Preface—Punching in a Dream
This was what I had feared.
This was precisely what Edward had said would happen.
But he had been wrong in one particular respect, at least….
It was not I who had fallen prey to the temptations of this life, or its advances; it was not I who had taken the chance, or the fall, or the offering; it was not I who had fallen in love incorrectly.
But it would be I who was to die tonight, if I decided to stay.
"Olivia," Jacob whispered beside me. "Don't move."
We could hear the slow, deafening footsteps coming up the dark stairwell, the shadow of the monster cast across the wall. The bare skin of my stomach was warmed by Jacob's consoling touch. He knew what was going to happen to him as well as I did. It was not me he was trying to comfort, but himself.
We both knew either I would die. Or he would.
There was no possibility that the two of us would be able to choose to die together or live on together. There was no alternative.
"Goodbye," He said quietly into my ear. And, then, he was up out of my grasp in a flash, disappearing into the black hallway, not even the light of the moon reaching us underneath the tree's cover.
I heard a loud rip and a pained whimper and exasperated howl before I clenched my eyes shut and cowered into the pillow… I opened my eyes, sitting up in my sunshiny bedroom, noticing that my mascara had stained the pillowcase, and I looked out my open door into the wrong hallway as if I had expected Jacob to still be dying there….