DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN ANY OF THE CHARACTERS FROM TWILIGHT. THEY ALL BELONG TO STEPHENIE MEYER. I'M JUST MANIPULATING THEM TO DO MY BIDDING!

EPOV

I could hear things happening around me.

People moving.

Whispers.

Objects being moved.

And then I linked it to the fact that I must be waking up. Maybe this was all a dream. One long horrible nightmare and I'm really still back in Chicago with my mother and father, there was no stalker and I would never have to leave them.

"He's waking up." I heard someone whisper. It was a female, hopefully my mother, though I don't want to say anything just in case it's not.

"'Bout fucking time." I heard someone growl. Okay that wasn't normal. That can't be my father can it? I don't remember him ever using language like that, even when he was really pissed.

"Emmett!" Someone else whispered harshly. I then heard a slap and someone wincing in pain.

"What was that for?" That same person shouted. I winced involuntarily at the sound.

"Sssh!" That was many people.

"Edward?" That was a voice a knew. That was a voice I loved. It sounded like bells chiming in the wind. I felt someone take my hand and give it a gentle squeeze. It was reassuring so I squeezed it back gently.

Bells? Bells………?

Bella!

I slowly opened my eyes, but I couldn't really see.

Oh, God! It really happened, didn't it?! The stalker is real. He chased me out of my home. Away from my parents and my life. And then he found me, attacked me in my own home. What am I supposed to do?!

"Edward?" That voice called my name again and I opened my eyes a little wider, my vision not really improving. I could see more than I could when I passed out. That much I remember. I knew that I couldn't see anything but fuzzy shapes and colours.

What happened before I passed out? I remember Rose, Alice and Jasper. Jasper on the phone to someone………a doctor. Their father's a doctor I know that much……it could have been him he was talking to……I told them no hospitals because then they'd find out who I really am- SHIT!!!

I remembered!

I told Alice, Rosalie and Jasper my last name. My real last name! They now know who I am! Fuck! I am so screwed! They're going to hate me! They're all going to hate me! They're going to leave me and never talk to me again! Great! Why couldn't I just keep my fucking mouth shut?

"Edward, look at me." I looked over in the direction that the voice was coming from. I couldn't see any details at all. "It's alright. It's okay. The doctor said that your sight will return. But it'll take a little while. It's okay."

"Bella, will you stop fucking mollycoddling him!" The voice I recognised as Emmett's shouted. "After what he did to you! After the way he spoke to you, you're just going to act like it never happened?"

"Yes, Emmett I am." Bella retorted. "Because you know what, my hurt boyfriend is a lot more important than some stupid argument we had! Are you telling me that if you had an argument with Rose, and then the same thing that happened to Edward happened to her, God forbid, you wouldn't just brush the argument aside and forget about it. And be there for her?"

"That's different." He snapped, clearly annoyed that Bella was taking my side over his.

"How is it different, Emmett?" Her grip on my hand tightened. I hated that I couldn't see what was going on properly. All I could see was two fuzzy outlines shouting. One was slight and small, Bella, by my side, sat on the bed next to me, and the other was huge, Emmett. He was standing the other side of the room, and I was glad that he did. I think that I would have had a panic attack if I'd woken up and found him sat there looming over me.

I looked around the room and I saw three more fuzzy outlines. One was small, smaller than Bella. Alice. The other two were tall, one male and one female, that much I could tell but other than the fact that they had blonde hair I could tell anything about them. Rosalie and Jasper.

I figured I'd better start getting used to idenitfying people by voice instead of looks for the time being.

"Because, Rose tells the truth." Emmett hissed. His words stung. It was the truth though. That was the hardest part. Every word he spoke was the truth. Something it seemed, I was incapable of giving.

You had no choice though. My inner voice tried to rationalise with me. You would have put them all in danger if you'd told them who you really were.

"Edward?" I heard Jasper's voice now. He was closer than he had been a minute ago. "Can you talk?"

I nodded. "Yeah." I forced my voice to work.

"Then maybe you can give us some fucking answers!" Emmett growled.

"Emmett!" Jasper was getting pissed off now. Something that very rarely happened with Jasper. He was normally the cool, collected one of the group. He was the grounded one, that kept the rest calm. "What the hell is with you today? You've done nothing but pick and snipe. What the hell is wrong with you?"

"I want some answers that's what! I want to know what the hell was so important, that he had to lie to us for over a month. Even about his own name. Which you guys know, but won't tell us!" Emmett waved between Bella and himself.

"We didn't tell you, because it's not our place to tell you!" Alice broke it. "We only found out because he needed the doctor and they needed his records. I mean we give the name Edward Masen and they come up empty then its going to look a bit weird don't you think. He told us his real name for that reason and that reason only."

Emmett didn't say anything, he only stood there and huffed. I couldn't see clearly, but it looked like he was leaning on the wall and crossing his arms.

"Where's Jason?" I asked. "Where was he last night?" I vaguely remembered that Jason hadn't been there. He always came and checked on me at least a couple of times in the night, especially since the guy that I had spotted was now branching out. He was doing all he could to make me safe.

"He's um, he's in the hospital." Bella said softly.

"What?" I couldn't believe my ears. "Why?"

"Last night, after you passed out, Jasper went to find him to find out why the hell he hadn't been there to help you, and he found Jason, knocked unconscious with a huge blow to the head." Rosalie explained, sorrow in her voice. "I called the hospital, saying that I was phoning on behalf of you, which in a way I was," I gestured for her to carry on with the story. "And they told me that there was a large amount of rohypnol in his system. They think it must have been put in his food or something to have that amount in his system. Apparently, it would have killed a smaller man."

My mouth dropped open. Jason, I thought wildly. "Is he going to be okay?"

"They say that he's going to be fine, but that amount of the drug in his system is going to affect him for a while, they don't know how long its going to take to wear off. They want to keep him in just in case of something happening." Alice explained.

"God," I ran my hands through my hair. "This is all my fault."

"No!" Bella said sternly from beside me. "This is not your fault, Edward Anthony!" I couldn't help but smile at her. Granted it would have been a lot more effective if she had used my last name. Either of them. My real one or my fake one, it wouldn't have mattered.

"Emmett, what do you wanna know?" I asked him and he looked at me. At that point in time I was glad that my vision was impaired. I really didn't want to see the look that Emmett was giving me.

"Well your real name would be a nice start." I heard Bella scoff next to me and I smiled slightly.

"That would be the one you're interested in wouldn't it, Emmett." I managed to push myself up so I was sitting up instead of lying down, straining my neck. "Seeing as you hate me."

"I don't hate you." He retorted defensively. "I'm just majorly pissed at you at the moment."

I thought for a moment, remembering all of Emmett's past conversations, or should I say arguments about me. His tone was always laced with vemon and he spat the words instead of said them. "No, from my experience you definitely hate me."

"I don't hate anyone." He said, and I could vaguely see his head moving from side to side slowly. It was as if he was looking around at everyone for back-up.

"You sure?" I asked.

"Yeah." He answered shortly.

"Postitive?"

"Well, at the moment you're making you way to becoming the one and only on the list." He said sarcastically.

"Alright, then." I opened and closed my eyes a couple of times. "You really wanna know what my name is?" I could vaguely see him nod. "Alright then. My name is Edward Anthony………Cullen."

"What?!" He yelled and I flinched, terrified that he would launch himself across the room and kill me then and there.

"Told you so." I said quietly, trying to focus on him.

"You're Edward Cullen?" He asked me disbelief dripping in his voice.

"Yes, Emmett." I said dryly. How many times did he need to confirm it. My answers not going to change.

"You're right, I do hate you." He snarled, the hatred clear in his voice. I flinched wanting to know what it is that has caused him to hate me so much. I mean I had caught a glimpse of why he hated me, when I wasn't me, but still, I didn't really understand. Whoa, this is why we reduce to numbers, ratios and quarterly figures. It's so much simpler than dealing with these things. But I had to reason that "these things" were all part of growing up and being human.

"Can I ask you why?" I asked him, wishing that I could see him clearly. I would have loved to have been able to read his expression right now, just so I knew what I was feeding off of. I mean I remembered his faces when he was fighting with one of the others about me, but that was when it was my name on a piece of paper or said over the TV. Now I was sat here in real life. Bella made to interrupt me, but I wanted to know. I needed to know why someone who had come to be my friend over the last few weeks suddenly become my enemy just because he learns of my name. "Why do you hate me so much?"

"Because you're everything that's wrong with the world." He snarled, venom dripping from every syllable. It made me squirm inside. I didn't want to to think about someone I thought was my friend hating me. "You don't have to work, you get everything handed to you on a silver platter, and you're obviously here to run away from your problems. To name but a few."

"Oh and the reasons you stated during arguments." Alice piped up. I'm not sure whether she was helping my case or Emmett's. I wanted to tell that she's not helping but thought better of it when I thought that Emmett would try to prove himself right.

"Alright Emmett, how can you think you know everything about a world you've never experienced? Let me tell you it's not all parties and gatherings and all that kind of stuff. There's a lot that happens behind the scenes. The bits that don't get broadcast on the evening news or whatever. What about all the hard work that goes into the company, huh? If it wasn't such hard work do you really think that I would have spent the last three or four years of my life being "groomed"," I made little air quotations when I said groomed. "To take over. Well do you?" I laid my head down on my pillows and sighed. "You have no idea. You have no idea why I'm here, what's happened in my past to bring me here. Just as I have no idea what's going to happen next in my life."

"Then why don't you tell us." Jasper said in a soft tone, more friendly and welcoming than Emmett's was. "Tell us why you're here. In Forks. We want to know. We really do. And you know we'll do anything we can to help you."

I shook my head. "I'll tell you. I'll tell you because I owe you that much. You guys have been the best, well if I think about it logically, the only real friends I've ever had. But that doesn't matter. You can't help me."

"We can try." Bella whispered in my ear and I shook my head again. "Well, we won't know if you don't let us in."

"Okay, you really wanna know?" I had the feeling that everybody was nodding around me but I couldn't be too sure. "Okay, guys, can't see properly here. Audio would be good."

Bella giggled next to me. "Everyone wants to know."

"One thing first." Emmett cut in, his tone a little friendlier than it had been before. I turned to face the direction his voice came from and I could make out an Emmett shaped fuzzy thing standing at the end of the bed. "What made you lose your sight last night? What happened?"

"Um, can I get to that when the story gets there please?" I asked, sheepishly and he chuckled, which was a pleasing sound to hear.

"Sure," He sighed and I could feel the bed dip where he sat down. "Hey, Ed, before you start, I wanna say I'm sorry. You know for yesterday." I wondered what he was talking about, and then I realised and nodded my head.

"It's okay." I told him truthfully. It was okay. "If I were you I probably would have done the same thing. Although I would have waitied until they actually had the door open before barging in."

"Sorry about that." He apologised again.

"Forget about it." I stated sadly. I know I want to, I added mentally.

"So, what brought to Forks?" That was the first time Rosalie had spoken since she'd slapped Emmett. I knew it was her that had slapped Emmett because she's the only one who can without getting tackled. Her and maybe Bella. "I mean, from the expression on your face its not a happy tale."

"One thing I gotta know first." Emmett said, somberly. "Any of the rumours in the papers, are they true?"

"Remind me: which rumours are these?" I really couldn't remember. There had to be many of them by now. "Just list off the ones you know and I'll be able to tell you."

"Um, well there's the one about you becoming a father soon, you're in hiding running away from a criminal record-slash-lawsuit, rehab, and those are the only ones I can remember." He explained and I could imagine the look of concentration on his face as he remembered.

"Well I can tell you, no, no and obviously not!" I smiled at how ridiculous the media is. "I have a question though."

"Shoot." I guess he figured that since I had answered his, he should answer mine.

"Did you really think I was in the mafia?" I really couldn't believe that he thought that of me.

"Well, you never know these days." I could picture the grin on his face. "I hate to tell you this but you're stalling, you know that right?"

"Yeah, I know." I took a deep breath. "I just don't know where to start."

"Well," Bella said softly next to me. "Why don't you start with the happier things about your life. You know your parents, siblings, your home and stuff like that."

"My parents?" I heard murmurs of agreement. This sounded like they really wanted to know all about me. "Well, as you probably know, my parents are Esme and Carlisle Cullen. They……they're the best parents anyone could have ever wished for. My father, he may have a reputation as a hard-headed businessman, but that's always in the office. He makes sure that nothing to do with the company spills into our home-life. He's the best Dad, you know. He's there for me when I need to talk, but when he gets pissed you know about it. To everyone on the outside he's Carlisle Cullen, billionaire entrepraneur but to me, he's just …… Dad." I sighed, missing him as I spoke about him.

"What about your Mom?" Alice asked. I could hear the smile in her voice, as I could feel the smile spreading across my face.

"My Mom." I sighed again. "She's the kindest, gentlest, most beautiful woman I know. She always makes me feel safe. Like nothing can touch me, you know? She's my rock. My constant. And I love her more than I could ever express."

"You guys sound close." Bella whispered, in my ear, just loud enough for the others to hear.

"Yeah, we are. Or at least we were." I sighed again.

"What do you mean you were?" Rosalie asked.

"Okay, this where everything starts okay? And I've never told this to … anyone before, so can you guys, just let me get it all out in one go?" I heard murmurs of agreement from everyone. I took a deep breath. "Well, it all started about two, two and a half months ago. Everything was going great you know, same as always, Mom, Dad and I were happy. A lot people have ideas that rich parents are neglectful and you know, leave their kids with nannies or carers or whatever, but my parents…they were never like that. They were always there, you know? Every school play, every sporting event, everything. They were there. Even if it wasn't that important, they were always there. My Mom, when I was little, she was like……proper soccer Mom, you know?" I stopped, missing those simpler days.

"What changed?" Bella asked, urging me to carry on.

"The phone calls started." I could feel my heart starting to plummet now as I got into the harder part of the story. "They started off pretty infrequent and harmless you know, we thought that they were just prank calls you know? But……then they started coming more and more often. Pretty soon, it was once a day or so, and they began telling us things we, or more specifically what I was doing. And they were always right. It wasn't just, like clothes that I was wearing or something like that, they would be able to tell them where I was in the building and what I was doing. Or if I was in the room, how I was standing, who or what I was facing, you know, stuff that they would only be able to know if they were …… watching me. "

"Sounds likes someone had it in for you." Rosalie whispered and I nodded.

"It's okay." Bella wrapped her arms around me. "I think we get the picture."

I let out a choked laugh. "What's so funny?" Emmett asked, being completely serious.

"Because that's what came next." I said dryly. "Pictures and photographs."

"Of what?" Bella asked softly, I think fearing the answer.

"Of me." I tried to hold back the tears that were threatening to fall now. "There would be a new letter everyday or every other day. And with them, there would be new pictures that he'd taken. Um, have the police been through here at all?" I asked them and they all shook their heads. I turned to the side where I could see three fuzzy shapes. I knew them to be Rose Jasper and Alice. "Would one of you be able to go down to my darkroom? There are some pictures hanging up in there, they should be dry by now. You'll see what I'm talking about."

"I will." Alice said, getting up and starting to walk out of the room. Where is it?"

"You remember the locked door that Emmett always thought was a portal to a different time?" She nodded, or at least, I think she did. "It's that one. It should be open. If not there should be a key on the side next to you Bella." Bella turned around and picked up a key, holding it up for me to see, or not really as the case may well be. "What does it look like?"

"Oh, sorry." She said and I could tell she was blushing. She always does. "It's brass, small, and it had INGERSOLL written on it."

"Yeah, that's the one." She handed it to Alice who started towards the door again. "Alice?" I called and she stopped. "Don't look at them before you come up here, please."

"Okay." With that she left the room and a sombre mood fell over everyone. My eyes were starting to hurt, and close on my but I forced them to stay open. I would get through this. I had to get through this. I owe it to them. They deserve to know.

Moments later, Alice slipped back into the room and handed me the pictures. I hated the fact that I was going to show these pictures to my friends. But they needed to see what kind a psycho I'm running from here. I handed them to Bella and asked her to pass them round. I saw her eyes go wide at each picture. They obviously hadn't realised how close this guy could get to me.

"These are……insane." Emmett breathed out. "Who would be sick enough to do something like this."

"The same guy who did this to me last night." I gestured to my face and wrists. "It's actually thanks to you three that I'm still here. I would either be dead, or being tortured down in the basement if you hadn't come in and started screaming for me Rose."

"Well, I try," Her voice sounded smug and I didn't need to eb able to see to tell you that she was smiling.

"It's because of this guy that I'm here." I carried on. "With these pictures that he sent through, there would always be at least one through with the letters, phone calls or emails. And they were always just single photographs. I mean, there was even one of me on my school trip to Colorado three months ago. This psycho had followed me there. I think he was trying to make a point. The point that I wouldn't ever be able to escape him. That he would be wherever I was." I took a deep breath. "And then the threatening letters started. They were always typed, so you couldn't do a handwriting match-up or anything. But they were …… detailed." I shivered involuntarily.

"Detailed?" Jasper asked. "What do you mean?"

I shook my head. "No." I stated simply. "No, I can't."

"It's okay." Bella rubbed my shoulders soothingly. "It's okay, you don't have to."

"Were they…… about you?" Alice asked tentatively. I nodded.

"About how he wanted my father to beg him for……"

"For?" Rosalie pressed gently.

"My life." It came out as a whisper, but they all heard it. "How he wanted my Dad to beg him not to …… kill me. And how he wanted me to beg him to kill me. He wanted my Dad to listen to……" I shook my head. "I mean, he hadn't even asked for anything, nothing at all. He was just………threatening. Carlisle offered so much. Millions for this guy to just leave me alone. I mean, why else would you threaten a billionaire's son, right? But they refused it all. All of it. Nothing my father offered would get this guy to give in. I mean, why threaten without a ransom?" I sighed, dropping my head into my hands. "I remember what it was that started to break my father. Started whittling him down into the man that felt he had no choice but to send me there."

"What was it?" Alice asked in a timid voice.

"He told my father that he would pay for his past mistakes and that he would claim his prize when we was ready." I said, my head still in my hands.

"I'm confused." Emmett said, big change there then. "What's the prize?"

"Me." I whispered. I took another deep breath. "I don't know what happened that morning, but there was a phonecall. This one must have been different than the others because that was the morning that my father decided he was going to send me away. Watching him going through the papers and forms that I would need and finalising everything with Jason, it wasn't like watching my father, the man that I grew up with. The man I idolised. The man that I had spent four years training to become. He was a broken man. He seemed to be only half the man that he was only a few months ago." I leaned into Bella's shoulder, thankful for her warmth. "I guess that's what having threats made on your only son's life will do, isn't it?" I didn't expect any response. I certainly didn't expect Rose to walk over to the bed and wrap her arm around my shoulders in the way she did. "But even sending me away didn't work. I don't think it was twenty-four hours before he found me again."

They all sat there, probably gaping at me. Probably wondering how I had been able to act so casual knowning that there was someone watching my every move.

"You remember the first slumber party we had at my house?" I asked them all, and I heard the general murmurs of agreement. "Well, I saw him then. That's why I was so freaked out that night. That's why all that security team showed up. They're employed by my father." I looked at Bella and leaned on her shoulder.

"And that letter that you got?" She remembered it. Granted it was only a few days ago, but still, I would have thought that with everything that had happened over the last day or so, that would be pushed from her mind.

"That was from him, telling me that he was going to find me." I whispered into her shoulder. I couldn't press my face into her neck like I wanted to because of the mild burns the chemicals had caused around my eyes. I hope they don't scar. I know its shallow, but still. I don't want to have to explain them for the rest of my life. If they do I could always get it rectified. I would never use anything like that, unless I was permentantly scarred or something like that. "What I didn't want to acknowledge was that he had already found me." And to think he was probably watching my breakdown with a huge fucking grin on his face.

"What about the journal?" Jasper asked and I flinched slightly.

"Bella, I'm so sorry." I told her, feeling the tears springing to my eyes. "I didn't mean it. I think I was just so stressed and do freaked out by all this stuff, that I saw you with it and I wanted to take away from the idea that there was some unseen force fucking with my life."

"It's okay love, it's okay." She kissed my forehead gently and I smiled.

"Speaking of journals," Jasper commented. "Bella mentioned that you have a bookcase full of them, where, might I ask."

"Right in front of you." I told him. I knew where he was sitting and where the bookcase was in the room so I knew that I was right.

"You mean that they…."I could see something pointing in the direction of my bookcase. "Are your journals?"

I nodded and shrugged. "I guess I have a lot to write down."

I could feel my eyes closing on me and I didn't know whether it was because of the burns on my face or the fact that my body had gone into shock over what had happened over the last few days.

I sighed and leaned into Bella, closing my eyes and sighing. She smiled and kissed to top of my head.

"I think someone needs some sleep now, you guys." I knew that she was indicating to me and I really didn't care. "We can ask whatever questions we have later on when he wakes up or tomorrow."

"I do have to ask one thing though," Alice asked. "Edward?"

"Mmm," I mumbled, earning a giggle from Bella. "Yeah."

"What ......... how did he burn your face?" She asked as gently as she could.

"He, um, he grabbed me by the throat and then flung my head into a vat of chemicals. " I heard Alice and Rosalie gasp in horror and Emmett and Jasper groaned complaining that someone that sick shouldn't be allowed to walk the earth. If I wasn't so sleepy I would have been inclined to agree.

I heard the others get up and leave the room, as I started to drift off. When Bella tried to wriggle out from underneath me, I just wrapped my arms around her even stronger.

"Stay," I mumbled, into her side. "Stay with me tonight."

"Okay, love," I could really get used to her calling me that.

For now, all my problems had disappeared. And all I wanted was a peaceful sleep.

Something that I was welcoming.

So the truth is out.
The know about Edward and about the stalker.
But can they help in the way they want to?
Only time will tell :P
xx