[Dave]

I couldn't actually believe how easy it was to find the evil witch's marzipan house. I just had to follow the ghosts, and be patient. I knew that sooner or later they would take me to their leader.

I didn't even know there was a cabin in that area to begin with… or maybe it had always been there, hidden by magic. I was still having a hard time believing that stuff existed for real, and I saw Bella performing magic in front of me. Just… Vampires? Fine. Werewolves? Good. But if that stuff was real too… what else was?

I moved closer to the cabin windows, and my heart skipped a beat.

Julie.

Julie was there, looking exactly like the last time I saw her alive, minus her pregnant belly. Charlie was there too, and both looked like they were having the time of their lives taunting someone… and when I gave a good look at the chained girl, my heart skipped a beat again, but for an entirely different reason.

Elizabeth. I found her!

And she was royally pissed, that I could tell. Those green eyes were quite menacing, but both Julie and Charlie found that really amusing. And a second later, those eyes met mine and widened in surprise for a second.

She was surprised to see me? Hell, I was shocked she could see me, for God's sake! How was that possible?

Ok, I thought after a deep breath. Not the strangest thing that happened to me lately. Now I had to figure out how to take her out of there… how do you free a ghost from chains you can't touch?

Then I saw Elizabeth keep on trying and trying again to catch a small, purple globe, and she looked at me again when Charlie and Julie were distracted. I couldn't understand why she kept doing it, and I got a glare in return. I frowned and indicated the chains, and she hurriedly nodded before her two guards went back to taunt her.

I knew Charlie was as mean as a snake, but to watch and hear Julie behaving like that was horrible for me. She wasn't like that… she could be a real bitch sometimes, but I could've never imagined she could help someone kill people she knew and grew up with. I simply refused to consider the other option, that the person in front of me was the real Julie, and that the woman I loved didn't exist anymore, or never existed to begin with.

If only Charlie and Julie would leave Elizabeth alone… I could be invisible, but I couldn't walk through walls and the door was closed…

I was still pondering the situation when I saw a hand raising the embroidered tapestry from the wall. Charlie and Julie immediately stopped talking, and Elizabeth was looking at the scene with an expression I couldn't define. Something like I'm-scared-but-like-hell-I'm-going-to-show-it…

No surprise there. She was friends with Bella, of course she had guts.

And there came surprise number three. The hand I saw belonged to Claire Ateara, Julie's mother. My God… I couldn't believe my eyes. Claire?

[Elizabeth]

I wasn't sure that guy really understood what I tried to tell him. I wasn't even sure he could actually help, but you don't look into the horse's mouth, right?

Charlie and Julie stopped talking immediately when they saw Claire raising the tapestry to come back in the room. The moaning I could hear from the other room was bone-chilling, but it immediately stopped once the door was closed and the tapestry back into place. I hadn't even realized there was a door behind it, before Claire raised it to get into the other room a couple hours earlier. And it didn't simply hide the door, it also prevented anyone from hearing what was really going on in there. Nothing pleasant, of that I was sure.

I feared Claire would notice the purple globe near my hand, or worse, that she could see the guy outside the window, but luckily for us she had something else in mind. Namely, her newest victim.

"I think it's time for you two to go and bring Dave here."

"At last, I thought this moment would never come," said Julie, without concealing her satisfaction. "But we're taking Grace too. I want her to see every second of what's going to happen to her beloved husband."

"I don't see why not. But you'll need help; I'm coming with you."

"And leave her here alone?"

Claire then half turned to give me an amused look. "And where exactly could she go, my dear? But let's go now, the faster we go, the faster we'll be back."

"The faster they'll die," added Charlie. "Payback. Finally."

Something in Charlie's voice made me shiver. It didn't sound like he was talking about a few people. More like he referred to a bigger group…

No, that couldn't be true.

The reservation?

Maybe my ancestor's curse put things in motion, but it was Claire and her ghosts that started killing people, sure that Bella would come sooner or later. Bella, who took everyone's pain personally, who was so devoted to helping people with her gift… She would never recover from something like that, and worse thing of all, she would surely find a way to blame herself for the rest of her life.

I cursed silently. Not even my friend could redeem souls as black as theirs. I thanked God when they left me alone. One more minute, and I wouldn't have been able to keep up my act any longer. Patience is so not one of my virtues.

For a second I feared that witch had cast a spell or something like that on the door and that my new friend couldn't get inside and free me… but luckily for me, Claire and her ghosts clearly overestimated their strategic skills. I literally sank on the floor with relief when I say that young man coming inside.

"Oh thank you God. Thank you so much," I said, smiling for the first time since that story began.

"Wrong name but I accept the thank-yous, Elizabeth," he replied, and I didn't even felt the desire of kicking him in the shins for that stupid joke… Wait. He called me Elizabeth?!?

"How in the hell do you know my name?"

"We have a common friend, and we've never been properly introduced. Dave Call, nice to meet you."

"Dave… Bella's Dave? The werewolf?"

Ok. How could someone that should be in his early forties still look like he was twenty-five?

"What about we leave now and find Bella? I'm sure she will be thrilled to know her enemy at last."

I indicated the purple globe. "Break it and you're done."

"This one? And they left it in plain sight? How can someone be so stupid to…?"

I gave him an evil grin. "I'm very good at talking to people."

He took the globe in his hand and returned the smile. Thank God, he could touch it! Dave threw the globe on the floor, and the moment it shattered in a thousand pieces, freeing the light trapped in it, my chains fell off my body and dissolved before they could touch the ground.

"My hero."

"Anytime, darling. Let's go now!"

"Wait a second. Whatever that bitch did to me, in one of those books there must be something to undo it. I don't have much time!"

"More than Jacob and me, though. And if we don't stop her, I don't think your ghost status will matter anymore. Do you know where Jacob and the others are? There should be another two men here," he said, looking at the pavement… and I couldn't understand why. Apparently, he was expecting to find a trapdoor or something like that…

"Why are you doing this? They are behind the tapestry. The other room…"

Dave stopped his inspection and looked at me, completely surprised.

"What other room? There is no other room."

"You probably can't see it from outside," I commented, moving near the tapestry. "They're behind it. I've… I've heard them," I whispered. "We have to get them out of there."

I could see Dave's struggle. Enter or not enter? Not that I would've blamed him if he chose to go away. Whatever was behind that door, it probably belonged to a horror movie. Dave clutched the fabric and lifted it, and immediately we heard a scream coming from behind the door. Without thinking Dave opened the door and run inside. He shouted at me not to come inside…

Pity I was already behind him.

I was wrong, actually. What Claire did to those men in front of me didn't belong in a horror movie. Hell probably wasn't that different.

I wished I could run. I wished I could hide in a hole with my eyes shut and hands on my ears. I didn't want to see all that blood, I didn't want to hear their screams. But I already knew I would remember that for the rest of my life.

"Jacob," Dave whispered, and ran to help the one writhing in pain on the floor, also the one that screamed before we got in the room. So, that was Bella's father… at last we meet, I thought grimly. Bella told me many things about her past, but she didn't have any photograph to show me, God knew why…

I tried to help Dave with Jacob, but I couldn't touch him and Dave was invisible to them, like me. When I asked for an explanation, he pointed at the sachet around his neck and said that was all Bella's doing; he removed it only for a couple seconds, to explain Jacob and the other men what was going on. He put it back on immediately, and he began taking Claire's victims out of that place one at the time. And all I could do was watch. I was completely useless to him, and I hated that feeling with all I had. If only I knew how to appear directly to Bella, I could've alerted her immediately… instead I would've had to wait for Dave to take me to her. Damn it.

After a quick check, Jacob was the one in better shape. No severed hand like the guy named Paul, and the eyes were still at their place, unlike an older man Dave didn't feel the need to introduce.

"Ok, now what? They don't look in condition to get away from here running."

"What if they don't?" said Dave, with a weird look in his eyes. Oh no. Oh no, for God's sake, no.

"You kidding me? Bella gave you that thing for your protection! That crazy woman is out there looking for you right now, have you forgotten that?"

And I couldn't do it on my own. They couldn't see me or touch me, for crying out loud, how was I supposed to take them back to a place I had no idea of where it was?

"Jacob can lead them, he's getting better now that he's out of there. You, on the other hand, have someone to warn." He then turned to look at Jacob, helping the older, blind man and Paul, and told them to walk straight in front of them to get to the reservation. We watched them disappear in the woods. I would've made sure to send someone after them before the ghosts…

"Well, well, well," said Julie, appearing out of nowhere behind me. "Seems like I've underestimated you, Kalderash!"

"Warn Bella. Go!" Dave shouted to me, removing his talisman and becoming visible to Julie's eyes.

"NO!" I screamed in response, but Julie didn't even notice. She looked like a girl living the best day of her life…

And all of sudden, a thick fog engulfed me and a million hands dragged me away from there. I tried to fight them… but I wasn't strong enough. They were so many…

"Enough."

That single word was more than enough for the ghosts to let me go. I was shaking like a leaf; at that point I didn't care anymore if someone could see my fear.

"I told you to get her away from there, not to scare her to death!"

Okay. Now I was sure… I had lost it. Pretty much comprehensible. Grandma's death, Gabriel, my heart attack, they hit me at last. Because there was no way in hell I could've heard that voice. It simply couldn't be true. I refused to accept it even when I felt – exactly, felt – her hand on my shoulder.

"Everything's is going to be alright. Elizabeth… turn and look at me."

Honestly, I didn't have the courage. So she made me turn herself.

And I found myself staring at Sarah St. John.

My mother.

"Mom…"

She smiled at me, and a second later I was in her arms, laughing and crying at the same time. My mother. My mother was there, and she was hugging me like her life depended on it. In that moment, I didn't care about Bella, the reservation, the hovering menace represented by Claire and her madness. I was with my mother, and nothing else mattered.

"Lizzie, sweetheart…" she said, smiling again and stroking my hair. "I can't believe I can see you again."

"I can't believe you're here, Mom..."

"I've always been there, every single moment. Along with your father… and recently, your grandmother."

"Grandma? Is she here?"

"Of course. How could we leave you? But you have to listen carefully now. What's happening now…"

"We triggered it. Our people. The curse."

My mother looked surprised to hear that from me. Probably she had no idea of what grandmother Helena meant for 'bedtime stories', or perhaps she didn't think she would ever told me that… and in this moment I was so happy she did.

"Exactly. That's also the reason why we are all still here," said my mother, and told me to look around me. Some of the faces were awfully familiar… but come on…

"The… The ghosts… they're… family?"

"Yes, child," said a old woman in front of me. "A side-effect of the curse I cast on those… animals," she hissed through her teeth. "What I didn't realize was that the curse would create a link between us and them. We can't move on until the curse is broken, and the only way to break it is for our people and the Quileute to forget the past."

And why did I have the impression that easy task would fall on me?

"I don't know if I can do it."

"You're my great-grandchild, of course you can."

"They won't listen to me."

"That's why you have to bring Jonas and the others here."

Jonas? Pigs would fly before I saw Jonas Kotlyary swallow his pride and come here!

Jonas was Grandma Helena's brother, and with the rest of the family owned a carnival in Canada. When I had to run away from Chicago, he welcomed me with open arms and I lived amongst my Gypsy relatives for months, until I was sure it was safe for me to come back. Jonas was a reasonable man, most of the time, but he was also a fierce supporter of our traditions and never truly accepted Helena's decision to leave the nomadic lifestyle and raise her daughter outside the tribe.

Nice. Like I didn't have enough on my plate already!

"I will. I swear. I just hope I'll have my body back by then."

"You will. I trust Bella," said my mother, and I gave her a curious look.

"You never met her."

She just gave me one of her knowing smiles. "You must go now. It won't be the last time you'll see me, I promise. Your father and grandmother want to see you too. And… tell Bella I said hi, ok?"

Before I could tell her I had no idea of how that disappearing trick worked, she touched my shoulder again.

Without warning, in a heartbeat later I was back in my room at Bella's house.

Well, thanks mom. I will kill you later. I turned to face the bed, and I actually jumped backwards in shock. Good thing I didn't have a beating heart at the moment, otherwise I would be probably already experiencing another heart attack.

I was staring at my own cadaver.

Ok, I said to myself. Get a grip, girl. This is so not happening. You're just… temporarily out of there. Just on a little vacation. Bella will figure it out. And Edward will stop looking at you that way. Because Edward Cullen… looking at you with all that sadness in his eyes… that's just wrong.

I shouldn't even know that. I shouldn't even move behind him and put my hands on his shoulders, hoping he could feel me somehow… but I did.

How long had he been there with me? Since I lost consciousness?

Stop looking at me like this, Edward. Stop, please…

"Oh my god. You're here!"

My hands left Edward's shoulders like they were on fire and I got third-degree burns. Edward, still oblivious to my presence there, gave Bella, still by the door, a curious look.

"I haven't moved, Bella."

Then Bella gave him – us – one of her radiant smile. That was nice. If Bella was smiling, then everything wasn't going to hell. Yet.

"Not talking about you, brother. Or to you."

And I suddenly got my wish granted. Edward stopped looking at me with sadness and pain.

He smiled instead. A broad, relieved smile that lit up his face…

I cringed. God. Will I ever learn to be careful with what I wish for?

"Elizabeth!" exclaimed Bella. "Oh thank God, I was so worried. What happened to you?"

"Later, Bella. It's Claire! Claire Ateara is responsible for everything! And she has Dave now!"

"Whoa, slow down! Claire Ateara? And Dave has a talisman. He wouldn't be so stupid…"

"To take it off so that Jacob and the other could escape? Cause it's what he did!"

"God, no," said Bella, bringing one hand to her mouth. "My father… where are they now?"

"Still in the forest. Call your friends in the reservation, they will need help. Medical assistance too. Claire… did things to them. She's a monster."

"I'm calling Sam right now. Don't you dare move!" said Bella, running out the door.

"Not a chance," I whispered, sitting on the bed. Next to… well, me. I looked at Edward, and Edward looked at the other me on the bed.

"I'm glad you're back," he said. "You must hold on just a little longer. Bella will undo the spell and you'll go back to be your old self…"

I smiled. Well, that was sweet…

"…annoying, sarcastic, brash, rude and antisocial."

"Be glad I can't hit you, Cullen," I muttered under my teeth, but when I looked at him again… he was doing his best not to laugh. He was taunting me now that couldn't defend myself… how chivalrous of him!

"So you do have a sense of humor after all," I said to him, even if I knew he couldn't hear me.

"I bet you're probably thinking of a dozen ways to make me regret my last statement right now."

"Just a dozen? You so underestimate me!"

"And bitching at me like you always do."

"Go. To. Hell."

"And now you've probably wished me to go to hell."

Ok, that was borderline disturbing. When exactly did Edward go inside my head? He couldn't read my mind at the moment, and still he knew exactly how I would reply. Whatever that meant, though, I didn't want to think about it. Not now, anyway.

Cause the implications of that weren't definitely something I was ready to accept.

[Bella]

Nothing.

I kept calling Sam's house, but no one picked up the phone. Where the hell was he? I tried calling Embry and Kim, but no one was home either. I was this close to calling Leah when the phone rang.

"Bella, it's Grace."

"Grace, thank God. Listen, I know who's behind this and where the kidnapped men are."

"I know that too."

"What? Grace, what are you talking about?"

Grace tried to speak, but all I could hear was a choked sob.

"Grace, what's going on?"

"They're all at First Beach! The pack! They're going to drown! We tried to stop them but it's like we're not even there! And Dave is there too… and Jacob…" sobbed Grace. "We can do nothing, Bella, the ghosts won't allow us to do nothing! Help us, please! He…"

"Grace? Grace!" I shouted, but all I could hear was static. The phone line had been interrupted.

Oh my God.

Oh my God.

It was the only thing I could say. I… I couldn't do it. It was too much for me alone. Claire was probably still in the cabin, ready to launch her attack. Her ghosts were creating havoc in the reservation, terrorizing the human population. The pack was gathered on the cliff at First Beach, ready to jump to their deaths. That type of mind control couldn't be achieved without the blood of your victims… How did Claire get access to it? No, this plan wasn't something she came up with recently. She must have planned and nurtured her revenge for years, before coming back to the reservation. Waiting for the perfect day to strike…

Three fronts. I couldn't fight them all by myself…

Edward clearly heard me sobbing, because he was next to me the second after, along with Elizabeth. He hugged me tightly, and for a minute or two I just cried, or whatever was that stuff we vampires do. I was totally on the verge of a nervous breakdown… no better moment to become a sobbing wreck that the one just before the greatest battle of your life…

"I can't do it, Edward. Not this time…"

"Bella, please. Don't talk like that. We all trust you and your powers. The things Jasper told me about you…"

"I wish he was here. God, I miss him so much…"

"Bella, tell us what's happened. Maybe we can help," said Elizabeth. I gave her a weak smile.

"Unless you know where to find an army of ghost willing to fight for me, I don't think you can."

Ok. That was meant to be sarcastic. Why Elizabeth was smiling?

"Perfect. I'll go tell them. Those Quileutes ghosts will never know what hit them!"

"Elizabeth, what are you talking about?"

She disappeared before I could finish the sentence.

"Sounds like Elizabeth has already made some friends between the ghosts… but it won't be enough. I have to go to First Beach, Claire is ready to kill the entire pack…"

"But if we don't take care of Claire right now, she will just come back one day and start again."

Oh my. I knew that look.

"No, Edward. I can't ask you this."

"You didn't. I volunteer. Go and save your father. I'll take care of Claire."

"Claire is dangerous."

"But she's still human, is she?"

"Depends on your definition of human."

"Then I'm still more dangerous than her."

There was no way I would make him change his mind, I knew that. But the least I could do was to give him some advice.

"Claire clearly mastered the art of creating illusions. She will see you coming, and she will send your worst nightmares after you. You must keep in mind all the time that they are not real. If you start believing they are, they will become real… and you don't want that to happen. Trust my word."

Edward nodded, and a second later he was already gone.

I sighed.

I never fought an enemy I couldn't defeat, but this time I couldn't honestly tell if my friends and I would be the ones still standing at the end of this battle.