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The Gloaming - Epilogue

Four Months Later

My life is very different. I don't remember much after I told Bella to let me change. She's filled in the blanks where she could. Apparently, she tried to suck out Victoria's venom, but couldn't get all of it. I was dying. She didn't want me to die. So, she bit me. She bit the inside of my elbows and my wrists. She bit behind my knees. She bit my neck again. And she was able to stop. Her love for me gave her the will to stop.

And I changed.

I remember everything about the change. It was truly the most painful experience of my life. Victoria's torture was nothing in comparison. But, it was worth it. I have never been happier. I burned in Phoenix, in a condemned warehouse not far from the workout center, for three days. Bella never left my side. I remember her talking to me; telling me that she loved me and that everything was going to be alright.

When I awoke, Bella took me hunting and I had my first taste of animal blood - coyote. Then she filled me in on what had happened. Alice knew what I was going to do all along. She just didn't want me to be hurt, that's why she was trying so hard to prevent my escape. The second Bella saw Alice in the airport she knew and the Cullens came for me. Bella still blames herself for being too late. I tell her all the time that she wasn't too late; that she made it just in time.

Bella coming through the front windows of the workout center was the glass I heard breaking. She was followed by Carlisle, Jasper, Emmett, and Alice. Apparently, it was little Alice that delivered the death blow to Victoria. She ripped off the sadistic vampire's head. Go, Alice! She, Jasper, and Emmett pulled Victoria apart and burned the pieces. Good riddance!

I worry a lot about my mother. The Cullens are still in Forks. Carlisle is keeping an eye on her for me. Bella, Alice, and Esme check on her too. I've heard that Alice did a very good job of staging the truck wreck that "took my life." They had to "borrow" an unidentified corpse from the Nipomo, California city morgue to burn in the truck as remains. It was evidently very convincing. I was declared dead. There was a memorial service for me and everything. Emmett videotaped it for me. I haven't been able to watch it yet. I doubt I'll ever be able to watch it. The school even did something for me and there's going to be three color pages in the yearbook devoted to my memory. I achieved popularity in death!

I still feel guilty for leaving Renee behind. She was and still is devastated. One good thing did come out of it though; Renee called Charlie. She found him on the internet and called him a week after I "died." She told him about me. She told him why she left and admitted that it was stupid. And she told him that she never stopped loving him. He had never married. He still loved her too. They're to be married in the spring and she's moving to Phoenix.

I've been staying with the Denalis in Alaska. Tanya and her sisters are very welcoming; Tanya more so than the others. I think she's starting to take the hint and backing off. I belong with Bella. I hunt with Kate most of the time. She's teaching me how to do it neatly. I'm kind of messy. Bella comes up and spends every weekend with me. She's moving up here at the end of the school year. She's not going back to Forks High School in the fall. The story will be that she is finishing high school at a prestigious boarding school in Europe. We're to be married in the fall.

When I met Bella and the Cullens, I never imagined that I would become like them. As my love for Bella deepened I had hoped that she would want me enough to one day change me. I have a lot of regrets in my life. I regret never having known my father. I regret leaving my mother the way I did. But I don't regret my change. Bella is my reason for existing. Every day that I spend with her is the greatest of my existence. And although my human life has ended, my eternal happiness is just beginning.