Disclaimer: I don't own any of the franchise or the original writing; those all belong to Stephenie Meyer and Summit. I only have copies of the books and dvds, and like to play with fanfiction.

From Black Moon to Solstice

Prologue

'Bella.'

I smiled and exhaled.

Yes? I didn't answer out loud, for fear that the sound of my voice would shatter the beautiful illusion. He sounded so real, so close. It was only when he was disapproving like this that I could hear the true memory of his voice – the velvet texture and the musical intonation that made up the most perfect of all voices.

'Don't do this,' he pleaded.

You wanted me to be human, I reminded him. Well, watch me.

'Please. For me.'

But you won't stay with me any other way.

'Please.' It was just a whisper in the blowing rain that tossed my hair and drenched my clothes – making me as wet as if this were my second jump of the day.

I rolled up onto the balls of my feet.

'No, Bella!' He was angry now, and the anger was so lovely.

I smiled and raised my arms straight out, as if I were going to dive, lifting my face into the rain. But it was too ingrained from years of swimming at the public pool – feet first, first time. I leaned forward, crouching to get more spring… And I flung myself off the cliff.

(…)

My ears were flooded with the freezing water, but his voice was clearer than ever. I ignored his words and concentrated on the sound of his voice. Why would I fight when I was so happy where I was? Even as my lungs burned for more air and my legs cramped in the icy cold, I was content. I'd forgotten what real happiness felt like.

Happiness. It made the whole dying thing pretty bearable.

The current won at that moment, shoving me abruptly against something hard, a rock invisible in the gloom. It hit me solidly across the chest, slamming into me like an iron bar, and the breath whooshed out of my lungs, escaping in a thick cloud of silver bubbles. Water flooded down my throat, choking and burning. The iron bar seemed to be dragging me, pulling me away from Edward, deeper into the dark, to the ocean floor.

Goodbye, I love you, was my last thought.

[Stephenie Meyer, New Moon, chapter 15]

'Bella,' his beautiful voice echoed softly in my numbing ears.

I was sure that would be the end of it, and I'd never hear it again.

Then, all of a sudden, it was more urgent.

'Bella! Open your eyes!'

Can't. Too tired.

'Open them!' he commanded, an almost desperate edge to his pleading.

But before I could react either mentally of physically, a whole new sensation washed over me.

Pain.

Searing, burning pain.

This wasn't supposed to happen! Wasn't death supposed to be calm and peaceful? This was anything but that!

I struggled, trying to fight it off, but my cold limbs wouldn't cooperate. And there was something else restraining me. It all felt so foreign to me. Yet at the same time, strangely familiar.

Wait, this burning… I had felt that before.

My clouded mind tried to sift through the hazy memories. This burning… radiating out from my neck… before, from my hand… Those steel-like vices… immobilizing me now… snapping my leg then…

I gasped when I reached the surface of the water; both for air and in realization.

No! No, no, no, no, no…

'Gotcha!' a high-pitched, almost childlike voice hissed menacingly in my ear.

I caught a glimpse of fiery, orange-red hair, before everything went black.

Victoria.

A/N This is the prologue to my new fic, which will be New Moon AU, as you can probably tell from this bit. It should be about twenty chapters long. I don't know when I'll be able to start posting for real, since I'm going on the road for about ten months next week. However, I will be working on this while travelling.

So if you'd like to read more, put me on author alert, or this fic on story alert. I promise to try and make it worthwhile.

By the way, have you checked out the awesome banners Jenn and Raum have already made for me? They're on my profile…