A/N: Okay, so I'd like to give you an idea of what in the world was going through Edward's head in the last chapter. He actually did have valid reasoning for dancing with supposed thin air. And if you're wondering what in the world is going on with Bella being there but not being there, that's the point. And if you're thinking that maybe she's insane, well, I won't give any hints.

EPOV

We were going to the school dance tonight. None of us really wanted to, but it would get our minds off her. I'd never really had to worry about what I thought about before. It was a strange feeling to have to monitor your thoughts.

My hate for Isabella had lasted for almost a month. I think that everyone else was still mad, but my hate had all dissolved into sadness. I didn't understand how she could fool us so thoroughly. She had controlled her emotions and decisions. She had done everything right. It almost seemed as though the Volturi already knew everything about us, to be able to avoid us so easily. There was no need for them to come and study us.

I was pulled out of my thoughts by Alice, and found myself sitting at the piano with a strange sense of comfort. It was almost as if she was there. As if she was there and she was her. Not the heartless Isabella that she was in the letter. The one before that, who would get in oil fights, play piano, or yell at me through writing. The girl that I fell in love with.

I walked up the stairs, and was soon being directed every which way by Alice. I had to put this on. Put this in my hair. Comb it this way. She styled my hair, but I messed it up as soon as she was out of sight. She made sure to scowl at me when she got in the car with Jasper, but I pretended not to see it. We soon sped off toward the school. Everyone was driving with his or her respective other, so I was alone in the car. I didn't mind as much as I thought I would. It gave me time to prepare myself for what was sure to come. Alice had dressed me up as if I was going to a wedding instead of a school dance. The girls would not be leaving me alone all night.

With a resigned sigh, I stopped the car in the lot, and walked into the building. Almost immediately, I was set upon by girls. One after another, they left their dates and came to talk to me and try to get me to ask them to dance. I wouldn't.

At first, I didn't notice the flow slowing. In fact, it didn't really stand out until girls stopped coming all together. I had no idea what was going on, but I wasn't going to look a gift horse in the mouth, so I thanked whatever deity had brought this on, and moved to a dark corner of the gym not touched on by the glaring spotlights. I felt strangely comfortable here, in my own little world away from everyone else. The music seemed to quiet and it was easy to convince myself that we were in two different worlds, the children and I. It freed me to think forbidden thoughts. To mull over what could have been, what was, and what wasn't. No one was here to catch me and distract me. No one would stop me.

So I thought about Isabella. I had loved her so much; it seemed so unfair that I would have to fall in love with the one girl who was just acting. I didn't know that I deserved that much of a punishment.

Allowing myself to focus for the first time in a month, I felt the constant throbbing in my chest. It was a constant hurt. A hurt that didn't overtake me only because I shared the burden with my family. If it weren't for them, I would probably still be back in that hovel in Rio. No, I would be back there. They were the only thing that kept me functioning and going to school every day.

But why did I have to be a vampire? Or at least why did vampires have to be basically unchangeable? I would never fall out of love with Isabella. The change that came over me when I realized that I was in love with Isabella was permanent. I would never move on, or get better. There would always be a constant ache in my chest. A throbbing of my heart. I knew that I would never move on.

But I could let her go.

There was a sense of pain that came with that thought. There was also a sense of rightness. Isabella was not someone you could hold on to. She was not someone to own. She had let me go. I had to let her go too.

Just then, a slow song started to come over the speakers. Reminding myself that none of the humans would be able to see into my corner, and that my family would be too distracted to look, I allowed myself to lose the battle against insanity, if only for a moment. I lifted my arms into position, recalling a life lived a century ago, and danced with an imaginary dance partner. I tried to imagine that Isabella was in my arms, spinning gracefully in our own little bubble of a world. I tried harder than I ever had before, but I still couldn't see her. I searched the empty space between my arms, desperately seeking a sign that she was there, and simultaneously begging my subconscious to give me this one break. This one relief.

And so I would have to do this without the sight of her. Closing my eyes and looking up at the ceiling, I imagined what I would say to her if she were here to hear it. Bella, I love you more than anything else in the world. I couldn't even imagine what she would look like if she smiled. I had never seen it. I'll never stop loving you, but I see now that my affections are not returned. So, I want you to know that I don't hold anything against you. I'll let you go. I won't follow you when you've made it clear you don't want to be followed. Sorry if this is completely unnecessary. It's more for me than you. I just wanted some closure. I just wanted to say goodbye. And then I would walk away. Already, I felt a sense of wrongness. The only thing that allowed me to hold onto my resolve was the fact that I knew it would make Bella happy.

And just as I gave up trying to conjure Bella up in my mind, I looked down; eyes still closed and saw her before me. She had tears running down her face, and even though that was impossible, and she was crying, she was still the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. It didn't matter if it was all in my imagination. She was here, and it was the greatest blessing I had ever received.

But now that I looked closer, I saw that behind the tears, her face was wrenched into a grimace that showed ultimate suffering. Her mouth was open just the slightest bit, and her eyes were staring up into mine with a silent question and plea. I couldn't tell what she was thinking, so I had no idea what she wanted. But then, a strange determination came over her features. Her mouth hardened into a thin line and then she spoke, pain saturating her every word.

"Please." She seemed to choke on the word, almost unable to say it. My heart twisted painfully in my chest, and I knew in that moment that I could never move on. Could never let her go. She was everything. As if hearing my thoughts, she continued. "Please. Don't give up on me. I love you. I want you, and I want us. Please. Not yet, not ever." I still hadn't opened my eyes. I could see her perfectly, and I would never give up on us. The only way I could be seeing something like this would be if there was a God. And if there was a God, then he showed this to me for a reason. I looked back down at her, and she had her face buried in my shirt, whispering please over and over. My heart broke all over again.

Finally, I dragged my eyes open, and she disappeared immediately. I missed her presence so much, but her words had struck a chord in me, and I knew I would never be able to let her go after that. Even if I was just going insane, I felt like that was something I was supposed to see. I felt the walls closing in on me. Claustrophobia kicked in and I whirled around and left the gym. Without bothering to touch the Volvo, I took off into the woods. My family would understand.

Inside was an earthquake, conflict was raging inside me. I would never forget the look on her face, and as I ran, I was sure I could almost hear someone behind me screaming.

I saw Bella for the second time a few days later. I was sitting at the piano, eyes closed, deciding what to play, when she suddenly appeared in my line of vision. I jumped, and she looked at me in shock for a moment, before shaking her head and coming to sit next to me. She laid her head on my shoulder, and I fancied I could feel it.

It was funny how I had already created a distinction in my head between Bella and Isabella. Bella was the girl I was seeing now. The girl who seemed to be the girl I fell for. Isabella was the girl who was willing to leave an entire town missing her and wondering where she had gone. Isabella was heartless. Bella was not.

After a few more minutes of my thinking and sitting, she started to make impatient noises and gesturing toward the piano with her hands, miming me playing. I understood what she wanted, but I was unwilling to open my eyes and have to stop looking at her. Eventually, she just huffed and turned her back to me. Reaching up in the direction of the piano, she started to touch what I assumed were the keys.

It was a strange sensation. I was unable to see anything except for Bella and myself. Everything else was black. I had no clue what anyone else was doing.

Wondering if she was playing a song, I reached out and put my hands over hers, pressing on the keys she touched. As soon as my hand touched hers, Bella jerked away from the seat and whipped around to look me in the eye. Slowly, she waved her hand in front of my face. I smiled at her. If I was going to go insane, I might as well do it thoroughly. She got a slightly dazed look in her eyes, but soon turned back to the piano.

She tapped different places, fingers suspended in the air, at a rapid pace. After a moment, I resumed my following of her fingers. Next thing I knew, I was playing a song full of heartache and sadness. Within seconds, Alice was there, tugging on my arm.

"Come on Edward. Rose and Esme are talking, so I need you to help me design clothes." I knew what this was. She didn't really want me there. She thought I had written the song, and she was trying to distract me. But I hadn't been me. It had been Bella. I opened my mouth to tell her this, but decided it would make the situation worse rather than better. Besides, if Bella wrote it, and Bella was a figment of my imagination, then didn't I write it?

I had opened my eyes at the same time as my mouth, and realized with dismay that I could no longer see Bella. I longed to close them again, to play the song Bella wanted to, but I knew that would just confuse Alice and make her worry. Anyway, if they thought I was going insane, they wouldn't let me be by myself at all until they were sure I was better. And since I couldn't talk to Bella if I wasn't alone, and I wasn't so sure of my sanity myself, it would be better to just go with Alice.

She turned and ran up the stairs, and I followed her, but only after closing my eyes and taking a quick glance at Bella, who looked ready to join us.

I spent the rest of the day with Alice talking my ears off, and imaginary Bella sitting by my side, rolling her eyes occasionally.

BPOV

He could see me. Or, at least, I think he could. I had finally woken up after a long sleep on the ocean floor, and I quickly ran over to the Cullen's house. Edward was sitting at the piano, and I had just gone through the wall when he jerked back. But no, that was impossible. No one could see me when I was like this.

Ignoring any sense of trepidation, I went to sit next to him and rested my head on his shoulder. I reveled in his closeness. For a while, I sat there, waiting for him to play something. When he still didn't, I pretended he could see me and started gesturing toward the piano, hoping some sixth sense would tell him what I wanted.

I soon gave up. The smooth ivory look of the keys filled me longing. I wanted to play, but I knew that everyone in the house would hear it, and someone might see the keys moving on their own accord. Plus, Edward was right next to me. He would hear and know that someone was playing. He would open his eyes, and my cover would be blown. Still, I allowed my hands to reach out and stroke the silky ivories. Soon, I danced along them, touching just lightly enough to not create a sound. I could hear it in my head, and it was almost as good as playing.

Then, Edward reached out and placed his hand over mine, pressing on the same places I pressed. I jerked back and stared at him. His eyes were still closed. How could he see me? No one had ever been able to. Ever. What was different about this time?

With a last plead for coincidence; I waved my hand in front of his face. He smiled at me, but I could see that it was a self-mocking. He thought he was imagining me? I briefly considered disappearing, but then decided that it wouldn't change anything. Edward obviously thought he was insane, so my staying had no effect on him.

Slowly, I turned back to the piano and played. I expected it this time when Edward reached out and started to play the song I was trying to. It filled the house, and I was ashamed by the amount of pain and heartache in it, but I had no control of what I played once I started. It was impossible to guess what would flow from my fingers.

Soon, Alice was there. I knew what she was doing. The whole family was desperately trying to keep anyone from thinking too much about me. I knew I should be flattered or something. I had affected them so much, but it really just broke my heart to see that they still hurt over me. I knew I should have just ignored Alice when she jumped through my window that one night. I could have stayed out of their lives, and they would never be in this kind of pain.

"Come on Edward. Rose and Esme are talking, so I need you to help me design clothes." She tugged relentlessly at Edward's arm, and I knew he would go with her. He opened his mouth to say something, but seemed to think better of it and closed it. Curiosity filled me almost immediately. What was he going to say? Did it have to do with me? Did he even hurt over me anymore? He had let me go, maybe that was all he needed to move on. To stop hurting.

I knew he would never fall in love again, and I felt the guilt that came with that every second of every day. He was a vampire, and as much as I wanted him to move on, he never would be able to, because he never changed. When you're a vampire, you fall in love once, and that's it. If it doesn't work out, sorry buddy, but it's the end of the road for you.

This whole thought process took under a second, and I watched now as Edward opened his eyes. I look of dismay crossed his features, and he glanced right at me, but I could tell that he couldn't actually see me. You learned to tell the difference when you were invisible all the time.

Did this mean that he had seen me the other night at the dance? No, he hadn't shown any reaction to my being there. There was no way that he could have seen me. My panicked thoughts slowed down as I logiced my way out of terror mode.

Alice flashed up the stairs, and I expected Edward to sprint right after her, but he closed his eyes first. His head flicked in my direction, and I entertained the thought that he was looking at me, but the he was up the stairs and in Alice's room, with me shadowing him.

Through the rest of the day, we sat up in Alice's room, listening to her mindless babbling. Every time Alice turned around, Edward would turn to look at me. I would smile at him when I caught him, but there were many times that I felt his eyes on me when I wasn't looking.

And for the next week, we were caught in a weird sort of limbo. It was like we were in our own world, and in a way, we were. Every day, I would follow Edward around, and he would sneak peaks at me whenever no one was looking.

I had learned for sure that he had passed it all off to insanity by now. He would mutter about it to himself when he thought no one was in the room, but I could hear him. I think he was going slightly insane now that he believed it, though. He was constantly talking to himself, and he would stop in his tracks randomly throughout the day and just stand there until someone got him to keep moving. If he closed his eyes while he did it, it was usually me.

I had figured out how it all worked. He could only see me when his eyes were closed. The reason no other vampire had ever seen me when in this form was because it wasn't natural to close our eyes, or even blink. It just wasn't necessary for vampires. The Cullens only did it because it was a forced habit from being part of society.

It was a conversation between Esme and Edward that helped me figure all this out. Edward trusted her above all else, and he knew she wouldn't judge, so when the rest of the family was on a hunting trip (they had stopped going as a family as often) he approached her.

"Hey Esme. Can you talk for a little while?" he asked cautiously. There was no need. Esme was ecstatic that someone was talking in a tone that didn't hold the same urgent happiness that had become common over the last month and week.

"Of course Edward. You know you can always talk to me." She patted the spot next to her on the couch, and I saw again how they brought their human act home even though they didn't really need to. Did it make them feel more human? Was it just a way to seek out that humanity that they once felt and now missed dearly?

Edward sat as if tired and opened his mouth. "I think I'm going insane."

"Oh honey, it's going to get better. It already is. Here we are, just two of us in the house. This wouldn't have happened before. This horrid act going on right now will go away soon. We all just need some time to recover." She thought he was just using 'insane' as a figure of speech. But no, he was completely serious.

"No, I think I'm really going insane." She didn't seem to know how to reply to this, so Edward kept talking. "I see her. Every time I close my eye, I see her as if she's here. She stays with us. She sits with me at school. She laughs at Emmett's jokes. She hunts with me. She's everywhere."

Esme was trying to be as honest as she could be. "I'm not sure hot to respond to this Edward. Don't you think you should talk to Carlisle? Maybe he could help you."

"But that's just it. I don't know if I want to be helped. I miss her so much, and, in a way, this is how I can be with her. It's her the way she was when she was acting. When she's in my head, she's the girl I fell in love with. It's like, as long as she's there, I don't have to wonder about what Bella's doing now, or what she's really like, cause all I have to do is close my eyes, and I know."

She was crying now, and I hated the fact that I was inadvertently causing her dry sobs. She reached over and hugged Edward, and, even though I could tell that he really didn't want to, he hugged her right back.

"I wish I had that too. I'd love to see her as part of the family." She paused now, and I prayed she wouldn't close her eyes, because then she would see me and Edward would see that he wasn't insane. Others could see me too. "But you need to let her go. You can't stay stuck in the past."

"I already did. At the dance. I let her go, or, at least, I tried to."

"What do you mean?"

"I was saying goodbye to her in my head. I even had a last dance. But then I closed my eyes and started to imagine what I would say to her if she were here, and I saw her.

"And she was crying Esme. I made her cry. She was looking at me with horror filled eyes, like she knew what was going on even though I hadn't said anything. And then she started to beg me. She cried and begged for me to not give up on her. To not give up on us. And she told me she loved me.

"That was the first time I saw her, and at first I thought it was a one-time vision sent to me from GOD telling me not to move on. But then she came back three days later. I was going to play piano and she came in and just sat next to me, as if what she was doing was completely normal."

Esme was spellbound by now. It was like she was clinging on to this vision of me. The type of me that would come back, and not leave this house empty and Edward lonely. She seemed to take hope from Edward's story and I wanted nothing more than to appear in their living room right that moment. But no, I knew where I actually was. I was at the bottom of the ocean. I might get to land before I could convince myself that I needed to stay away, but I would never make it to the Cullen's house.

Besides, I wanted to hear the rest of the conversation.

"How does it work?"

"What?"

"Seeing her. What do you see?"

"It's exactly like my eyes are closed unless she's in the room. Then everything is still dark, but I can see her and I can see me. That's it. I usually have to open my eyes to see what she's doing, because I can see her hand, but I can't see what she is moving with her hand."

"Why are you telling me this?" It wasn't said like an accusation, or a pitiful howl of pain, it was simply a question. She was wondering what was compelling Edward to share. I was wondering the same thing.

"I need to have someone know what's going on with me, and I need to have someone to keep me as sane as they can, because right now, I'm not too sure I can stay in the right frame of mind."

They sat there in silence for a minute, while I thought over what I had just heard. Suddenly, something that I had missed in the beauty of the moment, popped out at me.

Edward had seen me that day when we were at the dance. He had seen me, and he hadn't given up on me. He was willing to stay insane just so he could see me again, even if it was only in his imagination

I couldn't stop myself then, and I ran over and kissed him full on the lips. It wasn't like he could feel me. I was in bliss right now. In fact, I was so distracted that only a small part of my mind registered the question that Esme asked.

"What's she doing right now?"

And by the time that had forced its way to the front of my brain, it was way too late. Edward had just closed his eyes. I pulled away, but I wasn't quick enough to avoid his seeing my little PDA. His eyes flew back open, and he looked at Esme, then at where I was supposed to be, then back at Esme, and then down at the ground. If he were human, he would have been blushing.

"Well?" Esme asked, oblivious to his little embarrassment. Luckily, he was saved from further mortification by the door banging open. Alice stood in the doorway, her terrified face framed by her hair's night-black spikes.

"All of our futures just disappeared."

A/N: Okay, so the chapters have little to no dialogue at the moment. Bella didn't know Edward could hear her until a few seconds ago, and even now, she doesn't want him to know that she can talk to him.

So we're all stuck with a whole lot of observation and thought.

Oh well.

Please review anyway on what you thought of this chapter. I have 200 reviews on this story! Oh my goodness! This is by far the most I have ever had. Keep reviewing. I love you guys.

Review PLEASE!