Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

59 - ᴀ ᴘʜᴏɴᴇ ᴄᴀʟʟ

WEEKS PASSED and every single day had contained something fun. Whether it was with Billy, Embry, Jasper, Luna, Emmett, Rosalie or Alice. There was never a dull day and she loved the flow of it. It was the type of fun activity that couldn't get too overwhelming to the point where she would need a break. But her favourite part, coming closely second to when she and Emmett went bowling in the middle of the night, was the trip to the Zoo with Luna, Alice and Jasper. Alice had been the one to suggest the trip, probably seeing it in a vision previously and they just spontaneously decided to go. And honestly, Athena loved every signal second - baring the whole animals in captivity aspect which did anger her greatly. Mostly she loved the penguins. She spent a solid twenty minutes just watching the penguin's every move in their huge enclosure. She only broke her focus when Jasper bought her some food for one of them. She laughed and immediately ran to the nearest penguin, smiling so brightly as she fed the bird. The look on her face was one of the most adorable things he had ever seen.

But now, Athena sat on her sofa, head below the lamp that helped her to see the faded words on the extremely old and delicate book that she had chosen to read. It was the first edition of a book from prior to Shakespearean times, something which she definitely hadn't stolen from a certain male vampire that became barbequed at her own hand. The pages were so delicate that she had to be extremely careful not to tare one. It was in desperate need of fixing, the glue had practically melted at the spine but she just couldn't trust someone to fix it. Who knows, some psychotic mortal could be chosen to fix the book and ruin it.

Then her phone began to buzz and of course, it lay on the kitchen side instead of in her pocket. So she gently set the book down, being careful not to knock it as she stood then sped to the kitchen- not even looking at the caller ID before she answered the phone. "Athena?"

She raised a brow, instantly recognising the voice but growing ever so confused as to why she would call her - especially considering where she was right now. "Bella?"

She sighed in relief as if calling her had been a hard decision to make. Something which only grew the concern Athena felt as she waited for her to start talking again. She then started to ramble, "I wasn't sure who to call. I circled around you or Rosalie for this entire car journey and decided on you because I thought you might know more about this thing. Though Rosalie would believe the same things that I would-"

"Bella. Breathe, deep breaths," Athena interrupted once she heard her breaths getting a little shallower and even more panicked as she went on. She listened intently and waited for the quickened breaths to slow to a usual pace then continued, "Okay, what's going on?"

"I'm pregnant." The news hit her like a stick hits a drum kit. Fast, insanely hard and chipping away at the side of her grip on possibly.

She blurted, "Holy-"

"Yeah, my reaction exactly," Bella sighed absentmindedly, busy somewhere else. Athena guessed she was probably looking for Edward, given the hushed tone of her voice.

"This is-" she paused, trying to get her thoughts relatively straight. "I didn't think this could happen."

"So you don't know anything about it?" Bella asked and Athena could tell that all her hope for answers to the questions she had fell as the tone of her voice did.

She thought about it for a moment, beginning to pace the length of her living room - being careful to avoid where Benji was. "I've heard the odd legend before, through people, but no not in great detail. As I said, I didn't fully believe the legends until now."

"Legends?"

She nodded absentmindedly as she ran up the sitars, heading to the spare bedroom where the rest of her books were kept. She found one of the leather-bound books from hundreds of years ago and pulled it from the shelf, flicking to the page that documented the legend. It wasn't as detailed as she thought it would be, clearly word of mouth got it around quicker. Which meant it could have also been warped by the many mortals. "Yeah, a few of them circled around the tribes a good hundred and fifty years ago now. Said there was a youngin born by a mortal but the dad was a vampire," she replied, sinking into the comfy chair in the room with the open page balanced on her knee as she re-read it for other details.

"Did she survive the birth?" she asked quietly so Athena didn't really know whether she wanted the answer or not.

She contemplated her answer thoroughly, taking mere seconds of mortal time but minutes of slowed vampire time. Was it better to withhold the truth in these situations? To make Bella less worried? "I don't think I ever found out," she replied softly, hating the lies that she had decided to go with. At least it wasn't fully a yes or no answer. Even though she knew that the woman didn't, in fact that had been the sole selling point of the legend as it was spread through the society that were aware of vampires. Back then it was a lot more people than the Volturi who stepped in.

"I want to keep them. Will you help me protect them?"

"Of course Bella. And I can talk to Rose too, if you wish, get her on the same page before your plane even takes off," she offered, overwhelmed by the fact that the mortal would trust her with this information and the protection of her child. She didn't even think they were that close.

"That sounds good," Bella sighed again, probably watching Edward.

"I'll be waiting at the house for when you get back. Don't worry, no one will touch you if they want to harm your baby. If I have anything to do with it."

"Thank you," she replied, relief backing her words. "I got to go, Edward's coming back."

"Don't stress okay?" she responded, trying to sound as reassuring as possible before Bella hung up the phone. Athena listen to the droning tone for a second then snapped out of it, placing the book back on the shelf and running downstairs as she pulled a jumper over her head. She grabbed her keys, made sure the doors were all locked then ran to the Cullen house. When she found Rose, she took her into the woods so they could talk privately. The two became a force to be reckoned with from then on, a force against anyone who would want to harm the baby.