a/n: This is what I'd like to refer to as a 'fic experiment', I really want to know what you guys think of this and if you want me to continue it.

This is a story very loosely inspired by Beauty and The Beast in modern day Rosewood. This won't interrupt updates of always in the twilight because that is my first priority and this is simply a side project that should be about fifteen chapters.

I hope to have the first chapter written by next week before I leave for a week and become very busy until the end of July, but reviews are a good motivator, so if people like this short prologue I'll try to get it up pretty quick!

Thanks, enjoy, and let me know what you think!

whispers in the dark

prologue

by colorshow

He traces the rim of the glass in his hands, desperately resisting the urge to throw it against the wall and watch the glass splinter in to a hundred pieces. He had blown it. He had ruined it all.

Toby Cavanaugh had told someone he loved them, but didn't he know his heart was made of glass, and that everyone said that he had no capability to love? He should have never fell so hard.

She found her way in, and she had made him want to be something other than the beast. But it was too, too hard. It was too hard to love, in the words of the girl he loved, hope breeds eternal misery.

Looking down forlornly at the well-worn copy of To Kill A Mockingbird she gave him he reflected on the fact she had seen him, because you're just the Boo Radley of Rosewood Toby, you aren't as awful as everyone thinks you are.

But he was, wasn't he? But he couldn't let her go, he wouldn't let her go. She was too special, but entirely too special for him. Her lips too soft to even dare seek his lips, but yet again they had just hours ago.

He whispered the words and she ran. Ran like his dad, leaving his estranged son alone. His mom left as well, all to soon. His sanity seemed to have left him long ago as well.

With a shake of his head he downed the glass of clear liquid in his hand.

And with a strangled cry he throws the glass against the wall watching as the crystals break into a million pieces.

With a shake of his head he tries to contain his tears, because when have things ever been good to him? And where did his fucking silver lining get lost?

She had been the only good thing to come along in such a long time, and where did it all begin anyways?

It began with the girl who loved books, and the boy who stayed hidden in the house at the end of the street. It started with a key and a secret. But how would it all end? He didn't know, because she was the beauty and he was just the beast.

But still he hoped she'd come back to him because he already had eternal misery, didn't he?

Love it, Like it, Hate it? Let me know in a review! I'm also on tumblr as adarkromance. Come feel free to follow me and ask about any of my stories!