Light Volumes, a twilight fanfic

Light Volumes

Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.

⸻ Charlotte Brontë, Villette

| ACT I: TWILIGHT |

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all rights reserved. work is not to be reproduced or transmitted in any shape or form without direct permission from the author. i do not own the twilight saga, its characters, storyline, or dialogue. all rights go to stephenie meyer. original character(s) and light volume's plot belong to me unless explicitly stated otherwise. this book is a work of fiction. names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author's imagination or used fictitiously. any resemblance to actual events or locales or persons living or dead is entirely coincidental.

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CONTENT WARNING

mature subject matter intended for an older audience; viewer discretion advised as content contains potentially distressing material that may be upsetting to persons sensitive to the following: blood and gore; graphic violence, torture (physical & psychological), suicidal ideations, underage substance abuse, eating disorders, coarse language, and sexual content, though nothing explicit in nature to warrant an (M) rating unless otherwise stated. proceed at your own risk. tl;dr [typical YA themes].

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SYNOPSIS

ON THE EDGE of Washington's Olympic Peninsula, a remote little town—not worth its dot on a map—is home to mirrored lakes and dense, extensive woodlands as far as the eye can see.

Living in a landscape as timeless and unchangeable as Forks—the lives of people in places like this are closely knit and cut off from the world. Like the woods, they will always be there. They are ordinary local people who live, work, and die. Their life is copse-work and fishing. They depend on the woods and lakes for a livelihood; they are part of the natural order and have no ambitions.

With one high school, one pizza joint, and one stoplight to an untrained eye, it is the epitome of doldrums surrounded by a bland exterior of nature, typical of a Podunk town in the middle of nowhere. Beneath the visiting moon, however, there is a sense of a hidden, controlling force, the woods here, its life process.

A place born from such irregularities with a strong association with the supernatural of which it is but a part, down to the sabulous shores of La Push. Another district of equal regard that is replete with history, legend, and folklore with its own local customs, superstitions, and myths. The generational onus of old lore instilled unto the youth as a means to perpetuate the existence of this place and its heritage has fallen by the wayside over the years. The new millennium has ushered in an age of ignorance and complacency among its people, with its legacy reduced to mere spook stories sold on boardwalks as a tourist attraction.

Regardless of the seldom vestiges, little ever happens in the quiet fishing community of Forks, apart from its climate pattern of inclement weather reports and overcast fronts native to the meager offshoot of Olympia.

(There is nothing dreamlike or enchanting about this place.)

The laws of nature allocated here have since departed when a string of bizarre incidents come to light and bring terror upon the town. Bound in a sick sleep of unnaturalness and disorder, the blind lead the blind to their own demise.

An unseasonable change is astir with torrential storms the little town of Forks has only just begun to experience as the town, the people in it, and all that surrounds an intrusive community such as this drown in disarray. Long are the days of dreary normality and overcast skies—an entity has taken root, and where it goes, the other is sure to follow after.

NOTHING IS EVER as it seems, much like the new arrival, which the people of Forks remarked as a bolt from the blue, an adequate descriptor, given what she represents.

Athen Chase Montgomery, a seventeen-year-old WASP with all the grooming one would find in an East Coast child, has been in and out of rehab, sans any parental involvement or supervision, following the Challenger incident last fall. Her little episode (as her mother oh-so-fondly called it) caused her to lose face for matters too fantastical to speak of and subsequently be put on a gap year from her father's alma mater for some much-needed R&R.

Her disappearance had people speculating on her whereabouts. Some purported she was malingering somewhere in Europe, like the South of France, recovering from a "summer surgery"—the more popular choice among old classmates—but that could not be further from the truth.

In reality, she single-handedly derailed her life for the public welfare, of all things, by subjecting herself to what feels like all of North America on a cross-country road trip. After several months of slumming it—matriculating to more schools (public and private) than she would care to admit in her (repeated) junior year—and would conclude the middle year in the least auspicious place in the continental US.

Forks, Washington, was a typical garden-variety small town with little import. Its sole institution of education, Forks High, home to the fighting Spartans, was a modest school of equal measure with a subpar scholastic record and a brochure to match. The only silver lining was its extracurricular activities, specifically cheerleading. To its small student body, she would be the shiny new oddity in a sea of humdrum familiarity. While not all bad, there was an understated appeal to small towns, how much of the land was still underdeveloped, how everyone knows everyone. . . Her arrival, by chance, coincided spectacularly with another much-anticipated return with the local Chief of Police's estranged daughter.

(That's the thing about small towns—news travels fast.)

With a track record that spoke for itself—a late transfer into Forks High (even after arriving several days earlier) from Springfield, Illinois—a calculated risk, but knowledge was power. Although not one to cry over spilled milk on what would have been a smooth and uneventful integration of chatty students asking routine questions until the novelty wore off like all the rest, she settled into the role to get through another Spring semester as planned. Only now, under the wilful ignorance of what lurked among her new classmates.

Life in Forks, while elementary, was not all peaches and cream, especially with the added set of eyes of would-be predators documenting her downfall.

Contrary to popular belief, she was not here to form lasting bonds or romantic ties with any of her peers (something her old classmates can attest to), nor was she interested in obtaining a second diploma at this fine institution. Therefore, it came as no surprise when she was indelibly branded as a malign influence on the student body and those unfortunate enough to be aligned in her orbit by the school's principal for disruptive behavior and her general lack of incentive toward the school.

Despite the reception, she's self-contained, preoccupied with her own state rather than beholden to any subsidiary, intentional or otherwise. Her own purposes into which people fit and which people can serve are the only things of importance in her vocation. To her, conflict and suffering are inevitable causes of the human condition, like the converging destinies of those here—destined for misery and nothing more.

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SCORE

(SIDE A;)

i. rosemary • deftones

ii. the killing moon • echo and the bunnymen

iii. season of the witch • donovan

iv. eyes on fire • blue foundation

v. spotlight • mutemath

vi. satellite mind • metric

vii. with you in my head • unkle

viii. beautiful stranger • madonna

ix. the perfect drug • nine inch nails

x. i don't want to fall in love • she wants revenge

xi. strange & beautiful (i'll put a spell on you) • aqualung

xii. clair de lune, l. 32 • claude debussy

xiii. claws • son lux

xiv. creep • radiohead

xv. tear you apart • she wants revenge

xvi. hatef-k • the bravery

xvii. the thirst is taking over • skillet

xviii. free animal • foreign air

xix. the wolf • siames

(SIDE B;)

i. every you every me • placebo

ii. hearing damage • thom yorke

iii. the antidote • st. vincent

iv. the bitter end • placebo

v. wolf like me • tv on the radio

vi. twilight • bôa

vii. eye to eye • blood red shoes

viii. bitches brew • ††† (crosses)

ix. risk • deftones

x. melatonin • mellow grave

xi. scary people • georgi kay

xii. tonight, tonight, tonight • low roar

xiii. lithium • labyrinth ear

xiv. seventeen • ladytron

xv. stars • warpaint

xvi. sextapes • deftones

xvii. coming down • dum dum girls

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APPENDIX

hi, everyone! welcome to light volumes! born from the sheer mania of bad 4 a.m. decisions and twilight renaissance nostalgia.

psa! before anything else. a considerable effort of artistic freedom has been lobbied against smeyer and her plot holes. i'm changing numerous stuff so that it makes sense without having to resort to putting a bandaid on it because: magic! this story is gonna be grounded in some reality.

also, spoiler! there will be no demon spawn. these guys are dead, so their swimmers are also dead. (technically, they shouldn't even be able to have erections.) and the whole hybrid thing is just no! i'll be taking reference from actual corpses instead of literal marble statues, so..., i'm kinda toying with the idea of them not being vampires but parasitic. nothing's set in stone, though (ignore the bad pun).

regardless, while lv is a noncanonical au because of the addition of athen, it will still follow some canon events, albeit loosely; canon characters will be subject to new and old situations, i.e., bella is still a blood singer with no thoughts (also, the cullens are in for a very rotten time, btw.), so even if edward does or doesn't interact with bella, she will still be privy because of jacob. on the other hand, athen is not looking to make waves; her reason for being there is not a social call, so anything outside her agenda is void. but, like, try telling that to edward. the boy is like a dog with a bone.

anyway, i'll end the author's note here. i really hope you enjoyed reading this. if you have any questions, feel free to drop them in a review or pm. i hope to see you soon with the first chapter!

n.b. cross-posted on ao3.