small girl at work with more ease.

Nessie was reaping today, as I had hoped she would be. Apparently one of the Cullens would be filling up on tons of small creatures because she had been popping souls of random rabbits and deer for a while now. I asked her how she knew which ones she was supposed to take, since they all looked the same to me. Her response was that she didn't have to know. The higher powers did and helped her out the way they were supposed to.

My irritation rose as I wondered why the higher powers didn't help me out of this situation. Didn't they foresee Edward and all the trouble he was causing?

"You are?" Nessie asked. Once again her honest curiosity was all that kept me from assuming she was being sarcastic.

"Of course I am," my response was cautious. I had always assumed Nessie knew that we only had a certain number of souls to pop, "We all do eventually."

"Hmmm." She made a noncommittal shrug that had me wondering if anyone had ever explained how things worked to her.

I slowly pushed myself up off the ground and approached the girl that had become like a distant cousin to me over the past years.

"Vanessa?"

She stroked the ears of the rabbit at her feet before turning her big brown eyes towards me.

"Yes?"

"You do know that this is temporary, right? At some point the lights that take them away will come for you as well." I motioned towards the animals that were slowly starting to leave the clearing to show who I meant by them.

"Oh, Bella," she giggled out while shaking her head, "who says you have to go into the lights?"

What?

Her simple statement left me gaping like a fish? Who says? No one has to say, right? I mean we move on, it's what we do...isn't it?

I wanted to ask her why anyone would ever think about not going into the lights, but before I could, she turned and darted off through the forest. I knew she wasn't leaving me, it was just how she was. Nessie was used to moving with the animals, so I followed her as quickly as possible, and soon found her sitting outside a mountain lion's den.

"Good kitty," she crooned as she scratched behind a large lion's ear.

The great, golden cat purred as it allowed my fellow reaper to pop her soul. With her free hand, she motioned me towards them. Slowly I approached and allowed my hand to join hers in caressing the animal's coat. I had never been so close to such a dangerous predator before, at least not without knowing my life was going to end right after.

"Even she knows that life is too short to not make friends while you can."

I opened my mouth to remind Nessie that we weren't technically living, but just like in my dream, it was a male voice that spoke instead of my own, only this time it wasn't Mike.

"Now, I know even my family won't believe this. It's quite obvious that neither of you have any sense of self preservation, or is it simply that you don't need it?"

My breath hitched in my throat as the lion took off out of fear. There were few creatures that could scare a predator such as her, and I knew that the velvety voice belonged to someone who was every bit as dangerous as she must have sensed. Slowly, I turned around to face hungry yet confused eyes. I could tell he hadn't expected to run into me out here, but by judging the slight smile on his face, he wasn't disappointed about our impromptu meeting.

"There's something nice about the simplicity of a child's mind. They don't clutter it with mundane thoughts the way most teenagers and adults do." Edward's statement was beyond bizarre, it was downright creepy.

"What's that supposed to mean?" I asked, even though I hadn't intended to voice the question out loud. Something about him made me entirely too comfortable, even though I knew I should be running the way Nessie's new friend had.

As if my thoughts had summoned her, the lion came prancing back towards us, only this time she was without her body. Nessie smiled as she greeted her spirit. Obviously in her afterlife she had nothing to fear from the vampire in front of us. Edward's eyes followed the lion as if he could see her, but I knew that wasn't possible. Was it?

Could he see the dead? Was that why he could see the real me?

I pressed my lips tightly together, hoping maybe it was just a coincidence that his eyes were following our feline friend. It couldn't be, though. Not with how he seemed to be staring. It was like he saw her without seeing her. As if he was staring so hard to make her appear, but she just wasn't doing it. How did he know where she was though? He looked at Nessie, opening his mouth, but closed it again very quickly.

Then, as if in unison, both Edward and Nessie turned their heads towards the east. Naturally, I followed their lead, wanting to see what they saw.

Lights

Bright white lights

It was time for the cat to move on. Nessie gently pushed her towards the dancing orbs. A gentle breeze blew across, rustling some leaves on the ground as we watched her depart. For several moments that was the only sound any of us heard, but eventually Edward broke the silence.

"There goes lunch. Now if you ladies have a moment, I have several questions for you. The first being how did you become grim reapers?"

Edward Cullen

She had managed to surprise me again. At this rate, Bella Swan was going to give my dead heart an attack.

I smelled my prey, the sweet scent of mountain lion, and then heard a voice? I was about to abort my mission, resolved to stay hidden but then I heard her name. The young voice spoke Bella's name and I was instantly back on track. I could hear Jasper in the distance, his thoughts on his hunt, he had yet to smell the humans. As I approached, I heard the innocent voice again and with it a multitude of thoughts that had my complex mind buzzing.

Such a simple thing, and they call me a child. Of course I know about the lights, but I know as with everything, God gives us a choice. Why move on? Why not stay and reap and enjoy the world while it's still here.

With the word 'reap', a thousand pictures and images rushed through her head. I watched as she took the souls from animals and delivered them to a set of lights. The animal spirits would bound into their new world and I was left astonished.

I approached and listened for more, I could see Bella through the young girl's mind but she didn't speak. From the snippets that trailed through her thoughts, it became clear that Bella was also a reaper.

I stepped out with determination into the view of the two girls and I spoke with more confidence than I felt.

"Now, I know even my family won't believe this. It's quite obvious that neither of you have any sense of self preservation, or is it simply that you don't need it?"

While I had just seen Bella through the eyes of the young reaper, I was still surprised to see her sitting there with no fear towards the lion that had just sauntered off. In fact, she was more surprised seeing me there than the giant beast. I heard Jasper catch the scent but the lion bolted, taking him away from here, which I was glad for, for the moment.

As usual, I felt myself searching Bella's face for any clues as to what she may be thinking. She was not afraid of me, and I was nearly sure by now she knew what I was. The girl looked at me and her thoughts poured through me. She knew what I was and with that came a plethora of information about Bella. She was a reaper as well, but the child had no images to show me the proof, just memories of conversations. Every thought that she gave me was filled with more and more information, but still not enough about Bella.

"There's something nice about the simplicity of a child's mind. They don't clutter it with mundane thoughts the way most teenagers and adults do."

"What's that supposed to mean?" Bella asked, and I was about to answer her question when both girls turned their attention toward...nothing. The girl's mind showed me what I was missing with my own eyes though, a lion-or the spirit of a lion. I watched the empty space, following the soul through the girl's mind as it headed towards its lights. I looked back at the girl and opened my mouth to speak, but stopped when I saw the lion's send off in her mind. I followed her gaze and could see nothing with my own eyes, but through hers I watched it all. It was fascinating.

I stood there for a moment, deciding just how I wanted to handle this new revelation. I had always been a subtle person, but with Bella I felt that a whole new direction would be better.

"There goes lunch. Now if you ladies have a moment, I have several questions for you. The first being how did you become grim reapers?"

Bella looked at me, and her face registered shock before it turned into careful skepticism.

"What do you mean?" she asked and laughed nervously. "You sound crazy." Her words might have fooled me but her over exuberance of how she delivered them along with the thoughts running through the young one's head had me shaking my head.

I could see on her face that she knew she wasn't getting out of this discussion. The little one patted her on the arm and stood.

"I'll leave you two to talk," she said in a voice that was melodic but with a tone that betrayed her physical years.

Bella seemed more skittish after her young partner left. Her eyes darted around and she looked like a scared deer, which was a poor analogy when I made a habit of eating deer.

"Bella, I know what you are. I just want to know...how?"

I watched as she spotted something with her eyes, and even when she grabbed the rock, I had no intention of stopping her. I knew she couldn't hurt me with it.

"I don't know what you are talking about?" she said, standing and taking a step. Then, with what looked like a well-practiced stumble, I realized what she was doing a little too late.

I hissed as the scent of her blood filled the air and my eyes were drawn to the long incision she made on her forearm. I took a step back, searching for my control and carefully finding it. Bella looked up at me from her knees on the ground.

"Are you kidding me?" she said, and waved her arm towards me.

"Are you done playing around with dangerous things?" I said, feeling angry at the game she was attempting.

"Things, Edward?" she said, annoyed. "I think if you are going to call me a grim reaper at least you can call yourself a vampire."

While I had heard enough in the young one's head to know that they knew about us, to hear her say it with such ease was fairly shocking. I looked at her and she stood there with a challenging look back at me. I was on the cusp of answers with her and yet I could see that I was causing her distress. The gentleman in me warred with the scholar as I wondered if her comfort would win over my desire for knowledge. Luckily I didn't have to choose as she sighed and finally spoke.

"What do you want to know?" She sounded resigned and not happy about it, but she was willing, so I was going to grasp the opportunity.

I reached down and grabbed the hem of my shirt and tore a strip. Kneeling down by her, I let my fingers graze across her arm before I wrapped the strip around her wound and sat back.

"You reap souls?" I replayed the image in my head of the young girl touching the lion and watching the soul disappear into the lights.

"Yes, vampire's souls," she said matter-of-factly, like she expected me to know this information.

My eyes widened and then I narrowed them. "Impossible," I said darkly.

"And yet, here I am," she replied, raising her hands. "Wait, how did you know that I'm a reaper and not that I reap for vamps?"

I debated for a moment and she saw the hesitation in my eyes. "Come on, Edward, you show me yours and I'll show you mine."

Her brash comment cause me to chuckle, and I immediately felt my walls drop, as they seemed to do only around her.

"I can read minds," I stated.

Bella's eyes opened in horror and then a blush crept onto her face, and I was desperate to know what was going on in her mind.

"So," she stumbled. "If you read minds, then how come you didn't know about J..."

I cut her off, "I can't read yours...wait, who?"

"Uh, no one," she said and smiled.

"Bella," I said and sat down near her on a log. "I told you I'm a vampire who reads minds, can't you tell me your story?"

Bella looked anywhere but at me, she looked like she was gathering her thoughts, so I gave her a moment without pushing. When she finally began to speak, she was sitting with her knees up and her arms around them. The scent of her dried blood floated my way and I swallowed my venom down.

"It happened on the day I was to be married." She looked up at me but I kept the emotion off my face, though I couldn't help but feel disgruntled by the start of her story. "I didn't want to be married, so I took off." The story suddenly had my full attention again.

She told me of how she ran and found herself being abducted by two beautiful women, how they fed her to a newborn. I had a sharp intake of breath, as jealous as I felt of her intended, I felt equally jealous of this nameless vampire.

"So then you became a grim reaper?" I asked, clarifying.

"Yes."

"For vampires." She nodded. "So vampires have souls?"

She looked down and then made a face. "Well you do, but a lot of them don't get the lights. Usually the newborns do, but the aged ones, the ones that don't believe in their souls, they tend to go someplace darker. Of course I'm just speculating, it's not like we sit down and have a good chat before I pull the soul from their bodies. The humans I can talk to, but the vampires, well...they tend to eat me."

This was a lot to process. I looked at her and ran over the words she said and wondered if I had heard her right. Even with my perfect hearing, this was too strange to be true.

"Humans? I thought you said you reaped vampires. And you get eaten? But you don't die and don't change? How is that possible?"

"I said I was a vampire reaper, not that I only reap vampires. I am assigned to one vampire and I follow them around and pop the souls of their victims. Sometimes that means other vampires, and I can get eaten, it's kind of a work hazard."

I shook my head, wondering what it must be like to be bitten and drained by a vampire and survive each time. Then I looked at her, and the knowledge that I could taste her and she would live made her proximity a little harder. I could feel the venom rising in my mouth and I wondered if she would let me have a taste...and then it hit me. She was a permanent member of town. She wasn't following around a nomad.

"Wait?" I said, looking at her with wide eyes. "Are you my reaper?"