"Let your mind start a journey thru a strange new world. Leave all thoughts of the world you knew before. Let you soul take you where you long to be...Close your eyes let your spirit start to soar, and you'll live as you've never lived before." --Erich Fromm

Let the journey begin... (opening music starts playing like in a movie and you begin to wonder what the hell the song is and where the hell it's coming from)

BELLA'S POV

I settled back into the couch in my familiar apartment, listening to the classical stylings of Debussy. It was soothing, something I didn't feel often in my life time. The warm sun was streaming through my windows and brushing over my skin. It felt lovely. I slid off my sunglasses and looked up toward the ceiling that I couldn't see, my head falling back onto the soft back of the sofa. The warmth was amazing on my skin.

I listened closely to Debussy's Claire de Lune because all else was quiet besides my breathing, my heartbeat, and the hum of the refrigerator in my small kitchen. Peaceful. How often was I given this pleasure?

Blackness was all I saw and it was my constant friend. Some friend it was, but it never left me nonetheless. It was familiar. And my apartment. It was familiar too. Everything in it had its place and all of it was to be exactly as it is now, for I'd be distraught with the changes. How was I supposed to find something when I couldn't see it?

I heard heavy foot steps coming down the hall and smiled, sliding my sunglasses back into place when I heard the high heels' clicks accompanying his steps. My apartment door opened and the knob hit the wall thanks to Emmett's excessive exuberance, causing me to cringe. "Can we try not to dent my wall?" I asked my brother, as I did nearly everyday, not turning away from the ceiling to face him. His heavy foot steps approached me and the couch moved just an inch when Emmett plopped down beside me. We'd have to fix that.

"Sorry, little sis. Just in a good mood." I heard movement beside me and assumed he shrugged. Emmett was my big brother, only one year my senior, and knew very well I couldn't see his movements, but he did so anyway. Some days it made me feel like I was more normal, when he treated me like I could see him doing these simple things, while other days, it made me wish I could see what it looked like. Today it made me feel normal.

"Any particular reason for it?" I asked. His breathing was normal, but to me, it was loud with how near he was. Rosalie's heels clicked on my wooden floors as she neared the both of us. She took Emmett's lap, by the sounds of it, and settled quickly. Emmett's breathing had picked up just a smidge.

"Rosie and I had a good morning," he replied and I could hear the grin in his voice, causing me to laugh. I knew he had his eyebrows raised too, because that was what Emmett did when he was like this. I also knew he was looking at Rosalie as his arms snaked around her waist. Rosalie laughed, probably because Emmett looked ridiculous. I'd give anything to see Emmett look ridiculous just once.

"So I see," I replied, though I really couldn't. I meant that I heard it all, but Emmett and Rosalie understood what I meant. Rosalie had been a big part of mine and Emmett's life since Emmett was in Forks Junior High.

Rosalie had moved to Forks her eighth grade year and she and Emmett immediately started dating. She and I quickly became close and it was nice to have a friend who I wasn't related to by blood. Sometimes I knew she looked at me as someone who needed her help on occasion and not just any old girlfriend, but she never once looked at me with pity, for which I would always be grateful.

Pity. That was the last thing I wanted. From anybody.

I shook my head at the two of them when Rosalie giggled. "Emmett, quit molesting your girlfriend on my couch."

"Sorry, Bells," he sang, laughing. I just leaned my head back again and looked up at the ceiling that I still couldn't see, listening to their breathing and heartbeats, matching mine yet just a bit faster.

"Rose, did you close my door?" I asked suddenly as I heard the sounds out in the hallway far louder than they'd been earlier. Much louder now that I was also paying attention.

I heard her feet hit the ground and her heels click away from me as she apologized. "Sorry, I forgot. Just lost my mind for a second there."

I smiled at her. "Don't worry about it. I would have closed it myself, though. You didn't need to get up." I looked toward where I heard her movements, keeping my face in the direction of her footsteps as she returned to Emmett's lap.

Emmett used to think it was funny, my seeing without seeing. The way I'd look in the direction, matching my eyes perfectly to the exact object that was making the sound, the one I was in search of, but not being able to actually see what it was. My hearing was that incredible, my sight that nonexistent. The price of blindness.

I stood up and made sure I had my balance before I moved toward my bedroom, leaving Emmett and Rosalie on the couch as Emmett turned on the TV, replacing the remote where it belonged on the side table. Good boy, I thought, laughing to myself. There were times where his mind forgot to be sure he placed things in their proper places. Next thing he'd know, I'd be calling his cell phone asking where he moved the item to.

The sun was still peeking through my windows, brushing softly against my skin as I lay down on my soft bed over the covers, resting my head back gently on the pillow as I took my tape recorder from my bedside table, exactly where it belonged, and began playing back this morning's lessons.