EmPOV

I couldn't stop worrying about Bella and whatever it was Alice saw. I went to Spanish and sat protectively close to her. I don't know if she noticed, but she didn't seem to mind the closeness of our seats. I didn't even pay attention to the lesson. I watched her from the corner of my eye the entire time. When the bell rang, I knew unfortunately, we had to go our separate ways. I smiled at her trying to cover my worry.

"You okay?" She asked as we stood facing each other a couple feet from the gym.

"Yeah." I smiled at her. "See you after gym, Bella."

"Yeah, see you." Her eyes still looked suspicious as I turned and walked away.

The last class dragged on. I was biting my knuckle in anticipation. I let out an inaudible hiss when I bite down a little too hard. I hardly paid attention to the pain of the small amount of venom that had escaped my mouth and soaked into the bite mark. The bell rang and I was out the door before the teacher could even finish her sentence. I ran at human speed across campus to the gym and got there only minutes before she walked out.

"Hey." I smiled.

"Hey." She smiled back as I wrapped my arm protectively around her shoulders. She leaned into my embrace without even seeming to think about it. I walked her to her car, hugged her, and said goodbye. I waited until she was pulling out of the parking lot to move to Edward's Volvo. He and Jasper were already waiting there for me, Rosalie, and Alice.

"What's going on?" I wasted no time with greetings. This was Bella we were talking about and I wasn't wasting a moment beating around the bush.

"We'll talk at home with Carlisle and Esme."

"You're killing me, Edward." I groaned as I got into the car. Alice and Rosalie got here quicker than usual understanding that the anticipation and worry had been killing me since I found out something was wrong. We drove at a hundred and ten miles per hour the entire way. When we got home, I was out of the car before Edward even stopped moving. They weren't far behind me as I ran at vampire speed inside.

"Carlisle! Esme!" I yelled as I walked in, a completely unnecessary gesture. Esme appeared at the top of the stairs and quickly noticed my panicky look.

"What's wrong, Emmett?" I just looked to Edward and Alice for answers.

"I had a vision about Bella." Alice said biting her lower lip.

"Come on, let's sit down." Carlisle said taking my arm and leading me into the living room. I sat down across from Edward and Alice looking at them expectantly.

"What was your vision, Alice?" I said as calmly as possible, but I was going crazy with worry. I felt a wave of serenity courtesy of Jasper. But that didn't even help. The woman I love was in trouble, and I don't even know how.

She took a deep, unnecessary breath and closed her eyes allowing the vision to replay in her head. "There's a man, but I don't know him. He doesn't live around here, but he knows her." She shuddered a little at what she saw. "He's yelling at her. Telling her she's being stupid and that's she's a whore. He hit her, hard, across the face. She hardly seemed surprised. She stands there with a glare fixed on her face. He hits her again and again on the stomach into she finally crumbles to the. He kicks her yelling that she's worthless. She's bleeding and crying. He turns and paces the room running his hands over his face and through his hair before crouching in front of her. She opens her eyes again and looks at him. 'You couldn't be strong, could you? You just had to run. And look what you've done. You think before was bad… just you wait.'" Alice opened her eyes and looked at me. "She's been abused before."

A crushing weight pressed heavily against my chest. I buried my face in my hand. No, not my Bella. My perfect, amazing Bella didn't deserve this. I ran my hand through my hair and glanced up at my sister. "When?"

"I don't know." She said sadness etched in her voice. "I've been trying to see, but all I see is them in a dark room."

Why Bella? Why my Bella?

--

I didn't confront her. I couldn't. She didn't know that I was a vampire and had a future-seeing vampire sister. Over the last two weeks, Bella and I only got closer. When we weren't in class, we were together, all the time. Sometimes alone. Sometimes with my family. I knew I was completely head over heels in love with her. I physically couldn't tear myself away from her, and I had given up trying. I would tell her soon. I have to. She has a right to know what world she was being unknowingly being exposed to. And when that time comes, I'm going to let her run. It'll kill me, but I'd do anything for her.

Alice's visions kept changing to the point I didn't know what to expect anymore. When I was with Bella, I didn't think about it. I lived in the moment. I lived for her. But when I was alone, I was terrorized with the thoughts of whoever this son of a bitch was. I believed that it was Phil, her stepfather, but I couldn't be sure until she came to me with the secrets of her past.