DICLAIMER FOR ALL FUTURE CHAPTERS: I ASKED STEPHANIE MEYER FOR TWILIGHT BUT SHE SAID NO- I GUESS MIDNIGHT WAS A BAD TIME FOR HER…
BPOV
I woke up, very early and noticed that the bed that was vacant, beside me was now occupied by a boy that could only be about 8. He was wide awake but was lying on his back.
"What's your name?" I said, piercing the comfortable silence of the room
The boy's eyes widened and he looked around wildly until his eyes rested on me and he seemed to calm down- I wondered what he had witnessed to be so restless. It took a while to drink in his features- the most prominent feature was his eyes. They were emerald green and appeared ,though bottomless, I could also see a deep pain that no one should have to experience.
'"Edward" he said in a soft voice.
"What happened?" I asked, not being able to help my inquisitiveness.
His eyes filled up and spilled over with tears and, I don't know why but I felt so guilty.
EPOV
I couldn't believe it.
I just saw my father shoot my mother and then himself.
I was standing in a puddle of their blood.
I felt sick.
I couldn't breathe.
I couldn't think
I felt even more sick.
No.
I was sick.
I calmed down as much as I could in a situation like this and I noticed my mother was still breathing.
I lay down beside my mother's body.
"i…love…you…don't…cry…baby"
My mother rasped out.
This made me cry more.
"Remember… *cough* ill…*cough*.. always… be… with…you"
She kissed my forehead and then let out one last breath.
I cried myself to sleep next to my mother's body.
There was a short police interrogation until they decided that I wasn't going to say anything.
I was numb.
I was dead.
I was cold.
I was alone.
I was sick.
Again.
And again.
I was finally taken to an orphanage where a very unkind woman led me to a bed next to a young girl who was already asleep- I envied her and hated her, she could go through life not having to witness the horror I did.
I couldn't sleep I just stared at the ugly stained ceiling and contemplated what life meant and why do people kill others and why I had to see that, why I was chosen to that fate until all my thoughts became a jumble. I stared blankly at the ceiling numb and cold inside. I was practically dead.
"What's your name?" I heard a soft timid voice ask
I jumped and looked wildly around expecting it to be a ghost or another haunting hallucination
But it was just a girl- the small girl in the bed next to me.
I looked quickly over her and finally met her eyes they were a soft chocolate brown and I immediately felt calm.
"Edward" I said trying to sound mean so that she would stay away from me I felt that cold feeling of hate and envy towards her.
"what happened?" she sounded curious
I hated her.
She made me go back to the one thing I didn't want to think about.
I envied her.
She had it easy.
Unthinkingly and unconsciously, I felt tears prickle at the edges of my eyes and I saw my sight begin to blur.
"Oh! I'm so sorry" she said in a soft voice
I immediately felt to small warm arms wrap around my waist and I felt safe and warm.
I fell asleep inside the warm embrace.
BPOV
I woke up beside a warm body and I looked over the boy beside me he looked so sad last night that I couldn't help hugging him. He fell asleep and when I tried leave, he hugged me tightly and I fell asleep too. He started shifting and his breathing grew shallower so I guessed he was going to wake up soon and I wasn't sure if he wanted me here so I tried to move but he still kept hugging me and I tried to wriggle out of his grip but I tried in vain.
"gmoorning" he said in a sleepy voice.
"good morning" I said.
He gave me a cute crooked sleepy grin and I couldn't stop myself from grinning back at him.
We got up and instantly I heard his stomach grumble and couldn't stop myself chuckling.
"come on" I grabbed his hand "I'll show you where we eat"
When I walked towards the kitchen I spotted mrs Stanley in there no doubt waiting for us.
"its about time you go up you lazy sods" she said while a cigarette was dangling from her lips and the kitchen started to fill up with foul smelling tobacco smoke.
Suddenly Edward clutched his throat and started to cough violently dragging in heavy breaths.
"whats wrong?" I asked him, alarmed
"ast*cough*… asthm*cough*…asthma" he wheezed out.
I managed to drag him out of the room and get him near an open window so that he quickly recovered.
"thank you…?" he said when he was alright
"Isabella" I said quickly
"thank you Isabella"
"but you can call me bella" I said quickly
"thanks bella" he said and softly chuckled
When I was sure that Mrs. Stanley had vacated the kitchen I went in, opened a window and told Edward to come in.
He smiled gratefully as we started to raid the kitchen for something to eat. I found a box of twinkies and some milk and he found some very old bran cereal and some frozen bread.
We managed to use all of our scarce resources (economics) and made a breakfast of cereal, toast and we decided to save the twinkies for later. I made a mental note to ask mrs Stanley for some money to go shopping for some more food.
After a while I showed Edward where the shower room was and he was able to wash and change into some of the clothes he had brought with him.
EPOV
I woke up in the middle of the night with the same little girl hugging me and I realized I was hugging her
Suddenly, she mumbled something in her sleep and I was hit with the scent of strawberries and I unconsciously hugger her tighter she snuggled into me and said "Edward" at first I thought she was awake but I released she was sleep talking how odd… before I could think about it too much, I fell into a deep dreamless sleep.
When I re- woke I saw that same girl looking at me and when she saw me looking back, her cheeks turned red.
She led me into the kitchen when my stomach betrayed me and that same unkind lady was there smoking a cigarette I instantly tensed up and the woman looked at me as if I was a fly on a windshield "its about time you lazy sods got up" she said and I suspected she was slightly drunk, or high, or both.
Suddenly I was hit by a thick suffocating wall of smoke and I couldn't breathe. The girl tightened her grip on my hand and asked if I was alright, I managed to wheeze out that I had asthma and she quickly dragged me out of the room and led me to an open window. When I was alright she told me her name was (isa)bella and I thought over what it meant in Italian- beautiful- that was true.
when we went back to the kitchen, we managed to put together a meager breakfast of old, crumbly cereal, some milk alarmingly close to its used by date, bread and we found some twinkies that we decided to save for later. After struggling to digest our breakfast, bella showed me to the shower rooms and I was able to change into some fresh clothes after two days.
As I thought (i think the best in the shower) I realized that after I met bella, the pain and fear from my parents death has dulled down and I also realized that I didn't hate or envy bella, I was just bitter.
We went outside and since it was a nice summers day, and bella showed me the way to her favourite spot in the middle of lots of trees.
It was a beautiful meadow with a waterfall, a stream, lots of soft green grass and trees all around creating a thin canopy above the clearing, letting in soft rays of a green tinted light.
It was perfect.
I felt like I could sit here for hours and never want to leave. Suddenly, bella opened the hi-5 back pack that she had brought along with her and she took out the packet of twinkies, a blanket, some sandwhiches, 3 bottles of water, a small packet of biscuits and 3 books. When we set everything up, I grabbed the books and read the titles; the first one was The Count Of Monte Christo by Alexander Dumas, the second one was The Phantom Of The Opera by Gaston Leroux and the third one was Romeo And Juliet by William Shakespeare bella blushed and took them back. I was impressed, I'd never heard of 7 a year old reading books like that. Hell, even a lot of adults don't read books like that!
"when I came here, I was bored, neglected and lonely so I picked up a book and started reading. I read the book over and over again and I loved it so much that I saved up all of my measly allowance each week and I eventually went down to the bookstore in town and I bought lots of books- mostly classics and now I have a collection- when I was even younger, my mother used to call me her little middle aged child." Bella explained, her eyes wide. Suddenly, I remembered- she's an orphan too so something must have happened to her parents as well, I hoped it wasn't as bad as what happened to mine
"what happened to them?" I said softly
Bella understood what I was talking about and she drew in a shaky breath " my father was very violent- he used to beat me and my mother one night, he was drunk and I came home late because I was at a friends house- he was furious, he grabbed a knife and he said that I was a mistake, a freak, he said that my mother should have gotten an abortion and he tried to kill me but my mother got in the way and she tried to protect me… she died instantly… my dad ran away and they caught him three weeks later… he got two life imprisonments (48 years) and he has been in jail for two years now…" bella broke off with a sob and I felt my eyes betray me and shed tears- I was wrong to have judged bella in some ways, what happened was worse than what happened to me I wrapped my arms around Bella and buried my face in her wonderful smelling hair, which calmed me down and I hugged her tighter endeavoring to keep her safe.
Suddenly, I felt like I had a burden that I should get off my chest " Bella" I said quietly in her ear. "Hmmm?" she seemed embarrassed and her cheeks turned a dark shade of red (god, I love her blush) and she looked away, I drew in deep breath and started my story "My parents, Elizabeth and Charles Manson loved each other very much, they loved me too- we always went to the park, to the movies, and to many other places. My dad worked for a company called High Tech Security and they built state of the art models of security systems. One day, the factory announced that soon, they were going to have to lay off 250 workers to make way for the new machines that could build the systems faster. My father and mother were worried about his job and about the financial crisis that it would bring along to our family. And they did something that I had never seen them do, they fought. The stress was piling up on dad but he didn't show it. One night, he came home from the pub and he saw a fine for 1000 dollars for speeding that my mom had gotten earlier that week. He snapped. He started yelling and swearing and a neighbour came to see what it was about and called the police. I came down from my bedroom upstairs and I heard what he was saying. Suddenly, I saw him draw a gun and shoot my mother in the chest and then he looked towards me- I was deathly afraid that he would kill me too but he just put the gun to his forehead, smiled at me and shot himself, but my mother wasn't dead yet. She told me that she loved me, not to cry and that she'll always be with me."
When I finished, I noticed Bella was crying. I held her again but she pushed me away, then she did something unexpected… she hugged me, the tears were flowing freely down my face but I wasn't ashamed, I was just sad and soon Bella pulled away and took something out of her bag- it was an IPOD.
"music always makes me feel better… it might not help much but it could… I dont know…" she trailed off, looking down at her feet. I put my hand under her chin and made her look up I looked into her eyes and said very clearly "bella, I want to listen to music" she looked me in the eyes and smiled and the world seemed brighter. We sat and listened to linkin park, simple plan, sam sparrow, Andrew Lloyd webber, my chemical romance, mindless self indulgence, AFI, panic at the disco, muse, and creature feature (theyre all great bands/composers (especially creature feature)) and we talked about ourselves and we realized that we had a lot in common with each other (and I mean A LOT!)