(Bella)

My hand moved almost robotically as I labored over my graphite drawing, completely lost in thought. Drawing new lines, blending shadows and applying highlights with my white colored pencil, I barely focused on the actual artwork and more on my racing thoughts. What happened at the meadow earlier replayed in my head over and over.

Alice, the gigantic wolves, the silver wolf in particular. I didn't know what to make of it all. More importantly, I didn't know what my next move would be. I could only assume from what little I had learned from Alice, that she had come back to Forks on her own accord. Whether or not the Cullens knew she was here, or what her intentions had been, I didn't know. Alice had seemed actually afraid of the wolves, she had run from them. Whatever they were, they certainly weren't normal wolves, not if they were actually dangerous to a vampire.

Did they actually manage to catch her? Did she survive?

If she survived, it would only be a matter of time before she came back for me. And if she didn't… would that make the Cullen's return to Forks sooner? Would they blame me? What could I possibly do about it? Did they even know Alice had returned? Had she really come back alone?

How could she not survive, couldn't she foresee any attack? I shook my head. Somehow, I didn't think so. If she could have foreseen them to begin with, she wouldn't have risked confronting me in the meadow. Alice wasn't one to take unnecessary risks, not when she could foretell the preferred outcome, and she had been down right terrified of them. She was confident she would find me there, and confident she would kill me.

And why had they chased her, but left me alone?

Why didn't they kill me, too? I'm only a pathetic human, surely I'd make an easier prey than a vampire. There were certainly plenty of them, and I had been so close to them….

"Wow, honey, that's a gorgeous wolf you're drawing, you've always had a talent for it-"

I nearly jumped out of my skin.

"Oh, sorry, Bella, I didn't mean to sneak up on you. I forgot how engrossed you get in your art…" I turned around in the kitchen chair I had been lounging in, trying to still my speeding heart. Charlie had walked in without me noticing him, he carried a steaming bag of food from our favorite dinner in town.

"I, uh- w-welcome home, dad. I didn't hear you come in…"

He walked around the table and placed the bag down and then headed into the kitchen area to the refrigerator, carrying back two cans of cola as he spoke.

"I bet, you were so focused. You must have been at it for hours, I can't wrap my head around how you managed to draw such beautiful silver fur with just a pencil…"

I tuned my dad out for a minute and looked down at my drawing. Deep in thought, I had only planned on drawing a graphite portrait of one of the wolves I had encountered today in the meadow, I hadn't realized I had intentionally drawn the silver one…. What's wrong with me?

"... anyway, I figured after a day outdoors, neither of us would want to cook when we got home." He continued as he began divvying out the food. I closed my sketchpad and placed it down on the empty chair beside me as Charlie handed me a paper wrapped sandwich and a small Styrofoam container of french fries. I took them gratefully, I hadn't eaten at all the entire day, my nerves were just too frayed. Now it was close to seven o'clock in the evening.

"So, how was your hike? 'You kids encounter anything interesting?" Charlie asked casually as he prepared to take a bite out of his own sandwich.

"Uh, well, not really… how was fishing with Henry and Billy?" I tried to change the subject.

"Oh man, you should have seen the size of the salmon Henry caught today…."

Glad to see that it had worked, I relaxed just a centimeter as we ate dinner and listened to Charlie talk about his day, and even laughed with him when he talked about how drunk he had gotten with his friends. I had gotten used to pretending nothing was wrong while a giant anvil hung over my head, deep down I wondered if I would ever know anything different. Eventually I got brave enough to ask Charlie the question that had been burning in the back of my mind, before my little adventure today, that was.

"So… did Billy say anything about Jake?" I asked, apprehensive.

"I'm sorry kid, I tried to pry it out of him, but the old man gets more stubborn with every year." Charlie gave me a sympathetic look. "I'm sure Jake will come back around, honey. Whatever he's going through right now… I'm sure it'll be okay."

I nodded, my broken heart crumbling. I gently pushed the rest of my food away, I had lost my appetite.

"You sure you and your friends didn't… see anything odd while you were hiking today?"

I blanched. "I- uh, no, we didn't. Why do you ask?"

Charlie continued after a drink of his cola. "Good, good. I was a little hesitant to let you go today, but you said it was a group trip… you haven't heard about what's been going on near town?"

"No. What?"

"We've been getting reports back at the station from tourists and local hikers alike of some kind of wolf or bear problem. Some of the tourists have even made police reports, claiming the most preposterous things. I would normally chuck it up to out of towners' taking local urban legends a bit too seriously, but we've had reports of missing campers." He paused for a moment. "I'm glad to see you making friends and socializing, but for your old man's own piece of mind, how about you stick to town for a while?"

I swallowed. "Sure, dad."

Later that night I laid in my bed, listening to the dull sound of night crawlers and crickets from outside my window. My fate seemed to be completely up in the air and utterly out of my control, and it left me feeling despondent. I curled into a ball under my lavender quilt. I felt pathetic. I felt helpless. I felt broken.

More than anything I felt powerless.

I wanted the impossible. I craved it. To live a normal life. I never wanted to be dragged into the supernatural, I never wanted to be in the know about the undead, certainly never wanted to be shackled to one. Deep down, I wondered if a life full of cowardice was a life worth living at all.

Exhaustion from the day finally won out over my uncertainties and I fell into a deep sleep.

In my dream, I was running through the dark, dense forest, being chased by murky shadows. I stumbled as I blindly ran. The shadows twisted and turned different abstract shapes as they reached out and wrapped around my ankle, my leg, entrapped my arm, then my other arm. I cried out as I pushed forward as hard as I could, fighting to get out of their iron grip. It felt futile. Suddenly ahead, the giant silver wolf formed, its fur shining in the moonlight. I tried to extend my arm towards it. It took all of my might. Finally, I had managed to break one hand free and could now almost touch it, when the wolf howled and suddenly turned into a man. He was the most beautiful man I'd ever seen. His eyes met mine as he extended his own arm towards me, reaching out for me as I was for him, almost touching each other's fingertips….

Suddenly I was released, and the shadows with their haunting amber eyes slowly faded away with the darkness. All that remained was me, the beautiful stranger, and the glimmering moon overhead.

I jerked straight up in bed, trying to catch my breath as my pounding heart raced.