As soon as I got off of school grounds, I was free. Elijah let me borrow his truck, so I was gone.

But what do to? I was in the past, in the wettest, most boring town in the US. Elijah, Bella, and Edward were all in school, and I had no one else to really be with. Not to mention the fact I was still confused as to the fact that I was here, and I still needed to find a way home. I bit my lip as I touched the pocket watch, a circle-ish lump in my pocket. It was all I had that reminded me this wasn't some long, bizarre dream, that kept my sanity in this hell.

The truck drove itself, I didn't really guide it; it tooled down the street and took some turns, until I found myself in the heart of Forks. Wet, with scarcely any people out. The dreariest, most anti-social place on the planet, I bet.

As I glanced out the window, the rain dripping down the glass like liquid diamonds, something caught my eye: a chipped sign reading "Paula's Antiques". I swerved the truck, and pulled into the parking-lot, causing some annoyed honks to bleat all around me (Geez, these Forks people are pretty high-strung).

I shut the car off and got out, half running, half slipping across the soaked pavement as I neared the store. Strung in lines on both sides of the single street, the antique shop was small, shabby, and squeezed in between some place called "Keepsakes" and another titled "Gay Panda Fireworks" (no comment).

I came to a stop in front of the antique shop. I knew it wasn't the same as the one back home... but it was the same kinda store. Maybe I could find an answer here. Taking a deep breath, I shoved the door aside, and a tiny bell tinkled as it shut behind me.

Inside, it was empty, and some creaky violin music played on the radio stuffed in the back. I glanced around, wiping the rain on my hands on my jeans. It was cluttered and messy, but less dusty and unloved-looking than the one back home. I narrowed my eyes, uncertainly stepping towards a shelf of figurines who once had an owner, someone who cherished them. I sadly wondered how the doll-faced girls and red-lipped boys ended up here. Like me.

"Hello, dear."

I turned, heart nearly faulting, as I saw the face that was attached to that voice. I gasped, putting a hand to my chest. It was the owner of the store, a kind-looking old lady. She looked confused by my reaction to her.

"Did I scare you?"

"N- no," I stammered. "I mean, your voice, your face-"

"Are you saying my face scared you?"

I sighed, pointing to her, then me, then turning. "Yeah, it terrified me," I said sardonically, looking around with dead hope. What as I doing here? There was nothing in this old shop for me. If
I wanted answers, I had to look elsewhere.

There came a faint tap suddenly, and I glanced up. There, smiling at me from outside the store window, was a man with gray eyes and thinning white hair. When my eyes met his, his smile widened, and his eyes gleamed.

My heart did stop for a beat, and my eyes widened. It was him! The bastard who tricked me here!

"I gotta go," I said hastily, leaving the thunderstruck owner to stare after me, confused.

The door very nearly was crushed under my strength as I strode out, shoving it aside, and slamming it after me. I half expected the old man to run away (the sight of a furious vampire chick striding after him should have been enough to make his old heart faint) but he simply stood there, smiling pleasantly at me, as I came to a stop inches from his face.

"Get me home," I snarled softly, not even bothering with a curt hello.

He chuckled. "I'm sorry, dear. I can't do that."

I shuddered, my anger washing over me. It was taking every bit of strength I had not to grip this guy around the neck and throttle him. It would have delighted me to do just that, but I knew
I needed him alive. He was my key back to my home. "Who are you?" I hissed, eyes flashing.

He gazed at me. "You know who I am, Renesmee."

I clenched and unclenched my fists. "No. I. Don't."

"Are you enjoying the past, love?"

"No I am not," I told him flatly, baring my teeth. "In fact, it sucks balls. But you'd know all about that, wouldn't you?"

He looked amused. "I assure you I'm not gay, dear."

I stared at him, shocked. Why was he acting so freaking calm? It infuriated me. Slowly, I took a step towards him, putting my face close to his. "That's so beside the point, I should punch you right now."

"Why don't you?" he inquired, looking genuinely puzzled.

I shuddered. "Because it's not nice to bully people."

He laughed.

I stared at him. Wow.

"Why did you do this to me?" I breathed. "Is Elijah my- my mentor, or something? Please. I need answers. I want to go home."

His amused expression turned serious. "You're here because you need to be. It's not my fault; you're an idiot for picking up that watch in the first place, Renesmee."

I couldn't believe he just called me that to my face. Not even caring if someone saw and accused me of murder, I let my anger go, and reached up, ready to connect my fist with that old bastard's wrinkly jaw.

To my shock, my fist went flying through thin air as suddenly, he disappeared.

I took a step back, nearly falling over from the shock.

"What the hell!" I gasped, looking around frantically. What had just happened? He was there, and then just... gone. That. Was. Impossible.

I stood there for a good two minutes. Finally I shook myself awake, and with a final look around, I vanished. I was at the car in a heart-beat, and was driving away. I had no idea what had just happened.

The rest of the day passed in a whirl. I drove around, trying to think, trying to understand, but getting nowhere.

At three o' clock, I made my way back to Forks High School, where I waited in the parking-lot to pick up Elijah. He'd wanted to skip the day, too, and spend it with me, but I'd almost literally twisted his arm to make him go. The last thing I wanted was a whole day, stuck with him (and just for the record, I was still mad at him for the whole sleeping-in-the-same-bed-as-me thing).

As I watched the flow of high-schoolers make their way out of their prison and into the wet, depressing freedom of Forks, I saw Bella, too. I blinked, suddenly remembering this morning, when I told her to try and talk to Edward today. It had been an effort to get them to talk, because, other than the whole stupid time-travel problem, I was also apparently dealing with the issue of my parents never falling in love (because of yours truly). I wondered how it went, and quickly slipped out of the truck, slamming the door and making my way over to her.

"Hey. Bella!" I called, cheerful. Apparently he hadn't eaten her, so that was a good sign.

The mousy girl looked up, and her eyes widened when she saw me. I inwardly chuckled when I saw the indecision in her eyes; clearly, she was considering walking away and acting like she hadn't heard me. While she inwardly debated, I quickly made my way to her side.

"Hey, there," I forced a smile, clapping her on the shoulder. I blinked, realizing that had probably been a really stupid move, as she went down from the clap. Inwardly sighing (I was so unused to this weak, pre-vampire Bella), I bent down to inspect the second victim of my strength that day.

"I'm sorry, I didn't mean to, ah, hurt you," I said with a friendly smile. She struggled to sit up; I'm pretty sure she hates me by now.

"Oh, no... it's cool," she said, groaning slightly as she rubbed her shoulder-blade, which I prayed wasn't fractured or something. "How are you doing?"

I almost laughed at her; my mom. So formal. She's never said 'wazzup' in her entire life. "I'm good, perfect. What about you? Did you talk to Edward today?" I offered her a hand and pulled her up.

"Uhm..." I'm sure I was freaking her out; after all, she'd only known me for a day, and I'd taken a sudden, apparently random interest in her. She probably figured I was a lesbo, and totally into her. Yuck. "Well, yeah. I mean, I sat next to him... in Bio, like you said."

I nodded eagerly. "And... what did you talk about?"

She frowned at me. Yup, she hates me. "About... anaphase, and prophase..."

I sighed, annoyed. "Bella, you talked to him about germs and whatever?"

Bella looked at me. "Uh, yeah."

"God... don't you have any social skills at all?" I growled, rubbing my eyes. "How am I gonna get you two together?"

She was suddenly glaring at me, and I blinked, wondering what was up. "What's it to you? I- I don't even know you, Abigail. Why do you care about me and Edward Cullen?"

Crap. She'd used his full name. It meant that, to her, he was just that: a fancy name. Not a friend, definitely not a lover. Just a name from school.

There came a honk from behind me, and I turned. Elijah was practically sitting on the horn to his car. Clearly, he was ready to go, and as he grinned at me, I made a mental note to punch him later for ruining this conversation with Bella. I swung back around, knowing I'd just have to deal with this mess tomorrow.

"I gotta go, Bella." I began loping away, and after a second thought, I paused and tossed over my shoulder, "And just for your information, it means everything to me."

"You saw the old man?"

It was an hour later; I was laying on Elijah's couch, and he was crouched on the floor, some of his left-over pizza from dinner growing cold just inches from his hand. He stared at me, eyes wide. I'd just got done telling him the story of seeing the antique shop dude.

"Yes. And I honestly hate him now. He didn't tell me anything."

"Well, what did you expect, Nessie?" he crowed, hitting his fist against the floor with frustration. "He's not gonna spill his guts to you."

"But he should. I'm a freaking vampire, I could spill his guts for him at any second," I growled.

Elijah put his face in his hands, and it occurred me as to how exhausted my friend was. He was under a lot of pressure; all the drama of this time-traveling stuff, then suddenly meeting me and having to cover for me, and now this mystery. As annoying and laid-back as he seemed, I couldn't forget that there was a lot more going on with him than I thought.

"And how'd he just vanish like that? It's not possible."

He rolled his gray eyes. "Dude, he's a time-traveler, and you're a vampire chick. I think anything's possible right now."

I sighed, biting my lip. "What are we going to do?" I murmured. "I... I don't like it here, Elijah. I want to go home."

Elijah looked at me, playfulness gone. Slowly, he stood up, and sat down by me on the couch. It was almost cute, how serious he suddenly looked. "I don't know what's going on, Nessie... but you're my mission now. I have to help you, and I promise I will."

I gazed at him, not sure how to reply. Luckily, the moment was broken by the rattling of keys in the lock of the front-door, which was just inches away from the couch. The red door was shoved open, and kicked aside as a girl with gray eyes and long, pretty blond hair stepped in, arms balancing groceries, some bags from the mall, and her purse. When she saw me, her gray eyes widened.

"Oh! It's the unconscious girlfriend!" she exclaimed.

Ah. That must be Michelle, Elijah's older sister. He glared at her. "She's not my girlfriend, smart one. And she's got name, you know."

Michelle just laughed, shutting the door and dropping all her bags. "I know... Renesmee, right? Wow." She blinked at me. "You're, like, really pretty."

I blinked. Elijah made a face. "Oh, well, thanks," I said with an uncertain smile.

She laughed. "Welcome. So, like, are you living with us now? I mean... I haven't seen you around town before." She narrowed her eyes. "Are you related to the Cullens?"

Elijah sighed, and I frantically looked at him. Too many questions.

"Michelle... I'll explain everything later," he said in a low voice. "Just... go."

She blinked at him, then smiled at me. "Alright, I'll hold you to that. Don't you two go doing anything crazy." With that, she grabbed her bags, and began strolling out of the room, probably to her bedroom. "If you do, I've got condoms in my bathroom!" she called over her shoulder as she disappeared.

I was surprised to feel my cheeks get hot as a blush crept over me. Elijah glowered in the spot his sister had disappeared, then turned to me, and his eyes softened as he laughed. "Aw.
Look at the little vampire. She's blushing."

I threw a pillow at him. "Shut up, human," I growled. When it got quiet, I lowered my voice and murmured, "Does she know?"

"About the time-travel thing?" Elijah smiled slightly. "Yeah. She knows almost everything. Don't worry, she won't tell anyone."

I bit my lip. "What about my..." I made a face.

"Biting problem?" he guessed, chuckling. "No, I haven't told her that. That's... a bit too much to believe. She's a little shallow anyways," he added, sighing.

I nodded slowly, getting up. "Alright. Look, I want some time alone. I've got to think, and I'm gonna mess with this watch a bit. But there's one thing."

"Yeah?" he asked as he grabbed his plate and stood up with me.

"I'm not sleeping in the same room as you," I told him fiercely. "So present me another option, and it better not be the couch."

He smirked. "Don't worry, we've got a guest bedroom. But my bed's always open to you," he snickered. I growled as he laughed, and disappeared into the kitchen. He appeared seconds later, and motioned for me to follow him.

We walked down a dark hallway, and entered a small, plain room. He switched on the lights. "Vuela."

I sighed. The room was little and depressing, just like the rest of Forks. "Thanks," I said artlessly.

He left, and then reappeared minutes later with some sheets and blankets. "I figured you might sleep, so you'll want this stuff," he informed me as he walked in, and dumped the load on my bed. I followed him, and watched as he began smoothing out the blankets for me. I thought back to last night, when we talked briefly. And he'd mentioned his parents.

"Elijah."

The boy didn't look up at me as he answered, busy fixing the bed. "Yup?"

I hesitated, crossing my arms, then decided to go ahead and ask. "How- how did your parents die?"

Elijah stopped, and I flinched, realizing I probably shouldn't have brought it up. He then shook his head, and finished up with the bed. As he took a step back, he looked at me, and it hurt in my chest to see the amount of bitterness in his gray eyes.

"They told me that some animal killed them," he said quietly.

I stared at him, realization slowly crashing over me. I couldn't form the words to answer. It hurt too much; they got tangled somewhere in my throat and couldn't come out. Silently, he brushed past me, and I was alone.

Hello, all. A reader brought up a question, angelina100, if Alice could see Nessie coming, and I figured I'll go ahead and answer publically (: Because the future can always change, Alice has no idea who Nessie really is. Nessie had no intentions of coming into the past until she was tricked, and therefore, no one but the old man could have seen it coming.

So thanks for reading, and you know the drill. What do you guys think about the old man? And... poor Elijah. His parents killed by some animal? Hmm.

And if you guys haven't listened to the "New Moon" Soundtrack, you better go over to YouTube right now and listen, there are some amazing songs. And speaking of that... who else is going to a midnight premiere of "Eclipse" tonight? I cant wait for it! Only seven more hours...!