The sun beat down on the open square, and the images ahead of me waved back and forth unsteadily through the humid air. I could see bits of water flying upward from the fountain before me, disappearing into the air as they evaporated into a thick steam that permeated the whole scene. Bodies were thick around me, the red cloaks stroking my own skin as I ran.
Overhead, the clock was already tolling as I pushed myself through the crowd. Each bell seemed to ring its way into my very core as my lungs burned. The piazza seemed to slant uphill toward the castle and toward the alleyway where I could already see him standing. A young girl had turned toward him, but it was only she and I who seemed to see.
I screamed his name. He didn’t divert from his path.
“Edward!”
His eyes were closed, and even though I was racing toward him to save his life, I cursed him under my breath. Infernally cocksure, absolute in his belief that the world was the way he saw it. He wouldn’t even open his eyes, couldn’t search me out in the crowd, see me barreling toward him at my top speed, which to him must look as though I were wading through molasses.
“Edward! Look at me!”
The shirt began to slide from his shoulders, and a tiny rainbow skittered across the stones from the single band of light that graced his skin.
Around me I caught the reek of sweat, of stale water blowing into the air from the fountain. The water would mask my scent. Undesirable, but the fountain was the fastest way to him. I stepped into the cool water and began to dash through it, the fluid slowing my movement little by little.
He stepped forward.
The little girl pointed.
The sunlight hit his chest, his face, his shoulders, and for a split-second, he glowed before me. He was exquisite, every plane of his body. I had once run my fingers over that chest, admiring it, loving the way it felt against my cheek on a cool spring evening. “You’re beautiful,” I had always told him. He still was, standing there, silent, shimmering in the noon.
But he had never given up seeing himself as the hideous monster he believed himself to be, and nothing I’d ever been able to do could convince him otherwise.
And as my knee lifted to press me further through the water, firm hands in what appeared to be elbow-length gloves appeared from the darkness behind him, clapping themselves on his shoulder and dragging him backward, away from me, into the darkness.
Seeing this scene through your eyes somehow seems more vivid than the scene as written in the book, and as portrayed on film. Reading has always been my preferred medium and when writers paint a picture with imagery, my favorite vehicle is always my imagination.
I think I’m going to love this.
B.
Yay! I’m glad you enjoy even this little glimpse. I had fun rewriting this scene, even though I’ve done it twice before.
It all goes AU from here, baby…
You’re a huge tease.
malevolent laughter.
Is it okay if I borrow the movie image of Edward shucking his shirt? *wink* Favorite line: “Infernally cocksure, absolute in his belief that the world was the way he saw it.” Brava!
Borrow away! It’s funny…this is the first time I’m envisioned this scene since the movie came out. Both times I wrote it in IiG were before the movie came out.
I hadn’t commented on this yet. I was holding my breath the entire time, waiting to see where you are going with this. Beautifully done.
Heee. This is going to be so much fun…
Great Prologue! I can’t wait to read this story!
Thanks! I’m excited to get this one going.
So excited to see where this story is going… As ever your grasp of the characterization is dead on.
Thanks! I’m so looking forward to where this is going, too. :devilish laughter:
*Growling menacingly* Giselle! This is pure torture, as you very well know! I would happily rip you to pieces and burn the remnants if that wouldn’t deprive me of the possibility to learn what you have in mind… 😉
Ok, my emotional outburst aside, I’m looking forward to see if my assumption as to who needs and gets an “opportunity to truly heal” is right.
Ashling.
Ha ha I know. I’m terrible. That’s why this story is up only on my website. There’s actually over 6K written, but it’s in little pieces–chapters WAY down the line have scenes, and Chapter 1 is still fighting to come to light. I’ll get there.
I’m curious to know if your assumption is right or not, too. 🙂 But the person appears in Chapter 1, so it won’t be too difficult to double-check.
He, he! So let’s be curious together and I will tell you my assumption when you have brought down the unruly chapter 1. Deal?
Absolutely.
oh no! egbert has made a fatal error.
I found it interesting that Bella isn’t as devoted to Edward as she seems to be in canon. Her disgust with his close-minded conceit is palpable even as she rushes to get to him – and she fails to get to him in time. A good twist.
Wow, I just got an update about this on Friday and you’re already on Chapter 5! Yay for me for being able to read 5 chapters at once!