The Painter

Chapter 17

"You are only given a tiny spark of madness; you mustn't lose it." ~Robin Williams.

~O~

Days earlier:

Edward sat on a large, mossy rock, his dark eyes stared absently at the calm lake water while ignoring the breeze as it blew by swaying the trees. The birds chattered nearby, readying their nests for the upcoming night.

But it was all so mundane.

His existence was mundane.

"Hey man," a gruff voice called from behind him.

Edward turned his head and saw his brother, Emmett, walking up the path. He gave the man a quick nod of acknowledgement before Emmett moved around the rock and climbed on.

"Is it my wife that's put you out again?" Emmett snickered. His wife, Rosalie, was a firecracker on her best days and an unrelenting ballbuster on her worst. Edward's balls were the easiest, safest target though and so she usually liked to prey on him when the mood suited her.

"What did you ever do to deserve her as your wife?" Edward sighed, a smirk playing at his lip.

"I often wonder that myself," Emmett scoffed and teased, "obviously something pretty bad or I'm just a glutton for punishment."

"I'd say the latter based on how loud you both are."

Emmett grinned. "Heard that did ya?"

Edward gave a withering stare. "Which time?"

"Touché. But enough diversion, why are you out here all by yourself?"

Edward huffed out a breath and looked back at the lake. It was beautiful pearl colored with the evening light and he couldn't help but love it here. "I'm thinking that someday I am going to take the old cottage and make it my house." He pointed towards the ruins of rock and wood that was slowly becoming part of the encroaching woods again.

"That'd be cool." Emmett nodded.

"I'll add several rooms and a porch out back… maybe a deck for fishing. It's going to be like a vacation from reality."

Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, Esme's and Carlisle's baby son, made some- not all- of Esme's pain lessen. She liked to imagine Edward was maybe the same little soul who came into the world with the wrong father and decided to give a hand to fate in giving her the real husband and life she wanted for her and her child.

The thought seemed kinder than reality and so she smiled happily at the green watchful eyes that stared adoringly at her as he drank his milk from his little bottle.

The new family was gratefully blessed.

But it wasn't the end of their blessings as they grew when a four year old blue eyed, cherub faced boy came into their lives and wreaked havoc as they constantly tried to peel the boy off the counters, chairs, tables, trees, and more.

They became a family of four with little Emmett McCarty, avid thrill seeker and dare devil.

It was a good thing his new parents had endless energy.

He came to the Cullen's one night after Emmett's parents were in a train accident. The small family was on a train when it derailed, killing most of its occupants and leaving the little boy an orphan.

His kind heart didn't seem to care that his new family was a little bit odd.

He also was happy to have a baby brother who could echo his every thought, and grew super-fast as a toddler. It was fun.

He called Edward his parrot.

They were inseparable growing up, until Rosalie.

Rosalie Hale was a rare beauty in the town of Rochester, New York.

The Cullen's moved to Rochester when Emmett was accepted to college and Carlisle and Emmett found the girl abused and left for dead on the street. Her blood pooled in the gutters, eyes wide with fear as the two of them hovered over her.

But Emmett, big and burly, gently comforted her with his words as he picked her up and carried her back to their house.

When Carlisle saw that she was bleeding internally from her abuse, he told Emmett that they needed to take her to the hospital to die.

Never before had Emmett been more upset.

With soft words to the girl, he begged his father to change her, and then change him.

"Reality, huh?" Emmett mused, trying to keep up with what Edward was and wasn't saying.

"Yes."

"Reality meaning?"

Edward's eyes narrowed in the twilight, lips tightly lined as he thought about his reality. "That I am forever alone, that I am an anomaly to humans and vampires alike, and that my family deems it fitting to torment me with show tunes to try to block their thoughts whenever they are hiding someing… like they are now. Oh, let's not forget your wife's constant thoughts that I will never be- quote: "good enough, smart enough, or man enough for anyone." It makes for a wonderful existence."

"Yeah, I don't know what's up with her lately-"

"Lately? Always. It's like she loves to hate me. She just needs to calm the fuck down and give me a fucking break. I feel like my head is going to explode."

"I'm sorry." Emmett couldn't imagine not having his wife, this life- and living it alone and consumed with everyone's endless thoughts had to be such a horrible torture. "She's just trying to block you I think… it's just the only way she knows to get you out of her head."

"I don't want to be in her head." Edward just bit the snide comments that he wanted to make about his brother's wife. It would land on deaf ears as it always. "Why does everyone seem to want to block me, lately?" He sighed, looking back over the dark lake.

"I can't tell you yet or everything will change, says Alice."

"Maybe I should just go off on my own."

"So, you are thinking about leaving?"

Edward didn't move.

Emmett watched his brother for several moments.

"Look, I get it, little brother, you want to leave the nest and that's totally normal- but wait… I can't tell you why, but just… wait."

Edward turned toward his brother and watched the big smile curling wide.

"You know something."

Emmett nodded, his smile closing into a smirk.

"How long do I have to wait?"

"After Senior year at Forks High should do."

Edward scoffed and sneered, glaring at his brother.

There was no way he wanted to endure another year at Forks High.

"So is that the plan then? Is that why they went to Seattle- one last vacation before school starts?"

Emmett turned his head- his thoughts warring between telling Edward the truth and blocking him.

Edward winced in pain.

It was bad enough there were secrets flying around and his parent's abrupt departure from the house earlier that afternoon, but their constant thoughts were hiding whatever could be in Seattle.

They claimed they needed to head to Seattle and have a weekend on their own, but he knew better. They were hiding something from him.

"You're blocking me," Edward sighed, not appreciating the flitting thoughts of pole dancers swinging and flipping on their poles. The picture of his sister in law, Rose, on the pole successfully pushed Edward out of his brother's head.

"Can't say yes or no, so… maybe." The oaf beamed. "Anyhow, I've been told to make myself scarce since I can't keep a secret for long- so Rose and I are off to the Denali's and the parents will be home soon. We're supposed to be gone already but I wanted to make sure you were okay."

Edward shuddered uncontrollably just thinking of Alaska and those who that lived just inside the Arctic Circle, forty-five minutes from Fairbanks.

"Have fun,"

"Before I go," Emmett's gold eyes narrowed on the sad green eyes of his brother. "Want to go for a run?"

"Sure."

The two got up and started running toward the highway trying to race the cars, matching speed as they darted through the trees.

But Edward was lithe and much faster that his brother Emmett so when he happily darted through the trees, alluding him until something stopped him in right in his tracks.

He pivoted, ignoring his brother's calls and ran alongside the inky black car his parents drove and saw that they had a human girl sitting in the back seat staring blankly out the window.

Their eyes locked for a second, sparking the girl's attention and she instantly sat straight up, trying to look deeper into the passing trees. But Edward already moved into the darkness, still running as parallel as possible.

There was a small gasp and the words: "He knows."

.

Edward stood in the trees watching Chief Swan's daughter, where Emmett envisioned him standing. His brother had had a slight blip of information slip for a second, but that was all it took.

Maybe he did it on purpose, Edward didn't know, but he was curious enough to go check it out.

He was shocked to find a petite, teenage girl standing in a bedroom at the Chief of Police's home.

She looked so much like him that Edward deduced they were related.

She stood there moving back and forth, eyes wide as she took in the clothes she was going to wear for their first day of school.

Head cocked to the side he tried to hear her, but it was as if there wasn't any words in the mysterious girl's mind.

Colors.

His mind was assaulted with so many colors. Mixing, twisting, twirling, dotting, lines, and then it was like a sledgehammer to his mind-

His EYES staring back at him.

Painted, pained eyes, beseeching.

Dark pigmented trees as marble reached forward, from the abyss glinting from the sun, toward the small fragile, human girl.

Blackness.

As if it was a dream or a fragment of imagination.

Edward gasped, eyes narrowed as he didn't recall such an event, and turned away from the oblivious girl, running home.

He needed to get to school and get a closer look of the new girl.

.

A/N: We are almost paralleled with Bella and Edward and about to start Forks High. Thank you for reading and your kind reviews!