A/N: I really enjoyed the reviews. It’s been so long since I’ve posted here that I was actually nervous, but you guys made it easier. Thanks.

Chapter 2 Ghost of Christmas Past

I didn’t have long to ponder the odd twist my evening had taken. No sooner had I wondered if Dickens had found himself in a similar predicament and decided to write about his personal experience, that the room filled with a blinding light. The light did not hurt my eyes as it should, but bathed me in peace and comfort. Bella had made me feel like this. Every time she’d wrap those too fragile arms around me and kissed me more enthusiastically than she should, I was enveloped in the light that shone from her. I’d tried to forget how her goodness chased the shadows from my heart and replaced it with love and contentment because to remember was too debilitating and the need to seek her out for one more hit of her intoxicating love took every last reserve of strength I possessed.

The ghost glimmered in and out of existence; her golden eyes the only thing wholly there. Once she stood before me she cocked her head to one side and it felt like she was reading my every thought. Where it had been invasive when Aro had done it nine months ago, this felt more like going to confession and having a priest listen and not judge then offer absolution.

“Let me guess, you’re the Ghost of Christmas Past?”

She solidified, as much as light can, and held out her arm to me, her golden nails long and pointed into sharp tips. “Take my hand, Edward, and know comfort. You need not fear me. What I will show you has already happened. It cannot harm you. I only seek to show you what you refuse to see.”

Ignoring her wasn’t going to help. Goodness knows Scrooge had tried and still found himself reliving his past memories. But I didn’t want to see what she would surely show me. My memories were as clear to me today as the events themselves. I didn’t need a stroll down Memory Lane to know that I had hurt my love, to know that I was not what was best for her. “I haven’t forgotten anything. Your services are not required.”