L I S A

It wasn't possible, was it? For once more I wanted to believe I was living in a mirage and rest of the world was playing along. I was out of ideas as to how could I overcome this dream I'd been seeing since long before that day.

I'd never want that horrible nightmare to become true, hadn't I enough things to mourn yet? I was in no need for another catastrophe or a reminder of an old one!

Please God! Please have mercy on me! I cried with my ripped tongue, no one heard me, no one could.

My mind screamed at the probable possibilities to ignore this one veracity that stood before me in wonder. He didn't look familiar with my presence all the while I was quite horrified by his.

I would take that he didn't recognize me but again why would he? He was no friend, no enemy. I doubted if he had even seen me before but I knew that face all too well that haunted me for years long. I could forget my own name someday but boy I wouldn't misjudge his face!

He searched me unhurriedly trying to churn his memories to get a look of me in them but so far he was with no luck and somehow I felt glad about that. There was nothing but pure horror in my memory of him but his might've contained the blood thirst as well.

I didn't know just how tensed my body was until at my right, Edward's fingers were smoothly running up my palm to the inside of my hand where he crawled up along with my veins. It did pacify my quick breathing but there was no restriction upon my heart, it was swaying in its own terrific rhythm in spite of the fact that it was now the core of every predator's attention.

After a long moment's caress, he calmed me down to some extent, my rapid heartbeat slowed but the gazes never averted away from my skin, my neck to be specific. I bet they're just fantasizing about having my pulse between their fangs.

That was one of the small and stupid snags of being in the centre of vampires, they'd know when you're scared or troubled. It did nothing but assured them of a willful submission of their prey.

I felt like shrinking into a ball and I wanted to as long as no one could see me.

"Have me met before?" He asked, his voice was like a spiky thorn on my way to my memories. I was at once relieved that he didn't recognize my existence but the truth that he'd forgotten what he put me through was unbearable.

What was his name again? I was so overwhelmed by shock that marginally forgot everything Edward had spoken a while ago. Their names, the greeting, and this man in front of me, he was the reason of my every sorrow to that very day.

I wanted to say 'Don't think so' that I'd never seen him before, that he was just a stranger who must've crossed paths with me but the truth was I could never forget the face of a murderer-regardless who it might be; it was like letting go of my grief.

"29th September." I blurted, blinking several times in hopes to say goodbye to the tears.

The images started heating up and spun around in my head at an inhuman pace, utterly ripping the control from me. That night, that day, that beginning and end . . . there was no way to put all that in order for any simple clarification. I couldn't explain all that to myself so there was no hope I could have hope from any of them.

They all looked at me as if I was some crazy teenager with a happy-ending fantasy and maybe I was if they hadn't known my life any better because after everything I'd witnessed who'd put me in the category of sane? My life was filled with an everlasting grief, a curse that hasn't yet lifted and wouldn't possibly in the future.

"Five years ago." I murmured, the words were surely meant for him but only I could hear it and lived it, even now . . .

~ ~ ~

"Dad! How far?" I yelled out of patience.

"We're almost there sweetie." Mom answered from the front seat.

I was holding my bear in my embrace and hugging it close hoping for the nightfall to end soon. My eyes were slowly giving up as my mind began to drift into the nightfall but that was my greatest fear. I hated dark, always. I didn't want to stay outside when there's no moon and my only dear home would give me peace.

I stared outside the window praying to God to reach home soon but I was sure Dad would never let anyone hurt me or Mom. I trusted him more than life itself because even as a child I knew death would come someday. It was the bitter truth that everyone hated long before I came to breathe in the world.

On our way a guy laid in front, unconscious. It was dark so his face was barely in our sight and I, from the backseat could only see a glimpse of his dark figure that appeared as a silhouette blending perfectly with the shadows around it. He was just lying there with no motion left in his muscles.

Dad hit the break and without a warning went out of the driver's seat. He dawdled towards the guy, finding his way into the dark and when he reached there, he stopped and leaned down.

He shook him and again then stared back at us. I doubted if Mom could see anything amidst that mist because all I saw was two black shadows drawn on the smog like two silhouettes on a white wall. I eagerly poked my head in front and saw him twisting back on his knees to see the guy.

That moment might've been the most horrendous one in my memory as that person jumped on Dad and dug his claws in his shoulders as his teeth sank into Dad's neck.

I gaped at them in surprise as my whole body went limp in cold whilst Mom screamed on the top of her lungs. Before I could be interrupted by her wail, another hand intruded from the window and wrapped around her neck hurling her outside the car. She screamed for a while but then her voice faded away into the dark woods just like her body and what remained was the echoing of her pleadings, followed by a disturbing silence.

All that time I didn't let a whisper escape my mouth but my betraying heartbeat was out of my control. There was nothing I could do to stop myself from panicking. I had no little idea of the Hell that had just broken loose.

All I'd been thinking was that my mother would return to me, shining like a star amidst that murky wood but I couldn't have been more wrong. As a child I hoped, I hoped for a light I'd never met, I'd never believed. I hoped for a miracle that I knew real deep down would break me up but I hoped.

The footsteps neared me and in the silence the thud was almost vivid to my eyes. I could imagine what he'd look like and what he'd do to me. I wasn't into gothic literature but in those seconds I ought to have made hundreds of theories regarding my death and more of them ran through my mind but none were enough to explain this attack.

What would be made of me? Was that the way decided for me to die? Sometimes this stupid voice in my mind would try to convince me that he'd have mercy on a child. Were these night creatures my Mom had warned me about in the bedtime stories were really not just a myth?

Before I tested myself further with the genuineness of the situation he was there. His hair a mess, his clothes blood spattered, and his mouth demonstrated two large canines as of a carnivorous animal. Not only that but it was laced with burgundy red blood, their blood!

His smirk was the last thing I saw before . . .

~ ~ ~

I remembered Edward shaking me wildly and drawing me close to himself, his face above mine and giving coldness to my burning skin; it was like the cold water spattering on my face after long sunburn.

What happened?

I was no longer in the woods but in a room where I'd woken up before, twice in one day. But did I pass out? Was that the effect of recalling an old memory one had intended to forget for so long? I didn't know. I was afraid of the consequences since that day and never bothered to recall anything just until now.

The whole thing seemed like new to me, I was scared. The flash back seemed so real that I was ready to fly back into reality any second and now that I was in my right mind, I felt grief wash over my expressions like some rainfall.

"Edward." I gazed into his worrying eyes and tried to hold onto him before losing myself once again.

That wasn't going to happen again right? I didn't intend to sleep again, ever. This nightmare was enough to keep me awoken for all the time ahead-as much as I was allowed to live because I still didn't know what his master wanted with me.

Although that wasn't an issue, I'd find that out once I was delivered. Besides I had way too much in my mind right now to worry about a person I didn't even know.

My unfortunate eyes budged to the door and met a familiar devilish face that stood there in all its glory but confusion.

I don't want him here! I want him to leave! Please I want him gone . . . I pleaded silently hoping the words would save me the trouble to speak.

These thoughts were enough to get Edward all worked-up and highly over-protective. I wasn't sure if he could read my mind but he surely did read my face as I needn't give him another glance before he decided to pass his judgment.

"You have to leave now!"