After the death of my parents, I was put in the care of my aunt, Renee. I loved my aunt so much. She had always been like a second mother to me. And now she was. Although, somedays, it seemed like I was the one who acted as the adult.
Her ex-husband, my Uncle Charlie, still lived in the tiny town of Forks, Washington. I visited him every summer, but I hated the rainy town. I always felt like a prisoner to the walls of his tiny house because I was never allowed out in the rain.
I preferred to live in Phoenix, even though I didn't really fit in terribly well. Even in a school of 3,000 students, I didn't really fit in. I didn't really have any close friends. I almost chose to be an outsider. I was different. I wasn't tall. I wasn't skinny. I wasn't a volleyball player. I was Bella Swan, a quirky, 16 year old, with no friends and no real life.
Every year on November 13, I went to visit my parents. It seemed like only yesterday that my parents were murdered. It had been ten years ago.
It was always emotional. It was my parents. I would have expected it to get easier every year, but it wasn't.
This year had been hard. I had just turned 16. It was a not-so-sweet 16. Something didn't feel right. I knew everything was about to change...somehow. I couldn't put my finger on it. I sat in front of my parents grave and thought.
"Mom, I miss you", I said. Sometimes I talked to my parents. It helped to calm my nerves.
"Something is different. I can feel it, mom. I don't know what it is, but something is about to happen. Something that will change my life. I'm sorry that your killer was never caught. I feel like it is my fault. I have let both of you down. I'm sorry." I had fallen to my knees and was crying. What was I to do when I was the one to blame?
Suddenly, there was a rustling in the wind. I shot strait up.
"Hello?" Nothing. "Is someone there?"
There was a flash and I fell to the ground. There was no one there. I had never felt so alone in my life. My parents were dead. I had always been good at holding myself together, but I just fell apart. At that moment, I wished that I could just disappear into nothing. I was nothing. I lived this life day by day. Nothing would ever happen to me. But I knew...
Something was coming. This something was going to try everything that I had. It would push my limits to the extreme. I was going to be tried. In my state, could I handle this challenge? Or would I fall to pieces?