Writer in the Dark - J. HALE

72 - ɢᴏɴᴇ... ᴀɢᴀɪɴ

ATHENA HAD a much needed moment away from the Cullen house. With the growing number of vampires and the rising tension levels, the place had become somewhere that she wanted to escape from after a long day. So, after checking in with Billy, she headed straight home and straight to bed with a book in hand. It was good timing too, given that rain had just begun to pour from the dulling sky. She loved the sound of the rain, the soft patters against the glass or the way the droplets shook from their collective piles on leaves when the wind blew. It made an awfully relaxing environment for her to read in, lit by the dulling day and a lamp on her nightstand- not that she really needed it, it just added to the cosiness like the blanket she lay underneath.

She turned her phone off, not wanting distractions in her mind for at least an hour of the day and just sat in peace as she read and annotated the book that had been freshly bought and living on her nightstand for a few days. She, freshly underneath the grip of a new storyline and the delightful smell of a new book, found herself -for once- not feeling the drift of time as it ticked on. She heard no sounds apart from the voices of the characters in her head as they talked, laughing like nothing was wrong in the fictional world that they lived in. She always loved the ignorance of the first few chapters of any book, finding it refreshing and ever so familiar. There weren't many things that books had in common with each other but she found that almost always, those first chapters of bliss occurred.

She heard her front door click open and shut but knew, since the key had been used, that it was only Jasper. So she was not shocked when her bedroom door gently opened after he had knocked, letting in a fresh stream of rain scented air that must have flown in through the open bathroom window. However, she was shocked when he, without saying a single word, slowly moved underneath the covers of her bed and nestled his head in her lap over the quilt - not even looking in her confused direction once. She raised a brow as he inhaled deeply, letting it out in a sigh that he had tempted to hide. "Love?" she whispered, letting the book lull to her side as she ran her fingers through his hair. "Jasper?" she repeated, having not gotten a single response out of him.

"Just-" he trailed off, moving a little closer to her body - which seemed impossible but he managed it. "Give me a second."

"Okay..." she trailed off, pulling her book back up to where it had been before. She read silently, gaze ever so often flicking to him as she turned a page or found her concentration drifting. She continued to run her fingers through his hair, knowing that was probably why he had crawled into her lap to begin with, knowing that it would bring him some sense of calm. She could feel the tension in him radiating off his muscles, showing in small frown lines on his face that soon found their way to hers.

Ten minutes passed and Athena had gotten through three short chapters before he sighed again. "Alice, Luna and I have to go," he muttered and she shut the book, putting it back on her nightstand without as much as marking the page she was on.

"Go?" she echoed as her mind processed the information. "Out of Forks?"

He sat up, nodding twice as he watched the saddened emotions in her eyes build up behind the concerned ones. Emotions that threatened to make it past her concerned wall, showing themselves in venom-filled wateriness. "Alice had a vision so we have to go and act on it," he explained softly, giving as much information as Alice had given him when he told her the news.

She raised a brow, trying not to show her entire body tense as she exhaled, "She didn't tell you what it was about?"

"No, not until we're on the plane," he responded, their hands intertwining under the blanket. Neither of them even acknowledged it.

"Plane?" she blurted, once again saying what was on her mind without even thinking about it beforehand. She took a steadying breath, letting her mind catch up before she cleared her throat. "Am I allowed to go?" she asked hopefully, even though she knew that the answer was no. He wouldn't have looked so sad if she could.