I am so sorry for leaving you guys without an update for over a month! But I'm sure you guys all know that real life does get in the way, but I have 2 weeks free time now so should be able to get some of this story done. On the other hand, I am SUPER exited at the reviews I'm getting! Thank you so much because you're reading this story and thank you so much more if you leave a review at the end!

Previously:

"Have you thought... about what you would like to do?"

I shook my head no.

'It's all right. You can stay here for as long as you like. Don't worry about anything, Bella," and with that, he patted my hand and smiled before leaving the room, leaving me to my own wild and scattered thoughts.

*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*

Bella's POV

The alarm clock on the nightstand displayed 12:01am.

They had left me mostly alone for the past day and a half, probably waiting for me to approach them first. Their activities continued on, like normal, I would guess. I heard Carlisle leave not much longer after our conversation, and didn't come back till around 8 this evening. He had been in his study since.

I got from Alice and Jaspers whispered conversations that Jasper was currently attending college, and I guessed that was where he was from 9 in the morning till 5 this afternoon. Esme had done some cleaning, and I had heard her rumbling around in her study earlier today. I had heard her go out a couple of hours ago.

Alice had been on her laptop from dawn till dusk, typing and clicking away while Jasper wasn't here.

The house was silent. Only a handful of interactions and conversations had taken place over the one and a half days I had been here, and even those had been empty requests for information, not interest in the other's lives.

There was no life anymore. I was used to Emmett's joyful bantering, Jaspers insight, Esmes loving spirit, Carlisle's parental oversight, Alice's playfulness, and his love. It seemed like everything had disappeared, and it wasn't just affecting me.

I sighed and turned my head, so I was laying stock straight on the clean bed again, holding a book up above me. I was trying to focus on the lines of words printed on its pages, but honestly I couldn't even tell you what the name of the book was.

My mind was all over the place, trying to decide where my life would go next, how to interact with my new family, whether I should call the pack back in La Push, what everyone in the house was thinking, what Edward was doing now, whether he was thinking of me, Edward, Edward, Edward...

It seemed that every thought my spacious head entertained, they always lead back to Edward. It was exhausting – not like I wanted to go to sleep, but I wanted to rest my mind, and sleep was the only way to do that.

God I missed sleep.

I was thankful that I couldn't have the nightmares anymore, however.

It is said that dreams occur because the subconscious and conscious minds intersect and, in order to sort out experiences that occurred recently and fully conclude them, to work out what happened, someone has dreams. So dreams and sleep sort out the mess of images and sound one has seen and heard during the day, and file it away. It seemed that without dreams, my mind was a mess of information I needed to sort out.

I slammed by book – still open on the first page – down on the bedside table and rubbed my eyes. I curled up in a ball, hugging my knees to my chest, and pulled the covers from under me and tucked them around me. I closed my eyes and impossibly waited for sleep to come.

Of course it never did.

My mind wandered again – this time taking a more active course and wondering about Edward. I couldn't help but think of him, especially since the last 72 hours events had circled around the Cullen's, and as I was lying in this room, listening to the activities of his siblings and parents, his presence was inevitable.

Maybe he was enjoying his distractions. Because of me, had he discovered women, and now taken to his own kind?

I scolded myself for thinking in that direction. I was just depressing myself.

Of course, I'll always love you... in a way.

I Instead, I circled his words around in my head, much like basketball players psyching themselves before a big game, I was trying to build confidence in myself.

Suddenly, I remembered another snippet of the conversation of that night.

But what happened the other night made me realize that it's time for a change. Because I'm...tired of pretending to be something I'm not, Bella. I am not human. I've let this go on much too long, and I'm sorry for that.

Well... I was his kind now. But, he probably was tired of me. He probably wouldn't care if I was his species or human.

But I couldn't help but let other thoughts wonder into my head.

Would he love me now? Or just be disgusted by me? I was now around for eternity, provided no one ripped me to shreds. Was he sick of me?

I heard a few seconds the rush of air moving suddenly, and the door to my room burst open, with Alice rushing into the room and standing by my side in less than a second. I snapped my head up and looked at her with wide eyes, wondering what would evoke this reaction.

"Bella its Edward, he thinks you're dead!" Alice cried.

My eyes snapped wide open and I sat up. "What?" I asked, confused.

"He's going to the Volturi. He wants to die too." She said this like she was in a trance.

"How... what? What are you saying Alice? How does he know?" I stuttered.

"No time to explain now, Bella! We have to get to him before it's too late!" She grabbed my shoulder and pulled me out of the bed, running out of the door and grabbing my small bag of belongings – still packed – on the way.

"Alice, where are we going?" I asked, my voice quavering.

"We have to same him, Bella!" She cried again, looking at me like I was crazy.

"But.... what are we doing? What is he doing? What..."

Alice spun around at the top of the staircase and looked me in the eyes intensely, searching for something.

"Do you still love him?" She asked calmly.

My eyes widened at her question, my subconscious screaming yes at me. Did I still love him? Even after everything he had done to me? Even if he doesn't love me back?

I nodded slowly after a couple of seconds.

"Then trust me," she said simply, and rand down the stairs, and threw the garage door open, leaving a stunned me at the top of the stairs.

"Bella!" She screamed.

I looked around me and ran a hand through my hair.

Edward needed saving... and Alice must have seen that I needed to be there for some reason.

Never bet against Alice, I remembered.

I needed to trust her, and I did, after all she had done for me. She had never done anything wrong by me.

I made my decision and ran down the stairs, throwing myself in the Mercedes, which was already backing out of the garage.

A stunt driver would have looked on in amazement as Alice did a 360 degree turn while still reversing, and threw the car forward to rush out of the driveway in under a second.

"Here," she threw a small grey phone at me. I looked back up at her, her face fierce as she bent forward over the wheel. She looked like a woman on a mission.

"Call Esme's cell, tell her what I just told you about Edward. Tell her not to worry. We have this under control." She whispered the last sentence, as if she was reassuring herself more than telling me what to say.

I pressed the talk button when I reached Esme's contact in the phone.

"Alice," Esme said calmly as a greeting.

"Esme, it's Bella," I turned to Alice. "Something's wrong. Uh... Edward thinks I'm dead, and he's going to the Volturi."

I heard a sharp gasp from the other end of the line, but I interrupted before she could say anything else, "Alice and I are going... somewhere. We'll stop him. It's fine Esme, no need to worry." I bit my lip and Alice nodded in encouragement, and she added, "You can tell the other's when you get back to the house, but make sure that there are no rash decisions made. I can see how it will end up if someone suddenly decides to chase after us."

Esme agreed she would, and wished us both a wary good luck, before asking – again – whether she could help at all.

"No, mum. I love you." Alice replied, sending Esme into tears. Alice promised her we would both be fine again, and motioned for me to hang up. I bid a quick goodbye and did so.

"Ugh. I hate lying to her." Alice frowned as she looked back at the road, which was a blur beneath us.

"What?" I asked, shocked. I had believed everything Alice had said, and was relieved that we were apparently going to make it out of this unscathed.

"I can't see much, Bella." Alice tightened her knuckles on the steering wheel. I could hear the agitation in her voice. "There are flickers, Edwards's plans. He's deciding what he wants to do when his flight arrives in Rome–"

"Where is he now?"

"He was in Arizona when he," she gulped, "saw the news. Then he took off toward Los Angeles, and he's taking a direct flight from there to Rome, where he will go to the Volturi. He doesn't know how to do this though, and he's trying to make up his mind. I'm getting flickers of him watching those around him in a plane, so I am assuming he is on the flight, I just don't know how far the flight has come."

It had been a couple of minutes, travelling at over twice the legal speed limit, when Alice brought both her hands up to her head, worrying me, as she had no hands on the steering wheel now. She muttered "no, no, it's not going to work, not fast enough" which was worrying me. I grabbed a hold of the steering wheel.

"What is it, Alice?" I asked when she shook her head around a few times. She looked back up, determined, and grabbed the steering wheel, swinging the car to the edge of the desolated road. The car screeched to a stop, and Alice jumped out, in her haste not even closing the door.

"Let's run, Bella. Please, please tell me you've run fast before." She begged of me.

"What about the car?" I asked as I got out.

"Who cares Bella! This is Edward we're talking about!" She screeched, her hands waving above her head.

"Right. Okay." I stumbled around the passenger door and motioned for Alice to start running in the right direction. I took off after her and quickly caught up, running by her side.

"Alice?" I asked hesitantly. She didn't say anything, so I took it as a sign to carry on with my question.

"How did Ed... Edward find out. You know, that I was... dead?"

She sighed and answered. "He was in Phoenix, he has been chasing Victoria around, thinking she was a danger to you," this shocked me, and I filed it away for later examination as I had to listen to every word of what Alice was saying, "and that she needed to be... terminated. He was following a trail, which led him into Phoenix, to a grungy, abandoned hostel somewhere downtown. There was a newspaper that had her scent all over it, and he started reading it. I don't know why... he must have had a reason. But he was scanning it, when he saw your name."

My brow furrowed in confusion. "Why would I be in a newspaper?"

Alice looked at me briefly, compassionate.

"Your name was listed in the death's section, Bella."

Of course.

"Oh." Was all I could manage to say. I could feel the familiar heavy feeling in my eyes and chest making itself present, the tell-tale signs of tearless crying.

Renee must have listed my death in the newspaper in Phoenix. I couldn't bear to think what her reaction was to her only daughter dying before her. I had disappeared, and my body will never be found. She'll never have closure. I'll never get to see her, ever again.

"I'm sorry, Bella," Alice tried to comfort me.

I sniffed, but didn't say anything, and neither did Alice.

I smelled the salty, sea air minutes before I spotted glinting water stretching out in front of me, the moon projecting a perfect reflection of itself on the calmness.

We raced through the last of the trees, and Alice stopped at the shore line, looking around to make sure no one was around.

"Please, please, Bella, do not get freaked out. Its only water and you can swim really fast. Just follow me, okay?"

Did you guys expect any of that to happen? Leave your thoughts and try and predict what will happen next!

I'm hoping that I will get the next chapter out soon, because this one was quite short, and I have some good ideas for what will a happen next.

I'm recommending The Tales of a Charming TruckNapper by Mk Marie. Not only does it have an amazing title, but it has an amazing author and story too :) Edward makes one memorable first impression! "Stop listening to my music, get off my cell phone, and bring back my truck!" I seethed. "Now!" Are first impressions really the most important? Let's hope not. It's hilarious and romantic. It's awesome!