A RATHER VITALLY IMPORTANT A/N:

So you may feel that this chapter looks a tad familiar. That's because it is. This is last chapter, but now it's this chapter, because I'd accidentally deleted a quite important chapter somewhere in the process of my Major Overhaul Renovation Works. That's right, folks, I've rewritten almost half of this. So if you haven't already, as of the fourteenth of October, go back and read again. There's new bits in every chapter. Mostly little bits of EPOV, but they're important.

He takes my hand, like he always does, and leads me down to the beach.
The silence rings in the air, louder than any noise we could have made.
I feel uncomfortable as it begins to rain, just a fine spray of droplets falling from the sky.

It's never like this around Jake.

We go to the old bleached white tree, its limbs protruding from the earth like broken bones.
He sits opposite me, eyes never leaving my face, and takes a deep breath.

"Bella," he says, "You- um, you know about the spring dance, right?"

I stare at him.

"Y'know, at Forks High?"

Realisation dawns. It churns up old memories I'd rather forget, of turning down Mike and Eric and Tyler, just in the hope I could go with Him. It's funny how much can change in a year.

"What about it, Jake?"

He fidgets under my gaze, looking down at his hands.

"This-girl-I-know-asked-me-to-it-but-I-want-to-go-with-you!" he blurts out, all in a single breath.

The shock came first.
Jake was still a boy. Sure, his genes had given him the body of a man, but inside I knew he was only sixteen, innocent and untainted.

He should go with this girl of his, some pretty blonde thing with enough courage to ask him. But then-
I don't know what I was feeling, but as I thought of Jake, my Jake, dancing in the festooned gym at Forks High, that pretty blonde thing in his arms, the makings of a beast stirred in my heart, angry, green and evil.

I was jealous.

The thought repulsed me as much as it entranced me, that Jake, my almost-brother best-friend Jake, wanted me.
Wanted me as more than his almost-sister best-friend.

I looked at Jake again, with fresh eyes, this time noticing the strong line of his jaw, his beautiful dark eyes and shirtless chest.

I was torn.

Jake, innocent Jake, should go with the pretty girl, someone in his year at school who would smile and flirt and whisper dirty things in his ear. But at the same time, the selfish feelings of want coursed through me, and I wanted Jake for my own, and nobody else's.
He looked up at me, finally, a hopeful half-smile lifting the corner of his mouth.

I felt like I was balancing on the very tip of the knife-point, where the slightest gust of wind had unsettled my balance, and now I could keep my Jake or lose him forever.

In the end, it wasn't such a hard decision to make. I just smiled at Jake, as his features grew uncertain, and asked him, "Jake, wanna come with me to the dance?"

--

The monster's back by the time I reach the corner.

He crawled his way through my veins, and no matter how hard I try, I can't resist it.

He's taken over everywhere, and I'm no longer in control.

I'm a prisoner in my own body, locked up in the cage of my mind.

The monster wants Her. He wants Her so damn badly.

And he won't stop until he gets her.

Hypothetically, if a certain author, of a certain story, didn't beg for a single review, hypothetically, of course, would the hypothetical readers of this hypothetical story be more inclined to review?

Oh, stuff it. Review, PLEASE!!! It makes my day and makes me want to write more. :D