DISCLAIMER: All recognized characters belong to Stephenie Meyer (may we all bow down in her greatness) others to me.

this preface can change if i decide to go somwhere else with the story.

P R E F A C E

This was, without a doubt, the hardest decision that I had ever been forced to make. Perhaps the toughest resolve I would ever have to consider. On the one hand, my pathetic excuse for a life couldn't get much worse. What did I have to lose? Taking the old man up on his offer could not ruin me any more than I already was. But on the other, if I didn't give him the benefit of the doubt, I could be destroyed. And if I were destroyed now, there would be no chance to change things. To make everything better. To fix things. Again.

The indecision ripped at my chest, pushing me one way and then yanking me the other. It felt like a human tug of war match and I was the rope. I raised a shaking hand, hesitantly, and reached forward to take the frail, papery hand that the ancient man before me extended.