Preface - EJ's POV

Since the beginning, I'd never been alone. In my mother's womb, I had my twin sister Renesmee to keep me company. Growing up, I had my family, which was quite large: my three grandparents, two aunts, two uncles, a mom and dad, a sibling, and multiple family friends. Almost every second of the day was spent with someone I knew. And the other times were spent with someone, in the very least.

But right now, in this single moment, I was utterly alone.

Shivering, I curled into a tighter ball on the cool stone floor. Or at least, it felt only cool to me; my body temperature ran much higher than the average human's. The bars of my prison cast long shadows across my face, made from the moonlight that shown through a small window across from my cell. It was bare, nothing in it that I could use as tools for my escape. I'd already tried to bend the bars, but in my fatigued state I could not move them a centimeter out of place.

Hunger stabbed at my stomach, making me clutch myself even tighter as I tried to keep the pain at bay. Unwanted tears slid down my cheeks, carving tracks through the coating of dirt and grime that covered my face. Stifling sobs, I called out in my thoughts once more.

Dad? Mei? Can you hear me? Please help me, Daddy. I'm scared. Mei, sister, twin - I'm so scared.

I strained my mental abilities to the limit, hoping to detect my sister's sweet voice, wishing to hear some comforting words that would tell me I'm not alone. But no response met my silent cries. Wailing, I buried my head in my chest, feeling the ever-rapid beat of my heart pound even faster until finally, I snapped.

"LET ME OUT!" With a shriek of defiance, I sprang at the bars and strained to move them, frantic to escape this hellhole I was enclosed in. "Let me out let me out let me out!"

Shaking, I collapsed, hands digging into the rock floor, just slightly crushing it. My strength, through more massive than most, was failing me; it had been days - nay, weeks - since I'd fed. Throat flaring, stomach knotting, head throbbing, I retreated back in the depths of the shadows and curled up once more.

For the first time in my five years of life, I was without anyone at all.

Utterly, completely, inescapably alone.