Disclaimer. All publicly recognizable characters, settings etc., are the property of their respective owners. The original characters, ideas and plot are the property of the author. The author is in no way associated with the owners, creators or producers of any media franchise. No copyright infringement is intended. I only do this for fun. – B

Dhampir: Broken Moonlight

A/N: If you have any questions or comments, post them in my reviews and I will answer them in my next Author's Note! I look forward to reading your reviews along with your thoughts on the story! – Bella'Xo

Chapter 20
(Bella's POV)

I wasn't sure what the hell I was doing here. Was I trying to push myself back into the zombie stupor? Had I turned masochistic – developed a taste for torture? I should have gone straight down to La Push. I felt much, much healthier around Lilly and Jacob. This was not a healthy thing to do.

But I continued to drive slowly down the overgrown lane, twisting through the trees that arched over me like a green, living tunnel. My hands were shaking, so I tightened my grip on the steering wheel.

I knew that part of the reason I did this was the nightmare, now that I was really awake, the nothingness of the dream gnawed on my nerves, a dog worrying a bone.

There was something to search for. Unattainable and impossible, uncaring and distracted... but he was out there, somewhere. I had to believe that.

The other part was the strange sense of repetition I'd felt at school today, the coincidence of the date. The feeling that I was starting over – perhaps the way my first day would have gone if I'd really been the most unusual person in the cafeteria that afternoon.

The words ran through my head, tonelessly, like I was reading them rather than hearing them spoken: It will be as if I never existed.

I was lying to myself by splitting my reason for coming here into just two parts. I didn't want to admit the strongest motivation, because it was mentally unsound.

The truth was that I wanted to hear his voice again, like I had in the strange delusion Friday night. For that brief moment, when his voice came from some other part of me than my conscious memory, when his voice was perfect and honey smooth rather than the pale echo my memories usually produced, I was able to remember without pain. It hadn't lasted; the pain had caught up with me, as I was sure it would for this fool's errand. But those precious moments when I could hear him again were an irresistible lure. I had to find some way to repeat the experience... or maybe the better word was episode.

I was hoping that deja vu was the key.

So I was going to his home, a place I hadn't been since my ill-fated birthday party, so many months ago.

The thick, almost jungle-like growth crawled slowly past my windows. The drive wound on and on. I started to go faster, getting edgy. How long had I been driving? Shouldn't I have reached the house yet?

The lane was so overgrown that it did not look familiar.

What if I couldn't find it? I shivered. What if there was no tangible proof at all? No, that was silly. If that were the case, Lilly wouldn't be here visiting, waiting for me to finish my trip back to the past.

Then, there was the break in the trees that I was looking for, only it was not so pronounced as before. The flora here did not wait long to reclaim any land that was left unguarded. The tall ferns had infiltrated the meadow around the house, crowding against the trunks of the cedars, even the wide porch. It was like the lawn had been flooded – waist high – with green, feathery waves.

And the house was there, but it was not the same. Though nothing had changed on the outside, the emptiness screamed from the blank windows. It was creepy. For the first time since I'd seen the beautiful house, it looked like a fitting haunt for vampires.

I hit the brakes, looking away. I was afraid to go farther.

But nothing happened. No voice in my head.

So I left the engine running and jumped out into the fern sea. Maybe, like Friday night, if I walked forward... I approached the barren, vacant face slowly, my truck rumbling out a comforting roar behind me. I stopped when I got to the front porch stairs, because there was nothing here. No lingering sense of their presence... of his presence. The house was solidly here, but it meant little. Its concrete reality would not counteract the nothingness of the nightmares.

I didn't go any closer. I didn't want to look in the windows. I wasn't sure which would be harder to see.

If the rooms were bare, echoing empty from the floor to ceiling, that would certainly hurt. Like my grandmother's funeral, when my mother had insisted that I stay outside during the viewing. She had said that I didn't need to see Gran that way, to remember her that way, rather than alive.

But wouldn't it be worse if there were no change? If the couches sat just as I'd last seen them, the paintings on the walls – worse still, the piano on its low platform? It would be second only to the house disappearing all together, to see that there was no physical possession that tied to them in any way besides my locket that I held dear to me around my neck. That everything remained, untouched and forgotten, behind them.

Just like me.

I turned my back on the gaping emptiness and hurried back to my truck. I nearly ran. I was anxious to be gone, to get back to the human world. I felt hideously empty and I wanted to see Lilly and Jacob. Maybe I was developing a new kind of sickness, another addiction, like the numbness before. I didn't care.

I opened my locket and stared down at the pictures on both sides of Lilly and I on one side and then the four of us on the other and stared at his beautiful face as he looked down at me with an expression that proved that he had loved me once.

I couldn't take it any more as I slammed my locket closed between my fingers and pushed my truck as fast as it would go as I barreled toward my fix.

(Lilly's POV)

Jacob and I stood on his front porch and watched as Bella's truck came into view and stopped in front of the house.

"Hey Bella!" Jake called as Bella opened her door and slid out of her truck.

The look on her face was one of relief as she smiled our way. "Hey guys," She waved at Billy, who was looking out the window.

"Let's get to work," Jacob said in a low but eager voice.

Bella let out a forced laugh. "You seriously aren't sick of us yet?" She wondered.

Jacob let the way around the house to his garage. "Nope, Not yet."

"Please let me know when I start getting on your nerves. I don't want to be a pain."

"Okay." He laughed, a throaty sound. "I wouldn't hold your breath for that, though. You girls are great to talk to and Lilly, you've been a great help around the garage."

I smiled and bumped his large arm with my shoulder. "It's no problem and I have a blast working on it all."

When we walked into the garage, Bella let out a gasp as she looked over the red bike that was now standing up, looking like a motorcycle rather than a pile of jagged metal.

"Wow, you guys are amazing," she breathed.

He laughed again. "I get obsessive when I have a project." He shrugged. "If I had any brains I'd drag it out a little bit. Then again, Lilly is the one who seems to be able to race through it all." He shot me a look.

I gave him an innocent smile. "I can't help it if I'm faster than you."

"Why would you want to drag it out, anyway?" Bella supplied.

He looked down, pausing for so long that I wondered if he hadn't heard her question. Finally, he asked her, "Bella, if I told you that neither of us could fix these bikes and that my garage was full, what would you say?"

She didn't answer right away, either, and he glanced up to check her expression. "I would say... that's too bad, but I'll bet we could figure out something else to do. If we got really desperate, we could even do homework."

I rolled my eyes in sarcasm. "Homework...yay."

Jacob smiled and his shoulders relaxed. He sat down next to the bike on the other side from where I was working and picked up a wrench. "So you think you'll still come over when I'm done, then? Even after the Road Runner over there leaves?"

I narrowed my eyes and shot him the middle finger before picking up the drill, causing him to laugh out loud at me.

"Is that what you meant?" Bella shook her head. "I guess I am taking advantage of your very under priced mechanical skills. But as long as you let me come over, I'll be here."

"And if I'm in town, that goes for me too." I agreed.

"Hoping to see Quil again?" he teased me.

I raised my hands in surrender, hoping the drill in one of my hands. "You caught me."

He chuckled and turned his expression back towards Bella. "You really like spending time with me?" he asked, marveling.

"Very, very much. And I'll prove it. I have work tomorrow, but Wednesday we'll do something non-mechanical."

"Like what?"

"I have no idea. We can go to my place so you won't be tempted to be obsessive. You could bring your schoolwork – you have to be getting behind, because I know I am."

"Homework might be a good idea." He made a face.

"Yes," she agreed. "We'll have to start being responsible occasionally, or Billy and Charlie aren't going to be so easygoing about this." She made a gesture indicating the three of us as a single entity.

I nodded. "I agree. I have a bunch of school work that was sent down here with me from my school that I need to get done, as well. I haven't even made a dent in any of it."

"Ouch!" He smirked. "So, homework once a week?" He proposed to Bella, not knowing exactly how long I would be here for.

"Maybe we'd better go with twice," she suggested thoughtfully.

He sighed a heavy sigh. Then he reached over his toolbox to a paper grocery sack. He pulled out three cans of soda, cracking one open and handing it to me before doing the same for Bella. He opened the third and held it up ceremoniously.

"Here's to responsibility," he toasted. "Twice a week."

"And recklessness every day in between," I emphasized.

"Here, here!" Bella chimed.

He grinned and touched his can to both of ours.

(Bella's POV)

We got home later than we'd planned and found that Charlie had ordered a pizza rather than wait for us. He wouldn't let either of us apologize.

"I don't mind," he assured us. "Bella, you deserve a break from all the cooking, anyway." I knew he was just relieved that I was still acting like a normal person, and he was not about to rock that boat.

I checked my email before I started on my homework, and there was a long one from Renee. She gushed over every detail I'd provided her with, so I sent back another exhaustive description of my day.

Everything but the motorcycles. Even happy-go-lucky Renee was likely to be alarmed by that.

It was after I had finished the last of my school work that Lilly finally began to question me about my whereabouts after school today. I had no choice but to be honest with her.

Just as expected, she was very understanding and sympathetic about the whole thing and let me get it all out; my thoughts and feelings on the whole thing. However, I could still see the guilt behind her bright eyes even though she had nothing to feel guilty for.

It wasn't long after that that the sound of her cell phone ringing brought us out of our discussion. I caught a glace at the caller I/D/ and saw that it was from Jasper.

"Hey Jas," She greeted him. I could hear muffled talking coming from the other line before her eyes widened. "Yeah, I can be home in a couple of hours if I run and leave the car here. I can just say that I cam going out with a friend. Bella has school and work tomorrow, anyway." She paused and there was more muffled talking coming form the speaker. "Okay baby... I love you too... bye."

She hung up the phone and looked at me, returning the look of alarm and panic on my face.

A/N: Cliff Hanger! So, what did you guys think? I'm sorry that I haven't updated in so long. I just got over a wicked stomach virus. I am beginning to continue my updates though! I also revealed where Bella was in the last chapter. Any ideas on what's going on that Lilly has to rush back to the Cullen's? I'd love to hear what you think! Review!

If you have any questions or comments, post them in my reviews and I will answer them in my next Author's Note!

To see more, go to my FF page: Xo Bella Italiana oX

If you enjoyed this story so far, check out some of my other stories on my FanFiction page! Also, I am still accepting Twilight stories that involve Jasper/any female leads or Bella/selected male leads if anyone is looking for a Beta Reader. I will make exceptions on the characters depending on the plot. I am also now accepting Phantom of the Opera FanFictions that include Erik! I will also be accepting Bones featuring Agent Seeley Booth, Dawson's Creek, Titanic FanFictions featuring Jack, Snow White and the Huntsman featuring Snow White or Eric (the huntsman), The Ghost Whisperer that feature Melinda and Law and Order SVU that feature Elliot. I will accept OC characters as well depending on the other lead character. PM me for details!
- Bella'Xo
Xo Bella Italiana oX