Rain spattered against the window as Isabella Daphne Swan gazed solemnly out at the cloudy, gray sky. Her beautiful brown eyes wandered aimlessly over the dismal view and she knew there was no way to see the moon, let alone the stars through that thick, misty covering.

Well, what did she expect? This was Forks, Washington, the rainiest spot in the continental United States. The weather tonight did nothing to help pull her out of her doldrums.

Of course, she could understand Renee wanting her to get a normal life. But it has been nearly a millennium. Would the monotony ever end?

Bella shook herself mentally and released a pent-up sigh as her hand moved automatically to tuck a wayward strand of her luscious, long, mahogany brown hair behind her ear.

She knew she should be counting her blessings. Suppressing a small shutter, she acknowledged to herself that the alternative to all this repetitive newness was much too bleak to fathom. She just wished sometimes the boredom wasn't so entrenched in her lifestyle.

Tomorrow she would begin school, again, as a sophomore. This would make her sixtieth sophomore year in high school, ever since Renee had "figured out" the perfect way to make their lives normal.

She knew it was necessary. Renee wants both of them to be so engrossed in keeping their life normal so that they could forget Italy, and forget him.

A bright note was that in three years she could enrol in another institute of higher learning. This time she really had her heart set on Julliard. Music was her passion. She loved it and it seemed to love her in return.

She already had degrees in Music from Dartmouth and Dance from Sarah Lawrence; Medical degrees from Harvard and Johns Hopkins; a Law degree from Princeton; and had just completed a dual-degree in English Literature and Art History at Cambridge University in England.

I guess you could say she had a well-rounded education. She was the quintessential, perennial student. She laughed silently to herself thinking that education was one thing that little Bella Swan was really good at.

As she pondered on how to fill another long, dark night, she considered working on her language skills. She wasn't quite fluent in Flemish yet, and she really had wanted to learn Aramaic since seeing Passion of the Christ.

She was already fluent in Spanish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Swedish, Japanese, Mandarin, and a dozen other languages. She had finally surpassed even Renee in the number she now spoke. That's what happened when you had a lot of time to kill.

Her other option to fill the night was to spend it with her dependable friend. The expression on her beautiful, pale, flawless face softened and a dreamy look entered her eyes.

The one friend that never let her down and never grew tired of her company, no matter what kind of mood she was in - Her beloved piano. Renee often jokingly told her she would never find a husband because she was already married to her piano.

How true, how true. Her piano was the one thing she could count on to never let her down. And of course, her other instruments. Especially her guitar.

Her liquid brown eyes moved from the view out the window to focus on the view inside her new room just refurnished as per Renee.

Her face, still soft from her previous thoughts, changed to a slightly pensive look as she let the memories wash over her. She really did love this house, it has its own soul within it, and she could hear the whisperings and caress of the air in this space.

Had it really been nine hundred years since they were in Italy? Yet the thread that held her there never wavered..

A time she had nearly forgotten.

Her face showed the wistfulness she felt at what could have been, what should have been, and what could never be.

The memories had faded somewhat through the years, but had never been completely erased from her mind. A tiny smile fleeted across her lips as her thoughts drifted back.

She never wanted to forget those days of her early childhood in Italy. She NEVER wanted to forget those wonderful, bright things from her childhood, even if they did belong in a lost place and time.

Certain things from that time in her life were best left forgotten, but not her memories.

If she could have cried, she was sure tears would have been streaming down her face at the memory.

Slowly she arose from her seat at the window, and walked from her room, her movements displaying an effortless grace.

Shaking her head slightly to dispel the musings from the past, Bella thought of her current life situation. For the most part, she was content with her life. The only thing that really bothered her about her life was the constant need to start over again.

And in the last decade or so, the nights just seemed to get longer and longer.

She sometimes longed for someone to spend the time with, someone she could just be herself with, someone she didn't have to be careful around, someone she didn't have to play a part around.

Someone like… Bella's eyes lost focus as her mind again slipped into the past. She drew herself up sharply, shook her head forcefully and willed that area of her memory to close. No, she refused to go there. That place only brought pain.

Renee knew she needed someone, but were hesitant to make suggestions or nudge her in any certain direction, albeit she did keep her eyes open for a suitable mate.

Just the word – mate – caused Bella to cringe on the inside. It made her feel as if she were some prize animal at the zoo that needed, well for lack of a better word, a mate.

She didn't want a mate; she wanted the love of her life. The kind of love her Renee and he had found in each other.

Finding such love was another story. She had come close to finding that love once, had been tempted to take that chance at love. But she had discovered just how fleeting that chance could be. In the twinkling of an eye, it could vanish, never to be found again.

Again, she forced the memory back to the depths of her mind. She didn't allow herself to dwell on that thought anymore. It was stubbornly tamped down, hidden deep in her memories, and seldom allowed to surface, however briefly.

Her aimless strolling had brought her to the curved staircase leading to the front foyer, and she gracefully descended to the main floor. She was quite alone in this part of the house.

As was their routine, the Renee had retreated to her room shortly after midnight. The ensuing hours were always the loneliest time of the day for Bella.

As Bella wandered through the silent house, she again contemplated her options for the night.

She didn't need to hunt; her thirst was satisfied for the moment.

Without conscious effort, Bella had gravitated to her piano.

It was a beautiful, white grand piano that had been delivered and set up last week. Dear Renee, she thought of everything.

The piano sat on a special raised area in the conservatory, the conservatory that Renee had had built onto the house especially to house Bella's piano and extensive music collection.

One corner of the area was also designated as a dance studio, exclusively for Bella's use. She knew what music meant to her, and she got a special enjoyment from listening to her play or watching her dance. So, in a way, this room was the gift that just kept on giving.

As she sat down on the white, velvet upholstered, bench, Bella reached out her hand to the remote control that turned on the recording device that was connected to her piano. She knew she did her best composing in these wee, small hours of the morning, but she seldom remembered her compositions afterward. The soothing music seemed to put her into a trance-like state where her music seemed to take her over.

As Bella forced all thought from her mind, she let her fingers fall naturally on the keys. Without any conscious effort on her part, the music just seemed to flow from her alabaster fingertips.

The music was a part of her, and her emotions were evident in each note. As she played, her mind began to drift to another place and another time.

She seldom let herself think of her past life. Some things were best kept silent and in the past.

I couldn't tell you
Why she that way
She felt it every day
I couldn't help her
I just watched her make
The same mistake again

What's wrong, what's wrong now
Too many too many problems
Don't know where she belongs
(where she belongs)

She wants to go home
But nobody's home
This is where she lies
Broken inside
With no place to go
(no place to go)
To dry her eyes
Broken inside

Open your eyes and look outside
And find the reasons why
You've been rejected
And now you can't find
what you've left behind

Be strong, be strong now
Too many, too many problems
Don't where she belongs
(where she belongs)

She wants to go home, but nobody's home
This is where she lies, broken inside
With no place to go (no place to go)
To dry her eyes
Broken inside

Her feelings she hides
Her dreams she can't find
She's losing her mind
She's falling behind
She can't find her place
She's losing her faith
She's falling from grace
She all over the place

She wants to go home, but nobody's home
This is where she lies, broken inside
With no place to go(no place to go)
To dry her eyes
Broken inside

She's lost inside, lost inside
oh oh
She's lost inside, lost inside
oh oh oh

She knew that Renee has gone for hunting, so she sang out the song, sadness taking over her head as she immerse herself in her mother's memories...

The next morning: