In the shadows (Caius Volturi)

Memories of other times

*Shado point of view *

I was used to being alone. For most of my life, I was alone. Hiding. Afraid. I knew that one day they would find me and take me.

More than once in the past year have I wished they would take me back to the hell, I couldn't wait to escape from. Maybe I just knew it was safe. Not really safe. I don't remember a single day where nobody tried to kill or torture me, but I still felt safe.

There you were able to be anyone. Nobody would care anyway. So one day I was Shado. I didn't have a name. Well...no name I wanted, so I changed it. I didn't deserve my old one and still don't.

On the island I was Shado and I liked it. I liked that I finally had a name. I real one. It fit me. I was like a Shadow, always there but invisible.

I remember sitting in the cold forest of Alaska. Never once did I wonder if I would survive. Maybe I didn't care. Or I just knew that something so simple as the cold wouldn't be the reason I would take my last breath.

Living with the Cullens was different. It was warm. I couldn't remember the last time I felt truly warm. They were a family, not by blood but their bond was strong and they held together.

I never understood why Jasper took me home with him that day. Maybe he felt sorry for me. It's not every day you find a fourteen-year-old in the woods, freezing to death.

The Cullens were nice. Esme loved having someone around who she could test new recipes on and the others also seemed to like me. They weren't supposed to. It wasn't part of my life.

People have failed me more times than I can count and they weren't supposed to be different.

They should hate me. Like all the others did. A useless, stupid child. That's what they said I was. How wrong they were. I was maybe useless and a waste of space but not stupid.

I knew advanced maths and could calculate a rocket launch if I really tried. I overwrote the system that was meant to bring down a plane and I figured out the code the military uses for its atomic bomb programs.

I was not stupid. To hell with them. All of them. They could rot in hell...I made sure of that. One day I would join them there. I wasn't going to heaven.

Not sinners like us

We didn't get the singing angles with white robes and fluffy wings. And who said we wanted them. Honestly, having to sing merry songs all day would drive me mad. At least they stay in their fashionable potato sacks all day. You never have to be worried that you might look stupid. Everyone does and that really can't be you.

So like I said. I am not stupid...only alone.

I like to think my parents miss me and hope every day that I will return home to them but that is a lie. If they are still alive they are probably dancing with joy, I know I would. 'Cause who would ever want me.

They kinda did. But only to kill me because I was jeopardizing their mission or because it was Tuesday. Or Wednesday, Thursday,..., and so on.

Only the island I made some friends. One of them shot me even before I saw him and then said he saved my life doing it, and now he is dead but the others were great.

The was the assassin who tried to kill me. The other guy who also tried to kill me and the blonde women who...yeah tried to kill me. Thinking of it. My life is kinda messed up.

So after they all tried to kill me we became friends. Not that it really matters now. They are all dead. But it was nice while it lasted.

So there I wasn't so alone but now I finally had a place where I felt okay. Alaska wasn't paradise. It was cold, dark, full of danger, rude truck drivers, and apparently vampires.

And now the Cullens wanted to move. I mean I would have missed them but they wanted to take me with them. To Forks.

A) The name sounds about as amazing as my time there will probably be

B) I like snow. Not the sky peeing on me all the time

C) Small town=small minded people. It would take about a week until everyone labeled me as a freak. I don't blame them. A mute girl who lives with a family of godly beautiful people. Who needs more for gossip.

So Forks was a dump next to nothing. And when I say nothing I mean nothing. There is a town near it which has about three shops, so for the people of Forks the shopping paradise.

Forks is surrounded by woods. Yeah...that's about all the traits it has. There is a school, a hospital, a dinner, and a police station. No idea what it is for. Rogue gone fish? Vandalizing trees? Rain that breaks the speed limit?

"SHADO" a voice shouted suddenly, almost making me fall off the tree I was sitting on.

Lovely. They were looking for me. Then Carlisle would talk with me. Esme would pat my back comfortingly and Emmett would joke to break the tense silence.

In the end, they would drag me to the small town, only to move again as soon as the 'kids' finished high school. Again.

"Oh, my good Shado. Come down there. You will hurt yourself. The tree is slippery" Esme gasped as soon as she found me.

Well, there goes my plan of just taking a run for it. To my defense...I wasn't the one who was responsible for making them.

"Shado" Esme said again.

I sighed, making my way down the tree, jumping from branch to branch.

Esme looked like she was about to have a heart attack when she saw this, and I am pretty sure that if I had not been down already she would have insisted on helping me.

"We were so worried. You have been gone for hours. Are you okay?" She asked, checking me over for any bruises or cuts.

I just nodded.