Welcome back!

So one part of the mystery has been revealed, but a lot of you already suspected that they'd travelled through time so it wasn't really that much of a mystery. As for all your other questions, all I can ask is that you have patience. You will get your answers.

Unfortunately this will be the last update for a couple of weeks because I'll be nearly 4000km away in Western Australia for a week. Yay holidays! It will be the first time I've flown since recovering from agorophobia, so wish me luck? I'll definitely need it!

Thanks to everyone who's enjoying this story so far. The more you want to read, the more I want to write.

Huge thanks to XellaX & fireflyserenity for adding this story to their favourite lists, wolfygrr21 for following and reviewing, and to elliefrog, VioletDream13, madkins, jansails, Sunflower2009 & the lone anonymous "Guest" for their wonderful reviews. You are all the greatest supporter that I could ever wish for.

Now where were we...

:-D

EPOV

"Edward...Edward?"

I can feel something wet dripping onto my face. God, I hope I'm not crying again.

"Wakey wakey, man."

The first thing I see when I slowly open my eyes is Jasper's grinning face. The second is the bottle in his hand that he's using to drip water on me.

"What year is it?" I croak.

"Uh...I don't know," he shrugs.

"Is it 2013?" I ask, hoping that it is and that this is all a dream brought on by too much bizarre late-night TV.

"No," he smiles.

"Wake me up when it is," I say, closing my eyes again.

"C'mon, get up," he laughs, pulling me into a sitting position. He actually thinks I'm joking.

I'm not.

I rub my eyes and look around. Everything looks exactly as it did before I fainted...no, blacked out. That sounds way less girlish.

Oh, who am I kidding, I practically swooned.

"So where is everyone?" I have to ask even though I'm sure that Jasper doesn't know. I don't think anyone has any idea.

"Just over there," he says, pointing behind me and speaking as though he's talking to an idiot. Given my behavior lately, he actually might be.

"What?" I shout, almost snapping my own neck to turn and look. Our group stands back down the road further watching us. Bella raises her hand and hesitantly wave but no-one makes any move towards the two crazies in the middle of the street.

And by crazies, I mean Jasper and I.

"Not those people," I say, getting to my feet. "I mean the townspeople. Our families? Our friends? You said they were gone, so where did they go?"

"Oh that," he says. "I was just stating the obvious. I mean, just look around. Forks is pretty quiet but never this quiet, right? And the sign said the town was cleared, so I think it's pretty obvious what it was cleared of."

He's right. I can still hear birds in the trees, and we've seen small animals and insects since we left the campsite. But no other people nor any signs that there might be any about. Even the landscape proves that no-one has lived in Forks for a long time. The trees have taken over, the animals have taken over.

And we are the only people left.

"What are we going to tell the others?" Jasper asks quietly. "They know that something's definitely wrong here."

"Jasper, if we go over there and tell them that we travelled though time, they're going to think we're crazy," I say. Jasper sighs, he knows it's true. "I say we just play dumb and look for answers. There's no point worrying them when we don't even know everything."

"Oh god, I hate keeping secrets from Alice," he mutters.

"That's funny, because you and her are really good at keeping secrets from others," I snap, immediately wanting to take it back.

"Really? You want to talk about this now?" he say incredulously.

"I'm sorry," I apologise weakly. "I'm just stressed."

"It's okay," he murmurs. The situation feels really awkward now. Jasper and I never fight so neither of us knows how make amends. Do we hug? That seems a little...weird, we've never hugged before. Maybe a handshake would do...

"Let's go rejoin the group," Jasper say, thankfully ending my awkward thoughts.

Note to self: never fight with Jasper again, it may end in hugging.

As we trudge back to where everyone is waiting expectantly, I try to think of all the possible reasons for why the town was evacuated and where the best place would be to find answers. The hospital is a possibility, the library too, but they don't cover all likely scenarios.

There's only one place that would.

"So what are we doing now then?" Alice asks as we reach them and lift our packs onto our backs.

"We're going to the town hall," I say shortly.

"What's at town hall?" she presses.

"Answers."