This Heart

Summary – Right from the start, Bella Cullen knew that her brand new life as a vampire would not be easy. Her friends are in danger: But from what? They know they are being watched but something is rendering Alice and Edward useless. Then the Volturi begins to get stronger. The power seems to be on their side but with the help of some unlikely characters and long lost friends, the Cullens seem to have a fighting chance in the ultimate war. Or do they?

A/N – Um. This is going to be a filler chapter that hopefully will slow the story down.

Disclaimer – I don't own Twilight.

3. Across the Universe. (The Beatles)

Everything that comes from night
Comes within your shining light.
Love is in your name each night.
Enya

"You're still a messy eater." Edward commented. I glared at him and wiped the blood off my lips.

"Yea, well…" There was no good comeback for a comment like that.

He chuckled happily. "Someday you'll be able to sneak in a quick hunt and then wear the same clothes to school."

"When will I ever go to school?" I asked.

He frowned. "We have matriculated a lot. And besides, you have never graduated from high school. Once you are under control, you will have to graduate."

"Why?" I complained, picking myself off the ground and hurried to his side. "High School is boring… A waste of my time."

"Would it be boring with me?" He said.

"No… Yes… No…" I frowned. "I don't know."

He laughed and then wrapped an arm around my waist. "Happy Halloween."

My mind reeled. Halloween, already? It seems like just yesterday, I had opened up my eyes, struck by the beauty and clarity of my new world. "Are we going trick or treating?"

He smiled. "No… We have no use for candy."

"You could go as Dracula and I could go as Mina" I started laughing. "Jacob could go as Beowulf!" We started laughing.

"But Mina married Jonathan Harker, not Dracula." Edward frowned.

I scoffed. "Vampires are better."

"We can agree to disagree." Edward murmured. What does he have against his own species? What a masochist. Though I do love him so. "I would like to show you something I found." He took my hand and we began running.

Shortly after, we burst into the most beautiful meadow ever. The ground was covered in purple and yellow wild flowers. The grass came knee high, but it was starting to die with the onset of late fall. "Wow." That was an understatement. "Where did you find this?"

"Alice did. She said I should take you here."

"It's beautiful."

"There's something else too." There was more? How on Earth? Still holding my hand, he slowly made way across the amazing meadow. He was headed towards one tree in particular. The tree was a Weeping Willow, its long branches brushing the ground. He moved the branches aside and I stepped beneath the canopy.

The light was muted here, but I still saw perfectly. I looked up, the gray and clouded light shimmering through the leaves. Edward grabbed my hand and led me to the trunk of the tree.

I didn't know what I was staring at.

A heart was carved onto the twisted and aged trunk. Inside were two initials. An R and a C. Edward looked at me. "Renee and Charlie Swan…"

Oh.

I sunk to the ground, unable to process this. I was sitting where my parents once stood, where they once breathed. Was I alive when this happened? Was I here?

Edward sat beside me. And for the longest time we just sat there, staring at the tree, at the initials. I tried to surface a memory, a sound… Anything that would tie me to them. The people I didn't know, yet the people who created me.

Renee… Renee? Who was she? Was her hair brown, her eyes soft, did her smile resemble mine?

More importantly, where did she go? Why couldn't she be here?

Charlie… The name is foreign. Was he reserved like myself? Did he where his heart on his sleeve?

Maybe there is a Heaven. A place to watch the people you left behind on Earth. Maybe they are watching me now.

Esme once told me that the Angels were lonely, so they took my parents. I remember that.

Why not someone else's parents?

I looked up at Edward, who was of course watching me. His eyes were training on my face, trying to catch a flicker of an emotion. I let the question show in my eyes. He let out a long sigh.

I turned back to the tree. Why?

I lay back against the tall grass, looking up. "Do you miss your parents?"

"Very much. Esme and Carlisle are everything I could ever have wanted, but…"

"I never got to know them." I whispered.

"I don't remember my parents much either. Few memories stick out in particular…" His eyes looked far away.

I had to get out. I stood up in one fluid motion and pushed out of the branches of the weeping willow. Edward was right on my heels. I stood in the center, examining every inch of the meadow. My parents loved this place, and now it was mine. That's when I spotted it, tied to a gnarled tree trunk, yellow and fading with age. It was nearly unintelligible, but my eyesight was helpful.

Police tap.

Do Not Cross – The bold letters screamed at me, and I put two and two together.

"They died here." I realized.

"Yes," Edward said reluctantly. "This is the spot."

I shook my head, breathing heavily even though I did not need air. "We can leave." Edward murmured. "We could go home. Or… There is one other thing to show you."

"Is it another gravesite?" I growled darkly.

He winced and I filled with regret. I muttered a sorry and mentally cursed myself. No need to yell at Edward, it was not his fault. "No." He said. "It's your house."

I turned towards him, shocked. A smile flitted across his face and he led me a half a mile south of the meadow. The house was falling apart, the siding was deteriorating away. One of the windows was broken and the backyard hadn't been mowed in years. I approached the door. I touched the handle and the door swung forward a few inches. The door jamb had been busted.

Stepping into the house was like stepping into a ghost town. There was literally nothing there. No furniture, no decorations, no memories. A long strip of yellow flowered wall paper had been stripped from the kitchen wall. The yellow cabinets were dirty and some were left open. Candy wrappers and an empty pizza box lay on the floor.

"The mess is due to Forks teenagers. They like to spend the night here. Apparently it is haunted." Edward explained. I growled and moved into the living room next. It was also empty and dirty. I climbed a set of rickety stairs to the second level. One bathroom. A larger, bland room, and a smaller room with pink paint on the walls. I assumed it was mine.

I moved across the room, rain spattered across the bay window, which looked out into the street below. Down on the street, a boyish teenager in sweats stopped to breathe. He looked up at me.

"Shit." I muttered, jumping backwards. "He shouldn't have seen that. Let's get out of here."

Edward took my hand again and seemed to fly back into the meadow. I collapsed onto the now wet grass. Too much had happened today. Can vampires get headaches? "I don't know if I miss them or not." I moaned.

"We all miss someone. You're just confused because you don't know them."

"I don't even know what happened to them."

Edward pulled me into his arms and we laid there together, letting the rain soak our clothes through and through.

"Halloween fell on a Monday." I realized randomly.

He chuckled. "Poor poor high school students, their plans have been foiled."

"What plans?"

"It is called 'Trick' or Treat, correct?"

"I have never egged a person's house." I muttered. "It's rude."

"Emmett has."

"Oh boy."

"He broke a window." We both laughed at that. "He offered to pay for it to be fixed. I think the owner of the house was more scared of Emmett's size rather than upset about the broken window and egg yolk mess."

"Does Emmett break everything?" I rolled over, propping my head up on my elbows.

"Yes." He smiled. "Are you still going to dress up as Mina tonight?"

"Oh, Dracula!" I sighed dramatically.

"Then, I give you life eternal. Everlasting love. The power of the storm. And the beasts of the earth. Walk with me to be my loving wife, forever." He quoted.

"You would have that book nearly memorized." I said playfully, "Though I do not know how to respond to that. The Bella in me wants you to take your clothes off. But Mina thinks I should sigh dramatically once again and nod my head like a bobblehead doll."

"The Edward in me agrees with the Bella in you."

Third Person POV

Unbeknownst to Edward and Bella, the next morning, a crowd had gathered around a student, who was talking all about Bella – he just didn't know it.

"I swear to God, I saw her there!" He insisted.

"Shut up, Mike. The place is not haunted." A pimply teenager retaliated.

"She looked just like Mama Swan, except, like, super fucking hot."

"Mike, you're such a pig!" A bubbly brunette scoffed. "You just called a ghost 'hot'" I'm hotter. She thought vainly.

"She was there! In the window! I am not lying."

"Okay, Mikey, put a cork in it. Since dumb ass Mr. Varner decided to pile us with homework yesterday, and we all had a crappy Halloween, we should spend the night at Swan House this weekend and proved Mikey wrong. There is no hot ghost in that house." An African American student said.

"I'm out, I have a date with Ben." A geeky girl muttered. In truth, I just don't want to trespass. She shook her head at the stupidity of her fellow friends.

Every student but Angela agreed. The group of five set their plans for Friday night.

"I know I saw that ghost." Mike muttered as the conversation shifted to the assignment Mr. Varner had given out yesterday.

In the middle of the forest, inside the hidden white mansion, Bella thought about the boyish teen that had seen her. What on Earth did that boy think of her? Did he think me a ghost? She wondered.

Was he really that far off to think that?

YES! Finished! Review and the next chapter will be up tomorrow!