Quick little tiny authors note. The storm was bad, but we kept power (Thank fuck!) But I wanted to say thank you to those who were concerned! I would also like to mention that I have in fact succumbed to peer pressure. I got myself a twitter.

If you like Robert Pattinson, dirty things or just want to chat then you should definitely be following me. Same username as the one here. /Isisivy. Hope to see you guys over there. Enjoy this short chapter.

ii

Alice and I walked along the cold beach just off the cliff. It was scattered with rocks and the fog was rolling high, making it difficult to see very far. But we found smooth thin skipping rocks on the shore, throwing them onto the water before we made our way to the flat rock, sitting at the edge as the small frigid waves ran onto the sand.

It was our last night here in town and we all would go our separate ways tomorrow, The Cullens back to Forks, Alec to Deer Isle and Edward and I to Hilo. It seemed so far away from each other and I couldn't help but feel the deep pit in my stomach, pressing my lips together every time I thought of it.

"Is this different then in Hilo?" Alice smirked, bumping my shoulder mentioning the beach.

"Polar opposites." I laughed weakly. Her eyebrows furrowed, a small V created just between her eyes as she watched me.

"What's wrong with you?" She asked, wrapped her tiny arm around my shoulder. I shrugged and looked at her, moving closer as I played with my fingers in my lap.

"I'm just really going to miss you." I said honestly, looking up as I tried not to cry.

"Miss me?" Alice choked out a laugh. "Baby, we talk every single day!"

"It's not the same." I blanched. "You know it's not."

"I know. But at least you're going back to Hilo happily, right? It could be worse." She told me, eyebrow raised.

She was right. My first months with Edward were rocky at its best. He was different then, standoffish. I was in turmoil, wondering why he would take me from a place where I had found peace, just to not want anything to do with me. But it seems that with Edward there is more than meets the eye. He was different, he changed. We became something together.

"I remember you calling me nearly in tears every night." She laughed and I smirked, hitting her arm with my elbow.

"Can you blame me?" I scoffed.

"No." She smirked. "I'm glad your happy, now, Bella. If anyone deserves it… It's you."

"Thank you." I smiled, feeling her kiss my cheek sloppily as I laughed, wiping it off. We watched the waves for a moment as the wind picked up, prickling my cheeks. I had thought back to Edward and mine's conversation last night. About Carlisle and Esme, and it made me wonder. I looked to Alice who pointed to a boat just off the coast and I turned to look at it, just as it drove off.

"Alice can I ask you something?" I murmured, watching as she nodded her head, picking at the seashells she had laid on her lap. "Edward told me about Carlisle and Esme… About their story… And it made me think of you and Emmett. Of what you guys were doing before you were with Rosalie and Jasper." I said to her and she froze momentarily, looking up to me with sad eyes.

"It's not much of a story, Bella." She said.

"It's not?" I asked.

"I mean… It is. It's a… Hard thing to talk about. No one really asks me I just…" She stopped, a staggering breath quietly ripping through her.

"I'm sorry… I didn't… You don't have to say anything, Alice." I told her, shaking my head as I wrapped my arm around the back of her. We were quiet for some time. Alice wasn't crying, just silent as she watched the ocean. Her nose turned red from the cold as her hand gripped mine. She looked over to me with sad eyes, though they stayed dry, her lips pressing together as if she were contemplating her words.

"I was thirteen." She told me, looking down to my lap. "I was living in Florida with my dad and my sister. In this cute little house in the suburbs," She smiled, biting at her lip. "We had a little wiener dog named Pixie and she and I would always sleep in the tree house my dad made for me when I was little." It was then the tears swam around her eyes, never falling, for she was holding onto them tightly.

"A bunch of my friends wanted to go to the beach on the weekend. It was a bonfire for the end of the school year. I begged and begged and begged for my dad to let me go. He said no." She shrugged, looking away. "I snuck out that night, through my window. When I got to the beach with my friend Lauren the pit was still there… It was still on fire… But no one was there."

She paused, moving slightly on the rock as she looked back to me. Her face was pale, her hazel eyes glinting as she swallowed hard.

"We went down farther in the beach… There was blood on the sand… And I remember seeing the bodies… I remember seeing them, in a pile. Like they were animals. Just piled and piled on each other." She choked, shaking her head. "We tried to run… I was crying but they got Lauren before I even had a chance to save her. It wasn't long after that that they got me too. We were both taken to Italy after that. I never saw my dad or my sister again."

"Alice…"

"They usually don't kill," She interrupted me, looking away. "But they were scouting for donors. And they picked a girl up at that bonfire. Someone saw them and they all started screaming. That's why they died. Because there can't be any witnesses. People were calling it a massacre but it was so much worse than that." She sniffed as I watching her rub her cheeks, the tears finally falling. "I was locked up in Italy for five months. I went crazy, Bella… Stuck behind those bars… I pulled my own hair out." She shuddered at the memory, turning back to me. "Vampires came down everyday. Picking and choosing from everyone behind the bars. Like we were on display… Like some sick twisted pet shop." She cried.

"A little later Jasper showed up. I was the last one he saw. And he knew immediately. And maybe I did too. Of course I was scared… But when I saw him… The way he kissed my hand when they unlocked the gates… He promised he would take care of me. And from then on… I was happy again." She smiled weakly as she finally looked into my eyes. I was silent, her story feeling like it had stabbed me in the chest.

How could anyone be so cruel? Taking children from their homes…

"Emmett is a different story… He was born in Italy but his parents gave him up." She said to me.

"Gave him up?" I asked. "Like to an orphanage?"

"No, Bella. They gave him up. To Aro. For money." She said, drawing invisible shapes on the rocks underneath us.

"People do that?" I asked, bewildered.

"All the time. They give their children to Aro in exchange of whatever they want. The children grow up his castle until they are of age to be with a master. Emmett was there until he was fifteen until Rosalie found him. Around the same time Jasper found me." She said, looking up to me. "Our stories… They are unfortunate. But I wouldn't trade it. I miss my family, but I love Jasper." She told me. "Would you trade your old life for Edward? Before Alec?" She asked me sincerely but I only shrugged my shoulders.

"I don't remember my life before Alec." I told her honestly.

"Nothing?" She asked, surprised.

"I remember my mother, just bits and pieces. Like the way she looked. Her blue eyes… But that's all. Alec found me when I was six. My mother was dead." I told her but Alice looked dubious.

"And Aro let Alec keep you?" She asked.

"I suppose so." I told her.

"That's…Odd." She thought to herself for a moment and then finally had hopped up from the rock, very Alice-like with a sincere grin on her lips. "Let's forget about this. Forget about what I said to you. It's our last night here and we ought to have fun!"

I knew she was hiding something. Something that maybe Edward had hid from me last night. I could see it in her eyes, see it in the way she tried to divert the subject. Maybe to protect me, to protect my feelings. I ignored it, knowing that it was our last night here in Ireland and who knew when it would be until I could see her again. So instead of pestering, like I would normally do, I stood up and grabbed her hand the two of us walking off the beach and back to the house.

They say ignorance is bliss.

But I wasn't so sure anymore.