The Twilight Twenty-Five
thetwilight25[dot]com
Prompt: Cottage
Pen Name: Mcgt
Pairing/Main Character(s): Bella
Rating: M
This will be a multi-chaptered story.
Photo prompts can be viewed here: thetwilight25[dot]com/round-six/prompts
A/N
Thanks to LittleRedScientist for helping beta this for me and Jenequilter for her prereader skills.
Chapter 4 –Strangers in the Night- Cottage
My mind was adrift into nothingness. It was consumed by darkness and the soothing whooshing sound that I'd been so accustomed to hearing since I got here.
A scraping noise startled me and I slowly peered out of one eye to see if perhaps Alistair was lurking about to send me on another stupid vision quest where I'd learn nothing useful towards getting me off this freaking island.
There was a man sitting beside me and instead of my hammock I was now lying in a bed made of soft cotton, a handmade quilt wrapped up over my shoulders as I curled into my side. It looked like the inside of a tiny cottage from one of my favorite fairytales come to life.
The man's face was fuzzy, the kind you can't quite picture when you're having a fabulous dream and only want to know who the mystery man is. Whoever he was, his voice was soft and deep. It was as if the ocean lapping on the shore had morphed into a man. His presence brought me nothing but comfort yet I had no idea who he was or why he was here.
Perhaps he was another visitor, one that Alistair just forgot to announce his arrival?
Whatever the reason, I remained silent allowing his soothing aura to completely envelope me.
I could faintly hear him mumbling angrily to himself and wished that he would speak up and tell me what was wrong. For some reason it seemed extremely important for me to help him, but before I had the chance to do anything, he began speaking.
"You know when you're little and you imagine your life… that it's going to be this spectacular event where you succeed in everything and you marry the perfect person. And then you grow up and after a while you get cynical and your dreams begin to fade. Eventually leaving you with nothing but a brittle skeleton of what it once was. And by the time you realize it, you're just left with a big steaming pile of woulda, coulda, shouldas?"
My eyes never left his mouth; it was the only thing I could focus on. His teeth were straight and almost obnoxiously white. His lips were full, a day's worth of stubble ran across his chiseled jaw and I was mesmerized by the way his mouth moved as he talked. The bob of his Adam's apple when he swallowed after ending a sentence were all completely arousing to me.
I only wished the haze surrounding the top of his head would cease allowing to really see who he was.
Nodding my head, I burrowed deeper into the covers hoping he would continue speaking.
"My life was supposed to be mapped out for me. I was tracking towards being the best and the brightest of my class, but somehow my own cocky attitude ruined everything. Instead of finishing first, I was lucky to graduate. I ended up here of all places." His voice sounded sad, lonely, with the twinge of bitterness. Like he too had experienced all the crap that life piled on to you when you least expected it.
Pulling my hand out from beneath the blanket I grasped his hand, squeezing it twice, and hoping he'd understand my silent empathy for him.
He continued talking in riddles about the many mistakes he regretted and how things were finally starting to look up, when boom.
Today happened.
And now here he was trying to atone for a lifetime of sins.
"Of all the days to meet you, why did it need to be today? Why couldn't it have been before?" he asked, like the weight of the world had just pounded him into the ground. The defeat was so palpable I could see his vulnerability in his posture, the way his head hung low, shoulders slumped forward.
I craved to reach out, to comfort him but resisted. I still didn't know who he was and that thought frightened me a bit. I wanted to scream "before what?" but couldn't form the words.
His thumb had been gently rubbing over the back of my hand the entire time he was talking making my skin prickle with heat from his touch. It'd been so long since anyone had made me feel so cherished. Even in my brief time with Aro, he'd never made me feel like this stranger had.
We sat together in silence for what felt like a long time, the feel of his thumb on my hand and the whooshing of the ocean brought me both peace and comfort. I closed my eyes just wishing that this was one visit would last forever. That this man would stay beside me as I figured out all the crap that was going on around me.
Hearing the chair as it scraped across the wood floor of the cottage I watched as the man stood, kissing my hand gently before placing it back under the covers.
Leaning down he whispered in my ear, "I know what's happened to you. And I'm sorry. I didn't intend to pry but it was there, and I looked. I know it was wrong, but I couldn't help it. Your story is different yet so similar to my own. I needed to meet you."
I was so confused by his confession, wishing I could stand and ask him what he was talking about but my body felt tied down, completely unresponsive to my attempts.
"I'm sorry." With a kiss to my forehead he told me he'd be back tomorrow before gliding out of the cottage leaving me all alone to ponder our connection.
Why did God keep doing this to me?
After being lonely for so long, why would he tempt me so? Why would he tease me with a man who I was so instantly connected to yet so far out of reach? What good did that do me? Especially if God was going to only allow me to look at him though a fuzzy fog. I felt gypped, robbed, and really wished someone would tell me what the hell was going on.
Anger boiled up inside me at the prospect of having to go back to my island all by myself when I just wanted a few more minutes with the stranger who had waltzed directly into my heart.
I must have drifted off for a while because it felt like in the blink of an eye when I heard Alistair ask, "I hope you're well rested. You have quite a busy day today."
A/N
So, there you go. The next chapter won't be posted until next week sometime, but things are moving along, right?
Stay tuned to the Fictionators page - I posted a teaser for chapter 5 in there for Monday's post.
Thanks again for reading.