Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight, but I do own Mark and his family, and this fanfic, which I wrote based off of Twilight…
A/N: This is my second fanfic. I hope you enjoy!
As my dad drove onto the highway, my eyes finally adjusted to the colors that I was seeing. The sky was a pale gray blanket with tiny silver patches where clouds were thinnest, and the sun relentlessly tried to escape its condensed, misty confinements. Everything else, however, was green. Trees were in my sight everywhere I looked, and the sky had hints of green where the abundant plant life reflected whatever light it found. How plants could live in the damp, sunless weather escaped me. I had no choice but to close my eyes where no light entered and I wouldn't be able to see anything. Unfortunately, when I did, I found that the now annoying colors had stained the lenses of my eyes, so even when I had my eyes closed, I could see green and gray.
"Argh!" I growled in frustration.
"Now, now, Mark. Calm down," my mother said.
My father tried to calm me with his words, but with no avail, "Don't get agitated, son; we're almost there."
I frowned. That was not helping.
My name is Mark Luscente (pronounced LU-sent). I'm seventeen years old, and I'm not allowed to take part in making family decisions. Last time I checked, I was part of the family too. I was a part of it, but I was like an infant who couldn't say anything – in my case, I wasn't allowed to take part in anything. Even though I attended all the family meetings, the closest I came to participating in anything was listening and paying attention. So much for family, but that's why we were on this highway going into Forks. My mom didn't want to move, but my dad did. He won her over because he said the issue was concerning him. So we, my mother and I, being the supportive family we were packed up our possessions and hit the road.
My father got a promotion from his job. He worked in a business that worked with softwares, but that's as much as I knew. Father was being paid a lot of money to work here in the little drafty town of Forks, and we knew that he couldn't be denied the offer, but why a large business like the one he belonged to would work here eluded my
reasoning. I couldn't care less about moving here, except it was that one little fact that instantly turned my life into a complete chaos. I thought about the few friends I left behind, and even though they were few, we were very close to one another.
"We're here," my father announced, bringing me out of my reverie.
We were parked in a driveway of a very old-fashioned house. It had obviously been retouched and fixed – I doubted that a house that small and old-fashioned could last against the rain for that long. It was in the style of the houses that would have looked inconspicuous about twenty through thirty years ago, but in my opinion, it looked odd. It was small, and the sign in the yard, which had a sticker slapped on it, saying 'SOLD' in huge bold letters, had its description: two-bedroom, one bath unit. That was just enough for my family. The place looked kind of cozy, which was good for the weather. To my surprise, I liked the house, even if it was odd. It had a specific character, and contributing to that was the fact that it was isolated.
I opened the door with the new key and cringed as the smell of newly applied paint hit my nose. The walls and surfaces were completely whitewashed, and the kitchen had new granite countertops. I headed up the stairs and dumped my things in the small closet. I didn't bring many things as an act of rebellion against the move, which failed. I didn't bother to unpack as another sign of rebellion, but I knew we couldn't – we'd already sold our old house.
"Settle in now, everyone. Mark – school starts tomorrow, you can borrow the car if you like; my work doesn't start until Wednesday," my father called from down the stairs.
I groaned inwardly, starting Wednesday, I'd have to be dropped off and picked up.
I picked up my basketball and started dribbling on the floor, but my mother chastised me, and I neglected it, letting it bounce slowly away from me. I listened and stared at the ball as it bounced away. Thud, thud, thud, clunk, thud, thud, thud… I stared at the spot where the ball had changed tone. It was a lone floorboard. I rapped it with my knuckles – it sounded hollow.
I continued staring at the one spot. My situation reminded me of those television shows where people lived in houses and found things that belonged to the previous inhabitants. The things they found showed a small history of the house. I wondered if this was one of those times. I wondered how it could be empty if the house was restored. With shaking fingers, I stroked the floorboard. It had scratches on it, just like the rest of the floor, which led me to conclude that the constructors didn't bother to
repair the floors. I took this as a sign that they found the floors to be in good condition. I trembled when I pried the floorboard loose. It already was loose, but I was still having trouble with it. I inspected the board more closely, and found that there was a thin crack one inch from the left side of it, a hair's breadth wide. How that was fixed so pristinely didn't matter. I only sought what was underneath, if there was such thing. The board did not budge, so I took a pen from my backpack and jabbed at the crack. I started by making a little hole, just as I once had in desks back when I was in elementary school. With my persistence, the hole gradually grew bigger, and I used the pen like a lever to pry the board loose.
Under the board were a stack of dusty pictures, a scrapbook, and two pieces of paper, which I took to be notes. I unfolded the notes as carefully as I could. They were slightly yellow with age, and the ink had faded lightly. In an elegant script, were the words "Be safe." These words had no meaning to me whatsoever. On the other note were the words "It will be as if I never existed," in the same elegant print. These words triggered my interest. Why would these words be written on a note, and why would they be written in the first place if they didn't have a dual meaning?
I put these back into the hollow and moved to the pictures. They were probably taken around twenty years ago, when the house might not have been considered old. The first picture I saw had a handsome young man and a beautiful girl in it. It was folded between the two, for reasons I wondered why. I also wondered if they were brother and sister, but that left me more confused.
The guy looked very stunning. He was very handsome and very unique. His eyes were a stunning color of bright butterscotch topaz and his bronze hair was styled in a bed-head look. The girl next to him, which his arm was draped over had chocolate brown hair, with wide round eyes to match. They were both wearing pleasing smiles on their faces, but they both looked reluctant. They looked just about my age, but the year on the picture indicated the it was taken in the year of two-thousand-five. I did the math in my head – that was nearly forty years ago! Surely these people would still be alive, I wondered if they still lived in Forks.
The next picture contained the same people, except in formal attire. The picture was taken right outside the house. I recognized it. The girl was wearing was stunning navy-blue dress, which complemented her fair skin and beautiful hair greatly. The man was wearing a black tuxedo, which looked dazzling against his even paler complexion. Their pose, which was them embracing and looking toward where the camera was shattered my original theory of them being brother and sister. They must have been boyfriend and girlfriend, probably on their way to prom or something.
If they had been boyfriend and girlfriend, they must have split up, explaining the two notes, and why the picture had been folded.
The next picture had the two with what I believed was one of their families. Probably the man's because they all had the golden eyes and very pale skin, though none of them resembled each other in any other way. They were all beautiful. I studied each of their exotic faces. The father looked no older than 23, and he hugged his wife, who looked a bit older. She was less angular than her daughters. A young woman who had a pixie-like form caught my attention next. Her inky black, short spiky hair framed her face and made her look stunning. She was hugging a man with blond hair and slight muscles. Maybe they weren't family. Maybe it was his family, and the other couples within their family. Lastly, was an absolutely striking fair-haired girl. She was the most beautiful person I had ever seen, and she compared far higher than any of the other people, except maybe the bronze-haired man. She too, was hugging someone. He was a young man probably a bit older than me, and he was ripped with huge muscular arms. He reminded me oddly of a bear, but he too was beautiful. They all had beautiful smiles, and each couple embraced their partner lovingly.
A few more pictures contained these beautiful people, but the last picture I saw was a girl standing arm in arm with what I took to be her father, and behind her was the bronze-haired man, with his hand rested upon her shoulder. Where the girl's mother was, I did not know – I found no pictures of her.
The scrapbook was empty of pictures. I flipped the cover to the front page. On it, below where the picture must have been, were the words scrawled in a messy print, "Edward Cullen, Charlie's kitchen, Sept. 13th." Charlie must have been her father, who owned the house. I flipped through the other pages, but there was nothing else in it.
My family called me down to dinner, but I refused, giving the excuse that I wasn't hungry. I had difficulty falling asleep, due to the fact that I kept wondering who these people were, and because of my foreign surroundings.
I drifted off to sleep, dreading school the next day, but I was bombarded with restless dreams from my subconscious about everything I had found. I couldn't have anything to do with these people, they seemed like they belonged to a different world – a world that was now in the past.
A/N: That's the end to this chapter! Yayz! It's the beginning of my second fanfic and I've been writing like crazy for the past two days. So far I have three chapters for my other story, and now I'm working on the next chapter for this story. Thanks for reading, and I hope you review!!