The Dancing Ghost ★ Edward Cullen

xiii. Familiarity

At the twenty-fourth of December, miles away into thick forest grounds, the Cullens were surrounding Alice as she was still hazy from another vision.

Edward was frozen in place meanwhile everyone else was helping Alice and urging her to tell them what she saw.

Of course, he had knew this will happen and he knew how he will feel about it, but he suddenly felt much more aware of time as he looked up at the white sky.

Time slowed down.

"It's Anastasia..." Alice had started telling the cullens about her vision though Edward had seen it as soon as she did, "The volturi will find out about her."

There was some silence but it was quickly broken by Rosalie who had an indifferent expression as she continued her walk, followed shortly by Emmett.

"Well there you have it then," She said in a matter-of-fact tone, "I told you this would happen, we just have to cut her out and change location, again."

The others turned to look at Edward sympathetically but his eyes were cold and empty as he seemed, for once, not annoyed by Rosalie's apathy.

Carlisle moved closer to him but before he could speak his thoughts, Edward stopped bim.

"She's right." He said, tone cold and dead, "We should start planning our leave."

"But Edward-" Before Alice could speak her thoughts, Edward left. She looked visibly the saddest between them as Jasper held her comfortingly and Esme told her that it will all be okay, that it will pass.

Edward didn't know for how long kept dragging himself around, walking in the woods like a lost child, running away from something he could never outrun because he took himself everywhere he went to.

The sun has set and the moon stayed for a while and now the sun was rising yet again, not that it meant anything.

Amidst his relentless tries to escape the ever building dread, he found himself in a familiar place.

He was on a verge of a cliff standing above a lake that was slightly frozen from the cold. He knows this place, he has been here before. It didn't surprise him, there wasn't many places he hadn't been to.

He sits down on the edge, sinking into the snow and looking up at the mirroring sky, so white that you could mistake it with the borders of the snowy land.

Aside from being able to recognize the familiarity of the place, Edward also noticed that something changed around here.

He couldn't grasp what it was, but change was still there, lurking behind everything, everything except him. He had watched countless of new dawns yet he never changed once.

It was grotesque.

He couldn't hold on to anything without having to watch it crumble away. He tried not to think about her but it is unavoidable when you have so much time to sit with your grief.

He will just have to leave her behind as they run away yet again. Edward felt stupid for thinking that it would go differently.

Although he wasn't one, one thing he still shared with humans is the ever so stubborn hope that always lingered beyond any rationality.

In a few days, he will leave and in a few decades, it will all go away and she will be long gone.

It will pass.

But time never felt slower for Edward, days lamented and night lasted a few years. Time moved slow when he didn't have anything to hold on to expect time itself.

He told himself that it was for the best since his absence also meant that Anastasia is safe but he can't help the sense of fear that is rising in him.

What will he do now? What will he do for the rest of his never ending life?

When the sun had completely rose into the sky, his skin sparkled as he laid between miles of white snow.

He went back home, having nowhere else to go. As soon as entered through the window, he ignored the looks and tried to push out the thoughts of the other cullens as they started packing.

"There has to be something wrong," Alice was ranting on the couch next to Jasper, she didn't need tears to cry, "My other vision-"

Edward went to his room and closed the door before he could hear what she was saying because he knew that the smallest amount of hope will break him.

He started to pack his belongings, starting from his desk and ending with his shelves.

Edward placed all of his records and Cds into an empty box one by one. He briefly wondered if there will be a day where the world would run out of new melodies, if he'll only be able to repeat his old records.

He hears a notification sound from his phone and sees it's from Anastasia, he doesn't open it.

Come again, he realizes that he'll never hear a melody twice.

He'll never hear this melody twice.

[...]

A few days have passed and Anastasia is on the verge of believing that she turned into a ghost.

She wakes up at mornings to an empty apartment because her aunt was somewhere in paris, the closet door shuts loudly and echoes between walls as she got ready for her courses.

A sense of dread was lingering as she drove there and walked down the halls to her first course. She was paying great attention to the students as she walked past them, her eyes searching for any sign of pale skin and golden eyes but she didn't find them, she didn't know if she was glad or not.

Just as she was wondering where they were while entering the lecture hall, Anastasia stumbled slightly backwards when she ran into Edward who was walking really fast.

She froze for a second but pulled herself together, it's been a while since she talked to him.

Though she thankfully found her voice, "Hey..."

Edward glanced into her eyes for barely a second but Anastasia shuddered from the intensity of his sharp eyes, hearing that same instinctive voice in the back of her head...

As she was expecting him to at least say something, he just nodded at her, barely, and walked past her, disappearing between the crowd in the hallway.

Anastasia stood there for a bit and no matter what she told herself, she couldn't help but feel... nauseous?

Perhaps it was just the child-like feeling of rejection from the simple, dismissive nod he sparred her but she was almost embarrassed of herself from how much she was affected by it.

She sat through the entire lecture with that feeling yet she couldn't get rid of it or even sit with it comfortably as it sat down beside her on Edward's empty seat.

Her watch ticked slower.