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CHAPTER THREE ᴇᴠᴇʀʏᴛʜɪɴɢ ɪs ᴅɪғғᴇʀᴇɴᴛ ɴᴏᴡ
The sun was different, the morning after. It was still dim enough to allow the Cullens to walk freely, but it burned abnormally as if the tips of its flames were coated with frost, giving a blue-tinted light to the trees and winding roads of Forks. But perhaps it was me that was different. Everything felt wrong in some way or another after I'd stepped out that morning, still shaking myself off from both the events of the previous night and the contents of the memories that had chosen to wash over me early in the morning.
I'd taken to calling it a daymare- the thoughts that clung to the back of my mind, clouding my vision and plaguing me without the need of sleep. It was a meagre name for a dull thing. Though that night, it wasn't the moon or the shivering touch of beautiful hands, or my place in the woods that took up my dream-like state.
Instead, it was William: the mere glance of his blood-red eyes and snapping teeth made me shake with fear. In my daymare, he sought me out from among the autumn trees, slipping his gaze toward the shrubs in front of me. In the next moment, I could hear his laugh, his hands trailing over me, nails scratching the surface of my skin as if it were glass. The last thing I saw, before I came back to reality, was his face, cruel and frightening by the sheer twist of his nose and lips and the glare on his eyes.
Though I'd managed to slip away from the memory of whatever it was that I'd seen, William followed me still- I couldn't shake him from my thoughts, no matter how much I yearned to. When I pulled up to school, he was there on the school steps, gazing around him hungrily like a fox in a chicken coop. In lessons, he appeared by windows, peaking through, finger tapping rhythmically. I almost expected it to break. Then lastly, in the cafeteria, he stood by our table, eyes finally leaving me to roam over the faces of my friends- Jess, Mike... Bella. He always stayed with Bella.
I'd been so preoccupied that I'd almost forgot about the previous evening entirely. Bella looked as if she hadn't had a moment of sleep over the night: her eyes were dark, chin slumped against her knuckles and arm held lazily toward her chest. Edward appeared to give her no solace. There was something off within his expression. His eyebrows were drawn together, hovering darkly over his inky eyes, like storm clouds over a thrashing, shaded ocean. He didn't sit right against her either, instead, he kept his distance, gaze downcast toward the table or to the fog that drifted toward the windows.
"You alright?" Bella asked as I sat down beside them. There were a few greetings from Jessica and the rest at the other end of the table, but the line between us remained as it always had.
I felt guilty about Bella's question. I was not the one who had shed blood the previous night, almost being pounced upon by a starved vampire. It should have been me who was asking the question.
