Disclaimer: Only one writer is making the money off Twilight, and that's Stephenie Meyer. These are her characters, and I'm just having fun with them while adding some colors and numbers.
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Colors and Numbers – Prologue – Gray
"Genius and virtue are to be more often found clothed in gray than in peacock bright." – Van Wyck Brooks
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They say life isn't like a Rubik's Cube, but for her it is. She sees life like a big canvas where there are countless numbers of wrong twists and turns. She can't get it right; it doesn't look perfect no matter what way you look at it. They say life is everything but colors and numbers, but for her it is.
Tonight was like any other night for her: a glass of Cabernet Sauvignon wine, a white canvas and her oil paint tubes in the glass room that she had turned into her personal world, her atelier.
Despite the fact that she began her night just like the others in the past, this night was different… it was a night for gray; gray for all that she used to hold dear, gray for her past, gray for her parents and her friendships, gray for feelings and for losses, gray for her paths, gray for her failures and her victories, gray for her passions that she had lost on the way… All her feelings were a combination of gray, neutral and mild.
Thus, tonight, she created her shades of gray on her palette, and caressed onto her canvas all the shadows that surrounds her. A horizon filled with the numbers in her head, rows and rows of ones and zeros, binary numeral systems creating the outlines of the chaos in her head.
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When her last brush stroke touched the canvas, dawn had already broken. As usual, and like any other night, time had passed and she had lost track of it. Sleep, per her typical routine, had been forgotten. With a last glance at the painting, which was an incarnation of the chaos of her mental storms, she left the place that she called hers and went to her room.
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On the nightstand her iPhone was buzzing, begging her to check it: 4:56 am, three text messages, twelve missed calls, and two voicemails.
Well, hello there, outside world.
Checking the cell more carefully, she looked at the details on the screen, shock coloring her senses. Most of them were from Jasper, a childhood friend that she hadn't heard from for a while now, asking her to call him as soon as possible. She did.
By the third ring he answered, his voice thick with sleep, "Swan? Don't you ever sleep?"
"Well, hello to you too, cowboy. So much for telling me to call as soon as possible."
A hushed-high pitched female voice murmured on his side of the line before he answered. "Swan, darlin'. You never change. Why didn't you answer before?"
"I was busy, smart ass," grumbled Bella, rolling her eyes. "Is everything all right? You scared me with your gazillion messages!"
"No, everything's good." He hesitated. "I just- well... I need a favor, darlin'," he murmured, sounding ashamed.
"Sure, Jasper, anything for you… shoot."
"No, before you agree, you need to listen first," he warned her, which confused her for a second, feeding her impatience.
"Okay... Come on, shoot. You know how I hate people beating around the bush."
"I need you to get through a system," he said with emphasis.
Her pulse grew rapid with his statement.
"Before you say no, please hear me out. Alice's brother is a CEO. His company's computer server is being hacked. And it is secured, so no one understands how someone is pulling off this shit. We were talking about it the other day, and I kind of let it slip that I know someone who is a genius at hacking into systems. So he told me that 'unless you know Isabella Swan, then you don't know a computer genius'. I also let it slip that it's you I know. Turns out they have been trying to get hold of you for a while, but for obvious reasons, they've found out nothing about you, no phone number or anything else. So my intervention was required. I am truly sorry, Bella, but I really need you to do this for him before he goes crazy," he explained the evidence quickly, knowing the effect the subject had on her.
"Jasper… I-"
"Isabella, please…"
"Which firm?" she muttered.
"Masen-Cullen Holdings Inc."
"Jasper, I abandoned hacking a long time ago. You know that," she told him coldly, hiding her anger.
"I am aware of that, Bella. But it's me asking. You know I'd do anything you ask me to. And if you agree, I'd owe you big time, I swear. Just please do this for my sake, just once."
"Jasper, I need to think about this..." her confidence was long forgotten.
"We have no time, darlin'… Just please do this for me, I'm begging here."
"Hell, Jasper!" she said after a quiet pause, rubbing her eyes. "Okay, send me the address, I'll text you and tell you what time I can be there. Let your friend know about the conditions, all of them. Tell him I need access to the main system where all the records are being held. I need a quiet room and someone who knows about the records. Tell him I will secure his system perfectly, but make it clear it is a one-time thing. I will also need a list of the companies that he suspects are behind the hackings so I can get through their systems and teach them a good lesson."
"Thank you, Bella. I owe you."
"I know you do. Now send me the address and make sure you do everything I asked, Jasper, especially the conditions. I don't do bullshit and you know that," she said, her confidence obviously growing again.
"Will do, Bella. Take care," he ended calmly.
With that, she headed for her shower, her gray past following her there.
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A/N: Reviews add colors on Bella's palette!