She stared in the mirror blankly, hardly noticing her reflection. Chocolate brown eyes dulled with pain and betrayal stared ahead unseeingly. Her lips were pulled down in a permanent expression of grief. The rest of her face only served to further sketch out her pain.

Her skin was pale, she noticed idly. Too pale. She had lost weight, too, more than what was healthy. She was quite sure she'd easily be able count her ribs if she could find the will and energy to lift up her shirt to look. She couldn't. She just stared at her reflection instead.

Her once sparkling eyes were dull and empty. Just like her. No, not empty. Broken. She was broken. Broken beyond repair. The spark of life she once possessed was gone, leaving behind the shell she was now. The broken husk of a human being she was currently looking at in the mirror. She didn't care. It didn't matter anymore anyway. Nothing mattered anymore.

Turning away from the mirror, she mechanically walked to her bedroom. She carefully laid the letter she had clutched in her too-brittle hands on the covers of her bed.

She left the room again, slowly making her way down the stairs. She was lucky her father wasn't at home. She didn't want him to stop her from leaving. She stepped outside and locked the front door for what would be the very last time. Taking a long look at what had been her home for the last year, she drove away in her old truck. The goodbye didn't make her feel anything. She was empty.

The drive was long, and she finally allowed herself to think. She thought about her father, her best friend, Jacob, and, most of all, she thought of the family that now proved to be her death penalty.

She had loved them. Truly loved each and every one of them with all her heart.

Carlisle. The father she never had. The one person she trusted to look after her, instead of the other way around. The one person she trusted to care for her when she had had an accident again.

Esme. The mother she always wanted, who was always there when she needed a hug or advice, and who could make her feel like the most loved person in the world with a single look.

Rosalie. Despite her cold attitude, she had been the big sister she had always looked up to. Fiercely protective of her family and those she cared about.

As she drove her truck, she quietly mourned the fact she had never been part of that small circle of people. They were truly privileged, even if they didn't realize it.

Emmett. Her big brother bear. The one who would always protect her from bullies and put her back on her feet when she had tripped again. He could always make her laugh through her tears.

Alice. Her other sister, who's bubbly attitude could always cheer her up, and who's talking and laughing always made her feel at home. Just like Esme was able to do.

Jasper. The strong and silent one who could make her feel safe by just being in the same room as her. Most would see his scars as horrific or ugly. She saw them as the trials Jasper had gone through, only to come out a stronger and a better man in the end.

Edward. Her first love, even though he had played with her emotions and betrayed her in the end, she had truly loved him. Now, she felt nothing for him. He was but a memory. No, he wasn't the one she mourned. It was the others that had crushed her hart and broken her beyond repair.

She parked her truck at the edge of the forest that covered the root of the mountain. She instinctively knew she would find what she sought higher up the mountain. Slamming the door of her truck closed for the last time, she began hiking through the dense bushes.

She thought about Jacob. About how he had been her personal sun since they left. He had been able to make the pain feel less crushing, was able to push the feeling of being suffocated by loss back. He couldn't make it disappear though. Nothing could make pain so deep she couldn't even feel it anymore disappear. It would stay with her until the end. Her only companion as she climbed the mountain on her journey to oblivion.

Her mind strayed to her father. Charlie. He truly was a good man, even if he was clueless when it came to emotions. She truly loved him fiercely.

Raindrops caught her attention and she looked up to see she had reached her destination. Just like she had known she would be, Victoria stood mere feet away, red curls blowing in the wind and rain.

She didn't even need to explain. The vampire knew what she had come for, and nodded, a sympathetic, understanding expression on her perfect features.

She stepped forward, and tilted her head to the side. A silent invitation. Victoria gently, almost lovingly, brushed a stray lock of hair from her face and lowered her razor sharp teeth to her throat.

''Requiescat in pace, Isabella.'' She heard Victoria say, her voice a mere whisper in the wind. Then she felt the teeth piece her skin.

She looked up. It was raining heavily. The sky was dark and grey with rainclouds. Even the weather mirrored her mood.

For the first time in nearly a year, a genuine smile graced the face of Isabella Swan, age eighteen.