I listened intently for his footsteps to barrel into the kitchen, demand that Edward leaves, and shoot an accusing glare at me. However, it never came. Instead he went back out the door to retrieve something from the cruiser. I turned back to Edward, knowing I only had a matter of seconds before Charlie would find us.

I pushed away from his lean form, ignoring the confusion bubbling across his features. "You need to leave. This was a mistake, I'm sorry."

I maneuvered past him and headed for the laundry room. My fingers brushed the dryer, checking for the familiar vibration notifying me that it wasn't done. There weren't any. Just as I was pulling the lid open, I felt the familiar tingle of Edward's presence.

"Bella, please. I know-"

"No you don't Edward. You don't know half of the things I went through while you were gone. I couldn't eat, I couldn't sleep, and I couldn't even pretend to hang out with my friends for Charlie's sake. Do you know what it's like to have a consistent nightmare haunt you everytime you sleep?" I cried. A wave of exhaustion hit me, causing me to lean on the dryer to support my weight.

"I know you did what you did to protect me, but that's not how it worked. I can't handle this extra stress right now, Edward" I explained. Pain and guilt spreaded throughout his darkening eyes at my words. He moved to wrap me in his arms but I held up my hands for him to stop. I wouldn't be able to push him away if I was in the comfort of his arms, it's hard enough to attempt it now.

The door opened again and I heard the whip of Charlie's belt as he removed it. "Go," I mouthed to Edward. I turned around and threw all of the clothes into an empty basket. By the time I was done he had disappeared, leaving behind the faint scent of honey suckle.

I took a deep breath to relax my frantically beating heart. Guilt flowed through me, cold and menacing. Should I have sent Edward away? Was it selfish of me to bring up the times when he was away?

My fingers curled around my hair and tugged at it in frustration. It may not have been fair to bring up when he left, but it wasn't fair of him to leave me for protection. What if he lied about it? What if he only came back to mess with my head?

Well, if that were the case, then he would be very disappointed. I had made the mistake of letting him stomp on my heart once, I wasn't about to do it again.

The slap of paper flying on a smooth surface interrupted my thoughts. I quickly emerged into the kitchen to find Charlie waiting for me. His hands were folded neatly in front of him and the paper was laying on the other side of the table.

After a quick hand gesture from Charlie, I hesitantly sat in the chair across from him. "I know you have become fond of the woods, but I need you to stay away from them. There have been a few killings and we haven't tracked down the murderer yet."

I felt the breath fly out of my body at his words. Killings? Forks was such a small town, why would anyone pick it as a place to commit such heinous crimes. Charlie stood up and moved towards the fridge. "I'm sorry, Dad. I didn't have enough time to make you dinner."

"It's alright, kid. You've had a lot on your mind these past few weeks." I offered him a weak smile, which he quickly returned. Turning back to the paper, I gently picked it up and studied its contents.

It seems the small town of Forks, Washington have stumbled across a serial killer. Police have been on a wild goose chase looking for the three murder victims found today. Timothy Smith, age 34, was discovered just south of Forks. Along with Daniel Murray, age 5, and Shelly Cooper, age 27.

"It was one of the strangest things I've ever seen," Chief Swan says, "all of the bodies were drained of blood. There wasn't a speck of DNA from the killer on any of 'em."

Police say that it will be even more difficult to find the murderer seeing as there aren't any patterns. All three of the victims differ in gender, age, and size. An even stranger discovery was that all of the victims were found in one area. They were out in the open, not even a small attempt to cover the bodies.

"It was a creepy sight to behold," Officer William adds, "the bodies were aligned in a 'V'. Like the killer was trying to send a message.

A gasp escaped my lips and I threw the paper down. My heart beat frantically in my chest and air seemed to avoid my lungs. It was certainly a message, but not for the police.

When I had read Charlie's statement, I just assumed it was a wandering vampire stopping in for a meal. A nomad looking for a quick fix before heading to new territory.

I even went so far as to making myself believe that the "V" shape was an abbreviation for vampire. It wasn't until I read the part about referring it to a message that comprehension grasped my mind. Victoria.

With all the flurry of activities that had gone on, she had completely slipped my mind. Should I ask the Cullens for guidance in this situation? Surely a clan of vampires would know how to handle one vicious one.

I sighed and quickly dispelled the thought. It was bad enough they knew about my illness, the last thing I wanted was to worry them with a vengeful vampire.

I cleared my mind of any negative thoughts and decided to mull it over later. I sluggishly left the kitchen and found Charlie on the couch watching a game, blissfully unaware of the danger his daughter was in. I mumbled a goodnight and left for a night of dreamless sleep.

~*IWGU*~

A soft glow filled my room, a hint of the sun peeking through the clouds. My eyes slowly opened, a yawn breaking through my outstretched lips. I moved slowly out of the warm, comfy bed and padded to the kitchen.

"Dad?" I called. I scoured the living room, the kitchen, and his bedroom but he was no where to be found. Panic started to swell in my chest, he was supposed to be off today. I looked around the kitchen, praying he might have left some sort of clue behind, when I stumbled upon a letter. It was a small post-it note attached to the refrigerator by a small magnet.

Bells,

Went fishin' with Billy. Don't worry about dinner. Go see Jake, he misses you.

Love,

Dad

Of course that was where he'd be. A nice day out with him being off work was the perfect scenario for him. How I didn't come to that conclusion was beyond me.

As for the Jake part, I wasn't exactly sure of what I wanted to do. The last time I had hung out with him was to gain information about the Cullens. I had used him to get what I wanted, and I highly doubted he would take that lightly.

I pushed the decision to the back of my mind, choosing to prepare a quick breakfast instead. My stomach growled, reminding me that I hadn't eaten last night. I grabbed a pack of bacon, a handful of sausage, and enough batter to make a few pancakes. I made plenty of extra for Charlie on the off chance he came home hungry.

The meal was cooked in a matter of minutes and my stomach was filled to the brim in no time. I put all of the extra food on a plate and stuck it in the microwave in case he decided to eat some.

With breakfast now taken care of, my mind started to wander to the chores around the house. I was behind and could definitely afford to get a head start on them, but I didn't have the energy today. Besides, Charlie probably wouldn't notice if I waited until tomorrow to finish the laundry and other equally lacking areas.

Now that I had nothing but free time, it couldn't hurt to stop by Jake's place. Dealing with all of the vampire drama had really taken a toll on my stress level, and a visit from an old friend would really help.

I grabbed a coat, just in case the rain decided to rear its ugly head in, and my keys on the way out the door. Not wanting to take any chances, I quickly locked the door before heading to the truck. The key clicked in the ignition, waking up my beast of a truck.

I was startled by a sudden shriek behind me. My head whipped around to find an elderly woman jogging by the house, glaring daggers at my truck. I fought the laughter bubbling to my lips and offered her an apologetic wave. She ignored me, mumbling something about teenagers and their obnoxious cars.

I rolled my eyes and slowly pulled out of the driveway. I waited a second to give the woman some time to get ahead of me, then gunned the engine. The look of terror, which eventually morphed into anger, had me laughing so hard that I almost had to pull over. Taking a swift glance to the rear view mirror allowed me the opportunity to get a nice look at her middle finger shaking in the air.

This was the most care-free I had been in weeks. I smiled at the revelation, it was the best feeling in the world to feel so at ease. I rolled down my windows and turned on my brand new stereo. I had decided to keep their gift since they weren't the ones to break my heart. No, they were just the ones to leave you, my mind whispered.

Gritting my teeth, I turned the stereo up loud. I flipped through the stations, finding that most were either romantic songs or depressing tunes that were created to help you when you were feeling down. I ignored all of them and finally settled on an upbeat, country song. "Country Must Be Country Wide" was blaring through the speakers as I stopped at a tragically slow red light. I could feel people staring at me from all around, their obnoxiously curious eyes burning a hole in my head, but I chose to ignore them.

My eyes were trained on the glowing red light, silently praying for it to hurry up and morph into green. The awkward stares were almost enough to make me roll up my windows and run back home with my tail in-between my legs. Almost.

I sighed in relief when the light changed and quickly drove along the familiar road to Billy's. In the blink of an eye I was in front of the tell tale red house. It looked vacant, but I could hear the rowdy hollering of a group of teenage boys in the backyard.

Mustering the bit of courage I possessed, I hopped out of the chevy and stumbled along the narrow driveway. Before I could reach the door, Jacob sprung out from behind the house. His appearance was startling. He had short, cropped black hair and only wore a pair of worn-out blue jean shorts.

"Hey Jake-"

"You shouldn't be here," he mumbled, coldly. His dark, brown eyes darted from mine to an area behind us. My eyes were trained on his face, trying to find any regret or indecision, but all I found was anger. "Charlie said that you had been missing me an I really wanted to see you-"

"Well it's too late, Bella. You waited too long to show up." His eyes grew misty, as if he didn't want to say the words, but knew that he had to. What event was so major that he couldn't spare a few minutes for a visit?

"If I wait any longer I'm goin to be six feet under the next time you see me," his eyes grew wide and he stared at me in disbelief.

"How did you know about this?"

"That I have cancer? Let's see you go to a doctor and they run some tests-"

"You have cancer?" he whispered. His eyes grew even wider and his face paled. Had I not been talking with him, I would've thought he was sick. His eyes looked wild and couldn't concentrate on anything for too long, as though the information had left his mind going a million miles a minute.

"Yeah, isn't that what you were talking about?" I asked. His crazed eyes returned to mine and his head slowly shook. Before I could respond, another teenager that resembled Jacob emerged from the backyard.

"I thought you told her to leave," he barked, his eyes glaring at Jake. I felt a sudden overwhelming urge to defend Jake and snapped my eyes back to his face.

"I don't believe that's any of your business. Can you give us a minute, please?" I snapped back. His head whipped back to look at me, his anger seeming to make him shake. "Paul, calm down-"

"Calm down? The only thing keeping her alive is us, and she wants to pick fights?" he yelled. Jake pushed him back, trying to tell him to let it go, but he wouldn't listen. He seemed to tremble even more than before.

Everything seemed to happen in fast forward. A pack of teenagers ran out from the backyard, yelling obscenities at Paul. My eyes darted back to the man in question, his eyes focused on my face as he began to tremble so fast that he was a blur. Suddenly, he jumped in the air and his body morphed into the biggest wolf I've ever seen in my life. His pants were shredded and layed beside his massive form.

One of the La Push kids started barking orders, and then he too changed into a wolf. His fur a startling black, and his stance one of authority. He chased Paul into the woods, like a parent taking a small child to time out.

Jake called for me, snapping me back to reality. I turned away from him, not wanting to see the vulnerable look in his eyes, and ran for my truck. I could hear him pacing behind me, struggling to decide if he wanted to follow me or those..things.

I hurried to the truck and revved it up. My foot pressed down hard on the gas pedal, pleading with the vehicle to move faster. Jacob jumped in front of the truck, yelling for me to let him explain.

I swerved and barely missed hitting his right side. I chanced a glance in the rear view mirror to see if he was trailing behind me, but he stood in the same spot. His eyes captivated mine, begging for something I couldn't give him. Tears pooled in my eyes as I realized I would probably never see him again.

~*IWGU*~

A sense of dread pooled in my stomach when I reached the house. As though something evil was lurking, waiting for my arrival to torture me. I shoved away the feeling, pining it off to the sight I had recently endured.

On the ride over I had struggled ot think of a possible memory of the Cullens speaking of werewolves. They had never mentioned the species, but something about them seemed so blatantly obvious. As though I had the missing piece of the puzzle, but I didn't know where to put it.

I quickly pushed it to the back of my mind, deciding that I had endured enough drama for the day. I stumbled up the small stretch between the porch and my truck. My balance was significantly effected from the lack of sleep I so desperately needed.

When I reached the door, I felt chills roll throughout my body. It was cracked, something that would not have been possible unless someone had a key. Unfortunately, Charlie was still fishing with Billy. At that moment I felt my adrenaline begin to pump, warning me that if I tried to avoid whoever lies beyond the door, they would follow me.

I cautiously pushed the door open and flipped the switch on in the hallway. A gasp escaped my lips, causing her crimson eyes to dart to mine.

"Well, well, well. If it isn't the Cullens' little pet," her sickly, sweet voice purred.

I hope this was a good enough update to satisfy your curiosity long enough for me to update my other two stories. Some of you were complaining that she was too quick to let Edward in, and I have to admit that I agreed, but there will be eventual Bella/Edward. Please R & R! Thanks :)