Re-writing the few stories this site actually let me keep. I'm going to try for longer chapters this time around.

Prologue

"Well, I wasn't going to live without you." He rolled his eyes, like it was childishly obvious. "But I wasn't sure how to do it - I knew Emmett and Jasper would never help... so I was thinking maybe I'd go to Italy and do something to provoke the Volturi."

"What is a Volturi?" I demanded.

"The Volturi are a family," he explained, his eyes still remote. "A very old, very powerful family of our kind. They are the closest thing our world has to a royal family, I suppose."

The throng jostled around me, spinning me in the wrong direction.

"Edward, no!" I screamed, but my voice was lost in the roar of the chime.

"Alice!" I cried out hoping she could somehow help. Time slowed until I could count every second as it passed. I would be too late. I wouldn't make it. My heart would die. It would die as Edward did.

I don't know how long I sat there, slumped against the tower, staring into space. I recognized my feelings, just barely. It was like when Edward first left, but that hadn't been nearly this bad. Then I at least knew he was alive, took comfort in that fact. Now there was no comfort, no help. No hope.

Eventually, I saw Alice through my daze, and realized it was dark. Gently she took my arm and pulled me to the car, parked nearby. Then I was aware only of passing scenery, and Alice's voice as she talked on her cell.

I knew, somewhere in me, that I should question her. I tried to find my voice. "Where are we going?" It came out as more of a croak, but apparently she understood. She gave me a brief, calculating glance.

"Home, Bella."