Tell them all I know now, shout it from the rooftops
Write it on the skyline
All we had is gone now, tell them I was happy
And my heart is broken
All my scars are open, tell them what I hoped would be impossible
—"Impossible", James Arthur

.:.

Isabella Swan had come home from working a double shift at New Roots, her favorite—though pricey—organic grocery store, when she'd stumbled upon a piece of information that flipped her entire world upside down for the second time in a span of six months. An ordinary night allowed her to return just little before 9 p.m., but she'd taken up an extra couple hours after one of the girls unexpectedly quit mid-shift—the last thing she would've expected was to come to the Cullen house a few minutes passed midnight, after suffering through an excruciatingly long day of being a senior in high school and getting her patience tested by pain-in-the-ass customers, so she could find a certain blonde vixen bent over the dining room table with Bella's boyfriend of two years pounding into her from behind. Not one to have a temper, she found herself thoroughly disgusted, crying out, "we eat on that table!" in order to get the sly two-timing couple's attention—she watched the scrambling in horror, her feet nailed to the floor, as Edward Cullen nearly tripped over his own feet while struggling to pull his pants back up from around his ankles while the blonde—Rosalie Hale, of all people—was already shoving passed Bella. It didn't escape her attention just how short the skirt Rosalie wore rode up over her thighs as she bolted out of the house without an ounce of shame showing on her flawless face.

"Bella, I can explain." — "It's not what you think." — "She means nothing to me."

It was the standard excuse of a cheater, and while he rambled his fake apologies, trying to make her forgive him somehow, Bella could only stare at him. Drink in the man she'd never seen so disheveled in the two years they'd been dating, nervously combing his fingers through his untidy reddish-brown hair, but there wasn't an apology in his forest-green eyes. It wasn't regret. It wasn't shame. But, of course, she found some unknown emotion, one she couldn't quite decipher—maybe it had to do with the fact that he got caught fucking another woman, a woman he would continue seeing if Bella hadn't come home late enough that he'd thought there was enough time for him to spill his seed and cast her away before his devoted, hard-working girlfriend could see. She wondered where their relationship went wrong, what made him finally give in to the temptation of the sexy blonde bombshell—but that was a dumb question, she didn't know any guy within a ten-mile radius of Forks High School that didn't fantasize about being in bed with Rosalie Hale. Only hours ago, she'd been planning what to do for their upcoming anniversary in her head, which was only one week away. Only hours ago, Edward Cullen had been the epitome of perfection, she couldn't wait to spend the rest of her life with such a Godly man. But now? She just wanted to be as far away from him as possible.

She was rooted to the floor for what felt like an eternity, but as soon as his fingertips brushed over hers, moving to take hold of her hand, taking in her silence as an okay, the ice in Bella's veins melted and she ripped away, a scream lodged in her throat—there was a wounded flicker in Edward's eyes but he was the last person who should be feeling any type of hurt.

"Don't touch me," she whispered fiercely, eyes ablaze.

Before he could protest or plea with her, she shoved passed him, storming up the stairs to the bedroom they shared and closing the door behind her with a loud slam! It was as though she'd switched into autopilot, locking the door and hustling around the room, dragging a suitcase out of the closet onto the bed and anything she could get her hands on began to pile up. Random articles of shirts, pants, underwear and bras. She didn't stop until she swore the suitcase wouldn't be able to zip closed, she could hear Edward talking through the door, but she didn't have anything to say. If you don't have something nice to say then don't say it at all. She chose to abide that rule than to start talking out of her ass, a lot of the words wouldn't be meant, and wouldn't be able to get taken back.

Suitcase filled and closed, check. Jacket, check. Shoes, check. Cell phone, check.

She flipped the lock, yanking the door open—Edward was nowhere to be found, her blood boiling at the possibility of him going in search of Rosalie, but instead she found him waiting in the living room when she finally made it back downstairs. His eyes flickered to her, he rose to his feet a second after she touched the bottom step, his hands curled into fists at his sides.

"What is all this?" He closed the distance between them in a single stride, now he was just barely blocking her exit out the front door; there were lines of worry etched into his otherwise flawless features.

"You can't seriously expect me to stay here." It came out more of a statement than a question, her words were rushed and full of fury—the silent stay with you hanging between them—she couldn't believe the nerve that he had, thinking she would want to be around him for even a second longer than necessary. The look on his face confirmed it, and the disgust came rolling back in wave; she shook her head at him, sidestepping to shoving passed him once more, and out the door without looking back. Her suitcase was heaved over the sides onto the bed of her '58 Chevy pick-up, and she was climbing to behind the wheel—she geared into reverse, the tires spinning wildly as she tried to back out of the long gravel driveway, until finally she jerked free from where she parked. One last glance at the colossal house showed her that Edward had made it halfway down the steps, a good two feet away from her truck before she spun out to get back on the road—it was a half-ass attempt to go after her, and in that moment, she wanted nothing more than to mow him down with her damn truck. It wouldn't kill him, but it might hurt, or just damage the hell out of her front end, but it sure as hell would make her feel slightly better regardless.

There was no game plan, she didn't have anywhere to go—she had moved into the Cullen's house after her father had been murdered while patrolling the streets six months ago, Edward had made the promise that once they graduated high school the two of them would get married, go to college together, and live off campus in a tiny apartment suitable for a young couple in love with their whole lives ahead of them. There was the unwritten promise that once she graduated college, he would finally turn her into a vampire—he valued her humanity, her soul, more than anything. . . and they'd live happily ever after. And now that was nothing more than a dream, lost in the crevices of her mind, as she sped down the winding roads as fast as her ancient truck could take her, hell-bent on getting away from Forks. It wouldn't surprise her that once she was outside the city limits, she would look in her rear-view mirror to find a bumblebee-yellow Porsche tailgating her until finally Bella caved in and pulled over so they would talk, so she could say goodbye to her best friend.

As predicted, just as the tires rolled over the town line, the brightly colored car was swiftly veering up behind her, flashing their lights to get her attention. A sour taste filled Bella's mouth, the less rational side of her brain told her that Edward would be in that car, but given the fact that he hadn't made a real attempt to go after her, the probability was slight. After making it a couple more miles, Bella signaled to pulling over, the Porsche following closely to the shoulder. There was a light drizzle, the frosty air nipping at her flesh, as she climbed out—leaving the truck running—where she was immediately met by the delicate but fierce pixie she was proud to call her best friend.

"Did you know?" was the first thing Bella could think of saying as she was swept into a tight hug.

"No." Alice Cullen replied, without hesitation. Naturally, Bella believed her, there was no reason for Alice to lie—why would she protect the unfaithful bastard she had no choice but to call her brother? "I don't know how, but somehow Edward managed to skirt around the edges of every decision he made just enough to make sure that I didn't see." Bella ultimately felt sick—her stomach twisted unpleasantly, there was a coppery acidic taste in her mouth. Edward had outsmarted his precognitive sister, careful of his thoughts and danced around with his decisions, keeping Rosalie out of his head altogether. For as long as she could remember, Bella had never thought of that man as a monster, that he still possessed his soul, and now she just felt utterly stupid for being so naïve—and what baffled her the most was all the times he'd mentioned how vain Rosalie was, that he'd never thought of her as more than a friend and couldn't understand why everyone thought she was 'all that'.

"Please don't ask me to stay..." Bella mumbled.

"Where are you gonna go?" Alice asked, there was no way that she could be selfish to make Bella stay in Forks after everything she'd been through. It wasn't until Bella had made the split decision to leave that Alice had been planted with the seed of doubt, there was the thought—the half decision—of running him over that alerted the little vampire something was seriously wrong; she rushed back from her movie date with Jasper, solely relying on her gift to follow Bella out of town—it was then that Bella could just make out the silhouette of her best friend's boyfriend through the darkly tinted glass. You really know how to ruin everyone's night, Bella thought at Edward, even though he was too far away, and for some strange reason could never seem to read her mind from the very beginning.

"I'm not sure," She sighed with the smallest defeat.

Alice paused for a moment, tapping her nail against her lower lip as she thought to herself, her eyes roaming in every direction—the wheels were seriously turning inside of her head, Bella thought for sure there would be steam blowing out of her ears like in the cartoons. "I've got it." Her hand was swift and nimble, removing Bella's hand-me-down Galaxy phone from the pocket of her jacket, and typing in a number on the keypad, bringing it up to her ear. "Hello? Yeah, hey...it's uh.. it's me, Alice."

Bella stared at her, dumbfounded. "What are you doing?"

Alice held up a finger, shaking her head at Bella, her eyes narrowing she she spoke into the phone, her words soft enough that Bella couldn't understand a single thing she said. Not even a minute later Alice was hanging up the phone, handing it back to her. "I found someone you can stay with for a while." She announced proudly.

"Who...?"

"An old friend of Jasper's." Her sparking smile was iridescent.

"Alice..." she grit through her teeth, there was just something about this that Bella didn't like, for sure there would be some kind of set-up involved. "You didn't have to do that."

"But I did." Alice said, her smile wavering slightly.

Rather than flat-out telling Alice that she wasn't going to accept the offer, she just nodded, and pulled her friend back in for another fierce hug—a tangle of limbs, holding tightly onto each other because they were unsure of the next time they would see each other again. Tears welled in Bella's eyes for the first time since discovering Edward's indiscretion, her heart pounding with a deep ache inside of her chest. I'll miss you, the unspoken goodbye, as they parted. Alice rubbed Bella's arm almost comfortingly, her smile was smile and a little fractured around the edges, but neither of them could say anything to make it all better.

"If you can, say goodbye to Jake for me?" Bella requested, even though it was a long shot. Alice nodded as if saying she would try, just because it's Bella, and she knows how much Jacob Black means to her.

"Better get out of this rain and on your way." Alice said, a distant look now in her eyes—Bella knew this wasn't intentional, it probably meant there was a storm heading their way, and she had a feeling that her truck wouldn't be able to handle the worst of the conditions. Which meant leaving was an immediate thing. Bella waved at the car, her farewell to Jasper, and returned to the warmth of her truck—her hair was a little frizzy, the little droplets clung to the strands, making it faintly glisten in the darkness. Nothing she couldn't deal with later. Shifting into drive, Bella peeled away from the curve of the road, pulling back onto the asphalt—here we go, she thought.

It was two hours later, that Bella pulled into the parking lot of a 24-hour diner; the rain was coming down a little harder now, and she just wanted to relax and find out what the hell she was doing next—that wasn't part of Alice's little plan. Her phone was ice cold, despite the blasting heat; she had one new text message, presumably from the number that Alice had called, with details of what looked to be a location of where they could meet on mutual grounds, maybe. She didn't recognize the coordinates.

Change of plans, sorry.

She texted the number back and clicked on her contact list. She had no biological family left—her father was gone, her mother hadn't been in her life since she was twelve years old, and she had no siblings, no aunts or uncles that she knew of on either side of her family. Eighteen years old, she legally didn't need to be under someone's care, but the money she'd saved working at New Roots would not cover living expenses or rent anywhere—there was roughly between six and eighteen hundred dollars in her bank account, after only working this job for a few short months. She barely made an indent in her search of people to contact, when she vaguely remembered one of the names, trying to figure out how she knew them—Elena Gilbert. It was somewhat familiar, but no bells started ringing in recognition. Turning to Facebook for answers, Bella searched for Ms. Gilbert, her page being the first one to appear at the top of the list—she had a heart shaped face, almond-brown eyes, long chestnut hair kept straight, and olive skin. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she remembered meeting Elena and her younger brother Jeremy approximately a year ago, when she'd flown down to where they lived for a funeral; their parents' car went off Wickery Bridge—her father had said that Jenna, Elena's aunt, was her godmother, and they were paying their respects because Charlie, Jenna, and Elena's mom Miranda all had grown up together. It took her by surprise finding out that Charlie had been from that small town in Virginia. Elena and Bella had a brief interaction, expressing her condolences and if she ever needed someone to talk to, she was there—they'd probably talked two or three times after that—she couldn't even recall if they had come to Charlie's funeral—but after that it just kind of dissolved.

With shaky fingers, Bella started to type out a message to Elena, but then deemed herself too impatient, hitting the call button and bringing the phone to her ear. After seven rings, there was a click, and she was sent to voicemail.

"Hi, you've reached Elena. I can't come to the phone right now, please leave me a message and I'll call you back as soon as I can."

Of course, it was much later on the east coast than in Washington state—how late even was it now? Bella didn't know. She was too keyed up and barely paid attention since everything went down. In an incessant ramble, Bella fumbled to find the right words, apologizing for calling this late (so early?) letting Elena know that she was going to pay for a last minute flight to Virginia, she felt alone and had absolutely no one, she was going to fall into trouble and needed help before that happened; before signing off she claimed to explain everything once they were in the same time zone. Now, all that was left, Bella just needed to get her ass to the airport and buy the cheapest ticket for a direct flight to Richmond, the town with an airport closest to Mystic Falls that wasn't ridiculously long—she had been hoping for Charlottesville or Lynchburg, but she settled for Richmond in the end. Hopefully all goes well.

.:.

Seven hours, nine minutes, and $273 later Bella finally arrived in Richmond—Elena hadn't gotten back to her, but she didn't worry too much. Once she grabbed her bags off the carousel, she walked to one of the car rental kiosks. Twenty minutes of arguing and another $200 dropped because she was under the age of 25, Bella was traveling to Mystic Falls to surprise(?) Elena—according to her GPS, it would take her about an hour and a half to cross the town border, which would bring it somewhere between 11:30 a.m. and noon. It was a small town, from what she remembered, and it would be fairly easy to just ask around to find out where the Gilbert's lived.

When she reached Grove Hill, the next town over from Mystic Falls, her phone lit up with a new notification—glancing over at where she'd tossed her phone onto the passenger seat, she swelled with a mixture of disappointment and sadness because it had been Jacob texting her rather than Elena. Desperately needing to hear another person's voice, Bella pressed the button to call her best friend, and put it on speaker phone.

"Bella!" Jake bellowed into the receiver. "How're you holding up?"

"Alice told you?" Bella guessed, keeping her eyes on the road. Her grip tightened on the steering wheel.

"Yeah." He mumbled; she could picture him nodding solemnly like he always did. "I told you from the start that Cullen was a scumbag, Bella."

"I don't need a lecture, Jake." She rolled her eyes, hating that he'd been right, and she would've greatly appreciated that it wasn't rubbed in her face. She hated just thinking about it, because a little over a year ago when the Hale twins had moved to town, Edward had made a point in how ridiculous all the guys were for drooling over Rosalie. He could tell just by her thoughts that she was pig-headed, and it had made Bella laugh, feel secure with her relationship. She'd been lucky enough to avoid associating with Rosalie for a few months before she was segued into their group of friends after Jasper started dating Alice. Emmett McCarty had already called dibs, promptly asking her out to the junior prom not even three days after they started talking. Had it all been a ruse from day one? Did Edward only say that to make Bella feel better about herself, when his true intentions were to get her under his belt? Quickly, Bella etch-a-sketched the thought from her brain, a sour taste filling her mouth.

"Bella?" Jake's voice pulled her out of her thoughts entirely.

"Huh?"

"You alright, space cadet?" Jake's laugh was deep, husky and rough around the edges. It was warm and familiar. It made her smile for the first time since last night.

"Uh, yeah. I am." She let out a small laugh, briefly lifting her hand off the wheel to swat a few flyaway hairs away from her face. "Hey, Jake, I'm driving, so let me call you back later, okay?"

"Sounds good." He replied, and then signed off with a quick 'drive safe'.

Bella wasn't the type of person who drove extremely fast, she always complained whenever in the car with Edward or Alice because they tended to exceed the speed limit by at least forty—the only reason they didn't get caught was because of their special charms. But out on the open road, surrounded by an endless blur of jade, on her way to begin a new life in a town no one's ever heard of her, driving in a car that wasn't her pick-up, she couldn't help but go a little faster than the required 60MPH. She had to admit, Virginia was a pretty beautiful state, no matter where you were heading to.

Stretching on a few more miles, Bella was approaching the WELCOME TO MYSTIC FALLS sign, and just beyond that was the bridge where Elena's parents had died. A twinge of sadness stabbed at her heart, it reminded her that she, too, had lost her parent to a horrible accident.

Just out of her peripheral vision, she noticed a glossy black sedan sidling up behind her at an incredibly fast rate—she pressed her foot harder on the gas pedal, accelerating forward with a hard jerk, her hands tighter around the steering wheel. The faster she went, the closer the car behind her rode on her flank. There was nothing but open road, Bella figured that this person thought she was driving too slowly, but they never made the move to swerve around her, nor did they honk their horn in impatience. It was when she crossed over the bridge that the sedan disappeared out of sight; she twisted in her seat for the briefest moment to double-check that maybe she'd just been seeing things in a state of sleep deprivation. It was impossible to vanish so abruptly, even in a car.

When Bella turned to face forward, time seemed to move in slow motion—her eyes went wide, mouth forming an O as she let out a high-pitch scream, her hands jerking the steering wheel hard to the left as she tried to maneuver around the dark silhouette standing in the middle of her lane. Their entire being nothing but shadows even in the brightest light of day. She, however, wasn't quick enough, or it seemed that the person moved with her—it happened all too quickly, before she could even think to slam on the brakes, the person whipped across the hood of her rental car, before flying up out of sight. With her hands grafted to the steering wheel, Bella attempted to twist it around to make a complete circle, but her tires skid along the asphalt and she ended up spinning in the completely opposite direction as she was thrown forward violently. The corner of the car slammed into something solid, the front end lifting upon impact and causing the car to pole vault, flipping over and bouncing across to the opposite side of the road.

Upside down, everything around her was a hazy abstract blur. She could barely breathe, the air was thick with the scent of burning rubber and gasoline; she fought against the seat, struggling to break free with the jammed belt biting into her chest. The blood was rushing to her brain, she was already starting to feel light-headed, and for a moment, through the plumes of smoke and shattered lattice-like pattern of the windows, she wondered if she was imagining the silhouette lying in the road, imagining the faint snapping of their bones as they put their body back together from the impact—but once they rose to their feet, that's when Bella started hyperventilating, a scream lodged in her throat (burning from the clouds of smoke billowing from the car), as she pulled at her stupid seatbelt with every ounce of strength she possessed, despite the ache in her muscles. Every nerve ending was lit on fire, something was very, very wrong—against better judgment, she knew deep in her core that this person wasn't human, and she could count on one hand the number on non-humans that were willing to be around her without wanting to kill her.

A low, predatory growl resonated—the distance immeasurable. I'm going to die, Bella immediately thought. Decided. Accepted. It was something she'd grown accustomed to ever since discovering the reality of the supernatural world; she'd come face to face with the possibility of dying more times than Bella cared to count, and if that time ever did come, she would greet death like it was an old friend. And from the looks of it, it just might be today.

Bella stopped fidgeting, stopped trying to free herself, because she knew there was no escape; she gave up fairly easily when she realized the unsettling truth of what was about to happen—how could she not when trapped in a vehicle, upside down, with no one around for at least another five miles. As the footsteps grew louder, Bella squeezed her eyes shut, not wanting to see the face responsible for her impending death, her entire body tense with fear, she could feel their presence just inches away, the temperature seemed to drop at least ten degrees—but then there was a different sound filling the air; a delicate whoosh of the breeze. Counting to five in her head, everything remained intact, and her eyes slowly reopened—the figure was gone. What? Instead, she could hear the wailing sirens in the distance, getting louder as they sped toward the scene of the accident. But how? There was no one around to be able to call for help, though she wasn't complaining. She just wanted to get the hell off the road and go to Elena's.

Her head was spinning, probably from being upside down for so long, and black spots were slowly beginning to cover her vision. Dancing along the edges of her peripheral vision, there was somebody with long-legged strides disappearing into the woods, the outline of their back was muscular and broad, reasonably tall in height—but were they just a figment of her imagination? Or was this her unidentified savior, who chased off the person that wanted to kill her?

.:.

Even before Bella opened her eyes, she just couldn't shake the icy feeling of dread licking along her spine, with the uneasy feeling that settled into her bones; a chill seeping through her clothes—right away Bella knew something wasn't right. A dull flicker of memory flashed behind her eyes, she could plainly hear the sounds of the collision echoing but the accident was long over, reminding her that she was no longer in Forks, but in Mystic Falls. She was lying in an upright position, but her entire body felt like one giant bruise: excruciatingly stiff from going unused for . . . how long? She didn't even know. Time didn't exist, even though it should. The sound of someone's voice, a woman's, is what startled her out of her sluggish daze, allowing her to open her eyes long enough to see a fair-skinned thirty-something year old woman wearing scrubs approaching her. Her hand flew to the side of her head, and she groaned, aware of the jackhammering going on beneath the surface of her skull. She was told to take it easy, that she'd been in a nasty car accident and should consider herself lucky to be alive—this raised a lot of questions, as she didn't remember it being so awful, but maybe she was missing something else entirely. The nurse instructed her to once again take it easy, she was going to need a lot of rest, and Bella recited Elena's number for someone they should call to come down to the hospital while Dr. Fell ran a few tests; Sheriff Forbes would also be coming to speak with her about the accident.

So, I was playing around with the idea of bringing back an old Fanfic of mine (ENJOY THE SILENCE, maybe you've heard of it? remember it? cringe at the thought of that god awful piece of work? LOL) but this time I wanted to do it right, to make it something entirely mine rather than just inserting Bella into a storyline that already existed inside the TVD universe (and basically plagiarizing the entire thing but we don't need to talk about that because it was my first ever attempt at a real story and I was absolutely shitty when it came to my writing back then, but don't worry I promise I've evolved).

For this particular story the Cullen's never left town because they aren't all related—instead Edward (17) and Alice (16) are biological siblings while Esme and Carlisle are their actual parents (a whole family of vampires WOW), Rosalie and Jasper are remaining twins and live on their own since legally (perpetually) they are both eighteen years old and Emmett is all by his lonesome and comes up with a different backstory about what happened to his parents every time someone asks, also eighteen years old. Jake never fell in love with Bella and they're just strictly best friends. Please don't hate me for killing off Charlie, I really do love him, but I needed something tragic in Bella's life that would prompt her to no longer need to stay in Forks since Renee is forever an absentee trash parent. I also got rid of the whole sparkly vampire thing, we don't need that in this story, so everyone here burns in the sun. The Cullen's signature jewelry doubles as their daylight amulets to allow them to walk around during the day.

I do not own any of the characters, all rights go to L.J. Smith (TVD books), Julie Plec & Kevin Williamson and everyone else on that team that made it all happen (TVD show), and Stephenie Meyer (btw we can all agree that Lionsgate is run by a twilight fan, have you seen their twitter and instagram posts about twilight?)

please enjoy whatever the fuck this is.

consider this disclaimed.