Stepping into the woods, I continued walking deeper inside, determined to find where the beautiful sparkle had come from.  I sighed in defeat after several minutes, surrendering my search for the source.  When I turned to return to Charlie’s, the house was nowhere in sight.  There was nothing but trees surrounding me.

“Billy?” my small voice asked the ominous trees.  “Daddy, are you there?”

My lungs constricted with fear as I the only answer I received was a rustling nearby, so I began to run.  Tripping over my own feet in my panic, I felt a sharp pain in my left knee, my palms stung as I attempted to catch my falls.  The quiet rustles continued as I scrambled behind a fallen, rotting log nearby to hide.  Only when the rustling stopped did I turn and peer over the log.  Two feet from my curious face sat a squirrel, peering at me and confused as it leaped away quickly and gracefully.

Yelping with surprise, I jumped backwards, landing on my butt with a hard thud.  My scraped palms stung, but they were nothing compared to the gash on my knee.  Dirt and sweat were seeping into the injury, causing the burning sting to intensify.  The rusty smell ripped at my nose as I heaved my dinner onto the ground next to me, the woods swirling around me unsteadily.

My lungs and stomach shook with the force of my heaving, the rest of my body soon following.  As I attempted to stand, the pain in my knee made itself known and I screamed in response before falling back to the ground.  I whimpered at the thought of making another painful attempt and began to cry.  Rubbing my tears with the back of my hands to avoid the scraped palms, I saw several twinkles from the corner of my eye.  I watched intently but couldn’t see them clearly from the distance.  I felt overwhelmingly tired from crying and running as my mind blurred and darkened completely, the ground meeting my side.

I saw a bright shape nearby as I whined tearfully, “It hurts.”  The whine faded into a desperate mumble as I closed my eyes against the light and fell asleep.

.:~P.O.V. Change~:.

I was walking through the woods and an irresistible smell began drawing me until I arrived at the edge of the trees.  There was a house with the source of the delicious scent: a young girl.  Her brunette hair blew gently in the breeze but I could no longer gaze as my cursed skin reflected in the sun and caught her attention.  When she approached to investigate, I turned on my heels and ran swiftly back into the safety of the woods.  I attempted to uncover her name, but I couldn’t hear her thoughts.  That was definitely a first.  I only heard the thoughts of the man named Billy mention her name was Isabella.

Time passed when my mouth nearly began to water as the smell of the girl returned with a passion.  “She’s bleeding,” I said aloud to myself.  I followed the scent again, unconsciously, when I heard her begin to cry.

Taking a more thorough observation of her, she appeared to be no older than nine years old, possibly younger.  The blood on her knee and hands tugged fiercely at my self-control.  It nearly ripped free as she made an attempt to climb to her feet and screamed before returning to the forest floor.

My skin must have reflected off of the sun, for her eyes jerked to my direction.  I watched as her eyelids grew heavier and she lay down on her side.  Slowly stepping out from behind the safety of the trees, the sun bounced off my skin and I ceased my needless breathing so I couldn’t smell her blood.  I refuse to kill this girl.  I won’t.

When I stepped closer, she murmured in pain, “It hurts.”  She was asleep by the time I was within her reach.  Kneeling down, I lay her on her back, away from the neighboring vomit, as I removed my jacket and ripped a strip of cloth from my shirt sleeve.  I fought my horrible urge to attack the bloody flesh and wrapped the girl’s knee securely.

.:~P.O.V. Change~:.

“Daddy?” I mumbled sleepily against the cloth I felt wrapped around my body.

“Sorry, no,” a velvety smooth voice answered.

My eyes snapped open to look up at the face of the young man holding me.  His hair was a brilliant bronze, even in the darkness.

“Who are you?  What happened?”  I looked around us at the woods from within his arms.  “Where are we?”

He chuckled.  “My name is Edward.  You hurt your knee while running.”  His crooked smile was comforting as the pain in my knee reminded me of its presence.

I winced, “Ow.”  A cold compress seemed to lay itself against the gash.  As I sighed in relief, Edward chuckled again.

“So, what’s your name?”

“B-Bella Swan,” I squeaked.

“Your family must be worried about you,” he noted.

I nodded slowly, watching his liquid topaz eyes.

“Would you like to go home now?”

Nodding slowly again, he stood and I realized he had been cradling me in his lap and the cold compress had been his hand.  As he held me closer to walk, I felt how cold and hard his body seemed.  It was like a stone statue’s.  My gaze refused to detach from his flawless face.

“How’s your knee feeling?”  Edward was looking straight ahead of him.  Watching where he was going, I suppose.

Looking away from his face, I stared at my fingers as they clutched the cloth that rest around me.  “It hurts, but I’m okay,” I muttered.  I felt his eyes on me when I spotted his torn shirt sleeve.

My knee was revealed when the cloth fell from my legs and I noticed the color his shirt matched that of the cloth on my knee.  I felt the color drain from my face as the memory of the bloody gash.

Edward frowned.  “What’s wrong?”

“Nothing,” I lied.

Following the trial of my eyes, he pulled the cloth over my legs again to keep me warm and obscure my sight of it.  “I haven’t seen you around here before,” he stated politely.

“I’m visiting my dad.”  My face crumpled angrily as I thought about it.

“Do you like it here?”

I shook my head.  “It’s too cold and everything’s really green…”

“So, where do you usually live?”

“With my mom in Phoenix.”

“Do you like it there?”

My eyes lit up.  “Yes; it’s warm and sunny all the time there.  It’s nothing like here.”

Edward laughed.  “Is that so?”

I felt the apples of my cheeks become warmer than the Phoenix sun.  His smooth movement made me unaware he had stopped walking until he set me down on the ground.

“Stand up, Bella,” he commanded gently.

“I can’t,” I whined.

“Just try,” Edward smiled as he offered his hands to me.

Releasing the cloth around me, I placed my small hands in his.  He effortlessly pulled on my hands and I was on my feet.  The pain in my knee was bearable and standing was no difficult to manage, unlike earlier.

“See?” he encouraged as he released my hands and retrieved the cloth from around my body.  I now realized that it had been his jacket.  As he turned to leave, I caught his coat sleeve.

“Where are you going?”  It was dark, all except for the full moon, and I didn’t want to be alone.

“My family is wondering where I am.  I have to go home and it’s a bit of a long trip for me.”  Edward seemed to hide a smile as if it was a joke he wasn’t intending to tell me.

“Don’t leave me,” I pleaded tearfully.

The bronze hair bobbed gracefully as he nodded in the direction behind me.  I turned around to see Charlie’s houselights beaming against the moon’s rays just beyond the trees.

“I shall wait in the shadows for your turn, Isabella Swan,” Edward whispered in my ear, leaving a small kiss on the crown of my head.

I turned to respond, but he was gone.  Billy and Charlie were calling my name as I turned again and ran to them.

“Bella, there you are!”  Charlie was obviously relieved at my return as he rant o scoop me into his arms.  I closed my eyes to enjoy the welcoming embrace when I felt a light on my eyes.  It was like a flashlight as I grew irritated of the invasion.

Opening my eyes, I saw the heart-shaped diamond on my bracelet was the guilty culprit of the light as the morning sun in the window reflected off its brilliance.  Sight of the small wooden wolf figurine and diamond heart made me smile as I thought of the people who gave them to me.

Cold arms tightened around me as a familiar sweet scent rolled over and filled my nose.  “Did you sleep well?” Edward asked.

I turned over in the bed to face him.  “Yes,” I answered.

“What were you dreaming about?”  His crooked smile dominated his facial features, causing my heart to flutter, despite my morning fatigue.

My fingers rose to touch his lips.  “You.”  Of course.

One of his hands rose to mine, holding my hand so he could kiss my fingers.  His other hand grazed my cheek gently to cause color to rise like magic.  His magic touch.  “And?”

I inched forward and kissed the snowy lips with a smile.  Edward returned the gesture anxiously without resistance or question.  Pulling away, I rested my head on his chest.  It still felt the same as the first time.  Whether it was merely a repetitive dream or a suppressed memory, it hadn’t changed.  Not even the gentle kiss he placed on the top of my head as I inhaled deeply.  If this much happiness were illegal, I would be in a lot of trouble.

Much to Edward’s confusion, I laughed quietly for a moment.  Maybe that’s why Charlie doesn’t like Edward.