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SECRETS LOST DEEP IN THE WOODS
THE NEXT MORNING was especially foggy as the students made their way into the school. It was rather depressing overall except for Alice and Andromeda living in their own bubble.
They carried a hushed conversation about Andromeda's years on Earth, their fingers interlocked and figurative stars in their eyes. Jasper who walked behind them smiled as he finally got to see his best friend enjoying her own happiness as opposed to someone else's happiness.
As the bell rang all of the stragglers began making their way towards the school except for two. Edward finds himself looking at Bella with intensity on her face. Even though he couldn't read her mind, he knew exactly what she wanted as she walked past him and into the forest.
Given, it wasn't her smartest plan to enter the forest alone with a dangerous someone whose secret she just revealed. Nonetheless, when Bella had a plan in mind, nothing would make her stray from her desired path.
Edward looked back at his family, specifically Rosalie and Jasper, whose face was now stone. "Don't go," she tells him, her voice stoic, but also laced with anger.
Alice moved forward to place her hand on Rosalie's arm. "He's already decided, Rose. It's inevitable."
.·:*¨❦¨*:·.
A SHIVER RAN up Bella's spine. It wasn't quite cold enough for her breath to be visible in the air before her, but it was cold enough that she needed to wrap her jacket around herself.
She finds herself staring off at the foggy beauty of the trees ahead of her when the air is suddenly silent. All the animals in the area, dispersed, sensing an apex predator in their area.
Bella doesn't have to turn around to know that Edward is there behind her. She wanted to feel scared of him and something in her told her to run, but she couldn't help but feel prideful that she figured out his deep secret.
"Your family isn't very good at keeping secrets." She turned to face him. "Are they?"
He looked down at her. "We've gotten this far haven't we?"
She shrugged her glare hard. "Not that impressive if your average teenage girl figured it out."
"What do you know?" His voice was laced in frustration, already knowing the answer to his question.
"I know that you're impossibly fast, horribly pale and your skin is too cold for you to be alive."
She took a step forward and interrupted him before he could interrupt her. "Your eyes change color, you speak like an old man, you never eat drink, or go in the sun, and you refused to go to the beach with me after hearing the location. Because you respect the treaty."
She took in a subtle breath of air, her nostrils flared. "Did I miss anything?"
His angered expression fell as he looked at her in awe. "You are brilliant," he muttered.
"How old are you?"
"Seventeen." His answer was automatic, asked so many times that he didn't have to think about it.
"Bullshit. How long have you been seventeen?"
There is a pause in the air. "A while."
There is another silence as Edward recovers from his shock. "So you know what I am. Say it out loud," he demands.
"I don't have to, we both already know."
He snarled, not at her, but in anger because of her. "Why aren't you scared, I could kill you. You must know what we eat?"
She nods, the iconic bloody image of vampires flashing through her head.
"Then why aren't you scared?"
She shook her head, "You wouldn't have let me live this long. If you truly wanted me dead, then I would have been dead in the Biology room when you met me."
He glares at her, "You think you know me?"
Before she could respond he grabbed her hand and began to walk through the foggy abyss.
"Where are you taking me?"
"Up the mountain. Out of the cloudbank. You need to see what Ireally am. What I look like in theharsh light of the sun."
Bella tried to pull herself away but was unsuccessful. "No, you'll die in the sun!"
"Myth," he growled. "You need to see the truth."
Tired of her slow pace, he picks her up bridal style and speeds up the mountain.
When he stops she is alone in the bright sunlight, feeling the rare heat brushing up against her skin.
"Edward?"
When she hears a twig behind her snap she turns around to see Edward, his skin sparkling brightly before her eyes like a gem.
"This is why we don't step out into the sun."
Bella's mouth was agape as she slowly inched towards him. "Edwar—,"
"This is what I am Bella. This is the skin of a killer, Bella."
She couldn't help but smile a little. "Glittery skin makes you far from a killer."
"Because you believe the lie. It's all a facade, a trap for the simple-minded. Everything about me, my looks, my skin, my voice, it's all a trap to lure in our prey."
Bella glared up at him. "I am not simple-minded and nor am I a prey."
"You are falling for the trap just as anyone else would."
"I'm not falling for your trap, I'm simply choosing to view you as something other than the monster you fear yourself to be."
He sucked in a breath as she hit him right in the gut. "I can hurt you."
"I believe otherwise."
In the blink of an eye, he's gone and the girl finds herself looking around her until she finds him standing back in the shadows a few feet away from her.
"Edward?"
He had a conflicted expression on his face as she stepped closer to him. "I don't know how to do this. I thought-," he paused. "I thought you would have been scared and I don't know how to act because you aren't."
She moved closer to him and lets her hand fall to his cheek. "Then just let me in," she whispered. "I'm not all that bad."
He smiled softly as he looked down at her. "My family. We're different. We don't drink from human blood, but instead animal blood. It's harder to keep control, but it keeps us functioning through society at the bare minimum."
"You won't lose control."
And at that moment, Edward believed her.
━━𝘢𝘶𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳'𝘴 𝘯𝘰𝘵𝘦!
➥ok so maybe i cut some of the unnecessary dramatics. plz don't come at me
