A/N: I don't own Twilight, that's Stephanie Meyers' doing.

Special thanks to Christa for being a die hard fan and getting on here everyday to see if the new chapter is up.

Also, another special thanks to xxx-Sarah-G-xxx for all the reviewing and encouragement. This chapter is for you, I hope you like it!


The week passed quickly and suddenly it was Friday. Charlie's schedule became frantic and I never got a chance to tell him what I knew. Who knew what could have the Chief of Police unexpectedly working 12 hour days in the bustling metropolitan of Forks, Washington. Drug bust at the elementary school? Illegal activities going on in the basement of the local Methodist church? Something else equally horrific and ridiculously impossible? No, probably not. But in a town as small as forks, wouldn't that be a riot? The pastor harboring moonshine under the pews of the local church, or the school principal selling uppers to the other teachers. Charlie was probably trying to figure out who the man from the other night was. If he wasn't so busy working I could tell him. I could tell him it was James, Phil's old drinking buddy, the same James who…who I couldn't even bear to think of.

Friday's school day passed without a single issue, well, except for a run in with Lauren. It wasn't so bad this time, just some a few pleasantries, a snide comment or two, and one of us, not I, leaving with the impression of a locker on her face. Thankfully all the teachers were occupied by a false fire alarm, or I might have had another trip to see the wonderful, magical, mystical principal of Forks High.

The pixie cornered me at lunch and asked if it was cool if we just left right after school for Port Angeles. The shrug of my shoulders was good enough for the Pixie and so we took off right after school. We hadn't made it far and suddenly we were turning onto a drive. I hadn't realized where we were going, not that I knew how to get to Port Angeles anyway; but still.

"Alice, where are we going?"

"I just have to stop off at our house and grab something, then we can go."

"Alice…" I said, with as much two-year-old pout as I could muster.

"It'll only take a minute Bella, if you want you can wait in the car."

"Fine I will."

And I did. I sat in the car and listened to the music pour from The Pixie's ridiculously expensive sound system in the Pixie's ridiculously luxurious car. As I listened to the music I also appraised what could only be called The Cullen Mansion. It was extremely huge and had more windows than a greenhouse, which I don't really know how that could be possible considering a greenhouse is made of windows; but whatever. I was so engrossed in my judgment of The Cullen Mansion that I didn't even notice the bronze haired man approach my window and rap harshly on it.

"Jeez Edward, give me a freaking heart attack why don't ya?"

"Apparently I didn't, but it gives me something to strive for in the future." I rolled my eyes at him. "Bella, what are you doing?"

"Wouldn't you like to know?"

"No seriously."

"Seriously Edward, if I wanted to tell you, I probably would. But seeing how you're so concerned, I'll tell you. I'm planning my capture and torture of the school psychologist."

"Bella…"

"What Edward? Sometimes I like to find random expensive yellow sports cars and sit in them. Occasionally I jump 'em and take 'em for a ride. And sometimes I even allow people to join me. Wanna go for a ride?" I eyed him.

"Okay, first of all, you can't jump these cars; second of all, no, I don't want a ride; and third, WHAT ARE YOU DOING IN MY SISTER'S CAR?"

"Edward!" The Pixie exclaimed as she walked out the front door. "Why are you being such a jerk to Bella?"

He looked at her incredulously and then glared at me as I tried to hide my uncontrollable giggling behind my hand.

"Me? I—I—but she." He just stood there gesturing between me and him while The Pixie just glared at him.

"Honestly Edward, I don't understand why you can't just be nice to her. Really." The Pixie said as she vaulted off the porch and made her way towards her car.

"I probably don't want to know, but where are you guys going?" Edward said, finally finding his words.

"We're going to Port Angeles to catch a movie. Okay?"

"You, are going to see a movie, with her?" he gestured towards me. "Why?"

"HEY!" I shouted, but Edward had already turned and was heading towards the house. "Jack ass!!!" He just waved and walked in the house.

After that The Pixie and I drove forever, or so it seemed, until we arrived in the tourist trap that is Port Angeles. We parked on the street and The Pixie lead us towards a vintage-y looking shop.

"Alice, what are we doing?"

"Well the movie doesn't start for a while…so I figured we could check out this shop."

I huffed a sigh and then stomped in after her. They had a lot of old looking clothes in here, which was to be expected, but there was still some cool stuff too. The Pixie caught me eyeing a pair of turquoise colored heels, but I just gave her a stare that said "Mind your own business" and she went about her way checking out the clothing.

"OMG! Bella, look at this! It would be absolutely adorable on you! You have to try it on!"

"No, I don't."

"But Bella…"

"Alice, I came with you so that we could see a movie, not shop at some second hand store!"

The clerk gave me a nasty look before returning to her Cosmo.

"Bella, it is not 'Secondhand', it's vintage."

I just gave her a look that said whatever and went to sit in one of the chairs by the window. I sat there watching people walk by, an old man who was muttering something to himself, a couple of teenage girls were wearing clothes far too revealing for their age and lack of breast, and a red-headed girl who smiled at me as she passed.

"Bella, I said what do you think?" The Pixie was talking to me and I knew I should probably respond. She was in this champagne colored dress that fell in jagged angles at her knees. The bodice was tight against her frame and the halter made her look like she actually had boobs. There was a little chocolate brown sash that tied at her hips making her look even more curvy than she really was.

"It looks great Alice."

"You really think so? Good, because I think I want to get it and wear it when Jasper takes me out for our 8 month anniversary."

"Who?"

"Jasper, my boyfriend. Hello, Bella, where have you been for the last twenty minutes, I just told you all about him!"

"Oh yeah." I agreed with her even though I hadn't heard a word she said about this Jasper guy. "Alice, are you almost ready?"

"Yeah, just let me pay for this and then we can go."

She walked up to the cashier and bought the dress, it really didn't look too bad on her. It made her look like more of a pixie when she wore it. All she needed was a pair of tattered pixie wings and she'd be good.

We walked out of the store and then I stopped. Sitting right across the street was the most glorious bookstore I had ever seen. The glass was cloudy from old age and you could see that the light was dim in there. It was beautiful.

"Bella, what is it?"

"We have to go in." Was all I said.

"Go in where?"

But I didn't answer her, I just jay-walked across the street and pushed through the door of the bookstore. I took a deep breathe through my nose once inside. I loved the smell of books, old books, new books, hot-off-the press books, and used books. Their smell stirred about a euphoric sense in me. I lost track of The Pixie the second I stepped through the door. I just roamed up and down the aisles. There were so many, and they weren't organized. There were far too many books for such a tiny space, which made the store that much more enchanting. Books filled the book cases, and were strewn on top of each other on the book case. They were stacked up in piles at the bottom of the book cases and came out about four deep. I was in heaven. It was as if every crappy thing that had happened in the last few weeks hadn't actually happened. I finally found the section I was looking for and accidentally gave out an excited squeak. Shakespeare had his own section. There was Romeo and Juliet, Othello, Hamlet, Macbeth, The Tempest, and A Midsummer's Night Dream. All of them just sat there, staring at me, begging me to buy them; it was amazing. I wandered some more and found more old friends. I was standing looking at a stack of fiction when a girl came up. She looked at me with eyes that said move, but I just stood there. No one gets between me and my books.

"Excuse me." The girl said. She couldn't have been older than fourteen. I moved, not out of respect, but because her perfume was far too strong for such a small place.

I watched her look over the books and nearly jumped out of my skin when she screamed.

"Omigod!!!! TWILIGHT!!!!!" She started jumping up and down and continued to shriek and scream and giggle all at the same time. She grabbed the book of the shelf and just stood there holding it in her hands. And then she did the most ridiculous thing ever, she put her nose to the book, and smelled it. It wasn't just a quick whiff either, it was a long drawn out sucking of air in through her nostrils as she ran her nose up the length of the binding.

"Freak." I said under my breath as I just stared in her in disbelief.

She looked at me then, sized me up, uttered a word that fourteen year olds shouldn't even know yet, and walked off.

I looked around for a few more minutes before taking my purchase up to the counter and paying for my books. I bumped into Twilight girl again and she just looked at me with utter disgust. I returned the withering glare and then walked towards the exit. The Pixie and I walked out the door but then she just stood there.

"What is it Alice?"

"I've never been to the movies here, so I don't actually know where the theater is."

"What?!?"

"Well, I stick to shopping, that's what I do!"

I just looked at her and sighed. I would have to find out where the theater was. I looked around to see if there was anybody to ask, but the only person near us was Twilight Girl and I was not about to ask her and get called another degrading name. But as luck would have it, the red head who had smiled at me when I was in the Vintage shop was just passing by again.

"Excuse me. Do you know where the movie theater is?"

"Oh, uh, yeah. You just go down this street, take your third left and your second right and it will be on that street."

"Thanks."

"My pleasure." The woman said as she smiled at me. The smile which had seemed so friendly earlier looked almost sinister now. The woman was definitely a psycho.

Alice and I took off in the direction The Psycho had pointed us. We took the third left, then the second right and started walking down a poorly lit alley.

"I don't think this is right." I said to The Pixie. She was just walking along bouncing and humming some ridiculous song.

"Maybe it's like a hidden theater or something. Maybe that's the attraction of it!"

"Yeah, or maybe red-headed psycho gave us bad directions."

"Why would she do that?"

"Because she's psycho."

"Honestly Bella, not everyone is out to get you."

And just as she said that a man's voice softly chuckled from a shadow.

"Alice, we better go."

"What's the hurry, Bella." The voice called from the shadows. I quickly looked around for an exit but we were surrounded by big brick buildings on all sides. Just as I was thinking that maybe we could make a fast break out onto the street, the red-head stepped around the corner and James crept out of the shadows.

Enter Psychos One and Two.

"Shit." I said. I turned to the Pixie. She had paled and looked about ready to faint.

"Way to go baby." Psycho One said to Psycho Two. "I knew you could do it." Psycho One nuzzled Psycho Two's hair and started slobbering on her neck.

"Gross, seriously, you're going to make us stand her and watch you turn her into your personal chew toy?" I always had a way of shooting off my mouth at the most inappropriate times. Usually I didn't mind it, but now I wished I knew how to shut up.

"Why, Bella, are you hurt? Do you want to be in on the action?" Psycho Two turned to Psycho One and her eyes flashed with jealousy.

"No."

"That's too bad. I was hoping you'd say yes. It would make things so much easier." He stopped then and just looked at me; he stared into my eyes and cocked his head to the side. "It's also a shame you had to bring a friend, now I'm going to have to take care of her too."

The Pixie let out a whimper beside me and I turned to look at her. A black tear was making its way down her cheek.

"Alice, it's okay, nothing's going to happen."

Psycho One just laughed at that. "Don't lie to her Bella, tell her what I did to you."

"Nothing! You did nothing to me! Or don't you remember?" I tried to fight back the images pushing to the front of my mind. I had worked so hard to repress them that I wasn't about to let them resurface now.

His eyes flashed and he started towards me, but just as he did a car pulled into the alley and started laying on the horn. For a second I thought Psycho One had brought reinforcements but then The Pixie started towards the car. I looked closer at the car and realized that it was Edward's car, and that he was sitting behind the wheel. I almost took off for the car as well, but Psychos One and Two were still between us and safety. I stood there dumbly wondering who was going to break stalemate. Psycho One took a step towards the car and looked like he wanted to tear the car apart, but then Edward did the one thing I wasn't expecting. He slammed on the gas and the car shot out at Psycho One. Unfortunately he dived out of the way just in time to avoid becoming Edward's hood ornament. He yelled to Psycho Two and they both took off out of the alley.

The Pixie and I both just stood there shaking. Neither of us could move, call it shock, or being scared shitless, but we weren't moving towards the car. Edward hit the horn again and both of us jumped. This seemed to awaken The Pixie from her stupor because she started towards the car. I just stood there; I couldn't remember how to make my feet move. Now that the real fear was gone, the old fear was resurfacing. The reason for me actually being afraid of James.

It was a normal night back in Phoenix. Phil had James over and they were watching some game and drinking far too many beers. I got thirsty so I headed for the kitchen to get something to drink, just as I was coming around the corner I saw James snort a line off my mother's make-up mirror. His eyes when dead for a second and then the beast in him took over. Phil yelled at him, something about spilling the crack on the floor or something, but James wasn't listening because he had suddenly seen me. I tried to pretend like I hadn't seen him notice me, but it was too late. James was out of his chair and had me pinned to the wall in seconds.

"James, knock it off." James just flipped Phil the bird and continued to hold me against the wall.

"Hello pretty." His piercing blue eyes just dug into mine, the eyes may have been dead but they could still pierce my soul…even in memories…and nightmares.

I tried to squirm away but that just made him push me harder against the wall. He started to use his own body to pin me to the wall and I could feel a side of him that I never wanted to feel again.

He came closer and tried to kiss me on the lips but I turned my head and he kissed my ear. He grabbed my face with his one hand and forced me to look at him. He was holding onto my face so tightly that my teeth were cutting into the inside of my cheeks. Tears sprung to my eyes and he laughed. He took his other hand and started to trail it down the front of my shirt, I tried to kick him and he just looked at me and made a tsk sound with his mouth. Then before I knew what was happening he tightened his hold on my face and slammed the back of my head into the wall.

"Hey, cut it out. If she's bruised I'm going to have to explain it to her mother!"

Again James ignored Phil and continued to apply pressure to my face. He started to move in as if he was going to kiss me again. I figured it was now or never, so I took my right hand and slapped him across the face. Apparently my nails were long because he had four bloody gashes running across his face. He cried out in pain and I booked it out the door. I wasn't staying there any longer.

"Bella. Bella! BELLA!" I jumped, startled out of memories by The Pixie yelling my name. "Get in the car!"

I fought back the tears that were begging to spill out of my eyes and climbed into the backseat of Edward's silver car of justice. He looked at me in the rearview mirror and for a second I could have sworn his face softened. I didn't want that, I was sick of everyone's pity glances.

"What?"

"Nothing."

He popped the car in reverse, turned his attention to the road, and started to drive us home.

Whoa. That chapter was intense. I hope you all appreciate the chapter update, despite me currently being in dead week. Reviews are lovely...they make chapters come quicker.