Mortality has always haunted everything since the dawn of existence, it was the only promised thing in a web of possibilities and for humans, it was their greatest fear as well as their greatest limit.
Although for Anastasia, she embraced and antici...
Oops! This image does not follow our content guidelines. To continue publishing, please remove it or upload a different image.
Cold skin.
Diamond when under the sun.
Inhumane strength.
Anastasia's breathing got uncomfortably fast, hands too shaky to continue driving. She stepped on the brake, stopping at the side of the empty road and getting out, taking a breath of the cold air.
She felt so confused about everything, nothing made sense yet now everything did.
This was just a sick joke right?
This is just her head playing tricks on her.
She looked around the dark road and neighboring forest, the only source of light being the dim one inside her car.
The real world felt scary, she wished to go back to her parents house, no matter how suffocating it was.
Shakily, she reached for her phone, not thinking twice before opening Edward's number, texting him simply her current location.
She couldn't bring herself to care if her assumptions were true, if he would kill her; in fact, she hope so, it was his fault she was still here.
She waited in the cold of her car, unable to tell if she was shaking from the exhaustion of the practice or from nervousness and fear. Somehow, she knew he's going to come at her message, a gut feeling perhaps.
Hearing a car park behind hers in the empty dark street, she got out of her car, pupils dilated from the headlight of the gray volvo.
Edward walked out, his silhouette like one of a god as he walked closer to her, his sharp features like a blessing on her dull eyes when for a moment, she forgot what lied underneath.
"Are you alright? Has your car broken down?" His voice ran like the sound of crystal glass in her ears.
Anastasia closed her eyes for a quick moment, maybe this wasn't such a bad way to go.
"I know what you are."
She opened her eyes, watching Edward's calm orbs, golden like the sky during the sun's daily death in the afternoon.
"I'm sorry." Edward said, his cold fingers reach her face with gentleness no monster should contain, pushing a strand of her hair behind her ear. "I should've never gotten this close to you..."
A sigh left her lips, she shut her eyes tightly when she felt them water, her fist hitting his chest, "I hate you." She spat out, her voice not as strong as she would've liked it to be.
"I hate you for saving me." A tear escaped from the resistance of her closed eyelids, followed by others when she felt his cold finger gently brush them away, his large arms pulling her close to his marble hard chest and holding her there.
"I'm sorry, I'm more selfish than I would like to believe" He muttered, rubbing her back gently as he felt her shaking against him, "But you deserve a chance for a real life, a kinder one..."
Edward held her against him until her sobs died down, his cold hand running through her hair.
"I-it's true isn't it?..." She spoke up, her voice small yet it sounded so beautiful for him next to his ear, "Roseanne was right, you're not..."
"Human?" Edward finished the phrase for her.
Anastasia's eyebrows furrowed as she closed her eyes tightly once more, resting her head on his hard shoulder. She could feel a headache settling in as her mind tried to wrap around the unbelievable truth.
"Cold ones are fast, faster than any creature on earth, not to mention stronger... We were designed to be the perfect predators, all while blending in with humans..." Edward spoke up, feeling her heartbeat quickening against his torso.
"It ticks their instincts off, confuses them if we're one of them or a threat, which makes it easier to get close to them and..."
"Kill them..." Anastasia muttered, feeling his hard arms around her like a cage she didn't want to escape from.
Edward pulled away slightly, his hands resting on her shoulder, looking into her gray eyes, "My family, we don't feed off human blood... We survive off animal blood."
Anastasia felt surprised, blinking up at him, "Why...?"
"You can think of it as a try to maintain a part of our humanity," Edward says, a painful edge in his voice.
It took a while for Anastasia to let everything sink in, yet she still had so much to ask.
"How..." She hesitated with this, "How old are you...?"
Anastasia's eyes ran over his perfect features, the impossible smoothness of his skin and the glow to his bloodless face.
"Physically, I'm twenty two" He says cautiously, "But I've been alive for a hundred and two years now..."
Anastasia tried to imagine what that would be like, to stay alive for that long, never changing, never growing older...
Edward looked into her eyes, his gaze enough for her to understand that it is horrible.
"Doesn't it just... lose meaning after so long?" Anastasia muttered, unable to look away from him.
Edward looked at the girl in front of him, mortal and imperfect. The soft sound of her heartbeat was something he once ached for, but right now, he was satisfied just listening to it.
"I don't remember if it was once lost, not right now..." Edward whispered into her ear, brushing her hair aside.
Anastasia closed her eyes and shivered as she felt his lips trail against her cheek, her skin blushing despite the cold. Her eyebrows furrowed, and she turned her head away a bit.
She didn't want this.
She didn't want the warmness she felt near him.
She didn't want to fall for him, to fall in love with life.
Yet she still turned her head so that his lips meet hers, gasping softly at the feeling before Edward closed the distance even more, his large hand trailing down to her waist as she rested her warm ones around his neck.
Edward ran one hand up from her waist until it held her chin, tilting her head up for him to further reach her soft lips, kissing her and for once feeling grateful for not having to breath, for no breath of air could bring him more life than her closeness.
