Emerging Swan

Prologue

Revised A/N, July 2016

I am republishing this story, chapter by chapter, on a weekly update basis, because the length of time between updates got ridiculous. So if you've read this before, don't worry, new parts coming really soon :)

Lucy xXx

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A/N

Alright you lot, here's the one I did for Camp NaNoWriMo in April 2014. I've done a bit of switching point of views between chapters, and I hope that doesn't disrupt the story. Tell me what you think, and don't forget: if it's utter crap, I want to know! This prologue and the first chapter are a bit shorter, but they get gradually longer.

And yes, this is intended to be something like a diary, though it does entirely take story form. I may switch around and edit the way the diary-thing is going, but we'll see what happens. Tell me if you like it! I've never tried it before, but I may try it again in the future slightly differently... Anyway, I hope you like this!

Lucy xX

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Bella (Swan), 2020

I honestly can't remember the last time I wrote like this. The last time I sat down with pen and paper and wrote out thoughts or feelings or events, whether it be mine or someone fictional. My life is full of family and love and laughter and my job and my hobbies. Of course, I've had my fair share of ups and downs, but these past few years have mostly been ups.

That doesn't mean it's going to stay that way.

Why am I writing about all this so many years after it actually happened? What, five, six years since the day that changed my life? Something like that. My mother would remember. Charlie probably wrote down the date in a thousand reports.

I've never been particularly good at writing. It was always math and science that I could do. And gym. I always liked gym. My essays tended to go vastly off-topic. Looks like not much has changed, doesn't it?

Come September, I'll be thirty. People always act like you'll understand life and how to live in the adult world by the time you're thirty. To be quite honest, I haven't got a clue. Taxes and mortgages and finances and businesses I can do. My social life isn't half bad either. I haven't had any disasters yet.

Except that sort of brings me onto why I'm writing this at all.

I've been having nightmares. I haven't had nightmares for years. And it's all the same as they were years ago. Same night, same faceless men, same terrible and terrifying representation of what really happened.

I talked to Jasper about this. I've known him for years. I never realised I'd be such good friends with him as I am. He told me to write. He told me that I'm probably stressed about what we want to do, worried about what might go wrong, and that it's all related to things that happened that day. Therefore my subconscious mind has flung up the memories and the nightmares.

I truly thought I was over it. When was the last time I woke screaming and crying? When was the last time I flinched away from somehow? Until this month, not since I was twenty-five.

So I'm taking Jasper's advice. I'm writing. I'm going to tell the whole story, from the day I moved away from that damn town. That's when things really kicked off.

And he's going to write too. Jasper said it'd be a good thing for both of us to get it out. Said that those months had an effect on him too, and that writing was a way to help prevent him getting the same problems I'm dealing with now.

And I really, truly hope that this helps. Both of us. All of us.

Bella

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A/N

Thoughts?

xXx