Sleep comes swiftly to one in loves arms, and with swift sleep, comes lucidity.

Edward's voice hummed away to the caw of the mocking swallow, his hair brushing to leaves against my cheeks. To my eyes, the dull color of my room burst into an array of neons and dazzled texture… a mad man's meadow.

Our meadow, actually. I sat up, a smirk playing across my lips as I surveyed the familiar patch of grass. Like in life, it was near circular, trees reaching up to the could-clogged sky in a protective barrier for the bed of flowers as well as Edward and I—or simply I, seeing as I had yet to find my love in the dream. The smirk blossomed into a smile as I stood. A game of hide and seek, Edward? Seriously, I'd thought you'd grow out of that after a century or so…

I made my way to the edge of the field, searching for the tell-tale glint in the sunlight. But by the time I reached the tall and twisting trees of the forest, I hadn't spotted him. Why do vampires have to be so damn good at hiding? However, I kept the smile despite my frustration. It's just a dream, Bella. You're in control. He'll come if you want him to come… God. If that doesn't scream 'come hither' I don't know what does. I've got to stop hanging out with Alice—she's making me pervy.

A giggle escaped my lips as gust blew through the forest, making the branches twitch and quiver above me. Like the field, the scenery around me was painfully similar to what I knew in the waking world—yet, as Edward continued to remain absent and I took more time observing, there was something off the mark. A strange, unseen series of quirks riddled through the trees, making me feel like I was walking across the pages of a fairy tale rather than a dreary Washington Wood.

It was about the time I came to this realization when I picked up on a second set of feet crunching through the tree trunks. My smile brightened; I knew if I thought long and hard enough, he'd arrive.

The steps stopped behind me, and I turned. "Edwa—"

It wasn't him.

"'Edwa', what, little miss?" The boy behind me quirked an eyebrow, tilting his head to the side in the way of a quizzical owl.

"Wait—Jasper?" I flushed, embarrassed it took me so long to recognize my boyfriends adoptive brother.

The boy mirrored my frown. "Jasper? I'm sorry but, I haven't a clue who you're speaking of. Perhaps you've got the wrong man, little miss?"

"The wrong—" I took a second look at the boy. He was tall, with pale blonde hair curling around his shoulders so much similar to that of the vampire I knew. His skin was fair, too, and eerily albino. White skin which struck strange with the way he dressed: the formal dress of black suit with pinstripes. The overcoat was missing, however, leaving the dark vest and cream undershirt exposed and glittering with their silver buttons and cuffs. Even stranger: his feet were bare, and his eyes—

I screamed.

"Jasper!" I gasped, horrified, "You—you—"

His curiosity melted off, and his crimson eyes sparked with a sort of maddened amusement. "I haven't given you a fright, have I little miss? You needn't worry—I mean you no harm." He held out his hands—his long, dead pale hands with spider-leg fingers— turned palms-up. He softened his smirk, I mean you no harm. None at all. "Relax before you faint, deary. You're prince won't be pleased to find you in such a state."

"Mean me—my prince—what?" I balked, still unable to get over his alien eyes. "You… you drank from someone, haven't you? You've—" I stopped short, reason finally catching up with me. A dream, Bella, a dream. Jasper really didn't hurt anyone.

The boy's benign expression remained intact. "Ah, I get it. You must have confused me with one of those vam-pyre creatures I've been hearing so much about. An understandable mistake, little miss. However—" He stepped, or slunk-hard to tell when his movements were so fluid, forward. "you need to know this, even if you're a fool anywhere else; know this alone. Past the skin, I share no resemblance to this 'Jasper'. I'm simply me, and you're simply you. Nothing more, nothing less."

"You're simply—" I shook my head, hoping my thoughts would fall in order. They didn't. "If you're not Jasper… then who are you really?"

"I'm whomever you want me to be, little miss." He circled behind me, his arachnid hands creeping onto my shoulders. "It's your dream, after all."

"That's not—hold on. Hold on." I shrugged off his hands and turned to face him. "You're a figment of my imagination. You're not supposed to know that it's a dream."

He chuckled. A soft, sly chuckle, one that whispered he knew more than he let on. "Oh, for the sake of time, let's say I'm special. I'm you're accompanying knight on this fair voyage, my dear."

Heat splashed across my cheeks when he ducked forward, frost-laced lips brushing against my ear before in a dash of smoke, he vanished. Sure runs fast for a 'non-vampire'…

"Little deary wants to play, yet there is no one here willing join her. The poor little dear, it's just what she fears, lost without a lad to hold her?" His voice bounced around me, etched in with the wind. "Such a shame, such a shame, the girl with no name, lacking her prince to consol her."

"Edward's no prince." As much as he acts like one.

"Who is this Edward you speak of? No, no, you confused child, I speak only of your bleeding prince of hearts." A set of bare feet appeared atop the branch before me, and collecting above them was the rest of the dream imposter. "You don't recall? My, my, what they say of you topsiders are true. Dullards, the lot of you."

"I'm not a dullard, and you're not making any sense." I cocked my head, looking the strange man in the eye. "And I have a name."

"Isabella, I know." He rolled his eyes. "However, I cannot see why you'd want to be called by your topside name, you thinking this is a dream and all. Why not something a little more vibrant? With a kick of personality… but of course, that could require a personality to begin with."

Ignoring the jibes were easy—keeping my curiosity quite, however, was a different matter. "How the hell do you know my name? And what are you talking about with all this 'thinking I'm in a dream' business? I don't think, I know. I fell asleep—"

"—at 11:46 p. your second-story bedroom in the arms of your 'Edward' as you so insist in calling him. He was humming you a tune, and you were swooning because it was all very romantic and in the haze you flickered out and arrived in my meadow crushing my darling flowers and stomping around in my wood." For the first time, the stranger frowned. "In fact, I should be the one who's put off, not you."

It took me a second to absorb all that he said. "Okay… yeah. How do you—" I stopped short, realizing that asking questions wasn't getting me anywhere. Not like they would do me any good. When will I need random facts about a weird dream in the real world? Instead I decided to try to salvage what dream was left. "Can you just take me to Edward? Because, you know, it's your wood and you should know where everyone is in it."

The frown shattered into a laugh. "By God! You're a charmer. And for that I'll direct you to you're heartless prince. But I must warn you, he isn't what you'd call right in the head."

"Again, with the insults." I sighed.

"It's no insult." He vanished again, voice echoing from the hollow where his body once occupied. "I speak the truth when I say your prince is among the mad."

"The mad?" Despite myself, a chill shot down my spine. "Is he helpingCarlisle in the hospital-?"

"Deary, deary. Bella. Darling. No." His red eyes winked from the shadows, now ground level. "He is mad. Most everyone here is. As you most likely already noticed." A slice of grinning teeth joined the set of eyes, "I'm not exactly 'all there' myself."

"I can see…" I trailed, a little shell-shocked at the news. Sure, this was a dream and I never expected my dream Edward to live up to the real one but… mad? "Will you still show me to him?"

Dream Jasper clicked his tongue. "And you're obviously not all here as well." The rest of him solidified, and he jumped up onto a low-hanging branch, swinging his legs over and perching on it's bark by the balls of his feet. "But if you so desperately want to know, I guess it's my duty as a proper gentleman and tell you." He pointed a bony finger to his left. "He's staying with Michael March for afternoon tea, I believe. Just keep your path true that direction and you shouldn't have any trouble finding them. But I warn you, darling, not to deviate. While I may have say in these forests, I'm hardly their only occupant. But I am the most… amiable. The others have no tolerance for the likes of you, and it's best to stay out of their business when possible. Do I make myself clear?"

I nodded, a touch confused that the man who was just mocking me was now offering me advice. "Yes, you do. Thanks for your help."

"You won't be after long…" He crooned as I crossed under his branch on the way he directed, "… you wait and see, you'll be dreading the day you traded gazes with your precious prince."

And with one last crazed laugh, he was gone.