Evening Falls
The Story So Far…
First of all, I really want to thank everyone who responded to my note. I was not expecting that many responses, and it's so nice to know that people still have fond memories of this (nine years old! o.O I always think it's just been a couple of years but it really has been that long) story. I'm going to respond to everyone that I have not already as well, and will probably add notes to the next post with responses to not signed in folks. Thank you again. It was a most unexpected surprise.
Anyway, a few people have requested a summary of the story so far before I add the summary of the rest of it, and wisely so...we've got a lot of ground to cover! So here it is; a probably rambling summary of Evening Falls up until now. Any seemingly innocucous bits that have an * after them are there for a reason; it means that bit is going to be important later, so just things to pay attention to, especially if you're not wanting to read the whole story again.
Extraordinary: (the fic that started it all. This one is a much easier and quicker re-read for those who are interested. Don't read this section if you want to do so without being re-spoilered. :D ) Fifteen year old Elisa Jensen is a typical (for 2006 or so) Twilight fangirl, living a pretty ordinary life in San Diego with her parents, Anne and Dave, and little brother Colby. Elisa's life is only marred by two things: her constant desire to daydream her life away, something that being obsessed with fictional worlds is not helping, and her overly critical father.
One night, Elisa dreams she's at LaGuardia airport, and happens across a New Moon era Bella and Alice, who are frantically trying to make their connecting flight to Italy to stop Suicidal Edward from sparkling himself to death. In a colossal spaz attack, Elisa accidently knocks the three of them down the escalator, preventing Bella and Alice from making their flight. When she awakens the next morning, she finds that the books have changed to reflect what happened in her dream - Alice and Bella didn't make it to Italy in time, Edward is deader than the proverbial doornail, and basically, the whole world of Twilight is effed. Worst of all, no one else remembers how it used to be - Elisa is stuck in this new reality, desperately trying to figure out how to change it back. Eventually, she manages to get back to the alternate reality where the Cullens are real, and fix her mistake, but that comes with meeting the Volturi,a near deadly encounter with a bear, trying to explain her sudden appearance in their lives to the deeply skeptical Cullens, and getting hit by a car in her real world, leaving her potentially trapped in the Twilight world with no way to get back home. The Cullens do manage to help Elisa get back, and the door is open for reconciliation with her father and a newfound appreciation for her 'real life'.
Evening Falls: Takes place about eight months after Extraordinary ends. Elisa's hidden her Twilight books and is determined to focus on her real life. Her relationship with her father is far better and despite a long recovery from the car accident she was in, life's pretty sweet, especially when she finds out her mother's pregnant. The happiness comes to a screeching halt when she gets caught in the midst of a domestic dispute between her shopkeeper friend Nancy and Nancy's violent ex-son in law. When Elisa tries to intervene, the son-in-law pulls a gun. The next thing Elisa knows, she's back in Forks, where she's quickly re-discovered by the Cullens. It quickly becomes clear there's no going back for Elisa this time - her 'life' is over, and she has no choice but to begin again in her new world.
The adjustment is difficult, made no less so by Jasper's reluctance to accept Elisa into the Cullen clan and the Quileutes' anger at the Cullens taking in another human. However, Elisa is kept busy helping plan Edward and Bella's wedding; time has not passed at the same pace for them, so when she returns it's almost the same time she left.* Another happy distraction is her unexpected bond with Rosalie.
The Quileutes agree to overlook the Cullens' 'adoption' of Elisa, and Edward's plan to make Bella a vampire, as long as the Cullens get the hell outta Dodge/Forks right after the wedding. The Cullens make plans to move to St John's, Newfoundland, Canada, a place almost as rainy as Forks, and more importantly, far, far away from the Quileutes and suspicious Forks folks that eventually, at some point, gotta figure out that something in the milk ain't clean. (Though only Angela Chase makes it clear that she knows something's off and that Bella is a Lying Liar of Lyingness, but she loves her anyway*.)
Jacob is devastated by the wedding, and Bella's future as a Sparkly People Eater*. Elisa manages to talk him off his metaphorical ledge long enough for him to man up, attend the wedding and wish Bella well. The events are only marred by Elisa's creepy dreams and premonitions* that involve a blood covered Bella, which she shakes off as I-Died-In-Another-Reality-And-Only-Got-This-Crappy-Tshirt related trauma.
After the wedding, the Cullens relocate to Canada and Elisa starts school, where she meets schoolmates Jimmy and Tandy, local kids who have been best friends since elementary school, or primary school, or whatever they call it in Canada. Elisa and Jimmy immediately have some sparkage, which Tandy is unthrilled about. Meanwhile, Elisa is increasingly plagued by odd incidents; a moment where she breaks a Cullen family heirloom but time seems to reverse*, erasing the incident, and more premonitions and odd dreams, now mostly centered around Alice*, where she seems to be seeing glimpses of Alice's human past. Elisa, being quite adept at denial, hides these incidents from the Cullens and tries to convince herself she's imagining and exaggerating it all.
Edward and Bella return from their honeymoon, and due to the increasing concern among the Cullens that Elisa is not doing well, despite her rather incompetent attempts to hide it, decide to delay Bella's vampirism a few months in order to spend some time with Elisa. Once Bella's vamped, they know Elisa's going to look more like a steak than a semi-sullen teenager, so the two of them plan to move to Alaska for a few years while Bella learns enough self-control to not kill every tasty human she meets. Good luck with that, Bells.
This story wouldn't be near as long without the best laid plans being blown entirely to shit, which is exactly what happens, and on Bella's birthday, no less. The Cullens leave Bella and Elisa for a few hours to go hunt a killer bear. Obviously, that's going to end well. Bella and Elisa's day of bonding is quickly interrupted, first by Elisa experiencing a true Alice-style vision of impending doom, and then by the unexpected arrival of Irina. (of the Alaskan Denali vampires, for those who need a reminder.) Irina is accompanied by vampire bad guy for hire Dax and another old Cullen family friend, Sebastian*. Turns out Irina has been driven mad by never-ending grief over Laurent, who was killed by the Quileutes in New Moon. She wants revenge on the Quileutes and plans to get it by starting a vampire/werewolf war. She's going to get the ball rolling by killing Bella in front of Jacob and his fellow Quileutes, knowing that Jacob will not be able to control his rage and grief, and she's counting on his telepathic connection with the pack to make the rest of them lose their furry shit as well, at which point the Cullens, the Denalis, and any other vampires in the vicinity are going to be forced to kill them all. Batshit crazy Irina may be, but you gotta admit she planned it all pretty well. Except the part where she clearly doesn't give a shit if Edward kills her and her cronies - turns out Sebastian doesn't like being tricked into a suicide mission. When Dax attacks Elisa, Sebastian intervenes and so does Bella. This doesn't go so well for Bella, who is mortally wounded. A seriously pissed Irina kills Dax, and Sebastian makes a small effort to help Bella but runs when the Denali sisters Tanya and Kate show up to put a stop to all the fun. Irina is unwilling to listen to reason, and takes off to go attack the Quileutes anyway. Tanya and Kate choose to try and stop their sister over helping Bella*, not endearing them to a desperate Elisa (or the Cullens later on). Bella seemingly dies before the Cullens return, but a traumatized Elisa again sees time reverse itself, leaving a nearly dead Bella still breathing, and giving Edward enough to time to change his bride before it's too late.
Just when it seems like all is well, Bella wakes up to her new vampire life and the first thing she smells is Elisa's scent, which apparently is the closest thing to la tua cantante this side of Italy, and uses her newborn vampire strength to beat the crap out of Edward, Carlisle, and even sweet Esme when they try to stop her from getting her meal on. She nearly kills Elisa, but manages to scrounge up enough self-control to stop herself just in time. She and Edward take off for the wilds of Alaska before she can eat half of St. Johns, leaving Elisa with a whopping case of PTSD and fresh abandonment issues to boot.
In the meantime, Kate and Tanya catch up with Irina. Tanya is forced to kill Irina, devastating them. They return bearing Irina's necklace and apologies to the Cullens, which are not accepted.
This entire episode is enough to convince Esme and Carlisle that they've made a mistake by breaking off communications with the Quileutes, and the two of them return to Seattle to meet with the tribe to renegotiate the treaty. The new terms are basically that the Cullens and Quileutes continue to enjoy their opposite sides of the continent without the other trespassing on their 'territory'. However, they will leave lines of communication open in case of future mutual threats like Irina resurfacing.
Back at school, it turns out that Canadians are not as oblivious to vampire shenanigans as people stateside, because Tandy and Jimmy take one look at Elisa's Bella-shaped bruises and 100% do not believe her bullshit story about a car accident. Elisa manages to fast talk her way out of them reporting their suspicions, but it's clear that she's going to have to tread lightly with them. It's not all bad though - when Tandy makes a genuine attempt to help, Elisa realizes that Tandy may not be as mean as she pretends to be; Tandy even opens up about her meth addicted older brother, Trent*. Even better, in Elisa's eyes, she and Jimmy share a romantic moment and seem to be speeding down the fast track to dating.
Of course, it can't all be normal human drama. Elisa receives a postcard from Sebastian, promising to keep her existence a secret from the Volturi in return for the Cullens not lighting him on fire for his role in Bella's near death. Tensions in the family arise when they fight over whether they should allow Sebastian to live or not.
Meanwhile, Elisa's Alice-related dreams are increasing; she even has moments where she seems to absorb Alice's skills, playing piano and drawing a picture of a mystery child. Jasper finds Elisa's drawing and knows something's up. He and Elisa hide it from Alice, but not for long - when Elisa confesses everything, Jasper admits to Alice that he knew all along too, prompting a betrayed Alice to leave St. John's. The Cullens, particularly Jasper and Elisa, are devastated by her departure.
Elisa tries to distract herself by pursuing a relationship with Jimmy. This comes crashing down when a vengeful Tandy sets Elisa up to discover Jimmy's secret - he's gay and has been seeing the school bully, who Elisa calls Jock Boy, in secret. Elisa is crushed by Jimmy's leading her on and that he didn't trust her enough to tell her about his sexuality, but is willing to try and forgive him. Towards Tandy, she's not nearly as understanding.
Elisa is distracted by the complete failure of her romantic life by the sudden arrival of Bella and Edward, who've returned with Alice in tow. Bella wants to try living around humans, but they're all wary whether she actually can or not. With the family reunited, Elisa tries to explain her odd Alice-related events and in explaining it, discovers that the premonitions she's having are being caused unwittingly by Alice herself, who is subconsciously remembering her human past, but unable to deal with it, has been projecting it on to Elisa. Delighted by this realization, Elisa is happily accepting that she's still 'normal' after all, but when she accidentally injures herself and time reverses once more, is forced to realize that something completely separate from Alice is still happening to her. She still tries to keep it a secret, but Alice is on to her.
And this pretty much catches us up to current events. There is still a LOT more to come - I was wildly overambitious imagining this story, and there is still a lot to cover, in Summary form anyway. It's actually going to probably take me a couple of chapters instead of just one like I had originally intended because it's going to be a mix of summarizing, snippets of actual scenes that I've written out, and author commentary. I hope to have the first part out by tomorrow.
Again, thank you so much for reading. It means so much, and I hope giving this story a wrap up, even if it isn't written out properly, is at least some closure. Can't wait to share it with you all.
