So, I read The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner. Then, suddenly, I liked Bree! I wanted her to live! So I am going to make her live. In my imagination. Via this story. So there. Take that, Stephenie!

Introducing... the not-so-short second life of Bree Tanner!

"Will you surrender to us? If you do not try to harm us, we promise we will not harm you." Carlisle seemed sincere. I believed that he would not hurt me, so I agreed to surrender to the yellow-eyes. I had no desire for violence. I had no desire for anything anymore.

Diego was dead. He had been dead the past four days, and I'd foolishly denied the evidence before me supporting that. I had trusted Riley instead of my own instincts. How stupid! I scolded myself.

I should have gone with Fred when I had the chance. Then I wouldn't have had to face all this painful truth. But of course, I couldn't have lived with myself if I hadn't known... if there was any chance Diego was still out there, waiting for me. Now that I knew, I felt that I couldn't live with myself anyway.

The closest person I had in this messed-up world was Fred. I longed to be with him. I needed some kind of a friend right now. And these strange yellow-eyed vampires hardly qualified. At least they didn't want to kill me... but that wasn't enough. I needed Fred.

Somewhere in the back of my brain, I registered that another yellow-eyed vampire had showed up and was not happy about my surrender. He wanted me gone. I wanted to be gone. So, in one movement, I was on my feet and running. I ran faster than I ever had before, pushing my muscles to exertion. I knew that no vampire as old as the ones I had just met could catch me at this speed. Still, for good measure, I kept it up for a solid hour and a half, just in case they had decided to try to follow me. Then I slowed to a normal vampire rate and thought about which direction I should be heading to get to Vancouver. I did a few calculations and adjusted my course.

I knew I was getting close when I started to feel nausiated, but I didn't slow down. I kept going strong, following the repulsion like a scent until I skidded to a stop in front of Fred.

The repulsion was gone, but I still felt sick in a different way. Fred didn't say anything. He saw in my face what had happened. I sank to the ground and just sat there in the middle of the street, hugging my knees to my chest, resting my chin on my neck. Fred's repulsive aura kept all cars and people away, so we were safe for now.

Fred just watched me for a long time, watched me wallow in self-pity. After a few hours or so, he came and sat next to me, but he still kept silent for a long time.

"I'm sorry," Fred said stiffly after a while. There was another long silence. "What do you want to do now?"

I looked at him. "I don't know. Any ideas?"

He shook his head, smiling slightly. "This is about as far as I thought ahead."

I nodded, trying to smile back at him. I think ended up doing some kind of grimace. "I guess we'll think of something."

We found, during our first hunt in Vancouver, that there was another vampire in the city. We could smell it. So we left and spent the next few days searching for another place to be. But we just couldn't find the perfect place.

One day, Fred asked me a strange and unexpected question. "How did you get away from the yellow-eyes?" he asked.

I looked up at Fred from a book I had stolen, remembering Carlisle. "One of them caught me, but I would not fight him. He said he wouldn't hurt me if I didn't hurt him or his clan. I agreed. Then I ran as soon and as fast as I could."

Fred looked confused. "That's strange. What kind of vampire shows mercy and tries to make peace?"

I shrugged. "Apparently, vampires with yellow eyes."

Fred thought about this for a long time. I went back to reading. "Do you think Riley lied about them too?" Fred asked suddenly.

"Well, obviously," I said.

"No, I mean, do you think, if we went to them... they wouldn't kill us? Would they listen to us? Maybe help us out?" Fred asked.

I pondered this. "Carlisle - the peacemaker - he seemed sincere. He was sorry for me. I know, if I'd stayed, he wouldn't have hurt me. Unless I hurt one of his clan, of course. He was very compassionate."

We both thought about the prospect of meeting these strange vampires. We were silent, thinking deeply for a long time. Then I said it, what I knew Fred was thinking.

"Maybe we could join them."

Fred nodded. "It's worth a shot. And we really don't have any better ideas."

So we ran. Ran to Washington. Ran to the yellow-eyed vampires. Ran to a possible future. Ran to possible death. We ran and ran... but we didn't make it to Forks before we ran into them.

Carlisle stood at the head of his clan. Wow, there really were seven of them! I had had my doubts about that, considering that Riley had lied about everything else. But here they were! How did they manage to live with each other?

"Hello, Carlisle," I said without emotion.

"It's good to see you again," Carlisle greeted me, sounding uneasy. "I see you've brought a friend."

It was then that I noticed the varying degrees of disgust on the faces of the vampires before us. One of them looked about ready to turn and run away. I looked up at Fred. "Hey, take it easy," I told him softly. He looked at me, trying to decide whether or not to drop his repulsive aura.

I saw the faces of Carlisle's clan relax a bit, but I suspected that Fred had left some layers of defense up. "This is Fred, and I'm Bree," I told them.

"This is my family, Emmett, Jasper, Rosalie, Edward, Esme, and Alice," he said, gesturing to each one in turn.

The word "family" threw me off. What did that even mean? Well, I knew the meaning of the word, but it didn't make sense in any vampire's life. It carries connotations of love and warmth. In my experience, both of those things play small or nonexistant parts in a vampire's life. Of course, I am new to this whole vampire thing.

"It's nice to meet you," I said, mostly because I couldn't think of anything else to say.

"Why have you returned?" Carlisle asked.

I was quiet. I knew what I wanted, but I didn't know how to phrase it without sounding weak...

"Carlisle," the one called Edward said, "they want to join us."

I was taken aback. My eyes immediately locked on this Edward. Was he the mind reader Riley had spoken of? I had assumed that was just another lie.

"Interesting," Carlisle said. "You both escape us, only to return, wishing to join us? Could you find nowhere else to go?"

"We tried to find somewhere else for the past week," I told him. "But we really didn't find a great place. Then Fred suggested this course of action."

"And what makes you think that we would take you in?" Carlisle asked.

I shifted positions uncomfortably and prepared to reveal my train of thought. "When you found me a week ago," I began, "you showed me mercy. You didn't have to; you could have just finished me off with no trouble. It would have eliminated your problem. But you didn't fight me, and I could tell you didn't particularly want to either. I got the impression you saw me as a young, misled child who needed help. And you wanted to provide that help. I guess I just hope that offer still stands."

There was a silence between us and Carlisle's clan. They were absorbing my words.

"There are some important things you should know," Carlisle said carefully, "before you seriously consider this."

"Such as?" I asked, emptying my voice of all emotion.

Carlisle stared at me. "I am about to entrust you with some important truths. I would appreciate it very much if you would show some trust for us as well."

At first I didn't know what he meant. Then I understood what he wanted. I looked up at Fred once again. "Tone it down some more. They're all right."

He looked back at me. "But how can you tell?" he asked. I could see that he was nervous, being so near these strange vampires.

"I just know it," I told him. He still looked doubtful, like this might be a trap after all. "Trust me," I added.

There was a lengthy silence before Carlisle said, "Thank you, Fred."

Fred nodded, not looking at me or at Carlisle. He was looking at something... but I couldn't quite follow his gaze.

When I looked back at Carlisle's clan, I could see that they were more comfortable, but not entirely so. Of course, the lowest Fred could diminish his repulsive power was the default aura that he had been reborn with.

"Do you know why our eyes are different from yours?" Carlisle began.

"I only know that Riley told us your eyes had yellowed with age," I said, "which, I assume, was yet another lie."

Carlisle smiled. "Although none of us are young, our age is not the cause of our eye color. The real cause is that we do not drink human blood; we live off of the blood of animals."

I was shocked into silence, my eyebrows rising in surprise. Carlisle offered no further explanation, so I asked, "Um. Well... How?" Wow. That was really eloquent.

Small grins broke out on the faces of Carlisle and some of his clan. They found it funny that my composure had slipped? I attempted to pull myself together and logically assess Carlisle's answer.

"With patience, determination, and plenty of practice," Carlisle replied, "we've nurtured our will to be better than nature meant for us to be."

"So, do you keep far away from humans, then?" I asked.

Carlisle was about to answer, but the one he had identified as Emmett snorted. "Oh, please! Carlisle works in a hospital every day, and Edward has a human fiance. We all interact with humans almost every day!" Most of Carlisle's clan glared at Emmett for his outburst. He ignored them.

I was completely shocked. How could any vampire be that strong-willed, to be so close to a fragile human and not kill them for their blood? Was it possible?

"Oh, it's possible," Edward assured me. I locked onto his eyes again, convinced that he did read minds. If that was possible... why couldn't it be possible for a vampire to resist human blood? As long as they got blood from another source, it seemed logical enough. But... Logic wasn't always the most important factor.

"Why?" I demanded. "Why go through the trouble? Why not do what every other vampire in the world does? Why defy nature?"

Carlisle considered this. "I think," he said, "that we each have a different motivation. Perhaps we are ashamed of what we are. Or maybe it gives us a sense of control over our lives that we did not have before. Perhaps it gives us something to work toward instead of just staying the same forever." Carlisle grinned. "Or maybe we're just rebels."

I blinked, still trying to wrap my head around this impossible concept. "Wow. Okay. Um... And we would have to do this as well? To become one of you?"

"That is how we live here," Carlisle said. "If you want to live with us, you must abide by our standards."

I nodded. "We need to discuss this."

"Of course," Carlisle agreed. "We will return tomorrow. If you are not here, we will understand. Good-bye, Bree, Fred."

"Good-bye," I said.

And they left.

"This is madness," Fred told me. "I can't believe you're trusting them so completely. I cannot understand why you would still want to stay with them."

I sat down in the stubby grass and didn't look at him. "I just know they will help me. Couldn't you tell?"

"No, I couldn't," he said. "How could you tell?"

I just shrugged.

"Bree..." Fred began, "... why would you stay? Why not come with me, find somewhere we can be by ourselves? We don't need them. We can survive on our own. Why would you give that up for a chance to starve yourself?"

I shrugged again. "I guess I just... feel like I want something different. I don't know if this is that something, but... I want to try it."

"But to give up blood?" Fred asked. "That's crazy. It's completely unnecessary. There's nothing wrong with drinking human blood."

I looked into his eyes then. "How do you know?"

He was taken aback. "Because that's how we are. It's what we are. Why change it?"

"Sure, it's what we are," I agreed. "But, look where being what we are got us. It got us stuck with Riley, hiding out in a basement, scared of simple sunlight. It got us betrayed and it even got the others killed." Here her voice broke. "It got us addicted to human blood. It's controlling our lives. I don't know about you, but that's not what I want. I want something better than that."

Fred just stared at me for a long time. He didn't say anything.

"I'm sure it'll be hard to break the addiction," I added, "but I just have to do it. I want to, for Diego. And I want you to want to because you are my one and only friend. But if you don't, I understand. You can go if that's what you really want."

Fred stayed silent. He sat on the ground next to Bree and deliberated for a matter of hours, which was okay because they had a whole day to kill. Eventually, he stood, looked down into her eyes, and said, "I'm going. But I won't be gone forever. I won't forget you, because you are my only friend too."

Bree nodded.

"Bye," Fred said.

Bree stood and hugged Fred without thinking. "Take care," she told him. Then she stepped back.

"You, too." With that, Fred sped off into the forest.

More to come, I assure you, but it was getting long and I felt like this was a good place to stop. So. What are your thoughts? Please review! I absolutely love reviews, they are amazing! Please tell me what you think!