Hey, y'all...

Well, it's truth time.

When I posted Chapter One of this story, I did so on a night last fall when the political climate in our country had caused a sudden and shocking emotional rift between a dear friend and me. The rift was brief and is now water under the bridge, but at the time, with so much negativity and vitriol everywhere, I needed something positive to focus on. So I posted Chapter One of "Eternity's Wish" to make myself feel better.

And it did... for a minute.

At the time, I'd had three chapters of this story completely written. The idea all along had been to post Chapter One only after the entire story was written, but with a few chapters already done, I thought I could at least stay ahead and never get to the point where I'd need to update but didn't have anything written.

But I haven't been able to do that because the plot of this story is... elusive at best.

I don't do sequels in my Original Fiction, and with the exception of the "Black Ice" saga—for which I pretty much have all three parts planned out—I don't usually do them in my fanfiction either. But when "Serenity's Prayer" ended, I wanted to show Bella as a vampire, felt I owed that to my readers, and was stoked to tackle that challenge in a sequel.

But I made that promise four years ago—an eternity in the fandom—and in the interim, I've had many ideas for this story, but none strong enough to serve as a proper anchor/overall arc. Even with Aro showing up at the end of the last chapter, for example, that idea was a last-minute audible because the idea before it didn't work/make sense. And even the idea with Aro is nebulous at best.

Wanna hear it? Okay!

Aro arrives on Isle Esme because Demetri has lost track of Bella. Turns out that after Bella became a vampire, no one's gifts work on her anymore, not even Alice's or Jasper's. This unprecedented development makes Aro nervous—with Bella wanting to keep her human family in her immortal life, Aro can't allow her that freedom without always knowing where she is. The idea, then, is that Aro wants Bella to prove sooner than later that she can keep Charlie in her life without revealing her new immortal nature.

So Aro tells Bella to go see her father on Thanksgiving—which is only a few short months after her change—and he will visit as Carlisle's doctor friend again, observing the entire affair. And if Aro is satisfied that Bella (and her immortal makeup courtesy of Rosalie/Edward) can fool Charlie, then Aro will allow Bella access to her human family. If not, then Bella has to stay in Volterra until Charlie and Madeleine die.

A tad morbid but believable, right? Okay.

But with that arc, I'd then have to decide how the scent of human blood would affect Vampire Bella—because it makes zero sense to me that in BD, she was able to consume it without a problem after all the trouble she had with it as a human—and I couldn't settle on any ideas that really worked. Because she's going to be around humans and able to smell their blood like every other vampire can; wouldn't that affect her somehow? And assuming I did discover a logical issue for her to have with the scent of human blood, I would then have to find a way to overcome that issue, which would involve her "testing" the solution with actual humans. How would that work? Where could they do this without risking the humans or exposure?

Afterwards, I would then have to decide what exactly would happen at Thanksgiving dinner. Would Bella fool Charlie and Madeleine? Would Aro try to sabotage the dinner just to get Bella in Volterra and Edward in the process? And how would any of that work?

Now I'm also assuming the Quileutes show up at dinner... because why wouldn't they? And despite everyone playing nice at Charlie's wedding at the end of SP, the tribe would be ten types of pissed that Bella is a vampire and undoubtedly try to start some ish. But with Aro also there, that would create a completely different kind of tension in the house. But what kind? And to what ultimate end? What is the ultimate point of "Eternity's Wish"?

It turns out that I don't have a proper answer for that question.

I mean, everything that happened in "Serenity's Prayer" came from a natural place of unresolved tension/discord based on the issues at the end of "Twilight" and the very beginning of "New Moon." With all those problems solved in SP, I would essentially have to create and solve new problems. And I haven't been able to do either successfully. I owe you all better than half-baked ideas and possible plots, had totally planned to deliver better than that.

But I must admit I cannot. And honestly don't know if I ever could have. So out of respect for "Serenity's Prayer" and all of you who loved it so much, I am not continuing "Eternity's Wish." I just... it's the only proper decision I can make.

But I will not be pulling this story or leaving the fandom. In fact, I have a THIRD AU New Moon story I am ITCHING to share with you. It's about 80% complete, and I want to finish it up so I can post Chapter One sometime in April. But I can't do that with this incomplete, problematic story looming over my head.

So I'm cutting bait.

I SINCERELY thank all of you who showed up here willing to give "Eternity's Wish" a fair chance. And I also respect the reluctance of those who loved SP and wanted to preserve the sense of closure they found at its end rather than chance this sequel. Though I so wanted to keep my promise to deliver an exciting and worthy sequel, I am no longer able to do so (if I ever was).

I hope you can understand and respect that decision.

Thanks... and I'll (hopefully) see you soon. XOXO