Disclaimer: I don't own these characters. They belong to Stephanie Meyer.
IF YOU HAVEN'T READ "THE EDGE OF TRUTH" STOP. GO BACK. DO NOT COLLECT 200 DOLLARS. NONE OF THIS WILL MAKE SENSE AND YOU WILL NOT BE ABLE TO JUST "CATCH UP" AND YOU'RE ENJOYMENT OF THIS STORY WILL BE LOW.
If you have read "The Edge of Truth" WELCOME! You asked for it. So here it is!
This first chapter, I've teased at the end of "Edge of Truth" but the beginning is new and I've gone through and amped up the rest a little bit, but no dramatic changes. Thank you for your patience. I hope you enjoy. Stay tuned for more.
The Edge of Hope
Chapter 1: The Thing with Feathers
A LONG TIME AGO
She watched him from the water. Her eyes just barely peering over the surface of the peaceful tide. He always came out here alone around this time. It began to be her favorite part of the day. She had made up several stories as to why he came. Each one growing more fantastical and absurd. He untied the canoe and and ran with it off into the water before hopping in and cutting into the water with a long paddle. The canoe glided beautifully across the surface. She'd seen the men in the daylight using these small water vessels to fish, but that's not what he was doing.
She dipped back under the water when he drew close and then began to follow him below to his destination. Each night she grew braver and braver, getting closer to the man but always being careful to stay out of sight.
Though she knew where he was going, tonight she was content to swim behind him, just to make sure he got there safely. A few minutes later he pulled himself into a shallow cave, dug out from the face of the cliff. He paddled inside for a bit until the rocks got too sharp and the water got too low. Like he had done a dozen times before, he pulled himself out of the canoe and up onto a ledge that jutted out. He operated in complete darkness, but he knew the cave like the back of his hand. From his pouch, he pulled a sharpened rock and began digging into the walls of the cave. Feeling with his other hand where he had left off the night before.
In the safety of the shadows, she watched him do this work and wondered what he was marking into the wall, and why he did so every night. It could have been hours or minutes he kneeled by the wall, only accompanied by his grunts of effort and the scrapping sound of the rock digging into other rock. She wasn't sure how much time had past, that was an invention the humans used to create order to their day. She had little use for it.
When he left, the stone in his hand was worn down so small that it was barely larger than a pebble. Like clockwork, she predicted his movements of his departure except for one. He left something on the ledge. He'd never done that before. Once he had left the mouth of the cave and paddled back to shore, she scurried over to the ledge to examine what the man had left behind.
In her hand she whispered fire to life and held it like one would an apple. With it, she illuminated the walls. Each night, he etched part of the picture. The segment he had been working on, was one he laboured on for over a week.. Surely, his longest endeavor. She studied it now, holding the fire close to her face and leaning in. Her other hand scouring across the surface, feeling the indentations made. Swirling lines like snakes flared out around a single point, their tails connected to an oblong shape. A face. Long marks were coming off of the body like waves of light.
Understanding dawned on her now and she nearly extinguished her flame with surprise. All this time, the man with his crude instruments had been drawing . . . her. It was her likeness etched forever on the darkened cave walls. She was the object of his nightly obsession. Beneath the carving he placed a cooked fish wrapped in bark. The aroma was sweet and nutty. He gave it to her as an offering. He did all this for her.
Present
"Almost there." Bella breathed through her teeth. She climbed up the tree one limb after the other. Sap brushed onto her palms and then smeared across the bark on the next branch as she moved higher and higher. She was almost to the top now. The limbs, empty of leaves, swayed in the wind unsturdy. She would have to jump to reach the top and grab hold of the dwindling trunk. Bella crouched, getting ready to spring up. Her toes curled for better leverage. Focusing before the jump, she inhaled the crisp air and watched as the sun sank slowly into a pink horizon. She flicked her wrist. The gold watch read half past seven.
"You're late." A figure swung back upside down, balanced by her legs wrapped around the branch above Bella, bat style. Long red hair sweeped the limbs below.
Bella smirked. "Nice to see you in human form again, Tessa."
"Nice?" Tessa barked. "Yeah. Nice. I haven't gotten used to these arms. Just look at 'em." The young woman flailed her elbows out into the air. "They're useless. Can't fly. Can't stick to walls. Can't stab or crush things on their own. Humans are so strange. I've been watching them for two hundred years and I still don't understand how they've survived so long. I just don't get it." She eyed Bella lazily. "I like what you've done to your hair. You look nice, I guess. For a humanoid," She added. "Are you going somewhere?" Tessa untucked her legs and flipped upside down, landing lightly next to Bella.
"Thanks. I have a hot date." Bella tucked her hair behind her ear, forgetting Alice placed a flower there. "So I need to make this quick." She leaned carefully against the tree trunk. "The chain reaction was already set off when I got here. I didn't do it. I was already too late."
"You were distracted." Tessa accused.
"Distracted? There wasn't anything I could have done. If I followed mom's advice the situation would be much worse. I had to change my plan. I thought I had a few years to control it, but it was out of my hands already. Do you know the exact numbers? I've only counted two."
"Yes, I've been following them. Only two for now, but since the chain has started, more will join them. Filthy inbreds." Tessa scowled. "This isn't good." She crossed her arms and sighed.
"You need to be careful. They're onto me." Bella warned.
"Oh, don't worry about me. I'm quite the shadow." Tessa smiled.
"Good."
"But If you didn't ignite their formation, who did?"
Bella smirked. "Their natural enemies. Come on, Tess. You've been my eyes this whole time. You know that." Bella stretched her arms out. The last rays of the sun shimmered on her skin.
Tessa's eyes narrowed. "Are you sure you can trust them? You know what happened with Maddi-"
"It's not like that. For god sake's look at me. Feel me." She offered her bare arm to Tessa for her to touch and see.
"You're young." Tessa grimaced. "You don't know what we've been through."
"And yet you have me fighting your wars." Bella scoffed.
"This isn't war. It's retribution. And no one said you have to do this on your own."
Bella was about to make a comeback but her phone started ringing. Ed Sheeran's latest single vibrated from her chest.
"What the hell is that?" Tessa sneered as Bella pulled her phone out of her bra.
"You've spent too much time in feathers." Bella rolled her eyes then motioned for Tessa to leave.
"This isn't over. I'll see you around." Tessa muttered before elegantly jumping from the tree. The wind whooshed around her as she fell. Right before she hit the ground, a black cloud surrounded her. When the smog dissipated, Tessa was gone.
"Hey." Bella hit the green button.
"Where did you run off to?" Edward's bell like voice greeted on the other line. Bella couldn't help the smile creep up on her face.
"Why don't you come find me?" She teased.
"Is this another one of your games?"
"Do you want to play?"
"I'd rather take my girlfriend to prom." Edward said. "You know what time it is, right?"
"Oh, is that tonight? Darn. I forgot."
"Bella." Edward sighed. She could almost hear him raise a single eyebrow at her.
"I'm kidding." Bella rolled her eyes. "I'll be waiting for you to pick me up. I'm the girl in the tall tree with the long satin gow-." She screamed.
Edward jumped right in front of her and placed a hand on her mouth to stop the high pitched yelp. His feet landed lightly between hers. His chest was right in front of her face. With the hand not holding the phone up to his ear, he wrapped his arm around her waist to keep her from falling. "Gotcha." Edward laughed. She heard him from himself and the phone still pressed against her ear.
"Holy crow." Bella breathed. "You scared the crap out of me."
Edward put his phone in his pocket and held her closer to him.
"How did you. . . when did you . . ." Bella stuttered, still trying to catch her breath.
"You're not the only one with tricks up their sleeves." Edward smirked. "Magician's secret." He booped her nose gently. "But you." He leaned back precariously over the edge of the branch just to have a better look at Bella. "You are magnificent. Absolutely gorgeous." His eyes roamed greedily over her. She wore a blue lace bodice with a sweetheart neckline. The black satin skirt would flare out, embroidered with colorful poppies, but at the moment she had it pinned up so she could climb without it getting in the way or dirty.
"Thanks." She grumbled. "The best part about this dress is the pockets."
"I think the best part of the dress is what's inside it." He put his hands on her waist and kissed her shoulder.
"You'd like it better if it was on the floor." Bella raised her eyebrows.
Edward blinked, completely at a loss for words. "Well, er. I didn't mean, I-"
Bella smirked victoriously. "We going to prom or what?" She leaned back away from Edward. "Last one there is a rotten egg!" Bella launched herself from the tree.
They ran to the perimeter of the school. Edward stayed back to keep pace with Bella. She was fast, faster than a human, but even if she was cut from the same cloth now as Edward, he would always be uncatchable.
On the outer perimeter of the school, she straightened his bowtie and patted his tux. A faint blush colored her cheeks. "You're very handsome." She said it like an objectively fact.
Edward had a strange look in his eye as he gazed back down at her. "Thank you."
"You're welcome." Bella breathed then stepped towards the sidewalk. "Shit, I forgot my shoes." Bella sighed while she untucked her skirt and puffed it out around her waist. "Well, this is going to be awkward."
"I got you." Edward swooped her into his arms and carried her to the entrance.
"Perfect. Definitely going to be less weird to have you carry me everywhere."
"It's tradition at this point." Edward grinned.
Everyone stared as he handed in their tickets to the school volunteers. "Good evening." Bella waved at them, secretly loving how the "normies" as Bella likes to call them tried to pretend that their behavior wasn't out of the ordinary. Bella loved it when they did that. Their need for the conventional was something Bella liked to play with. How far would they go to preserve their sense of reality and ignore the unusual. The good people of Forks were in no short supply of the unusual. Yet still, the normies looked the other way.
However, no one ever stopped looking at them. Even the prom photographer stared mouth opened at the picture he took of them. Instantly he thought that his prowess of photography had finally paid off, to be able to capture such beauty. He almost stopped them as they left to enter the gymnasium and asked if they would model for him but Edward threw one glance his way and raised his lips to reveal the sharp teeth behind them. A shiver went down the photographers spine and suddenly he was too afraid to ask. Still, he dreamed what sort of awards he would have gotten if he could get them in front of his camera again.
"Would you like to dance?" Edward beamed at Bella who was watching Jessica and Mike fight over by the punch bowl.
"Do with me as you wish." Bella snapped her head back to Edward, then clasped her hands around his, tethering herself to him. "I am yours this evening." She breathed onto his neck and roamed her nose up and down his throat. There was nothing advertently explicit in the movement, but to anyone that might have watched, it would have seemed nearly indecent. Edward breathed heavily, then raised Bella up with one hand on her waist, dangling her off the floor with ease, then placing her back so her feet were balanced on his shoe laces. Bella stood on his feet while the music swayed through them. The other kids moved out of their way on the dance floor, as if they were spraying water on all who dared to get too close. The music playing was uptempo, a dance that the high schoolers around them jerked to, but Edward danced slowly with Bella. Like he was listening to a waltz no one else could hear. A song that no one else could take part of. A world that belonged to them and them alone.
"Okay. You win." Bella sighed and leaned into his chest. "This is actually kind of nice."
He hummed in response. They kept dancing until the cast of students around them had completely changed out.
"Are you hungry?" Edward asked, remembering.
Bella glanced over at the refreshment table that Edward was already twirling them towards. She picked up a finger sandwich duly, eyeing it with disdain. "No. I'm not hungry." She finally said while tossing it into the trashcan. Her stomach rumbled betraying her statement.
"Bella, you need to eat. You didn't have anything yesterday either." Worry colored his voice.
She shrugged noncommittally. "I don't know. Just, don't want anything." She wouldn't admit it, but she was starving. Though every time she tried to nibble on something, she ended up puking it back up. She was trying to figure out a way to get away from the subject so Edward would stop worrying about it, but someone seemed to have just the right timing.
"Ah, someone is here to see you." Edward grumbled.
Bella turned to see Jacob walk around the corner. He was wearing a wrinkled suit jacket with a black tie that wasn't on right.
"Jacob?" Bella's eyes furrowed. "What are you doing here?"
He stood awkwardly in front of them, his eyes going back and forth between Bella and Edward.
"I planned to say mind of I cut in, but you're not dancing. And if I just said that now, you might think I would trying to go for some punch, but really I just would like to talk to you." Jacob mumbled.
"I'll be outside." Edward bent down and kissed Bella on her head.
"Soooooo, what's up." Bella crossed her arms uncomfortably when Edward left the room.
"My dad, well, he paid me to come."
"Nice. Paid to crash a party by your parents. That's the way to hustle." She smiled warmly, but it didn't meet her eyes.
"He wanted me to tell you." He stopped and shook his head. "He wanted me to say. Ugh, this is so stupid. I'm sorry. I hate this. I wouldn't have come, but I do kind of need the twenty dollars. This is such bullcrap though."
Bella shrugged. "So just say it, and then you get that $20 dollars."
"I just. Bella. I-." Jacob was practically trembling.
"Let me guess. He wanted you to try to convince me to stop seeing Edward. Or whatever."
Jacob shook his head. "Not. . . not quite." He bit his lip.
"Oh. Um, okay. Well just get out with it." Bella stood back.
"He say's you're not allowed to step foot in La Push ever again. He says you're part of the treaty. And he says you'll know what that means. Or whatever. I'm sorry. I'm so sorry. He sounded really serious. I don't really know what he's getting at. I mean, you're Bella. You're Bella Swan. You've done nothing wrong. But as the tribal leader. . ." Jacob breathed uncomfortably. "He's banishing you."
Bella nodded slowly digesting the information. "Wow. Huh. Weird." She took a deep breath. Then finally said, "It's okay, Jacob."
"He's a crack job. Honestly. All the elders are. They're power hungry and stupid. But that means. . . that you can't come over anymore." He sighed.
"Ooor." Bella smiled a wide and true smile. Her eyes crinkled and her cheeks raised. "That means you'll have to visit more often."
"Really?" Jacob swallowed. "You still want to hang out with me, even though my family is psycho?"
"Every family has their downfalls." Bella shrugged. "You're like a brother to me, Jacob. And family always finds a way to stick together."
He frowned slightly but ultimately decided any time with Bella was good.
"Maybe my dad will come to his senses." He sighed.
"At least you got twenty dollars out of this." She laughed.
"I'm really sorry. But there's always hope for tomorrow."
Bella tapped her finger to her chin. "My mother always said, 'Hope is the thing with feathers.'" She stared at her hands and then at the watch on her wrist. "Thanks for being the messenger, I hope he pays you well for further secret notices." Bella laughed. "Well, I better go check on Edward. He's not a crowds person and I'm sure he's having to swat some wall flowers away. I'm sorry your dad put you up to this." She patted Jake's arm. They made plans to watch a movie sometime later.
She turned on her heels and barreled out the gym door. Erik and Angela were pushed out of the way as she went. Grass slipped in between her toes and she could feel the soft earth squish around her bare feet. She plucked her phone from her bra and angrily keyed in the number she never thought she would have to call. Edward was at her side in a moment, easily keeping pace. "What's wrong? Who are you calling?"
"There's been another change of plans." She said while the phone rang. "I'm assembling the sisters."
AN: I'm very excited to go on another adventure with you all. As always, I'd love your feedback, what you hope to read in coming chapters, questions, theories, etc etc. I'm listening! Thank you for reading and reviewing.
xoxo
Rosalie