Chapter 1: Memories

Bella's POV

I sat in my rocking chair and stared out through the window in my home in Forks. It has been about 2 years since Cullen left me and now I'm going to graduate from Fork High School. I can hardly believe it, but it is true when they left me, and I got out of my zombies, I've just focused on one thing and it was a graduation from High School; especially after Jacob stopped returning to my phone calls.

But my graduation is not what I'm thinking of this early morning, I'm thinking about everything that has happened to me both since I moved to Forks and what happened to me when I lived in Phoenix.

Flashback:

The first thing that came to mind is an event that occurred when I was only 9 years old. I had been to the city library until it closed because of my mother, Reneé, and forgot to pick me up as usual. So now I was alone on my way home. The library was about 10 blocks from my house, so it was not that far, but when I was about three blocks away, I started to feel someone followed me, but when I looked behind me there was no one there

I continued to go but the feeling did not disappear. When I was only two blocks from my home when someone grabbed me from behind and pulled me into an alley. It was where I could see it was a man who looked to be about 30 years old. The man turns to me and says with a weird smile

"This is going to hurt for a little while"

Before I knew what was happening, he took a firm grip on my head and pushed it on the side, so my neck was bare. Then I see that his face has changed, and his fangs appeared. I started screaming for help and just when he was going to put the fangs in my neck, he was thrown by me and into the wall on the other side of the alley.

I looked up and see another male figure stood in front of me, but this person is much younger, he looks to be about 17 years old. His smile seems warmer than the other man, but before anyone could say anything the other male had come upon his feet again and looked like he's going to attack her guardian angel.

But before he can do anything, my angel jumped up to him and pushed a piece of wood into him and he became ashes. When everything was done, turning my angel and comes over to me, bends down to my level and asked,

"Are you okay little one?"

I replied with a nod through my tears that were running down my cheeks, he then hugged until I calm down, after that he asked me:

"What's your name?"

"My name is Isabella Swan, but I like to be called Bella. What's your name?"

"My name is Stefan Salvatore,"

Just then he does something strange with his eyes. He looks right into my eyes and says to me

"You will forget what just happened, you will think you tripped on the sidewalk and one of your books got thrown into the ally."

I looked back into his as with frown on my face when I asked

"But that wasn't what happened"

He took a step back and with a shocked expression on his face but when he recovered, he asked

"Can I walk you home, so I know that you arrived home safe?"

I nodded and smiled at him, so he held out his hand and I laid my hand in his, then we walked in silence all the way to the front door. Then I turned to him and said

"Thank you for walking me home,"

And then I jumped up and kissed him on the cheek before I opened the door and went into the silent and dark house.

A few days later and I find myself back at the library, I was sitting at a table and reading a book when suddenly I hear a voice say,

"We meet again Bella,"

I looked up from my book and I smiled and said,

"Hello, Stefan how are you?"

"I'm just fine, how are you?"

"I'm good thanks"

We continued to talk for a while at the library. And that we continued to meet each other once a week in the Library until the summer the following year when I went up to Forks to see Charlie. When I got back I went to the library, as we had agreed before I left, but he never showed up. I went there every day for a week, but he never came, I cried myself to sleep because I lost the only friend I had.

The years went by, I was now 15 years old and Renee has fallen in love with a man named Phil. I could not be happier for her, but my life is not the best, I had no friends and no one to talk to.

But that changed one evening when I had gone to the store. I shopped for a few things that were needed for dinner. I came out of the store and there were a bunch of guys, no more than 18 years old, started to whistle at me, but I decided to ignore them and continues to go home. But the guys did not give up, instead, they began to follow me.

It was when we got to the same place where I had to meet Stefan years before, when one of the guys grabbed me and pulled me into the alley, well in the alley they push me down on the ground while two of the guys kept me firmly around my wrists and two others held my ankles. Then a fifth guy tore off my pants, panties, and t-shirt and was about to take off his pants but stopped when a deep voice came out of nowhere and said,

"That as no way to treat a lady"

When they looked around for a moment before they see him.

It was a guy, about 25 years old, who stood and was holding a baseball bat. Then the guy who had torn off my clothes went up to him and said

"Don't interfere with this. If I was you, I would go away and forget what you just saw"

But the guy just laughed. Then he did something unexpected, he hit the guy with the bat so hard that the guy flew into one of the walls, when the other guys saw this they immediately released me and ran away. My knight in shining armor came up and asked,

"Are you okay? You don't need to be afraid anymore. My name is Damon and I will not hurt you."

I smiled at him and said

"I'm fine, thanks to you, my name is Isabella but I like to be called Bella."

He smiled and just said,

"Did you know that your name means beautiful in Italian? I think it suits you,"

I just blushed at what he said. After he helped me up and gave me his jacket to cover myself with since my clothes were destroyed then he asked

"Can I walk you home? So, no one else does something to you"

"That would be nice"

Once we got to the house I opened the door and went inside gave him back his jacket then just before I closed the door, I turned to Damon and said

"If you try to make me forget all about this evening, you can forget about it. Your mind tricks do not work on me goodnight"

Then I closed the door leaving a shocked Damon on the other side.

Two days later, when I came out of my school, Damon was standing there leaning against a tree, waiting for me. I went up to him and said

"Hello Damon, what can I do for you?"

He smiled and said,

"I have some questions to ask you and I wanted to talk to you undisturbed."

"Fine, let's go to my house, no one is at home there, so we can talk there."

He nodded and followed me home. When we got back to my house, I unlocked the door went inside and asked him to come in. Once inside the house, I asked him

"Do you want something to eat or drink"

"I'm good thanks but you should get something for yourself if you're hungry,"

I nodded and went into the kitchen and prepared a sandwich. When I came out of the kitchen with my sandwich, I see Damon sitting on the couch in the living room and looking out the window. I went over to him and sat down in the chair next to the couch and began to eat. When I was finished, I asked,

"What did you want to know?"

Then he looked at me and asked,

"How do you know what I am?"

I then began to tell him the story about how I had been attacked by a vampire when I was 9 years old and had been rescued by another and how a few days later, he explained everything to me and we had become good friends. But after I had been with my father over the summer he had disappeared, and I had never heard from him again, then I explained how he had tried to make me forget and that it did not work, I left out the part about his name because Damon did need to know that.

I think he was taken back by what I just told him but soon I heard growling coming from Damon, then he said

"I don't understand how anybody could leave such a beautiful girl without even an explanation"

"Thanks for the nice words but it's been 5 years now and I assumed he had a really good reason to leave me"

"There was no reason not to come back and explain himself"

I just smiled over what he said. After that day he came over to my house every day after school if Renee was not home, and he even helped me with some of my homework, we would wash movies or go out and do something in town. But then came the day when I decided I would move to Forks so that Renee could travel with Phil whom she had now married.

When I told Damon, he was sad, but he understood why I did it. So I gave him the address to my new home and said that if he wanted, he could come for a visit or write a letter. Then I hugged him and said

"Take good care of yourself and try to stay away from trouble."

He just laughs at it. It was the last time I saw or heard something from him, a week later I moved and then I was with Cullen until it ended and now I'm taking a graduate. I knew that nothing would be the same again after that.