𝐅𝐄𝐑𝐀𝐋 𝐂𝐄𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐄, divinity is a wretched fate.
Dreary Forks is a cramped town beneath a near constant overcast sky, enshrouded in evergreen.
Like every small town, Forks is rife with gossip. Most children's grandparents grandparents had b...
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ROSALIE HALE WOULD NEVER FORGIVE HIM, Zachary had decided from the moment he started to conceal his every choice from Alice's abilities. Beneath his ribs is a pebble of guilt, growing heavier as Zachary's stiff fingertips drum against a linoleum wrapped countertop of a help desk. He's still in their view, but Bella is chattering purposely with Alice and Jasper in an antsy manner to force their focus from the reality that Zachary isn't enquiring about the arrival time of Rosalie's flight but rather a rental car. It's operated from their desk, and once he pays with a card that's his mother's and scribbles an unintelligible signature that hardly has his attention, thankful that the young attendant seems so painfully bored that she doesn't request his ID and Zachary feels the weight of a key fob press into his palm, pocketing it quickly before long strides return him to them.
There's a tight lipped smile on his mouth as Zachary lifts his tense shoulder limply, mumbling that their flight is a handful of moments delayed as if Alice hadn't already foretold it. He and his cousin share a tight glance, before Zachary sniffs as Bella confesses her hunger, shifting her weight between her feet in a guilty manner that is fortunately suffocated away from Jasper's gifts by the way that she's afraid. Fear is expected, so the male Hale doesn't bat an eyelid at the human's anxiety. In an instant, Alice is kindly offering to accompany her before Bella's clumsy hand is requesting Jasper's company and Zachary tries not to choke on his guilt, with their underhanded choice to decide that he be their chauffeur given his arms length nature—Zachary's chest grows taut that they take advantage of his desire to protect them from even himself.
"I'll stay with Alice," Zachary claims because he and Bella didn't need to scheme to understand their plan. Once, years ago, but carved into the memory of Zachary's mind (where the past is lodged in his brain stem, as if hardwired to remember), he'd joined his mother in stiffly meeting Renee at this very airport, to accompany an prepubescent Bella Swan on her flight to Forks whenever the mother had insisted the wound had been too fresh for her to venture there herself, even to deliver the girl to her father. Because of it, the pair knew exactly where they'd cross their paths to sign Death's final contract. Zachary wonders if Bella thinks that they'll survive this, or if she's too determined on saving her mother's life that it hasn't truly occurred to her as it has him. "I'm not hungry."
The sympathetic touch that Alice delivers to Zachary's forearm strains his heart, as her dainty fingers latch around his wrist with a soft squeeze and a pursed lipped smile. Zachary would die, he finds, with the regret for betraying her trust, and a regret that he wouldn't get the chance to water and nurture a blooming friendship with Alice Cullen. He offers her a smile that must seem like more of a grimace, and Bella and Jasper begin to weave through the throngs of people that usher for their terminals with the announcement of their final moments on populated runways. Zachary stares until Bella's bobbing head disappears in the crowd, before he peers at Alice with hands tucked deep in the confines of his pockets and she's staring intently at the side of his face whenever he catches her burnt honey gaze.
