A/N: This chapter, unfortunately, is also a little slow as well, but to make up for that i made it almost 1,000 words longer. Next chapter will be better though. I promise. And read the note at the bottom too please.

Enjoy as much as this one allows :)

~~~February 1999. Bella is 11~~~

Looking back on the months since October, I can see every little mistake I made.

Every glint in somebody's eye I overlooked.

Every misstep.

Every time I gave out too much information.

If my life hadn't been hanging in the balance because of it, you could call it an educational experience.

But I didn't know if I was going to last long enough to be able to live because of my mistakes much less learn from them.

I knew which one was my biggest mistake though.

That was easy.

I had overlooked a glint in a nurse's eye. I had thought it was the sun.

Biggest. Mistake. Of. My. Life.

Here's what happened to get me to where I was:

It was back at the beginning of January and school had just got back in from Christmas break or winter break. Whatever you want to call it.

Same thing, different name.

I had yet to find a good friend in this dreary little town and for once I was glad of being alone.

Glad that I had moved away from Angela. Tasha would never have kept her alive.

Sure, I had people I hung around with, but they were easily recognizable as the snooty type.

Meaning, they only hung around me because I was slightly popular and had the best fashion sense in school.

Even though I was in 6th grade.

I had a suspicion, that one of the girls here had a cousin back in Starr and had spread the stories of how the friends around me always got hurt so everyone kept their distance.

Except the people that wanted discounts in my shop.

I called it mine but I knew it was really Aaron's.

We hadn't said anything about it, but we both knew that when we saw Tasha for the first time, she had been wearing some of eternal's clothing.

We laughed about it afterwards.

"So, Bella," Eden said. "Do you think you'll come to the party?"

I looked up at her in confusion.

"What party, Eden?"

She laughed and shook her head. "I forget you never hear anything. There's a party at Courtney's place. It's gonna be a blast."

I smiled at her-it was fake. "I'll see what I can do. But I don't know what mom has planned for tonight."

Courtney looked at me. "Your mom or your pedophile boyfriend?"

I shot her a look. "First off he's so not my boyfriend which takes him off the pedophile list. Second, I don't go over to his house every day."

"Just every other day, right?"

The others laughed while I concentrated on not burning her to bits.

"Courtney?" I asked sweetly.

She turned to me. "Consider yourself off the discount list."

She gaped at me. "But-but…Bella!"

"No. Shoo. Go away."

She stalked off and the rest watched her go in amusement.

See, all of the ones that sat with me were from different popularity crowds so the less competition the better.

"Say, isn't Eternal just a walk away from her place?" Eden asked innocently.

Not.

"Yes, but I'm not going to be there tonight."

"But if you come to the party-"

"No, Eden. I'm not getting discounts for the entire popular crowd." I snapped as I turned back to my food.

I missed the glint Alina's eyes as I watched Eden sulk.

I went to the party that night.

Totally not my choice. Courtney's mom had called mine and mom had forced me to go.

Why?

"You really don't have any friends here, Bella," she had said as I had sulked at the table. "So, when there is a party, you really need to go."

Didn't mean I had to like it. Or have fun.

So I went and stood in a corner.

I didn't realize a plan was there until it had already been set in motion.

Courtney's house was really an apartment and was up on the second story.

It was a Friday night and I had never been to a party before so I really didn't know what to except. I wore some cute jeans and an awesome tee.

Eden opened the door and ushered me in and announced I was here.

I was the fashion diva of the party.

It wasn't until later that night I realized something was wrong.

Alina wasn't there-that wasn't unusual.

But neither was Courtney.

When I spotted them they were together, but Alina was looking at Courtney wide-eyed and trying to get away unnoticed.

I looked around at everyone-really looking them and noticed that their eyes were all slightly tipsy.

She had spiked the punch. (A/N: I know they're young, but go with it)

Holy Crap.

But when Courtney looked at me, I realized it wasn't Courtney at all.

It was Tasha.

"Get her!" She screamed pointing at me.

And since they were all drunk, they complied.

I tried to fight back, but even an elemental can't fight a crowd of drunken teenage human girls.

Well, without hurting them anyways.

I didn't realize until too late that they had pushed me to a window and with one final push I was falling.

Unfortunately, there were people around and I had let myself fall.

I hit the ground, cried out in pain, and fell into unconsciousness as the screaming started.

I woke up the next day in a hospital bed.

I was woozy though.

But not because I had fallen a couple stories.

There was a certain medicine than I had nicknamed 'Penni' that my body couldn't deal with.

I wasn't allergic but I lost all control of my body and most of my reactions. If given too much, I lost consciousness.

Too much more, and I was dead.

The doctor came in and stopped the nurse that I hadn't realized was there.

"What are you doing? She can't have that!"

She looked up from her injection, startled. We locked eyes and I swear something passed through her eyes but I passed it off as the sun.

"It's not in her paperwork."

"Well, she has bad reactions to it and can hardly move."

There was a pause while my surroundings continued to blur.

"Hey!" The doctor yelled. "What are you doing? She'll-"

My eyes rolled back.

The nurse was fired with no memory as to why she suddenly didn't have a job.

Of course, I didn't find that out until later after I had been released.

As it was, I didn't wake up in the hospital.

I didn't wake up in my house or Aaron's.

But I wasn't confused as to where I was.

Well, more of what I was in for I guess would be more appropriate.

I didn't know where I was, but the room set up and the objects around the room were all very familiar by now.

I was in a torture room.

Tasha hadn't been kidding when she said it would be war.

I think she was more put out with the fact that she didn't get me than the fact that she didn't truly like me.

If I decided to switch sides, we would probably be great friends.

I wished for Jane and her burning gift and Demetri and his tracking ability.

But they would never come.

I knew they wouldn't. How would they even know that I was in danger?

A couple hours after I woke up, Tasha threw the doors to my 'cell' open and sauntered over to me with another girl right behind her.

I stared back at her with no emotion on my face.

"Well," she said haughtily. "Looks like you haven't quite learned my trick yet. Very good to know. I don't usually do this, but since I have been looking for you for quite some time, I'll give you another chance.

Switch sides. Right here and right now. You do that no one will be hurt. Especially yourself."

She stared at me, waiting for an answer that would please her.

I lifted my chin a fraction and starred defiantly into her eyes.

Tasha laughed and shook her head. "Let the games begin officially then."

She turned and left the room leaving me with the blonde haired girl.

"Hello, Bella." She said as if she were polite.

"My name is Abigail and you'll be my servant today."

I was still hazy from the constant amount of Penni they kept in my system.

I didn't see the punch before it made contact with my stomach.

Had I been able to, I would have doubled over. I was in my now accustomed standard position when being tortured.

Chained to a metal rack not being able to move barley at all.

Let the games begin indeed.

I think it had been a week. I got weaker by the day.

And everyday, at around the same time, I'd get my daily dose of Penni.

I had tried to get a grip on my wind sense-to try to have something that could help me escape- but it just kept slipping through my fingers.

I kept trying everyday right before and right after they gave me my shot, and each time I had the exact same result.

Failure.

I had bruises on just about every part of my body and cuts in several places as well.

I often wished for unconsciousness just to get away from the pain of the daily beatings.

They had had to chain my arms up because I just drooped and slumped over after a while.

So now, most of the time I starred out into the distance while I hung from the chains that held me up.

The days were starting to blur together.

The only way I could distinguish one day from another was that one day started whenever Abigail came in.

The beatings were harder now.

The Penni combined with my weakened state left me a jumbled mess.

They didn't bother chaining me up anymore. It's not like I could have gone anywhere even if I had tried.

I didn't try though. I was smart enough to realize that if I tried to escape, it would just make them mad and the beating would come harder.

I fell into unconsciousness as I watched the metal rod come down.

So, here I was, hanging on by a thread.

I didn't bother trying to move anymore.

Every position sent shockwaves through my body.

I would just stare at whichever wall or ceiling was in my line of sight.

Think about each and every mistake I had made.

Abigail didn't come in as much any more.

Yesterday, all she did was roll me around and that was enough.

I don't know how I was alive. My breathing was labored and I had lost a lot of blood.

I was about to give up when I heard a sound that sounded foreign but vaguely familiar.

Screams started and so did the growls and roars.

Moments later, the door flew open and werewolf stood at the entrance.

If I concentrated behind him, I could make out Aly, Alex, Scott, and some members of my 'family' behind him.

The wolf jogged over to me while I watched blankly.

My mind wasn't processed enough to realize he had phased back into a human-with clothes on. I don't understand how they just came in and out-until he had picked me up in his arms.

"Bella? Can you here me?" he asked urgently.

I tried to focus on his eyes but I lacked the energy to do anything but stay in whatever position I was put in.

"We'll get you home. Just hang on."

I was transferred to a different set of arms.

"Aaron." I murmured before I slip on into darkness.

It was a long recovery but eventually I was released from the hospital.

I had been found at the beginning of February and was released from the hospital at the end of May.

My peace was short lived though.

Through most of my stay at the hospital, I had been on sleeping medication causing me to go into a deep sleep.

Now that I was home, I wasn't using them anymore.

We thought that would have been great.

Then the nightmares started.

My scream echoed off the walls in my room and mom and Phil came rushing in.

I instinctively shied away from them.

All I saw was her face.

Not Tasha's. Abigail's.

Eventually I cried myself to sleep again.

The doctors declared me normal and healthy and said I was fine to do physical activity and all that.

I immediately threw myself into training.

I would not be weak again.

Aaron and the others didn't like it, but they didn't try to stop me.

I stopped talking to people at school.

The nightmares continued.

I enrolled in martial arts in July.

I became stronger and more skilled and it showed in the training sessions I had.

Aaron stayed over at the house now. He was the only one that could calm me down after the nightmares. Him and Jay.

OH, yeah. Forgot to tell you about them didn't I?

The wolves.

The wolf leaders.

Scott had made a call to Jay and when they found out I was human they had come running to help.

Jay was the leader and their pack functioned much like the elemental group.

Two boys, two girls.

One unofficial leader and everyone is respected.

The boys were always shirtless and the girls were usually in short shorts and tank tops.

Apparently, werewolves could chose to start aging again-cause they stopped once they start phasing on a regular basis-by stopping phasing into a wolf.

The four wolf leaders didn't have that option, but most of them didn't mind.

Except the fourth wolf. He was the 2nd male and hated me and everything I stood for.

He hadn't come when Scott had called for help.

I got along well with the others, especially Jay. We were best friends- almost brother/sister like- but that was all he would ever be. I would love Aaron in that way before I loved Jay like that.

His wife was actually also in the leader group. Her name was Julia.

Jay and Julia had darker skin-life Toffee colored while the other two were white which they said was unusual to find because all wolves had some soft of Indian decent in them.

The other elementals and wolves were slowly becoming friends under my watchful eye.

At first, they were just being polite, but they slowly came to enjoy each other's company, even joking about each other's smell-which I still had no idea what that was about-and playing around.

Except the fourth wolf.

I hadn't bothered to learn his name because he hadn't been bothered to help save my life.

And it's not like he was around.

Julia had snagged up a crest from one of the vampires that she had killed and explained that it was the crest that only Tasha's inner circle wore. They usually also had it embedded somewhere on their skin as well.

The crest was hard to explain, but I'll give it a shot.

It was almost like dancing partners but you couldn't distinguish the genders. They were facing towards each other and their limbs were intertwined. From their feet to their hips looked liked one. After that, it slip into two with one hand wrapped around the other's waist and their other arm thrown out creating a 'v' shape above their heads.

The background surrounding them was dark, but bright, ocean blue.

It was the sure sign that someone was working for Tasha.

Tasha blackmailed and threatened, but the ones who wore the crest worked for her of their own free will.

Life was beginning to look back up.

Mom and Phil decided to move again which I didn't mind in the least.

We were moving to Falcon Heights, Minnesota. I doubted it would last long. Mom hates the cold.

Aaron came with us again.

But we both knew, that it would be the last time he could while I still lived with mom.

He was 20 and trying to pass for 24. Too much longer and it wouldn't work.

So we would enjoy this last year together.

Starting with my 12th birthday.

He reserved a laser quest and invited his siblings, the wolves, and the elements.

He turned the Cameras off so we could move at our normal speed and it was a blast.

And then we moved to Minnesota and I had to start the whole thing over again.

A/N: Crappy ending, i know. I don't have pictures for the wolves yet, but i'll try to find someone. Just imagine for now :)

So, the reviews have seriously deflated. I know these last couple chapters have been slow but I promise the next one will have more action. Just give them some time cause I'm getting to the main drama issue in the story that needs to be presented right so I don't loose all of you guys. I'm actually gonna get them beta'd. Please be patient.

Thanks to Ruskie Roo, NotSoSlightlyCrazy, Wingless Angel, Canis Lupus lover, crimson-goth-girl, and Alice Vampire for reviewing!

If the review button does not work, please try refreshing the page or send me a PM. I love hearing ideas instead of an 'it sucked' or 'it was okay.'