Chapter One

Amy couldn't believe where she was. It felt unreal, and like a horrible nightmare. But she knew it wasn't. They were at her brother Jasper's funeral. She watched as some of his friends went up to his casket, and said things to his inanimate form that she didn't hear. She looked down again at the note in her hand. It was in Jasper's clean-cut handwriting. It said he was going to see Twilight again, and he'd be back. Amy hated that movie. She'd never watch it again. It had been that movie that had taken her brother away from her. In addition, she thought sourly, I'm not going to read those books again! It had been Jasper that had bought them for her. They'd had a good laugh, when they'd found there was a character in the books named Jasper, and an even bigger one, upon learning he was from the civil war era. Her brother was into the Civil War. He was into it so much that during the Summer, he'd renacted in a group. Amy shivered, as a cold Autumn breeze swept through her.

"Amy, honey, do you have anything to say?" Her mother spoke quietly. Janet had said very little to her daughter when they'd heard about Jasper. She knew how close her youngest daughter had been to her eldest son. They'd shared a very tight friendship apart from being siblings.

"Y-yeah...." Amy took a few deep breaths before she got up on the podium. She unfolded the other piece of paper from her pocket. She glanced at it, then the casket. She shook her head, and re-folded it. "My brother Jazzy was my best friend. He helped me when my father died a few years ago. He was always there for myself, and my mother. His favorite things were Twilight Saga and the Civil War. Don't ask me how he balanced the two very different things, but he did. He taught me how to ride a bike, and how to rock climb. He took me to places Mom couldn't afford." Amy knew she was rambling, and the audience before her eyes began to swim, but she continued anyway. "In fact, Jazzy is the one that made sure I got to go and see Forks, Washington for real." She took a deep breath. "Losing him ... is like losing my best friend, because in fact, he really was my best friend." Amy thought of the left over chapters of Breaking Dawn she still had to read. Jasper Hale had not been in the majority of that book, but she had promised to read it for the story, and not for Jasper. Now she didn't know if she could bring herself to do it. She turned to the open casket, and got down from the podium. She went over, and laid their very first Twilight movie tickets in it beside him. "Have a viewing on me, Jazz. And I promise, I'll finish Breaking Dawn someday, and I will go see New Moon, and tell you all about it...." At that point, Amy felt the damn of emotions break, and she fell to her knees, crying hysterically. "Damn it, Jasper! You weren't supposed to leave me here!" She didn't care that they were in a church. Now she was angry with him. "What about when I get to high school next year, huh?! You promised you'd be there!" She felt someone, probably her non-family best friend Sammy pull her to her feet. "I'm not done yet!"

"Shh, he's gone now, Ames..." Sammy held her close to him. "Jasper wouldn't want all this fuss over him, you know that." Sammy was Jasper's age, and had been in the Rock Climbing club with him.

"Who let him get a motorcycle anyway?!" Amy demanded now. "It's not as if it was bullet or shatter proof...."

"It wasn't even Jasper's fault, Ames." Sammy said soothingly, leading her away from the funeral. He gave Annie Joyner a comforting smile, letting her know he would take care of her daughter. He was met by Janet, and Iris, who were two more friends of theirs. "Amy, I know this is going to be really hard, but you have to try and remember him the way he was, not as he is now." Sammy had lost a sibling himself the year before last. He knew that Amy's recovery had to begin immediately.

"How can I? Everything around me reminds me of him!" Amy pulled away from him. "Even you guys!"

"I know...." Iris, a young blonde came and put her arms around Amy, and hugged her close. "We'll take care of you, just like he would have. We're all going to be Sophmores next year, so we can keep an eye on things for you." Jasper's friends were already super protective of his little sister, even though they were only a year apart. "And hey, I'll even go see New Moon when it comes out." Iris did not care for the Twilight books, but she knew that Jasper had, and he'd gotten his sister involved in the fandom too.

Amy wiped her eyes, shrugging a bit. She didn't know what she'd do when New Moon came out the following year. She gathered she might still be very upset with her brother's death. But Jasper had told her, when their father had died, that time healed the pain. She knew it must be true. She didn't feel the pain of her father's death anymore, but the pain of losing Jasper so suddenly hurt deeply right now. "H-hey ... wasn't your club going rock climbing this weekend?"

Iris smiled. "Do you want to join us?" She understood Amy's question. It wasn't were they, she wanted to join them.

"Yeah. I think I might." Jasper had been planning to take her anyway. She didn't see any real reason why she shouldn't join them still. She heard Jasper's voice in her head then. He wanted her to go.

"Okay, sure." Sammy smiled with his deep brown eyes. He swiped his ponytail back behind his shoulder, and adjusted his suit jacket. "I'll pick you up around three tomorrow, okay?"

"That sounds about right. I don't think I'll be sleeping well." She smiled lightly. Janet hugged her now. "Thanks for coming, you guys."

"No problem." Janet pulled away. "You just stay out of trouble. Just because he's not here, doesn't mean he isn't watching." She winked at her. Janet knew how close to Jasper Amy was, and she wasn't going to let her forget about the afterlife, and how they're watched over.

Amy smiled slightly. She knew how true that was. Even in school she had always felt that Jazzy was somehow aware every time she turned in an assignment late, or told off someone in the hallway. "Thanks, Jan." She watched the three friends leave, and she went to her mother's car. She didn't want to return to the funeral. She didn't want to watch them take Jasper where she couldn't follow.

***

Three O' Clock came faster than Amy would have liked. She wasn't even really ready. She had slept in her brother's room that night. Well, she had after her mom had gone to bed. Her mother hadn't wanted her in there, disturbing anything. She'd curled up in his bed, and laid there, sobbing softly until she woke up around noon. She had taken a shower, and gotten dressed, carefully avoiding anything Jasper had given her. She was determined to have fun. Wearing anything that might remotely remind her of her lost sibling would spoil everything. In the end, however, she decided to wear her Vampire Baseball hoodie. It was the very last thing he had given her, and it had been specifically for this trip so that she would be warm.

When Iris, Janet and Sammy filed into the house, she was ready to go, but they weren't. They had something for her. Sammy made her sit down on the couch. "I was all set to come pick you up myself, but the girls thought it might be more fitting if we took you together. We also decided you needed some equipment. We knew Jasper hadn't gotten that far." He held out a large backpack. It was decorated with Twilight related stickers and keychains. It was Jasper's. Amy blinked and took it from him. She opened the pack, and blinked. It was all of Jasper's equipment.

"I can't take this...." She shook her head, but Sammy was smiling. "What? I can't, it was his...."

"Think logically about this. Do you think he'd want it to go to waste? I think he'd prefer if someone he knew and trusted took it instead of sending to a used sporting goods store, don't you?"

"Sammy's right." Iris said now. "Jasper was going to upgrade at the end of the year anyway. He probably would've given this stuff to you."

Amy fingered the keychain of the Cullen Crest, and she sighed. Jasper probably would have given her this equipment without a doubt. She just wasn't sure she wanted such a close reminder of Jazzy around. "I'll take it, I guess...." Sammy patted her on the back, and then helped her off the couch.

"We're taking the "bunny trail" today, because we know you're not ready." Janet smiled wryly when Amy gave her a disappointed look. "Oh come on. You know you're not."

"Oh fine." She sighed deeply, and pulled her pack on. She went to talk to her mother, who was in the kitchen. "Mom, we're leaving."

"Okay, honey. Please be careful." Her mother looked like hell. She hadn't slept last night either. "And call me when you're down again so I know you're safe."

"Will do." Amy wandered back out to her friends. "Let's go!" She found that despite the fact that her brother would not be with her, she was excited to get up into the mountains and climb.

***

The cliff looked more intimidating than she remembered. She had been there before, when Jasper had climbed. He hadn't let her go up with them because she was still small for her age. It had taken Amy a long time to grow. By the time she was in seventh grade, and her brother was in eighth, she had caught up to him height-wise. She swallowed, and pulled her backpack out of Sammy's brother's car. "It's taller than I remember...."

"You don't have to do this." Janet told her, as she began to gear up. "If you just want to sit and wait for us, it's okay." She knew Amy had never officially done any rock climbing that wasn't indoors at the Center. "We won't be offended."

"No, I have to do this. Jazzy was going to take me anyway...." She let Sammy help her get geared up now.

"Don't do anything reckless, Ames." She heard Jasper's voice in her head plead. He knew, even without being there that she was scared to death. Amy ignored him, and pulled the backpack over her shoulders. She followed her friends as they started up the trail to the cliff's bottom.

When they were at the base, Sammy looked at her seriously. "This isn't a game, Amy. If you're too scared, it might be better for you to stay here. There are people who have been known to have accidents up there because they froze up, or panicked."

"I'll be fine." She had climbed higher rock walls than this. If she thought about it that way, maybe it wouldn't be so intimidating. She watched as the others began their ascent. At length, she followed suit, listening as Sammy or Iris gave her directions. She tried to focus on them, and not the fact that Jasper wasn't there to witness her first climb. He would've been proud of her. She was doing well until she got halfway up. She made the big mistake of looking down. You were never supposed to look down when you were rock climbing. That was a rule Seven on the rock wall. She gripped the rock hand hold she had tightly, though suddenly she felt weak.

"Amy? What's wrong?" Iris looked down at her. She was a few feet above her. "You're pale as a ghost! You didn't look down, did you?"

Amy nodded weakly, resting her cheek against the cold stone. "I can't move...." She was paralyzed.

"You have to move, or you'll be stuck there." Sammy ordered. He was already at the top. He was much faster than the others at climbing. He had been doing it since he was young. "Come on. You're tethered, so you won't fall if you slip."

Amy straightened herself out, and tried to make herself move up another inch. But the memory of how high up she really was played in her head, and she found that she was frozen. She misstepped, and her foot became caught. She squirmed, and tried to get it free, not realizing that her tether rope was also being rubbed against a pointed rock. By time she realized it, it was too late. They all heard the loud snap of the rope.

Janet, who was below her, was the first to react. "Amy, don't move!" She pushed herself to the other side, and climbed to where she could face Amy. "Listen to me. We're going to get you down from here, okay, but you can't move."

"My hands are too frozen to move anyway." Amy tried to joke, but a sick feeling was gathering in her stomach. "I can't...." She said, just before her left hand slipped. She shrieked. Janet grabbed her left hand firmly.

"I can see why Jasper was ready to give up this roping...." Janet said through clenched teeth. "Sammy, hurry down here, will you?" She looked up at the boy, who was making his way as quickly as he could. "I can't hold her much longer." It was as if someone somewhere was cueing all of this. Just as Janet said that, her grip on Amy's hand slipped. In her panick, the other girl's right hand slid, and she instantly went tumbling backwards. "AMY!!"

She hit the ground with a sickening thud, and it was the very last sound she heard, before the darkness claimed her.