6. Bubble in the sky
In the middle of the night, Beverly woke up. A thunderous silence received her.
The walls of the tent waved in the darkness. An anemone of cloth. Never still, but always quiet. Like hair, in the wind. Golden locks of fabric. A giant's head, under which she slept.
I don't like the silence…
She breathed and the air breezed crispier than ever, into her, through her. The bedsheets, caving around her. And a hollowness in her belly. A suffocating stillness, one she was all too familiar with.
I don't like the isolation it embodies…
"Peter…?"
Beverly rose on both hands, propping herself up. She was lain atop clouds. A mattress, endlessly hers.
The same bed. The same silence.
"Peter."
She spoke now, softly. To herself alone.
And, for the first time since she was a child, Beverly felt completely cold. Her fever, dormant, somewhere in her chest. Solidified to stone and sleeping away its cruelty. It would rise up soon enough. Beverly would just need to wait it out.
Waiting… Always waiting…
Her bare body tensed and she shivered in the moonlight.
Oh…
She expected a wave of disappointment to wash over her. Perhaps betrayal. Definitely, shame. A sickening embarrassment for the girlish fascination that had possessed her this entire week. And her willingness to yield to it. To believe in him…
You're not here…
But a different feeling claimed her instead.
Something's happened…
Because Beverly Penn loved no thief.
The man who took her upriver was no thief. Neither was the man who gave her chocolate. The man who fixed the furnace. The man who surrendered himself to her in the biting cold, in a tent, right where she lay.
The man who could have taken summer in his hands but decided to return to her, instead.
I'm what you get…
Peter Lake was no thief.
Of all people in the world…
And Beverly believed in him. Her mind was clear. Her vision sharp. She was alone now and that didn't disappoint. Instead, it concerned.
This isn't right…
He couldn't have left… Not like this…
This… This isn't right…
He'd braved the cold and shrugged it off, grinning. He'd trembled but he'd held her regardless. He'd embraced her so close that, had he tried to untangle himself free, she would have been awoken long before he could properly forsake her.
None of this…
This silence had awoken her. His body, his heartbeat, his breathing, had suddenly been cut off. As if he'd vanished.
I…
Gone in an instant, like a gust of wind. One second.
Peter…
Beverly's eyes darted nervously across these walls of fabric, exploring the space. This horrible silence…
The floor. His clothes were gone, but so were hers.
Castor, Pollux, Capella…
Breathing was all too easy. And the darkness was fierce and frosty. The night was far from worn down. Stars lingered, in a pool, over her head.
But… they appeared uncannily wider. Thicker. Beverly could almost hear their twinkle.
Bells of glass. Little bubbles, popping. So frail and insignificant that she initially struggled to catch them. But, despite their weakness, once Beverly knew they were there, she couldn't stop perceiving them. Faint instrumental, all around her. Fragile, near inaudible, yet constant.
It was a strange form of torture. It was worse than the silence.
Like muffled drumming, rolling down the slope of a mountain. The promise of battle.
Or the hum of a fly at the curve of her ear. She could wave her arms blindly, struggling to extinguish an annoyance that would infinitely dodge her. Deafening stillness, inescapable, crushing her.
Beverly's breathing thickened and she whimpered in terror.
Castor-Pollux-Capella-Ursa Major-Ursa Minor-
"Goddamn it."
She needed to move. The sky was too close to her and Peter wasn't here.
Beverly got out of bed, swathed in the bedsheets. She huffed out. Panic. Sour, infinite. Bubbly little symphony drowned under the weight of her own breaths.
"Castor, Pollux-"
She couldn't feel her heartbeat. She waited for the bite of the fire, for this unbearable pressure to snap.
"Ca-"
No, no, she couldn't go… She couldn't go now…
"C-Capella…"
She wobbled toward the walls of fabric and the darkness they veiled. Trembling, she hurried outside.
And she sank into the ocean.
Author's Note: To anyone who is here today, thank you for reading.
I'll be honest. I'm still very excited to write from Beverly's perspective, but I am a bit scared cause I'm making up most of the lore regarding her current, ehm... "situation." The fact that she's dead. Not only that, she's now also a star. "Bubble in the sky."
In the movie, they don't show Beverly at all in the second half, except in a few unclear and subtle instances (light beams, most of the time - a light that shines on the water and causes Peter to survive drowning, and a light that shines off in Pearly's face in the end to make Peter get the upper hand and finally kill him) so, we never know what her afterlife is actually like. I'm not gonna do that. I want Beverly to stay here.
Again, I'm sure they go into these topics in the book, explaining the afterlife logic and all that. But... I haven't read the book. And to be honest, it's more fun to imagine this specific part of the story all on my own. To build my own part of the "Winter's Tale" film universe :3
But... it is also daunting, yes, cause I really hope I don't mess it up XD I've always had it easy writing characters but, worldbuilding, ehh... not so much. It's a big reason why my first attempt at writing "Moss Grave"failed: I had characters in mind, but the world I was creating was so weird and underdeveloped that it all fell apart. I had a lot of ideas but no solid reality to ground my characters in - I started working on it too soon and I should have fleshed the universe out much better before starting. Hopefully I will return to "Moss Grave" after finishing this story and properly write it, with well-grounded worldbuilding.
Until then, I'm here. So here is my chance to practice and have fun :3
So, I thought a lot about how Beverly would "wake up" and where. And, well, how.
I went back to my "A Star in the Lake" chapters and the conversation I wrote for Chapter 47. In there I mapped out Beverly's full star theory. In the movie, again, she says that everyone has a part in the world, like a rehearsed dance that connects us, and when we die, we rise to the sky and reunite with the ones we love. In Chapter 47, I added onto it by making her compare the sky to a "big ocean": reflecting both light and darkness, hence why the sky is dark at night. I think it'd be sweet for her to believe that even sins have a part to play in the big picture. Sins, darkness, the depth of the sky, and good deeds, stars. It's why it's one of my favorite chapters to this day :3
So, in order to properly know what the hell I'm doing when it came to the logistics of the world Beverly is now bound to, I worked off of the information the movie already gives me when it comes to the universe, and my own little additions in Chapter 47 of ASITL. I will lay down everything here in order to make a clear map for myself and for you, for the chapters that will follow:
1) In the movie, there are 3 types of supernatural figures that we see:
- Demons (Pearly): Born off the Earth since Lucifer (haven't gotten to him yet, maybe I do but if I do, I will definitely rewrite the hell out of him cause he is my least favorite aspect of the film, I'm sorry XD) is directly in New York. I want to believe that demons are recruited (hinted by Peter's "soda bottle" insult, that Pearly was abused as a child and was made into a monster, so I think demons are not born, they're created - the same way that miracles/stars are created, the way Peter was) and therefore want to become stars and/or prevent even more stars to rise to the sky [that's why Pearly is a crusher of miracles: miracles are direct tickets to the sky, they are redemption, they are goodness, and they are reminders of his darkness and his failure to be good];
- Guardian angels/spirit guides (Cecil, Athansor, and maybe John): *Many times present as light beams, but I want to focus on the ones that are physically present cause I prefer human interaction.* Angels are not explained as much as demons, but, from what I want to interpret, they're stars who descend down to Earth specifically to serve humans and help them find their miracle [important to note: they have an obligation to these mortals, that's what I want to believe, because...];
- In the case of Gabriel, who is a fallen angel: he wants to go down to Earth and do whatever he wants, without being bound to anyone. He is a recruited demon, but he was a star first. He chose to return to Earth and not be bound to any potential new stars - he just wants to be free and do anything he wants. [As I've said before, I want Gabriel to play a bigger role in Part 2, so that'll come...]
2) When it comes to Heaven itself (the sky full of stars): I decided that the comparison I made between the sky and the sea in Chapter 47 will apply here. So, yes. The sky is an ocean. And Beverly just sank into it. As to how stars fall down to Earth, ah... I already have something in mind ;3
Okay. There. What I have planned when it comes to the logic behind the world XD Again, I really hope I don't mess it up.
For now, though, thank you for reading and for being here at all. It means the world to me. And I'll see you again soon. Take care!
