A/N: If you're an easy crier, you may want to go get the Kleenex now...

"Thank you for announcing us," a woman said as she came in the front door. Victoria stood up and crouched down into a fighting position.

"You," she snarled.

"Me," the woman agreed. Alice glared at her.

"You're the one in charge, aren't you?" she asked.

"I am," the woman said, "Though if you kill me, then that still won't help you. Our club knows who will take my place if I were to die."

"Get out of my home!" Victoria spat. "You've caused enough trouble for this family! They don't deserve your wrath!"

"On the contrary," the woman said. "They deserve every moment of my wrath. They killed James, they took you in, and now they have killed my sister. They must pay."

"You evil creature!!!" I accused her, and lunged from my chair.

I was caught in midair, unable to move.

"Now now," she said, "let's all act like civilized children."

I fell to the floor with a thump once I was unfrozen because I had lost all my momentum. Esme helped me up.

"I hate you," I spat. I could smell Edward on her, so I knew that she had been the one to kill him. "You killed my husband, and I'm going to kill you!" I tried lunging for her again, but once again found that I couldn't move. A growl erupted from my throat.

"We aren't dogs, Isabella, so please stop growling," she said haughtily. "I've come to talk with your lovely family."

"What do you want to talk about?" Carlisle asked warily.

"The order of your deaths," she answered. "We're unwilling to compromise on whether or not you die, but we will compromise on the order that we will kill you in. Is there anyone who would like to be first?"

Everyone glanced at me. I was still frozen, so I couldn't say anything or move.

"Leave us alone," Rosalie told her. "We didn't do anything to you."

"You killed James. You sheltered a traitor. You killed Luella. I count that as something," the woman said.

"I'm going to kill you," I growled, finally finding that I could use my voice.

"If you kill me, then your whole family dies," she told me. "You all know that I have friends outside, and they won't hesitate to kill all you if any of you even lay a finger on me."

"You will die," I vowed.

"Not tonight, Isabella," she said. "Tonight, someone will die, but it won't be me. It could be your leader, or it could be you, if you keep growling at me, but I'd prefer to save you for last, if you don't mind. You're almost entirely the reason why we're here."

Emmett lunged for her, but he froze too.

"My friends don't like it when you try to kill me," she said, turning to stare at Emmett. "I'm not the one who's freezing you."

I focused on a board in the wall behind her. I called it to me, and it came, running into her on its way to me.

She hissed, and her eyes turned black. "You will pay for that," she informed me. Her friends came in the door then, and they grabbed all of us. There were two of them for every one of us.

"Say goodbye to your leader," she hissed. She nodded to the two who were holding Carlisle and they started dragging him out the door.

"No!!!" we all yelled, and struggled to get away, but we couldn't.

"Take me instead!" I screamed.

"You don't get the pleasure of dying until the end," she informed me.

"Carlisle!!!" Esme cried. "Oh, please don't take him!!!"

"Have a nice day," the leader sneered as she followed Carlisle and his escorts out the door.

The other vampires waited only long enough to smell the smoke before they released us. We all tried to attack them, but they knocked us out of the way and left before we could do anything.

"Esme," I said, and went over to her. She was sobbing tearlessly on the floor,

"Go find out where they burned him," I ordered. "See if he might still be alive. Maybe he managed to kill one of them, and he might need help."

The boys and Victoria didn't need told twice. They were out the door before I could blink.

Victoria and Alice came to help me pick Esme up off the floor. We helped her sit down on the couch, and she sobbed on my shoulder. I let her sob, mostly because I knew she would do the same for me. I was itching to go out and see if Carlisle was okay, but my gut feeling told me that he wasn't. He was dead too, just like Edward.

Eventually the others came back. They didn't look happy, and my fears were confirmed. It was Carlisle that got killed.

"We caught one and managed to burn him too," Emmett offered, "but the others ran away before we could catch them. It was too late for Carlisle."

"Who will be next?" Jasper asked Alice. She closed her eyes and went into her trance-like state to see the future.

"I'm not sure," she finally answered. "They haven't decided yet." She opened her eyes again slowly and gazed at all of us. "But they'll come again in a few days."

"I think we all need to be home schooled," Victoria said quietly. "If the police find out about all these deaths in our family they'll suspect something, and they'll want to investigate."

"Good idea," Jasper agreed. "Esme, do you think you can arrange that?"

"I'll call in the morning," Esme agreed after a moment. "Right now I'd like to be alone, if you don't mind." She gave us all sad looks, and me an attempt at a grateful smile, and then ran up the stairs to her room.

I gazed at everyone else in the room. They all had sad looks on their faces as well.

"I'm going to my room too," I said. "Come get me if anything happens."

"We will," Alice whispered. I nodded and followed Esme up the stairs.

After several hours of lying on my bed, staring at the wall, I finally got up and moved around. Something white on my dresser caught my eye.

Edward's letter. I picked it up and took it back to my bed.

I sat on my bed for the next two days, simply staring at the letter in front of me. My family would come in and check on me, but I wouldn't budge. I was trying to muster up the courage to open it.

"You can do this, Bella," I finally said to myself on the second afternoon. I picked up the envelope and tore it open.

Inside was a simple sheet of paper. It smelled of Edward, and I had to stop for a moment to get over my sudden urge to curl into a ball and not do anything again. But I won against the urge, and a few hours after opening the envelope I was finally able to take the letter out.

I was so nervous that I was shaking. I didn't know that vampires could shake, but I was. I slowly, slowly opened the letter.

It was handwritten in Edward's elegant script. I took a deep breath, and then started at the top.

My Dearest Bella,

If you are reading this, then I am probably dead, and I am sorry. Whatever happened, I'm sure I was trying to keep everyone safe, or perhaps I was just overwhelmed by the other vampires. I'm not sure, because while I am writing this, it obviously hasn't happened yet, and I cannot see the future as Alice can. I hope that you are not sad. Life gives us an opportunity to live, and it has given me an opportunity to live longer than I should have been able to. It gave me an opportunity to love you. I cannot be upset that my life has ended, only because I knew you. Even if our time together was short, we did love, and we had everything that we wanted.

Please don't be sad, love. I know that you will be, but I ask that you be happy for my sake. If you're right, and we do have souls, and I have gone to heaven, then I am watching you, and I don't want to see you sad. I want you to move on with your life. I do want you to miss me, don't get me wrong, but I don't want you to stop living just because my time was up. If you die, which I do not want you to kill yourself because I died, then when you come to heaven I'll be waiting for you. I'll greet you at the gate with open arms, and we'll never be apart again.

I heard a poem once that I'd like to share with you. It is very close to how I feel. I do not know who wrote it, nor do I remember the title, but I remember the words.

Remember me when I am gone away,

Gone far away into the silent land

When you can no more hold me by the hand.

Nor I half turn to go yet turning stay.

Remember me, when no more day by day

You tell me of our future that you plann'd:

Only remember me; you understand

It will be late to council then or pray.

Yet if you should forget me for a while

And afterwards remember, do not grieve:

For if the darkness and corruption leave

A vestige of the thoughts that once I had,

Better by far you should forget and smile

Than that you should remember and be sad.

Better by far you should forget and smile that that you should remember and be sad. Always remember this, Bella. You're too beautiful to be sad for long. While I'm watching you, I want to see you smile. No sad face, no depressing thoughts. Do not do that to yourself. Let Jasper help you, if you must. Let Alice take you shopping to cheer you up. Let Esme mother you until you no longer feel the pain of my passing. Just don't be sad. Please, Bella, for me. It is my dying wish that you smile and be happy.

I will always love you, no matter what happens or where I am. Heaven, hell, or somewhere between that no one knows about, I'll always love you. I'll always be grateful that you gave me the chance to love you. And I hope that you will always love me too. But if you want to move on, to love someone else too, I don't mind. I want you to be happy, and if you must love someone else to be happy, then do it. I do not want to stop you.

Please don't be sad, Bella. Life is too wonderful to go through it depressed. Help the rest of the family to get over my death too. If you want to show them this letter, then go ahead and do it. Perhaps it will help them too.

Just always remember that I love you, Bella, and that I don't want you to be sad. Never let your smile disappear; It's too lovely to lose.

Love,

Edward

"Bella?" Jasper asked as he poked his head in the door. "Are you okay in here?"

"No," I whispered, "but I will be. Just give me some time."

"What did the letter say?" he asked. I mutely held it out to him. He came in my room, letting the door swing shut, gently took the letter, and then quickly read it.

"Wow," was all he said once he was done. He handed it back. "That's deep, even for Edward."

"How is she doing?" Alice asked as she poked her head in the door. She saw me looking at her, and she gave me a little smile. "How are you?"

"I'll be okay," I answered truthfully, "though it might take a little while."

"We were worried about you," she said as she too came in my room. "Even Esme. She's doing better, but she did know it was coming. You didn't have much warning."

"How's everyone else?" I asked.

"We're all hanging in there," Emmett answered. My door swung open again to reveal Emmett and Rosalie standing in the doorway. "We're just waiting for the next attack."

"Who's next?" I asked.

Everyone exchanged glances, telling me that they knew.

"Me," Alice finally answered. "They don't want me to be able to warn you guys of the attacks."

"That makes sense," I said. "When will they come?"

"Tonight," Jasper answered sadly. He put his arm around Alice and pulled her closer to himself.

"Why don't you all come downstairs and we'll have some family bonding time?" Esme asked from behind Emmett and Rosalie.

"Okay," I agreed, "but let me get changed first."

"Just meet us downstairs," Esme instructed. Everyone left, and my room was empty once again.

I sighed and went over to my closet. I still wasn't in a happy mood, so I picked out another dark outfit. Besides, humans mourned losing loved ones in black, couldn't vampires too? I had lost two family members that I loved very dearly, so I showed my mourning period by wearing my black clothes.

A moment later I was walking down the stairs. I joined everyone in the living room and looked to see what they were setting up.

It was a board game. But not just any board game, it was the game of Sorry.

"You do realize that Emmett gets really competitive and will probably smash the table when he lands on the same square as someone else and gets to knock their piece out of the way, right?' I asked as I sat down.

"We know," Alice answered, "but it's the only game in the house. So we're going to play it."

I could tell that she was forcing herself to be cheerful. I didn't need to feel her emotions like Jasper or see her emotions like Victoria to know that she was terrified. She refused to scoot any farther away from Jasper than a couple of inches. Her grin was plastered on her face, and she looked like she wanted nothing more than to go hide somewhere.

I didn't blame her. I'd be terrified too.

"Okay, let's get started," Emmett said cheerfully as Jasper finished setting up the board.

A/N2: Game night with the Cullen family is next. It will be happy and fluffy, because even the Cullens deserve a break from all the sadness and depressing events. It will be shorter though, only 725 words as opposed to the usual 2 to 3 thousand that you're used to. I may add two chapters tomorrow, just to make up for the short length of the next two chapters... but I don't know for sure. I'll decide what I'm doing tomorrow.

Until the next chapter,
Addie