A/N: Dammit, that was a LONG time. I spent my time geeking out.
Great December 2011 Edit: Holy inverted Anti-Jesus, what was I thinking? Way too short a chapter. But well, please bear with me here.
Chapter 9: Beautiful Travesty
I'd spent the whole last night staring out the window. Every star seemed new in some way, or maybe it was just my delusional mind. But I didn't care. Today was going to be a new start, and nothing was going to stop me. Not even Edward. No matter how much I loved him, this was a new life.
Last night, Alice had been flitting around La Push, trying to find out what had happened to the werewolves. She'd been especially worried about Jake, but I didn't let that get to me. He needed someone to take care of him, and Alice could really need someone except me to worry about. From what I'd caught of her excited chattering when I'd only been half listening, I'd picked out a couple of things.
The first point she'd gotten to was the disappearance of the "dog smell", which she'd seemed inordinately happy about. She'd also been saying something about the moon and half-forms, whatever she meant by that.
Also, she'd sent Rose down to clean out her hate against them. She really was excited. Still, it didn't matter at all.
Only one thing was on my mind now. It was seeing the world through new eyes. I'd seen Phoenix with a child's eyes and Forks through a teenager's eyes, and Volterra I'd only seen through a fear-tinted haze. It was time to look onto the world through the eyes of an adult and a predator.
To be honest, I was worried about myself. It wasn't like me to get so swept up in something, especially not something adventurous like this. I'd always been a spectator, picking up shreds of other people's lives and disinterestedly sifting through them. Until I met Edward, worrying was the most engagement I'd ever had in another person's life. But now, all worry I had about changing was wiped away by the opportunity of a new beginning.
I realized I was smiling, a wide, instinctual smile that bared my teeth in a predator's grimace. That was right. Nothing could wait. I dragged the improvised blackout-paper trash bags from the windows, opening the door and stepping from the old, disused room I'd been sleeping in onto the balcony.
I dusted off my clothes, dragging the fresh night air into my lungs, together with the faint smell of the city on the wind. Grabbing onto the railing, I deftly flipped myself into the air and landed on the other side of the river, my body surging with adrenaline.
Perfect. That was what I wanted to step into the new world with. I leapt up, grabbed a branch and flung myself to the next tree. As the outline of the cottage I shared with Edward slowly appeared through the evening mist, I pushed up towards the branch I was holding, brutally tearing through the trees down onto the ground.
Not wanting guilt to creep up on me, I quickly opened the door, ran into the bedroom, grabbed an expensive leather suitcase Alice had bought for me earlier and rummaged through the huge closet, searching for some passable clothes. With a bit of effort, I managed to find a reasonably relaxed getup consisting of a pair of navy jeans, a brown t-shirt, a loose black jacket and a pair of brown leather shoes.
All expensive, but perfectly casual, and most importantly, not suspicious. I put them on, stuffed the dress and heels I'd had on and some quite random clothes of a quite formal nature into the suitcase, grabbed my wallet from the night table and ran out of the cottage before Edward's scent could get to me.