The Dancing Ghost ★ Edward Cullen

xi. New stars

The first snowfall of the year transported Anastasia back to her years in Russia, though now there were more than just her footsteps imprinting the white ground as Edward walked beside her while they strolled through the tree-filled path.

Having just finished their courses for the day, Anastasia had a bit of time before she needed to leave for practice.

"Nero was to blame for the fall of the Roman empire, it's in every history book, he was a monster," Edward said, making Anastasia think a bit before speaking.

"I don't think history books are very reliable when it comes to historical figures, they are almost always written by either scared or hateful people." She ranted, "Some say Nero burned people alive and others say that he used to love arts and that he has helped the lower class a lot."

"But sometimes the hateful and scared people are the ones who are right, some people are simply monsters." Edward said making Anastasia look at him.

Standing between the snow covered ground and cloudy white sky, he looked angelic. His skin gleamed, as pale as the falling snowflakes and his obsidian eyes standing out between the paleness of everything else.

She looked away and chuckled, "You have a very black and white thinking."

He turned to her in surprise, smirking as he asked, "Really? What makes you think so?"

"Well because," She explained, shaking a twig to watch the snow fall off, "There are no such thing as monsters, everything can be explained, all behaviors, all acts of evil..."

Edward continued to look at her cold pink cheeks, still stubbornly attempting to read her mind, "What if some are simply born this way, born evil?"

"Then it's not their choice to be the way they are, which makes their acts out of their control," Anastasia defended, making Edward fall silent as they continued their peaceful walk. "They didn't choose to act in a way that is seen as evil, therefore they aren't evil."

Edward thought about what she said and found himself admiring her sympathy even though he still felt as though it wasn't deserved by everyone in the world.

Anastasia's phone rang, disrupting the silence as Alice's voice appeared loudly once she picked up.

"Anastasia! I need your help for a project, meet me in front of art department!" She said, making Edward roll his eyes at her.

Before Anastasia could even tell her yes, she hung up making Edward shrug his shoulder at the weird girl's behavior as Anastasia laughed.

They walked back to the university, the white sky darkening as the sun hidden from the cloud settled lower. As promised, Alice was waiting on a bench with Jasper, jumping up once she saw the brunette and immediately started showing her pages of her sketchbook to help her decide an idea for her fashion project.

As Alice flipped through the pages and showed her countless pieces of fabric and model designs, Anastasia glanced around at the three cullens, her mind wondering.

Though they had different features, there was a clear ressemblance between all of them. Their beauty couldn't be easily ignored, it made Anastasia want to get closer but something instinctual inside of her wanted to run.

Something was freakish about the otherworldliness of their beauty, something disturbing but curious.

Anastasia felt uneasy even though she enjoyed their company more than anything, she wondered if it's because of her lack of understanding of them.

She let her train of thoughts go and actually helped the pixie haired girl decide between the many ideas while Edward and Jasper ranted about god knows what.

She checked her watch and bid goodbye to the three, realizing she might be late to catch the train.

"Goodbye!" Alice hugged her tightly making Anastasia's eyes widden at the coldness of her skin.

Anastasia ignored it and smiled at her then waved goodbye to Jasper and Edward, sharing a timid smile with Edward before walking away.

After driving at an ungodly speed, well pass the limit, she was able to catch the train with her ballet shoes in a hand and her bag in the other.

While holding on to the pole, she looked around at the people around her.

They all seemed normal and although Anastasia knew that even serial killers look like any normal passerby at first, she couldn't help but think differently about the cullens when it comes to judging their character.

They were so obviously different compared to anyone else but Anastasia couldn't figure out what it was in particular that stood out about them.

Was it the way their translucent, marble like skin ?

Was it their unusually colored eyes ?

There was something more, something less visible to the eye.

Anastasia thought about this feeling she felt whenever she was around them, the doubt of their identity. They seemed human but something in her instinct doubted that, it seemed like a mask, a mask that was so perfect that it became ill fitting.

The train stopped and Anastasia walked out of the underground train station to the cold breeze outside.

She breathed it in as her guts turned qin excitment at the sense of thrill even though her heart beat fast in something similar to fear.

She felt the same way she did years ago as she starred at the uncountable stars, asking herself questions that she knew couldn't be answered though for once, she felt on the verge of discovering some truth.

She had found a new set of stars to wonder about.