It was getting worse. It crawled up underneath my hard skin, finding my veins and wrenching every bit of reason left in my brain. I was afraid to feel this way, I never had before. I was afraid….afraid of what I could do because she was so close.

I had her address.

Clearly, it wasn’t hard to find. Isabella Marie Swan had been a patient at the General Hospital a couple of times, her registrations, telephone number and address were there.

I brushed by Carlisle, trying to ignore his thoughts when Esme and I came home the night of the dinner party. He even clutched at my arm.

"Please, son, tell me how I can help."

"You can’t do anything." I twisted away. I felt the guilt flood my entire being every time I ran into Carlisle so I had to avoid him, just until I had figured out what to do concerning the human girl.

But the fact was that after I’d gone searching for her address (and found it), I started to wonder why I had gone so far. I was supposed to have left Chicago the same night. I was supposed to have run away from temptation…

Unless….I was really planning on killing the human?

There was no way! I couldn’t do that to Carlisle and Esme, especially not now! But if there was no other way…then what should I do?

And then there was the utter mystery surrounding that girl. Twice I had witnessed it. Outside Mrs. Clarkson’s house, on the lawn and then in the dining room. This girl’s thoughts were silent. It was a foolish reason for killing her- although, this fact could mean some threat to me. If I couldn’t read her mind, what was she capable of?

At last, I couldn’t make sense of any of my own thoughts anymore and left my bedroom, going downstairs to Carlisle’s study.

He was already gazing at the door as I pushed it open. He sat in his chair behind the mahogany desk and started to rise but I motioned for him to keep his position. I sank in the chair across from him, embarrassed and speechless. I knew his thoughts but I didn’t want to answer them.

"Esme said you left suddenly,"