Bella used to have rather vivid dreams.

Dreams of sharp, white teeth that threatened to break her peach skin. Dreams of topaz eyes growing darker as time passed. Dreams of unruly hair and a deep laugh that made her swoon.

Dreams of so much blood marring her flesh.

But since entering this stupid loop she hadn't had a single dream. Each night she went to sleep and was only greeted by blank darkness.

She wasn't even sure when she woke up if she even genuinely slept well.

The alarm blared on her bedside table and she slapped to the floor, somehow managing to hit the off button in her fumblings as blessed silence filled the room. Bringing the covers up to her chin, Bella lay there for a moment and tried to push the groggy feeling of a rough night away.

She didn't remember around what time she passed out last night, but even with the underlying nervous energy of having to repeat the same day over and over she still felt bone tired.

How much sleep was she truly getting when the night transferred into the previous day?

Was exhaustion the true enemy in the loop? Would she eventually be too tired to care anymore if it continued long enough?

Sticking a leg out of her warm and cozy bed was a momentous task that had her heaving a sigh as her foot hit the cold wood of the floor. Her toes flexed at the cold but she shoved the other leg out to join its mate. Slowly the teenager extracted herself from her bed and shuffled to her closet to get dressed.

After throwing on whatever was available and looking semi-decent in her blundering attempt at dressing in the dark, Bella grabbed her phone and went through her minuscule contact list before deciding to get it over with and call Alice.

Even though she had been physically separated from the Cullen coven for a few days, Alice sporadically would message sometimes before the loop had started. Just little things. It wasn't like Alice's usual texting her a million things throughout the day, sending pictures of things she saw she thought Bella would like.

Alice was more subdued due to Edward's meddling after the birthday party disaster.

Bella didn't like it.

She liked the Alice who would annoy her with fashion talk, about going out over the weekend to just hang out in neighboring cities and towns, about having a slumber party even on a school night and watching cheesy movies.

She missed the Alice who didn't care about what Edward wanted.

Exhaling slowly through her nose, Bella pressed the call button and held the phone to her ear.

The phone rang four times before Alice picked up.

"Hello, Bella. It's rather early for a chat, isn't it?"

"Hey, Alice," Bella greeted as she twirled a strand of hair around one of her fingers in a nervous manner. "Yeah, probably, but I need to talk to you." Pausing, Bella looked frantically around her room as if it would tell her what to say before just blurting out, "I'm coming over. Now. Please don't tell Edward."

If Alice actually told Edward, the whole plan would have been ruined. She would have to wait another day to try again and she wanted to get the ball rolling on breaking this loop as soon as possible.

"Bella you have school," Alice chided.

Her tone was neutral, and that made Bella's temper flare.

"And you've been avoiding me," Bella said hotly.

She was tired of being pushed away.

Why did everyone assume they knew better for her than she did? She was an adult dammit!

"I don't think that's a good idea, Bella…" Alice said softly after Bella's sour retort. "I'm rather busy-"

"I know you're packing. Getting ready to move and leave me behind. I know Edward is dumping me today and taking the only people who truly know me away forever. I'm. Coming. Over."

She hung up before Alice could retort in any manner worth listening to.

Flushed with irritation, Bella grabbed her stuff to make it seem as if she was being a good girl and going to school. She said good morning to Charlie. She skipped breakfast. She grabbed her keys and drove to the Cullens' house as fast as her ancient truck would let her.

The rickety old truck sputtered as she tested the speed limit, eyes peeled for any potential danger (or cop[sorry Dad]) as she drove through empty roads.

When she got there, the moving van was there just as the previous day. Several boxes were already inside, some larger items like a table were sitting outside, ready to be placed perfectly in the van alongside the boxes, but sitting perched on the table was Alice.

Her Cullen amber eyes watched Bella as she parked her truck in the driveway.

She didn't even flinch when Bella slammed the door to her truck shut and stomped up the gravel path and over to her.

Bella's lips were parted, breaths coming in shallow little puffs as she tried to gather all the emotions that had started to build over the days. She felt lightheaded as the feelings inside her were getting ready to burst.

Already she could feel tears pricking the corner of her eyes.

Alice just looked up at her with those big honey eyes, daring her to say something.

She was pissed with Edward. But she was absolutely livid with Alice.

"You're my best friend, right?" Bella asked, voice wavering as she presented her query.

"I am," Alice answered with a nod as she slipped off the table to stand in front of the human.

Reaching a small hand out, the vampire reached towards Bella, retracting her fingers at the last moment and balling them into a fist before bringing her entire arm back to her side.

"Bella, I love you, you're my best friend," Alice reiterated. "I promise you are."

She sounded so unsure after speaking it, however, and it made Bella's anxiety rise.

"Then why are you leaving me?" Bella yelled around a sob that tore its way out. "I have your phone number. Your email. Would you have messaged or just left me completely?"

The older girl chewed on her lip before her eyes fell to the ground.

"I would have left your life completely. It's what Edward-"

"Fuck what he wants! I don't want to lose you." Bella reached out and clasped her hands around Alice's thin wrists. "You can't just force your way into my life and then leave as if none of it meant anything."

"Bella-"

"I've repeated the same day over and over and over now. I don't know why, but it always ends with Edward breaking up with me. It sounds far-fetched and absolutely insane, but I'm really experiencing this and it's awful and it hurts."

Alice turned her wrists so her fingers were now laced with Bella's own.

Bella trembled as those cold digits rubbed soothing circles into her skin. Alice was always gentle with her, she knew she wouldn't bruise from those fingers pressing into her skin.

"I'm sorry," Alice said softly. "But that's impossible, Bella. There's no set-in-stone timeline until someone makes a decision. There's no way to repeat the past."

"I don't know how it's happening!" Bella shouted as tears ran freely down her cheeks. "Alice, please, believe me. Edward doesn't, but I need you to at least believe in this- this bullshit that's happening to me."

Alice looked pained at Bella's panicked begging.

Reaching out, the smaller girl enveloped Bella in her arms, one hand placed on the back of Bella's head and leading her against a marble shoulder. Bella held onto Alice tightly, sobbing like a child as she allowed Alice to hold her up.

Bella didn't care that she was in the driveway of the Cullen household, nor the fact several other vampires were likely within hearing distance of her mini-breakdown. She just wanted to have her predicament believed in at this point. She wanted someone to understand and help her out of it.

For a while, the two stayed like that. Alice hummed low in her throat, not quite her usual purr, but an obvious attempt at soothing the distraught teenager nonetheless.

After a while the sobs tapered off into sniffles and whines, and eventually Bella pulled back to wipe her face clean of salt and tears.

"Why do you think you're repeating the same day, Bella?" Alice asked after the girl had calmed down significantly.

Bella sniffled a few more times before clearing her throat and retelling the past few days. How she was first broken up with by Edward, being abandoned in the forest, and becoming so lost a search party was sent out and she almost froze to death. She talked about going to school the next day. How the date didn't change. How Edward was there as if nothing happened and how it was like a finger in a wound to see him smile.

She recounted the next day after that one, how she skipped school and went to see the Cullen's, how Alice had originally stated time cannot repeat like that. How Carlisle, Edward, and she had just left after Edward once again dumped her. The next day where she just went to school like nothing happened and made a list that specifically sought Alice out.

Alice listened to everything with an unreadable expression.

Bella waited with bated breath and an increasing heart rate after she spewed out her guts to her best friend. Would Alice believe her? Would she just run away like yesterday?

Bella trembled in place as she chewed on her inner cheek and desperately tried not to just collapse and start earnestly crying.

She was so tired of crying.

"And you're sure this isn't a dream?" she asked after Bella finished explaining the past few day(s) to her.

"It's not a dream. It's a nightmare," Bella said as she rubbed her eyes. "But no matter what, I keep waking up in it. I'm scared. Is this my forever now? Will I have to repeat this day over and over until I either somehow break it or die?"

"Hold on," Alice instructed.

Alice's eyes glazed over and she looked completely through Bella.

The human knew that expression though, the future-seeing vampire was trying to shift through the many timelines that surrounded her, trying to assuage Bella's fear somehow and give her an answer.

However, when Alice came back to the present, she looked panicked, more panicked than Bella had ever seen the other woman.

Maybe outside the time James was hunting me, Bella thought.

Her grip on Bella's wrists had tightened, almost uncomfortably so.

"Bella, I can't see you," Alice said, tone sharp, panicked. "I tried to look for any timeline with you so I can try and calm you down, and I can't see anything with you in it. Not in my future, not in your own, and not with Edward."

"What does that mean?" Bella asked as she rubbed at her temple in growing agitation.

A headache was starting to form in this surprisingly new situation.

"The only time I can't see someone is when-" Alice looked shaken. "Death. That's the only time. Bella, I swear if you're going to try something stupid-"

A flush of indignation colored her cheeks at the accusation she would kill herself.

Okay, so on the stupid list she made yesterday suicide was an option, but she was just being facetious. She would never actually attempt to take her own life.

How could she stay with the Cullen's-with Edward- if she were dead?

"I'm not suicidal Alice," Bella hissed out, snatching her hands away from Alice in her anger.

"Bella, this scares me," Alice replied as she suddenly was on alert, eyes darting around the perimeter as she looked for any potential danger. "I've never not been able to see someone's future."

The vampire started growling low in her chest, making the hair on the back of Bella's neck stand on end from the ferocity of the noise.

"Go inside. I can keep you safe there."

Alice gently nudged Bella's arm, trying to guide the human through the threshold of the almost empty Cullen coven home.

Going through all the personal effects were gone, replaced with plain white walls and empty rooms. It was jarring and made Bella want to turn around and leave.

However, on autopilot, Bella went through the house and up to Alice's room as the vampire rumbled menacingly close behind her, almost following step for step.

Once the door clicked shut, Bella sat on the bare floor in the middle of the room. The bed and sitting area Alice had so intricately crafted were gone, packed away in another moving van and off to wherever the Cullens were going after today.

Alice's growling had tapered off finally as soon as the door closed. Leaning against the wood, the small vampire breathed a breath of relief.

"Sorry," Alice grumbled, eyes closed and head back against the door as she leaned against it. "I hate getting all- whatever, but you're important to me. I'm going to protect you as long as I'm around."

"But you're willing to just leave me defenseless because of Edward's whims?"

When Alice opened her eyes, the pretty topaz shade was visibly darker, bordering on burnt amber.

"You don't understand, Bella," Alice sighed as her eyes slipped shut again.

Bella threw up her hands in exasperation and laid out on the floor.

She was being childish, almost throwing a tantrum, but she wanted answers.

"Then help me understand."

"We're all drawn to you," Alice said as she slid down the door and sat cross-legged on the floor. "Your blood calls all of us, but no one is more drawn to you than Edward. Personally, I think you're what we call his Singer. Your blood is more delectable, more wanted by him than any other vampire in existence."

She paused and heaved out a sigh.

"It's why when you two first met he was so wishy-washy around you. He was constantly fighting himself with wanting to kill you and drain you dry. But on your birthday when you received the papercut… and then being thrown into glassware…"

Bella's arm burned. Her stitches itched.

She resisted the urge to rub at the still-healing wound.

Alice opened her eyes again.

This time they were pitch black.

The vampire moved to crawl over to the human on her hands and knees, leonine in all her glory in her calculated movements. In this moment she truly was a monster that threatened Bella's life.

Bella watched with wide, doe-like eyes as the older woman slowly moved closer. She could hear her heartbeat in her ears and knew with flushed knowledge that the fluttering muscle was easily discernible by heightened senses.

Alice hovered over Bella, caging the human in with her marble body.

Bella should have felt threatened.

She never felt more safe.

"You have no idea how badly I wanted to eat you alive when your blood began to flow in earnest," Alice admitted, voice rougher than Bella had ever heard before. "It's not safe for you to be with us. We love you. This is us looking out for you."

"You can change me," Bella whispered as she looked up at the predator above her. "Make me stronger."

Alice laughed, rich and throaty, and shook her head as if she couldn't believe what Bella was asking for.

She leaned down and pressed their foreheads together. Bella watched as amber melted away the icy blackness in Alice's eyes as the two just breathed and shared space together and the vampire relaxed.

"Every day you flirt with death openly," Alice chastised her, but the sting was muted with her smiling eyes. "How did we as a family ever get so lucky to find a doll like you? You're a dime. I can't believe my brother wants to give you up."

"He's an idiot," Bella deadpanned.

Alice barked out a laugh and nodded enthusiastically.

"Completely."

Bella grinned, but the feelings in her chest were bittersweet.

She wrapped her arms around the small vampire and held her close. They were always affectionate with each other since she learned about the Cullens' secret. The pair were always touching or holding hands or cuddling whenever they were around each other. It was just weird to do this on a bare floor in an empty room in an almost vacant house.

Lying on the floor, laughing and holding one another while knowing by the end of the day everything would be ripped away again. It was an awful feeling to know that right now until she found an answer for everything, nothing mattered.

Bella's phone chirped in her pocket, and she knew intrinsically it was Edward asking where she was.

She had limited time now to get Alice on her side before Edward ruined everything by showing up.

"I don't want you to leave."

"I'm not going anywhere, Bella."

"No, you are. You want to protect me, so you're going to leave me by the day's end. It's how it always goes."

"I do want to protect you," Alice said as she moved to curl up into the warmth of Bella's body. "You're stubborn, though. You won't let us do what's right for you."

"Maybe it's not right, though."

Alice reached up to cup the side of Bella's face. Her long fingers brushed over the apple of her cheek and Bella could feel the blood rush to color the skin the vampire touched.

"Bella, let us care for you. Let us protect you the only way we know how."

The teenager shook her head in disapproval and placed her hand over Alice's.

"Don't leave me. I- I'd be a mess without you all. Alice, you don't understand. I know you think this is some teenage rebellion 'woe is me' bullshit, but I swear, I would be shattered without Edward. Without you. Without your family."

Bella blinked rapidly, trying to stop the pooling of tears that threatened her tear ducts once again. Fuck, her eyes burned constantly anymore it felt like. If she never cried again, it would be too soon.

"At least give me today. One more day with you, Alice," Bella begged.

"Wouldn't you rather spend it with Edward?" Alice asked with a tilt of her head and a puzzled expression.

"Until I can figure out why I'm experiencing the same day again and again it's pointless to spend the day with him. We would just fight and he'd dump me and abandon me wherever we were. I don't want a good moment ruined by an argument."

Alice sighed and flopped flat onto her back. She said nothing for a moment, and Bella thought she might have fucked up her day with Alice, too, before the tiny vampire piped up.

"I can't see you, Bella," Alice reiterated. "I don't know what that means, but I'm scared and protective of you right now. I don't want to go anywhere until I know you're safe."

Turning her eyes back to Bella, she offered the girl a weak smile.

"You have an hour to convince me this is real. Do or say something that proves you're in a time loop, and if you manage to, I'll help you break out of it."

Bella's heart fluttered in hope.