Warning: Story will definitely be earning its M rating for some graphic...well you'll see. Thanks to yourgrandmother for beta'ing and to all those who reviewed/favorited/alerted.

She was certain she had never experienced so much sensory overload in her life. After the pain dissipated, a thousand new sensations began to take its place. A washing machine rumbled several floors below her but she could hear every rumble, every button smacking into the metal wall of the machine. Electricity in the house hummed. Tools clattered as they were dropped on pavement. Outside, a bird was building a nest in a tall nearby tree. The clothes she was wearing had been washed recently with Tide detergent. Something in the room smelled tart, sweet and spicy, like green apples with cinnamon. It also smelled of the outdoors: freshly mowed grass, dirt and honeysuckle. Her eyes fluttered open and she examined her hand. She wondered if her hand had always been that smooth and perfectly proportioned.

She was attempting to sort out these sensations when Alice cleared her throat. Bella's first thought upon seeing Edward was that he was quite simply, the most attractive man she had ever seen, despite his red contacts. She barely registered the presence of the petite black-haired girl next to him. All of his visible skin was the same shade of smooth perfect ivory. He was tall and slim, but obviously muscled. Bella could see the sinew of his forearms bulge as he crossed his arms across a defined chest. Untidy reddish-brown hair fell over a strong brow. His face was masculine with a chiseled jaw and a straight angular nose. His blank face did nothing to betray his thoughts as he watched her scramble off the bed. She instinctively knew that it was him who smelled like apples and spice.

Alice smiled sweetly while Bella took in her surroundings. She was in a large bedroom outfitted in expensive-looking oak furniture. Tall shelves full of books, cds, and knick knacks, took up an entire wall. Another wall was completely glass and offered a view of the surrounding forest.

"Where am I?" she asked.

"At our home, in Forks," answered Edward, in a slightly bored albeit silky voice.

"Forks…" Bella repeated to herself, trying to remember why that name was significant.

Alice and Edward paused.

"I'm Alice, and this is Edward," Alice introduced herself and gesticulated towards Edward.

"I'm…" She was surprised to find she didn't know. She started to panic while Edward and Alice watched her expectantly.

"What do you remember?" Alice gently prodded.

"I'm not sure. " Her mind was still muddled.

"We found you, near the woods. You were hurt, so we brought you back here." Alice spoke very clearly, like she was speaking to a small child.

"Why didn't you bring me to the hospital?" She asked.

"We can't. They wouldn't know what to do with you. You're a vampire." Edward explained, still maintaining a bored expression while he studied his nails.

Bella started to smile hesitantly as she thought was expected of her. Alice just glared at Edward.

"Bella! My name is Bella," she announced triumphantly.

Alice gave her a warm smile and said, "Nice to meet you, Bella."

Bella furrowed her brow and asked, "So what happened? What do you mean I was hurt?"

"You were driving with your dad. A car was driving recklessly and your father pulled it over. The driver…shot your father and you. "

Bella knew what Alice said to be true. Hazy images swam through her brain: Charlie's body jerking like a puppet cut from strings, her own hands clamoring for her seatbelt, and emotionless eyes staring into her own for a brief moment before all went black.

"And Charlie? Where is he?" Bella asked, her voice muffled by the hand that was covering her mouth.

"We're very sorry for your loss," Edward added. Bella's eyes sprang open in shock and darted between Alice and Edward.

"I need to get out of here," She announced.

"Wait!" Alice called out as Bella crossed the room towards the door.

Ignoring Alice, Bella pulled the doorknob right out of the wooden frame. She paused for a moment before dropping the doorknob and using the hole in the door to pull it open. She found her way down the stairs and out the front door. In her single-mindedness, she only got vague impressions of the house she was running through. Overall, it was light and airy, and filled with expensive antiques.

She took two steps outside before a strong arm snaked around her waist and pulled her back against a muscular chest.

"There's nowhere for you to go; besides, we have to talk." Edward sneered from behind her. His arm was firmly wrapped around her abdomen but he obviously wasn't expecting too much resistance. She thought she might be able to get away if he wasn't paying attention.

"I have to see my dad. I need to get to a hospital."

"You're fine; you're in perfect physical condition."

"Then why is my throat burning?"

Edward paused and Bella used that opportunity of his apparent distraction to twist out of his grip and start running again. She made it three steps before Edward grabbed her around her waist once more. He spun her around until she was facing him and he gripped her shoulders in a firm yet painless hold.

"Don't you feel altered? Aren't your senses enhanced? Did you always unintentionally destroy doors?"

"You've given me drugs." Bella's voice gained speed, "That's the only explanation. I'm high and that's what is making everything so bright and loud. I could be hallucinating right now. You could be a hallucination." Edward grabbed her wrist with one hand and used the other to pinch the bridge of his nose.

"Say you're right. We kidnapped you to drug you for our own amusement. Do you really think it's wise to go running around in your drug-addled state? And if you hallucinated breaking a door, then how did I know about it?"

"You're also a hallucination, see? I'm done arguing with the sexiest figment of my imagination. Let me go."

She jerked her arm but Edward's hand was firmly clamped on her wrist.

"Take a walk with me. What could it hurt?" he asked, then paused," If I'm a hallucination, that is."

Edward didn't relinquish his hold on her wrist and Bella was too confused and disoriented to protest. He pulled her in the direction of the woods.

"How do I know you're not luring me out to the woods to kill me?"

"I could have killed you already, when you were unconscious or at any time since you've woken up. Besides, I have no qualms about committing murders indoors. What makes you think you'd be safer there?"

"Plus, I'm a figment of your imagination." Edward added as an afterthought.

"Really?" Bella gasped.

"No."

Edward dragged Bella by the hand through the woods over bramble and rocks. He was trying to ignore the warmth that was tingling in his hand when he detected the scent of what he was looking for.

"Mmm, something smells nice." Bella broke the silence. Edward tried to hide a smile. He continued to lead her in the direction of the scent. After instructing her to be quiet, they continued to creep up to a small clearing where a doe and several fawns were grazing.

Edward pulled Bella down next to him behind some rocks. Bella looked uncomfortable. She was biting her lip and shifting in her crouched position. Edward leaned in close to her ear and whispered, "What are your instincts telling you to do?"

She looked taken aback at the question and his warm sweet breath on her face. She leaned to the other side of his ear and their skin grazed. "To chase it," She murmured and they both looked back towards the clearing.

"Do you still think this is a drug-induced delusion?"

"Yes."

Exasperated, Edward turned to her. "How do you explain your heightened senses?"

"It's like when someone gets a hangover and everything seems louder and brighter…"

Edward sighed, "Why don't you follow your instincts? Then maybe you'll believe this is real."

"I couldn't catch a deer, even if part of me wants to."

"Try. What's the worst that could happen? If you do end up catching it, you could just let it go."

Bella stood slowly from behind their hiding place. She looked to Edward who gave her a reassuring nod, and then surveyed the deer. They took no notice of her and continued grazing. She concentrated on the fawn that was closest to her which was still over a hundred feet away. She made a beeline for the fawn and while the deer took notice and attempted to gallop away, the fawn didn't stand a chance. She grabbed it by its neck and before she could register what she was doing, she had torn through its neck with her teeth and was suctioning out the blood. The tight burning in her throat immediately abated. Her eyes fluttered closed as she took three long pulls and when no more blood was to be had, she stopped with her mouth still on the fawn's neck.

As her eyes opened, she threw the offensive deer carcass back into the brush. Bella stared at it for a minute but looked up when Edward strolled towards her with a self-satisfied smirk adorning his flawless face. Fear and confusion caused her body to tremble. .She stomped to him and used her small hands to push ineffectually at his broad chest. "What is going on?" she snarled at him savagely.

"I thought you had it all figured out. This is a hallucination, remember?" his mocking voice only served to incense her more and she pushed again at his chest with no result.

"Fine. I'm going to sit here and wait for the effects of this drug to wear off." She sat down cross-legged in the middle of the clearing. Edward sat a few feet away. Darkness was starting to fall but Bella found that she could still see everything clearly and in perfect detail. She probably wouldn't have noticed it was getting dark at all except for the different shading of colors the night provided. She was studying blades of grass and trying to ignore the infuriatingly beautiful boy who was staring at her.

"Can I help you with something?" she finally asked.

"Just waiting for you to realize you're a vampire," he paused, "and then for you to have a nervous breakdown." Bella glanced in the direction that she had thrown the deer . She had avoided looking at it, and was hoping it was part of this grand illusion and she really hadn't just killed it. A centipede was crawling on a tree far a great distance away and Bella occupied her eyes by counting its legs.

"Say I am a vampire and I believe you. What happened?"

"You were driving with your father in his patrol car. He pulled a car over. The driver shot him, and you. My family was hunting nearby and I smelled your blood. I couldn't resist. I bit you, and brought you back to my family's home to turn." Edward finished his succinct summation with no expression betraying his inner turmoil. He was almost sad that she was about to realize that there would be no waking up from this new reality.

"I didn't dream the part about Charlie?" she asked, her bottom lip quivering.

"I'm sorry but he's gone."

"I want to see him."

"I would take you but you can't be around humans yet. Remember how little control you had with the deer? Humans are a hundred times more tempting."

Bella lay back on the grass to stare at the sky. Her thoughts revolved around every memory she ever had of Charlie. Him pulling her out of tide pools when she was young. Charlie fishing. His excitement that she was coming to live with him. The car ride to Forks. Edward and Bella sat in perfect silence and stillness for hours while Bella processed this new information. She listened to the movement of the forest. The din of nature no longer seemed like an assault on her ears, but just normal background noise.

"Why are you still here?"

"You're my responsibility. I have to make sure you don't kill any humans."

"Did vampire social services put you in charge of me?" Bella asked with a snort of derision. How and why did I imagine such an attractive but callous asshole? She thought.

"In a way…" Bella lifted her head and gave him a questioning look. Edward rolled his eyes and replied, "It's tradition. When a vampire turns another they take responsibility for them and teach them the rules of our world."

"What happens now?"

"We go to Alaska until you can be control your impulses around humans."

Bella felt something within her snap. An uncomfortable trickle of doubt was worming its way through her mind. The effects of drugs were not wearing off. She was not waking up. She considered the options. Either she had been altered in a fundamental way, or she was still under the effects of a drug that would make her senses so much more acute and allowed her increased agility and strength. No drug could make her fast enough to catch a deer, or crave the blood that pumped in its veins. The option of her being stuck in a dream seemed less and less likely. Everything was too bright and invasive for this to be her imagination. Edward was too attractive to be a part of her imagination. Bella resolved to operate under the assumption for now that she was in fact a vampire, and to wait and see what happened.

"I'm not going to Alaska."

"Yes, you are. You have nowhere else to go, unless you want to responsible for the deaths of countless innocent people."

"Why can't I stay here?"

"This is a little too close to people we have to avoid." Edward proceeded to explain about the treaty between his family and the Quileutes. Because of the nature of the story, he found it easier to start with Carlisle and the origin of the members of his family. Bella sat and took in all the information with interest but was unconvinced that these characters were real. The stories of Carlisle, Emmett, Rosalie, Esme, and Jasper sounded like really interesting works of fiction and not the histories of people that were about to be a major part of her life. Even Alice and Edward who she had seen and spoken with, didn't seem real. It's as if I am watching myself from far away, thought Bella, I care, but I'm detached. I can walk away.

-----------------------

Edward finished relaying the biographies of his family and allowed the sounds of the forest to fill the silence. Bella hadn't moved a millimeter since halfway through his story. Anyone who didn't know better would just see a beautiful pale corpse lying in a small field of tall grass. Rain lightly drizzled down on them both.

"Hey. You still with me?"

No answer. He crawled over to her and waved his hand in front of his face. She didn't even blink. He raised his hand as if to strike her. He brought his hand down a centimeter from her face. Still, no response. She had gone catatonic in her shock.