That Night They Returned Home
Today was the day. The day that everything would change. I don't know why or how but I knew that for some reason my life was going to be different. Not in the immediate 'wow' kind of way but in a slow process.
"Dad?" My soft but confident voice rang out through the room. My dad sat quietly in his study, waiting for the arrival of the Cullen's. My family is from a long line of royalty. But the secrets that are hidden in the castle of my family are that that I will never know all of. I too anticipated their arrival. I didn't know much about their family only that they had moved into the village many miles away into the old Christen Castle. My father thought it appropriate to invite them to stay with us for a couple months while it was being cleaned and all of their belongings were set in place.
"Yes Bella." My father looked up from the book he was reading to look at my expression.
"I'm going to take a walk in the forest. I'll be back."
"Make sure you are home in time for the arrival of Sir Cullen and his family. I want you to be here to show them around."
"I will Dad." I walked from my father's room in the large castle slowly down the hall. My ladies maid followed me like the fool she was. I'm not being mean but this woman. There was something about her that I just, I didn't know how to describe it but it wasn't a good feeling that I got from her. "Lucette. Please. Leave me alone. I'm just taking a walk in the forest. Alone. I will not need you to help me."
"Yes Miss Swan." She said as she scurried away from me. Her eyes narrowed suspiciously taking in my whole expression. She left me and ran toward the dungeons downstairs
I walked as slowly as I could. Taking in the stone walls and the different décor that lined them. I turned the corner, tracing my fingers on the outline of the wall. I finally came to the iron-clad doors of the castle. Not expecting the Cullen's to arrive until later tonight I decided to go to the forest. It was forbidden to me to walk past the wide oak tree and the fence toward the ocean. So instead I very slowly and carefully walked down the stairs, successfully not falling. I walked around the small fountain in the lawn and down the gravel walkway to the place where the luscious grass met the darkness and beauty of the forest. I stepped into the forest. The darkness taking me over but still I was able to see the bright sun shining slightly through the trees. I walked past the mushrooms that lined the bottom. The crisp leaves making a crunch noise beneath my feet because of the fall season. The wonders surrounded this part of the forest. My father had made it beautiful for my mother. She died many years ago when I was just a child. But she loved the outdoors. Autumn was by far her most favorite season also. All that occupied my mind was my mother and my surroundings. I never realized that I walked so long that I walked right past the fence. They blocked this section off when my mom first moved in with my dad. No one came back here ever, so the need for a fence had never arose. But my mother loved wandering and wandered too far one night and something happened that night that I don't think she told anyone except my father, if she even told him, but she put up a fence so that no one, especially me, knew what was beyond the fence in the darkest part of our forest. As I walked I suddenly realized that the feeling of the forest changed. The look went from serene and tidy to dark and dirty. Like no one ever went back here. I heard a faint twig snap behind me and turned quickly around to see it. There right in front of me was something I couldn't describe. Its beauty was overwhelming. I would have screamed if I hadn't lost my breath. I just noticed that I couldn't breathe. It dazzled me made it impossible to think. The dark shadow illuminated off of the slight light that was now coming from the sunset. I remember hearing a musical voice say something, and then I fainted. I don't remember much more than that. Just that I had fallen to the ground feeling cold and slightly dizzy. And I do faintly remember the beautiful voice filling my head as I fell. Oh yes, that's right. I saw a really pretty boy and fainted, well that's not embarrassing at all for anyone. Or maybe it wasn't the boy standing in front of me that had made me faint, maybe that was just what had finished it. What if it was that strange feeling of darkness I had gotten from the forest when I walked past the fence. Maybe whatever had happened that night my mother had walked through that part of the forest had almost happened to me. I had so many questions left unanswered, so many questions I didn't know how to answer or where to get the answers to. Questions about the forest, about what really happened to my mother, and finally about that boy I saw in the forest.