Dreams and Odd Occurrences

My dreams have always been vivid, which is a great thing for the happy ones, not so great for the nightmares. Unfortunately, I have a lot of nightmares. I've always wondered if it was because of my gifts, if some part of my subconscious was always in a state of high alert, warning of the potential danger of exposure. That's what my nightmares were usually about, me being exposed for what I truly was, and they never ended well. Tonight was a different story, however. In a break from the usual pattern, I was dreaming of Edward, and it started off wonderfully.

I found myself lying in a beautiful meadow under the bright rays of the sun as they shone down from above. The scent of wildflowers filled my nostrils, and I could see them dotted all across it, right to the treeline, in every color of the rainbow. My ears were filled with the sound of birdsong, and I felt myself smiling as I relaxed against the soft grass beneath me. I idly watched the sky, making pictures out of the few wispy clouds that slowly traveled across it, and I was at peace.

Time had no meaning as I lay there, but I gradually began to feel uneasy, and a chill rippled across my skin though there was no breeze. My body tensed as I listened intently, my ears attuned to any sound that might herald the approach of danger. As I strained silently to hear, the faint echo of a soft chuckle wafted across the meadow and my heart stuttered. There was something very familiar about that low sound, and as I raised my head to look toward it, I already knew what I would see. Edward.

I instinctively jumped to my feet as he stepped out of the trees, though he came no closer and seemed to be avoiding moving into the direct path of the sunlight. He simply stood there watching me, his hands clenched into fists at his sides as his eyes narrowed with sudden anger.

"Why did you have to come here? You don't belong." The menace behind the words was clearly evident and I took a step back, my body tensing to run.

For the first time, I noticed that his eyes were different, much darker than I remembered them being, almost black. For some reason, this increased the unease flowing through me, and I took another step away from him, half-turning toward the forest behind me. I tried to speak, but my throat had dried up to the consistency of a corn husk, and I was unable to force words through its tight confines. I licked my lips, trying to moisten them, and finally managed to squeak out a few words though they were barely audible, even to me.

"Go away, Edward. This is my place," I said, my eyes widening in shock as I heard the words leave my lips. That was not what I had intended to say. What was I thinking? He reminded me of a deadly lion about to pounce on its hapless prey, and here I was egging him on. Had I lost my mind? I opened my mouth to try to apologize for the hasty words, but he beat me to it.

"Your place? Yours?" he snarled. "You don't have a place, Bella. You're from outside." My heart stuttered once more at his words. He knew! This was not good, not good at all, and before I could say anything to make the situation even worse than it was, I quickly turned and ran for the forest's edge.

Branches snapped at my face and reached out to snag my clothes as if with a mind of their own as I hit the trees at a full run, but I didn't dare slow down, so I simply struggled onward. I could hear him following me, his footsteps hitting much more quickly than my own, and I tried to move faster still. My breaths rasped in and out of my throat with a sound like a bellows and I knew I couldn't keep up this pace for long, a runner I was not.

I didn't dare turn my head to look back at him, I'd surely trip and fall, so I kept my eyes straight ahead and ran for all I was worth. The forest was darkening around me, night falling much too quickly, the sun never set this fast. It got more and more difficult to see, and I found myself stumbling more often than not, until finally I fell over a thick vine and face-planted in the dirt. I pressed my hands to the ground for leverage to rise once more, but suddenly a hard, heavy weight landed on my back, pushing my face down into the dirt for a second time. My surprised scream was muffled as the dirt filled my mouth and nostrils, and then my head was pulled back by a strong fist wrapped tightly into my hair at the nape of my neck. It felt like it was being pulled out by the roots and I couldn't stop my instinctive cry of pain as my neck arched at an uncomfortable angle.

I could smell Edward's scent surrounding me, filling my lungs as I breathed in harsh gasps, struggling instinctively against his weight as tears of pain and fear filled my eyes and started to fall. I could feel his lips against my ear as his next words were whispered directly into it, and I froze in terror beneath him.

"There's always a price to pay, Bella. This is yours," he snarled. I felt something cold and sharp against my neck before the pain started, and that's when I woke up screaming loudly enough to wake the dead.

I sat bolt upright in bed, my screams still echoing through the house, just as Charlie ran into the room, gun drawn and in full police mode though he was still wiping the sleep from his eyes with one hand.

"What's wrong?" he shouted, looking wildly around the room for whatever threat could have caused those screams to come out of me. I followed his gaze just as wildly before realizing that it had been just a dream, and I took a deep breath as I flopped back on the bed in relief.

"Sorry, Dad. It was just a nightmare. Everything's fine," I mumbled apologetically, the ever-ready blush staining my cheeks in embarrassment.

Charlie heaved a sigh, slowly letting his arm fall to his side so the gun pointed safely at the floor as he turned to me. "That must have been some nightmare, Bella," he exhaled on another sigh, "It sounded like you were being murdered in here."

"Sorry," I whispered again, looking down at the shredded pillow I was holding in my hands. "It was pretty bad, yeah."

Charlies eyes widened slightly as he saw the pillow, but he didn't comment on it, simply nodding his head. "Do you want me to stay with you awhile, or do you think you'll be able to get back to sleep?"

"I'll be fine, Dad. I'm ok now." To prove this, I threw the shredded pillow to the floor and laid back down, turning over as if I was planning to go right back to sleep.

He nodded once more, then left the room with a whispered goodnight, closing the door behind him as he headed back to his own room to continue his interrupted sleep. As soon as the door closed, I was sitting up, my teeth nervously worrying my lower lip as I took another careful look around the room. Something wasn't right, but I couldn't immediately figure out what had caught my attention as being out of place. My eyes scanned the room slowly, moving over the bookshelves that contained my rather small collection of books I'd brought with me from home, before moving on to my desk with its computer that had seen better days and the pile of schoolbooks sitting next to it. Then my gaze hit the window, and I drew in a shocked breath.

It was open about an inch, and the cool breeze entering through it was what had captured the attention of my subconscious, telling me something was wrong. Living in Phoenix had made me paranoid, and I always made sure my window was securely closed and locked before I went to sleep. It was a habit I'd had for years, and I'd carried it with me here to Forks. I knew I'd closed and locked that window earlier tonight. In fact, I had double-checked it just to be sure. Yet now it was open. I was a light sleeper. If Charlie had come into the room after I'd fallen asleep and opened it, I'd have heard him. That meant...

I slowly got up, hesitating for a moment before approaching the window with the slow, careful steps of someone who didn't really want to find what they were looking for. Taking a deep breath, I looked out at the trees just outside, scanning for anything out of place, but the darkness made seeing even the outlines of the trees difficult. I shut the window, securely locking it once more, and was just turning to go back to bed when something glimmered in the shadows about halfway up the tree a few yards from the house.

I quickly leaned forward, straining to see through the darkness, but I couldn't find the strange glimmer again, no matter how hard I focused. For some odd reason, it had reminded me of Edward's eyes, seen for the first time earlier that day in the cafeteria. But that was crazy. What would Edward be doing outside my window in the middle of the night perched halfway up a tree? I shook my head, amused at the overactive imaginings of my mind, and turned back to the bed, climbing in and settling once more under the covers.

No matter how hard I tried, though, I couldn't get the idea out of my head that Edward had been sitting outside my window, watching me. It's just your imagination, I thought, brought on by the nightmare. While that thought should have comforted me, it had the opposite effect of simply bringing the dream back to the forefront of my mind once more. It had seemed so real, even more vivid than usual. I thought I could still feel the faint hint of pain at the roots of my hair where his fist had grabbed it to pull my head back. And the menace in his voice. I shuddered at the mere remembrance of it, and curled into a ball beneath the comforter, suddenly chilled.

I often dreamed of being exposed for what I was, but why had I brought Edward into this particular nightmare? No one knew of my abilities, not even my parents, and he'd given me no reason to think that he might have the slightest inkling that I wasn't exactly what I appeared to be, a normal human girl. I went over and over the nightmare in my mind, trying to piece together whatever my subconscious was trying to warn me about, but I couldn't think of anything I'd said or done today that could have possibly exposed my secret. Either way, I'd have to be especially careful now, and I'd need to stay away from Edward.

The stab of hurt that accompanied the thought took me by surprise. I didn't even know him, why should I care one way or the other if I never got the chance to? There was just something about Edward that called to me, and I had no idea why. I wanted to tell him everything, and that just made no sense at all. What was it about him? True, there were days I longed to have someone to talk to about the things I could never speak of, keeping secrets of this magnitude was tough. But I'd long ago accepted the fact that I couldn't, there was simply no other choice. Telling the wrong person would prove disastrous, so I didn't dare tell anyone at all. The risk far outweighed my need for a real friend.

I closed my eyes and tried to relax so I could get back to sleep, but my mind simply wouldn't stop running around in circles, and my thoughts drifted to earlier in the day after running from the cafeteria. I'd acted like such an idiot. No, worse. A schoolgirl with a crush. Gah! Luckily, I'd managed to avoid Edward, though I'd found out that we were lab partners in Biology when I walked into the room and the teacher sat me right next to him. Thank God we'd watched a movie today, and I was able to avoid even having to look at him. I'd simply moved my chair as far away as possible and kept my attention strictly focused on the movie, though I couldn't recall a single thing I'd seen in it. It had still been playing when the bell rang, and I'd gathered my books and bolted for the door, praying the entire time that I wouldn't trip in my rush to exit the classroom. Thankfully, I hadn't, and I'd made it out to my truck in record time, without having to stop and talk to anyone at all, though I'd heard my name called a few times and simply pretended not to hear.

The rest of the day had been pleasant enough. I'd stopped at the grocery store on the way home from school to stock Charlie's kitchen with food. His idea of a well-stocked refrigerator was a package of bacon, a few slabs of cheese, a loaf of bread, and a six-pack of beer. Not exactly haute cuisine. I fancied myself a pretty decent cook and had offered to take over that particular chore, much to Charlie's secret delight, though he'd dutifully protested the need for me to do that. It was something I enjoyed, however, so it wasn't difficult to bring Charlie around to my way of thinking.

After a dinner of beef stroganoff that ended with some pretty nice praise from Charlie, I'd spent the rest of the evening on homework so I could catch up to the rest of the students in my classes. It wasn't too hard, since my last school had been nearly to the point my classes were at now, and I was confident I'd be up to speed within a day or two. Schoolwork was the one thing that came easily to me, other than math. Math was a torture I was certain had been strictly devised just to torment me, but I'd make it through.

I dreaded going to school tomorrow, where I was sure to still be the focus of attention. I idly wondered how long it would take for my newness to wear off, and was afraid it would take far longer than I wished. Every time my thoughts strayed to Edward, I quickly yanked them into another direction that wasn't so damned confusing. I'd spent enough time thinking, and dreaming, about him, and enough was enough. He was just a boy, and I'd make it my mission to avoid him completely from now on. Surely I could keep my composure during Biology, the one class we shared, and be pleasant to him without turning into the mess I'd been in today during lunch. He was just a boy. Nothing special at all.

Despite my best attempts, however, I fell asleep with Edward's face right at the forefront of my mind, though there were no more dreams that night to disturb my sleep.