Chapter 4- Tension
1927
Edward could hear the cheery melody of Esme's humming as she dusted the bookshelf in the living room of the cottage. Edward was in the room across the hall, playing Prelude in E-Minor by Frederic Chopin on his beloved grand piano. The melancholy tune of the song did not at all fit the cheerful atmosphere, as the bright morning sun shone through the opened windows, but it did however fit Edward's mood, so it was appropriate enough for him.
Carlisle was in the living room with Esme, reading the mail. It was one of the rare times when they were all together. When Edward finished playing the gloomy composition, he heard him enter the room. He was wearing a casual pair of trousers and a blue V-neck sweater vest over his collared shirt. His blond hair shined in the midday sun.
"Edward, I'm going hunting. Would you care to join me?"
Edward stood up, gathering his sheet music he had memorized and replied sharply, "Why don't you just go hunting with her?"
As soon as the words left Edward's lips, he instantly regretted saying them. Seeing the look on Carlisle's face didn't make it much better. Across the hall, he heard the shamed and guilty feelings of Esme which weighed down his own guilt even more.
But in a way Edward did mean what he said. As much as Carlisle might have said otherwise, he no longer needed Edward anymore. Edward knew he had only made the request out of sympathy. Edward didn't want Carlisle's sympathy, he wanted him to hate him, to admit to Edward, once and for all that he no longer cared for his presence, no longer felt the need to have him around. But he didn't, he simply composed himself and calmly replied to the petulant comment,
"I want go hunting with you Edward. We rarely spend much time together anymore and I thought since I have the day off work that we could go, together."
Like we used to he added in his thoughts. He scanned through memories of himself and Edward running in the forest during a hunt; the image of Edward calling back to Carlisle teasingly, taunting him to catch up. He showed the image of a simple chat they had as they walked through the snowy yard of the Denali coven's house. He also showed the look of pure joy on Edward's face when he walked through that same house, to find a brand new piano sitting in the living room during his first year as a vampire. Back then, he had only played happy songs, not like now.
Edward flinched as he was bombarded with Carlisle's slideshow of memories all accompanied with Carlisle's confusion of how and why, they had come to the low point they were now at. He knew Edward well enough to know that it was not only Esme that was making him this way.
Edward pushed aside his guilt and straightened up.
"I'm not thirsty Carlisle. I was just leaving anyway." With those words, Edward turned away from the now dumfounded Carlisle and shut the front door behind him.
As he started to run, he heard the grave words of Carlisle and Esme.
"No matter what I am always putting a strain between you two, Carlisle, I don't know what I can do."
"No, it's not your fault Esme, it is clear the problem is much more than you. I only wish you could have known him before. Esme, he was like a different person, I don't know how to describe it he was just so…different."