I seldom remembered my dreams. Even when I did, I never gave much thought to them. I figured people who interpret dreams or try to find deeper meaning in them were just pretending to search for something deeper in their life through all the nonsense. The first night that I saw Dr. Cullen, though, I second guessed all my previous beliefs.

The woods were familiar, even in the blinding dark. The canopy had always been heavy, but somehow I could still feel the scarcity of stars above. The moon had abandoned me, too, leaving me to wander off the path in search of some light. I didn't get far after the echoes of feral growling grew closer to me. I tried to reach for my flashlight, which was usually on my belt, but even that was gone. The growling came from behind, and I was met with a soft, deathly cold hand brushing against my neck. I shivered.

"You don't have to fear, Charlie," a dulcet voice purred in my ear, "I'll fix your wounds."

My throat tightened up when a band of gauze wrapped around it, and I could see blood pouring from the left side of my chest. Dr. Cullen's soft gaze met with mine, but he took on the face of a mountain lion.

After I woke up with a hard twitch, I stayed in bed for another ten minutes to get myself together. I'd been eagerly awaiting my day off, considering Billy and I made plans to go fishing. It was a great distraction from the stress that had been building up inside me the past few days, or so I'd hoped.

Bella was surprised to see me at home again, even more so in plain jeans and an old t-shirt. A long-sleeved flannel was thrown over the shirt. "No work today?" she asked.

I shook my head and made her a bowl of cereal. It seemed to be her favorite, from what I'd seen the few times we've had mornings together. "I'm going fishing with Billy, though."

"Oh, okay." She sat at the table and dragged her spoon around the bowl. "That's, uh, down at La Push, right?"

"Close to it, yeah," I answered.

Bella peered at me as she took her first bite. "You okay? You've seemed a little off since you went to Mason County."

I waved a nonchalant hand at her. "Yeah. Work's just been...a lot. Nothin' I can't handle."

I was used to quiet mornings, even after Bella arrived. I could tell she inherited the socially awkward gene from me, but even the silence that fell in that moment seemed unusually tense. Only the clink of her spoon against the bowl broke it before she spoke up again.

"I, uh, read an article about it yesterday. They still haven't caught the animal?" she asked timidly, keeping her eyes on her breakfast.

I couldn't tell if she was scared that whatever we were trying to track was going to get closer to Forks, so I just smiled with confidence. "Not yet, but they'll probably find the thing soon. Something that wild is never able to stay hidden for long. We'll be safe." I grabbed a thermos to pour coffee in.

Bella nodded. "Just be careful out there, okay?" She shrugged, still avoiding eye contact.

Appreciating her concern, I stroked her hair as I passed by her to get my coat. "I'll have my phone on me, and we won't be too far out on the lake," I promised her. "I'm just a phone call away. Have a good day at school, say hi to Jake for me."

"Bye," she muttered, turning back to look at me one more time before I left the house.

As I drove down to the reservation, the conversation with Bella stuck to my mind. It was a lot better than replaying the dream in my head over and over, because I wasn't about to let my brain imagine ridiculous scenarios of Carlisle or his family having anything to do with the murders. It was better for me to focus on the relief that Bella was at least comfortable living with an old grouch like myself. I knew she enjoyed the vacations in California, but to be living with me full time, especially in Washington, it was a huge change in perspective. But she was content. That former worry of mine was finally put to rest, and I could finally feel confident about being a dad.

When I turned to take the first road into the woods, something caught my eye. At first, I thought it was just some old log, but it was too red to be natural. I pulled over and stepped out to look at it closer.

Another dead deer. A sizable buck, but the wounds were vicious. Anxiety washed over me, so I pulled out my phone to call in to work and let them know. After I hung up and stepped back to the car door, there was an echo of a twig snapping, and what I assumed was a growl. It was probably some animal that smelled the fresh kill.

Quickly, I hopped back in and continued to see Billy. He was waiting on the porch when I pulled up to the house, and I helped him in before hooking the boat up to the back of my truck.

The water was its usual dark grey, not even the sun peeking through the clouds could seem to give it any real life. It reflected our image well, giving me something to focus on as I tried to sort my thoughts.

Billy cast his line out. "How was Mason County?"

I was quiet at first, then I breathed in deeply. "Bella kept asking me that...I never expected her to be interested in this kinda stuff."

"And what did you tell her?" Billy asked.

He knew I had a bad habit of avoiding questions when I was uncomfortable. "I told her the truth. Whatever killed that guy hasn't been caught yet."

Billy stared at me from the corner of his eye. "And...?"

"You know those old stories you tell your kids? The ones about your legends and all?" There was a long pause. Billy waited for me to continue. "I don't think it was an animal. It was too clean of a kill...and on top of that, it's not common for anything that feral to make it up two staircases."

Billy watched me try to make sense of it, but there was sympathy in his face. "Those legends don't speak of killers. But-" He tugged on the line. "-there are others we watch out for. Other creatures. I want you to be careful, Charlie. They're closer than you think."

"What, like the Cullens?" I immediately responded, scoffing. But once I realized what I said, I tried to backtrack. "Sorry- I didn't mean that. Something just...happened the other day. It was weird."

It seemed I'd piqued Billy's interest. "What was weird?"

I sighed heavily. "That doctor's wife came to visit me. She-" I found it increasingly difficult to look him in the eye. "-she told me to steer clear of him. Carlisle." I didn't dare mention anything about the blood drive; I still needed time to process that.

I expected him to greet me with an expression of disbelief or even a patronizing one, but he was stone cold serious. "She's got a point."

"Why?" I was lucky my voice didn't get louder, but there was an undertone of sharpness.

"Charlie, he's a good doctor. But there are a lot of things you don't know about him. About that family. They're distant for a reason, did you ever consider that?" He tugged again on his line after he was sure he'd caught something.

"And what reason would that be?" I didn't want my best friend to keep things from me.

Billy remained quiet.

My brow knotted hard. "Are your legends true? Can you and Harry turn into wolves or something?"

"All I'm gonna say is this." Apparently it was his turn to avoid questions. When there was nothing on his line, he threw it back into the water. "My grandfather knew of this family, and they were enemies because of conflicting species. Quileutes against cold ones."

"They're called cold ones?" Out of anything, I thought the name sounded dumb.

"It's because of their skin, it's like ice."

My hand clenched up at the reminder.

"The family my grandfather ran into in particular, they claimed not to hunt humans, unlike the rest of their kind. And because this family was so open to negotiation, a pact was made that they weren't allowed to set foot on our land in exchange for anonymity."

I tugged my own line in, snagging a smaller salmon that I ended up releasing. I grit my teeth. "So, if this particular family doesn't hunt people, what do they eat? Because I've seen a few deer corpses with very unusual bite marks. I even passed one on my way up here."

"That's probably them. Maybe they got a new one, they were more respectful with their kills before." Billy pulled in a bigger salmon and placed it in the cooler we brought along.

"It's the same family from- what? Fifty to eighty years ago?" I slouched in my chair and stared out across the water.

"Try not to think about it too hard right now, Charlie. We came out here to catch fish, not talk about history." Billy rested a hand on my shoulder.

I turned back to him. "Someone died, Bill. He was murdered doing his job by some urban legend. A cold one, which apparently we have right here in our damn town."

"Charlie, the kill didn't happen in Forks. I know it worries you, but it's out of your jurisdiction. You shouldn't have to look into it so much, especially not now. We came out here to fish, so let's fish. Please." Billy tugged on his line again.

I hated conversations where I was only left with more questions. I didn't even know how these things killed people, or how long they actually lived, or why the Cullens weren't apparently murderers. What was worse was that my pent-up frustrations kept me from catching anything worth taking home.