"Sometimes even to live is an act of courage."

― Seneca

Bella couldn't believe it, she just couldn't. Her phone was still clutched in her slim-fingered hand, the dreaded picture still shining its taunting light. She began to run, out the door, into the darkened street, the only lighting that of the dim, flickering streetlights. This lack of light did not bother her, after three and a half years of walking to her boyfriend, Edward's, dorm, she knew the way blindfolded. Her slim legs, clothed only in the shortest of shorts, sped more swiftly than they had ever before, her ever-present clumsiness seemingly disappeared into the dark background. Yet, Bella did not notice this. All she could see was the dreadful image, seared into her brain. Tears were streaming down her face as she threw open the dorm building's door, it barely visible through the sheen of tears filling her once-joyful brown eyes. The petite girl raced up to the second story, climbing the stairs as ferocious as a star linebacker, her pace never faltering. In her head she counted the doors on the left side of the dull, colorless walls. One, two, three, four… Five!

Bella stopped in front of the deceivingly simple door, oh how well she knew what was behind that door was certainly not simplistic. She reached slowly towards the silver-plated handle and pushed it quickly open, her eyes barely squinting in the glare of the harsh fluorescent lights. She searched the living room quickly, looking everywhere. It was here that she heard the horrific sounds, slightly muffled, telling her the source was not in this room. She raced to the left, down a short hallway with only three doors down it, her eyes set on the farthest one. It was closed, she could see from here. To the door she ran, unsure and truly terrified of what she could find, if the text she had gotten were true. This door belonged to her beloved Edward, his room lay behind it, the holder of so many peaceful memories. She clutched to these memories, ones of play-fighting on the bed, giggles escaping her lips, her face red from the exertion. She remembered sitting on the couch, listening to classical music, simply content to be sitting in his arms. As she reached for the door, she thought of how he had held her only weeks before, after the loss of his adopted sisters and Bella's best friends. He had tears in his eyes, but Bella's were streaming down, much like they were now. She gripped the doorknob, slowly turning it and throwing the door open.

The scene before her was horrific. There he lay, with that slut, entwined in a way that Bella had once hoped they would be, only after marriage, of course. The scene did not surprise the young girl, it only proved that the image she had received on her phone was no fake. No, he had truly cheated on her, after three years! Three happy years! And only weeks after the death of his sisters too, Bella's best friends! She could not imagine what had driven him to do this. After all, he had been the one who first brought up waiting until marriage. He had said they would be fine without sex, that they were in love, and other trivial things like sex could wait. Bella grew angrier and angrier, furious at the fact that he would do this to her! She stood in the doorway until he finally noticed her, shocked, but he did not look guilty.

"Oops," he said in mocking voice," looks like we're caught, baby."

At this, the slut he lay with, otherwise named Lauren Mallory, sat up, not caring that she was very inappropriately exposed. Bella was furious at her too! She had a boyfriend, Mike Newton, a sweet boy Bella had known all her life, when they had lived in Forks, Washington. They had both been the best of friends, and were overjoyed to know they had both gotten into Twilight Boarding School, a prestigious high school all the way in New York. When he had met Lauren and Bella had met Edward, they had remained friends, just from more of a distance, spending most of their time with their "significant other." How could Lauren do this to such a sweet boy as Mike? Bella stalked angrily into the room, careful to step over their carelessly thrown clothes. She walked right up to them, neither of them bothering to cover their "assets," not that either of them were particularly endowed with much, she noticed. Even so, Lauren smirked smugly at her while Edward looked simply uninterested.

Bella, anxious to escape the horrific sight, simply walked over, and slapped Lauren on her slutty, makeup-smothered face. After hearing the satisfying smack of skin on skin, she turned and did the same to Edward. She turned and walked quickly to the doorway. When she arrived she turned and looked over her shoulder, one hand on the doorframe.

"If it's not clear, we are so over Edward." She said with a smooth tone, effectively masking her hurt.

At this, he looked shocked. Bella knew he had been expecting some sort of breakdown from the shy little girl. In truth, all she wanted to do right now was curl up on the ground, rocking back and forth, nursing her broken heart, but she won't give him the satisfaction of seeing her so broken. She knew she had only two things left in this world, so to those two things she ran. They were only three doors down from Edward's dorm so she got to the door fairly quickly. She had stopped knocking years ago, she simply walked in. There they were, her two best friends, all that was left in the once strong family-like group formed freshman year. It seems this year is determined to tear them apart. What had once been six is now three, just Bella, Jasper and Emmett. Rosalie and Alice had been in this group before they died a few weeks ago. Emmett had been going out with Rosalie when she died and Jasper had been seeing Alice. Both had lost both a significant other and a sister in that fateful car crash for Jasper and Rosalie were twins and Emmett had been Alice's adopted brother since he was three and she was two. We had shared the pain, Edward had simply distanced himself after losing his twin, who was Alice.

While Bella reminisced, the boys had gotten up off the couch they had been sitting on, staring at the TV, unmoving. One look at Bella's tear-streaked face and they were both there, Emmett picking her up and bringing her to the large couch, Jasper sitting beside them. Emmett placed Bella between the two, waiting for her sobs to subside. Soon, she was hiccuping the story out, in between the tears. The pain was crushing her, inside her chest, she couldn't escape. The only things stopping her from running out the door, into the street, and in front of a car were the two boys on either side of her. She knew they would protect her from herself, hold her to the Earth. When she completed the story, both boys were furious, their eyes blazing protectively. Bella knew they wanted to throttle their friend -for Jasper- and brother - for Emmett. They contained themselves, though, they knew Bells, as they called her, did not condone violence, even against those who had hurt her.

They sat there throughout the night, Bella crying, the boys just holding her, whispering reassurances. When her sobs finally quieted, she fell into a deep slumber, the tears still flowing, leaving no doubt that she was reliving the night, even in her dreams. Emmett, being the size of a linebacker, picked her slim frame up easily, and carried her into his own bedroom, laying her gently on the unmade sheets, cautiously pulling the covers over her, anxious about waking her. Bells remained in her deep slumber, though, as he kissed her platonically in her forehead. Jasper followed in his large friend's footsteps, kissing her gently, whispering one last reassurance to the sleeping girl.

"You will always have us, little sister," he almost sighed, his Texan accent strong but soothing.

The next few weeks went monotonously for the poor girl. She avoided Edward's smug stare whenever possible, hiding behind her curtain of long mahogany hair, as if it were a bulletproof wall, protecting her from his piercing green eyes. Yet, no matter how Jas and Em attempted to protect her, he still found ways to whisper little comments to her, in the halls, at lunch, anywhere. Bella was horrified that she had once loved Edward, once though he was a gentleman, caring and sweet. The things he whispered killed her, again and again. He especially enjoyed bringing up Alice and Rosalie, knowing this was her weakness.

"They would be so disappointed in you, being such an awful girlfriend that I had to get satisfaction elsewhere," he whispered to her as she tried to hurry to her next class, AP Biology.

He especially loved to poke fun at all her little insecurities, for she had many. The poor girl had been certain she was nothing special, a plain Jane. That is, until she began dating Edward. He told her she was beautiful and she had begun to believe him, up until that night. Now, he turned his words around, telling her she was ugly, normal, nothing special. Somehow, Em and Jas never caught him in the act, and she couldn't bear to tell them about the comments. So, she suffered in silence. Eventually, after about a month, the boys thought Edward was sorry and forgave him. Bella couldn't bear to ruin their relationship by telling them the truth. So, when the boys planned a camping trip to the mountains, Bells was happy they were friends again, even if Edward's comments and looks were slowly killing her. She even helped Em and Jas pack, encouraging them to go and have fun.

She was sad to not be able to see them for a few days, but she felt they deserved a life outside of caring for some broken little girl. She hugged them both tightly as they got into Emmett's monster Jeep, all packed and ready to go. As they each hugged her, they whispered brotherly words into her ear, telling her how much they loved her, how she was their little sister and they would miss her. She brushed their concerns off, telling them they would only be gone for three days. She still told them she loved them, forever. She was almost crying as they left, but knew they needed to get out more, the deaths of the girls almost two months ago had killed their social lives so she knew they needed this. As they drove off, waving, Bella felt a sense of foreboding, but shrugged it off as nerves. She went back to her dorm room and fell asleep.

The next three days went by quickly, Bella anticipating the boys' return. Yet, the Monday they were supposed to get back on came and went. She called their phones multiple times, even Edward's. No answer. When that Wednesday came around, Bella called the mountain patrol, asking if they had picked up their car from where they had to park it before their hike. The kind lady who answered said it was still there. She asked a now-frantic Bella if she would like the patrol to send someone out to their campsite. Bella immediately accepted. The woman, who said her name was Ruth, told Bella they would send someone right away and would call her back within the hour. She hung up.

Bella sat anxiously, watching the clock, scared out of her mind. She knew she couldn't bear it if something had happened them, even Edward. Ruth called back exactly forty-three minutes and seventeen seconds since she hung up. The news was not good. She told her that the campsite had been torn apart by a sort of bear and that there was no evidence that anyone had survived. At this, the phone fell out of the young girl's shaking hands, her barely noticing the crack as it hit the tiled floor of the dorm bathroom she was in. As if in a daze, she began to walk out the door, into the living room, without pausing, she walked through, to the dorm door, half hoping the boys would pop from behind it and scream, "April Fools!" Sadly, for Bella, it was May, not April and the only thing behind that door was an empty hallway. So, she stepped slowly out the door, not even noticing the tears falling down her face. She turned left, towards the big glass door that led out to the dorm's parking lot. Out she went, into the fresh air, ignoring the fact that it was pouring rain outside, not to mention the fact that May in New York was not necessarily warm.

Across the parking lot she walked, subconsciously walking towards the bridge on the other side, going over the rushing river right behind the school. As she walked she was remembering the good ole days, back when no one had died, when she had a reason to live. She was certain no one would miss her, the plain girl in the back of the class. No one except her best friends, who she remembered - with a lash of pain - were all dead, knew that she was actually an orphan. That her mother had lied to her father, saying she was his daughter when in fact, she was a bastard child. When this information was revealed to her father, Charlie, he immediately denied any responsibility for her, basically disowning her. Her mother did the same, saying it looked bad on her new husband, Phil, who was a professional baseball player, to be housing a bastard child. So, the state sent her to Twilight, a prize-winning boarding school.

Bella realized that now, she really had no one left. He parents didn't want her, her friends were all dead, no siblings. She was useless, unwanted, just like Edward had said. By now, she had reached the bridge, and went to stand at the edge. She thought over all her losses and all her pain. She started to hear a screaming, loud and full of agony. In her detached state, it took her a second to realize it was actually her that was screaming, letting out all her torturous feelings inside. She collapsed, on her knees, holding her head, still screaming. The rain beat relentlessly on her exposed back, seeing as she was only wearing a tank top and some shorts.

Sobs replaced the screams as she realized what she had to do, what she needed to do. She stood slowly, carefully and stepped to the edge of the barrier, the only thing between her and the oblivion that was the raging river below. Bella climbed up and over it, standing on the smallest of ledges, nothing but air restraining her, holding her to this cruel earth. She began to let go of the barrier behind her, slowly, meticulously. She was so wrapped up in the moment of freedom, she didn't hear the screams from behind her, hear them getting closer and closer. As she began to fall off the edge, she fainted, the pain becoming too much, knowing she wouldn't wake up from this fainting spell, ever. And she began to drop, towards the rushing river, towards death.

As she was unconscious, Bella didn't feel the harsh pull on her arms as they were grabbed, feel the yank as her descent to the oblivion was halted, stopped. She didn't feel her bare upper back scraping slowly on the barrier as she was pulled back over to safety. She couldn't hear the feminine grunts as her savior used inhuman strength to give her a second chance at her miserable life. Bella couldn't see the face of her savior, the face of one she had once called her enemy. No, Bella could not notice all this, but she does not have to worry, for soon she will wake, in an unfamiliar room. She will meet her savior and she will set into motion a chain of events that may just bring happiness back to her miserable existence.