Slow Bang is still active. I'm just working through a mental block.

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She hadn't ever really noticed just how green everything was.

Wet? Yes.

Gray? Sure.

But the vibrant green of everything had just now surrounded her. Overgrowth, undergrowth – all had just formed before her very eyes for the first time. Towering tree lines, dense foliage, hanging moss and lichens were everywhere. The slight breeze made it seem like they were breathing. As if the entire forest was one massive, living, swaying entity. The rain falling from leaves could have been tears. Crying for her.

'An empathetic forest,' she thought idly, continuing to stare off into nothing.

It could happen. Supernatural things did, after all, exist.

Just not for her.

No, the supernatural world had looked at her and deemed her unworthy. So much so that it had run from her, forcing her back into a world that she knew would never be the same. How was she supposed to go back to how she was before with the knowledge she now possessed? At one time she had felt special, revered even. She had been let in on the great secret that humanity was kept from. She had been more.

But no longer.

'Was it really only a few hours ago?'

Now she was less.

She was alone.

The wind picked up, wrestling the trees into motion. The rain fell harder. The forest began to darken.

Still she sat. Staring.

There was no place for her now.

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Moonlight reflected off the frozen ground like a mirror. Black trees angled up from the ground and tangled limbs with each other. The air was still, quiet.

Tanya sat on the ground, unmoving. She didn't breath, didn't blink. She'd been in the same position for two days already. Snow and ice clung to her, shrouding her in white. To her left she heard the snow crunching softly under the hooves of a herd of moose. Further away the wind was picking up – a storm was slowly encroaching.

'A millennia of the same thing,' her mind kept repeating, steadily spiraling down into madness. It had happened before. The monotony of life had become something of a reoccurring illness. There was only so much traveling and sex could do. Everything eventually became repetitive.

'There's no point to any of this,' she thought bitterly. What life was there to indefinite seclusion? No excursions on sunny days, no prolonged interaction with people or other vampires. She could never be famous, never make a huge impact on anything in the mortal world. She'd been everywhere, seen every place on earth, done everything imaginable. And now there was nothing.

So she sat, allowing the snow to slowly encase her – let the earth reclaim her body. The wind licked at her body harshly, scratching at her solid form with its rough tongue. She knew it did this but couldn't feel it. Hadn't felt it in a thousand years. She wondered if she even remembered being cold or simply imagined the feeling from seeing humans react to it. It was inconsequential; she was no longer a human, would never be a human again. Her life was stagnant, repetitive.

And so she had simply sat down, refusing to play the game.

Her record was a year and a half. Maybe this time she'd make it to two.

Closing her eyes, she let herself drift away into nothingness. Pass the house she currently called home, the vampires she called sisters. The years unwound themselves slowly in her mind until there was only her, the whipping wind, falling snow, and laugh of the kookaburra.

Her infallible brain spoke up, 'The kookaburra is native to Australia and New Guinea, not Alaska.'

Tanya frowned, annoyed at herself for ruining her own meditation. And yet, she was curious. Why was she hearing that birdcall? Why was it somehow familiar? Slowly, she let her conscious nag her back into the present.

The kookaburra was still laughing.

From her pocket.

Tanya grimaced in irritation. Only one person had that ringtone. She briefly considered ignoring it, but knowing the caller, they wouldn't hang up. Her nostrils flared. Snow slid from her as she reached into her jeans for her cell phone.

"Hello, Alice," she sighed.

"I know you're doing your whole self imposed exile thing, but I really need your help, Tanya."

The desperation in her friend's voice cooled whatever indignation Alice's words may have caused. The first tickle of anxiety touched off inside her chest.

"What's wrong?" she asked, already standing up and shaking the remaining snow from her body.

"It's Bella," Alice's voice cracked. "Edward…he fell in love with a human."

'A human!' Tanya winced as the sting of rejection swept through her again. She wasn't good enough, but a human was? 'Maybe he killed her,' a dark voiced whispered in her mind, delightedly. 'It would serve him right…' But Alice was still talking, hadn't said anything about a tragic murder. Pushing her petty jealousy aside, Tanya forced herself to concentrate on Alice's words.

"…he wouldn't listen; he won't. He's made us all leave, refuses to let anyone have contact with her."

Her mind scrambled to keep up. They broke up? He left? Did she tell him to leave? Her brows furrowed. "Alice, I don't see how any of this has anything to do with myself."

The exasperation was evident in her friend's voice. "I can't go back to Forks to check on Bella. But you can."

Tanya snorted involuntarily. "Alice, I am not going to Washington to check on Edwards little pet human. He's a big boy, I'm sure he thought everything through – "

"She knows what we are, Tanya! And now her future keeps disappearing." She'd never heard Alice so distraught before. "Please! Please, Tanya, go check on her. I've seen that it helps. And not just her."

Tanya felt her resolve slipping. Did she always give in so easily? "Alice, if it's the Volturi…" she protested weakly.

"It's not, they don't know about her."

"I'm not interacting with her."

"You don't have to. Just go look at her. Make sure she's alright."

Tanya pursed her lips. "Fine. I'll call you once I'm back."

She heard Alice's sigh of relief. "You don't need to call. Everything's going to be ok now. Thank you, Tanya."

Tanya hit the end call button as viciously as she dared without breaking it. "Damn seer," she cursed. Shaking her head, she turned towards the direction of her house. She was going to need a map.

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