― books  and  papers  in  arms , yui  had  volunteered  to  take  them  to  another  classroom  and  drop  them  off.  there  was  a  mountain  of  them.  just  enough  to  partially  obscure  her  vision.  her  arms  felt  tired  even  from  the  short  distance  and  yet  she  was  determined  to  do  as  she  said  she  would.  at  least , until  her  foot  made  contact  with  an  obstacle , snagged , and  she  stumbled  with  books  and  papers  scattering.  ( haa ... ! really ... ! sleeping  in  this spot ... ?  he  picks  the  strangest places. )  ❝ s-sorry , shu-san  … ! ❞

     there’s a kind of tense silence that has washed over the seattle apartment in the wake of earlier events. bella had been given her brother’s room while rosalie would take the spare room and jasper the couch. sure bella’s father’s house appeared to have its own protections but they still weren’t sure if there were newborn stragglers in the vicinity and this was simply easier tonight. tomorrow, well, that would be another story. 

     “what are you doing jasper?” the question emits when he exits his room, leaving bella to sleep. rosalie had believed they were finally rid of the girl who threatened their entire way of life. all it took was one wrong move and they would have hunters on their trail, or worse. edward had been foolish but jasper? 

     “he’ll kill you, and if he doesn’t, it’s still going to cause--” she pauses there with a sigh, blanket being brought further onto her as she brings her knees up onto the couch. she could see it in the way her brother and bella acted around each other; it hadn’t needed to be voiced. 

     they’d told her that somehow the clumsy annoyance had become a hunter-- that her family had always been hunters even if bella hadn’t known at the time-- and that victoria was causing all of this chaos in seattle. that jasper and bella were working together with her father. that somehow centuries of stories about hunters somehow were defied by the girl and her father. they saw a grey area others didn’t. strategically, having hunters on their side was a benefit, but of all the people... 

NEW ECLIPSE: PREPARING FOR WAR ⤷ roleplay storyline between @skeletcnkey & @legendbcrn

“Wait, that’s it!” Bella exclaimed, dark hues moving from her injured hand to meet her father’s gaze. She had been preparing some of the weapons from the hunter’s chest when one had slipped in her grasp and cut her. 

“Think about it, Dad. If Jasper’s been able to learn control through moderated blood bags, the newborns are the complete reverse. They are frenzied, constantly attacking people. They can’t handle the slightest bit of blood. We know I’m Victoria’s target. So if we spread a little of my blood in the woods, we can lead them exactly where we want them without them coming through Forks.” That was it, that was the key. 

     “it’s weird being back here, in forks.” words emit as she places a box of files and other materials onto a covered piece of furniture and begins to unload blood bags from a cooler into the fridge. they’d sell the house eventually but bella would be lying if she had said she wasn’t glad they could now use it as a makeshift headquarters; she didn’t want to be that close to the cullens when they arrived and knew with jasper’s new choice of feed being around them might be more difficult for him as well. plus, her house was at least in neutral territory. they’d brought everything they had uncovered thus far from police reports her father had gathered on missing people to obviously vampiric murders in and around seattle, an attempt to pinpoint victoria’s own headquarters, but bella supposes with their plan being put into action that wouldn’t matter as much as the end result now. 

    it’s not that bella is usually childish, in fact, she’s usually one of the most MATURE people around, but the book in question had been given to her by her mother and it’s destruction had upset her more than she’d been willing to outright admit. perhaps it was PETTY to take away all of his favorite chocolate– not that she ate it, she’d given it to her father instead– but she’d simply reacted in the moment, stress and a general lack of sleep given recent events also playing a factor in her actions. when it came to her mother, bella let herself be SELFISH, feeling some level of guilt for bringing victoria into her life and in turn for her mother’s murder. she should have spent more time with her. that said….

how CRUEL a universe to pit light in an ever constant WAR with darkness. how cruel a universe to bring the two of them together if their now intermingled fate would lead to this. how cruel a universe that KILLER and RESURRECTOR should be one in the same; not a red-headed vampire– a devil in disguise– or a stranger, but a friend, no, that wasn’t quite the word… how cruel a universe, how so very cruel.

tension hangs within every atom of air like the collective gasp of a crowd watching a tight-rope act. there’s no net, NO SAFETY, only what feels like an infinite wrinkle in a strangely mundane timeline.

bella had been the MUNDANE, living a life where her biggest problem was taking care of her mother. and then she had become the performer: she was the new girl and then the one every girl wanted to be, she had fallen into a kind of first love– the kind of love you thought you’d give up your life for, you’d do anything to protect, the love that made you blind to the rest of the world, but so very happy until it would crash and burn around you– and she and felt pain, she had run with wolves and discovered hidden family secrets, she had lost and lost and been tested and tested with trial after trial until she was deemed ready for the main act. and then john mitchell had found her in that alley, a stake in one hand and a battle with a vampire commencing. one had to wonder how different this outcome may have been if it had been anyone else.

this place had been her greatest fears materialized. that night in the woods had played over and over, the ballet studio too. she had watched everyone she cared about murdered, always too slow to save them. she had watched herself become a MONSTER, her being the one to attack. she had even found herself back in forks, happy with Edward until the narrative had begun to change. no, it wasn’t right, he had never wanted her to become one, that had been her. she had been so YOUNG and NAIVE…and he wasn’t the one who she— it had taken that one to fully awaken her, only to find mitchell still under this maze’s brutal influence. and her present state and a stone room filled with blood and tissue was proof enough how that had turned out. maybe he should have succeeded in his efforts to tear into her body. maybe she should have succeeded in plunging that stake into his chest.. or her own. because he had killed her. he had eviserated everything she once was as his fangs butchered her. yes, this place had been her greatest NIGHTMARE, and now, it had made her such as well.

and yet…

she’d let go of the stake and flown through the air, nearly missing her mark until a hand grips her own and AWAKENS her in a new way. terror courses through her… she feels as if she’s crashing down…. mitchell’s hand holds tight and suddenly she has an almost IRONIC LIFELINE, lips parting as a collective gasp is released from her mind’s imagined crowd.

a single touch, A SHARED SENSATION, and bella is more alive as the undead than she ever had been as a living, breathing teenager. her mind begins to race, scents mingling. some part of her understands they should move on in this god-forsaken maze, that the walls seem to have eyes and if they want out they have to go forward, while another part is suddenly focusing on their joined hands, watching the vein in his wrist and letting her hues move upward, following that blue line. she wants them to leave this place, to SURVIVE this place, but her mind has suddenly become so cluttered, so LOST. this is what it means to be of the darkness, to experience that hunger that drives the undead…

when had she pushed him toward the wall, hands still gripped together? when had her features shifted again, but this time not out of anger or fear?

there is a SINGULAR moment, so brief and yet so all-encompassing, of which the need for words has been SURPASSED and all at once she's HUNG between two fates simultaneously. for elena this moment engulfed an ETERNITY, violet and golden flecks against blue hues and pale lips parting as her fate rested entirely upon what words would escape the captain john mitchell’s lips next. fondness had grown into the beginnings of something more, like spring flowers after the first rain, secreted walks and unneeded escorts the roots of something the golden-haired beauty had yet to fully understand and now DAMNATION was upon her for not for what she was in a world which would rage against her as some vile creature. not for sedition to the crown. but for what this man would see within the depths of her. 

❝ ….. ❞

she had not felt this before, this CHAOS building within her very core as she watched his fellow officer enter upon his scene of discovery. john mitchell knew what he had walked in upon, of this much elena was sure. it had been her, the CULPRIT who warned the traitor to the regular’s cause, who had secreted him out a tunnel, knocking out the first purser with the first item she could find and who had moments before prevented JOHN from his continued pursuit of the escapee– the man long gone into the woods now. very easily could captain mitchell reveal her true cause or else, GRANT her excuse for her presence here. her fate was in his hands for the man upon the ground had not seen her, she did not believe at least. yet john had.