Faces, Voices, And Names
By
Anni Re
My world that had been in darkness developed a fissure of light. "It hurts…please it hurts." But the light broke even more through and I felt something grab me. They were very cold, not like the warm place in which I was, and they wee much colder than the cool sensations that liked to stroke my body. When that happened there always was a deep voice. I liked the deep voice as much as I liked the bell voice. But I didn't like this light or the cold. I wanted to stay where it was dark and warm. But the cold wouldn't let me, instead it pulled be smoothly but quickly towards the light.
I felt as if I had slipped past something, and everything came at me in a rush. Smells, sounds, and feelings. I was afraid. I wanted the bell voice. I curled my body in on itself and let out a weak whimper.
"Renesmee…"
I knew that voice, and suddenly I opened my eyes, which until now were always closed. I saw him in colors: gold, bronze, and ivory. The deep voice's face looked at me in a strange way. Wonder, my mind supplied, reverence. The deep voice's face put his hand up to me. "Oh, so the deep voice has the cold, oh well, it's not too bad." I leaned my head into his fingertips. The deep voice sounded like a cross between a laugh and a sigh. I always liked the sound of the deep voice, but I wanted…
"Renesmee…give her…to me."
…the bell voice. I twisted my body around trying to follow the sound with my newly discovered sight. But I only discovered that the deep voice with his cold hands was bigger than me. Nevertheless, he turned me in his arms and smoothly walked me over in the direction of the sound.
The transfer was a drastic temperature change, from cold to warmth that resembled the home I just vacated. I felt the warmth wrap around me in bands as the bell voice pressed me as close to her as possible. I looked at the bell voice's face and saw porcelain, chocolate, and rubies.
"Renesmee…so beautiful."
"What is a word that is better that I can give to you?" An instinct seemed to drive me and I felt my teeth slide into the warmth in front of my face. I felt the warmth tense and I heard the bell ring slightly sour. I felt the cold again on my body and it drew me away from the warmth and the bell voice. "What?! No, no, no!"
"No Remesmee," said the deep voice.
"I promise I won't do it again. Please take me back!" I whimpered, sharp breaths coming in and out of me, wildly twisting around to find the bell voice, or at least trying to, the deep voice was still bigger than me.
The deep voice suddenly became grated and very loud, alarmed. I felt as if I was moving around rapidly. "Rosalie," said the deep voice, "take Renesmee."
I didn't even know I was even transferred until the deep voice seemed farther away, just like before, but what frightened me even more was that I couldn't hear the bell voice at all. "Where is it? Where is it!" I cried out, streams of water streaming over my face, and continued to do so.
"There now sweet heart, hush. It's okay, it's okay."
Even though there was still water on my face, my crying abated. "I know that voice." I heard the sweet voice as often as I heard the deep voice before I began to hear the deep voice. Pacified I turned to look at the sweet voice. The sweet voice's eyes carried the same golden color as the deep voice's, yet there was gold everywhere. I cocked by head to one side; the face was as pleasant as the voice.
The chaos around me had calmed and I looked around where I was to get a sense of it. The room the sweet voice and I were descending to was large with an opening on one side where darkness was. The opening reflected the pale outlines of our features as we passed it. The sweet voice was very pretty and…female, my mind supplied. I looked at myself in her arms. I made a sound and reached my tiny hand out at my shadowy reflection.
The sweet voice laughed. "Yes…that's you precious." She stroked my tuffs of curls. The cold body with me being cradled by her sat down on something. I felt out bodies sink down into it. I felt her rocking me back and forth a little and I felt drowsy. It had been a long day.
"Let me see her! Let me see her!"
"Loud voice! Loud voice!" I felt us move sharply to the left as something impacted whatever we were sitting on. This time I felt the cold-to-cold transfer and looked into another face centered with gold. "I'm beginning to see a pattern here."
"Oh Rose," said the loud voice that had suddenly very drastically softened. A small finger traced my face, "Her eyes… look at her eyes."
"I know," said the sweet voice. I felt her hand on my hair again.
Suddenly another face popped into my vision so quickly that it caused me to jump in surprise. "Hey there, cutie."
"Too close, a little too close."
"Well I'll be," said the close voice, "baby bro had a baby." He seemed amused by that. I however was a little on edge with a body even larger than the sweet voice's so he was way bigger than me in such close proximity to my face. I pushed myself back a little into the coldness of the loud voice, nervousness on my face and let out a little sound.
The hand that belonged to the sweet voice swatted gently at the head of the close voice. "Back up Emmett, she wants her space bubble."
The close voice rolled his topaz eyes at the sweet voice's face. He then looked back at me and smacked his rose petal lips so that is sounded like a bubble popping. I giggled at that.
Three sets of golden eyes widened at that and the three voices that surrounded me cooed at the sound I had made. At the same moment I felt a hand stroke my hair, another tracing the contours of my face, and still another was stroking the outline of my arm. "Chaos…Chaos…Panic!……Calm."
The other three voices also felt the calm I was feeling and slowed their movements until they stopped all together. They turned their heads and looked at something that was beyond my sight.
"She was getting a little overwhelmed."
The soft voice I heard was a voice I had not heard before. The face of the close voice drifted away and I saw the face of the soft voice with his corn silk hair and wheat colored eyes. He seemed to me to express through his eyes, as though there were little need for him to express his feelings in words. I saw the uncertainty in them as he looked at me, and the apprehension as the close voice drew closer to him.
"Come over here and have a look at the baby,"
The soft voice's eyes widened in fear. "I don't think I should."
The loud voice spoke even softer than previously, "It's okay Jazz," she held out her hand to him.
The close voice began guiding the soft voice closer to me and the extend hand, even though his heels were protesting by sliding across the surface of the floor. The loud voice gently placed me into the soft voice's arms who held me as if I might shatter in his grip. I looked at his eyes and noticed how much larger they were than all the others. I tried to widen my own to mimic his. He chucked at that. His laughter filled me with my own and I laughed too, my mouth splitting into a large smile and I reached my hands up trying to touch the smile on his face. My own happiness seemed to stoke his ten fold and soon his trembling stopped and he wrapped me more securely in his cold arms and pressed me to his chest my head tucked under his chin. My tiny fingers laced themselves into the folds of his shirt while he stood there in our combined aura of affection.
A loud bang made me pull my face from the soft voice' chest. "What happened? Where are they?"
"Upstairs, Carlisle," said the sweet voice. I heard the rapid fire of feet on wood. However I could sense another being beside the door that had been opened. The soft voice looked at the silent voice his eyes asking it to come over. The face of the silent voice had caramel gold eyes and caramel brown hair. She looked at me her mouth hanging open a little as if she was lost for words. The silent voice took me from the soft voice but held me the same way he had, save for the fact that her hold upon me was much more fiercer, as if to prove to herself that I was not a figment of her imagination.
I heard the creak of wood again as the voice who ran up the stairs returned to us. "Everything is fine up there everyone," I heard everyone breath a sigh of relief, I also heard two hands clapping together once. "Now," the voice continued, "let me see my granddaughter." The silent voice turned me to see him. The voice was very surprising: he had the golden hair of the sweet voice, the wide eyes of the silent voice, the lips and smile of the close voice, the face structure of the deep voice, the enthusiasm of the loud voice, the voice tone of what I perceived would be the silent voice, and the love directed to me of the bell voice. The mixed voice seemed to be a little bit of everyone. The mixed voice looked at me…calculatingly. He ran his fingers over my bones, placed his fingers over place in my neck for my heartbeat and among various other things that after a while became very annoying.
"Not that I'm disappointed in this," mused the mixed voice, "but she seems almost too developed. I want to measure her and get her weight among some other things." He turned on his heel and began walking away. Another idea that just came to me made me raise my hand and press it to the silent voice's face and voice my annoyance at the mixed voice's intentions.
The silent voice stiffened. "Carlisle…" the silent voice said.
The mixed voice returned. "What?"
The silent voice took my hand and extended it towards the mixed voice. "Baby," said the silent voice, "can you do that again?" The mixed voice placed her hand on the back of his neck and bent his face forward until it connected with my hand and I voiced my annoyance again."
The mixed voice jerked back, looking at me with a shocked expression. He knelt down onto his knee so that he was just below my line of sight and looked up into my eyes. "Renesmee," he said, "do you understand me?"
I didn't respond because over the top of the mixed voice's sunshine colored hair, I noticed the night-dyed hair of somebody else, somebody sitting cross-legged in a far corner. I felt an unexplainable desire to be near the raven hair being. I reached my hand up and communicated with the silent voice who silently placed be on the floor where I began to move towards it.
"She's crawling…" whispered the mixed voice but I ignored him my entire mind focused on the strange new set of eyes I was approaching. Earth colored, my mind supplied, with skin to match. The earth eyes moved away from me al little but they were still riveted to mine until I finally reached him and without any hesitation crawled and settled comfortably in very, very warm lap. "Nessie…" the warm voice mouthed.
"OH NO HE DID NOT!!"
My head jerked sharply upward, my mind withdrawing from the voice in front of me to the voice up the stairs. Even when it was angry I desperately wanted to be near the deep voice."
The warm voice read my mood. "I think she wants to see Edward," said the warm voice.
The sweet voice snatched me up like she was waiting for her cue and I was heading back away from them all back to my beginning. I saw the deep voice's face at the end of the hall and the sweet voice walked me to him. "He didn't, did he?" he asked.
"I'm sorry," said the sweet voice.
The deep voice tilted his head to the ceiling his eyes closed and inhaled deeply through his nose exhaling the breath sharply through his mouth. He looked back into the room he was standing in. "I can't worry about that now." He turned to reenter the room.
"Edward," said the sweet voice. She extended me to him, "she wants you." The deep voice looked at me then looked at her for a long time as if he were trying to read her, then looked back at me again before reaching for and taking me inside the room.
The deep voice leaned against the wall and slid down it till he was at the floor bending his knees so that his thighs held up my back. Subtly he leaned his head forward in reach of my hand. "It's okay," he whispered, "I know you can." I touched his face.
I asked for the name of the warm voice.
"Jacob," said the deep voice, I heard a certain tone behind the name but for the moment I didn't question it.
"Jake."
I asked for the name of the soft voice.
"Jasper," said the deep voice, he seemed very happy at that, and with the memory I supplied him.
"Jazzy."
I asked for the name of the loud voice, the close voice, the sweet voice, he silent voice, and the mixed voice.
"Alice, Emmett, Rosalie, Esme, Carlisle."
"Alli, Emm, Rosie, Ess, and Car—Carl—Carli—I have to work on that one—C."
I asked him for the name of the deep voice, himself.
"Ed—" the deep voice paused and thought for a minute before answering. "Daddy."
"Daddy."
Daddy smiled the biggest smile I ever saw on him.
And then I asked for the name of the bell voice.
Daddy didn't even pause for that. "Momma."
"Momma." At last, my first love had a name.
Finis
