As Edward disappeared into the forest Bella wanted to sink down into despair. She thought she finally met the one, a soulmate, a partner for life but he proved her wrong with a few crushing words. She was used to being lonely though, so as the first drops of rain touched her skin she walked off changing all her life plans.
She entered Charlie's house and realized the faded yellow walls, the dusty furniture, and the threadbare couches drove her mad. She wanted action, she desired adventure, and she salivated over the life of a traveler. However, reality hit her and she realized as a senior in high school her aspirations will have to be put on hold until the future.
When she walked upstairs to enter her bedroom she saw the college applications that were half-heartedly filled out and realized she only had another month until the early actions were due. She sat down and got to work, Stanford, Dartmouth, and Florida were all completed by the time Charlie arrived home. She placed his dinner on the table and quietly went to bed, further contemplating where life could take her.
By the end of the quiet and uneventful senior year Bella drove home and started packing for college. Charlie entered her bare room and glanced around.
"So, this is it, huh?" He awkwardly moved inside the room and sat on her bed as she dug through her closet, for the limited amount of summer clothes she still had.
"No, I will visit. I'm attending Stanford so I'll be back more than you'd want, actually."
"Last time you said you'd visit I didn't see you for years."
"I'm older now Dad, travel is more accessible."
"Okay, just make sure you stay in touch." At that he left the room a little misty-eyed.
She finished packing and he helped her haul everything into her rustic truck. She saw Forks in her rear view mirror and felt a weight lift off her chest, Goodbye Edward she whispered into her mind, and with that statement a new chapter of her life began.
Four Years Later
As Bella walked across the stage her memory shifted to the quiet Forks High School Graduation ceremony of only fifty students, after attending Stanford for four years her graduating class was fifty times that amount. As a summa cum laude Journalism Major Bella was already asked to work at many large corporations but hearing about the girl that died in a fire at one of the campus apartments, a week ago, made Bella curious and her desire to travel and discover mysterious events made her decline all offers. She felt the congratulations wash over her from her friends and family and she accepted it all with a dry grin.
Free of debt, free of school, free from bills, and free of people Bella decided that she would use her degree to create a blog that depicted mysterious or haunted places in America along with scenic and unventured locations all over the country, along with publishing short stories to magazine as supplementary income.
Her adventure started off slow, she checked newspapers, asked the locals, then researched online but most of her searches ended up being explainable but local phenomena. Her stories were publicized, but usually under humour rather than the horrifying tale she initially intended them to be; however, she hit the jackpot with some stories. She found a gold mine in creative literature when she visited the haunted asylums and prisons. Sometimes the stories she published scared her because she swears that she can see these ghost, but she played those images off as mind tricks. Charlie and Renee who started off as her biggest fans slowly lost that race to the millions waiting to see the images and imagine her words on her blog. Soon, the blog ended up being her main income over the magazine stories.
Renee who was always a little susceptible to the supernatural started sending Bella ideas on how to ward them off. Bella was horrified when she realized Renee's information may hold substantial truth when it listed Vampires in categories and explained that the way to kill a Cold One was by decapitation with a shapeshifting werewolves' teeth and burning the parts.
Bella finally realized that her mother's information should be utilized when a very vengeful ghost attacked her as she was sketching and photographing pictures of a Penitentiary. Luckily, Bella broke her finger and her splint was made of iron, which she threw at the ghost in fright and ran to her truck. The ghastly figure changed Bella's perspective of life along with raising her adrenaline to extreme levels. After five years of mourning and emptiness she finally gained an emotional response.
Bella used her mother's information to research who the ghost was and if he was buried, and because he was she salted and burned him after digging up his grave. The entire experience gave Bella a morbid satisfaction, she felt accomplished knowing that the vengeful spirit will never harm another and that the spirit has been laid to rest.
Her blog became lively after she reenacted the adventure in a mini story debuted as fictional, she gained new bloggers most notably a Bobby Singer who called her story alter ego an idgit because she used the wrong tools. Bella's inbox on her blog became filled with how to properly search for the supernatural, things to look out for, places to travel, and protective devices. As a result the first permanent blemish on her body became a demon-proofing tattoo on the side of her hip.
After beginning to actively seek monsters and supernatural creatures Bella encountered vampires and with a vengeance she didn't realize she had she used the dead man's blood to efficiently take down the seven member coven. Without remorse, she pictured each of the Cullens as she killed all of the vampires. Her coven killing story upgraded her name from idgit to hunter. A title Bella now idolized.
Bella had small interludes to more scenic destinations to lighten up her increasingly morbid blog. Charlie, uncomfortable with the killing stories was proud to comment on those posts, Renee on the other hand cultivated Bella's new hobby and gave her more ideas to put in her stories, her favorites were witches.
Bella who now finally realized she entered a world that was bloody and dangerous decided she needed time to be prepared to face bigger challenges. She took a break off blogging and paid for a few self-defense classes, weapon-training class, and a latin class just to understand some things she read in the materials these 'hunters' sent her.
Charlie, who was more closed off to the supernatural realized that the references to the supernatural were growing more frequent and inferred that Bella was getting involved in things that could be more than she could handle, but he wanted to make sure she was as safe as possible so he paid for all the lessons.
Bella's first debut back into hunting started at a Roadhouse and meeting Ellen, her daughter Jo, and Ash. They were all welcoming and were very knowledgeable in the hunting community. Bella realized that as Ash spoke to her, bought her drinks, and touched her skin that she was a 22 year old virgin. The thought hit her spontaneously but she felt no desire to give it to Ash, regardless of his looks. Bella left the Roadhouse with more knowledge on individuals to avoid; specifically, the Winchesters but essentially just John and another man named Gordon, rather than actual fighting knowledge.
She travelled on her own and practically became a specialist in killing vampire covens, but she finally encountered a witch and her blog post on that caused a spike in her blog readers. Bella worked at a steady but exciting pace as a hunter, effectively working city to city and taking Ellen's recommendations to encounter the rare supernatural creatures. Her hunting was efficient, concise, and free from suspicions. As her blog became famous both in the hunting world and not she decided she needed a home base to settle when she wanted time to relax. She decided to settle in a central location from Bobby Singer in South Dakota and Ellen Harvelle in Nebraska. She bought a simple ranch style home that had no neighbors. She took time to publish more magazine stories, sketches, and photographs to pay for a new properly equipped vehicle to fit the various terrain she encounters, specifically a Range Rover.
Bella became content with her life as her substantial income was now able to pay off her debts but allowed her to travel and hunt freely, but the adrenaline rush that arrives from hunting still did not satisfy her craving for companionship.
Her hunting and resting turned cyclical until she felt almost bored with her new life, until she traveled to Fitchburg, Wisconsin to investigate the mysterious sickness of the town's children.