It wasn't until later that afternoon that it really sunk in that we were graduating in just a few short hours. Also, that it was really weird that we had a graduation on a Monday night. It was just slightly strange.

Alice held me captive in her bathroom all day, putting painstakingly thorough effort into choosing what I was going to wear under the putrid yellow graduation gown and doing my hair and make up. And while, yes, even I could admit that Alice did a pretty good job on my face, being her Barbie doll wasn't exactly my first choice of how to spend my day, especially after so much sleepless nights and the pounding headache I had.

"Bella, hold still!" Alice whined as she curled yet another tendril of my hair. It seemed like she was curling my hair strand by strand just so that it would take forever. "You're going to make me burn your hair off!"

"Are you almost done?" I asked for the umpteenth time. I knew I was being obnoxious and annoying but I honestly could care less how I looked. I didn't need to look good, especially today. Today was a liberation from the death camp they call high school. People never look good when they're being liberated.

Alice sprayed one last thing onto my hair with a flourish and turned off the curling iron. "You'd think I was shoving bamboo under your finger nails," she said and we both shuddered at that thought. "Well, you're done."

Alice really had found a way to make me look pretty. I stared into the mirror wishing I was one of those girls who naturally this pretty without layers of foundation and eyeliner on their faces.

"Now, this is how you should have looked on your wedding day," Alice said. She would eternally be disgusted by the fact that I had worn sweat pants to elope with Edward.

Edward was waiting for me downstairs. He took my hand as I plowed down the steps, carefully helping me balance so that I didn't fall in the stilettos Alice had had to basically strangle me into. Edward kissed me carefully on the lips.

"Watch the lipstick," Alice hissed from behind me.

Edward chuckled but ignored her. "I've missed you today."

"I blame Alice," I said with a smile.

The next few hours were a blur. The school gym was filled with people. Charlie, my father, was sitting in the back. He waved at me when he saw me walk into the smelling gym. I blushed slightly as I waved back, feeling bad for how little time I had spent with him since I had gotten married. I was going to have to make sure to change that before Edward and I went off to college in the fall.

We were ushered into a line in alphabetical order by the teachers. I was towards the front, behind Edward and Alice, bearing my new last name proudly. People gave me looks, obviously thinking about how I should be towards the back of the line with the S's instead. Edward smiled back at me reassuringly as music played and the valevictorian (the only person in the entire school with a GPA higher than my Edward's) said his speech. Then, Principal Greer started calling out names and the line sauntered forward slowly.

"Edward Cullen…Alice Cullen…Isabella Swa-Cullen," he finished, stuttering over my name.

I reached for his hand with one of my own and my diploma with the other, smiling out to the crowd as I started to make my way off stage.

My heart really did stop this time.

There, sitting in the front row, was me. Everything started to haze over and all I could see were the blinding lights that were aimed at me and her. She was smirking at me, her red eyes bearing into me like daggers. Her neck was still bloody and some of that blood was now dripping all over her neck that was exposed through her low-cut dress. The contrast of blood against her pale, white skin was awful and morbid. She looked down at the baby in her arms briefly and then back up at me to smile a big, toothy, evil grin at me.

"Bella?" Mr. Greer asked and only then did I realize that I had stopped moving. "Are you ok?"

I nodded and hurried off the stage. I looked back at the bleachers and she was still there. She was playing with the baby and sneaking looks at me. No one else seemed to notice the girl with the baby who looked exactly like me. I would think they were ignoring her except for the fact that she was drenched in blood.

Everyone else got their diplomas and we stood in a group, throwing our graduation caps into the air as Mr. Greer announced that we were done with high school. Forever. I kind of added the ecstatic forever on my own but I could tell everyone else was thinking the same thing. I managed to throw my cap half-heartedly but it came back down quickly. Edward excitedly lifted me off the ground and spun me through the air, kissing me.

Everyone was talking and laughing and hugging and kissing. I tried not to think about how I was going crazy as I was attacked with hugs. Angela and Jessica both told me to make sure that we kept in touch. Esme and Carlisle, Edward's adopted parents who both had model-worthy looks, pulled the two of us into a group hug.

"I'm expecting grandchildren soon," Esme whispered in my ear and I rolled my eyes.

Emmett nearly broke my back with his hug while Rosalie glared at me. Jasper shook my hand in his typical, overly formal way and then went to kiss Alice passionately. Finally, there was Charlie. Even though neither of us were all that comfortable with displays of affection, I hugged my dad hard.

"I've missed you, Bells," he told me.

"I've missed you, too, dad," I said, tears in my eyes. "I'm going to make sure to come over more often. Dinner tomorrow? Edward can cook."

Charlie took my bribe and smiled. Believe it or not, Edward could make almost anything and it would taste delicious. He watched way too much of the cooking channel as a kid.

"Sounds good, Bells," Charlie said. "I've gotta go keep the streets of Forks safe now, though. Is it ok if I miss the party?"

"Ugh, the party," I groaned. "I wouldn't force anyone to have to be part of that."

"Ok." Charlie looked relieved, like he almost thought I was going to insist that he come to Alice's superfluous graduation party. She had invited basically the whole town to the Cullen's big, white mansion. "Love you, Bella."

Charlie kissed the top of my head and then left. I had a moment to myself as no one was coming up to hug me or tell me to keep in touch or ask me about my plans for the summer. It was nice. Until someone tapped me on the shoulder.

I spun around, expecting it to be Mike or Eric or Tyler, just a few of the town's boys who thought I was irresistible for some reason (I mean, really? How could I be irresistible? It just made no sense). Instead, I found myself staring in a mirror. Only, it wasn't a mirror. It was the girl that had been sitting in the front row, the girl that looked like a more gothic, bloody me.

She smiled at me. This couldn't be real. I had to be imagining it. No one else noticed her. If they had, they would have been freaking out over all the blood there was around her. And that's how I knew I wasn't imagining it. The blood – I could smell all the blood on her. Rust and salt. It was thick in the air around her, around us. The room spun as I got nauseous. Typically, it was because of blood that I got sick but this time I knew this wasn't it. I was about to barf because of the fact that there was something truly evil about the girl, the girl who was me.

She lifted a finger to her lips as though to tell me to be quiet and the baby in her arms let out an unearthly wail.

The next thing I knew, I was in the bathroom over a toilet, Alice holding my hair for me as I threw up. When I was down, I sat on the cold tile of the bathroom, leaning against the walls of the stall.

"Are you ok?" Alice asked me, blatantly worried.

"Yeah. Of course," I said.

"Are you absolutely positive you're not pregnant?"

"Gah, not this again!" I shouted. "I'm not pregnant, ok?"

"Wouldn't it just be worth it to check? I mean, pregnancy tests don't cost that much. It'd just be to confirm you're not – or that you are."

"I'm not pregnant!"

"Bella, are you ok in there?" Edward's voice came through the door.

"Are you ok?" Alice asked me with a probing gaze.

"Yeah, I'll be fine," I said. "I just – I just need a minute. Go tell Edward I'll be right out."

Alice gave me one more long look before shaking her head and leaving. I head her say something to Edward outside the door and two of them walked away. Once she was gone, I totally let myself melt down. I mean, I was literally on the ground of the bathroom, trying not to break into hysterical tears because that would be hard to hide. I couldn't seem to get enough air in my lungs and I was completely scared out of my mind.

What the hell was wrong with me? Was I really going crazy? Was I going schizophrenic or something like that dude in that movie A Beautiful Mind? But then again, what was that whole thing about the fact that people don't know when they're going crazy? Was that true? Was this real then? Had I all of the sudden been transported into some B-rated horror movie that used a couple too many bottles of fake blood and symbolic metaphors? And if so, what did this all mean? I was seeing a ghost of myself for crying out loud! What could that possibly mean was coming?

There were so many questions and no answers. And the biggest question of all, despite what the answers were to all the others, was why me?

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Sooooooo, i hope you guys are all liking this. If you've read this far, congrats! Reviews will get me to put up a new chapter faster so review if you want more! Heart, Marlana