Thanks for the reviews everyone! I also appreciate the constructive criticism. I am trying to keep grammar mistakes to a minimum and be sure to check my work before I upload. I'll keep reviewing and looking for more errors. :)

Arttastic- I wanted to make sure that you realized, Bella is NOT a vampire. She just stopped aging. She is back in Forks to find out why.

Reeka- I like the way you think ;) I know I haven't really dealt with the Cullens. Perhaps they will come back around later...

I awoke to sunlight streaming into my eyes. As I lay on the couch I somewhat stiffly tried to move my legs. "Wally, move!" I said as I pushed my 65 pound mutt off. He landed with a thud then lay back down again. Apparently he wasn't much a morning dog. In reality he wasn't much of an awake dog. I lay there for a few moments just thinking. It had been three days. Three days since I saw the large russet colored animal in the forest. I had gone back and forth to a maddening degree. Maybe it was my Jacob. Maybe not. How could it be? The lingering question remained. If it was him, why would he run? He would be able to tell I wasn't a vampire by my smell. Of course there would be the question of why I was still young and alive. I shifted and looked around Jacob's old house. Even though I had been fixing it up to live in it, and I had bought it from the county, it still didn't feel my own. I felt like I was invading someone else's space. I was going through someone else's belongings, and trying to live someone else's life. A life I could have had, had I made a different choice; perhaps the right choice.

When the plumber had come two days ago to get water running again to the house, he asked why I chose this one. It was one of a few that remained standing on the old and run down reservation. I couldn't tell him the truth of course, but it made me wonder what the truth really was. Why did I decide to stay here? What possessed me so much that it almost felt impossible to leave now that I had returned?

I shuffled to the kitchen to feed Wally and stared down the hall at the closed bedroom door. The only room in this house I hadn't made livable was Jacob's. It seemed too much to invade his space. I felt too many emotions upon entering his room- too much loneliness and regret. I am much too fragile to conquer that task today. I went down the hall and showered, trying to decide what to fill my days with. Finally I decided to go for a hike. Perhaps to the meadow that Edward and I had made our own years ago.

Packing a small amount of food for myself, I laced up my boots and headed out to that familiar location. It had been a long time since Edward and I had been there. Occasionally we would travel away from which ever city we had settled down in to visit one of our favorite spots. Wally was a good dog and followed close by as I made my way up the mountain. I inhaled the wonderful pine and marveled at the trees that stretched so high into the heavens. Birds were calling to one another and even despite the mist it felt almost warm for Forks. The sun was shining in the meadow and flowers were blooming. It looked just as I remembered it. I sat down in the sun and closed my eyes just listening to the sounds of the forest.

Suddenly, my dream was upon me again. The hissing, the howls, and the smells were all the same but I was frozen in place. I had the desire to run, but I couldn't get my body to react. I looked at my hands covered again in mud and pine as confusion and darkness consumed me. I shot up suddenly to awake and realize it was only a dream. I tried to catch my breath as I looked around the meadow. It was hard for me to figure out what time it was, but the sun was setting behind the trees. I must have fallen asleep. Wally looked at me with both confusion and annoyance on his face. He had been asleep right next to me. That's when I realized that he wasn't looking at me exactly. It appeared as though he was looking behind me. I nervously glanced around my shoulder, but I didn't see anything.

"Wally, we should be going" I said to him as I stood up and brushed off. I looked around for the lunch that I had packed. "Now where did I put that…?" I trailed off after noticing a very guilty look on my dog's face. "So, I guess you got hungry" I said to him. Oh well, I thought. It won't take too long to get back down the mountain. I started off in the direction I came still listening to the birds and chattering squirrels. Wally all the while stayed right by my side.

Suddenly I heard a twig snap in the distance. I looked to my right and stared off into the woods. My heart rate started escalating. I couldn't see anything that would have made a noise. I picked up my pace and hurried back. I continually looked over my shoulder and tried quickly as I could to get down the mountain. It seemed the way down was taking much longer than the way up.

As I tried to calm my panic, my foot caught a root stretching from a nearby tree. I fell down to the ground with a thud scratching my hand on a nearby log. I grimaced from the pain as I examined the wound, at that same time I noticed that the birds had stopped making their end of day noises. The woods fell to an eerie silence and all I could hear was my own breathing and my heart pounding in my ears.