Chapter One

BPOV

The men came toward me, evil glinting in their eyes. I racked my brains for self-defence techniques but came up with next to nothing.

One grabbed my wrists and held them behind my back. I let out a shriek of pain, and the one looming in front of me slapped his dirty hand over my mouth.

"None of that now sweetheart," he attempted to croon at me. "Don't want anyone to hear ya, now do we?" The men chuckled and I whipped my head around. There was no escape. I was in a back alley in the city of Port Angeles, Washington. I had been searching for a bookstore when I had begun to be stalked by these creepers. Jessica and Angela had no idea where I was.

In short, I was screwed. These men were going to have their way with me.

"Get away from me!" I yelled, but it came out as a mumble from behind the man's hand. The men's laughter increased and they inched closer. The man with his hand on my mouth used his free hand to trace his way down my body to the top of my jeans. I flinched away.

"Mmm, nice curves, boys," the man declared, moving his hand over and undoing the button on the top of my jeans. I attempted to move away from his hand, but the man holding my wrists held me in place. I whimpered and the man's grin split his face right in half.

With that, the men had their way. There was nothing I could do. I was defenceless. Hands were on my body and I could barely stand it. I could feel my clothes being removed, but my mind became strangely far away. Every move they made against my body was there, but it was like I wasn't.

After a long while, the men were gone and I was able to sit up. I pulled my clothes on, feeling absolutely disgusting. I curled up against the wall, fighting the tears. I was fine. Nothing had happened. I was trying to convince myself of this when Angela and Jessica rounded the corner.

"Bella! There you are!" Jessica exclaimed. I looked up at them and nodded weakly.

"We got worried when you didn't show up for dinner, so we came looking for you," Angela explained. She surveyed the area, and then turned back to me. "Are you okay?"

I got up from my position cowering against the wall shakily. "I'm fine. I just got scared and sat down to rest," I lied.

Jessica and Angela exchanged a look and gave me an once-over. I looked down at myself and cringed. My jeans were ripped up the leg at one spot and my shirt was twisted out of place still. I fixed my shirt and looked back at my friends.

"Really? What happened to your jeans?" Jessica asked. I sighed. I just wanted to pretend it hadn't happened, and Jessica was making that difficult.

"Nothing. Don't tell anyone anything about... this, please?" I begged them. They looked skeptical, but they nodded and I let the breath I hadn't realized I'd been holding out.

"Thanks, guys. Now, I don't know about you, but I'm starving," I linked arms with Jessica and Angela and dragged them out onto the brightly lit sidewalk.

"Yeah, me too," Jessica agreed.

"Me three!" Angela chimed in. I laughed softly and let them lead me down the sidewalk, listening intently to their conversation. Thoughts of the attack nudged the edge of my mind, but I blocked them out, instead focusing on Jess and Angela's banter about which lead guy in the latest box office chick flick was hottest.

"Who do you think, Bella?" Jess finally thought to ask me when we reached the restaurant we had planned to meet at earlier. Not having seen the movie they were talking about I shrugged.

"Um... I agree with Angela," I said. Angela cheered.

"Yeah, Bella! We are so right and she is so wrong," Angela rallied. I giggled at Angela's antics as we stood at the front of the restaurant to wait to be seated. The laugh sounded wrong, even to my ears.

I was scanning the area to see if someone was coming to seat us when I saw him. Edward Cullen. He was sitting at a table with his sister, Alice. He looked up just as my eyes fell on him and our eyes met. I blushed crimson and looked away hastily.

"...good guy? Right Bella?" Angela was saying something and I snapped my attention back to her.

"Sorry, what?"

"I was just saying: why would you want the bad guy when you can have the good guy?" I shrugged. They were still discussing movies.

"What were you staring at, Bella?" Jessica asked. I blushed again and she scanned the room. "Oh! Edward," she giggled.

"I didn't stare at him," I denied. It was true; it had only been a glance.

"Whatever," Jessica scoffed.

"Hello and welcome to La Bella Italia. Party of three?" We nodded and the hostess seated us three tables away from where Edward and Alice were sitting.

"So, what kind of coincidence is it that Edward and his sister picked the same restaurant as us to eat at?" Jessica said from behind her menu.

"Shut up, Jess. They're right there!" I growled at her under my breath. "And it's not the much of a coincidence. It's not like there's that many restaurants in Port Angeles to choose from."

"Touchy, touchy," Jess said before burying her face back in the menu. I sighed. I wanted to go home now, but it would be rude to ignore my friends. Plus, they were distracting me.

That thought didn't make me feel any better, but the sudden appearance of Edward Cullen next to our table did.

"Hi," Edward said.

EPOV

I watched as Bella and her friends came in the door and stood to wait to be seated. I tensed up as Jessica and Angela's thoughts came to me: Jessica's apparently annoyed because Bella wasn't telling them something, and Angela's worried for her friend. I scanned Bella's appearance. She looked strangely dirty: Bella's clothes were usually very clean and proper. The jeans she was wearing were ripped. I frowned; was she going grunge, or had something happened to her?

Bella giggled at something Angela had said and my frown deepened. Bella's laugh wasn't usually so fake sounding. She seemed to zone out of the conversation and started to look around the restaurant. I quickly looked over at Alice until I felt her eyes fall on me. Then I looked up and met her eyes. The depths of them looked troubled. What had she been getting into this afternoon while I was just sitting in my house? I should have known she would get into trouble; she was like a danger magnet.

I sighed and Alice tapped my arm, forcing me to break eye contact with Bella.

"Hey. I thought you invited me to dinner so we could talk," Alice raised an eyebrow at me jokingly. She knew full well I had only wanted to spy on Bella. It had taken all my family's force to convince me that I had to stay home and hang out with them earlier. Playing chess with Alice was so pointless. Bella needed protection. I sighed yet again.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," I replied.

"C'mon, Edward. Why the sigh?" Alice persisted.

"It's just Bella. She seems... not herself," I told Alice. She looked up and followed Bella and her friend's as they followed the hostess to a nearby table. They sat down and started to talk in hushed whispers. I, of course, could hear them perfectly through Angela's mind.

"So, what kind of coincidence is it that Edward and his sister picked the same restaurant as us to eat at?" Jessica asked. Angela scoffed in her head.

"Shut up, Jess. They're right there!" Bella hissed. "And it's not the much of a coincidence. It's not like there's that many restaurants in Port Angeles to choose from."

"Touchy, touchy," Jessica said. I blinked furiously. Neither Angela nor Jessica was acknowledging the fact the Bella was hurt somehow. I couldn't take it any longer. I had to speak to her, learn more about her condition.

I then found myself walking the short space between Bella's table and mine, Alice calling out after me in her thoughts, surprised at my actions. I waved off her attempts with a flick of my hand and stood next to the table.

"Hi," I said. Bella blinked up at me.

"Hi, Edward," Jessica said, looking up at me through her eyelashes and fluttering them. I fought the urge to roll my eyes—I would vomit if I could. All over Jessica, of course. I smirked.

"Hello. I just wanted to see how you girls were doing," I said, trying to make my voice sound as normal as I could; to not let any of my overwhelming concern shine through.

"We're doing fine," Angela said, smiling up at me. Her mind was completely pure though, she wasn't trying to hit on me at all. I really like Angela.

"That's good," I said, flashing a smile back at Angela. "How about you, Bella?"

"I-I'm fine." She stuttered at the beginning of the sentence, barely enough for human ears to notice, but I sure noticed.

"Really? What have you girls been doing all day?" I asked, prying for information. Jessica opened her mouth to talk, but Bella cut her off.

"Oh, not too much," she said, looking at her menu. "Just dress shopping, hanging around. The usual Port Angeles stuff." Bella shot a glare at Jessica and Angela that obviously had hidden meaning. It wasn't so hidden from me, however.

"She must be hiding what happened in the alleyway... I wonder why... maybe I'll mention it anyways... nah." Jessica's thoughts were on Bella, picturing her cowered against a brick wall in an alleyway.

Angela was picturing the same thing, but her thoughts were much nicer. "I wonder what happened; I hope she's okay... she seems to not want to talk about it, but it would probably be good for her to do so..."

The image of Bella poor and defenceless angered me. I gripped the edge of the table, only just keeping my strength in check as to not actually splinter the wood. I wanted to find whoever had done this to Bella and kill them in the worst way possible.

"Sounds like fun," I managed to say through the haze of my anger. "Have a good meal."

I walked away stiffly, sitting down across from Alice and staring at her, yet not seeing her. Instead I was seeing faceless men hurting Bella. I imagined myself killing them in a variety of ways.

"Edward?" Alice asked. "What happened?"

"She's hurt. And it's their fault. If I ever find out who did this..." I trailed off, clenching my fists. Alice understood completely.

"We'll find out who it was. Just focus on protecting Bella right now, okay? Don't go hunting them down, you wouldn't know where to start."

"I'd find them. I'd find them and make them pay," I hissed, probably a little too loud, judging by the stares and thoughts of the people around us.

"Look, Edward, you need to get out of here. Jessica and Angela will be sure not to let Bella out of their sight again, and—"

"NO!" I whispered fiercely. "I am staying here, and I am driving Bella home."

Alice's shoulders sagged. "I can see I won't persuade you, but please, Edward, be careful." I nodded and watched her leave.

I then turned my thoughts to Angela, watching them have dinner through her eyes. When they were done, I approached the table again.

BPOV

"Bella." I looked up from my plate, which I had been running a fork over the top of to make lines in the chocolate syrup, to see Edward hovering next to the table.

"Yes?" I asked. Angela and Jessica had gone off to the bathroom, leaving me here alone.

"I was wondering if you would do me the honour of driving you home," Edward asked me. It was purely the smile he was giving me that made me say yes without even a thought about Angela or Jessica.

Jess and Angela caught up with us at the door. "Where are you going, Bella?" Jess asked, raising her eyebrows in Edward's direction. I blushed.

"Edward's going to drive me home, is that alright?" Jessica looked indignant, and was no doubt going to protest, but Angela didn't give her a chance.

"That's fine, perfectly fine. Right, Jess?" she said, elbowing Jessica in the ribs. I smirked.

"Yeah, fine," Jessica grumbled.

~*~

The car ride was silent for about ten minutes before my random gazing around spotted the odometer.

"Edward! Slow down!" I shrieked. Edward looked at me with an expression of confusion.

"I'm not going fast," he said. I widened my eyes at him.

"You're going 150! And keep your eyes on the road!" I yelled. Edward sighed and looked back at the road, pressing down on the brakes so that we were going 80mph.

"This is too slow," Edward mumbled. I snorted.

"You may live if we become a Volvo pretzel," I said, pointing at him, "but I will not." I pointed to myself. Edward winced, and then glanced at me out the corner of his eye.

"How do you know I'd live? Aren't I just as likely as you to die?" he challenged me. I shook my head.

"Edward. Both you and I know that you are not normal. You can move impossibly fast, you have incredible strength, your skin is cold all the time, you don't go out in the sun." I paused to take a deep breath. "You're something else."

Edward sighed. "What exactly am I, then?" he asked. My throat closed up. He was going to make me say it. "Say it, Bella," he said, looking more vampire like than I had ever seen him.

"Vampire," I whispered, looking at my lap. Edward nodded, a grim look on his face.

"What happened to you, anyways?" he asked me. My head shot up.

"What? What do you mean?"

"I mean, Angela and Jessica lost track of you tonight, and when they found you, you weren't exactly in the greatest state." I breathed in deeply. Damn, Jessica. She must have told Edward at some point. Now avoiding the... incident was even harder.

"Nothing. I just wandered off looking for a bookstore, and got lost. Jessica and Angela found me," I said nonchalantly. I held my breath. Please believe me, please believe me, please.

"Oh. Why are your jeans torn, then?" he asked. I let out the breath. He seemed to believe me. Thank you.

"I tripped and they got caught on something," I told him off the top of my head. Edward nodded thoughtfully.

"You're lucky," Edward said finally, after a few minutes of silence.

"Why?" I asked, though I thought I knew what he meant.

"There are a lot of... not so nice people in Port Angeles. It's a wonder you didn't run into any of them." My heart almost stopped. He hadn't been fooled, had he? He knew. He must know. I couldn't let him know. So I played along.

"Yeah, it's a rarity that I don't run into such things. I'm a danger magnet," I joked. Edward looked very serious, however, and my heart sunk.

"I've noticed," he said dryly. We didn't say anything more until he pulled up to the curb in front of my house. It was such an awkward drive; I wondered why I had even accepted. But one look at Edward's face and I knew why. Dazzling...

"Well, bye," I said, opening the door. "See you at school tomorrow?" Edward nodded and I got out, shutting the door behind me. The window rolled down, and I heard Edward's quiet and melodic voice drift out.

"Goodbye, Bella." He sounded so sad it almost made my heart break.

"Bye, Edward," I said softly as he drove away. Any normal human wouldn't have been able to hear me, but I knew he could.

AN: Whoo, I'm done, thank god. You know how long I've been working on this? Since March 23rd. And it's not even long. *sigh*

It probably sucks. Feel free to tell me so in your review. Thanks for reading this far! BTW, everything that happened in Twilight up to this point has happened. The only difference is that the Cullens convinced Edward to stay home and play chess.

Thanks to R.M.J. Lennixx for beta'ing!! I love you fereva! :D

There's a review incentive for this chapter, too: a look at an alternate first chapter. That's if you a) review and b) gimme your email so I can send it. :D Warning though: this version is much, much better. Don't judge me by my alternates. :P