Author's Note: Sorry, I know it's been like two weeks since I've updated, but we've been having exams in school and then I had some uploading problems and it's just been really busy. I'll try to get the next one up sooner, I know it's really annoying. Especially since this chapter is sort of a filler chapter to bridge the time gap between Chapter 1 and Chapter 3. Anyway, it's short, but I'll try to make the second one longer...at least two-three thousand words, I hope. (By the way, I know it's sort of veering from the summary a bit, but I am planning on doing the whole Bella-Rosalie relationship thing)

Disclamer: Bella and Rosalie and all the Twilight characters and settings belong to Stephenie Meyer. I thought up the plot, though.

That night of waiting and pity and not understanding would serve to be the beginning of a painful episode in our lives. Well, more specifically, the lives of the Cullen family. And I knew for a fact that it was (at least in part) due to me, although the Cullens would never dream of telling me so. Not now, anyway.

My suspicions were strengthened by a conversation that I had overheard the morning after Rosalie's loss, when Alice and Edward thought I was still asleep.

"-we tell Bella?" Alice's voice drifted through the door. I wouldn't have been able to hear them if they hadn't been so angry with each other.

"Alice, don't you dare. I know her, she'll be horrified, she'll think it's-"

"But they'll be coming back, it was a warning..." I strained my ears to hear more, "-something...danger...James…"

My hands grew clammy at the thought of James. What were they talking about?

"Forget it, Alice. We'll manage somehow...it will...it will be fine..."

"No, it won't. Not this tim-"

I jerked back from the door as I sensed them approach, rubbing my eyes and trying to look as if I'd just woken up. Edward wrapped his arms around me soothingly, but I could sense the stiffness in his body.

"How's Rosalie doing?" I whispered.

"Bella, do you...do you want to see Rosalie? I think she's feeling a bit better now, but it would be better if you didn't say anything..." Alice asked quietly. I considered it, then shook my head.

"It's okay. I- It's not me she needs right now. She needs to be alone."

But I wish I had gone into Rosalie's room that day, because I never saw Rosalie again.

And I'm actually upset about it. No matter how much she disliked me, she was still Edward's sister. She was still a vampire, same as Alice and everybody else. She was still important to the Cullen family. But after Edward and the rest of the family returned that next morning and I had explained the situation to them, there was a lot of chaos and confusion and fear. I could sense the Cullens panicking as they conversed with each other, purposely blocking me out of the conversation with their amazingly fast way of talking.

Even Edward, my precious Edward, was worried and nervous. Rosalie had refused to see any of her vampire siblings until Carlisle informed her that they were coming in anyway, and they all bashed through the barricaded door to talk to her. I had stayed behind, keeping my distance, still as shocked as the rest of them.

But the next night, I suddenly woke up in the middle of a nightmare to find Edward scooping me in his arms and rushing out the door and back to my house. He was so upset I don't think he even noticed me wake up, but I looked over his shoulder and back at the house just in time to catch a glimpse of several dark shapes fly out of the air, towards the house ... and the day after that Edward told me that Rosalie had gone.

Edward, naturally, only told me a scant bit of information. He became increasingly agitated and protective as the days passed by, and even when I did something as simple as take out the trash I had the rather comforting suspicion that he was somewhere around the house, watching me. He simply refused to let me be alone at any given time, and even when he went hunting Alice was there instead, attaching herself to me.

And every time that I managed to ask him to tell me where Rosalie had gone, he simply replied with a hoarse, "Trust me, Bella. It will only upset you. You don't need to know." Which was extremely annoying, and admittedly sent chills down my back.

Because I did need to know. Did Edward, who knew me so well, believe that I could stand not knowing what was going on after I had seen Rosalie sobbing tearlessly on the floor that night? After Rosalie had disappeared? Sometimes I wanted to know and understand so badly that I was obsessed by it. Like how I had been obsessed with Edward and they mystery he had presented me when I first met him…

Life pretty much reverted back to normal after the first few months, although the Cullens were strangely nervous, jumping every time I tapped them on the shoulder and constantly looking around the room. I tried to make myself forget about what had happened, and strangely enough it became a sort of dream to me. Something that had happened that could not have been real. Rosalie was no longer real. After all, haven't I always been talented at repressing awful things?

But sometimes, for a small moment, I remember and sit down to wonder what had really happened. But only for a small moment. Just a minute. Or two.

What was one of the most precious things that Rosalie had? Her beauty. It was one of her strongest attributes, I knew that for a fact. And for some strange reason, she had lost her hair. Beauty was not based on hair, but to Rosalie it played an awfully large part. And that loss had crushed her. But, in truth, it's just like they say…

Everyone has a weakness. All you have to do is find it.

We had no idea back then of how awfully some of our weaknesses would be exposed. And as for Rosalie, well…

Rosalie was only the beginning.