Hi readers! So this is my new story, Shell. I'm guessing that you got enough plot summary in the description so I will let you read. But first a short disclaimer.

I do not own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does. I do not even own Clara which is sad seeing as she is the main character, she is my cousin's and I am borrowing her (thanks btw).

Chapter 1

March 30, 1948

Robert really did look handsome in his uniform. It was a pity he'd have to go to war in it. I wondered again and again how I was going to manage once he was gone. I knew I was going to stay with my sister and her family in Burlington, but I'd miss him so much, especially with the baby. Once I finished pressing the uniform and hung it up, I sat down, my swollen ankles relieved, and started back up on the blanket I was crocheting for the baby. It was a gorgeous yellow color, us not knowing if it was going to be a boy or a girl. As I was reaching the limit on my patience with the task, I saw that the clock had struck five and Robert would be home in an hour and a half. Robert was so concerned about the baby and my own welfare while he was away, he worked an extra hour so he could put away some money for us, just in case. I went ahead and started on dinner. I looked through the vegetables we had preserved over the summer. Our garden had done well last year, but seeing as it was March, we were running low on just about everything. I finally decided on pot roast and mashed potatoes, one of Robert's favorites. The meat was sitting in the oven, just waiting to be eaten when I heard the door open.

"I'm home! Where's my sweetheart?" Robert called. His cheerful voice echoed through the house. How I was going to miss that. He came running into the kitchen like a little boy and threw his arms around me. "Mmmm...I love you," he mumbled into my ear.

"Awww...did somebody have a bad day at work?" I teased. He was only so eager to make sure I knew he adored me when he had a bad day at work.

"Not really, I've just been thinking about you. I'll be leaving before you know it and I just have a feeling our time together will be short," he said, stroking my cheek.

I smiled softly. "Now you have to have a better attitude than that! You'll leave, go off and serve your country, then come back to me and the baby, she'll be eager to see you."

"And you know it is a girl how?" he grinned.

"I just know," I giggled mysteriously.

"I see..." he chuckled, swinging me back and kissing me. Normally I would have loved it, but in this huge, uncomfortable, pregnant state it was a little hard to do.

"Ooh...you'll have to wait until the baby is out to do that again."

"Oh, I'm sorry love," he held me tenderly until he finally asked, "What's for dinner?"

I got out the pot roast and we ate dinner. Then Robert turned on the radio and we snuggled up all nice and cozy on the couch and listened to "I Love a Mystery" while Robert smoked on his pipe, filling the room with the scent of vanilla. After the end of the new episode of "The Green Hornet", we got ready for bed.

"G'night love. I'll see you in the morning," he smiled; his mild Irish accent always came out when he said goodnight. He tucked a few strands of hair behind my ear.

I smiled in return. How did I end up so lucky? To have such a great husband, and soon, we would have a new bundle of joy. I rubbed my swollen stomach as I lay down, it was heavy, and my petite frame did not help. I had thought the pregnancy would fatten me up enough to satisfy my mother, but of course not, it only made me grateful for the grace I had acquired taking ballet for most of my life. Otherwise I would be bumping into things left and right and the house would be demolished. As soon as I lay down the baby started kicking. It only kicked hard at night when I was trying to sleep, or if I sat down for a long period of time. Robert liked to jokingly say that it meant the baby would be a hard worker, reprimanding me when I was being lazy, and I thought it was because my movement rocked the baby to sleep. I gently rubbed my swollen stomach, the baby stopped kicking, and finally I was able to go to sleep.

~*~

The next day I walked up to Stella's house after Robert had left for work. Her real name was Estella, but everyone called her Stella. We'd been best friends since we were little girls.

"Oh Clara!" She squealed, trying to hug me around the baby bump. "You're getting so far along! Are you counting down the days?"

"Twenty days until I'm due," I said. It was getting so close! But then, that also meant Robert would be deployed in a month and I'd have to go to Burlington. Stella wasn't so excited about that.

"Well come on in! Sit down, I know you must be tired!" she said, ushering me in. She then got us a couple of glasses of sweet tea, her favorite drink and my pregnancy craving. I'd come to her house in the middle of the night to get some if we had run out many times since I had gotten pregnant, and usually she didn't mind. After about the third time, she just showed me where they kept the spare key and I snuck in and out quietly, just getting what I needed. "Guess what?" she grinned finally sitting down.

"What?"

"I finally convinced Dr. Kingston to let me be his nurse for your delivery!" she exclaimed.

"That's great!" Stella had been doing everything she could to get in on my delivery if it was during her shift. If it wasn't she would be there anyway, but as an elated spectator.

"Hey, I was just about to go out to the garden, and my sprouts are looking a little strange. Do you think you could take a look?" she asked.

I smiled and followed her out into the small garden in her back yard. "They need more water," I laughed when I saw her shriveled up sprouts. "And your tulips need to be in the shade."

"Oh, right! Guess I've got to move those then!" she said, putting on her gloves and getting down on her knees to dig up the bulbs.

"I see your roses are doing well though," I fingered one of the flowers on the bush. "Ow!"

"What is it?" Stella asked, spinning around.

"Oh, it's nothing I just pricked my finger, that's all."

"You know, it's bad luck to prick yourself on a rose. I'd be careful if I were you."

"Oh, Stella! You do realize that's just a silly tale our mothers told us to keep us out of the rose bushes!"

"What? Can I not care what happens to my best friend?"

I laughed. How did I attract people who worried all the time? Oh well, I found it sweet and endearing.

We visited some more, but then it came time for me to leave so I could have everything ready by the time Robert got home for lunch.

"Are you sure you don't want me to walk home with you?" Stella asked as I headed for the door.

"No, I think I'll be fine, thank you. Bye Stella," I laughed, hugging her.

As I headed down the road I got a strange feeling. Like I was being followed, but I shook it off as superstition. Very few of the old wives tales people used as truth were such. Very suddenly, the baby started kicking. I didn't know why; it never kicked while I was up and about. I got an odd impulse to start running, as if I were in danger, but knowing that even if I needed to I could do no such thing I kept my pace. The baby was merely too much on my frame to run without running out of breath; in fact I tired on the walk between my house and Stella's or even climbing up a flight of stairs.

"Excuse me Miss," a deep voice smoother than satin said from behind me. My head turned quickly to see where the voice came from, and my body slowly followed. "The name's Randall; I'm new in town and it seems my car has broken down, could you perhaps tell me where the nearest mechanic is?" The man behind the voice was incredibly handsome. My mother would have said he sorely needed a haircut as his light brown hair was long enough to pull into a short ponytail. His features had the perfection of an ancient Greek sculpture and his skin had the color of one too. Everything about him put me at ease except his eyes. They were dark red, not a natural color for eyes. Maybe today's ever rebellious youth had found a way to dye their eyes as well as their hair.

"Well, there's Lou's Gas station up in the square. He's a mechanic. You just go up the road here and…"

Randall suddenly put his hands around me and swung me like Robert had the day before. I screamed. What was he doing? Was he going to rape me? Right here in the middle of a neighborhood in broad daylight? My worries of that dissolved as he brought his lips to my neck and bit me. The pain was like nothing I had ever felt before. I couldn't even scream it so consumed me. My thoughts ran together and became incoherent as did my feeble cries for help. Randall lifted his head. I realized I was on the ground now with him sitting over me. Although my vision was fading I could see that my blood laced his lips.

"Don't worry doll face. It'll be over soon enough," he said as he went back to sucking the blood from me.

"Hey! What do you think you're doing?" I heard Mr. Jenkins shout from his front porch. Randall looked up. "I don't know who you think you are, but you better leave that girl alone!"

"Get away from her!" I heard Mrs. Petty screech from her house across the street. My vision was completely gone now and I was coming in and out of consciousness. The last thing I heard over my neighbors shouting for someone to call 911 was from Randall just before his cold hands left my body.

"Sorry baby, looks like I'll have to find my snack elsewhere."

I didn't even care that he left. The pain was my only thought, my only feeling. I screamed again and again when I was conscious, but I couldn't even escape when I unconscious. I felt like my entire body was burning from the inside out. Time left me, but as it went on I was able to comprehend small pieces of information. The wail of a siren, the worried chatter of doctors and nurses, Robert whispering in my ear, the white glare of the hospital room, Stella's hand wrapped around mine while I screamed until I lost my voice. Eventually though, even these things were lost to me and the pain came to its peak and became so bad I could no longer breathe. Even as the pain eased down and the world went from unbearable to miserable again I dared not take a breath, and I never felt the need to. The doctors likely had me hooked up to oxygen for the baby.

Finally the pain faded to almost nothing and I opened my eyes. The first thing I saw was the ceiling. It was speckled with a color I couldn't recognize. I turned my head at this strange turn of events to see Robert, asleep in the chair by my bedside. I smiled and finally took a breath, but as soon as I took that first breath the pain overtook me again, but only in my throat. It was like my throat had been set aflame. I couldn't think about anything else, my senses, my instincts took over. A delicious scent filled the air the next time I breathed, but it only fanned the fire burning in my throat. I felt my body fly up; I jumped toward the source of the smell and tasted the sweetness of it. It was like water rushing over the flames, soothing them, smothering them, but even when there was no more, it still ached. I needed more.

"Clara?" I heard a voice call, a hint of fear made it crack, but before I could identify it I was flying again, taking down the body and sucking it dry. This time my pain was subsided; it felt so good. I felt so good. Finally I was able to look up, away from my instincts, into my conscious mind. I screamed and backed against the wall as I realized what I had done. Robert and Stella's bodies lay lifeless on the floor, all the color sucked out. I looked at my hands. Surely I wasn't strong enough to do that, even with the pain pushing me; I couldn't have killed them both. It just wasn't possible. How could a pregnant woman overpower a healthy, normal woman, as well as a strong healthy man? I heard other nurses running down the hallway, just now reacting to the screams. I couldn't bear this. Life without Robert and Stella? Impossible. The window was situated just fifteen feet across the room. That was it. I wouldn't be a danger to anyone else. I said a quick prayer and apology to my baby for not giving it the chance to live and hurled myself out the window.

The fall was slower than I expected, my body, as if it had a mind of its own since the accident, contorted itself in a matter of milliseconds so that my landing was not only safe, but graceful and catlike. Seeing that I had not died, or even been injured by my stunt, I ran. I didn't know what else to do. I ran home in my hospital gown. Once I got there I was overwhelmed again by the grief, the sadness, and fell to my knees, sobbing. I covered my face. It was dry. No tears would come. I shook with sobs, I screamed to the heavens, but no tears would flow from my eyes. What was wrong with me? Had the devil possessed me so much that I could not even cry to repent for my sins?

I got up and ran up the stairs, which surprised me because normally even walking up them left me panting for breath. I looked down to make sure that what I had gone through wasn't the pain of giving birth. The bump was still there. I continued by changing clothes and throwing my things into a suitcase. I didn't know where I was going to go but I couldn't stay here. Even though I took the biggest one it was soon filled. The last thing I managed to fit was a photo album. Hopefully I would be able to come back, or at least send others back to get the rest of it, but if I were to never come back I wouldn't want to leave without something to remember Robert and Stella, the main subjects of the pictures in the album, by. Once I packed another bag for the baby, not knowing how long it would be before I could come here again, I left the house and headed down the old familiar roads not knowing where they may lead me.

I will hopefully be posting soon depending on how much people like this. Reviews are always appreciated including constructive critisism!

Hufflepuffbrunette :)