Tuesday, January 25, 2005 (Mike) When I opened my eyes that morning, the first thing I noticed was the silence.
No rain tapping against the window or wind rustling through the trees.
Just silence.
I frowned and pushed myself out of bed before walking over to the window, still half asleep.
The second I pulled the curtain aside, my stomach dropped.
Everything outside was white.
Snow covered the yard in a thin uneven layer, and beneath it the driveway gleamed with a dangerous sheet of ice that reflected the pale morning light like glass.
For a few seconds, I just stood there staring.
Then the memory hit me all at once.
“Oh, shit.” Today was the van accident.
The day Tyler Crowley lost control of his van in the school parking lot and nearly crushed Bella Swan.
The day Edward Cullen revealed to Bella that he could stop a moving vehicle with one hand like a supernatural insurance liability.
The day everything in Twilight really started.
Except now there was a problem.
I’d already changed things once.
And if there was one thing I’d learned over the last week, it was that the timeline apparently reacted to meddling the same way a bear reacted to being poked with a stick.
I checked the clock.
7:10 a.m.
Still enough time to do something.
Or enough time to make things infinitely worse.
Honestly, both felt equally possible at this point.
… By the time I reached Forks High, the cold air had turned sharp enough to sting the lungs.
The parking lot looked dangerous even before stepping out of the car.
Snow covered most of the asphalt, but patches of black ice hid underneath, slick and nearly invisible.
I parked carefully and cut the engine while my heartbeat thudded unevenly in my chest.
The lot was still mostly empty.
Good.
I stepped out and leaned against my car with my hands shoved deep into my jacket pockets while watching students slowly arrive through the morning fog.
Angela’s sedan.
Eric’s battered Civic.
A few trucks from the senior lot.
Then Bella’s red Chevy rolled into view right on schedule, coughing smoke like the engine was actively protesting its existence.
I straightened immediately.
“Bella!” She looked surprised when she spotted me waving her over from beside my car.
After a second, she pulled closer and climbed out, breath fogging in the freezing air.
“Mike?” she asked.
“What are you doing out here this early?” “Just felt like freezing to death before first period,” I said lightly.
“And maybe warning you not to crack your skull open.
The parking lot’s basically an ice rink.” Bella glanced down carefully as she shut the truck door.
“Yeah, I noticed.” Her boots crunched softly over the snow while she walked carefully toward me.
“You seriously came out here just to warn me about ice?” “Maybe I’m secretly a very responsible person.” Bella snorted quietly.
“I’ll believe that when I see it.” I smiled automatically, but my eyes kept drifting toward the far entrance of the lot.
Come on.
Any second now.
The sound reached us before I saw it.
My stomach tightened instantly.
The blue van turned the corner hard, tires rolling over the ice, and suddenly the entire vehicle fishtailed sideways.
Everything slowed down.
The back wheels lost traction first.
Then the van spun.
Tyler’s face flashed pale behind the windshield.
Bella froze beside me.
“Bella!” I grabbed her arm hard and yanked her backward just as the van slammed into the side of her truck with a deafening metallic crash.
Glass exploded across the parking lot.
Metal shrieked.
The impact shook the ground beneath my feet while Bella stumbled against me in shock.
For one horrible second, all I could hear was ringing.
No dramatic music or cinematic slow motion.
Just the smell of gasoline and antifreeze mixing with cold air while smoke curled upward from the wreckage.
Then the screaming started.
Students shouting.
Car doors slamming.
Someone yelling for a teacher.
Bella stared wide-eyed at the wreck while trying to catch her breath.
“I…” Her voice shook.
“Oh my God…” “You okay?” I asked immediately.
She nodded too quickly.
“Yeah.
I think so.” Then both of us looked toward the van and my stomach dropped again.
Tyler was slumped forward against the deployed airbag, blood running down the side of his face while one arm bent at an angle arms definitely should not bend.
Bella gasped.
“Tyler!” Before I could stop her, she hurried toward the wreck.
I followed right behind her, my chest tightening harder with every step.
This wasn’t supposed to happen.
In the original story, Tyler walked away shaken and embarrassed, but other than a few scratches he was mostly fine.
Now the front of the van looked crushed inward like crumpled paper.
I’d changed it.
God, I’d actually changed it.
The crowd around us suddenly shifted, and Edward Cullen appeared beside the wreckage so fast he may as well have materialized out of thin air.
His eyes flicked quickly between Bella, me, and the van before narrowing slightly.
“What happened?” “He lost control,” I said automatically.
“The ice…” Edward’s gaze lingered on me for half a second too long.
Calculating.
Then he moved toward the van and grabbed the twisted driver-side door with both hands before wrenching it open far easier than any normal person should’ve been able to.
A teacher shouted in relief somewhere nearby.
Sirens wailed faintly in the distance.
And all I could think was: This is wrong.
… By the time the ambulance arrived, the entire parking lot had descended into chaos.
Students crowded behind the police tape while teachers tried and failed to calm everyone down.
Snow continued falling lightly over the wreckage, settling across shattered glass and twisted metal.
I stood near my car with my arms folded tightly across my chest while paramedics loaded Tyler onto a stretcher.
Broken arm, broken leg, and a concussion.
He was lucky, they kept saying.
Lucky… Bella walked over a few minutes later wrapped in one of the school blankets.
“You saved me,” she said quietly.
I forced a weak smile.
“Guess my timing worked out.” But it didn’t feel that way.
It felt like I’d shoved the story sideways and watched it slam into someone else instead.
Bella looked toward the ambulance as it pulled away, her expression still pale from shock.
“I thought we were going to die,” she admitted softly.
I swallowed hard.
“Yeah,” I said quietly.
“Me too.” … The ambulance lights painted the snowy roads red and blue while I followed behind in my car toward the hospital.
Every time the siren echoed through the fog, guilt twisted harder in my stomach.
Tyler wasn’t supposed to be hurt this badly.
Bella wasn’t supposed to walk away shaken and confused.
Edward wasn’t supposed to stand there watching me save her.
Everything had shifted.
And the worst part was that I couldn’t even fully explain why I’d interfered.
Part of me had genuinely been afraid Edward might not save her this time.
But another part of me, the uglier part, had taken this like an experiment, just wanting to know if I could change things.
That thought sat in my chest like poison the entire drive.
… Forks Hospital buzzed with noise and fluorescent light by the time I arrived.
I parked badly, barely noticing, then hurried through the sliding doors while cold antiseptic air hit me in the face.
The nurse at the front desk looked up immediately.
“I’m here for Tyler Crowley,” I said quickly.
“He was in the accident.” She typed something into her computer before nodding.
“He’s in surgery right now.
You’ll need to wait.” So I waited.
For hours.
Every time the automatic doors opened, my head snapped up instinctively.
Teachers came through.
Students.
Police officers.
At one point Tyler’s mother arrived crying softly into her phone before disappearing down the hallway with a nurse.
Eventually the waiting room quieted until only the low hum of fluorescent lights remained.
At some point I must’ve dozed off, because the next thing I knew someone was saying my name.
“Mr.
Newton?” I blinked awake and looked up.
Dr.
Carlisle Cullen stood in front of me in a spotless white coat, looking calm and composed in that strange almost inhuman way the entire Cullen family carried themselves.
“Doctor,” I said quickly while standing.
“Tyler…?” Carlisle offered a reassuring smile.
“He’ll recover fully.
The surgery went well.” Relief hit so hard my knees almost gave out.
“He suffered a fractured radius, a compound fracture in the femur, and a mild concussion,” Carlisle continued gently, “but he’s stable now.” I let out a shaky breath.
“Thank God.” Carlisle studied me quietly for a moment.
“You were there when it happened.” “Yeah.” “And from what I heard,” Carlisle said, “your actions likely prevented a far more serious accident.” I looked away instinctively.
“I just pulled Bella back.” “You reacted quickly,” Carlisle replied.
“Most people freeze in situations like that.” I wanted to believe him.
Really.
But every time I closed my eyes, I still saw Tyler’s arm bent the wrong way inside the wreckage.
A familiar voice interrupted my thoughts.
“Mike.” I turned and saw Chief Swan walking down the hallway toward me, snow melting off the shoulders of his jacket.
He looked exhausted, but also relieved.
“Charlie,” I greeted awkwardly.
He reached out and shook my hand firmly.
“I wanted to thank you.” “You don’t have to do that.” “Yes, I do.” His voice was steady and sincere.
“If you hadn’t pulled Bella away when you did, things could’ve ended very differently.” I forced a small nod.
“Just lucky timing, I guess.” Charlie gave me a look that said he didn’t buy that for a second.
“Don’t downplay it,” he said.
“You did good today.” Did I?
I wasn’t sure anymore.
After Charlie left, I sat back down in the waiting room and stared at the pale hospital floor while exhaustion settled heavily into my bones.
Bella was safe.
Tyler would recover.
So why did it feel like I’d broken something?
Deep down, beneath the guilt and relief and confusion, I could almost feel the story shifting around me like gears grinding out of place.
And for the first time since waking up in this world, I truly had no idea what would happen next.