PROLOGUE

"My only love sprung from my only hate!

Too early seen unknown, and known too late!

Prodigious birth of love it is to me,

That I must love a loathèd enemy." ~ Juliet, Romeo and Juliet


Before this moment, Bella could think of worse ways her life could end. A car accident, a viral pandemic, cancer. They even say drowning is peaceful.

But this, topped them all.

She couldn't drag her gaze away from the lifeless brown eyes staring back her, the body having been cast aside on the carpeted dining room floor.

Her lungs couldn't remember how to breathe.

Only mere minutes ago, Bella had been dropped off by one of her friends. They were just listening to their latest obscure band craze, snacking on twizzlers, basking in the Arizona rays and the realization they were now Juniors. Their last day had gone without a hitch; all assignments turned in, all exams laid to rest, and Bella was looking forward to a blissful summer of nothing but being dragged to Phil's games to sit with her mom in the stands – reading her high school's recommended yearly book list, along with her favorite Jane Austin or Bronte, and occasionally going over to a friend's. And she was looking forward to spending a couple weeks in Forks to visit her dad Charlie.

But that all changed the moment her hand gripped the front door handle. She thought it was odd to be unlocked. Her mom wasn't due home from work until later. But the quiet small community Bella lived in never gave her pause. Bella put away her key and stepped inside.

That's when she saw him.

Or rather, his red eyes. He stood in the threshold of the living room between the kitchen. Despite the Arizona sun, he was the first person beside herself that appeared ivory pale. Too pale. He didn't belong in this setting. And in his arms facing her, was her mother.

Fresh blood was dripping down the corners of his mouth. He peered up at her from the large gash in her mother's neck, a fiendish look stretching on his features. He smiled at her with his glistening teeth, his face crinkling into a sadistic grin.

Her backpack hit the ground beside her.

Her mind barely registered the scene before her, but her body was already reacting. Her hands started to shake, and she felt betrayed by her legs trembling out of control. She couldn't find any air in the sticky warm living room.

She had to be in a nightmare. Maybe she had fallen asleep in the car on the way home. Yes, that was it. This was all a strange dream. This couldn't be real.

But then the dream began to speak. And Bella couldn't disregard the budding goosebumps prickling her flesh.

"I was going to save this moment for when you got home" The voice was smooth, hypnotizing, echoing all around her. Her senses clouded at the sound, distorting like the sound of radio static. A soft light glowed around the objects in her vision, and she had to consciously pull herself from sudden nebulous haze that wrapped around her.

"But as you can see, she was too squirmy. She was going to ruin my plans." He tsk-ed , leering over her mother's face. Bella's throat closed up as her eyes landed on the limp form of her mom.

Mom…

Her mind staggered towards the conclusion that she knew would break her.

No…no…Nonononono

Her brain protectively pulled the thoughts bank, leaving nothing but blank space in her frontal lobe.

But the nightmarish figure kept speaking.

"I guess she wanted to surprise you first. It is, after all, your last day of school, is it not Bella?"

She latched onto the thought – her mind struggling to continue shielding itself against reality. Her mother had come early to surprise her. It was her last day of school…

But in this moment, Bella couldn't even recognize what state she was in. Or who she was.

But her imagination betrayed her, and soon she was visualizing her mother, coming home early to surprise her with the unfinished cake that was still on the kitchen counter, only to be shocked at finding this man in her home. She could envision her fighting back, yelling, throwing the china that now scattered the floor of their one-story house.

Bella's eyes took notice of her surroundings. Most of the kitchen and dining room was in disarray.

The thought sickened her. Her mom had fought for her life.

Her eyes began to blur with unshed tears. She was still trying to comprehend what was real.

No, she can't be…she's got to still be alive…

The sadistic man before her sighed. "But you see, she was too squirmy. A fighter. And I was getting impatient waiting for you, trying to hold her off. The game just wasn't fun anymore."

A second later, her mother's body hit the floor, sending a visible jolt through Bella's body.

Renee's eyes stared towards her. Lips white.

Her breathing escalated.

The awful truth rung in her head. Dead.

This had to be a nightmare, this wasn't real, he wasn't real. Nothing ever happened in her small town. No murders, no kidnappings, no rapes, not even losing a dog!

Bella's body filled with hot adrenaline. Somehow she was able to comprehend the inhuman speed of the intruder coming into full view in front of her within mere seconds. His hand closed around her throat.

The grip on her was cold, so very ice-cold – and like a steel unyielding cage around her throat. Not like a normal hand with soft, tender warm flesh.

As the intruder's hand tightened its grip, Bella couldn't escape the glaringly obvious anymore.

This was absolutely, and terrifyingly, real.

What the hell was this thing? Alarm bells rang in Bella's subconscious.

"It's James, by the way" he cocked his head to the side "If, you were to politely ask. Which you didn't" he tsk-ed again. The fight-or-flight hormone finally kicked in, and she struggled against the tightening steel grip, clawing at his marble hand with her nails. His hand was like a file; her nails made no scratch against the skin. "Such poor manners Bella. I thought your mother raised you better. She at least had the decency to ask who I was."

The fact her life was in danger barely registered. Her eyes couldn't tear from her mom's unmoving form on the floor, blood still pouring from her neck onto the tan living room carpet.

If she could just get out of his grip and apply pressure to the wound – maybe that would stop the bleeding, maybe that could save her -

A paralyzing thought crossed her mind, causing her efforts to slow down. Had she just witnessed him, eating her?

No, this murderer, wasn't human. He couldn't be. Not with the way he moved, the way he held her like she was nothing. Her kicking didn't faze him at all. Or maybe he was high on drugs.

Her wide brown eyes held his inhuman red stare, otherwise they would wander to the lifeless set of matching brown eyes on the floor. Hot tears ripped down her cheeks.

"What the fuck are you" Bella spat out. The anguish in her chest was worse than the chokehold cutting off her air supply as he held her still in the doorway.

She couldn't face the reality yet that her mother was gone. She couldn't. Her life depended on keeping her guard up.

And if this thing was going to kill her too, she wasn't going to make it easy on him.

"Why Bella," the creature before her named James, feigned hurt. "That's a rather rude thing to ask. But since you did,"

How did he know her name?!

Her body was suddenly weightless; she was thrown into the air towards the other side of the room, colliding with the living room wall, the back of her head whipping against the stucco. She could hear the pictures and her mother's latest painting crash to the floor with her body.

James's black boots move into her view as she lay on her side against the glittering carpet, the glass reflecting and refracting his image down to her.

"I'm not like you Bella. In fact, you could say I'm – well, a connoisseur, of your kind."

Bella coughed, grasping onto the floor and finding no purchase but glass. The air had been pushed out of her lungs by the impact. Nothing he said was making any sense, but her brain was throbbing too much to care at the moment.

"And when I saw you," he crouched down on the floor in front of her. "I knew, I just knew, you would be one of my more interesting conquests."

What is he talking about…Bella's burning brain barely processed his words. A small voice interrupted the sharp pulsating in the back of her skull. Keep him talking Bella, the more he talks the more you can distract him, the more chance you have to get away…. But she knew, in her gut, there was no way she was getting away. Tears spilled down her cheeks onto the floor as she sucked in another breath. Still, she had no other choice, no other plan, so she listened to the protective little voice.

"Saw me?" she croaked, struggling to find air again.

"Oh yes Bella, I saw you a couple weeks ago. Don't you remember? You were coming out of the library. I was sitting over in the park across the way, devouring this particularly innocuous human on the park bench – his blood would never compare to yours. It reeked of alcohol. But that's when I saw you trip on the sidewalk. Remember that Bella? You must have hurt yourself – because I could smell you. And oh, Bella, you smelled divine!"

She remembered. Her mother had picked her up from the library that night, she had been studying for her high school finals. Thankfully she had only tripped and scraped up the base of her palms that had braced her fall.

What did he mean he could 'smell me?'

She attempted to move her head, her eyes trying to find his. Instead, she found the eyes of her mom – only five feet away from her on the floor.

Just as water welled up in the base of her eyelids, James' foot came crashing down.

If her wrist hadn't been injured that night a couple weeks ago, it was surely broken now.

She screamed, reaching out to clutch her arm, but James' boot held her down.

"I knew" he kept speaking, sighing to himself as he recalled the memory wistfully, ignoring her cries "I just knew I had to have you Bella. But I wanted to drag out our meeting, get to know you a little better." He was licking his lips. Bella couldn't help the chill that came over her in the way he spoke; like a crazed psychopath, or an obsessed lover. Was he going to drag her away and rape her? Was that what he wanted?

Her cries were silenced when James' grip once again found purchase on her neck, and she was hauled up and thrust against the living room wall. She winced as her head reverberated against the hard surface again. Her injured arm dangling at her side, the other trying to make room between James' hold and her neck.

She could feel the blood trickling down her forehead. That's when her eyes found his.

And right before her, she watched the blood red eyes change to a sinister deep black.

Everything in the background faded, and Bella could only focus on those pitch black empty orbs.

No, James was definitely NOT human.

And every mortal cell in her body was discharging and firing like a live wire. Even in that small millisecond she could recognize it, even though she had never experienced it before. Her most evolved human instinct was screaming at her to fight, or prepare to die. In James's mirrored intense stare, she could see the recognition in his eyes – he sensed it too. He could read her like she was prey. This twisted game they both were playing, was for her life.

"Your obstinance is what I was hoping for" he grinned, licking his lower lip. Her mother's blood filling the cracks between his teeth. The sight made her stomach lurch. "It has definitely made for a more interesting sport, Bella."

She wanted so desperately to fight back, but she was at the mercy of his tightening grip and the throbbing in her skull.

Suddenly, James' black eyes diverted to the front door. A faint sound of an engine approached the house. She was never more happy to hear the car pulling up outside.

Nor more terrified.

The only other person who would be coming home this early, was Phil.

Annoyance flashed in James' black stare, which quickly turned to amusement.

"This should be interesting." He whispered into her ear with a grin.

Fear welled-up in her chest. Her throat struggled to make a sound against his grip, but all that came out were groans. Her right arm flailed out, motioning the figure climbing the front stoop to go away.

"Bella?!" Phil's voice had reached a panicked-pitch when he saw her through the front screen door.

She had tried –tried so hard to signal him to get away, to leave her. But that wasn't Phil. At the announcement of his arrival through the front door, James let Bella's body fall.

Clutching her throat, she coughed against the strained muscles. "Run!" Bella's voice croaked, the volume barely above a forced whisper.

Phil immediately moved towards her, but is hit transversely by James – his body ramming into the couch across the living room and toppling over with it. Not a moment later, Phil jumps up, seemingly unphased by the impact. His eye are searching for the cause.

Bella watches as Phil's scanning eyes land on her mother. Her heart clenches when she sees the pain etched on his face as reality sinks in.

His eyes are wild with fury, nostrils flaring and fists balled as he takes-in the empty living room. Bella knows it's a trap.

"Phil, run" she squeaks out again, shakily pulling herself up. Phil's arms are under hers instantly, hoisting her to a standing position.

"Bella, what happened?" his voice is gentle, but his eyes are guarded and scanning the demolished living room for the perpetrator. His eyes keep landing on her mother.

Bella doesn't understand why James isn't showing himself. Her eyes fly to the unblocked screen door. This might be their only chance to escape.

"We need to leave now, before he comes back" Bella starts towards the front door with Phil at her side, helping her along, his posture guarded.

"Before who comes back?-"

Bella is on the floor again. Her body has been thrown towards the front door, her head once again making contact with the Arizona tile as she skids to a stop. She squints up at the scene unfolding before her. Phil and James are holding one another at arm's length. She knows Phil is strong, years of professional baseball have developed every upper muscle in his body, but he's no match for whatever the hell James is.

Phil looks down at her with wide eyes, yelling at her to leave. But the only thing Bella hears is a high-pitch noise. Everything else is silence.

Had she gone deaf?

The sunlight touches her shoulders from behind the screen door. It beckons her.

But how can she leave Phil? She can't leave him – he would die –

She presses her shaking palms against the hard tile, ready to stand and fight this demonic creature.

But he was yelling at her, like an overprotective father. Tears fall again as she watches another person she loves in peril. His voice, screaming at her, barely reaches her ears as she watches them face one another. And he doesn't even know what James is capable of. Finally after a few seconds, her hearing returns.

"Bella run!"

It was a command. At Phil's words, Bella gives into her fear, letting the coward in her take over. She scrambles to her knees, then feet, and the moment her hands reach the screen door and pushes it open, letting the waves of sun cascade into the dark dismantled living room, she hears a 'snap.'

Her body stills.

She slowly turns and sees the back of Phil's lifeless body fall to the floor.

James's black eyes look up from the crumpled heap, impassive.

In the silence that seeps into her very bones, her heartbeat sputters awake, and she runs into the Arizona sunshine.

Her sweating hand fumbles for the spare set of keys stored in the passenger side console. She doesn't know how long she has until the creature finds her in Phil's new black Ford F150. The engine roars to life, and Bella quickly careens the car over her mom's newly planted tomato garden, up the driveway, until she reaches the main road. The fact she is still on her learner's permit wasn't lost on her as she struggles to navigate herself to the highway.

Police, get to the police

She holds onto that one thought, her white knuckled grip never letting go of the wheel. Her left hand is limp in her lap. She doesn't know if she's still being followed, if James is in the car beside her, or behind her. Or does he even drive?

Her eyes frantically scan the perimeter around her. The odometer is slowly pushing beyond 60 mph for the first time in her life. Her ears are still ringing in the silence.

Through her blurry vision she can see the large brick building come into view. After holding back the dam for so long, she allows the small feeling of relief to flood her veins.

Her tires screech to a halt. She doesn't bother to park correctly amongst the other police cruisers. The police made her feel safe in more ways than one; they reminded her of Charlie.

Charlie

She had to call Charlie.

But as she drops her hands from the steering wheel, her body goes rigid.

She can't bring herself to leave the car.

That would mean all this was real.

That would mean her mom, and Phil, were gone.

Her mother's eyes stare back at her.

She jumps when there's a rapping on her window. A policewoman with an annoyed look and narrowed brow is staring at her with head cocked to the side, her hands on her hips.

Bella's neck smarts when she turns and meets her eyes. The woman's facial expression softens.

"Ma'am, could you step out please?" her voice is muffled behind the glass and cotton in her ears.

Bella can't move. Her legs are shaking too much. Why can't she catch her breath? She looks up at the woman beseechingly.

The woman slowly opens the door herself, her eyes looking over Bella's form. Bella unconsciously jerks away from the potential contact. The woman looks up at her, as if she were addressing a badly injured animal "It's okay" she holds out both her hands in front of her "I won't touch you"

She grabs onto the radio at her collar.

"Code 2, 10-45B I'm outside the front with a girl in a parked black ford F150, her age maybe 15-16, she appears unarmed, injured, looks to be minor trauma, might be in shock. I need an EMS on the scene stat and back-up."

Within seconds she received a confirmation, and four other police personnel were exiting the department, running down the concrete stairs towards them with hands on their holsters.

She was safe.

Bella gingerly let her body fall back against the seat for a moment, her eyes closing to the thrumming of her heart in her throat.

"Ma'am, can you tell me your name?"

She tried to swallow, but her larynx was sore and dry. "Bella" her voice croaked. She didn't want to open her eyes yet.

"Okay Bella, I'm Officer Tanner. Can you tell me how you were injured?"

No. She swallows again, this time recognizing the shooting pain was going up the back of her neck to the base of her skull. Her adrenaline really must have kicked-in for her to forget. The dull throb was now all she could think about.

What could she say? How could she tell them what happened to her, to her mom, to Phil, without being sent to some psychiatric ward?

She didn't try to hold back the relief and fear that continued to cascade down her cheeks.

She was going to have to lie. That the thing that did this to her, that had murdered her family, that was still out there, and would probably never see justice. Because she was going to have to lie about what he was. Or else, they would never believe her. The frustration was unbearable.

"Would you like to get out of the car?" the woman's voice was softer now. She had never left her side. Bella could hear the sirens of an ambulance pull up alongside her.

"2…22301…Cataro Drive…" Bella mumbled. The woman didn't think twice before reaching for her radio again.

Bella could hear the crackling before the woman's voice rushed out. "I need a dispatch team to 22301 Cataro Drive, now!"

It's no use. Bella's squinted her eyes more as the tears came on fast. The pain in her chest became a crater, and it was digging its' way into her lungs.

"Ma'am we're here to help" she heard a male voice come forward. The next thing she knew, she could taste a mix of plastic and cold air rushing into her lungs. Her eyes cracked open to see the oxygen mask placed over her.

There was movement around her. Another EMT had climbed into the passenger seat, checking vitals. Her vision started to blur with the rush of oxygen.

She couldn't make out the mumbled exchange amongst the police and EMS.

"Bella, I need you to try to calm your breathing ok? Just take slow, deep breaths for me"

But she couldn't control it. No matter how hard she tried, the dark hole was swallowing her.

"Ok I think we need a stretcher and a single dose Versed 1mg IV please." EMS ordered behind him.

They're gone. The words continued to resound in the hollow of her chest.

She cried out when someone tried to shift her from the seat.

"Bella tell us what hurts" the EMT asked. He was so patient with her. Bella blinked, forcing herself back into consciousness and to get a grip on her breathing.

She lifted her left arm, showing her bruised cold hand dangling in the air. Even gravity pulling at her fingers sent an unpleasant sensation up to her neck.

The EMT's eyes widened, gingerly taking hold of her left arm and inspecting the bruises. Blood was oozing from several different lacerations.

"Hank here is going to get a splint for that ok? It looks pretty beat up. How did this happen Bella?"

He kept addressing her name, as if that was supposed to make her feel better. Bella let out an uneasy breath, not sure if she was ready to speak more.

"Boot" was all she managed to get out. Yet the word registered with the EMT, and he nodded in understanding.

Once her wrist had been braced between hard plastic, foam and tape, they once again attempted to move her. Bella caught sight of the stretcher waiting next to the vehicle, with six awaiting officers, and an attached IV.

The thought of being stuck with a needle was going to send her over the edge. The EMT saw her expression, eyes locked on the IV pole.

"Don't worry, we're here to help. We're going to move you on to his stretcher and get you to the hospital so they can look you over, does that sound okay?"

But as he said the words, the other EMT on the passenger side attempted to lift Bella again. She could feel a sharp pain in her neck, running deep into the base of her skull. The air caught in her throat, and she heard shouting before her world went black.


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