Chapter Two: Explanations

A/N: Well hello again, everyone. This is the second chapter of my story (just in case you didn't guess already) and in regards to reviews: cut me some slack here people! This is my first ever fanfiction and with only two reviews, one of them being a flame, I'm starting to feel a little unloved. When it comes to it, it's really quite simple – if you don't like Twilight, don't read and review a Twilight fanfic! Despite this though, I can promise that this will be a better, albeit shorter chapter than the last. Enjoy!

"My name ... is Anna."

"That's a beautiful name." Beckett was smiling, all previous cautiousness about my wellbeing gone, and even that made my heart leap. That's how pathetically far-gone I was. How long had I known him? I was so caught up in his face and his shoulders, and the mysterious disappearance of the carefulness in his eyes that I didn't hear what he had said after, which was probably just as well seeing as he was muttering to himself. Instead of thinking of the habit as weird, like I would with any other person I just saw it as another endearing feature for the rather extensive list. Yes, I already had a list.

"I guess I'd better tell her what's going on, and it would be easier for me if... yes. I'll just answer any questions that you have, ok?"

He said the last part out loud for me to hear, and even though I was at the bottom of the ditch and he at the top I had no trouble hearing him. I thanked my new senses again for that favour, wondering what else I could do with them. I took a deep breath, preparing my questions and wondering what he was thinking of me. I reminded myself to stay calm – he probably didn't think anything of me, and as much as that chipped at my heart it was way better than if he actually saw in my face what I thought of him. I shuddered at the thought.

"Ok ... " I paused, forcing myself not to bombard him with questions and make him uncomfortable. "What am I?" I had already figured I wasn't exactly me, and it was the easiest of the questions I had so I was surprised when he grimaced, managing to make it one of the most beautiful grimaces I had ever – stop it Anna, stop it.

"I was hoping you wouldn't ask that," He said, "it's the one question that has all the others tied to it, you see. In that case, I'd be better off telling you the whole story, beginning to end."

I was fine with anything that required me staying exactly where I was and listening to his voice was an added bonus, so I nodded at him and gestured for him to go on. He was being annoyingly casual about this though, and once I had gotten over his insane good looks I saw that he was a joker of sorts, dragging this out sufficiently long enough to draw an exasperated huff from my lips.

"Ok, ok, I'll start. Well, I was catching a snack around these parts when – " "Catching a snack? In a forest in the middle of the night?" I was too baffled to care much about interrupting, even when I had waited so long to hear his story, but he gave me another of his I-know-something-you-don't-but-if-you-can-manage-to-stay-quiet-long-enough-i'll-tell-you looks and continued. "Anyway, I was having a bite to eat and I was running and I passed by the road, right, and – " he stopped suddenly and gave me a dazzling grin that melted through my anti-boy defences that I had apparently set up in my past life (I was remembering snippets of things as streams of water broke past the floodgates) and once again made me wonder where the gentle caution of when I had woken up was gone. The next thing he said dazzled me even more.

"I don't know what you're doing to me Anna, all of a sudden I'm speaking in slang!" Another grin, and a dazed look from me at the way he said my name. In my mind he may as well have put a 'my' in front of it and I couldn't have been happier. How long had I know him again? All of ten minutes, but it could have been years.

It was ridiculous, I knew, to have fallen so hard for a strange guy I had only just met, but everything, from the coolly casual way he slouched against the ruined car next to him to the secret orange light in his eyes, drew me to him, slowly, inexorably, like a helpless fish on the end of a stunningly well made line. The confusion of half an hour ago (roughly, I had calculated, the time between when Beckett had found me and when I had woken up) seemed gone, as did the small chip that had broken off my heart, it all seemed so long ago. When he was here, everything was alright.

"Anna? Are you even listening?" Oops, that was Beckett, I guessed. I made a mental note to stop losing myself in my thoughts, it could be very distracting.

"Ummm, yes?" Busted. I couldn't imagine what I would say if he asked why. Oh, I was just thinking about how much I love you Beckett, never mind we only just met! Yeah, right.

"Well listen up." He sounded like a school teacher. It was funny how he switched feelings all the time and could still manage to be the same Beckett. Ugh! I had to keep reminding myself that I barely knew him and concentrate on what he was trying to tell me. But in a way he seemed like a little kid too, like he was stalling, but making it look like it was me who was keep him from saying anything.

"Anna, this is very important. Please listen to me." He was deadly serious now, look at me with his strange orange eyes, willing me to look straight into them, and I did, all traces of the stupid love sick mood I was – I decided to call them 'Anna Moments' – in vanished. It seemed as though he controlled my every mood.

"It was dark, and the cliff road was winding, and I guess they were distracted. I couldn't stop it Anna, not without being seen. They ..." What? What was he talking about? Who was distracted? A cold fist clenched its fingers around my stomach, twisting it into a tight knot. Shivers ran down my spine. Why did I have this strange feeling that I knew what was going to happen next?

"They crashed, Anna. They lost control and went off-road and into this ditch. I heard them and tried to help, but I couldn't go near. The car was too battered, and it rolled back across ... they couldn't escape. No one could save them. I'm so sorry."

In that instant, my whole world shattered. I froze into place like a block of stone, as though I could become the immobile, unfeeling rock I now resembled. I didn't want to feel the pain which was worse even than the fire, but I did. Oh boy, but I did. It felt as though I had been torn into piece and the fragments scattered, some to be dumped in acid, others to be drowned and more to be crushed by steel spikes, ever hurting, ever pushing me towards more torture as the memories of my now dead family come surging to the brink of my consciousness.

I didn't even notice when Beckett started calling my name, then when I obviously didn't respond to him I didn't feel his hands on mine when he started to lift me up and out of the trench and into the dark, still night. I didn't even notice when we reached the brink of the forest and started to run, so absorbed was I in the memories of my childhood and family, coming though the barrier I had created for myself. I saw my mother's face, warm but stern, looking down at me when I spilt my food as a toddler. Then my father, forever joking, playing catch with me in our backyard and laughing when I missed the ball again and again. Last my sister, laughing with me over something someone had said, then instantly serious as we debated some of our favourite topics.

My family, gone. They who brought me into to the world, who comforted me when I was sad, cared for me when I was sick and laughed with me when all was fine and good in the world. They were the world to me and they were gone forever.

And forever is a very, very long time.

A/N: Well? What do you think? I would like some reviews please, or even just suggestions on how to make it better. Remember, reviews = virtual gummy snakes for all involved.

-Ankle Deep