Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. Stephenie Meyer is the lucky owner of that world. However, Evie was my idea, so HA!

I couldn't put it off any longer. I've written it in my head thousands of times, and I finally have it exactly the way I want it. It needs to be typed out before I lose the story. The prequels, until this story is written, will be the one-shots I've been posting. I'll piece them together once I get this written, but until then they're just the bits of fluff that keep my muse working during writers block.

I'm giving you fair warning: It won't be candy tuft and rainbows. Angst is something I love to write. Without it, stories are boring. There, you've been warned. On with zee show!

This chapter's songs are: "Bella's Lullaby" from the movie OST and "Here Comes a Regular" by The Replacements

PROLOGUE

The images swam in front of her, taunting her like they always did. First she saw her best friend Jacob's face register shock and pain from the wounds she'd given him. She saw him fall to the floor, lifeless... She felt her love, Edward, holding her still-squirming body prisoner while Carlisle rushed to Jacob's aide. She heard the cry that finally tore through her bloodlust and broke her heart. She had known then what meant the most to her, and what she was therefore doomed to lose. Lastly, she saw Edward's eyes, eyes that looked like they were ready to spill a river of tears if they were able, and his lips forming the words Don't go.

"I love you." Bella spoke to his face as it faded into the darkness and a tearless sob of her own ripped her from the memories that she lived behind her closed eyes. She cursed her inability to sleep, to dream of a better life. Instead, she opened her eyes to the same disgusting apartment in the middle of the same town she'd lived in for the past twelve weeks. It was almost time to move again, so she put every ounce of energy she had into focusing on the one event that she was looking forward to. Still, another place was just another place that wouldn't have what truly mattered to Bella: her family.

Bella swung her pale legs over the side of the creaky twin bed that was crudely shoved into the corner of the apartment, and trudged over to the small refrigerator that hummed softly from it's spot in the kitchen. She yanked the door open and grabbed the first bottle she saw: AB negative, donor William Hartley. "Cheers to blood drives." Bella spoke aloud for the first time in days, then downed the liquid in one gulp.

"I see you're as productive as always." A voice came from behind her. Bella spun around and hissed at the familiar apparition that stared at her with impatience. "Done hiding yet?" he asked.

"Look, just because you're a ghost, doesn't mean that you can just APPEAR anywhere you want."

"Can't I?" The spirit asked, one pale, translucent eyebrow raised with skepticism.

"Just back off, okay? I'm only doing what I have to do."

"What you HAVE to do is warn them. Now!"

She threw her hands into the air, ignoring the shatter of the empty bottle she'd thrown against the wall. "I can't just burst in on them! I have to be careful not to let the others track me!"

"Bella, you're making this harder than you have to. It's been almost 18 years! Your daughter deserves to meet her mother."

"Does she deserve to meet her maker as well?" Bella spat, then walked away from the intruder, crossing the tiny living room in three strides. She ripped the curtains back and let the moonlight fall across her face. She stared blankly at the dead streets and dank buildings that surrounded the hellhole she'd forced herself to live in. "There is more than one evil I have to protect them from now. My own demons can't hurt my little girl anymore, but the ones that follow me sure as hell can." she spoke as she felt the chilly essence of the ghost floating directly behind her.

Her eyes cut around to the picture she had framed on her coffee table. She glided over and plucked it from where it sat. "The two of them will not die because of me." Bella murmured as she traced her finger over the lines in the picture, starting with Edward's perfect smile, followed by arch of her then-pregnant belly.