I got Adelaide and William to believe that they managed to calm me down enough to continue our hunt. I truly wasn't fine, though. I didn't want to be back in Washington. I never wanted to come back, even though I did. My family is here, my friends were here; they're probably all off at college now. Everything I ever knew is here. When I transformed, I was told and, even though I didn't want to believe it, I knew I could never come back home. Now, I'm here and we're staying for at least three days.

I sighed aloud.

Adelaide shifted her eyes towards me, her hand gripping my own tighter.

I dropped my eyes, not saying a thing to her. She doesn't understand. Her family was dead and while she was dying, they left her. If she could see them still, I find it very unlikely that she would want to speak to or be near them.

But me…

My family didn't leave me. I wasn't on the verge of dying the last I saw them. I was perfectly fine; I was perfect, normal teenage girl. There was no chance of me dying until that fateful day. As soon as I had completely changed, I was basically banished. My brother and sister and parents are still at home, thinking their daughter ran away for some no apparent reason.

Maybe I can survive this, though. Carlisle Cullen didn't specify what town he lived in. Maybe we won't be anywhere near my hometown. If not, then I'm perfectly fine. I won't have to worry and I would have been upset for nothing.

But, maybe we do stay in my hometown…

Wow. I'm stupid. We can't stay in my hometown. Vampires are forbidden there, especially the…

…Cullens…

"You know the rules, Misae," he whispered to me.

I curled up in a ball, still shaking hysterically. I didn't want to believe it. I didn't want to hear it. But, there was nothing I could do to stop it. I was crying dry sobs, for no tears would come from my eyes. "No," I moaned, shaking my head.

"I'm sorry." He put his hand on my head. "But, you know the treaty. It was made because of the Cullens."

"But, I'm not a Cullen!"

"You're one of them, Misae. I'm sorry, but you have to go. Now."

I blinked in surprise at the haunting memory. That was the last time I spoke to him. My ex-boyfriend. Mom didn't entirely approve of him, but Dad did. He and I started to date the summer before eighth grade started and it ended in October after we started our freshman year in high school. He left me and within a couple of weeks, started to go out with a girl at my school; supposedly, we're extremely distant cousins, but I'm not sure.

Obviously, I never completely got over him. I only dated one other person after him and that survived only three dates, before we called it quits. April, he disappeared and came back a few weeks later, completely different. His girlfriend's friend forced me to try to talk to him and see what was wrong. He ignored me. I didn't care.

By June, he was completely out of my life, besides the constant reminders from my sister and friends of what his and my relationship was like. Before, Nashota, my sister, said something about his girlfriend being much better for him than I ever was or something along the lines of that and a whole lot of crap, so she and I got on bad terms. Eventually, she apologized and even more of an eventually, I forgave her. Two weeks later, I died.

And that was the last time I ever saw him.