I know you guys have probably been wondering where I've been! I know it's almost been 2 months and I'm very sorry. I've had no inspiration to write but finally I'm back and definitely not abandoning this story. So now that's settled, please enjoy chapter 17!:)

Chapter Seventeen: Punishments from Hell

Previously on Unrecognizable~

The song came to an end and I noticed I had collapsed to my knees during her playing. I also noticed my family had come in during the song as well. But I had been far too caught up in the memories that I had yet to notice until now.

A strangled noise came from my throat, then I choked out "Bella" as she turned away from the piano to face my family and I.

Now on Unrecognizable~

Edward's POV

"I hate you Edward Cullen with every fiber of my existence." Was the last thing she said before she left.

One week.

Eight hours.

Fifty-six minutes.

And forty-eight seconds.

That's how long it had been since I'd seen her beauty, felt her glorious presence and heard her enchanting voice.

Each second that went by was excruciatingly painful. This was my own personal hell, the gods above surely laughing down at me.

Though, I deserved it. A disgusting beast I am, to inflict such pain upon such an innocent creature such as herself.

She was right, I deserved to burn in the deepest pits of hell. But then again, that would be too easy of a punishment.

This was my punishment instead, to spend an eternity without her.

I had never truly known how long forever was until this moment.

Izzy/Bella's POV

I had been running for an entire week, not once stopping. I could barely feel the flames in my throat, only the ache in my chest.

It had always been exhilarating to run through forests, thriving on speed. The feel of weightlessness always had a sort of calming affect, a way to get away from my problems. But not this time. Although still, I couldn't stop running.

I had nowhere to go. I couldn't run back to my home in New York, that would surely be the first place the Cullens would look for me. I had absolutely no friends either. I had also been ignoring all of my managers calls and angry voicemails demanding to know where I had disappeared to.

I had simply vanished, instead choosing to run through the forests. In hope for what, I didn't know.

One the other hand, I had no idea what state I was currently in. On my second day of running, I had run out of the heavily snowed in forests and into the dark green woods lightly sprinkled with white. So one thing was for sure, I was no longer in Alaska. However I did suspect I was running along the west coast.

The air was crisp, fresh and revitalizing. The trees sheltered me from the sunlight, spreading their leaves in a large green canopy over me as I ran. The forest was rich with scents, crumbling leaves, rotting bark and moistness.

My mind was jumbled, filled with cluttered thoughts. I was struggling to think of anything other than Edward. My attempt was weak, pathetic really, but that hadn't stopped me from trying.

Briefly my mind had stopped on all the wildlife occupying the forest, my ears tuning in as a futile attempt to keep my mind engaged. It was ominously silent, very little life. Only the gusts of frosty wind, the pitter patter of small insects footsteps, rustling of leaves and the few species of animals able to live in the cool climate. Other than that, it was dead.

Strangely enough it made me feel even more lonely. The quietness of the forest reminded me of my loss, the aloneness tugging at the jagged edges of my unbeating heart.

Nevertheless, I continued my endless journey into nothing. My personal punishment from hell.

XXX

I had forgotten how long it had been since I had been running, the burn in my throat was constant, though nothing compared to my heartbreak it was still there, persistent as ever.

My body was weak with thirst, my pace slowing. Pain stakingly slow.

That's when I decided to stop and hunt, wishfully hoping it would be a distraction. Even though deep down I knew that wouldn't work.

I let go, allowing myself to take in my surroundings. The rushing of water indicated a stream not too far, the rustling of leaves and finally about a mile away I smelt it.

A group of deer.

My eyes snapped open and I took off in the direction of my prey. The monster in me had already taken over, I hadn't even realized how thirsty I was till I sunk my teeth into the soft flesh of an innocent deer.

The warm liquid trickled down my throat, slowly I became more satisfied, the burn in my throat lessening with each large gulp.

I drained two more deer and disposed of their empty carcesses. Just as I was about to continue my journey I smelled vampires. Two of them and they were heading in my direction.

Instinctively, I dropped into a defensive crouch. Ready to defend myself if necessary.

Through the brush I could make out two figures approaching rapidly. A snarl building in my throat.

Finally, the emerged into the open. A man and woman. The man on the shorter side, lean with slick black hair and high cheekbones, his expression protective of who I assumed to be his mate.

The woman was super model tall, her legs miles long with long silky light brown hair, a slim nose, carved cheekbones and pouty red lips. There was something that seemed familiar about her, but I couldn't put my finger on it.

But what surprised me the most was their golden eyes. They weren't human blood drinkers but animal drinkers like myself and the Cullens.

But what came out of the woman's mouth surprised me even further, "Bella?" Her mouth agape.

That's when it dawned on me.

"Angela?"

Her eyes sparkled with excitement as she nodded, smiling broadly.

"Is it really you?"

I chuckled, "Yes."

Angela came forward, pulling away from her mate to hug me. I allowed it, happy to see her after all the years that had passed.

"I can't believe it's really you Bella!"

Again, I chuckled, "I could say the same."

She pulled away to look at me. That's also when I took the chance to examine her closer. The glasses she had worn as a human were gone, allowing her beautiful eyes to be slightly more visable. All imperfections had been polished away, leaving her skin a smooth creamy porcelain like my own.

Angela had always been tall but now she stood a tall six feet, her beauty was the astounding, mesmerizing.

"I really missed you Bella."

I cringed at Bella, I hadn't been called Bella for years, with the exception of the confrontation with the Cullens before I fled.

"I missed you too." I breathed.

My eyes traveled away from Angela over to the other vampire. I examined his face more carefully this time, something in his face held some familiarity.

"Ben?" I gaped.

His broke out into a friendly smile, "Yes, nice to see you again Bella."

I grinned, "Wow, you guys stayed together!"

Angela smiled, "We did." She paused, her expression calculating, "Do want to come over to our house to catch up? I would really like to visit with you."

"Sure, that would be nice, as long as I'm not intruding."

"No, not at all, you're invited!"

"Okay, I guess you stay in a permanent residence nearby?"

Angela and Ben linked hands, "We do."

"Well, I suppose we best be going." Ben announced.

The three of us headed West, myself following the two of them.

Minutes later, we stopped in front of a two story house, secluded in a ring of trees. Their home was beautiful, large glass window panes, the entrance decorated with pansies, tulips and daisies, vines delicately twisting and climbing up the stone walls and the wooden door. Just from the look of it, their house seemed to be the warm and homey type.

"Well this is it, home sweet home." Angela giggled before the leading the way to the entrance and unlocking the door.

The inside was just as gorgeous as the outside looking like a model home you see in dream magazines, the floors polished, the cream colored walls adorn with portraits, paintings and various pieces of decor.

"You have a lovely home." I commented.

"Thank you." Angela answered.

"Well, I will let you two ladies talk, I'm sure you have lots to catch up on." Ben said politely.

Angela gave him a quick kiss before he disappeared, giving Angela and I privacy to chat.

Angela led me to the living room to sit.

Suddenly, I felt like a teenager again, "You and Ben are so cute."

She smiled shyly.

"I can't believe your human boyfriend turned out to be your mate! Tell me more about it."

"Well after Ben and I graduated from high school, we wanted to attend the same college together in fear the separation would ruin our relationship. But we both got accepted into different colleges, we were discouraged and Ben still didn't know what he wanted to study. So we decided to take a year off and travel instead. Ben had inherited some money from a relative, with that he arranged for the two of us to tour Europe, after a great experience we got on a plane to fly back home. Unfortunately, the plane went down, so many people's lives were lost that day." Angela looked down, her lips plump lips curling down into a frown, I could tell it was hard for her to tell this story.

"Neither one us, Ben or myself remember exactly what happened, we only remember the burning. And then we woke up, confused and incredibly thirsty. A vampire had turned us, and abandoned us. To this day we don't know who it was and we will probably never know."

Silence followed, I was unsure of what to say until she spoke up again.

"Sometimes I feel guilty, knowing how many people died and I got to live. And for my parents, no parent should have to bury their child. It's worst though, they didn't even have my body, they had nothing." Angela dry sobbed into her hands.

I frowned, moving closer to her, wrapping my arms around her to comfort her. It was almost strange, I had been alone for so long, to comfort someone else was so foreign.

"It's okay, it wasn't your fault." I soothed.

It wasn't long before Angela regained her composure, apologizing, "I'm sorry."

"It's okay, don't worry about it."

"So, onto happier topics, I'm guessing Edward turned you, how is he anyway?" She giggled.

I frowned, looking down at my lap, pain ripped through my chest. Not even Angela could take it away.

"Bella?"

"We aren't together." I spoke in a monotone.

"Oh, I just thought he turned you, you guys always had a special relationship. Mates, I thought."

"Me too." I said inaudibly, under my breath.

"I hadn't seen him since Forks when he left..then I saw him recently.." I trailed off quietly.

Angela turned to me, placing her hand on my shoulder, concern lacing her butterscotch eyes. "Bella, what happened?" Her voice soft.

My eyes filled with venom tears, I looked up at her. "I don't know what to do with myself anymore Angela, I'm broken. I don't even know where to start."

"Start at the beginning." She said gently, rubbing my shoulder in small soothing circles.

My voice was quiet, weak, my guard down for the first time in years. "There was a vampire who wanted revenge on Edward for killing her mate to protect me, just before our junior prom. Remember that hideous cast? Well, let's just say I didn't fall through a window, it was a lie, a cover story." Subconsciously my hand raked across the scar on my arm.

I raised my arm, sliding down my sleeve to show Angela, "Here, I was bitten." The white flesh around the scar was cold, it sent shivers down my spine as I thought back to the terrible night.

"How weren't you a vampire at that point? I remember you coming back to school as a human. My human memories are blurry of course, but not that blurry, I would definitely remember seeing you come to school with bright red eyes."

"Edward" I breathed, sucking in a sharp breath. "He sucked out the venom, reversing the transformation."

"He didn't want you to-"

I cut her off, "No, he didn't want me to be a vampire. Whenever I asked him to turn me he claimed he didn't want to take away my soul. I always believed him, I never had a reason not to. I never thought it was because he didn't want me." My quiet voice was sad, filled with rejection.

There was a moment of silence before I continued, "Edward and his family killed the vampire trying to harm me before anything further happened. What Edward didn't realize is that the vampire's mate was still out there. I reminded him multiple times, but he always seemed to brush it off." I frowned.

I put on my facade, speaking in monotone, without emotion, "Eventually, he left. His family didn't even say goodbye, they just disappeared. He stayed behind, telling me he no longer loved me, that he didn't want me and promising to never come back."

"I'm so sorry Bella!" Angela exclaimed sadly, hugging me tightly.

Her voice was so genuine and sweet, it made me want to cry. To have someone care about me after so long.

I smiled weakly.

"You know what followed after that, my depression. It was so incredibly hard to function without him. So hard, it's impossible to put into words. The depth of my feelings were too great, like I used to say as a human, my feelings for him were stronger than his were for me. Edward always denied it, but after his leaving I knew it was true."

I paused, looking down at my hands, running my fingers over the skin in little patterns, like I did as a human.

"Anyway, one night she returned. The vampire that was killed by Edward, well it was his mate who visited my house. Victoria was her name."

The next part was so difficult, I let my emotions go, choosing again to speak monotonously.

"She killed Charlie first. Then she came for me. Mate for mate she said. She was going to kill me, I wish she did. Instead after she found out Edward had left, she decided it would be better just to turn me into a vampire." Anger lined my voice.

"Three days of burning later, with nowhere to go, I ran to the empty Cullen's house and lived there sulking for years until I finally snapped and fled Forks for good. I moved to New York and got a small place with the only money I had and turned to music. After Edward playing piano for me, I wanted to learn the instrument too, hoping for a small fragment to remind myself of him. I always feared I would forget about him, which was silly looking back, it would be impossible with my strengthened memory." A tight lipped smile tugged at the corners of my lips.

"So I learned the piano, day and night and began composing music and lyrics to express my emotions. Eventually though, I didn't have enough money to pay for rent and I was forced to get a job. I worked at a small place in the city where I performed. And one day, I was noticed and signed to a record company. Have you ever heard of Izzy Elizabeth?"

Angela nodded, "Yes, all the popular radio stations play her top hits."

I smiled, "That's me, I didn't want anyone to recognize me, so I dyed my hair red, changed up my style with the money I earned and changed my name."

Angela's eyes widened, "That was you?!"

I chuckled, "Yes."

She pondered for a moment, her finger rubbing against her chin, "I suppose I can see the resemblance in your features." She giggled.

"I went through many stages, anger, resentment, depression, loneliness…. I used my emotions and projected them into the songs I wrote. After years of performences I had practically convinced myself I hated Edward and if I ever saw him again I would kill him for what he put me through.."

"Then at one concert I saw him." I paused again.

"He was in the crowd with his family. At first I was filled with anger but then as I looked into his eyes my anger melted away and I could only feel love. And I resented him for feeling that way." I said, thinking back to that moment on stage.

"The Cullens approached me after the concert finished, not recognizing me, asking about my similar diet to theirs. For some stupid reason, maybe I'm a masochist I don't know, I agreed to go to their house. And of course I ended up staying longer than one night. I stayed with them for months. I never told them who I really was, my relationship with them was solely based on lies. But I desperately wanted revenge on Edward. So I stayed with them, suffering through my own pain and tortured him."

"What do you mean tortured him? Like physically?"

"No, no, nothing like that. I played with his emotions like reminding him of memories I shouldn't have know about. I pretended to be clueless of what I was doing so he wouldn't suspect me."

She nodded.

I continued, "Anyway, this went on for weeks, I did things to purposely get under his skin. Then I made a mistake." I hesitated, frowning. "I kissed him."

Angela's eyes widen again, "Did you guys get-"

"No we didn't get back together." I stated. "But I think we almost had sex." I blurted.

Angela stared, wide eyed, mouth open, "Wait, seriously?"

"We were making out and our shirts were off and so was my bra. I'm sure our pants were next Ange. I stopped it before it could get further."

"Oh my god." Angela gasped, covering her mouth with her hand. "What if you hadn't stopped it?"

"I don't know for sure but I think we both have a pretty good idea."

"Well, it's probably good you guys didn't because your emotions would be pretty messed up after that."

I agreed, then began again, "I had something big planned out after that. I wanted to reveal myself but in a way that would hurt Edward."

I explained my entire plan to her and when I was finished, she was shocked.

"Wow Bella, I didn't know you had it in you." She chuckled, lightening the mood.

I giggled, "What can I say, I've grown a backbone over the years."

"It seems that way." Angela laughed.

"The plan worked the way I wanted it too, last minute while I was performing my song I decided to let go of my shield. I told you about that didn't I?"

"No Bella you didn't!"

I chuckled again, "Some vampires are gifted. I'm a shield, Edward was a mind-reader, Alice was a psychic and Jasper was an empath."

"Really! That's incredible! Neither Ben or I have gifts as far as we know anyway."

"Anyway, I let go of my shield and showed Edward all of the memories of my depression and transformation and it just about killed him along with the lyrics of my song. His family came in too."

"In the end, after accusations, anger, arguments, sadness and pain I told Edward I hated him and ran. That was two weeks ago. I've been on the run ever since." I concluded, sadness mixed with loneliness lacing my voice. My heart throbbing painfully with each passing second, it was seeming to increase intensity too.

Angela had tears in her eyes as she pulled me close, "You are so strong to have gone through so much...it truly is unbelievable." She whispered in my ear, in awe.

I pulled her tighter to me, relishing in her comfort, "Thank you for listening."

"Thank you for telling me."

"I've missed you so much Ange."

"I've missed you too Bella, I thought you were dead…" Her voice held so much sadness, it tore at my broken heart.

I moved out of her embrace, deciding to lighten the mood, "Technically I am dead." I giggled.

Angela laughed along with me.

"Now we have so much more to talk about, like your diet! How did you know to drink from animals instead of humans. Your eyes are golden, not red like human-drinkers."

"After Ben and I were turned, we didn't know what was happening to us. Ben was the first to drink from a human. The first human we had seen since our transformations, Ben lunged for him. Soon after that we realized what we had become. We despised the idea of taking away human lives. We stayed away from civilization,secluded deep in the forest, starving ourselves instead. One day I was so thirsty, I just attacked an animal, draining it selfishly, without even thinking about it. Afterwards, we adapted to that lifestyle, of course we messed up a few times though. Eventually our eyes turned from the bright glowing red to the golden color just like the Cullens and we recognized that. We made the connection between the two and realized they were animal-drinkers as well."

"That's amazing, I'm so glad you decided to stick to this lifestyle opposed to the other one."

Angela beamed, "Me too."

"So how are you liking Canada?" Angela asked.

"Canada? That's where we are?"

Angela smiling, laughing softly, "Yes we are in Canada."

"I thought Canada gets heavily snowed in?"

"Not here in Victoria, British Columbia, we are on the West Coast, we get minimal snow here."

"Interesting, good to know… I was wondering where I was.."

"I guess you haven't been around to civilization for a couple weeks now." Angela assumed.

"Yep. I haven't stopped at all except for one hunt."

Suddenly, Angela burst out, "Oh how rude of me! Would you like to freshen up here, you can shower and change into a pair of clean clothes?"

"If it's not to much trouble, then that would be great."

"Of course not, come upstairs with me. We need some girl time anyway." She winked and led me upstairs.

Wow, this was such a long chapter, almost 4000 words! It took absolutely forever to write this, many hours of work, but I love writing! So an extra long chapter. Hopefully that made up for the lack of updates in the last couple months. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, I introduced two new characters and Bella finally opened up. Still lot's of drama to come though! I have a few great ideas for writing and I've finally got my inspiration for writing back yay! :D

My beta is super busy so I looked over the chapter myself so if there are any mistakes, I'm very sorry.

Have you guys listened to the new Adele song 'Hello"? I love it and I want to use it in a future chapter, let me know if you think that's a good idea because it's a beautiful song!

Thanks for reading and being patient with my lack of updates, please review! (I read them all & they seriously brighten my day).

~Alexandra :)