The Twilight Twenty-Five
Prompt: Obsession
Pen name: BecauseSheCan
Pairing: Bella with mentions of Edward
Rating: M

March 18, 2034

Daria,

I contemplated doing this for a long time; writing in you. I figure there can never be a better time than the twenty five year anniversary and you need an ending. I know there is an ending; I mean thousands of kids read the history of their story. They are obsessed really. Edward and Bella has become the new Romeo and Juliet, they both have tragic endings, forbidden romance, unquestionable love. Except they don't and they are not close at all. Romeo and Juliet were characters, and Romeo was constantly in and out of love, and they chose to die together rather than live separate lives apart. Bella and Edward were real people, they were constantly in love with one another and they tried living apart until they had to die together in order to allow the world as they knew it to continue. And yet when I tell that to my friends I was always told I was being cynical and unromantic.

I could always publish you. Mom gave me that choice you know, after I turned fifteen she gave me you and told me it was mine to do with what I wanted. I think she knew that I wouldn't especially after reading what Bella had written. It is too personal, some parts too honest, some parts bitter, and many parts of it would really fuck up people's perception of who Bella Swan and Edward Cullen actually were. It would make them too real and god knows that reality has no place in fairytales, kind of like how the truth has no place in politics.

But I love every word she ever wrote in you. My fingers have traced every page, they know every indentation, and I can recite my favorite lines sometimes pages by memory. I read Bella's words for hope, for someone else to understand even though my worries were nothing compared to hers, for amusement, for adventure, for peace of mind and sometimes I read them when I want to figure out who exactly I want to be. I want to be the person Bella wanted me to be. I want to be the person she was so sure I would turn out as. I want to be strong and determined and alive. Sometimes I feel like I am not alive, not the way she was, I mean she lived with her whole heart and I don't. I try to but I mean I am the age she was and I have never been in love and she managed to have this out of the world romance.

Still I am greedy for more. No one talks about her. Well, everyone talks about her; she is a legend, a goddess, a role model, but no one who knew her talks about her. Sometimes I think the Cullen's would tell me all about her but getting in touch with them would start a world war. I guess that's the problem when you are brought up by the wolves. I think they all blame the vampires for causing Bella's death.

I tried to get Mom to read the journal but she just passed it to me and told me it wasn't her place. I tried telling her everything Bella wrote about her and Jake and Seth and Nessie but she shut me up. I wonder whatever happened to the Leah that Bella knew; the wild one, the fierce one who would laugh and rage and get drunk with her. I would love to know that Leah, the only person I see when I look at my mom is a person who had been hurt too many times and is bitter. She loves me, I know she does and I love her for all she has done for me but I want to know more about who I am. I want to know more about this amazing woman who saved me.

Unfortunately the legacy of Bella Swan is just that a legacy; a myth. The reality of the people she left behind is something different. No one wants to remember her. No one wants to know her. Jake refuses to acknowledge the existence of this diary. Seth was curious once too but even he thinks it is better left alone.

Charlie is the only person who has read this diary. When he gave it back to me he hugged me so tight I couldn't breathe and thanked me before kissing my hair. He hasn't mentioned it since then and given his emotional reaction, I love him too much to ask him to tell me about his daughter. I am just happy I was able to do something to ease his pain. Although there are times I think he wants to talk to me. Sometimes he will see me tracing the letters or reading from it at a bonfire and just look at me for a while then smile. Sometimes I pretend he thinks I am her. Sitting there with my brown hair hunched in a corner reading a book. Maybe he does, maybe I can be something like her.

Maybe I already am.

Remember how I said arranging to meet the Cullen's might start a world war? Well I did. I haven't met them yet but I arranged to. I saw Alice once, when I was thirteen years old and on vacation. We were at the beach in California and I was wondering off on my own down the shore trying to balance along the rocks. And there she was, in front of me when I turned around to go back to my mom. I was scared but she smiled at me and called me Blue and told me she hasn't seen me in a while. She asked me questions and somehow Bella's name was brought up in conversation. She told me she was great friends with Bella Swan and her brother was Edward. She told me story after story, all the memories she had but I didn't know how precious those stories would be. When I was thirteen, I never knew how much of an impact Bella Swan had on my life, so I focused more on the girl before me; a real life vampire, a nice one with golden eyes who smiled a lot.

In a few hours I will leave this room. And I will leave this diary behind, maybe one day I will come back for it. I hope one day I will come back for it. But now I need to leave you here, with the people who cling to the past. I need to look towards the future and be the person who Bella wanted me to become. I need to have my own adventures and stop reading about hers.

Maybe Mom will read this. If you are, know I love you. Know that I will come back one day soon. I will never leave you truly. But more than that, if you are truly reading these words I want to tell you how proud I am of you, how much I admire your strength to face the painful memories again and open old wounds. I want you to know that they will heal, not fully but understanding why it happened, why it needed to, it will make it less tender; less raw until only a scar remains.

I love you now and forever,

Blue

I can't believe I made the deadline. Thank you all for sticking with me for this weird insane journey. I love everyone of you for giving something like this a chance. Hopefully you have enjoyed the story, even if that might not be the right word. I guess there is nothing left to say other than this is the end.

-Rachel