A/N:Thanks once again for reviewing Chapter 1.You don't know how much that means to me.In this chapter,Elizabeth will experience something which will have an impact on her for the rest of her life.Just as a reminder to everyone, this fanfic will be continuing all through Elizabeth's life until she fulfills her true purpose.Exactly what that purpose really is,remains to be seen.So,the next chapter will be on her first day of school.In a private school in New York.Okay,enough of my note.Read the story!Review if you really want to. - MissMei92

THE TALE OF ELIZABETH CULLEN

Shocked was putting how I felt mildly. My jaw didn't drop. I did. The world was having an earthquake…and I was the only one noticing it. Next thing I knew, my head had hit the soft muddy lawn beneath my swing and I was just lying there, paralyzed by that word.Vampires. My mind was unable to respond at all to that word. But the last thought it sent to me before the darkness came was "I'm human. Mom and Dad aren't." And then…blackness was all I could see. Blackness, I whispered.

"No!!!!!" Someone was screaming. It was a horrifying scream…and then, everything was silent. That voice. It was not familiar enough to place, yet I thought it belonged to somebody…I knew. But yet it was alien too me too. I couldn't open my disobedient eyes, no matter how much I pleaded with them to. I had to see who it was, strangely.

But when they finally did open, I only saw my dad. He was sitting in a chair beside a bed. The bed I was now lying in. His head was buried in his hands and the feeling of hopelessness, I could feel emanating from him, was so strong. So strong that it made me feel sad too. I didn't want to see my dad like this. Maybe he was sad because he thought I'd gotten hurt when I fell from the swing. I whispered softly, "Daddy…" so he'd know I was awake.

My dad looked up slowly, his eyes weren't gold, like they usually were. They were pitch black like the blackness I'd just woken from. No, this wasn't my dad. A crazed look was in those eyes. I screamed but then, I was suddenly gasping for air. He was choking me, with a grip that was like iron wound around my neck. No! Where was my dad? Where was he? I felt tears in my eyes. I was going to die. Right here, right now. Alone.

The grip was released. I fell back, coughing violently, trying to gulp in air to my lungs. The evil who'd been trying to kill me was gone. Vanished into nothingness. The tears began to flow down freely. I wanted my mom. My uncle Carlisle. My aunt Esme. My aunt Alice. I wanted them, here with me. Panic set into me. I was all alone, abandoned here in this nightmare. I screamed for them. I was screaming and screaming until my voice broke and I fell back against the bed, my eyes swollen shut from sobbing.

The blackness came again, only now there was a light shining through. A vivid, clear light. I saw my mom's face. But she didn't look the same as she did now. She looked human. The vision of light disappeared, and I saw my uncle Carlisle staring back at me, as he kneeled beside me, anxiously. It was a dream. No, not a dream. It was my worst nightmare. I didn't want to descend back into that world of despair. I fought to keep my eyes open.

"Elizabeth! Elizabeth! Are you okay?" He was frantic, seeing me stay motionless although my eyes were open. I did the strangest thing possible at that time. I smiled. "I'm fine, uncle Carlisle. It's just a bump on the head." My brain had decided to stay incredibly calm, despite the fact, it was actually hyperventilating from knowing I'd just fainted. That nightmare had been far too vivid to be something I could make up all on my own. I shuddered as I remembered the steel grip around my tiny neck, my hands instinctively going there to make sure it was free. My uncle was still worried.

"Elizabeth, are you absolutely sure? I don't have to take a look at you, do I?" He bent over and examined my eyes. I guessed that he was checking me for a concussion or something, but my thoughts were still on the thing I'd just seen. I didn't understand it at all. It looked so unreal…but I knew that it was. "Elizabeth, follow the light with your eyes," Uncle Carlisle moved a tiny light from my left eye to my right. I followed it. "Elizabeth, I'd better get you inside," He picked me up, effortlessly, like I only weighed as much as…well, air.

He called for my mom as he came inside. She was here in an instant but her eyes widened from shock when she saw the condition I was in. She placed a white, cotton blanket on the recliner nearby and uncle Carlisle set me down on it steadily. It was then that I realized that my shirt was wet with mud from the ground and I'd soiled my uncle Carlisle's white shirt. He didn't look the least bit bothered by it. He was more concerned for me. I felt embarrassed at my foolish reaction of fainting. Then it all flooded back.

"Vampires." I said quietly to myself. My mom's eyes flew to me when I said that and they popped open even wider than they'd been before. "You told her already? Is that why she fell?" My mom's voice had risen, and she sounded displeased. Sure enough, the rest of my family was suddenly in the living room too. They all looked at me, their expressions unreadable. The atmosphere was tense but then, it calmed down. Almost as if somebody had willed it to.

My aunt Esme broke the silence. She came over to me, brightening her expression as she did. It was the mirror opposite of my bleak demeanor. She smiled and beckoned to me. "Elizabeth, come. Let's get you fixed up." She twisted her heel and walked out of the room quickly. I was not intent on staying to find out what would happen in here, especially since I knew I was the subject of the discussion. I obliged what my aunt requested and practically ran out of there, leaving a tiny trail of mud behind me. Oh, great. I would definitely have to clean that up later.

Aunt Esme was waiting at the foot of the staircase. I hadn't noticed the inside of the house until now. It was still messy and in disarray because the things were all still packed away inside the thick, cardboard boxes, with a few occasional exceptions, whence someone had opened a box and let the contents spill out. So, the house was a literal disaster, which would normally have appalled aunt Esme, but there must have been other things on her mind.

She dashed upstairs once I came in. It wasn't really a dash because she was still walking but just at an accelerated speed. I trailed behind her listlessly. I didn't know how I knew where my room was. It just came to me. The second door on the right. I was correct. My aunt stood there, expectantly, holding a fresh pair of jeans and a T-shirt for me. I changed as fast as I could but when I stepped out of the bathroom, my aunt had already gone downstairs.

I crept, albeit as silently as I could, towards the stairs and tried to listen in on the conversation below. They were talking louder than they usually did. Was that a good or a bad sign? I didn't know.

"You knew perfectly well we were going to have to tell her one day." My uncle Carlisle was the one speaking. "Yes, but she's only 6 years old! What were you thinking, Carlisle?" My mom sounded desperate. "We had no idea how she would take it! She could have done something worse than fainting!" She was going into hysterics, something my mother never did. Ever. "Bella, calm down. She didn't. That's what matters the most. She seemed fine, according to Carlisle." It was my dad speaking. My dad. The image flooded my mind and I shook it away. I didn't want to listen to it. It wasn't true. It wasn't!

"Esme, how is she? Has she said anything else?" Aunt Alice asked. "She seems unperturbed, but it could be a secondary reaction. She may be so shocked that she's not thinking, and just following whatever comes to her mind." My aunt's voice was quivering. "She's changing upstairs. She should be down here any minute.Silence. My uncle Jasper's voice broke through, with a piercing edge.

"She's listening to us. I can feel her emotions. She's confused, but she is thinking clearly enough." He paused. "Elizabeth, it's all right. Come downstairs." He called. I suddenly felt intense relief flood through me instantly. It made me capable enough to walk down the stairs without having my knees buckle beneath me from anxiety.

Everyone turned when I stepped out of the dark shadows of the upstairs floor and back down into the main room, where everyone was now standing in. My mom's eyes looked like they would have had tears in them, except I didn't see any. She opened up her arms, a motion meant for me. I ran into them and started weeping softly.

They weren't tears of sadness or anger. They were tears of relief and happiness. I knew there were going to be looks of alarm on everyone's face at my action but I wasn't going to stop myself. Just being here, surrounded by my family, by my mom and with my dad, was so comforting. That dream I'd had. It'd scared me more than anything I'd ever known. I didn't want to be alone and afraid. I wanted to be with my family. It didn't matter that they were vampires.

Whatever that word really meant. Vampires are evil, but my family isn't. They love me and take care of me. How can they be vampires? All I knew was that, despite everything, they were still my family. And my mom and dad still loved me, more than anything in this world. Just like what my uncle Carlisle had told me. I was still Elizabeth Cullen. My mother let me cry in her lap for as long as I wanted. I think she was going to cry to, but no tears came, while mine poured out incessantly.

When I was done with my weeping, I looked at my mother. She looked…serene. Like she'd felt relieved that I'd still come to her when she'd opened her arms for me. My father was the first to speak. "Elizabeth, are you hungry? If you're tired, you can go to sleep now if you want to." I looked at my dad. There was no way that monster in my dream was my father. My dad looked so hopeful and full of life. His eyes were still the special gold color I adored. I stopped holding onto my mom and hugged my dad instead.

I didn't want my dad to ever be sad like in that dream. My father probably didn't know how to interpret my response because my aunt Rosalie came over and whispered into my ear, "Sweetie, it's okay. You can sleep if you're tired." I kept hugging my dad. "I just want to know the truth." I whispered back. My answer shocked not only my family, but me too. I didn't know why I'd said that but it'd just slipped out. "We'd better explain everything to her. She has the right to know." My uncle Emmett had been silent until then.

I heard everyone sigh under their breath. "I agree, but she has to eat something first. She looks so weak." My aunt Esme said, the concern in her voice was evident. With that, my family relocated to the dining room, my uncle Emmett carrying me in. I realized that I was going to know the truth, very soon. But…now, I wasn't so sure whether I still wanted to hear it.