willow » twilight

48

A hidden cavern, on top of the mountainside, that's what the Cullen family had chosen as their hideaway. Jasper keeps watching into the gloomy clouds of the forests. They were far from civilization.

Willow had already endured a lot of torture, at the hand of Edward Cullen. He left her body weak and she wasn't sure if the wet drips she feels on the back of her neck were blood or moisture from the cave.

In the current moment, Edward and various members of his family were currently hunting for prey to keep themselves fed. They had left Willow behind like a ragdoll, discarded like trash.

The only thing keeping her distracted was her thoughts, when she endured the torture she thought other pleasant thoughts. Anything to escape her reality. She knew her mother would be pleased in her grave that she was stuck in this situation. 

"Kid you have to get up." A weak male voice whispers into the darkness around her. Willow barely opens her eyes to wider why there was a kind voice in the mix of the evil she had encountered.

With little strength, Willow can reach upon a rock below her and squeeze tight. "You're strong." The whisper is captured in the wind once more.

Her eyes open, more alert into the darkness, with dim light appearing from around the corner of the entrance of the cavern. She can make out a figure, transparent in form as he steps closer to her fragile body.

The transparent soul stops in front of the girl, bending to her eye level. Willow looks into a pair of kind hazel eyes, not the menacing red eyes she had seen in the last memories her sister had shown her of the past. This was the former human form of her father Riley.

The edges of her lips conjure a small smile, as Riley reaches out his transparent arm to fall through her shoulder, but gesturing as a sign of comfort. "Always remember you are strong and capable of anything you put your mind to daughter." He whispers carefully. "I have missed watching you grow."

There is a hint of sadness in the young face of Riley. "Dad," Willow whispers, making Riley connect her eyes with her chocolate brown eyes.

"You need to be strong and get out of here Willow, I was killed on these mountains years before and I don't want the same fate for my daughter." He mentions, sadness lingering in his words. 

Before Willow was able to manage to speak a sentence, the figure of her father disappears and is replaced with the pale face of Edward Cullen. "You're looking rather well today." He comments, before gripping the arm of Willow, a knife in the other. "I have been doing research and I may have found a cure for that supernatural blood pulsing through your veins."

Willow's eyes widen in horror as Edward connects the blade with her left wrist, the blood gushing out as he had hit the main artery. The smell of blood invites both Alice and Jasper deeper into the cave. Edward repeats the process with the other wrist before he pushes Willow back down to the cave floor.

Her blood mixes with the dirt below her body as her vision begins to blur at the figures around her. All she can hear is the laugh of Edward Cullen echoing into the background as the blurry sight begins to darken into blackness.

Willow can feel the life draining from her body, all through the pain she had experienced in the past 72 hours are met with peace at this moment. She accepts her fate as she slips further towards death.

Waking suddenly, Willow is shocked to see herself on the forest floor, a twilight haze covered the light around her. She looks down at her body to see herself dressed in a long white dress but there was no sign of blood or dirt covering her limbs.

She is confused as she gains the strength to get to her feet, which contained no shoes. 

There was the bright light of the moon streaming through the trees, she follows the source of light to see herself at the edge of a lake. The reflection of the moon was present in the cool water that hit her toes. "Willow!" The scared voice belonging to her father calls from mere meters away from her.

In their present forms, they were approximately the same age and appeared more as siblings rather than father and daughter. He wraps his arms around the shorter girl, she noticed that he too wore white clothing.

She holds the man back, almost shocked she is able to touch him back. This was a moment she thought she wasn't able to experience in all her life. Riley pulls back, worry washing over his face. "What are you doing here?" He asks, he had just wanted his daughter to be strong and survive the ordeal with the Cullen's, she was stronger than he had been in his lifetime.

Willow connected the dots, she had died. This was the beginning of the afterlife.

"I don't think I was strong enough, I'm sorry." Willow apologizes to her father.

Wanting to distract his daughter from her sadness, Riley ushers the girl to follow him to a campfire within the depths of the trees. There were various faces she recognizes from the past as each wore white clothing but they were happy. Happy that they were able to see each other again.

Holding his daughter's hand, he led her closer to the group. An older man that looked a lot like her father approaches her with a smile. This was her other grandfather that had passed. "I'm so glad to see you again." He says, embracing the young girl.

Pulling back from the hug, Willow's eyes connect with Paul. He sat there a small smile on his face at the young girl, although she can see the sadness in his eyes.

After short introductions with the group, Riley walks back towards the lake with his daughter. "As much as I'm glad we were able to reconnect, it's not your time to be here." He casually mentions.

"I've never belonged on Earth in the first place, I wasn't meant to exist at all." Willow pleads with the man.

He looks saddened. "You were never a mistake Willow, I wish I was able to fight for you more when I was alive. Then your mother could have made you feel that way." 

"Now I can be here in peace with you." She says.

"No," Riley says plainly. "I want you to experience long life and return when it is the right time for you to return. I want you to explore the world, experience its wonders and its heartaches." He explains watching the tears fall down her face, he brushes the tears away. "I'll always love you my daughter and I'll always be watching over you."

"But I'm dead." Willow reminds her father, who just smiles in return.

"Under some circumstances were able to return to Earth." He explains before he bids his daughter farewell. "We will see each other again and I hope you have some wicked memories to tell me."

"I promise I will try." His daughter mentions before she feels she has pulled away from the peaceful land.