12. The third Penn

The Sun.

I'm here.

Isaac Penn's creation. His own little addition to this vast and ever-changing city. The medicine he'd found for Beverly's fire. Paper was cold and so were his hands.

The Sun. His offspring. His newspaper. Almost considered to be his third child.

I didn't know Isaac had another daughter.

In the wake of Beverly's death, he conceived a third child. Without a wife, without a soul. Something that could undoubtedly outlive him. There was comfort in knowing how endless a material can be.

Nothing is ever enough… when love is lost.

She'd heard him speak to Peter Lake of this, not so long ago. She'd hidden in the shade, far from the fire, near the stairs. Her little flaming heart, a serpent within her ribcage. She'd listened to Peter, and listened, and…

I'm here, here…

A third Penn. A sister, a brother. The sun now broke through her like needles through a cake.

Here.

Beverly Penn, a soundless scream. Bubbles burst into cerulean halos that looped around her and she felt her own body disintegrate into sundust. Her earrings, her harness, two green glimmers collapsing into sand, waters twisting into thread, colors collapsing against one another. And she was light, clean and white, her every hue cascading upon the Coheeries.

Dawn arrived. With it, came Beverly.

I'm all around…

She inhaled and felt the winter wind crawl greedily into her. The rosy flush of dawn, bleeding through her. A body of nothingness. Fever reduced to silver ash.

I'm flying…

She'd craved to be eternal only some hours before. She'd foolishly thought that she'd known the feel of it, when… well…

Oh…

She spread her skirts across the city. New York, at the break of dawn, slithering snakes of sunlight. Beverly gasped and didn't hear her own breath. Only the gusting of the wind.

She bounced off all the coins she could find, but none of them belonged to Cecil. She searched for him in all the time she had to spare, before Peter Lake could wake, but his elegant fingers had slipped away from her like mice into a wall.

Cecil, look at me! I'm flying!

So she let the clouds descend upon New York and dragged her new gown back to the Coheeries. Her earrings, too. Heavy, even now, despite their invisibility. Beverly felt comforted by their presence.

Where are you, Cecil?

She couldn't touch herself, she had lost her hands and her skin, but she felt held. She was levitating, hanging from a rope of starlight. She could move as she wish and she wouldn't fall.

So she cascaded upon the Coheeries on the first day, welcoming Peter Lake into 1917.

Author's Note: To anyone who is here today, thank you for reading.

I have returned! It's been a while, I know, but I promise I won't take a break this long again, not if I can help it. Some breaks ARE bound to happen, cause I will be busy with college, I began my second year as an animation student and the workload keeps getting heavier and heavier. But I manage to keep my artist fingers moving, at all times, I draw every day and I never get tired of it.

Writing-wise, on the other hand, I was more hesitant these last few weeks. Because I promised myself that I wouldn't continue writing "The Flight of the Magpies" until I had finished editing "A Star in the Lake". And, ever since I began my college classes again, the idea of editing has exhausted me. Right now I can't edit XD

So I won't edit any more, for the moment. I can't keep myself stuck.

Cause, despite how busy I am, I always have an endless energy to create. Both art-wise, and writing-wise. I have the energy to write new chapters and continue moving my fanfic forward, but I DON'T have the energy to edit at the moment XD

Besides, I'd rather finish my re-interpretation of "Winter's Tale," and THEN edit both Part 1 and 2 when I have more time and when I am ready for it. For now, with all the college work I need to do and the little desire I have to edit, I'd much rather keep this story going, because I do want to write new chapters, and the idea of that doesn't exhaust me. It never did. Instead, it excites me. I love writing this. I think most of you are aware of it at this point :3

So yes. I'm back. And I will finish this story, first and foremost, before going into editing, which is a more tedious labor for me. I think most of my readers prefer that, too. To get new content, rather than wait until I'm done polishing the old one :3

To all of you who have waited, thank you for waiting. To all my new readers, thank you for giving me a chance. And, to all of you in general, thank you, as always, for being here. Because it means a lot to me. I adore this movie, and I love writing my own version of these characters, this plot, this world. So... yeah. Thank you, for the billionth time. I'm grateful to you.