Before we begin, I would like to apologize. I have been so busy with life (and a new boyfriend), school (and exams [6 days ahhhh!]) and I have had a major case of writers block for the last week. Plus I still type slowly and suck at writing long chapters. I love all of you who have continued to remind me you love this story and I want to thank absolutely everyone for the wonderful reviews and your support.

"Yes! Yes I'll marry you!"

He pulled back, searching my face, obviously looking for another prank. Brown flickered briefly around him, before he leaned in again, satisfied with my answer. He kissed me passionately, before we both calmed down a little. We sat in the empty theatre for a brief period of time, talking about the performance, and the beauty of it. It didn't really matter to me. I was insanely happy, more so than I had ever been whilst living with the Cullens.

As we finally exited the dark room I was hit with a multitude of colours, coming from the building itself. One of the elevator doors was white and yet the surrounding wall was turquoise. I hadn't noticed all of the colours before, but as I looked through the colours, I saw what I would usually see; a simple brown finish on the walls and dull gold elevator doors. Why did everything suddenly have a different colour, almost like a glow, around it?

I let Edward into my mind, to let him see my happiness and my confusion, and suddenly he stopped and turned to look at me.

"Bella?"

"Edward."

"You're seeing colours." He stated. Obviously.

"Yes, I did happen to realise that. I thought, at first that I was just elated at your proposal, but now, it's still there, and I'm not as giddy with joy as I was."

"Giddy with joy?" he quoted. I hit him on the side of the arm, trying to get him to focus.

"I'm serious. I know I'm still happy, but I'm not so strongly taken by it as I was, so I don't understand why I am still seeing colours."

"Let me in again?" he asked politely. I opened up my mind and he frowned as he looked through my eyes.

"It's beautiful, almost aura-like. We'll have to ask Carlisle."

"Aura?"

"Yes, it's like the temperament of people, and in this case, even objects, only it is shown as colours. The only aura colour I can remember ever researching was white."

"Why white?" I asked as we got into his car outside. We were passing dozens of humans and it wasn't bothering me; I was too interested in our current conversation. Edward smiled at me as we got into the car.

"White was the colour of death in so many old cultures, I wanted to know why, and as it turns out, when people are sick or extremely close to death, their auras turn white."

I thought back to the elevator. It was white. Did that mean that the machinery was faulty, making the elevator 'sick', or had there been a death there? Edward continued his educating:

"In the past, people were trained to see auras, not like today, where the majority of the population doesn't even believe in them."

"Do you?"

"I do now." He answered evasively. I smirked at his expression. It was so lost and excited and still happy from his recent mood shift. Suddenly though, it turned sad.

"I'm sorry." He said.

"For what?"

"For not bringing you a ring, for not proposing properly."

"Edward, your proposal was perfect. You meant every word of it, and you pulled it straight from the heart. I love you, never doubt that." I said, squeezing his arm and then turning my head to look outside. "Chicago?"

"Yes. I wanted to show you something." He smiled. I noticed two things about that smile – it didn't reach his eyes, and a flicker of gray appeared in his 'aura'. So this could act as a lie detector then?

"What's wrong Edward?" I asked. He shrugged – actually shrugged – before the car suddenly turned down a street and his speed slowed significantly. I looked around and saw nothing but modern buildings. What could possibly be in here that Edward wanted to show me? I knew that he had once lived here, as a human, but there was nothing older than twenty years on this street.

He pulled off suddenly, stopping between two shiny glass buildings, and as he did I gasped in mild joy. The buildings beside the house had little to no colour, not having time to develop their personalities as buildings I supposed, but right between them, looking like it had been untouched by time, was a beautiful old mansion. It was glowing purple and white, and yet the building itself was multiple shades of brown. It looked like everything had been built up around it, as if the modern world had ignored its presence, like water flowing around a rock in the ground, instead of over it.

Edward looked at the house, many colours good and bad flashing across his face, until he turned to me.

"This is the house that I lived in, until I, until we, got sick. The last day I remember being here was about three days before my father died. We were in the hospital after that." I knew the story from there.

Edward took me by the hand and kissed my knuckles gently.

"I haven't been back here before. I bought the house from afar, in case I did ever want to come back, but I've never actually..." he frowned and looked to the house, lost in a memory of something or another.

I waited for him, seeing an array of darker colours flash over his body. Darker colours must equal negative thoughts, or feelings, or something. It was a while before he actually began to move. We got out of the car and he inhaled, smelling the old wood. I was taking in the severity and intimacy of the situation.

He eventually led us in and I looked around at the house, untouched by time, aside from the hum of the traffic outside. It was not clean, a thick layer of dust coated everything, and multiple spider webs hung from various surfaces. I moved, unconsciously closer to Edward at the sight of them. He chuckled ever so slightly. I listened, to the creaking wood as we walked, as well as the ridiculously fast heartbeats of the bats living above us. I watched Edward more than I did our surroundings. He, ever so tentatively, placed his hand on the dusty banister, leaving finger impressions in the dust.

"I used to slide down this when I was younger. I just have a vague, and random memory of sliding down this, landing on my feet at the bottom, and tumbling slightly into the wall. I can remember laughter, but not much else after that." Edward wasn't talking to me, not really.

"I can remember my birth mother getting angry with me once, for sliding and landing on a glass table. It shattered beneath me and cut into one of my favourite pair of trousers."

I could do nothing but watch as multitudes of emotions swirled around him. Everything seemed to be so quiet, almost unnaturally. Even the house could have been listening to him. He looked around, until his eyes settled on me. He blinked, as if surprised I was there, and then took me by the hand and led me softly upstairs. With every step we took dust was lifted into the air, forming swirling eddies that floated around us as we continued. He led me to what appeared to be his old bedroom. There was even a photograph sitting on a dresser. It was extremely grainy and faded, but it looked like Edward, only younger, and obviously human.

Why hadn't anyone looted this place? The house was filled with items that could be sold for a handsome price. Edward answered my thoughts, maybe he had heard them, maybe he was just thinking as I was.

"Because of the flu warning, no one has been in this house since it was abandoned. I think the locals also think this place is haunted."

"People think they can get the flu from a dusty house after eighty years?"

"Viruses and bacterium can be carried through animals you know. They can remain dormant in generations of bats – for example – and one bite, suddenly you're infected."

"If you say so." I smiled. It still seemed silly to me. 'Wouldn't there be other reported cases though? The bats can't stay here all the time."

"Then perhaps they just believe the house is haunted."

We continued around his house, he was reliving memories, I could see the changes in his demeanour, as well as the colours that warped around him. The rooms within the house, although mostly white, had bursts of colour that contrasted. Oddly enough, these were objects Edward would point out and tell me stories about.

The most beautiful colours in the house, shrouded the piano on the first floor. Pinks, yellows and oranges clung to the dusty piano like metal to a magnet. Edward looked older than I had ever seen him, but not in a tortured way. More in the way of resignation, going back to something and seeing you couldn't possibly return to it, no matter what.

We spent hours in the house, me learning more about him than I could ever hope to retaliate. I had no amazing stories, no decades to fall back on. I felt very meek and intimidated as we left the house, although more in love with the man I was going to marry.