That fateful rainy day, was like every other since Bella's arrival in Fork's. Clouds and icy winds had settled over the skies, giving no inclination of moving along and letting any form of sun ray to peak through the bleakness, painting Forks in a dull mottled grey. Over all, typical Forks weather. Bella had gone through the motions of her morning, like a well-rehearsed routine, a quick shower, a quick breakfast that consisted of toast and black coffee, a quick, slightly stilted goodbye to Charlie before he left for work, and a quick escape from the empty and lonely house of her long-left childhood.

Quick, quick, quick. Bella almost felt like a duck singing the wrong vowel. Clambering into her truck, with the chilliness biting at her fingertips, she had to wait for the heating to kick in and warm up the cabby of her truck before she even thought about driving anywhere. Bella was never any good with the cold, and even the few minutes she spent going from her doorstep to her truck, the coldness had dropped her mood astronomically. A cold Bella was a pissed and short-tempered Bella. A pissed and short-tempered Bella didn't handle delicate situations properly. Today called for delicate handling.

Despite her sharp drop in temperament, the resolution she felt as soon as he eyelids had popped open from the few hours of sleep she had managed to grasp was still as heavy and hefty as lead. For once and for all, since she had stepped foot onto Forks high school grounds, she was going to put a full stop to the mind games a certain Edward Cullen was playing with her.

He was subtle, she would give him that, but not as subtle and clever as he believed he was. Or he was arrogant enough to believe Bella wouldn't pick up on his hidden ulterior motives. That was a fatal mistake. If Bella Swan was nothing but one thing, it was observant. It didn't take her long to realize what was going on in this backward and small town in the middle of nowhere.

One moment the Cullen's wanted nothing to do with her, not one word, then just as she was drawing away from them, when she had told herself enough was enough and they didn't need her dithering around, one would seemingly magically pop up out of the blue, say something cryptic but simultaneously engaging, and then walk away without a glance backwards. It didn't take a rocket scientist to know what they were doing, trying to draw her in but at the same time seem like they weren't, so if push came to shove, she would get the blame. The problem was, the one thing Bella couldn't figure out for the life of her, was why they were doing it. What their end game was. Why her out of all the simpering doe eyed woman that nearly swooned when Edward entered a room? Surely they would have been easier to fish for?

It didn't matter, Bella's decision was the same no matter what their reasoning was. She wanted absolutely jack shit to do with them. Not a god damned peep. Today would be the day she would leave the adopted, but look so similar they could be related, Cullens alone and politely ask them to do the same. If they didn't, well, Bella wasn't adverse to doing things 'un-politely'. It wouldn't be the first time she had to deck a guy for not taking no for an answer.

Parking her herculean truck in the packed car park of Forks high, Bella scrambled out, dragging her backpack with her, not looking forward to the confrontation that was sure to come one bit. As soon as the scuffed red door of her truck had closed with a dull thud and click, she felt the familiar tingle on the back of her neck, the sensation one would get when someone was watching them. Glancing behind her, Bella wasn't shocked by who she found watching her.

Edward Cullen.

He was dressed as he normally was, in designer clothes that didn't really belong in a school setting, leaning casually on his shiny silver Volvo. At least, if the Cullen's did put up a fight about this or carried on with their mind fuckery, she could do what she had wanted since she first landed eyes on that car. Key the tacky thing. Honestly, from the money Edward must have from that car and his designer clothes, surely he could have chosen anything but a Volvo? A Mini Cooper of all things would have been more manly. That Volvo looked like it came along with a free years supply of Tampax. Then again, with the amount of brooding Edward did, even from the little amount Bella knew about him, maybe he needed that Tampax prompto.

However, as restrained, indifferent, casual and relaxed he tried to portray himself to the world, Bella could see the rage lurking underneath it all as he eyed her with a blank face. Not giving him the satisfaction, Bella kept eye contact until he was the one to turn away. This was precisely why she needed to put a stop to this, for under the scripted lines worthy of Shakespeare, peaking out under lopsided smirks was always that glimmer of rage aimed at her. In all honesty? It frightened her more than she liked to admit. Something was wrong with the Cullens. So very, very wrong. She would be damned before she let them drag her down even further than they had.

Once Edward had stopped watching her, Bella turned her back to him once more, trying to keep herself standing tall. She wasn't the one who should feel ashamed by what she had done, he was the one just standing there watching her. She had another ten minutes until she would be needed in the English Lit room. Ten minutes to get her act together, and ten minutes before she put Edward in his place, the rest of the Cullen's hopefully following suit. Easing her bag off her shoulder, Bella dropped it to the pothole near her trucks front tire, bent down and unzipped the worn and old bag to make sure she had all the books she would need for classes that day.

Bella jolted slightly, glancing up at the red brick building when the first bell rang crystal clear through the crisp wind around her and her fellow students. Cramming her books back into the depths of her bag where they belonged, she mentally prepared her speech to Edward, getting lost in her own mind like so many instances before. However, this time was detrimental, for she didn't notice anything happening around her. She didn't look up when people started turning around, some diving out of the way. She didn't look up when the screeching of tires on ice alerted more people to the disaster about to happen.

She only glanced up, way too late mind you, when people started shouting her name in breathless and frantic voices, the noises becoming one in a drumming tempo. It took her a few seconds to clock onto what had everyone worried, but when she did her blood stilled in her veins like ice, pointlessly wondering how she didn't notice the terrified students or the monstrous blue truck of Tyler's skidding and sliding straight for her head on.

Her mind scrambled, clutched and shouted at her to move, to run for it, to do something, anything but squat there like a dear trapped in headlights. But nothing worked, she stayed there melded to the ground like a statue, seconds away from sure death. Bella expected her life to flash before her eye's like you saw in countless movies, but the exact opposite happened. She saw all the could have been's, the what if's, the should have's. She would never get to wear that ridiculous flat cap to her graduation. She would never see her family again. No more fish fries, no more warm soda, no more football games her father would rant at in his recliner. She wouldn't get to start her own family. Never fall in love. One quick swish of fates cruel hand and her future was gone, swiped from her before it was even hers.

Distantly, almost like magnets, she spotted Edward's face staring at her once more. He took a step towards her but his small sister, Alice if Bella remembered correctly, grabbed his elbow and prevented him from coming any closer. Her dainty head and short locks flicking back and forth as she shook her head at Edward's questioning glance. Then in clicked in Bella's mind. She had seen how fast Edward could move when he wanted to, one minute he was there and then he was gone. He could have done something to stop her from meeting this grizzly fate, but he wasn't. They could have saved her.

Rage, undiluted and climbing bubbled up in her chest like a pack of mentos added to a bottle of Coca-Cola. Whatever their secret was, she sure hoped it was worth the price of her life. Because, if by some miracle, she survived this, she was definitely going to make them pay double. And that fucking Volvo was going to pay first. With a gasp of air, the last she would likely take, Bella folded in on herself, squeezing her eyes shut as Tyler's truck came barreling closer, going super speed but paused at the same time. Like everything else around her, it made her feel like she was flipped upside down, her head spinning sickly.

Bella's whole body tensed, muscles feeling seconds away from tearing away from bone by the contort and tension. She should have never come to Forks. She should have made her own way like she wanted instead of letting her mother talk her into going to her estranged father's town. Bella wished with every fibre of her being that she could go back home, back to the sun instead of grey clouds, back to Phoenix. That's all she wanted, like a mantra, one word replayed in her mind over and over again.

Home. Home. Home.

Time fixed itself and all Bella saw was the bright blue blur of Tyler's truck a foot away from her face. She thought she would see her blood splattering everywhere like an extra scene from a slasher movie, or bone crushing pain. She felt nothing or saw anything. It all happened so fast that there was nothing for her senses to pick up. All Bella felt was this numbing dread and darkness embracing her, before life came zooming back to her like a base ball bat around the head.

Pain like no other zapped through her, her world spinning and twirling like looking through those toy kaleidoscopes children played with. All she could tell was it was dark, as if it was night time instead of early morning, blood, so much surrounding her, the heavy and hot substance dripping over her, some even seeping into her eyes, making her vision go a stinging and vibrant crimson, and that she was face first down on asphalt and shards of glass.

Blinking wearily, trying to clear her vision and stop herself from throwing up, Bella gasped and groaned in pain as her chest burned and twisted at the small breath. She was cold and hot, burning and freezing, sick and in pain. A flashing light caught her rolling eyes and groggily she realized it was a screen to a phone that looked like a size of a brick. Bella tried to pull her self closer, but her arms scrapped harshly against the grain of the road, digging the glass already in her arms in deeper, something laying heavy on her legs stopping her from dragging her broken body closer. In a last ditch effort, Bella yanked herself closer, nearly screaming in pain as it shocked through her body like electric, something ripping through her left leg.

Thankfully, as if god was smiling down on her for once, her fingers grazed the large phone. She could see three letters on the tiny screen of the contradictorily large phone. Mom. Scrabbling in her own blood, fighting to stay awake, Bella fumbled for the answer button, only managing to get one word out before the darkness grabbed her one last time, this time keeping its hold.

"Help."

~TWO WEEKS LATER~

Beep, beep. Beep, beep. Beep, beep.

Like coming up from being deep in the ocean, Bella surfaced to real life in fractured pieces and crumbs. The obnoxiously loud and annoying beeping noise being the first thing she could fully lock onto. Slowly, like a butterflies wings unfolding for the first time, Bella opened her eyes, only to pinch them tightly shut at the blinding white light that seared her pupils. In immense pain, mostly radiating from the side of her head and her left leg, Bella tried once more to greet the outside world, this time taking it slower and blinking rapidly to stop her sticky eyes from stinging from the light above her.

For her efforts, she was welcomed with pale tiled walls, green curtains, and sterile equipment. Then she saw the blurry figure of a man standing above her, reminiscent of a grim reaper. Feature by feature he came into focus, from the thick curly hair, mutton chops, and horned rimmed glasses. His lips were moving as if he was speaking, but she couldn't hear a single word pass his mouth, only the beeping.

Heart beating frantically and with something blocking her nose, Bella reached up to tear the thing away when the man's warm hands stilled hers as a tube of some sort met her finger tips. Looking up, Bella tried her hardest to focus in on him and luckily, little by little, she could piece together his words until she was hearing full sentences.

"You're a lucky girl to emerge from such an accident alive. Take it easy now, leave that alone. Keep your weight off from your left leg, it's been put in a caste but you still need to be careful with the stitching we had to do. And don't touch the bandage on the right side of your head, not even a little bit. We need to make sure your vitals stay even. You've been in a coma for two weeks and aren't in the best of shape. Take it step by step okay? Don't rush. Just breath and keep calm."

Tyler's... Or was it Taylor's?... The blue truck bombing for her flashed before her eyes and Bella felt like crying. She was alive. She was still breathing. If she was a believer, she would have prayed and kissed the ground she laid on. Though she was not, some fat tears did gather in her eyes but did not fall. She was going to see another sunrise!

"That's it, nice and calm. It won't be long now, your family should be here any second. They've been visiting every day waiting for you to wake up. You've got good timing."

Bella's hand tangled into the stiff and scratchy sheets she was laying on, tears now falling freely down her face. Renee and Charlie were on their way, she would be going home, she would get to see them again. She wanted to get out of bed, she wanted to rush to meet them, but the pounding ache in the side of her head and the thrumming of pain from her left leg kept her bed bound. It didn't matter, they would be here soon and she would be able to go home, away from the hospital. She hated hospitals, as funny as it was for someone who had to visit them so often, she nothing short of detested them.

The acidic smell of bleach gave her a migraine and the atmosphere of sorrow felt like it seeped into her pores like poison. With a soft smile her way, the doctor told her he would be back before she knew it and left her to her own musings and the white washed room with stuffy air.

Minutes, or what could be hours later, just as her eyes were slipping shut for slumber, her protesting body demanding it, the wooden door to her single room banged open and made Bella jump. Wincing in pain, fisting the blankets and biting her cheek to stop herself from swearing, Bella watched through crinkled eyes as three smiling, frankly beaming, people came tumbling into her room, smiles only growing bigger when they saw her partially sitting with a pile of pillows propping her up.

They were all talking over one another as they came to her bedside, words morphing together until it was just white noise. Bella eyed them bewildered, trying to edge her way into their culmination of voices to tell them they have the wrong room when she noticed they were all calling her by her name, Bella.

The one closest to her, by her shoulder, was a woman in her mid-thirties, early forties at a push. The purple and yellow flower printed matching shirt and long skirt almost made Bella's eyes hurt as much as the white light did. Her hair, while short and cropped to her head, was a golden brown, almost blonde by its lustrous sheen.

The second closest to her was a pubescent boy, a bit more blonde than the woman, taking on a beach kissed look to its hazardous spikes and sweeps. He was in a Hawaiian shirt three sizes too large matched with board shorts and sneakers. A comic of all things rolled up in his hands.

The last, a teenager on the cusp of adult-hood, stood at the foot of her bed. All blue eyes and dark brown hair as curly and wild as hers. Bella could see the grease stains on his fingers and even a smudge of it on his white shirt and blue jeans. As mix match as these three people were, they all had two things in common. The brilliant smiles and expectant looks glazing over their eyes.

The woman went to take a hold of her clenched hand, still wrapped up in the sheet, but Bella jerked it away just in time. The woman pulled her hand back to her chest, looking hurt and confused at her actions. Finally, the chatter died down enough for Bella's unused and croaky voice to be heard over the heart monitor and buzz of fluorescent lights.

"I'm sorry... I think you have the wrong room. My mother and father should be here soon. Maybe try next door? There shouldn't be too many Bella's here... "

They didn't move, didn't speak or even look at Bella. Instead, they looked to one another, as if gauging what the hell was going on. Dread sank in Bella's gut but she adamantly pushed it away. This was a mistake. That was all. The woman went to grasp her hand again, but thought better of it and left her hand hovering in the air, just above Bella's own hand. Her voice was as soft as her features but twinged with evident worry. Bella swallowed deeply, her throat scratching at the lack of saliva.

"Bella baby... Bella, it's me? Your mom?

Bella couldn't help it, really she couldn't. She laughed, her body aching at the shake and movement. Was this a get well joke? A hospital gag for coma patients? Was that even legal? Any second Charlie and Renee would be walking through the door, saying surprise! We got you good! Bella's laughter stalled and fractured until it came to a blundering stop when the people didn't leave, didn't laugh along when Bella had. The dread was back tenfold and not so easily pushed back down this time. The blonde boy edged closer to the woman, arms brushing, as the woman wrapped a thin, delicate arm around his shoulders and brought him closer to Bella as if seeing his face up close would jog her memory.

"Bella, that's Sam, your younger brother. Michael, surely you know Michael? Your twin? Stop being silly now Bella, no jokes until we at least get home... You're not joking are you?... You really don't know who we are, honey?"

The woman, the stranger claiming to be her mother, jostled the blondes shoulder when she said Sam and glanced over to the brunette when she said Michael. Bella clobbered for some words, but when her mouth kept flapping open and nothing came out, she settled for a shake of her head. Instantly regretting her action when the right side of her head flared up in pain at her hasty action, pulling her hand up, she felt the thick padding of the bandage that went along the side of her head and down to the nape of her neck in a curving motion, just above her ear and onto the top of her right cheek, just where her temple met her cheek bone, ending just underneath the corner of her eye closest to her hairline. Whatever laid underneath the thick bandage taped to her head, must have been gnarly and big from the amount of pain coming from it.

Focusing back into the room, Bella tried to clasp onto something, anything, to keep her afloat in this weird world she had awoken in. They didn't seem like they were joking, in fact, the woman looked like she was on the verge of a hearty crying session. This couldn't be what they were telling her though. She had a family already. She had a life time of memories with Renee and... Charles? Was it Charles or George? The pounding in her head took up beat once more, growing faster and faster, the thump even zapping down her spine.

Was this...Real? Was her life in Forks one giant detailed torrent of her imagination? Or was she in a hospital in Forks and this was a coma dream? The more she strove to think of Forks, Charles and Rachel... George and Ruth... Jamie and Renee...Charlie and Rebecca... Her parents, the fuzzier and disorientated the memories, places and names got.

Like a fog was settling over them, messing up the pictures until all she could clearly remember was colors and bleary faces. The pounding in her head escalated and the beeping of the heart monitor grew closer together until the beeping and the pounding in her head became one entity.

The woman detached herself from the blonde boy, Sam, and leaned over to look at the heart monitor. Bella, however, was too caught up in the pain, with trying to collect and keep safe her memories that were fading fast, hand now clawing at the bandage on her head, crumpling and tearing it in places as her fingers constricted on the wound, trying to stop the pain.

"Bella breathe! Deep breaths!"

Bella cried, clutching at her head as everything she ever knew started to disintegrate around her in tatters, the pain climbing all the while, leaving her to a black abyss of nothingness. No past, no beginning, no family, no name. Nothing, nowhere, no one. Dreaming, she was dreaming right now. This was a nightmare, nothing more. She just had to wake up, wake herself up and everything would be alright. Finally, the bandage was off and her fingers was met with a thick gash, the prickly feel of shaven hair that used to be long on the side of her head and down the side of her neck. Now it was short in contrast to the long tresses she could still feel and see over the rest of her head. The cut felt deep, sticky, with knots that must of been so many stitches holding the skin together, the flesh there hot and swollen. Bella cried harder as her fingers danced across and down the long wound swooping from just underneath her eye, over her ear and down the back of her head.

"Bella please baby breathe. Sam, go get the doctor quick!"

Sam darted out of the room like there was a mob on his tail. Bella sat there, crouched on a bed in a strange hospital, in a strange place, surrounded by strangers, loosing herself more and more as the second hand moved around the tacky green wall clock hanging on the wall wonkily. All she could focus on was trying to remember, loosing everything the more she pushed, hand still clutched at the wound on her head, sobs racking through her as everything started to lose focus, fading to black only to come to clarity startlingly fast in flashes. All there was, was pain and emptiness.

Distantly, as if not really noticing at all, she heard the doctor come in with rushed footsteps, saw the grim expression, clipboard held up against his chest like it was a shield to protect him from the inhabitants in the room. Faintly she heard his words as if hearing them through a concrete wall or under water, only some words making it through before the pain became too much, the stress barring down too hard and Bella crumpled form passed out cold on the tangled sheets, head wound out in the open for the world to see.

"I'm sorry... Slim chance... Trauma to the head... Severe... Two week Coma... Regain...Unlikely... Retrograde Amnesia..."

~TWO MONTHS LATER~

Those first tangible and frightening three weeks since the big revelation, Bella had spent in the confines of her bed, in the same hospital she had woke up in, only this time she had been wheeled to a different ward. One that held a menagerie of different patients, roaming from narcolepsy, epilepsy, dementia and every other 'memory problem' in between. Bella thought they, the good ol' white coats, just put them all together because it was easier, some place simple and out of the way to find, rather than any of the patients having anything alike with their problems.

They also wanted to keep her in to watch in case, and quote, 'more unfortunate complications popped up'. Unfortunate complications... Yes, losing seventeen years worth of memories, not knowing a single face around you, being able to speak, read and know what certain words meant, but not being able to write a fucking single one down because you couldn't remember how to write, like a glitch going off in your brain when pen touched paper, was a simple complication. Pricks.

The first three days she had awoken after the first time, it had been hard to comprehend what was going on. Bella didn't cry, didn't scream, didn't shout. She was just numb. Everything was gone, poof, nothing, and she didn't know how to feel about it. How she should feel about it. Depression is what the doctors told... Lucy, her mother. Bella didn't think she was depressed, just blank, like a chalkboard, scrubbed clean but you could still see the faintest smears of chalk dusted across the blackness, the smudges drawing your eye constantly.

Night time was the worst of all, curled up alone in her bed when she had no Emerson's... Family, nurses or doctors to occupy her swirling mind. Most of the time she found herself staring out the window near her bed, staring at the bright and clear moon in the dark sky, whispering facts the doctors had regurgitated to her. Trying to get them to sink in, to glue there. Something, anything she could fall back on if asked who she was, because in the brutal light of honesty, she didn't have a fucking clue for herself.

The year was 1987. Her name was Isabella Emerson, but she preferred Bella. She was seventeen, nearly eighteen. Her mother was Lucy Emerson, a small soft spoken, warm woman. She had a little brother called Sam, who liked comic books, arcade games and fashion. She had a twin brother called Michael, who was incredibly close to her before the 'accident'. She would repeat them until her eyes could no longer stay open and sleep thankfully dragged her down and out of the real world.

The Emerson's, her family, she had to keep correcting herself, had visited her every day she had been hospital bound as her leg healed and the gnarly scar on the side of her head thickened and grew pale instead of open, red and swollen. Apparently, though Bella had not seen it yet, it felt worse than it looked. Bella thought the nurses were just trying to keep her optimistic. Something that felt like her head wound felt, couldn't be anything less than eye catching.

It was hard, correcting herself, forcing herself to call this strangers family. But as time ticked on, it grew easier. The Emerson's own personalities were the sole reason. Lucy, bless her giving soul, had always come to her bedside packed with a big lunch box of goodies Bella could eat rather than the pig slop the hospital tried to pass off as something remotely edible. She would bring her little things from... Home. Trying her hardest to make Bella's little sectioned off part of the ward she was on as comfortable and nice as possible.

Sam would force her to move over, despite her battered body and a chair being available, lay beside her and read from one of his many comics, the little glossy books being a different one every time he came. He would dip his hand into the brown bag full of food Lucy brought with her, munching away as he rambled on about batman, the joker, Aquaman and the flash. He even once questioned her if she felt different, apart from the whole memory loss, and could do cool things like the flash could after his accident. Unluckily, real life was a bitch, and Bella had all the downsides of a serious accident and none of the upsides, like supernatural abilities to fight crime with. Although, if she could pull off things like the little-drawn people on the paper of Sam's comics could, fighting crime would be the last thing she would do.

Michael was... Michael was the hardest. He would sit for hours on the plastic and obviously uncomfortable chair at her bedside, smiling and joking. He would tell her about herself, things she did before, or re-hashing the stuff they had pulled together. It was upsetting, watching and listening someone who knew you more than you knew yourself. He seemed to get lost himself, sometimes completely forgetting Bella had no idea what he was talking about. He would say something with a bright grin, likely a private joke between the two before the big crash, as she had come to call it, and then clock on that Bella didn't understand when he was the only one to laugh.

Those were the worst times. He would grow silent, hesitant, distant, and Bella didn't know what to say or do to make him feel better. He knew so much about her, and she didn't have an inkling or single fact to draw on about him. She had to remind herself it wasn't his fault, he didn't mean to throw her amnesia back in her face, and it wasn't her fault either, she shouldn't feel guilty about it. It was just life, her life, and she needed to take it one step at a time. Bella tried her hardest with Michael, he was her twin after all.

Two months on from that disastrous first awakening, her scar was now an angry pale red, bordering pink, the side of her head was still shaven short, her leg was free from its cast, and Bella found herself signed out of hospital and squished in the back of an old pick-up truck with a big burly Alaskan malamute called Nanook and Michael. Lucy and Sam sitting in the front.

Bella had found out early on when questioning where her... Father was, that her parents had gotten a divorce, her father not making a single visit during her hospital stay, and that she would be hauling tail and truck across states to her grandfather's house to live in while Lucy got back onto her feet. Apparently, according to both Lucy and Michael, they had visited there when they were younger, toddlers really. Lucy had told her she would love this new town, that it was all bright lights, sunshine, and beach, all things pre-big crash Bella loved. After the big crash Bella agreed, as long as there really was plenty of sunshine to warm her cold bones up.

The drive was nothing short of long, extremely tiring, and hectic. By the time they had made it to California, frazzled and haggard, she was willing and more than ready to send her fists flying in Michael's and Sam's direction. It had started up half hour into their journey, and still going strong four hours later. The two would not shut up and choose a radio station they could agree on. Thank god that Lucy had seen Bella's darkening expression from the rear-view mirror and hastily taken control of the radio.

As Lucy fiddled with the old knob to the radio, a crackled version of an old song began to peek through the white noise, making Lucy perk up and search for the clearest version of it. Once the dial had settled, Bella could hear the slightly crackled notes of an easy and relaxing tune filter across to her, making her hum subconsciously. When the man started singing, Bella found herself singing along to the words despite not knowing them, they seem to just come to the tip of her tongue without a thought, leaving her lips in an airy whisper. She didn't know where it had come from, but it felt right, it clicked.

Turning around, for she had been staring out of the rolled down window until this point, idly watching the blur of houses and shopping centres fly by, letting the wind dance through the hair she still had and cool down the feverish heat of her scar that was still hot to the touch, Bella was greeted with brilliant and white smiles from both Lucy and Michael. Subconsciously flipping her hair over to cover as much of her scar as possible, Bella's words stalled as she rose an eyebrow in question towards the two.

Lucy turned the volume down slightly, so the song was nothing but a quiet hum in the background of noises coming from the inhabitants of the car and the occasional whine and panting from Nanook, Lucy stared at her through the rear-view mirror.

"I used to sing that song to you when you were little and ill. You used to sing along to it with me..."

Bella forced herself to give back the smile Lucy was giving her, confused but a little excited at this turn of events. That was a good thing wasn't it? She may not have any memories right now, but she might be beginning to pick up little things, even if it was just the words to a song from long ago. Maybe this was the first step, maybe there was hope of regaining her memories, contrary of what the doctors had told her back in the hospital. Maybe her mind wouldn't always be a fractured mess of present happenings and blank spaces of the past... Maybe, hopefully, please god let that be so.

Bella shook her head, trying to push down the gloomy doubts and shining hopes building up in her. Another time. She would reflect another time. One step at a time. The sun was high in the sky, blazing down its warmth upon her. She was with people who cared for her. They were moving next to a beach. She wasn't going to get swept up in her broken mind when she had so much to look forward to. She would have plenty of time for that when night fell and she had nowhere to run to or place to hide in. When no one was present to watch her break apart.

As everyone settled back down, Lucy driving, Sam with his comic book, Michael and Bella looking out the window, a gaudy sign came into view, a postcard-esque picture of a beach and roller-coaster printed on the front, in big bold red letters distributed in curvy waves read WELCOME TO SANTA CARLA.

"Ugh! What's that smell?"

Bella glanced back into the car, turning to face Sam as he spoke, watching as his nose scrunched up and his eyes became slits, hands tightening on his comic book. Bella was suddenly hit with the urge to reach over the seats separating them and flick it. Lucy's chuckle was bright and cheery as she reached over and ruffled Sam's hair, making the boy shrink away and swat at her hand.

"That's ocean air, sweetie."

Giving up on trying to fix his hair, Sam flopped back into his seat and scrubbed his nose with the back of his hand, mumbling something that sounded suspiciously like 'Smells like something died.' At his remark, both Michael and Bella joined in with the laughter. Somehow, even with only two months worth of memories to back her assumptions up, Bella thought Sam, the ever city boy, would have trouble fitting in at a resort town... Would she too? Did she use to be like Sam?

Bella was snapped out of her wandering thoughts when she felt a soft tapping on her shoulder, the annoying rhythmic taps turning out to be Michael trying to get her attention. When she turned to face him, he simply pointed over his shoulder, to the back of the car, in the direction of the passed sign. Spinning in her seat, having to hold onto the back of the headrest to look out the back glass, Bella saw what had caught Michaels attention enough to make him want to show her. In thick, black graffiti were five simple words that gave a rather dark omen for such a sunny and happy place.

Murder Capital Of The World.

Bella scoffed and swivelled back into her seat, refusing to spend any more of her time pondering over why that was on the back. It was just a group of kids, locals likely, trying to scare the incoming tourists. Nothing more than a petty prank to get a petty reaction. Bella wasn't falling for it. However, by the looks on both Michael's and Sam's, the jovial glow to their face's long gone and lost from sight, it was at least working on those two.

It didn't take very long after passing the sign that Lucy took a sharp left, what looked to be an amusement park of some sort standing proudly in the distance, on a boardwalk, shadowed against the bright sun and periwinkle blue sky, and proceeded to pull up at a large, cabin-like home. Bits and pieces littered the large front yard leading up to the house, broken off parts of cars, half carved wooden totem polls, and what Bella had to do a double take at, a stuffed grizzly bear drinking from a beer bottle, large head thrown back as it 'guzzled' the beverage.

With the Radio off, Bella could hear the faint neighing of horses coming from the open fields surrounding the home over the hum of the trucks engine. When the loaded truck came to a rocky stop, Bella undid her seatbelt with shaky hands and clambered out of the car as fast as she could. She needed to stretch her legs, but most of all she had to get the hell out of the car. From the little bits Lucy and the doctors had told her, she had been riding her motorbike back home from school when a truck had swerved and hit her head on, sending her skidding down the road and head first into a large rock, with her motorbike mangled and laying on top of her left leg.

The truck had driven off before the ambulance had gotten there, having left tire tracks on the road by how fast they had driven away from the scene and a bleeding Bella. But even if that night was blurry, Bella could remember the pain and blood, so much blood, and a lovely memento of her scar present for the rest of her life. Let's just say being in a car didn't help her anxiety or nerves. Not so close to when she had only just gotten out of the hospital from a hit and run that left her permanently scarred and mentally broken.

Once out and in the open, Bella stretched her legs, grimacing when her left one sent a jolt of dulled pain up to her hip and spine. Reaching her hands up, Bella made sure her hair was flipped over her scar, hiding it from view. People stared and it made her uncomfortable. She would need a hat at some point, just to make sure her hair didn't get caught up in the breeze and flash her scar to passers-by. Bella didn't want to be stared at, not because of a scar.

Looking up to her left, Bella bounded over to Lucy and wrestled one of the box's she was trying to carry up to the patio of the house out of her arms and into Bella's own ones, blowing off Lucy's rebuffs with a careless wave of her hand. Her leg was fine, a bit sore, but perfectly capable of walking with a bit of added weight. Bella wasn't made of glass, and now that she was out of the hospital, away from the hovering and muttering doctors and nurses, she refused to be treated as such.

Just as Bella's foot made contact with the last step of the Patio, something caught the tip of her boot and made her stumble backward slightly, thankfully managing to regain her balance before she went tumbling down the stairs. Peering over the box, Bella spotted an older man, thinning white hair held back by a rolled piece of fabric wrapped around his forehead, arms and legs spread wide on the deck of the patio.

Panicking, Bella dropped the box onto the patio, luckily hearing nothing crash and break from inside its depths, and made a dash for the man. Huddled over him, she glanced over her shoulder and shouted to Lucy who was a few feet behind her.

"Call an ambulance!"

Lucy jumped at Bella's frantic voice and rushed over, dropping her own box next to the one Bella had discarded and came over in a flutter of a lilac skirt, hovering over the man, who was laying on the floor, tapping him on the cheek calling Dad. Bella startled slightly as she realized just who was on the floor, eye's growing wide as she stared at her grandfather. This man was her grandfather. This possible dead man was her grandfather. Well, shit.

"Is he dead?"

Spinning around, still crouched over the man, Bella shot Michael a warning look, he and Sam must have snuck up while Bella and Lucy were distracted by the possibly dead body littering the wooden patio. Michael grew sheepish and held his hands up in the universal sign of surrender and backed up a few steps.

"If he's dead, can we move back to Phoenix?"

Bella's eyes closed as she took a steadying deep breath, trying to calm herself down when Sam spoke up. She swore black and blue, brothers were more hassle then they were worth. If possible, you should avoid having any. Especially having ones that didn't seem all that disturbed at the sight of their could be dead grandfather... What the hell was wrong with them? Was she really the one with something wrong with her head, or had the hospital got it mixed up and it should have been Michael and Sam forced to see the head shrinks?

"Playing dead. And by what I heard of it, doing a damn good job at it."

Bella jumped at the new voice piping up, ending up falling straight onto her ass against the rough wood of the patio, blinking rapidly and over at the man she had moments prior believed was dead and gone from the world for good. Once the shock had worn off, her heart still going like a jack rabbit, Bella ran a tired hand down her face. Now she knew where Sam and Michael got their slightly sociopathic reactions or lack thereof. From good old grandpa Emerson.

As Bella dusted her hands off on her jeans and stood up, Lucy helped Grandpa come to a stand, giving him a hug as if she was used to this type of behaviour. Bella really, really hoped not. Her heart still hadn't recovered from this fright, let alone if the old man decided to try and pull a repeat. God help her and please don't let this be any omniscient pre-warning of what her stay in Santa Carla was going to be like.

~THREE HOURS LATER~

Bella, after unpacking her bags in the room that had been delegated as hers, stumbled down the stairs, dodging Michael and Sam as they came zooming past her, chasing one another. From the snit bits she had picked up from their raised voices, the fight had broken out over their grandfather growing a weed garden through the kitchen window, a TV and something about MTV. How those three linked together, Bella had no fucking clue, but they did in the mysterious workings of her brother's minds.

Fumbling at the bottom of the stairs, having to grasp for the banister to keep her balance, Bella watched as the two Emerson wonders whizzed past her. However, when Michael took a swoop for Sam, Sam dodging and kicking out behind him, making Michael hiss as Sam's foot thwacked his shin harshly, Bella had to chuckle at their antics. Feeling a warm arm wrap around her shoulders, Bella glanced up to a smiling Lucy, her own smile becoming more pronounced when the dimple-cheeked woman bent down and kissed her forehead, pulling her close for a side hug.

"Why don't we leave the boxes for a little while and head out for the boardwalk? You three can get to know the town while I look for a job. What do you say?"

Bella nodded, Sam said a wistful finally and Michael gave a non-committal sure. Then they were all off heading towards the door, Bella pausing at the back of one of the plush chairs to pluck up her jacket and beanie hat she had found in one of her boxes, sliding it over her head, making sure her hair and hat was covering up what they could of her scar. Maybe getting some fresh air, seeing some new faces and sights would be a good thing, something to keep her balanced and away from the dark turn they often went to when she had nothing to occupy her mind since her exit from the hospital.

Before she could make it to the front door, slipping through like the rest of her family, a wrinkled hand grasped her elbow, bring her to an abrupt stop. Peering up, she was met with her grandfathers worry etched face as he glanced outside to the setting sun.

"You be careful out there Bells. Things... Things aren't always what they seem. Just... Be careful okay?"

Bella frowned deeply, feeling like it held more meaning than a simple concern for her well being due to, well, due to her not having a single memory. Before she could question the old man, dig little deeper, he patted her on the back, turned on his heel and was gone before Bella could mutter a single word. Brushing it off, Bella scoffed at herself. She was feeling vulnerable, a feeling she hated, but one she felt all the same. She was transferring that onto other peoples actions, giving her reason's to lock herself up in her room and pretend the world didn't exist.

But as much as she wanted to do that, she knew she couldn't. Ignoring a problem didn't make it go away, only aggravated it until it got infested with more problems. And anyhow, she knew the dangers of a busy resort type place. Muggings, fights etc. She just didn't know how she knew that, where she had learned it or who had told her. Memory problems was a slippery fucker like that. As Bella left, she straightened her spine and stepped out into the orange light of the setting sun, slamming the door behind her.

IMPORTANT, PLEASE READ:

Twilight and the lost boys were my first ever dalliance into the fanfiction world, and therefore, hold a special little place in my heart. The kind words and support I got for those first few chapters of, practically, me testing out the waters, were heart-warming, and even now, I often get asked about when my Dwayne/Bella or Paul/Bella fics will be updated.

Unfortunately, those stories got very muddled for me, a bit convoluted and back then, I could hardly string an ongoing plot together lol. While they will always be special to me, because they were one of the first fanfictions I wrote, I just don't feel comfortable enough to go back to them and continuing it. Especially after all, it's been two years and, in my opinion, my story telling and writing in general has improved.

That said, the love I was shown, and still given, for those little fics really does bring a smile to my face and It didn't feel right leaving the fans of those fics in the dark. So…

HERE WE ARE BOYS!

I've salvaged what I could on my old fics, and many of you might recognize this beginning as the beginning chapters of my fic, Blue masquerade, a David/Bella fic I wrote back in the day that, like the others, didn't get very far at all. Additionally, you might see some little scenes from my other fics making an appearance again, more polished this time, because well… Nostalgia lol. Instead of spreading my attention across four fics, I've decided to sit down, pen it out, and mix them all together into, well, this madness!

Due to this, the pairing is Bella/Lost boys, so Bella and David, Dwayne, Paul and Marko. If that isn't your cup of tea, sorry, but It's just the road I want to take with this fic.

This fic will be a very strong M. I can't stress that enough.

So, this is for you all guys! I hope you guys will like this fic and will enjoy the ride we are about in embark on.