Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

64 - ᴍᴏᴠɪᴇ

THEY ALL listened intently, keeping Bella's weak heartbeat in the corner of their minds at all times. It had been the first thing Athena attempted to find when she 'woke up'. But then, a few days after she had given birth, Bella's heartbeat started to deplete then it stilled completely. Everyone looked in the direction of the room, tuning out Renesmee's coos as they waited. Once her eyes opened, rather forcefully, the vampires smiled and watched as Edward ran off to be with his wife.

Athena tried to tune out their conversation but before she could she heard the beginnings of a conversation that had her smiling. They seemed to be so happy together, actual soulmates and that happiness was well deserved after all the drama they had been through. It couldn't have been easy.

After the called truce with the wolves, it was now safe for her to go home. Billy's house was still a little iffy so she hadn't travelled there quite yet, choosing instead to talk to him on the phone. She wanted to return home desperately, wanting to be near her safe and comforting space and all of her books. She loved being at the Cullen's and with Jasper all the time of course but she had just been so used to being alone for so long that she needed the silence sometimes. A silence that she could not get in that house with so many people inside it. So she packed her bags back up and walked back to her house with Jasper holding the box with Benji inside.

They arrived at her house and she smiled softly, already feeling comforted just by the single look into her living room. She dumped her bags by the door and went into the kitchen to open the back door for fresh airflow. Then she walked back into the living room as Jasper took Benji out from the box, letting the tortoise go wherever he wanted on the floor while Jasper started to reput the enclosure together for her. So she, after kissing him briefly, climbed the stairs with her bag of clothes and other things she had bought.

She went into the book room first, opening that window and the curtains before heading into her bedroom where she did the same. Luckily, the watering system she had installed for all her plants when she came into the house with Seth, hadn't failed to keep her plants watered over the weeks. She unpacked quickly, pausing when she pulled out the book that she had wrapped in a t-shirt so Jasper didn't find it. She unwound the fabric then ran her fingertips across the gold lettering of the title and her name at the bottom. She set it down on the bed gently then continued to unpack, finishing with lightning speed. With a slight deliberation, she decided to just risk it. She picked up one of the many pens that were dotted around the room and wrote a note on the dedication page of the book.

Athena took the steps relatively quickly for once. She would usually go slower, probably too focused on the book in her hand or whatever she was doing at the time but she had a little of a bound in her comfy sock covered feet. She flipped the book to hide it behind her back as she walked into the living room, smiling at the sight of Jasper feeding Benji half a cut-up strawberry. "Guess what?" she grinned, putting a block up to hide her nervousness away.

He looked up after a seconds pause, fixing the heat lamp in the enclosure as he replied, "Hm?"

"The book that I wrote is being sold in bookstores as we speak," she smiled, moving further into the room as she replied. He could feel the prideful shift within her and started to feel it too. Her smile soon found itself matched on him.

He raised a brow and asked, "It's published?" She nodded in reply and pulled the book out from behind her.

"I got sent a few copies a few weeks ago," she smiled, looking down at the cover once again. She would never get over the feeling of seeing her work physically published. There was nothing better than reading all their reviews online, seeing people's pictures with the books and getting to see the books in the bookstore.

"Am I allowed to read it now?" he chuckled softly as she handed him the novel.

"Of course," she laughed, sitting down next to him on the floor. He wrapped one arm around her body and held the book in the other, looking over the intricate detailing on the cover that was mirrored on the back. "It's about these two young adults, ones called Nova and she can change the moon and take power from it for these spells that better the earth. And the other is called Sunny and they do the exact same thing but with the sunlight," she explained pridefully.

"Romantic?" he asked softly, already expecting it to be due to the blurb on the back.

She nodded. "It ends up being nearer to the end, friends to lovers," she paused as he smiled at her. "They bond over their powers and realise that they could better the earth if they acted together. It's set in the very beginning of time, so they figure out the whole rising of the sun and falling of the moon at the same time together. The endings quite sad, it seems to upset a few people," she continued, trying not to spoil too much of the book. She had seen at least fifteen different mortals online crying over the ending and honestly, it made her happy that her words had that effect on people. It was weirdly adrenaline fueling.

"That sounds incredible," Jasper replied with a smile before kissing her on the cheek as she sunk into his arms a little more.

"A lot of people seem to think so," she laughed, briefly listening to the birds flying to the now empty feeder outside her living room window. Refilling that made the top of her list of things she needed to do after sorting out all her plants. "And this copy is for you."

"Loving the moon, nice title," he complimented with a smile and opened up the first few pages. He balanced the book on his knee and flipped through it with one hand, the other playing with her hand as he read the dedication.

'To my own version of sunlight.'

He looked at her briefly with a raised brow then returned back to the book, looking down to the very bottom of the page where she had written a note in her imperfect yet perfect half calligraphy.

'With you, I know that I've found a place for my heart where it will never be broken.'

He read it twice, just attempting to bite back the grin that appeared on his face. "Is that a poetic feelings confession?" he smirked, looking to her as he sensed a shift to nervousness in her emotions. She chuckled and rolled her eyes, fakely shuffling away from him. Ever so slightly he tilted her chin and closed the gap between their lips once again. Athena's hand seemed to have a mind of its own as it made its way to rest at the nape of his neck, twirling the hair there like she knew that he liked. A loving type of adrenaline flooded through her veins, thudding against all the dead organs that felt ever so alive as the heat between them turned up to a certain degree. This wasn't their first kiss, far from it actually, but it felt different from all the others. Like they had both finally let out something they had been thinking about for the past tense weeks. They parted briefly and as her eyes fluttered open she found him already looking into them. He cupped her cheek gently as he almost muttered, "I love you, Miss Bell."

She grinned widely and he felt some sort of block she had up against him feeling her emotions fall instantaneously. "Love you too, Mr Whitlock."