The Dancing Ghost ★ Edward Cullen

ix. Teacup warnings

The first thing Anastasia saw when she woke up the next day was the fog outside her window, painting the whole street gray.

She stirred around the warm blankets, her face quit numb from having fallen asleep on a book she was reading. She was sure there was marks from the pages.

Grabbing a random coat from the floor and throwing it on, she made her way into the living room, the sound of her footsteps filling the empty house, Meredith and James having already left to work.

After clearing away all the baby catalogs, she fell back on the couch, sighting since she didn't know what to do with the three hours she had before her courses starts.

After laying around for a minute or two, she went back to her room and changed out of her pyjama,

It has been a long time since she went for a walk, mainly because she hated them and got tired halfway down the stairs, but walking in the fog gave Anastasia a homely feeling.

After deciding to wear her leather watch, she went down to the street painted with the thick fog.

It was insanly calm, but not in a unsettling way. Most people had already left to work or were still sleeping and Anastasia felt like she was alone in the world as the wind sung in her ears.

It was so quiet that the only sound she could hear was the ticking of her watch. With every step on the weirdly empty street, she found herself focusing more and more on the ticking that marked every dying second. It was nice to think of it that way, that time is slowly dying, but lately, Anastasia found it hard to ignore that a very small piece of her felt nauseous at the sound of clocks.

Anastasia stopped her walk as a coopery smell filled the air and the sound of what she recognized as ballet shoes tapping on the ground echoed in the empty street, the atmosphere becoming more and more unsettling by the second as the ticking sound was becoming louder and louder.

The fog didn't allow her to see much, but she could've swore that at the end of the street a puddle of blood was forming, slowly making it's way towards her...

"Anastasia, dear?" Anastasia turned around quickly once she felt a hand on her shoulder, met by Roseanne's worried reaction.

Anastasia looked around, noticing the people walking down the what a second ago was an empty street. She glanced back at the end of the street and wasn't meet with the dripping blood, she couldn't hear her watch ticking anymore.

"Are you alright?" Roseanne asked once again, pulling the girl out of her haze. The old lady was holding a bag in her hand, having just came back from the bakery. "Here, let's go to my apartment for a cup of tea."

Anastasia nodded her head, internally wincing at the sudden headache but continued walking beside Roseanne in silence.

As she looked around she realized that the street was never empty.

Roseanne invited her into her place, holding the door open for her, the scent of candles immediately filling Anastasia's nose.

Anastasia was surprised to see all the boxes around the very dimly lit place, all the old lady's belongings packed messily.

"You're moving out?!" Anastasia asked in surprise, her head escaping the haze from the surprise.

"Oh yes, found a... better apartment... closer to my family" Roseanne said hurriedly, "Does your head still hurts?" She asked trying to change the subject, placing a warm cup of tea in her cold hands.

Anastasia's mind distantly noticed that she didn't tell her about her headache, but she wasn't really sure anymore about what happened and what didn't.