A/N: A quick thank you to everyone who added this story in their alerts and/or added it to their favorite list. It truly means a lot to me.

Chapter 14-

Bella's POV- Planning and Plotting

"So, this is how it will play out," Quil grinned, rubbing his hands evilly together, an action that caused me to gulp in absolute fright and apprehension.

What was he planning?

Oh God.

This was going to end bad.

I could predict that with a hundred percent surety.

Why? Why did I even agree to this?

I should just pack my bags and run as far as I….

"Stop thinking of running away." Quil rolled his eyes at me. "For the last time, that is no permanent solution to any problem on the planet!"

"How?" I stared at him, confused and slightly worried.

How had he known what I had been thinking?

This could not just be….a dumb guess…

Could it?

Had he suddenly developed some superior mind-reading prowess?

Oh God.

Why was I surrounded by all such freaks?

Didn't I deserve some small measure of normalcy in my life?

Whose cute dog had I brutally murdered in my past life?

Why me?

Why do such things happen to only me?

"You did not cold-bloodedly murder any adorable dog in your past life." He let out a dramatic sigh, a smirk accompanied.

"How?" I asked in a whisper, wincing in desperation and impatience, wanting to know his answer, and yet wanting nothing to do with said answer.

I was a heavily confused being, I admit.

He smiled. "Just a guess. Don't worry. I have not found any secret lamp that gave me the magical power to read a person's mind."

"Thank God for that!" I humorlessly chuckled. "Emmett always complained that Edward's power was a royal pain in the ass."

"Edward's power?"

I sighed, taking my head in my hands, as I shook it repeatedly.

I had already walked a mile; why not walk the entire distance then?

What difference was it even going to make?

Sure, I was already in the shit list of the shape-shifters community; one more list was hardly going to make much of a difference to my life!

"Edward,"

Wait. Did I just say his full name without hesitating or stuttering?

Wow.

I was surely moving on in life.

"He could…read minds."

"Like, read-read minds?" his eyes were wide in disbelief, almost expecting me to state that I had just been fooling around.

"Yup," I giggled, nodding my head. "He was a vampire. That was his power."

"WHAT?"

"Shh," I put a hand to my lips. Where was the volume button? "Keep your voice low."

"Did you just," he scratched his head in confusion. "Am I losing my head?"

"Nope," I rolled my eyes in response. "They are all vampires; that whole fam…coven." I instantly corrected, shyly looking to my lap. "Some of them have powers, superior instincts, one could say. Edward could read a person's mind, everybody's but mine. Alice, his sister, could see the future based on a person's decision. Jasper- her mate- he could feel a person's emotions. There was just no hiding from him." I let out a small humorless laugh. "The others don't have any such prominent gift, but Edward always said that their gift was more innate. More compassionate- more loving, you know, that kind?"

"Hold on." He simply stared at me, expressionless. "You willingly dated a vampire? What the fuck is wrong with you?"

"Hey!" I scowled at him. "I was a kid back then."

"This was less than six months ago."

I waved him off. "Make a new mistake every day; just don't repeat the same mistake twice- and you will be alright!"

"So, you agree it was a mistake?"

I gulped. "I don't know." I paused, framing the sentence in my head. "It just feels so- more and more- with each passing day that goes by. He never loved me. I was only a new shiny toy for him…and I feel like an idiot for giving my heart to such an asshole. If he could leave me this easily, after making a million promises of giving me a forever… he never deserved my heart. Even if he was lying about the true reason why he left me- I have definitely given that possibility a thought- I don't think I could ever trust him again. He broke my heart, shattered it to pieces. It's over."

"Were he to come back…."

"No." My voice left no scope for hesitance. "I could never trust him with my heart again. There is just no going back from this."

"You deserve better. Any one is better than a cowardly bloodless corpse. You will find the correct person soon enough."

"I hope so, too." I gave out a nervous laugh. "Anyhow, what is this prank that you are so confident about?"

He smiled, a newfound gleam in his eyes. "So, this is what we will do, you will call Jake up, telling him that you are being attacked by a vampire… No, no, let me finish…." He rolled his eyes at me, my mouth wide open and ready to interrupt. "You will then tell him that you are not comfortable with the others in the pack," he let out a sudden loud laugh- what was so funny about the word 'pack'- "and so, only he and Embry should come to rescue you."

"Okay," I nervously stretched the word out. "What then? Don't you think they will realize within seconds that there is no vampire out to attack me?"

"Who said that there will be no vampire out to attack you?" he smiled.

"What…Who…you can't be meaning…."

"Yes, exactly," he grinned, jumping at his place in sheer excitement. "I will dress up as a vampire and pretend to attack you. I had dressed up as one for Halloween two years back. I still have my costume and red contact lenses. And let me tell you, I make one neat vampire, baby!"

"Quil," I shook my head at him, ready to burst the bubble formed. "I doubt it would be this easy. I am pretty sure they don't attack just by looking at a person's face and assuming that he or she is a vampire."

I mean, imagine, how horribly defective a technique that could prove out to be?

Normal people could be pale enough. I was pale enough!

But I wasn't a vampire….

Wait.

Could there even be a Quileute vampire?

How would he or she look like?

Hmm.

Something to ponder over….

"But I also have the fangs." He childishly pouted. "Look, are you sure that they don't just rely on the looks to figure this out?"

"I…don't know."

And I honestly didn't know.

Maybe they had some other sense to tell them this…

But I wasn't sure of that.

"So, let's just go ahead with this plan." he proposed, half pleading. "Trust me, it will work out. And will be fun! Lots of it."

I sighed, in half a mind to be a generic party-pooper, but one look at the excitement visible on Quil's face, and I changed my mind.

"Okay," I tried the word out, an eyebrow raised to calm- the bouncing with impatience- Quil down. "But where will we do this? We can't do it in La Push, of course."

"Hmm," he pondered over my words, a frown on his face. "Do you know any such secluded place? Not too far and yet far enough?"

I replicated the frown on his face, an instant image popping into my head, leaving me with no choice but to blabber it out. "There is this…meadow. No one visits it much. It is not very far from here."

Edward's meadow…

No. It wasn't his meadow.

He had left it behind, just like he had left me behind.

I was free to make new memories associated with that place.

"Perfect." Quil laughed. "Let's leave then. Why delay the fun?"

I shrugged at him, still slightly apprehensive of this whole plan- and the severe possibility that it would end horribly. "If you are sure enough."

"I am." He confidently stated. "Let me grab my things…" he got up from his seat, walking ahead and stopping all of a sudden, turning back to look at me, "Just tell me one thing, on a scale of one to ten- with ten being the worst- how rotten did he smell?"

"Argh. Don't start now." I glared at him, annoyed beyond measure.

"Come on," he playfully shrugged. "It is a valid question. I mean, the man is dead. It is a given that he would stink to all of Hell."

I rolled my eyes in exasperation, just letting Quil's voice fade into the background, worry evident on my mind as the minutes to the prank came closer and closer.