Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

46 - ɢʀᴀᴅᴜᴀᴛɪᴏɴ

DAYS PASSED  like a blur yet she felt every moment to the extreme. Every touch, every glance, every fit of laughter and every time she felt at home wrapped in his arms. She now understand why she had let herself be vacant of this feeling for so long, why she hadn't made the move sooner like she had wanted to. But there was no changing that now, and who knows not doing so so soon could have changed the way they now saw each other. Fate works in funny ways like that, twisting and turning life until people get what they deserve. The rougher patches, grief and loss for the will of life, all fade and happiness for moments shine thone. And that's what those days had been, the fire that blocked any signs of sadness from her thoughts. And she loved it. Every single second.

Weirdly the days she spent outside of her house, outside of the little safe and 'honeymoon' phase that the two of them had created, became longer. And honestly, if you had asked her straight out she would have said there was no difference when really the days just meant more to her. She didn't know what it was, maybe that her mind had slowed down and reset so things were easier to handle but everything just went slowly. She could live very faked breath, every word of every conversation and found herself laughing even more. It reminded her of the freedom that flooded through her body when she arrived at Forks for the very first time, fresh off the murdering of her captor as she stumbled (quite literally) into a brown-haired wolf. And before she could even think twice, graduation turned the corner.

For once, Athena drove to school. She wanted to listen to music through the radio and knew that Jasper didn't quite like all the constant walking through the town - especially in the slightly drowsy weather that hung heavy on graduation day. So she drove, making sure to go at a speed that would not catch any police attention because of the whole lack of license situation that she was yet to remedy. Finding someone to forge identification was harder than other vampires made it out to be. She pulled up in the parking lot and stepped out of her car just as Luna and Alice drove in parking a few spaces away from them. Only they weren't sat in Alice's convertible. "Why's Luna driving Emmett's jeep?" Athena asked Jasper as they walked to the back of her car.

"A bet," he chuckled softly, smiling at Alice as she waved to him.

She raised a brow, now even more intrigued than before, "A bet about what?"

"Nothing," he responded, trying to hide the smirk that pulled at his lips from her.

"Jasper! Tell me!" she pressed, growing as he chuckled again and wrapped his arm over her shoulder. Noticing her unwavering frown, he quickly pressed a kiss to her forehead - thinking it would have the opposite effect that it did. The frown only deepened, mixed with an almost appalled look in her eyes that would not waver. "That's not going to work."

-

Athena had been through so many graduations over the years, so so many. She had a routine, sit in the back and slide out of the whole celebration period before she could be invited back to any parties or anyone could notice that she hadn't had a parent come and witness her achievements. Many times over the years she had been given the choice of the end of the year speech but she didn't want to take that away from a mortal, who could only experience it once, so she always turned it down. Only for this graduation, she was dragged to one of the front row seats by Alice where she,  Luna and Jasper all sat in a row. Jessica's speech was one of the better ones she had heard, not full of the normal jabber that made these assemblies ever so boring. She actually found herself smiling during the entire process, glad to be experiencing something like that.

At the after-party at the Cullen house. Athena sat in the corner of the room and chatted to Eric about the music they were playing. During that semi unimportant conversation, where she found herself clutching her side on laughter, Athena realised that she had finally found a mortal that she would genuinely miss in the years to come, not just someone who became a blurred filler for existence like all the others before them. Maybe it was just something about this town, the people in it were just- Well she hadn't the words but it would defiant be a plethora of positive ones, that's for certain.

As she finished telling a story about something that had happened in her past to Eric, her head snapped towards the door as her nose became overrun with the scent of wet dog. She scowled upon seeing Jake, wondering how in Hell he had the nerve to turn up here after all that he did to Bella. She waved at Embry before excusing herself, wanting to rid Jacob of the building but Bella got there before she had the chance. So instead, Athena hovered near Embry, wondering why he had literal leaves sticking from his hair - she picked them out with a confused expression that made him chuckle. Oh.

But before she could ask what had happened, Alice stopped on the stairs and fell into a vision. Athena delved into her mind, having had permission for visions only in case she saw something that Alice didn't, and watched in half horror as a red blouse was passed around a group of red-eyed sporadic newborns. This could never be good.

"You're not going to Seattle," Bella said as the two vampires snapped out of the vision, noticing that the three wolves were now staring at the two of them expectantly. Alice ran back upstairs, heading to find Carlilise.

"No. They're coming here," Athena replied softly, watching the fear begin to burn behind Bella's eyes. She hated ruining such a happy night for her in a single sentence.

It took a few minutes to round all of the vampires up, given that Rosalie was far in the forest having a discussion with Emmett - she didn't particularly like the fact that a bunch of mortals had invaded her home. Athena stood near the door of the office, half-listening to the conversation as she focused on making sure that no one who walked past the closed door would hear their conversations. Carlisle's office was the one-room without soundproofing since it was not necessary.

"Who's behind it?" Edward asked Alice after she finished explaining all the details of her vision, checking with Athena with a nod to make sure she hadn't missed anything important.

"No one I recognised," Alice replied in a defeated tone, searching her memory of the vision for more answers that she would not find. She shrugged ever so slightly, shoulders moving maybe a fraction of a millimetre, "Maybe one."

"He's local. Riley Biers," Edward replied, setting off a reaction in Bella that Athena could not figure out. It was almost if she recoiled yet not so."He didn't start this."

"Whoever did is practically invisible." She faded out of the conversation then, struggling to make her way through a slightly intoxicated persons mind as they searched for a bathroom - thankfully the bedrooms without beds had been tightly locked so no suspicion could be bought about that way.

"The army's coming and there aren't enough of us to protect the town," Jasper's voice echoed in her ears as she came back from that person's mind, slightly drained by their thoughts. She shook her head of the dreariness and forced back in on the conversation, quickly catching up through the reading of Embry's thoughts.

"Hold up, what damn army?" Jacob asked, confusion furrowing his brow.

"Newborns. Our kind," Carlisle explained, taking away that confusion and replacing it with concern.

"They're after Bella. It seems anyway," Athena explained after hearing Emrby's more confusing thoughts about why they were coming. He nodded and smiled at her, sensing that something was off.

"All right. We're in," Jacob sighed after checking with his friends. From there, the plans to practise for the battle were brewed and perfected. After all, there was no time to waste.