Disclaimer: I am not Stephenie Meyer, and thus own neither Twilight, nor its respective characters.

Prologue: Making Peace

I had missed the crunch of the soggy leaves and the pouring rain that, to me, had always meant home. It was a typical day in the tiny town of Forks, Washington – disregarding the twenty-year time lapse - it looked just like it did before I had, rather unwillingly, left.

The high school was the same, dreary building in a break along the even grayer highway. I could just imagine students sitting in the warm building: snoozing, bored, and begging for snow. Newton's Sporting Goods looked exactly the same too – except for the new proprietor, a grown up Mike Newton, whose gaze I had carefully evaded as I meandered between the backpacks and the flashlights, reliving my first job. Charlie's house was the same – my rusting red truck still sat in the driveway; I suppose it had replaced the cruiser during my father's retirement five years ago. A quick peek, and I noticed with regret that my bedroom was too, unchanged; exactly the way I had left it so many years ago – I wondered that the laundry on the floor hadn't begun to smell.

The expansive white house in the middle of the forest was different. The now-dirty paintwork peeled with age; the multi-car garage crumbled on the side, where a tree had fallen; the familiar glint of light from the large windows was gone, hidden by the dark clouds, so appropriate for my mood. I knew, without looking – though I did, and felt my dead heart shatter once again – the walls were devoid of decoration, the rooms of furniture, the atmosphere of the constant soft music, and of the vibrancy of the eternally youthful family it had been a home to. That house was exactly as I had left it as a young vampire, but now it held the sadness of more than twenty years neglect.

I leaned against the dark blue truck I had rented: small, because I was the sole passenger, and a couple of years old, to avoid attention. My attire was to avoid attention as well – comfy jeans, a scuffed pair of pumas, and a dark rain jacket. Staring, for the last time at the one place I had been most welcome, most comfortable, I decided to leave before I broke down. I was a different Bella than the one that this place remembered.

I had made my peace with the inconsequential town; it was time for me to return to my new life. I pulled my hair into a low ponytail and began the laboriously slow drive to the airport.