Chapter One: The Stumble

A/N: So I decided to write this random idea out. It would be a short story, I suppose, but this is just the beginning - I apologise for the shortness of it and I hope you enjoy reading it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight.

It was a cold night.

Isabella Swan rubbed her hands on her bare arms, puffing out white clouds as she made another deep print in the deep snow.

Jacob would surely kill her if he ever saw her like this.

But she had to do this. She loved adventures; and walking in the snow was just one of the things she wanted to do since she was a child. And now, she was finally grown up, and eighteen – she could accomplish these things on her own, with her own money. She studied hard, graduated early and gotten a job. She had no need to ask for money from her mother, who was too busy entertaining herself with her new boyfriend of the month, Phil.

She wondered briefly and bitterly if her mother would ever stop digging money from those poor men. She knew her father was one of them, and that she was the unwanted product; however, he never gave up on her. He supported her through everything. And when he knew that she wanted to travel, he supported it, too - demanded that she would post postcards to him wherever she was, too. She fought a smile.

She decided then, that she would travel and fulfil her dream ever since she was five. This was her third adventure -

Bella stopped walking.

"Shit," she cursed loudly, looking around at the trees surrounding her. "I got lost."

"Well, thanks for stating the obvious," she said to herself, before she felt stupid. She was trapped and lost in the middle of a forest, and she was here talking to herself. Grumbling like an old man, she moved forward again, her legs seeming to get heavier with every step.

"Damn," she wheezed out after what seemed like hours, "I may just die here. And no one would ever find my body since it would be buried by the snow."

She looked up and saw two towering trees before her, spaced widely apart; but the trees were bent towards each other, as if forming an entrance. She stared for a moment, entranced and in awe.

It looks so magical, she thought to herself as she took another step forward. Maybe, when I step through them, I would be in another world.

She snorted at the absurdity of her words. She must be going crazy. But whatever, she was going to die anyway, so why not just fulfil her curiosity? She made a few determined steps through the entrance, and she seemed to feel the air change for a moment.

Then everything went still.

A loud gasp was heard.

Then Bella fainted.

\\\+\\\

Bella blinked in surprise after realizing she was resting on a bed, before she pulled the covers away from her and sat up.

"Is this where people die and go to?" She wondered to herself.

She felt a dull throbbing on her forehead and sighed. It hurts, so the sensible voice in her brain concluded that it was not possible for her to be dead. Which was good because if she was, she couldn't imagine the toll of the news on her father. As she started processing the surroundings, the throbbing started becoming more and more significant. She groaned, clutching her head as it became full-blown. It must be because of the cold -

"You're up," a pixie-like girl stated as she set a wooden bowl of... brown stuff on a table. "Feeling better?"

"Umm, yes, I suppose," Bella managed to utter out, her eyes wide as she eyed the short girl suspiciously, one hand still rubbing her head. Who was she?

"Now, don't look like that when you're the one who intruded our world," Short Girl said, laughing, before she pushed the disgusting-looking stuff to Bella, gesturing for her to sit.

"Your world?" Bella repeated stupidly, accepting Short Girl's offer and sitting down opposite her. But she still didn't touch the bowl. "What do you mean? Who are you? And where am I?"

"Questions should always be answered," Short Girl said, her brown eyes sparkling as they pierced through Bella's. "I will answer all of them while you drink that."

Bella hesitated, staring at the brown liquid for a moment.

"Don't worry, it's not poisoned," Short Girl cut in, assuring her fears. Though it wasn't really reliable. "It will make your headache better."

Bella nodded slowly and took the first sip before she blanched.

"It always taste like that at first," she said casually, "you'll get used to it. Now finish it while I talk."

Bella nodded dumbly and took another sip.

"I am Alice," Short Girl introduced herself.

"I'm Isabella, but you can call me Bella," Bella answered instinctively.

"Alright, so, Bella, does your headache feel better now?"

"Yes. Thank you."

Alice looked relieved, waving her thanks away, as if it was nothing, before she leant towards Bella. "You're in the Spiritual World, Bella," she said with a straight face.

Said girl choked on her soup and coughed hard. Alice merely chuckled. "What a nice reaction. Better than I expected to have though."

"You must be kidding me," were the only words Bella could spit out after Alice offered her a tissue.

"Bella," Alice said sternly, "remember the headache you had when you woke up?"

Bella nodded. It felt like it was splitting her into two. She thought it was because of the cold. No?

"It was because you don't belong here; you aren't accustomed to our world, and your body both physically and mentally, is rejecting it," she explained, "that's why I brewed this potion for you. It was my first time making it, but it seemed like it worked."

Bella coughed again. So this could be poison. No, Bella, that was totally not the main point.

"What? So you're not joking?" Bella asked, reality suddenly sinking in. "I mean, really? If there are cameras now - "

"Bella. Calm down," Alice murmured.

"Alright." Bella shifted herself on the seat to make herself more comfortable as she finished the last bit of the potion. "How do I get back to my world, then?"

Alice looked nervous for the first time Bella met her. She no longer looked confident. "Um, about that, I'm not very sure..."

"You mean I could be stuck here for the rest of my life?" Bella asked, her voice raising up an octave as she stood and slammed her palms on the table, making both the bowl and Alice jump.

"This can't be real!" She screeched, before crumbling back on to the seat again, looking despaired. Alice frowned, feeling at lost because she didn't know what to do.

"Bella, I'm so sorry, it's just, when I saw you lying on the ground I thought you were going to die and I just had to help you..."

"I was already in your world, then?" Bella questioned quietly.

Alice nodded her head in affirmation. Bella buried her face in her hands again. It must be the magical entrance that she thought would be cool to enter. She had gotten countless diplomas, certificates - but none of them could prepare her for this.

"I'm sorry - "

Bella hushed Alice, the rational part of her brain working again as she rubbed the sides of her forehead. "You shouldn't be apologising to me, Alice. You saved me. Thank you."

Alice's eyes welled up. "I knew all that stuff about humans being bad weren't true!"

Bella blinked, momentarily distracted. "What?"

"A lot of spirits here hate humans, because they believe humans were selfish and bad." Alice gave a bright grin. "I knew you weren't like that, Bella."

Hold on, wait.

She fumbled for words before she asked slowly. "Alice, you mean... a majority of the spirits here have prejudices against humans?"

"Yes," she replied.

Before Bella could start freaking out, Alice cut in.

"Oh, but don't worry, Bella," Alice said cheerily as she wrestled the bowl out of Bella's grip, "you just smell extraordinary sweet and edible to us."

"Not that we would eat you," she added as an afterthought before she turned and started washing the bowl.

Great. Just fucking great.

A/N: Well, poor Bella. Trapped in a foreign world where everyone practically hates her. Please drop me a review to tell me your thoughts and if I should continue this.

-C.A.