Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

11 - ꜱᴜɴꜱᴇᴛ

THE SEARCH for Vampires came back without the slightest result, other than a vague scent that lingered around the boating area. Athena returned home in the very early hours of the morning, after checking Billy and Jake were both okay. She walked up the stairs, wishing that she had the ability to sleep for the first time since moving back to Forks. Her entire self hung heavy and it seemed to take extreme amounts of effort for her to move in any sort of way. But she could not sleep, in the traditional sense of the way. Athena drew herself a bath and as she sunk into the water, entered a state of meditation that she called fake sleeping. She just let her mind be still, blocking out all sounds from the outside world that pierced through her skull.

Once she finally rose from her bath, the rarity of sunlight shone through her bathroom window - igniting her skin with the glitters that she had not seen in a while. Athena smiled softly as she twirled her hand in the light beams, watching the shimmer dance across her palm. As she couldn't go to school, Athena planned an entire day in front of the television with her books. The perfect reset button.

Athena was halfway through her second movie of the day when a frantic knocking came at her door. She hadn't heard the person approach and assumed they were a vampire, wanting to get out of the sun as soon as possible. She leapt up from the sofa and ran to the door, swinging it open to let whoever it was inside without thinking twice about it Jasper, who had been half hiding his face with his jacket sleeve, strolled into her house and she soon shut the door - not wanting the people who strolled outside to see the two of them.

"Morning," she smiled softly, walking back over to the sofa to pause the movie that she had been focused on for the past forty minutes.

"I have something to show you," Jasper responded after trying to decipher the mix of emotions that swallowed him whole as he walked through the door. There were so many that even he could not figure out what on earth was going through her head.

"Straight to the point, love it," she laughed and pulled her boots onto her feet, slowly so her socks did not bunch at the bottom of them. Jasper only chuckled, his mind elsewhere as she turned off the lamp that had resided at her head - making it easier to see the faded words on the aged paper of one of her favourite novels. Jasper walked to the back door of her house and opened it, gesturing for her to leave first. "Hale if your about to murder me I will not go down easy," she spoke seriously, slightly worried by the seriousness in his eyes. That hidden seriousness shattered as he smirked, struggling not to say a word as she walked out of the house - sunlight beginning to flash over her cheek.

Luckily, the door backed onto the forest so they could speed off without risking anyone seeing. Athena followed Jasper through the forest, smiling the entire way. The sun just emphasized the magic of the trees and all the flowers that littered the forest ground. It seemed happier in the sunlight. She followed him for miles, chatting to him the entire time until silence fell upon them at the very top of a rocky hill. She thought the stone would have caused the area to be inhabitable but that apparently wasn't the case. A slow stream cut the grassy area in two, splitting a side full of flowers and buzzing bees. The other side had densely compacted bushes spreading across most of the ground, two trees stood on that side - one had a rope swing attached to it and the other loomed over most of the wildlife, creating a shadow that hid them from the sun. Athena involuntarily gasped under her breath as she gazed at her surroundings, not believing that something so utterly beautiful could have been left off her radar for this long.

"How did you find this?" she asked quietly as she walked through the vegetation, admiring the various flowers that populated the surroundings.

"On a walk," he replied with a light chuckle, referring to one of their first conversations alone. He smiled as her happiness reached a level that he had not sensed before. A butterfly landed on her shoulder and began to plod down her arm, she watched it travel the entire way down to her hand and smiled as it crawled around the cold surface of her ring finger. Athena sighed softly as the butterfly flew off, settling somewhere within the trees. She moved to the tire swing, slipping into it with ease. She swung back and forth, enjoying how it went just over the edge of the cliff which gave the most perfect view of the entire forest beneath her feet. Jasper sat on one of the smooth rocks near the edge of the tire swing and just listened to her laugh, feeling the complete happiness that radiated off her without needing to use his gift.