The sun had just begun to set over the trees when we reached our camping spot. It was near a small lake surrounded by pines and mountains. The boys jumped out of the back and started setting up the tents while Bella and I unpacked the food. The cold wind picked up a little and she shivered. I took of my giant coat dad had bought me for my birthday two years ago.

"Here, this will keep you warm." I tried to hand it to her but she shook her head.

"Won't you freeze?" Her teeth chattered when she talked.

"Nah, I've got the human heater's over there to keep me warm." I tilted my head towards the guys, who were only wearing sweatshirts and jeans. "I swear, those three never get cold." She half smiled and took the coat. She quickly put it on and almost instantly stopped shivering. "So how do you feel about school on monday?"

"I don't know," she shrugged. "It sucks being the new girl."

"Yeah," I nodded thoughtfully. "Don't worry though. People here are harmless. Even Mike is a pretty hands off kind of guy." I thought for a moment. "But that's probably because dad's the sheriff." We both laughed.

"And he knows that if he touches either of you, he'll get a beat down next time he comes down to La Push." Jake added, resting his chin on the top of my head. I went to the back of the truck and grabbed my water bottle and took a drink.

"Come on guys, he doesn't seem so bad." Bella defended.

"Are you kidding?" I said, nearly spitting out my drink all over Jake. "He's literally your average class-a douche."

"I mean, if he's so average, then how can he be that bad?"

"Fair point." The three of us moved over to the side of the lake where Quil and Embry were throwing rocks into the water. "He's not as bad as the Cullens." I stated, taking a seat on the dry leaves.

"The Cullens?" Bella wondered, sitting next to me, Jake and the other guys doing the same.

"Only the creepiest family in town." Embry started.

"Creepy doesn't even begin to cover the Cullens." Jake said and noticed me start to shiver pulling me closer to him, his body giving out unnatural amounts of heat.

"They're this super stuck up bunch of kids at our school. Dr. Cullen is actually super nice, and I've heard his wife is too. But they have all of these kids that they adopted, and they don't talk to anyone at our school." I thought for a second and remembered something I had been planning to tell the guys. "Wait, I completely forgot, today when I was walking down the hallway, I ran into one of them."

"And you survived?" Jake gasped sarcastically.

"Shush. Anyway, it was Jasper, he's the one who always kind of looks like he's in pain just by being around everyone. That's not the crazy part. Alice, his girlfriend-" Bella shot me a look, "I know it's weird, but hey they're not technically brother and sister- Alice started talking to me. She was like, really nice, it was scary." I decided to keep the whole hearing-people's-thoughts-thing to myself.

"See, maybe they're not so bad either." Bella piped up, throwing a rock into the lake herself.

"Keep dreaming Bella. They're still a bunch of spoiled brats," I took another drink of my water. The night passed quickly, and before long, we were all ready to get some sleep before our hike tomorrow. Bella slept in the tent, but the boys and I decided to break out the sleeping bags and sleep under the stars since it was a relatively warm night. I had forgotten to get my coat back so I buried myself in my sleeping bag, causing Jake to laugh and wrap his warm arms around me. He slept like a rock. A very loud, snoring rock. But I didn't mind. I looked up at the millions of stars and started to sketch in the notebook I always kept in my sleeping bag. I had just finished the tips of the trees when something in front of me caught my eye. I nearly screamed. It was pale and its eyes were dark, but almost glowed in the dark. It was Jasper Hale. I scrambled out of my sleeping bag and grabbed a flashlight, shining it on the spot that he stood, but only found the trees.

"Come on Vee," I whispered to myself. "There's nothing there." But I knew that was a lie. Looking back down at a fast asleep Jake and an unbothered tent, I took a deep breath before grabbing some bear spray and dashing into the woods, cautiously but quick. No matter where I looked, all I could see was branches and leaves. I wasn't even sure why I kept going, I should've turned back to the campsite, back to Jake. But, of course, the inner detective in me kept going. I knew that I saw something.

A sudden red blur flashed in front of me and I froze. I grabbed for the bear spray but stopped when a freezing hand grabbed my wrist. I screamed, but my mouth was covered by another cold hand.

"Do not be afraid." A voice cooed. It was so smooth and sweet, I felt calm for a split second until I saw another person standing in front of me. Her hair looked like fire against her snow like skin.

"Aw, but it's so much more fun when the run." She grinned and a tall blond man appeared next to her with impossible speed. They both started coming towards me and I fought against the person holding me until I felt something sharp in my neck and then in my wrists. My screams stopped in my throat as my veins seemed to catch on fire, tears immediately filling my eyes from the pain. There was a loud growl and the three attackers looked up.

"There's only one, we could take him." The blond one spat. Several more hisses came from around us.

"There's more than one James. Let's go." The dark skinned one at my neck whispered and the three disappeared. I collapsed, but fell into someone's arms.

"Oh my god, is she alive?" A small voice gasped. I knew that voice. It was Alice.

"I don't know, but we have to get the venom out of her system." The one holding me up said, they're voice seemingly calm, but holding panic. "Quickly."

"Carlisle, I can't-"

"You have to try. I'll make sure you don't hurt her. Now Alice." I felt another sharp pain and cried out.

"Shh, it's alright." A woman caressed my face, her smile kind, but her golden eyes filled with fear. The sound of more people surrounding us was the last thing I heard before blackness flooded my eyes.


"You shouldn't have brought her here." Someone hissed, the sound of footsteps pacing the floor followed.

"We couldn't just leave her to die, Rosalie." Another, who I recognized as Dr. Cullen argued.

"Why couldn't you take her to the hospital?"

"There wasn't time. We had to act quickly before-" He was cut off by someone else.

"She's awake." Edward. My eyes flickered open and took in the scene in front of me. The room was bright, the cloudy sky dimming the light pouring in from the wall of windows. My limbs felt like they were laced with lead and my head pounded.

"Is she okay?" Alice's face appeared above me and I groaned.

"Yeah, she's okay." Edward answered. It took all of my energy to try to stand up.

"Woah woah woah, take it easy." Alice steadied me and sat me back down on the sofa.

"You gave us quite the scare." Dr. Cullen sighed. "You're lucky to have survived." I looked down at the bandages on my wrists and felt the one on my neck. "That bear could have killed you. It's a good thing we found you when we did."

"Wait, bear?" I asked, trying to remember what happened, but most things were a blur. There was one thing I remembered, the red hair and the sickly sweet voice telling me not to be afraid. "I wasn't attacked by a bear."

"Things like this will often cause you to imagine things, have visions of things that aren't really there." Dr. Cullen explained, but something told me he was lying. A more important thought came to my mind before I could dwell on the cause of my injuries.

"Oh my god Jacob and Bella." I exclaimed. "And my dad, they must be freaking out."

"We called Charlie as soon as we brought you here. As for your friends and your sister, Emmett and Esme went to go find them this morning. We're planning to meet them at the hospital so you can get more medical care, I'm afraid your wounds will need more attention." Carlisle cast Edward a look and Edward nodded, leaving the room, taking Rosalie- who was still glaring at me- with him. Alice helped me up and walked me to Carlisle's car. She sat next to me in the back seat, which alone was almost the size of my closet. Alice tried to take my mind off of everything by talking about fashion and the latest assignment in English. But I couldn't stop thinking about those people. Memories slowly came back to me, but I assumed it was just like Dr. Cullen said, that I was imagining it. But that didn't make it seem any less real.

When we finally got to the hospital, I sighed when I saw almost four police cars in the parking lot, all around the sheriff's. Alice and Dr. Cullen helped me out of the car, but I was pretty much able to walk into the hospital by myself, despite how dizzy it made me.

"Oh thank god," My dad raced over to us and crushed me in a hug. I winced. "Sorry," he released a little, but kept one hand tight around my arm and the other touching my cheek. He tilted my head slightly, looking at the bandage on my neck. "What happened?" he asked Dr. Cullen, pulling me in for another small hug, his hand holding the back of my head.

"We believe it was a bear, but it was hard to see in the dark. She must have wandered away from the campsite." The door opened and Jake, Bella and the other guys came rushing in.

"Where is she, is she okay?" Jake looked around frantically until he saw Charlie holding me. "Oh my god." Dad broke away, only for me to be engulfed in Jake's arms. Bella looked at me with relief before giving dad an awkward hug and saying that she was fine. Alice tensed up and stared off into space. Dr. Cullen glanced at her with a worried expression but walked up to the front desk and asked if they could find someone to take a look at me.

"This is why you guys shouldn't have gone." Dad said as soon as Jake let go of me. "Why did you leave the site anyway?"

"I-I thought I saw…" I thought of the dark eyes and pale, dead-like skin. "Something."

"So you wake me up." Jake huffed. "Instead of going off by yourself with a measly can of bear spray!"

"Jake's right Vee, what in the hell were you thinking?" Dad agreed. I noticed how tired he looked. Dad always let these kind of things tear him up, like it was all somehow his fault.

"I don't- I don't know." My eyes welled up with tears and dad sighed, wrapping his arms around me again, placing a kiss on the side of my head.

"I'm just glad you're okay."

"They say they're ready for you," Dr. Cullen gave me a small smile and dad shook his hand.

"Thanks for everything, really." Dad glanced at me then back at the doctor. "I don't even want to think about what would've happened-"

"You're very welcome Sheriff. But it was Edward that found her." I froze. Edward.

"Then please tell him how grateful we are." Dad gave the doctor's hand one last shake before turning back to me.

"Will do." Dr. Cullen looked at me. "Just try not to have anymore late night forest adventures, right Veronica." The way he looked at me told me that he meant it, but not in the way it sounded. He didn't want whatever attacked me to get to me again.

"Right," I smiled and played along. Another doctor began to usher us towards a room and I got one last glance at Alice, who was looking back at me, grinning and waving. I waved back and looked at my wrists. Just a moment ago she seemed like she was in a trance and now she was perfectly fine.

"Somethings coming." Alice's voice rang out in my head. I craned my head back to look at her, but she was in deep conversation with Carlisle. The two cast me a look before walking out the door into the dreary morning. It was then that I made up my mind. Kaitlyn was right, something was definitely up with the Cullens. And I was going to find out what it was.


The plot thickens... if I'm being honest though, her getting attacked wasn't even part of my original plan. They were just gonna go camping. But then I got the idea and I feel like this is the point where things will start to change. Sorry I haven't posted in a while, but let me know what you think of this chapter and where you think the story is going. Thanks for reading and hope you enjoyed!