A.N.: Sorry the updates take so long. I just had to update today. It's Bella's birthday. C'mon. I wore a tag to school that said 'Happy Birthday, Bella' today and everyone kept asking me who Bella was. It's sad that so many people haven't read Twilight.

Anyways, moving on.

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That night, I had a dream. In my dream, I was chasing a little girl. I didn't know why I was chasing her, but something seemed to will me to grab hold of her. She looked like she was about 9 years old. She was so pretty; I would've sworn she was a vampire if it were not for her sky blue eyes. Her waist length, curly golden hair seemed like a radiant halo, her pale face and delicate features looked so... breakable. But she simply smiled at me sweetly, watching me, never seeming to move. And yet, the more I chased her, the farther away she seemed. Why? I called after her, only to realize I did not know her name. She yelled at me something, but I could not hear. What did you say?

But then she was gone, and I was left staring after her.

---

The next morning, I woke up to the bright light coming filtering in from the window. I knew I wouldn't be able to fall asleep again, so I grudgingly pulled my self from bed and trudged downstairs, still groggy.

I thought about the dream as I made my way downstairs, to the living room. Who was that little girl? I had never seen her before, I was sure of that. And yet, she seemed familiar.

"Oh, Bella." William smiled at me, breaking me out of my reverie. He was reading on the couch; I wondered vaguely what kinds of books he read. "Good morning."

I smiled back at him, and went in the kitchen to fix myself some breakfast. Milk and cereal in hand, I sat down and jumped a little when I realized William had sat down in front of me, staring intently into my face. Was I ever going to get used to vampires and their silent agility?

He laughed at my response, and then looked into my bowl. "Is that any good?"

The feeling of dejavu was staggering.

"Yea, I guess." I muttered, shaking my head in a futile attempt to clear away the memories.

He merely looked at my face once more, brow slightly furrowed. "Is something wrong?" I asked hesitantly. He smiled again, and another feeling—recognition? – coursed through me again. But what did I recognize?

"Bella." He said, no longer smiling. "There's something I wish I could tell you, but I'm not sure if I should… If I could."

Did he not trust me? "Why?" I asked. "Because you think I'm not—"

But he was shaking his head. "It's nothing about you, Bella." He looked uneasy. I reached forward to put my hand on his. He seemed surprised for a minute, but then sighed and looked at me once more."

"Bella, I love you."

I stared at him, unthinking. What? His words did not make sense. I sat there stupidly for a minute. ...What? was the only thing my mind registered.

But he laughed at me. "No, no, Bella., Not like that." He looked amused. I was still in shock, but something told me he planned to say it confusingly like that, just to gauge my reaction.

Then he was abruptly serious. "Don't be offended when I tell you this." I was now even more confused; something I didn't think was possible.

I waited.

"Lydia. I mentioned her last night." He looked at me. His face was smiling, but his eyes showed the turmoil inside. I guess my brain was functioning again.

Lydia. Another round of the same recognition feeling.

"…Why do I remind you of… Lydia?" I asked. "Do I… look like her?"

"No, that's not it. It's more that… you're the same person, just in a different body."

He laughed again at my expression.

"It's alright. You don't need to understand." He chuckled. "Just understand if I seem… fond of you."

The phone rang in the other room, and William went to pick up. I was left poking at my now soggy cereal, thinking about what he had just said.

I expected myself to feel… flattered, maybe, or chagrin. But instead, the only emotion I could recognize from inside my whirling brain was curiosity. Mixed with a hint of sadness, not for me, but for William.

But I felt even more curious than before after William's past. It all seemed so… mysterious. And intriguing. And this Lydia. William seemed to struggle so much whenever she came up. Why…?

William came back into the room. "Emily and the rest of them will be back in a few minutes."

---

"Bella!" Emily called from downstairs.

"Hey!" I grinned. She pulled me into a hug.

"So. Did you and Will have a good time?"

I didn't know what to say, so I just shrugged. She laughed. "It's alright. William will warm up to you. He's actually very sweet." I smiled.

She pranced down the hall. Yes, pranced. She seemed to be in a good mood, even better than usual. I wonder why…?

I went back upstairs into my room. I heard Emily calling William. Suddenly, there was a huge squeal. I ran down, trying to find out what had happened. Emily was practically beaming.

"What happened?" I asked, puzzled. Emily smiled even bigger and started to jump up and down.

"I knew it!" She giggled. "I thought it was my imagination at first, but… Oh! Finally!"

Will was staring at her, seemingly entranced by something. "What is it?"

"Oh." Emily stopped, but her face was still beaming. She pointed to William's face. "Your eyes are changing!"

I looked closer. William's eyes did seem a bit more orange than red now.

"The human blood is finally fading away!" Emily started jumping again. "It started a bit later than I would've expected, but better late than never."

But now, Emily didn't seem like the happiest person in the room anymore. William's eyes were sparkling, and he was smiling like mad. I found myself glad also, although I didn't quite understand.

Emily skipped out of the room, to tell Roran and Zaciel I guessed. William looked at me, smiling so hard his face must be hurting.

"Bella. Can I talk to you for a minute?"

"Sure." I said, curiosity overcoming me again.

He held out his hand. I put mine in his freezing one. I was blushing furiously, he chuckled. He led me to the deck. I took a minute to look at all the flowers someone, Emily I supposed, had planted around the garden. It looked beautiful.

Then I realized William was waiting for me in the patio table. I blushed again, nearly tripping as I hurried to join him.

I noticed his expression, it looked like he was willing himself to do something. I would've laughed if it were not so serious.

"You asked me about my human life before," he started after a short pause. My eyes widened with understanding. "I think it's about time I told you."

I waited in suspense. "Hmm…" He mused. "Where to start…

"Alright. This seems as good a place as any other. Most of the vampires you've met so far are probably quite old, yes?" He asked me. I nodded.

"My world was quite recent. Lydia and I were alone. Our parents had died when Lydia was 3 years old. I was 9. We were admitted into an orphanage in France. A few years later, we were adopted. It would've taken much shorter than that, but all the families before then wanted either me or Lydia. And I wasn't about to abandon her.

"Lydia was my life. If it wasn't for her, I would've given up a long time ago. But she was more traumatized than anyone. Growing up without parents… it wasn't good for her. She held onto the memories of our parents; she didn't have many, she was too young.

"We were brought to our new home. It was fantastic, and our new 'parents' were wonderful people. It seemed like maybe our lives would get better.

"I was enrolled in high school. Lydia, however, still wasn't comfortable enough with people. She barely spoke to anyone but me. I taught her things, and our new parents tried to get her to interact with other kids. After a while, she started opening up. It looked like she would be able to go to school, and have a normal life I would've loved for her to have…

"But…" He looked away. His eyes grew more and more agonized during his story. "Then Lydia was diagnosed with cancer." I gasped.

"Yes. I was depressed. I stopped going to school. Our parents wanted to put her in a hospital, but after a series of tantrums thrown by me, they decided to get a doctor who made house calls. I stayed by he side as much as I could.

"Things started to look up for her. My parents convinced me to go back to school. It was around then that Roran and Emily transferred to our school.

"Normally, vampires try to stay away from humans. I probably would've never spoken to Roran if it was not for a science project on which we were made partners. The project was on blood cells, ironically enough. He introduced me to Emily, and she was enthusiastic enough.

"We became friends… well, as friendly a vampire could get to a human." I tried to hide the pang of hurt that pierced through me. I think William noticed, but he didn't say anything and continued without a pause. "Then, Lydia's condition went downhill. Staying home wasn't an option anymore. Our family didn't have enough money to get her the treatment she needed…" He broke off.

"I did the only thing I could think of." His tone was filled with self-disgust. "There was a gang in a neighboring city. I heard from some town gossipers talking about them giving giant loans of money. I thought maybe I could get the money for Lydia's treatment from them… I would pay them off somehow."

"The treatment worked at first. But the illness was stubborn." He laughed bitterly. "I went back to those people, asking for more money. I remember begging." I tried to picture William groveling on his knees. I couldn't. "I'm pretty sure you have an idea of what happened next."

"They left me on the floor of an abandoned warehouse near town. Somehow, Roran found me. He took me back to the house they lived in then. They didn't know whether I would rather die or… to save me. Emily convinced them that, with my sister, I would want them to change me. So Zaciel did."

He stopped talking. I sat there, thinking, for an immeasurable amount of time. But… whatever happened to Lydia after that? For some reason, I felt like the story wasn't finished. But I also knew he probably wouldn't want to tell me about it, so I asked something else instead.

"So… after you were changed, you decided to become a 'vegetarian' vampire? Just like that?"

"At first it was difficult, but I felt indebted to Emily and her family." He said slowly, thoughtfully.

I smiled at him. "I'm glad you made the choice."

He looked at me, a pained expression on his face. Did I say something wrong? He quickly composed.

"Are you alright?"

"… Fine." Liar.

"You can tell me."

He sighed and turned away. The internal battle was back, fiercer than ever. Finally, he spoke. "I told you Emily was the one that convinced Zaciel to change me. After I told her I wanted to join her lifestyle, she was delighted." He chuckled. "She thought it was her responsibility to… teach me. Get me more used to this way of existing. Emily trained me, kept me from temptation. I was quite rebellious at first; all I could think about was my thirst, my bloodlust. I'm only beginning to realize how hard it was for her.

"Emily thinks I've never slipped. She's a bit proud of that. She once told me she had tasted human blood more than a few times in her past, and teaching me was like getting a clean slate.

"But she's wrong," he turned to me, but he was still looking down. I looked at him questioningly. "I failed my family once."

I still did not quite understand.

"I drank from a human." My eyes widened.

"Yes. And you won't believe… my arrogance. I will never forgive myself." His voice broke. What was this that was torturing him so much? Why did it eat away at him? I wanted to comfort him, but I wasn't sure how. Instead, I waited for him to continue.

William took a shuddering breath. "You know, I've never told anyone about this. Ever." He smiled sadly at me. I wanted to cry.

He sighed and went on with his story. "After the transformation, Emily and the rest of them had to explain everything about being a vampire. I listened intently at first. They told me about the immortality, the speed… it seemed like the best thing in the world. I remember thinking that if I had known that this was possible before, I would've begged them to change me.

"But when they told me that we were ale to change other people… I didn't hear a word after that. All I could think about was Lydia.

"Yes… that was my plan. I wanted to save her. I had heard all their warnings about the temptation of human blood, why newborns were so hard to make… but I wasn't thinking. Why didn't I think? Why didn't I realize that even Emily, who had been a vampire for much longer than I, wouldn't even be able to change me and had to convince Zaciel to do it?

"Well. I told you, I was far too arrogant. I thought I could do it. I'm sure there must've been a voice in the back corners of my mind, telling me that I should ask someone to do it for me because I wouldn't be able to. But I buried that voice away.

"While Roran and Zaciel were out hunting one night, I told Emily that I wanted to go out for a bit. She probably thought it was precarious, but she agreed.

"I went to Lydia's room at the hospital. Her whole face lit up when she saw me. It had been a while since I have visited.

"But then she noticed the changes. She asked me why I was different. That was when I noticed her scent…

"It was… mouthwatering. I hadn't smelled many humans since the transformation. I tried my best to restrain myself. I told her what I had become. She seemed appalled at first, but she wanted me to change her, too. I was delighted. I had Lydia, and I was so close to having her for the rest of eternity, never having to worry about her illness coming back."

His face was pale. His breath was jagged, the bad part was here. He took a few breaths to calm himself. When he started again, his voice was shaky. "When I tasted her blood… it was luscious. I couldn't… stop." He was shaking. I stared at him, sure that he would be sobbing if he could. I worked on instinct. I got up, and put my arms around him. He stiffened under my touch for a minute, but then he put his arms around me as well. When I away, he was smiling at me warily.

"Sorry I broke down like that." He apologized. I shook my head. "Emily was a bit worried about my eyes after the one year mark. Normally they would've at least been orange by then, if I never drank from a human like I should've. That's why she was so happy earlier.

"Please don't tell Emily about this…" He looked at me, worried.

"I won't." I replied, somewhat hesitantly. "But… she has to know. Sometime."

"Yes." He sounded grave. "It's just… I don't want to disappoint her. Emily, she's so kind…"

Something clicked.

"William…" I started, he looked at me expectantly. "You love her, don't you?"

He stared at me, shocked.

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A.N.: Ugh. Okay. That was a bit longer than I wanted it to be. Sorry if I dragged it out a bit long.

I have Roran's story finished, too. : )

Any questions, please feel free to ask!

Review, please please please. I'll write more if you review. xD