Prologue

Bella sighed deeply as she pushed the door open, the bell of the small bookshop behind her made a loud, sharp noise before the old door slammed behind her. Moving to the side, she rested her back against the rough, dark red bricks of the terraced building she worked at.

The air surrounding her was cold, she quickly pulled on the coat she had grabbed in her rush to get out for a few minutes of air. Her coat was black and wool, worn-out but still decent enough to get her through the cold winter of New York. She scoffed as she thought back of the twists and turns her life had taken whilst digging her hand through the deep pocket of her coat, fishing out a lighter and a packet of cigarettes. She ran a shaky hand through her dark brown, almost shoulder length hair before taking out a cigarette and putting it between her lips. The small flame of the lighter flickered when a gust of wind made her shiver, but it lit the cigarette nonetheless.

She inhaled deeply and relaxed when the warm smoke filled her body, leaning back further against the wall she closed her eyes and leaned her head gently against the rough bricks.

"Happy birthday Charlie." She murmured as she opened her eyes to look up at the stark, overcast sky. She wondered if he could see her, she hoped not. She wondered what he had thought and felt in his last moments, she still hoped he had gone quickly but doubted it. "I miss you." She muttered with a tremble in her voice. God, she thought with desperation, how has it been four years already? She should've taken the day off like she usually did. The light tremor in her hands had been there since this morning, an urge to let everything go which had been locked inside her for weeks and months, had started smouldering in her chest when she woke up and realised what day it was.

She blew out the smoke she was holding inside her lungs whilst still looking up at the sky. What would he think of her? Of what she had become? He knew part of it already, he had been there for the beginning of it. She still remembered the look on his face in the deepest corners of her nightmares and dreams, the shock on his face when it had happened for the first time, the confusion, anger and eventually the horror when he finally knew why and how it all came to happen.

She looked down at her feet with a wry and bitter smile on her face. Her boots were in a similar state as her coat, worn-out and almost shabby looking but she loved her black leather boots. They were sturdy and had cost her a quite some money when she first got them almost four years ago, when she moved into the city. She scoffed at the state that her life had turned into after leaving everything behind. You didn't have anything to stay for. A cynical voice in the back of her mind bit back. They didn't want you to stay there. A sharp sting started burning behind her eyes as she moved her gaze from her boots to her hand, the rim of the cigarette was stained with a dark red smudge from the lipstick she was wearing. If only Alice could see her now, she wondered if she would be proud of her. She bit her lip when she thought back of the memories of her once tiny best friend, the edges of memories were getting blurrier as time passed.

She looked at her hand again after another drag, stretching it out towards the ground so she wouldn't block the pavement in front of her, she didn't want to accidently knock someone in the face or arm. She could see the edge of her thick, dark brown sweater peeking out from under the end of the sleeve of her coat. Only the top of her hand was visible, enough for her to see her dark red nail polish and the few deep scars running over the back of her hand. She knew that those deep scars ran almost everywhere on her body. In summer, people would stop and stare at her since her hands and arms were full of thick, white scars. Even anow, in the midst of a cold January day people would eye her would curious glances as they passed her leaning against the wall, trying to get a moment to clear her head outside the bookshop she worked at. The scars on the back of her hand might not be that noticeable until people took their time to look down at her hands, but the few scars running over her neck and the two which made their way along the pale skin of her face however did. She was used to them now, the scars and the glances. She had learned to ignore them, which didn't mean the stares didn't annoy or bother her from time to time.

She sighed again as she looked at the cigarette, she brought it to her mouth for one last drag and angled her head backwards again to look up at the sky as the warmth filled her. She tried to remember Charlie's smile behind her eyelids as she closed her eyes again. Unbeknownst to Bella, a door opened across the busy street, four very pale and very beautiful people stepped out of a newly opened, supposedly minimalist clothing store as cars rushed through the lanes. Their eyes all matching in colour and intensity, all looking very much alike and yet very different at the same time.

Jasper stopped in his tracks as a harsh wave of grief and sadness ploughed into him unexpectedly. "Jasper?" Alice murmured whilst placing a comforting hand on his arm, "What's wrong?"

Jasper tried to keep a neutral face as he scanned the faces in street around him, dozens of people were walking around them whilst cars kept rushing by. His gift consisted of more than just feeling other people's emotions, each person, human or vampire, had its own signature to the way they felt and experienced emotions. When being in a house with his family, he could usually tell which person was going through which emotions without having to check who's who. The wave of sadness and grief also had a very distinct signature to it, one that he hadn't felt in over five years. He was about to answer Alice's question when he finally noticed her across the street, leaning back against the wall. He was so taken back by the unexpectedness of seeing her there that it took him a few seconds to fully see her. "Bella." He breathed whilst his siblings froze next to him, following his gaze they saw her across the street.

She was leaning against the wall of an independent bookshop, her left heel was almost touching the brick, her other foot a bit further in front of the other one. Her hair was a lot shorter, her curls just about reached her shoulders when her head was tilted back against the wall. The cloud of smoke escaped from her mouth, her lips were a blotted, dark red shade. When the last of the smoke disappeared, she moved her head down and opened her eyes to look at the ground with a sad smile. She pressed the cigarette against the side of a trashcan standing close to her before throwing it away. He noticed the scars before anyone else did, but before he could even try to process or think of what might have happened, a voice shook him from his thoughts.

"Bella!" Alice exclaimed loudly.

A look of shock on her face appeared when a pair of wide and shocked very dark brown eyes met with her own confused, golden ones. A wave of shock went through his siblings when they finally fully saw her face.

"What the hell happened?" Emmett murmured to himself dumbfoundedly after a deafening twenty seconds of complete silence.