It took time to find my way back. I wasn't sure if it was shock or the blood or both. I was in the hospital waiting room. My wrap and the knees of my dress were dashed with gore, now nearly black. I vaguely recall using my wrap as to hold the wound in Mike's neck shut, not caring if my dress was ruined. That image was crystal clear in my mind, but I didn't know how I got to the hospital. Did I ride in the ambulance with Mike? Had someone driven me? Had I broken into a car and hotwired it? That last seemed the least likely, but there was a big old hole in my memory, so that might have happened.

Jessica was lying with her head on my lap. We were both streaked with Mike's blood and she needed the comfort more than was worried about the mess. I looked up, just in time to see Mrs. Stanley come in. She looked at us, bloodied and exhausted, and almost broke down. I had never seen an expression like that, like what had happened to her daughter, her little girl, was beyond her worst imaginings. I was about to rouse Jess, but her mom held up a hand. I understood. I wouldn't want to wake my daughter back into this reality any sooner than I had to.

Mike's parents noticed her then, and stood, exiting the rest of the only four chairs in the waiting room that weren't folded and in one corner. Small hospital.

"Matthew," said Mrs. Stanley. "Patricia. I'm so sorry. This is just awful. Do they know anything yet?"

"He's still in surgery," said Mr. Newton. "He lost a lot of blood."

Jessica had begun to stir as soon as her mother spoke. She got up dazedly, found her mother and went towards her. A moment before she touched her, Jess realized that she was still a mess and stopped. Her mother did not.

"I can't tell you how sorry I am, baby," she said, embracing her daughter. I missed Mom terribly. She would have been a mess and needed more comforting than me, but I really could've used a hug from her right then.

Charlie came in. I had the feeling that this wasn't the first time I had been in the same room with him tonight, but I couldn't remember seeing him.

"Matt," he said, "Trish. We are going to get to the bottom of this. You have my word."

Mr. Newton shook his hand, "Thank you, Chief. Anything you can tell us?"

Charlie shook his head, "We haven't found a weapon. From what the girls told me, it happened right outside the bathroom they were in, which was far enough away that the music wasn't loud, so it happened quick and quiet. That either means someone came up behind him, or he knew his attacker."

Mrs. Newton looked close to tears.

"No one who knew my boy would do this," she said, her voice tremulous. "Everyone loves Mike. Who would want to hurt him?"

Charlie nodded, "Students at the school were not the only ones in attendance at the dance. A few of the boys who went have records. It is petty things like possession with intent, but it could easily lead to something like this. Could be that Mike saw something he shouldn't, or someone thought he did. We'll know more when we have a suspect.

Doctor Cullen walked in. He looked different in surgical scrubs, but still entirely handsome and professional.

"Importantly," he said. "Mike is stable."

Mrs. Newton gave a little cry and hugged her husband.

"We can't thank you enough, Doc," said Mr. Newton. "We are so glad you are here."

Dr. Cullen smiled thinly, "Unfortunately, Mike has lost a lot of blood. He gave him a transfusion as soon as he arrived, but his levels were so low, he wasn't getting a lot of oxygen to his brain."

"Just what are you saying, Doc?" asked Mr. Newton.

"Mike is in a coma," he said. "There was more than likely some brain damage. We won't have a better idea how extensive the damage is until he wakes up."

"If he wakes up, you mean," said Mr. Newton venomously.

Dr. Cullen took his hand. He put his other on Mr. Newton's shoulder and turned him firmly to face him, and looked in the eye.

"Your boy is alive, Matthew," he said. "There is nothing to be gained right now from fearing the worst. I cannot give you a time frame, but there is no evidence right now to suggest Mike is braindead."

"But," said Mrs. Newton, as though finally brave enough to ask the hard question, "the longer it takes for him to wake up…?"

Dr. Cullen took a deep breath, "The longer it takes, the more likely it is that the damage is severe."

I came forward.

"It couldn't have been that long," I said. "We were not in the bathroom that long at all. Mike wasn't anywhere near there when we went in, so it had to be minutes before he was even there, even attacked. I just wish we came out sooner. We might have-"

"No, dear," said Mrs. Newton, touching my face. "Who knows what would have happened if you had come out. We are just so glad no one else got hurt too."

"Any idea what it was, Doctor?" asked Charlie. "The weapon, I mean."

Dr. Cullen looked a little discomfited.

"It would be hard to tell for sure," he said. "It was pretty ragged, so something irregular. A broken bottle, perhaps."

"Can we see him?" asked Mrs. Newton. "Please."

"Certainly," said Dr. Cullen. "This way."

Jess didn't move.

"Aren't you coming, sweetie?" asked Mrs. Newton.

Jess looked like she might cry, "I didn't want to ask."

Mrs. Newton looked like she might cry, "Oh, sweetie. Mike loves you. You are absolutely welcome. Both of you."

I nodded.

"I am just going to get some air first," I said, looking down at myself, "and maybe clean up first."

"That's fine," said Mrs. Newton.

"Don't leave the parking lot," said Charlie in his Chiefly voice.

"Fine, Dad," I said, sounding exactly like what I wasn't; just another teenager.

I walked outside. I knew, even before I saw her. I didn't know how I knew, but I knew she would be waiting.

"We have to go," said Alice, at the edge of the parking lot, just outside the obvious range of the lamplight.

"What is happening?" I asked, unsure.

Alice didn't look happy.

"There isn't time," she said. "Please Bella, step over here."

I stepped out of the light.

"The camera can't see us here," she said, folding a very large towel around me. Faster than I would have thought possible, I was only wearing the towel. She handed me a container of wet wipes and I began to clean the blood off of my hands. I could just make out her stuffing my clothing into a huge ziplock bag as I finished cleaning myself. She pulled out some bleach, dabbing it to a cloth and cleaning my hands and knees quickly and efficiently, spot checking each with a sniff afterwards.

"We're good," she said, and Jasper and Emmett suddenly appeared as if from nowhere. I wished they had waited until I was sporting more than just a towel, but they seemed far more interested in the surrounding area than me. I felt like I was being guarded.

Alice pulled out jeans and a T-shirt and underthings, the latter of which at least were mine from home. She dressed me at that lightning speed of hers. I realized she was serious when she said time was an issue.

"What is happening Alice?" I asked.

She shook her head, "I can't explain yet."

"Why not?" I asked.

She looked thoughtful. No, not thoughtful. She was looking at something else, somewhen else.

"Can't tell you that either," she said. "The car is this way."

Car wasn't the right word. It was a massive jeep. No, it was more like the offspring of a jeep and one of those massive earth-mover dump trucks, the kind with wheels as tall as school busses. Emmett clicked a fob. Of course, this was his vehicle.

Alice drove. She belted me in first, the seats having more safety straps than I was betting most planes had. The two brothers were in the back. At least, I thought they were. I only ever saw Emmett in the back.

"Where are we going?" I asked.

"Home," she said.

We drove to the outskirts of town, down a road I knew and hardly used. The turn off was almost invisible and would have been hard to spot even in daylight. Once on it, it felt like more than a mile before we reached the home of the Cullens.

For all the times I had spent thinking about their home, I hadn't imagined anything like what it was. About the only descriptors I would have gotten right were huge and expensive. It was a massive structure, three stories and intensely modern. There was a lot of wood and stonework, but everything was angular and only hinted at organic shapes. The vast majority of the face of it was glass, a jutting balcony or two off to one side, hanging almost impossibly in the air. The house was bright and inviting and surprisingly homey.

"Inside," she said, fluttering her hand over me to make all the straps disengage seemingly at once. To my surprise, the step down was much further than I remembered it being. Emmett caught me on the way down.

"Easy there, snack," he said with a grin. "The game is just beginning. Don't go taking yourself out of play just yet."

I was about to ask what he meant, but Alice was there.

"Quickly, Bella," she said.

"No," I said, and she closed her eyes.

"I know," she said. "Believe me, I know. You want answers, and I want to give them to you. But, believe me, the best way for this to go is if you trust me a little more. Please, Bella. For Edward."

It was what she needed to say to get me moving.

"Where is he?" I couldn't help but ask. "Why wasn't he there? Is he going after the vampire that attacked Mike? It was a vampire, wasn't it?"

We went inside. The inside was much as the outside; modern, open, bright. It looked to be furnished as much for comfort as it was style. The art was modern and minimal, and the rooms were not overly full or expensive for the sake of expense. I loved it and wished I could take it in, room by room, but the urgency that had been with us since we had left the hospital was still here.

"Edward," I couldn't help but call.

"He isn't here," said a flippin' movie star.

She was just a bit taller than me, her heart shaped face more than simply pretty. She had a presence about her, the sort needed to convey a depth of self, the sort of person one would find gracing the silver screens of old movies. Her swirl of brown hair had caramel colored highlights, set off by the paleness of her skin. She wasn't wearing the Cullen's traditional contacts, and her brown eyes were awash with depths and shown as though nebulas lived in her irises. There was a softness to her, a kindness that seemed to emanate from and permeate through her. She was decidedly and undeniably a mother. The fact was especially evident in the look of worry upon her face, a worry that was momentarily pushed aside as she beheld me.

"Bella Swan," she said, her voice nearly as reverent as Edward's had been at times. "I am Esme Cullen. I have wanted to meet you for so long."

She embraced me, and I was surprisingly comforted by her arms around me. I felt like I belonged there, in her arms and welcome in her home, and for a moment, I let myself go. I was swept up in a torrent of mixed feelings when I heard the door behind us. I turned to see the Doctor walking in, with Jasper and Emmett behind him. Out of the corner of my eye, Rosalie came to stand at the top of the stairs. They were all here, all but one.

"Alice," said Carlisle. "Can you explain?"

"I don't know," she said, sounding miserable. "I wasn't looking. Even when I did, nothing I saw suggested this would happen, could happen. The worst I saw was him hurting Bella."

"Who hurt me?" I asked. "What is happening? Where is Edward?"

Emmett shook his head, "Love really is blind."

I stared at him. Esme took my hand. She guided me to the couch. She sat me down. She took my hands, looked into my face, much as Carlisle had done with Mr. Newton. And, she forced me to face the truth that I had been running from the moment I saw Mike on the floor in that hallway.

"Edward attacked Mike," she said. "For the first time in his existence, Edward has attacked an innocent. Even when he hunted humans, he always chose his prey carefully, culling those that culled human life. He has never before done anything so undeniably monstrous."

This felt like a dream. It didn't feel right, feel real. It felt like a living nightmare.

"Something must have happened," Alice said, seeming to back me up. "Or maybe many somethings that compounded themselves."

I didn't want to say. Saying it was my fault because I danced with Jacob seemed wrong somehow. I knew it must have hurt, but I couldn't imagine that it would be enough for him to want to hurt Mike.

"He came in contact with an implement of faith," said Jasper. The last three words had a weight to them, letting me know that they were meaningful in a way I didn't understand yet.

"How?" asked Carlisle. "Who?"

"There was a Quileute boy there," said Emmett, giving me a meaningful look. "Bella was dancing with him."

They all looked at me.

"That wouldn't be enough," said Carlisle. "But I am sure that it didn't help."

"What is an implement of faith?" I asked, completely aware that I was trying to change the subject.

"Some legends about vampires are based on fact," said Carlisle. "We are repelled by implements of faith, but they have to be imbued by those who know of us and truly believe such weapons will work against us. Simply holding up a cross will do nothing, but the necklace worn by a devout Catholic for a lifetime in order to repel evil will burn us as surely as whitehot metal."

Jasper turned towards me, "Did he do anything tonight, anything out of the ordinary?"

My brows furrowed, "Unusual how?"

"Vampirically," he affirmed.

I winced, "He showed me the town from nearly forty stories up. Does that count?"

They all looked somewhat bemused.

"He carried you?" asked Carlisle. "For how long?"

"Long enough for him to tell me the story of meeting me and my possible double future and why he has been spending his nights at my house and… everything."

They all exchanged looks, each a different level of skepticism.

"That doesn't seem possible," said Jasper.

"He told you about your future as a vampire?" asked Alice.

"He actually told you about the stalking?" laughed Emmett.

Esme was the only one who didn't seem put out by my pronouncement.

"Welcome to the family, dear," she said, sitting beside me on the couch and putting an arm around me. I might have pulled away, but she was so comforting. I really, really needed it.

The rest were looking at me.

I took them each in turn.

"Why is it impossible?" I asked. "Yes, after a fashion. He more told me about you seeing it, and that it was not something he could live with. And it wasn't stalking."

Emmett chuckled and Rosalie rolled her eyes, somehow using her whole head in the gesture.

"Edward," said Carlisle, sounding like a professor, "was carrying you, while preventing the pull of gravity. Think about it like this. Imagine you are on a treadmill. To stay in place, you have to keep pace on the treadmill. That is what he was doing with gravity, except that gravity doesn't impart on you a constant velocity; it imparts a constant acceleration. So, you are on a constantly accelerating treadmill, to stay in place. With practice and a talent for such things, as Edward has, you might get quite good. Now, double your body weight. How long do you think you could keep stationary then?"

I blinked. How long indeed!

"I don't know what to say," I said. "That is what happened."

"Which means…" said Jasper.

"Which means," said Carlisle, "when he was burned, his reserves were already low."

He turned to Alice, "How was the hunt?"

She winced, "Not idle. He took in what he could stomach, but it wasn't a lot. We tried many times, but he isn't taking to it."

"Taking to what?" I asked.

"Animal blood," she said. "It is a bit like trying to get an alcoholic's body that is used to a liquid diet to tolerate solid food again. It takes work and practice."

I shook my head, "That doesn't seem like enough. So, he was low on…"

I winced, "…blood. He got burned. But that doesn't seem like a good enough reason."

"I agree," said Carlisle. "Something more must have happened."

"That really isn't the issue," said Alice.

"What is the issue?" I asked, mostly because no one else seemed willing to.

Still, no one said anything.

"What?" I asked. "What is it? Where's Edward?"

Alice closed her eyes, searching.

"It is hard to tell," she said. "He isn't thinking, isn't choosing. My power allows me to see the future you choose, once you have made a decision. But new information, a different choice, that can throw everything off. Edward isn't thinking right now. He is letting his instincts rule."

"Alice," I said, "what is this beating around the bush thing? Just tell me."

"He is hunting you," said Jasper. "You are his prey now. He will track you and do his level best to kill you. If he kills you, his life will be over. So, we have two choices here. Stop him, or kill him."

I stared at Alice, feeling like my torso had disappeared.

"If he kills you," she said, "he will not rest until he is dead as well. He will not have only taken away the first best chance at the future he wants, but he will have killed the first person he truly loves. There will be no coming back for him. He will either truly be a monster that we will have to stop or he will do nothing but try to end his existence, by any means necessary."

Everything seemed to slow, the world to vanish. Time lost all meaning, and I felt like I was falling, only the ground was above me, as though I had fallen off the edge of the world, from which there could be no recovery. I knew that I still had a body, but I couldn't feel it. I knew that I still had a mind, but couldn't think. I knew that I still had a life, but I couldn't find a tomorrow. And I knew that I still had a heart, because I could feel it breaking.

My voice was flat, yet also somehow croaky, "Can you go back to beating around the bush?"

Esme hugged me.

"We won't let anything happen to you, dear," she said. "If there is a way back for Edward, we will find it."

"He is coming here," said Alice, her eyes far away, "close enough to listen to us. I think he likes it better when he knows exactly where she is."

I looked around. Emmett and Jasper were near the front and the back of the room. They were serious. Edward was going to try to kill me. I really couldn't understand it, couldn't believe it. How could this be real?

"What do we do?" I asked.

Alice frowned, "I-"

The back window exploded. Somehow, Esme's body was instantly between me and it. I thought she might be shielding me from the glass, but she stayed there between me and that direction, even as she pulled me from the couch and led me away.

"Alice!" she cried, over what sounded like concussive steam blasts and splintering wood and stone. That was when I saw it, saw him.

Edward was locked into combat with Jasper, Emmett, and Carlisle. He was fast, so fast that I couldn't see most of it. It was like intermittent snapshots or a strobe light. Every once in awhile I would register a moment, a frame, and the next, they would be somewhere totally different. Always at least one of them had hands on Edward. Divots were appearing on every surface, as though suddenly and instantly dented by extreme force. There was a constant hiss and snarling, like spitting cats but far larger and deeper and more ferocious. Edward looked strained. Literally, the bones of his face looked as though they might burst through his skin, as though his skeleton was bowing towards me, trying so hard to get at me that it was about to rip itself out of his body. His eyes were a molten glowing crimson, the rivulets of what had once been his contacts melting down his cheeks. He looked nothing like himself. He looked like a monster. If his family hadn't been there, I would have been dead.

"We have to go," someone said. It took me a moment to realize that I had said it. I didn't know how. I was beyond thinking. I simply knew that being there, seeing him like that, was painful. I didn't want to be there anymore. I also didn't want to leave, to leave him. I was so conflicted!

Alice nodded and started leading me away.

"Jasper!" she cried. There was a sudden crack and Edward screamed in pain.

I stopped. I literally stopped, trying to see, wanting to return, to help him, to relieve his pain if I could. Emmett and Carlisle held him down on the ground, his back twisted in a horrible angle. Leaving him like that seemed an impossibility

"I broke his spine," said Jasper, opening a closet beside the door and pulling two bags. "That should slow him down, but not for long."

Alice picked me up, literally carrying me away as they ran. I heard her say something, but it was too rushed and windy for me to make it out.

"Excuse me," said Esme, as I was suddenly next to the BMW that Alice had been driving earlier that day. Or, was it yesterday now. I suddenly realized that Esme had said excuse me because she had just taken off my clothing, replacing each in part with her own. I was so dazed, I didn't seem to mind at all, even with Jasper so nearby. Hers were a little long on me, but she rolled them up with lightning speed before placing them upon me. I had just enough time to realize the tan two-piece sleeveless pantsuit she had been wearing was lined with silk. It was nice to think about, not having to worry about what we were doing or why.

"That way," Alice pointed. "Hurry!"

Esme kissed my check, caressed my face. I wanted to hug her and not let go.

"We are all with you," she said, and then she ran, off into the woods, wearing the T-shirt and jeans I had been wearing, a decoy.

"In!" commanded Alice, the word so harsh in her ringing, clarion voice that I dove into the open door, and we took out of there just fast enough that the tires didn't squeak.

"Where now?" asked Jasper.

"My place," I said as Alice said, "Bella's."

"And then?" he asked.

"Not yet," said Alice. "He is still too close."

I understood a little better. Standing still in a room with him had been hard, uncertain. But acting, having a goal, things to do, made it easier. I didn't have to think about it. I just did what I had to do.

We were at my place in less time than I would have thought possible. The cruiser wasn't there. I almost wished it was. Somehow, for the first time, even though I knew he couldn't do anything to protect me, I wanted my Daddy.

"Pack," said Alice. "Essentials for a few days. Keys?"

I gave her the keys. She unlocked the house and then was opening the truck.

"Hurry," she said. "I am not sure how long they will distract him."

I ran inside and upstairs. I unceremoniously dumped my school bag onto my bed. I went into my closet and grabbed clothes. I made sure I had five sets of tops and bottoms, socks and underwear, ran into my bathroom just long enough to jam everything into my toiletry bag, then ran back and shoved it into my backpack. I was about to go, when I saw the jumble on my bed. I pick up a pen, found a blank sheet and wrote:

Dad,

I'm sorry. I can't. I just can't.

Bella

Putting it in plain view on my desk, I grabbed my stash of money and dug my passport out of the bottom drawer and ran outside.

"Truck!" Alice called, and I changed direction, nearly breaking my ankle and jumping in. She had rolled both windows down. She drove outside of town, then down an unpaved back road into the woods, and then into the trees, just deep enough that it couldn't be seen from the road. She carried me again, back the route we drove to the BMW. We got in, and drove south for half an hour.

"Where to?" asked Jasper.

"Bella?" she asked.

"Why are you asking me?" I asked.

"Because," she said, "you are the only one who can think of something Edward wasn't prevee to."

I thought about it. Where would be the last place that Edward would look for me? Probably in the stupidest, most obvious place.

"Phoenix," I said. "Take me home."