A/N: So once upon a time there was this girl. And she really, really wanted to finish this one story of hers—but she had extremely funny but extremely homework-fond teachers that gave her boatloads of work every night, and expected her to be finished and then sit in their classes bright and early. Every night she wrote another sentence, but by the time that happened, it was eleven o'clock! She cried and cried for she could not finish her story…er…get the idea? Good.

Anyways—R&R, as always:)

So there it was, pretty much: my happily ever after. Right? Right?

Wrong. I hate to say it, but that was like the calm before the storm. Well, maybe not, but something like that.

What I mean to say is, a little while later—like that night—Edward and I went hunting. Us girls had sufficiently gushed, while Edward and Carlisle had gone off wherever to have guy time, and then Edward and I had decided to go on our first hunting trip together as an engaged couple. It pretty much put jitters in my stomach.

We were out in the forest—I wasn't really sure where, Edward had just grabbed my hand and told me to run—and we were currently searching for our prey.

Edward sniffed the air, and his eyes were instantly ablaze. "Cougars!" He whispered hoarsely, and nodded for me to quiet my steps.

We moved stealthily through the forest, I following Edward. Yes, I was stealthy. Don't give me that look! My superpower or whatever—the whole avoiding clumsiness thing—really was working pretty well. I managed to not crack my skull on any trees, or trip over any tree roots, or anything like that. It was pretty smooth sailing.

I couldn't yet pick up on the scent, since while my senses were vampire-ized, they weren't fully developed or as good as Edward's or however that worked. I felt a faint nagging in the direction we were heading that grew slowly, but I definitely couldn't have found the cougar myself.

We finally stumbled upon it in a small clearing. Edward nodded at me and held out his arms for me to go ahead of him: he was insisting that I needed practice catching my own animals. I, of course, didn't understand why, because it was enough to make me throw up to want to kill innocent poor animals, but he was making me.

Besides, the cougar smelled pretty good from this close up.

So I went.

But right before I hit the cougar, for the second time in my short vampire life I felt the weird sensation of blacking-out-except-not and falling a short distance, yet totally surprised.

"Edward!" I yelled instinctively, clutching myself as I hit rock bottom. I looked around, and my heart sank. Oh, no. Not again.

"Bell!" I heard a voice from above, and then frantic scurrying and then, finally, the thump next to me that signaled Edward had reached as well.

It all happened too fast for me to protest, for me to do the heroic thing and tell Edward to not come down here. But I knew that deep down, I really didn't want to go back through this alone.

I heard his sharp intake of breath, and knew that he recognized where we were, as well.

"That son of a—" Edward began, but was cut off.

"Ah, my friends have decided to join me again?" The smooth, sickening voice asked mockingly.

"Yeah, like we had a choice," I answered hotly anyways, getting up and dusting myself off. I could already see through the darkness: there was the small figure, the short, stupid, freakish little man.

Capruti grinned. "Ah, but you did! By foiling my plan you have bought yourself a one-way ticket to hell, let me assure you."

"Oh, joy." I replied dryly. I looked at Edward and caught the look he shot me: it told me to shut up quickly and without fight, or else.

Capruti turned around and began to walk. I rolled my eyes. How stupid was he? I wasn't going to follow. I began to inch backwards, hoping I wouldn't hit rock behind me.

"Don't even think about it." Capruti's voice cut through the darkness.

I stopped instantly, startled. How had he been able to tell? Quickly shaking my head, I slowly began to follow, as slowly as I could, taking my time to concentrate in putting one foot in front of another, slowly, slowly.

"Hurry up," Capruti barked, and my gait instantly sped.

What? Why was this happening? I forced myself to slow down further.

"I said," Capruti told me angrily, "Hurry up!"

My feet quickened again, seemingly of their own accord. I helplessly looked over at Edward as I tried to make my feet slow a bit, although it wasn't really working.

Edward seemed just as puzzled as me. I couldn't tell if Capruti's commands were having the same effect on him or not, but at least he knew I was somewhat bound.

But then my chance came.

I…well…sensed it more than I saw it—a sort of bump in the cave wall, about four inches above my head, that came out almost like a pole, so it looked easy to hang on to. It was about a hundred feet in front of me, so I sped up easily, until I was right underneath it.

Edward was eyeing me warily, as if wondering what other foolish trick I was going to try.

Not foolish! I wanted to scream. My last plan had worked! Praying that this would too, but not really letting myself think about what I was about to do, I jumped and grabbed onto the hold as best I could. It was slippery, but I hoped that this vampire-ness would get me some traction, at least.

Capruti was almost literally underneath me. He looked up to yell at me, but I quickly heaved myself backwards and forwards that my feet connected with his head.

Please be somewhat mortal. Please be somewhat mortal. I repeated the chant in my head like a mantra, thinking that maybe if I repeated it enough, it would come true.

It came true. I heard the sickening thud with which Capruti hit the ground in all its surround-sound glory, compliments of my recent vampire bite. And then something red and oh-so-delicious smelling trickled out of the spot I had kicked him….

My vision flashed, and suddenly my tongue was on the ground, lapping up whatever was coming out of Capruti's head.

And then I felt like a total creep and tried to clear the heady feeling in my brain. Edward's arms grabbed me and pulled me backwards—"It's not safe," He whispered in my ear.

I was extremely grateful he had pulled me away; my stomach was wrenching violently, like I was going to throw up; I most definitely would've, if I could've. "Thanks," I whispered back.

He nodded once. "Now we must find a way out of here."

I silently savored the way he talked in that old-English sort of way, but then quickly followed him through the dark cave in the direction Capruti had been leading us. I wasn't really sure how smart that was, but I trusted Edward.

And then I saw a red light in the distance, and then a twin red light, and then more red lights, and then—

Uh-oh.

It was Capruti's Army.

My first instinct was to turn and run--but then I guess my feral instinct (who knew I had one? I guess it's included in the whole vampire package) took over, and I wanted to rip those children limb from limb.

So that wouldn't necessarily be my idea of a fun time, but hey. Give me a break.

Edward was glaring at them all. His face looked so beautiful when he was angry--I almost forgot to look at the hundreds of red-eyed vampires assembled on the forefront as I gazed at his face in loving...

Ew. Since when did I get all icky-mushy?

I pushed back my sleeves, then winced at my extremely pale, even paler than my old self, skin and pulled them up again. I was just going to have to get my clothes dirty. "What's the plan?" I whispered to Edward, hoping I had mastered the art of getting my voice low enough so the vampires about half a mile away from us wouldn't hear.

I don't think they did, but I can't be sure.

Edward offered a lopsided half-smile that literally made me melt. "There is none."

All right, I'll admit, I kind of freaked out then. "There's what?" I demanded. "Why not?" I balled up my fists, ready to throw a few punches his way. Apparently along with that all-inclusive package was a hyped-up temper.

"Save your energy for them," Edward advised. God. I hated how he was always right. "Wing it. Your last two plans have worked, have they not?"

Again with the little old-English clauses--such as 'have they not.' Seriously, the boy was going to be the end of me one day. Did he do that on purpose? Use those adorable little phrases, just to mess me up? I bet he just didn't want that punch, because he knew it might hurt. Right? Right?

At least there was one good thing about the impending fight--I couldn't fall on my face before I got to the actual enemy. That was always a plus. But still, I had no battle tacts; I had absolutely no idea what to do.

"Stare into their eyes," Edward reminded me as the vampires began to come towards us in an eerie, almost trance-like state.

Flashback. I remembered that--those babies came out of their hypnotic states when their eyes stopped glowing, which happened when their eyes were deeply stared into. I could do that! That involved no hand-to-hand combat, so I was completely down.

I started staring the forwardmost vampires down until their eyes flickered and then turned back to the normal shade. I was surprised at the variety of colors--light blues, dark greens, hazels, even a few purples. Esme had said that the color of the eye depended on who they were bitten by; I hadn't realized there was so many 'starting' vampires, or whatever they were called.

So maybe they really weren't freaks of nature, but actually supposed to be there. Ah. That would be cool.

The vampires started coming faster than I could stare them down, but luckily the un-hypnotized vampires were coming to our side as Edward's lips moved. I realized he was probably muttering quick explanations, and I was disappointed that I couldn't hear them, but I kept at my job nonetheless. The not-so-wide cave crushed everybody together, so after a while it was just like a mass of red-eyed vampires coming at me out of the darkness. If I were still in my human state, I probably would have wet my pants--it was creepy, all right? The shadow walls cast shadows over all the flawless faces around me, and I felt like I had come to an Evil Beautiful People convention (although I am pretty sure that that doesnt really exist. But hey).

To entertain myself as I kept staring, I made up an advertisement for the Evil Beautiful People convention: Come one, come all! Are you extremely pretty, and have a knack for wanting to take over the world? Then you've come to the right place! The Evil Beautiful People convention (EBPc) is being held on Saturday, November 16th at the Darkness Theater in Reject, Alaska. It's going to be extremely dark and consequently very safe--not that that means anything to any of you wink--and there will be blood-red punches and other beverages served. In the spirit of a late Halloween we will have human-head-shaped cookies. Here you can meet and mingle with other beautiful, villanous people like you.

I almost laughed out loud as I kept up the staring game. By now, we had about twenty vampires on our side, helping us stare down the slew of blood-suckers still coming at us.

I had just freed an Italian-looking kid with the prettiest eyes, and as soon as he had listened to Edward, he whispered (yes, even I could hear it. Aren't you proud?), "Hey! There are way too many, they're going to outnumber us even if we all try and stare, and I know a way out. Come on!"

Edward and I exchanged a glance--I then gave him a look that (I hope) said, I at least want to live till our wedding day. I mean, honestly.

We decided to follow the Italian boy.

But we knew that as soon as we turned around, we could easily be outrun and outnumbered. There would be nothing to stem the flow of vampires, and if the Italian boy was right about there being so many, we would be seriously doomed.

The third risk in one day--this was not a bad record. And I hadn't even fallen on my face even once! That was even better! I raised my arms in a silent cheer to myself, but then quickly lowered them when I saw Edward giving me a strange look.

Fighting the urge to laugh, I turned and saw about five of us already running in the direction we had come from. We were going to go in teams; and apparently, Edward and I were part of the last team.

But the teams were going fast, and our turn was fast approaching. "Go!" Someone screamed from behind us, further down the way we had come, and the voice echoed through the cave so that even if it wasn't a scream, it sounded like one.

As I whirled, I felt a whoosh of adrenaline running through my--body? I remembered a song I had heard once:

Ain't no way they can stop me now,

Baby cuz I'm on my way I can feel my reign coming

It's the blood of a champion, pumping

Deep inside my veins; there's too much pride to be running.

I'ma do what I can and more, even if my blood

My sweat and my tears don't mean nothing

It's the heart of a champion, in me.

I wasn't really sure how I could be feeling adrenaline, but it was definitely there, tickling the bottom of my stomach and urging me to go faster, faster--the cave walls zoomed by on either side, and I felt the wind, which had been almost nonexistant a couple of minutes ago, pushing my hair backwards, off my face.

The delicious feeling that I was in real danger, not just imaginary, pushed my limits and caused me to run even faster than Edward. I kept glancing back to make sure he was there, but then after a while I didn't need to. It was almost like I felt his presence there, that I would be able to feel if I lost him.

And then the Italian boy was talking away, so much closer now, and I couldn't see because the wind was forcing my eyes shut, but he was saying that I needed to stop soon, so soon, in a second, now.

I stopped so hard that I was sure I would go tumbling off into oblivion, but by some godsend I kept my balance. I looked around; besides Edward, two other girls, the Italian boy, and I, this part of the cave was empty. We were silent, and I felt the ground vibrating slightly, as if an elephant stampede was on its way.

It wasn't elephants.

Just vampires.

At this point, the latter were more dangerous to me, although that would have seemed ridiculous about a year ago.

The boy directed us on where to stand, and then he stood next to us, and we were all in a tight circle in the middle of the cave, our centerpoint a tiny, barely visible black dot that blended in so neatly with the dark, rough cave floor. I briefly wondered how the boy had found it, but then figured, why question it?

And then the boy was muttering something, and a spinning sensation spiraled through my stomach, my hair whipping around my face like I was standing in a giant tornado. For some reason, though, I didn't 'fall off,' because that's what it felt like: like I was being lifted on a platform that was also spinning at great speeds.

I forced my eyes open as the spinning became more intense. There they were--those horrid red-eyed vampires, grabbing at our ankles and trying to keep us down. Were we really lifting? I tried to see downwards, but my eyes stung terribly at some invisible force and I had to close them again.

And then my whole body froze, and I felt ice trickling through me as I realized one of them had successfully clenched onto my ankle.

I screamed bloody murder. "GET OFF ME! GET OFF ME!" I bellowed, over and over again, interrupting myself to scream some more. My stomach felt like a trillion butterflies iced over with poison and stingers and it was so not a pleasant feeling. My eyes were blurry and my head killed and I could feel how tight the hand was clenched on my ankle, although it wasn't really painful.

Okay. I want you to step back and picture this. Here you are, in a dark, lonely cave, somehow being lifted up to hopefully the ground above the cave where everything sweet and lovely is. And there are hundreds of deranged, laser-red-eyed vampires waving their perfect little arms and trying to catch you to pull you back into their hordes. And what happens if they do? You have no idea, but you're pretty sure it's not pleasant.

This, my friends, was the creepiest situation I had ever been in.

It felt like a cover off of a 70's rock album--such as Houses of the Holy, Led Zeppelin. Weird stuff.

Anywho, I tried to shake it, but then I was terrified of losing my balance and falling. It was like a whacked out version of a concert; me, of course, being center stage, but those vampires being the manical crowd that would eat me alive if I decided to do a little crowd-surfing.

I slowly lowered myself down, grabbed my shoe off my other leg, and tried to whack the vampire on the head--big mistake. Through all the pain in my eyes I could barely see and I ended up hitting the wrong vampire, and then letting go of my shoe. Oh, great. That would the last I would be seeing of that shoe.

And then Edward hissed at me to get up, and he leaned down himself, and then suddenly my ankle was free. What had he done? Asked them politely, in his old-English, to get the hell off of me?

Okay, okay, excuse my mean nature. I felt us whooshing upwards faster and faster now--I hadn't remembered the cave being this tall. But then my ground all but disappeared beneath me, and I felt myself falling, soaring through the air. Oh. I got it now. Great foolproof plan, Italian boy. We might as well break some bones in the process.

My spirits were rekindled when I felt myself hit the ground, but only in the weakest sense of the word. Italian boy, you are a genius! I heartily praised, dusting myself off and looking around. Of course none of us would have gotten hurt in the hard landing.

I was in the middle of a grassy field; luckily, there were no flowers, or else I might have gone on another killing rampage or something. I felt thoroughly exhausted--apparently vampires can get tired out. Who knew?--but again, I was refreshed when I saw everyone, everyone meaning the twenty-so vampires we had rescued and Edward, in various places around the field, which was surrounded on all sides by very, very tall trees.

"So no one would see us lift up in the air on an invisible magic carpet, and then fall. And then they wouldn't come look for us and either see no one there or nobody hurt and be thoroughly confused." The Italian boy had come up behind me. I looked over at him, and he grinned, apparently very happy with himself.

I smiled back. The boy did deserve some credit.

"So, shall we get out of here?" I asked, looking around for Edward.

I needn't have bothered. I felt a pair of strong arms encircle my waist from behind, and then I was being lifted up and spun around.

I squirmed in Edward's arms until I was facing him, and lightly kissed his cheek.

Everything was going to be okay.

A/N: So how was that? Good? I'm sorry I'm not the best at those adventure bits--I was trying to make it seem sort of real, but I guess it just seemed kind of corny. Well, I hope not. Crossing my fingers...

Anyways, that song was "Heart of a Champion" by Nelly. It's REALLY good, and I totally recommend it for any of you that are into that sort of music. It definitely surprised me because I don't normally listen to Nelly's music, but this was just a really, really good song.

So reviewss please! Tell me how the adventure/exciting part went, and whether or not I should just stick to everything else. I really do plan on having one or two more chapters to finish, and I'm not sure if I'm going to make a sequel. Probably not, because I'm kind of losing interest, but--well, let me know.

Cheers!

That would be my poser-British way of saying good-bye because even though I really, really wish I were British, I am, sadly, not.