Thanks again to all my reviewers. And I'm extremely sorry for the confusion! I reread and I'm going to clear up some questions in this chapter. Keep reviewing!

I didn't get to figure out why Edward's picture was on although I had a seriously scary hunch. Another knocking came at the door.

This time, I fearlessly opened it; I figured it must be Edward again. It wasn't. It was Alice.

Her gaze instantly went from my face to the computer and back. "Oh, no!" She moaned, and ran to the computer and grabbed it, leaning backwards so all the cords unplugged. The monitor went dark.

"What are you doing?" I fairly shouted at her.

When she turned to look at me, there was something in her eye that told me maybe I should back off and not mess.

"Fine," I told her shortly. "Don't tell me why you did that, and don't tell me why Edward's face is on CNN. But you at least have to tell me where you've been."

Alice looked pained as she once again turned around to face me. She set her legs and squared her shoulders. "All right, Bella. But first you need to understand something. Edward is dead to us."

My mouth hit the floor.

Her tone was so venomous, that I was pretty sure she wasn't joking. And besides, why would she possibly be joking? Edward is dead to us…. That could definitely mean something different. Like, maybe they thought Edward was dead, right?

Right?

I stared at the floor as I felt Alice's gaze on me. What was I supposed to say? He was here last night. But this meant…

Tears had been coming unnaturally fast recently, especially in the area of Edward. I angrily brushed away the first tear, and thankfully held back the rest.

I noticed Alice's posture soften, though, when she saw that. Hmm. Maybe I could work this to my advantage. I slowly looked back up at her, carefully putting on my best puppy-dog look. I tried to make my eyes wide and innocent, and my mouth curving downward.

Alice sighed heavily. "I'm sorry, Bella. I'm really sorry. But I need to take you somewhere else. I think Edward knows where you are, and I'm sorry, but it just isn't safe anymore."

I wanted to scream. I wanted to shout. I wanted to kick and pull my hair and stomp and cry. Why were they taking Edward away from me? WHY? "I don't want to leave!" I yelled at her, and turned and raced to my bedroom door, shutting and locking it behind me.

I think that she was so surprised by my actions that she didn't even try to come after me, though she could've definitely made it to my door before me and blocked the way. To tell the truth, I was surprised by my actions. I blamed it on my stormy brain, stormy thoughts, and sank onto my bed with a sigh of relief.

Sleep came, and went. I awoke once when the sun was fully out, and then once more just as it was slanting away. As much as I tried, I couldn't sleep anymore, and I finally stepped outside to get something to eat.

As I approached the kitchen, I realized how ravenous I really was. And then I realized that Alice wasn't there anymore. Whatever. If she wasn't there, that meant that she couldn't take me away. And if I stayed at the cottage, maybe Edward would come.

I still couldn't comprehend what Alice had told me. Edward…the bad guy? What could he possibly have done? And I wanted to know, so bad, why his face had been on CNN. Could that have been it?

A light bulb went off. So that was why Carlisle wanted me to not watch TV. He probably didn't want me watching the news, because he didn't want me to see my sweetheart in the headlines. But why had they given me an all-access computer? Maybe they had forgotten.

Alice sure had made her point and made sure I couldn't cross it. She had ripped the cords out of the computer, and I had absolutely no idea how to fix it, which she probably knew. The TV was all unplugged as well, and besides I couldn't move the TV cabinet and get behind it because it was too heavy.

So now what? I was locked up in a cell? It wasn't like I could run, either; I had absolutely no idea where I was, and for all I knew, the forest could stretch on for miles in all directions.

Right. And Edward was the bad guy.

I was going to have a word with whoever came to check on me next. In the meantime, I busied myself with making a sandwich out of some fixings I had found in the refrigerator.

I was chewing the last bite of my sandwich, poised with my hand on my milk glass, when someone busted through the back door.

Practically choking on my sandwich, I tried to scream, but to no avail; the bread just got stuck further down my throat. In a fruitless effort to unstuck it, I poured the rest of my milk into my mouth.

Bad, bad idea. A terrible retching feeling began beneath my throat, and I had to run to the sink so I didn't spit it out all over the clean floor.

When I was done with that, I whirled around with my hands protectively on the counter behind me, ready to grab a knife.

"Bella, grab your things," Carlisle told me sternly, ignoring my battle pose.

I gaped at him. Oh, no way. "Why?"

"We're leaving. Get your things. I'll explain on the way."

"You better," I muttered under my breath as I slowly walked towards my bedroom. I knew I had no chance of winning an argument, because he could just grab my wrist and he would have me deadlocked. I could bite his head off on the ride to wherever we were going.

To my surprise, when we got outside, there was a shiny silver car waiting there. I didn't have time to check the model or company, because Carlisle immediately dumped me in and threw himself in the other side.

There was a road on one side of the cottage, smartly concealed by some overgrown bushes.

As we zoomed down it, I turned to look at Carlisle. "All right, enough with this crap. I can take it. I'm not squeamish."

Carlisle's smile was almost a smirk, and his eyes held a mischievous glint. "Oh?" Was all he said, and my cheeks flamed as I thought about how I had nearly choked on my sandwich.

I shook it away. "This isn't funny. I want to know what's happening!"

Carlisle sighed deeply. "Have either Alice or Edward seen you since you went to the cottage?" He asked me.

I looked out the window to buy time. What was I supposed to say? I decided that I couldn't keep anything from him anyways, and it might be serious. "Both." I told him.

Carlisle nodded. "That's what I thought. Don't listen to either of them, do you understand?" He looked over at me to make sure. I nodded, and he continued. "Alice is angry with Edward. She refuses to even speak with him. She has practically disowned him, because of a stupid thing he did the day you went to Port Angeles with Alice. Maybe it was because he didn't know what to do with himself; maybe we'll never know. None of us has seen him since then, but I'm not surprised he visited you." He glanced over at me.

I could hardly take this all in. It was so hard to absorb! Edward did something incredibly stupid, the result of which was probably the fact that there was a huge picture of him on CNN? It was also the reason I was shut up at the cottage without technology, probably. And Alice wouldn't even talk to him? That was so unlike either of them.

"I know what you're probably thinking," Carlisle said. "Edward wouldn't do something stupid, and Alice isn't the kind to get so angry for so long. Do you remember that night of Port Angeles, when Alice's eyes turned red? We think, somehow, someone's controlling her; we're not even sure if that really is her. We don't know how it happened, or why, but it's strange. She told us about the vision she had, but it wasn't just a normal vision. Every time she tried to focus on it, she couldn't comprehend some little detail; she told us that it was like something changed, every time she tried to understand her vision. I'd never heard of something like this before, but I did some research, and…well…I'll show you when we get back to the house."

My head was spinning. There was a stupid buzzing sound in my ears. When Carlisle's voice stopped, I felt like I was going to crack; in a way, it had been soothing, through everything it had said.

This is a dream. This is a dream.

What was Carlisle trying to hint at? And…and….

I didn't even want to think about Edward. If I thought too much, it would hurt too much.

"When was the last time you saw Alice?" I suddenly asked him.

Carlisle glanced at me. "The same night. She's called us twice, though, but refused to tell us where she was. Either way, we've communicated enough with both of them to know that they're not on speaking terms and they've both made a mess."

I nodded, though I had absolutely no right to, since I didn't understand anything. "She visited me last night…or two nights ago." I told him. Had it really been two whole nights ago? That meant I had slept for almost a day and a half.

With another flash of brilliance, I realized that since Alice wasn't talking to her family on a regular basis, they probably didn't know that I had maybe seen the article about Edward. Maybe it would be better to play stupid.

"What did Edward do? I mean, what made Alice so mad?" I asked.

Carlisle clenched his teeth, and I realized that he, too, was a little mad at Edward, though he hadn't stopped speaking to Edward. His manner was forgiving; so was Alice's, usually. He nodded once, then said, "I will show you later."

Would he turn on the TV? Or show me on the Internet? Or maybe even throw a newspaper at me?

Either way, I was aching to know what Edward had done to screw things up so bad.

And I was aching for Edward.

I'll admit, I was hoping I could find something faulty in his mistake and maybe fix everything. I wasn't looking to be hero; I just wanted Edward back!

I was so involved in my thoughts that when the car stopped and I automatically opened the door, I almost tripped over the car as I opened the door, and nearly fell flat on my face.

Luckily, vampires have insane speed, and the ground was replaced by Carlisle.

I followed him inside, where he led me to the TV. "Watch," He ordered, and switched it on.

The weatherman was on. He finished his five-day forecast, and then a dolled-up lady named Liz Schmidt talked about business, lots of fancy words that I didn't understand.

A lady named Meri Banks was on next. "And now, in more unusual news." She smiled her brilliant, megawatt smile, and proceeded to basically deliver my most torturous nightmare. "A seventeen-year-old boy named Edward Cullen was recently found to have a remarkable ability; he is unable to be hurt. Four days ago, he jumped in front of a car, and was struck head-on. The driver of the car, forty-one-year-old Margaret Hennings, claimed that "he seemed to just appear" and she "definitely did not see him coming." She said that she almost didn't really believe he was there, because he had simply appeared there so quickly. She hit him full on, and immediately called 9-1-1. She waited for them to go look for him, praying that she had not hurt him. They found him, however, and he had no bruises or injuries, which is, we can say, a miracle. It has probably never happened before. He consented to jump off a cliff, and he was provided with a parachute. He didn't use it, however, and when they found him at the bottom, he was, again, unharmed. They're running tests on him as we speak, and we'll provide you with more details as they come. And in other news, fifty-six-year-old…."