Human

(1) ISABELLA

(1) ISABELLA

I noticed the smoke in the distance, the flakes that littered the air. It was unnatural and too close to Forks. Far to close.

For six months I had taken the job to be the monster that protected this town. Six months I stood back, watching from a distance never allowing myself even a glimpse of the family I was ripped away from. In that time, I learned to survive being a vampire.

I learned to control this uncontrollable craving and fire that burned each minute of each day. The one thing I had taken from this was that in those months, I was not alone.

Without breathing in the scents, as my lungs did not need air, I moved for the smoke.

If I had returned, shown up just suddenly, I knew Isabella would have accepted me. She loved vampires and with me being one she would have thought she could jump onto the hay wagon.

Dad... I was his daughter. Even knowing that, I couldn't believe he would accept this. Not in the same way Bella had. And now that he had to watch Geoffrey, he would want to protect him.

I would want to protect him.

I was still too new. Still too uncontrolled.

Even if I had been able to find a way to return, even if I was accepted with the new changes without questions... there was Sam.

I slowed to a walk as the purple smoke came to a short distance. As much as I wanted to breath in and understand what was happening, I couldn't risk the chance of it just being humans.

Many possibilities raced through my mind.

The La Push werewolves throwing a bonfire was the best one.

As I stepped out from the line of trees, I became a statue. If my heart had been racing it would have stopped completely and my blood would have turned to ice.

Hazy images were quick to pass in just one second.

"The Cullens and Hales," Angela answered.

"Doctor and Mrs. Cullen foster kids," Jessica added on. "They all moved from Alaska two years ago. The blonde girl, Rosalie Hale, and the big-dark haired guy, Emmett Cullen, they're a thing."

"Someone sounds jealous," I laughed.

"The little dark-haired girl, Alice Cullen, she's really weird. She's with Jasper Hale, the blond who looks like he's in pain."

They looked different now. Different but the same. I could see more details now than before. The way the sun reflected off of them, even without it being out directly.

The way they stood perfectly still but still managed to shift, as if they needed to. But they didn't. Vampires didn't need to move or do anything that a human would.

Pain slammed like a sludge hammer into me. I don't get why they were back, now. Why did they return when it was clear before that they were done with this town.

Done with us.

But what hurt the most and clashed against the rage was the sight of my sister... my still very much human sister standing in the middle of them. As if she somehow belonged yet didn't.

She didn't belong there.

Not surrounded by them. Not before the strange purple smoke.

Especially not before my very own eyes.

The sight of her brought everything that I had done like a whirlwind into my mind. Every person I killed; every human I had attacked; and the burning desire to find a way to control myself. To control what I was just for the sake of my sister.