Author's Note: I DO NOT own any of Stephenie Meyer's characters, ideas, etc. Those belong solely to her. Otherwise, enjoy the story J please review!

~Bella

"Presents! Presents!" Jonah screeched as my mother lit the last candle of the menorah. My mother, father, Jonah, and I sat around the dining room table, looking at the nine candles of my grandmother's old menorah that we got when she passed away last year. My five year old brother, Jonah, just looked forward to the present on each night.

"Just wait a minute, Jonah." My mom said. "You can have your present after the prayer."

My dad led the prayer, and the rest of us followed along, looking down, hands folded. Jonah's little voice muttered the prayer, but he kept pausing because he forgot the words.

The prayer ended, and then Jonah jumped up in excitement. "Presents?" he asked eagerly.

My mom chuckled. "Okay, Jonah. You can have your present now. You, too, Bella."

"All right." I said, turning as my mom walked away to get our gifts. She brought back two boxes and handed one to each of us.

"We hope you like it." My dad said to both of us as we tore open the paper.

"Look! Look!" Jonah exclaimed, showing me a figure that looked like a soldier. He waved it around in there air happily.

I looked at my gift-it was a bracelet. A gold-colored bracelet, with little sparkly jewels on it. They weren't real, of course. I hadn't seen a real jewel or real gold since a few years ago. Now that it was 1942, with Hitler coming to power, things were changing. We weren't allowed in some stores, actually almost all the stores, and we couldn't be outside by a certain time each day. I went to an all-Jewish school now. I couldn't go to my old school, with my old friends or anyone. I now had new friends.

The bracelet was very nice, and it looked real. I put it on my left wrist and looked at my parents. "Thank you." I said to them. "It's nice."

"You're welcome, Bella." My mom said. "It was my grandmother's, then she gave it to my mother, and then to me. And now I'm giving it to you."

"Thanks."

We spent the rest of the night together as a family, talking about our day at school. Today I had gotten in trouble by the teacher in class, because I was talking to Alice, my best friend at school. The teacher gave a harsh look to me and made me move my seat. I told my parents, and they were somewhat disappointed, but forgave me right away. That's how my parents were, they always forgave me…usually.

I went to sleep early that day, tired from the Hanukkah celebration.

*****

I left to walk to school the next morning, but was interrupted. A German soldier walking around here walked over to me as I walked down the street. He looked down at me, as if he were going to step on me.

"Good morning." I gulped.

"Hmm." Was all he said. He glared at me once again, and spat right in front of me on the sidewalk. Then, he walked away.

I looked down at the sidewalk and stepped over what the rude soldier spat. I looked back at him, and he muttered something in German.

The number of soldiers here seemed to multiply each day, and they all just walked around, every once in awhile talking to someone walking along. I didn't like when they talked to me; I knew they knew I was Jewish, so I was scared that they would kidnap me or something. There were these places called concentration camps that my parents were talking about-I listened in on their conversation one time- and they said that Jews were taken there to be worked to death. Why would Hitler do all this? I would wonder all the time. What did he want from us? Why would he want to kill us?

I got to the school, and everyone was talking outside. As a fifteen year old, there was no more playing on the playground before school like we used to do. I walked over to my friends, who had been there for awhile now. Alice was the first to greet me.

"Hi, Bella." She said, smiling.

"Hey, Alice." I replied.

"What did you get for Hanukkah?" she asked.

I held out my wrist, where my bracelet sat. She looked at it in awe.

"That's so nice!" she exclaimed. "I got a journal and a pen."

"Nice." I said. "I haven't gotten stationary as a gift in awhile now."

"Yeah, my dad said he searched for a really long time to find it."

"That was nice of him."

"Where did your parents get your bracelet?"

"It was my great-grandmother's, passed on to me after all the years."

"Oh, that's great." She said. "Rosalie, look at Bella's new bracelet!"

Another friend of mine, Rosalie, turned and looked at my Hanukkah gift. Her eyes beamed.

"Wow, that's really pretty."

"Thanks."

The bell rang, and everyone crashed into each other as everyone tried to go through the main doors. There were people talking and yelling as I walked through the small school.

I got to my first class of 35 students, where we were packed together in one average classroom. We took our seats-some people sitting on the floor-and the teacher immediately began the lesson.

The phone in the room rang, causing my teacher to jump from being startled. She walked with high heels to the phone and picked it up.

"I have to go, class, but I'll be back in a few moments. Please read for a little." She left the room.

She never came back.

We spent the day alone in the classroom.

"Where did she go?" Rosalie asked, her and Alice sitting next to me once everyone realized the teacher wouldn't be back for awhile.

I shook my head. "I don't know."

"Maybe the principal needed to yell at her." Alice suggested. She had never liked the teacher much.

"I don't think so." Rosalie said.

"You know those soldiers?" I asked suddenly. I hadn't been paying attention to their conversation; I was thinking about that soldier who saw me walking to school.

"Yeah?" They both answered.

"I was walking to school, and one walked up to me. He spat right in front of me! And then walked away!"

"Did you say anything?" Alice asked.

"No! I'd never talk back to one of them! Do you know how mean they are?"

"I know, I know. I just wish they would leave. What is their motive, anyway? Well, I know what it is in the long run, to rule the world, but why be so mean to everyone?"

I just shrugged, since I didn't want to speak of the topic anymore. It overwhelmed me sometimes, often so much that I'd go to sleep crying, and wake up with streaks of tears down my cheeks.

My mom would try to tell me what was happening and that everything would be okay, but for some reason I could not believe her. I had a feeling that something was going to happen…when? I didn't know. I just knew it was soon. And not knowing made it all the more worse, since whenever you least expected it, you could be somewhere completely new, for whatever reason.

Alice and I walked out of the school together, talking about our Hanukkah and all of the things we talked about with our families. We laughed about silly things that Jonah said and did, especially after finally being able to open his present.

"Well, I'll see you tomorrow, Bella." Alice said, about to walk the other way home from school.

"See you!" I said, walking away. I continued down the road, on the way home.

Who would have known everything could change in one day?

My mom was home, as usual, when I got home, and I set my book bag down on the floor and went into the kitchen, where her and Jonah ate a snack. Jonah was excited to see me, to tell me what he learned today at school.

"How was school?" my mom asked, laughing as Jonah said ridiculous things.

"Fine, I guess. My teacher got called down to the office." I said, taking a cracker that was on the table. "She never came back. We spent the entire day alone in the classroom."

My mom's face lost its smile, and her face went pallid. She looked up at me with her dull grey eyes.

"What?" she asked, not looking for an answer, I knew. She was shocked at something-maybe my teacher not coming back?

"It wasn't a big deal. We just sat there and talked; we didn't do anything wrong."

She stayed silent.

"Mom?"

She stood from her chair, the wood floor underneath making a screeching noise. "You watch Jonah, okay?" she rushed into the living room.

"Okay." I said, looking down at Jonah. He looked up at me, giggling.

"Bell, can I read you a story from my new book?"

"A new book? No way!" I always talked with this excitement so he could be happy. But, deep in my heart, I knew something was terribly wrong, so that made me unable to be really excited. Jonah dragged me off to his room and took out a small book from his book bag and he began reading about some animals on a farm or something. I was just focused on listening to my mom, who was now on the phone with someone and talking in a low voice. I heard the words, "gone", "never", "there", and "camp." However, I couldn't hear what else she was saying, and I couldn't hear the other end of the conversation, of course.

I was surprised that Jonah's class had been given new books. In our schools, we weren't provided with that much, compared to the other schools. Well, I guess this all went back to Hitler. But, I still couldn't get why he'd deprive kids even as young as Jonah from learning in school. Actually, I kind of knew why-he was such a horrible man.

I've despised him ever since he came to power and declared his hatred toward Jews, but I was especially hurt by him when my grandmother was taken away by him and his soldiers. She had been walking down the street, toward my house, and then a soldier knew she was Jewish so he just grabbed her like that and took her to a train. She is in a concentration camp right now-well, I'm not exactly sure if she's still alive. She was older, so I fret that they killed her when she got there. My poor, poor grandma, and my poor, poor grandfather, who lost the love of his life and is now hiding somewhere from the Nazis-somewhere we, his own family, don't even know where it was.

She was my mother's mother, who must have had this bracelet I was wearing, as I thought of her in the concentration camp at that very moment. I looked down at the gold chain, and then saw a small star carved into the bracelet: The Star of David, a symbol of the Jewish people. In fact, there were stars on all of our clothing, including my shirt for school, which also had the school's name on it. In the middle of that logo was the bright yellow star, which showed everyone that I was Jewish, and I knew it also meant I could be taken away any day now.

Even Jonah, as he read to me happily, was vulnerable to the Nazis taking him away. I didn't want to imagine it, him being carried away to a concentration camp, screaming our names. I shook my head and listened to Jonah's story.

"Kids, dinner!" My mom called from the kitchen. Jonah ran out of the room, and I followed behind and sat at the counter of the tiny kitchen.

Our house was not at all a large house, far from it. It had one floor, and was four main rooms: a living room, a kitchen, Jonah's room, and my room. My parents slept in the living room on a cot every day. None of these rooms were big, just smaller than average rooms. The biggest room was the living room. The bathroom was a small closet-like room next to the living room.

We once lived in a big house, with a big yard and porch and a second floor and all those things that were wanted in a house. Back when I was about 13. Then, Hitler came along and decided where we should live. So now, we live under watch by the Nazis-at least, I think they're watching us.

Dinner was as usual-bread with a little bit of jelly on it and a small glass of water. I saw our resources get smaller every day, and soon we'd be out of food. Then, my dad would have to either send a friend who was not Jewish out to shop for us, or go alone in disguise. The problem for the first plan was, he had no friends that were not Jewish.

Where is Dad, anyway? I thought. I asked my mom as soon as I didn't know where he was.

"He's getting something from his office." My mom said.

It was getting dark out, soon to be the curfew. "But it's almost dark outside! What if they see him?"

"Don't worry, Bella." She said, taking a bite of bread. "Your father knows that soldiers are around. He'll be fine."

I sighed. "All right."

Jonah talked and talked about his day to my mom. My mom was very brave-she was able to smile at her son to make him feel safe, even when she knew something was wrong or something bad was happening.

I wanted to know what it was that was bothering her. Who was on the phone with her? The only person she talked to on the phone was either Alice's mom or my dad, when he used to go to work everyday. Now, he went a few times a week. Why would she need to call either of them today?

There were tears in my mom's eyes as she looked at me. She was trying to tell me something through her eyes, but I couldn't understand…what happened?

***

I opened my eyes and saw the bracelet on the ground in front of me. I picked it up, put it on my wrist, and stood, looking around. I was in an old looking place, it was dirty, with broken-down buildings around me. I was in the center of some town, it appeared.

A figure emerged from the shadows, one that was familiar to me. She led a group of people toward me.

"Grandma?" I asked when she and her group were in front of me. They all looked at me in wretchedness and weariness.

She nodded solemnly. "Bella." She said, her voice not one I had heard in awhile.

"What is this place? Where are we?"

She looked around for a minute, and then gave me a look so serious that her pale face looked like that of a ghost.

"Auschwitz." She hissed. She and the rest of the Jewish people around her disappeared into the air, leaving me in the center of the concentration camp most meant to kill.

***

I sat up, now realizing I had just been dreaming. My dad suddenly came into the room.

"You just screamed." He said. "We're not supposed to be speaking loudly, Bella, you know that the soldiers get mad." His expression on his face softened. "What's wrong?" he asked as he sat next to me.

"It was just a bad dream." I said.

"You want to tell me about it?"

I sighed. "Grandma was there. I was in some old place, I had no idea where. Then, she and other Jewish people came to me. She said we were in Auschwitz…she disappeared…"

My dad gave me a hug. "Listen, Bella," he said, "we're going to make it through the war, okay? As long as we stay a family and try to think of the bright side of things, we can be okay. So try not to worry about this-this is grownup stuff. So just be concerned about being a kid. Have some fun! Go out with friends!"

"Dad, it doesn't work like that."

He laughed without humor. "I know, I know, I guess I don't realize yet that you're not as gullible as you used to be when you were five."

I smiled a bit. "I'm not."

"All right, then. Just try not to worry too much. Those Nazis, they just want you to be scared of them. It makes them feel good about themselves."

"They can do horrible things. And you know that."

He thought for a minute. "Please just get some sleep. You have school tomorrow." He said. He kissed my forehead. "Goodnight, Bella."

"Goodnight, Dad."

He shut the door of my room, and then I lay back down. I thought about school, my friends, how I could try to look on the bright side of things…but, with this war going on, what could the bright side of it be?