A/N: Ok sorry it took so long for me to update but I have been really busy. And I mean REALLY BUSY. Thanks for the reviews and story alerts from everyone and I hope you enjoy the second chapter to Edward's Story. We now delve into life in quarantine for the remaining Masons. Please review, and I would love constructive critism, as it is still my first twilight story.
Disclaimer: I don't own Twilight or Stephenie's magnificent characters but I do own Lily. Plus who doesn't love to mess with their favourite characters stories!
Edward's POV
"Mam!" a voice shouted over my mother's pleading cries for mercy. " We cannot give your son exceptions." Elizabeth Mason, my proud strong mother, was literally on her knees. "Please!" she pleaded her fierce emerald eyes brimming over with tears. "He wasn't here long enough!" she said. However, the councilman just shook his head. " I am truly sorry Mam but you and your son are to be quarantined until it is deemed you are safe." He said, his voice gruff and weary, "we don't want a epidemic like Kansas."
Mother put her hands together, gesturing to the heavens, to our god. "Please" she said softly, her voice breaking. The man shook his head, "I'm Sorry, truly I am." He said, departing quickly. Eager to be out of our company, taking Edward Mason Sr. with him.
Leaving my Mother and I locked in a broken household, grieving. The young blond doctor who was assisting him turned to take one more tortured look in our direction and then left, a deep sadness on his youthful face.
The silence echoed throughout the house, except for the hysterical cries of Elizabeth Mason. I thought I should comfort her; tell her everything would be ok. However when I strode over to her, midway from reaching out to her and embracing her… "No!" she shouted her voice thick with strain and worry. I recoiled hurt, and took a stop forward my arms outstretched. " No Edward." She whispered this time, her voice breaking. " I've spent more time around your father than you have." She explained gently smiling, but I could see the pain in her emerald eyes as she continued, " I am more at risk, I do not want… no I could not stand another of my men being taken away from me." She said, "especially not my baby…"
The rest of the night was spent in our separate parts of our relatively small house. My mother being very systematic had divided the house into to two sections, the side with my room, which she deemed safe and the side with her and father's bedroom and small study.
I sat by a dimming oil lamp, head in my hands. It had been a relatively normal day, maybe even a happy day… until the disease had turned my mother's world and mine inside out. What was even more worrying was that even that small amount of time I had spent with Lily. That one hour that I had walked her to meet my parents, I had held her close as she cried over her traumatic experience… if I had even a trace of it she would be in the same position as my father in a few days. I couldn't suppress the shudder as I thought of the consequences I had imposed on my life. On Chicago's life in general, whose family would be remembered for the first to catch the deadly flu? I felt disgusted to even have thought Lily would be sharing the same last name as mine.
Even if we did survive though it all, would she still take me? Surly not after we were broke and homeless our house burnt to rid of horrid burden we beared. Maybe that woman that I had noticed on the street this afternoon was right to worry. If that was what she was worried about. I reminded myself. It was like the plagues of old, once on the wind it could not be stopped. In fact, how many had I infected while merely walking through the street? A horrible guilt washed over me, as well as a heavy cloud of disappointment, as I realised I had lost my chance to go to war.
For the next couple of days I couldn't sit still, I paced my side of the imaginary line, watching my mother get thinner and paler as she worried about my father's fate. Every night as I lay awake for hours, she cried when she thought I was asleep. Inside I cried with her. The news we had heard was not good. The flu had spread and Chicago now had ten casualties, and families like ours were being quarantined off. Even more worse still, was that my father was dying; he had a frequent fever and was deliourious. However the worst news had come this morning, a letter had arrived, pushed under our bolted door. I had listened as the deliverer sprinted away and picked up the heavy paper. It was tear stained, and the hand was shaky. I struggled through the clouded pain in my head, as I read.
My Dear Edward,
A day after I last saw you my mother came down with Spanish Influenza.
I am starting to feel hot and develop the symptoms as well. I am afraid this may be the last time I contact you, until we get through this. Please do not try to visit me; I do not want to see you unwell. I Love you, as I know you love me, and I always will, no matter what may befall us. Please stay strong for me. Look after my heart and my soul; I've left it with you.
All my love,
Your Lily
My heart stopped abruptly.
As the dwelling of what I had done set upon me and froze me to the spot with grief.
I had brought this upon us, I had hurt my Lily and made her unwell, I was a monster.
I felt a tightening in my chest as the pain over took my whole being; I was responsible for her death. And then I coughed.
Two more days passed and nothing had passed between my mother and I. she sat in the corner, pale and quiet, but not sick. I sat on my bed, hiding from her a dry cough and an ear-splitting headache, which even the silence could not relieve. I now spent most of my days in bed chills creeping up my arms even with the thickest blankets draped over my weaking body. I did not want my mother to stress; it was most likely a cold. At least, that's what I told my self. Though when the pain became unbearable, and a single drop of scarlet blood came out onto the handkerchief I was using for my nose, I knew it was a little more than a cold. However, I would not and could not admit it to my mother or myself. So, my body screamed silently in pain as I attempted to hide it. Elizabeth was right to separate us, it hadn't been her, it had been me all along. "Edward?" my mother called. Her voice hoarse, I tried to will my aching body to answer her, but when I tried it pressed in on me further. Swallowing me, drowning me in its depths. "Edward?" she called her voice fraught with worry. Where is my baby? Surly he does not have it...he will be so upset about Lillian… but I need to tell him, after all this I cannot lie to him. I heard her say quietly to herself. However, it couldn't be, it sounded so loud inside my head, rushing through my brain and wrenching at it. I tried to sit up. She wouldn't say that aloud and what had happened to Lily? It dawned on me. He will be so upset about Lillian… my mother's words echoed in my throbbing head. I tried to wrap my thoughts around the inevitable consequence, which I had foreseen. The pale skin of my love cold and sapphire eyes glazed. It overwhelmed me with grief, I could not hold onto my consciousness any more. I let go of all my defences, the blackness took me into its grasp, and I drifted, the pain numbing, hanging onto the surface by a thread.
Elizabeth Mason's POV
I rushed into the room, the sound of my thoughts blocked out by my son's groans of pain. It could not be true. I thought fighting tears. Why couldn't it me, why did god have to take my sins out against him. The goodness and innocence that shined out of him, shouldn't that have been enough for him to be spared? I coughed loudly, my heading spinning as I rushed into his dimly lit room. He was lying on his side, his figure stiff and pale, slick with sweat. Even though his eyes were closed, they burned with a small fever, flickering under his eyelids as he fought to stay awake.
My stomach bubbled at the sight of him. I thoughtlessly grabbed a hand towel and washbasin from his nightstand and went to sit beside him, tears cascading over my cheek as I dabbed his burning forehead. My hands fluttered uselessly over his body, I could not do anything, and I just prayed that the councilman would be here soon to help me carry him to the wards, the eleventh patient. I myself soon to be the twelfth.
Edward's POV
I did not surface for a long time, I cringed away from the flames that licked at my body and hid further inside myself as the heat scorched me like being tossed into a live fire.
Every second it burned closer; I fought it back, trying to lift the darkness.
Suddenly coolness fought with me, smooth hands on my face pulled me to the surface, as I floundered and opened my eyes. A pair of blurry golden ones stared back at me, a worried look about his face as he gently dabbed at my forehead. " It's good to see you awake Master Mason, you and your mother have been out for a while."