Only Human Twilight

2

Something...was very wrong.

One moment, I was blowing out my birthday candles. The next, I opened my eyes to a completely different world.

I was on a busy street...somewhere. I couldn't identify the place. But what was even more bizarre were the people. All the women wore long, ankle-length dresses with long sleeves, and the men all wore slacks and button down shirts, some with jackets, some with suspenders...it looked like...like the early 1900s. The buildings, too, looked like relics from the past – brick buildings, none larger than four stories or so. Down the street were Victorian style houses. But this couldn't be the past...could it? Maybe I had just fallen of my chair and was dreaming, it would not be the first time that happend.

I squeezed my arm to see if this was a dream, which it wasn't. Okay great, that would later become a bruise. There had to be some kind of logic here, but I would figure it out later. I first have to figure out where I am and in which year i came to be, the 'how' would come later. 

Looking at the clothing and the buildings I was somewhere in the late 1800s or early 1900s. A terrible thought came to me ,Would I still be in America? If i wasn't i was in trouble. I can't speak any other language than just English, on our honeymoon Edward did the communicating. I approached a woman to ask her something. She immediately walked away when she saw me. I looked around and saw that several people looked at me strangely and walked around with a circle as if I were an illness. All I had to do was look down to see that I was wearing jeans with a bright blouse that did not yet exist in the 19th century and were no usual outfit for women in that time. A group of men walked past me and I could barely make out that they spoke American, but with an accent that does not come from the east.

I looked around and saw that a newspaper vendor was standing a little further down the street, he would maybe have the answers i needed. "Excuse me, miss," a voice said, an achingly familiar voice, but I couldn't place it. I turned to look for the face that accompanied the voice, and stopped in my tracks.

I could barely stifle my gasp. It was Edward, but Edward as I had never seen him before. I looked him over from top to bottom. His hair was the same...his face was not. Flushed from the wind that swept around us, his skin was darker than I'd ever seen it, and his face was rounder, younger looking, soft, and his eyes. They danced in the light, a disconcerting green. Maybe his dazzling had nothing to do with his vampire abilities after all...

And then I understood. This Edward wasn't a vampire. He was human. And this...this was the past. Edward's past. Then i had to... no i could not be in the past. I never heard time traviling was posible and if it was then Carlisle would know about it, wouldn't he?

"Miss? Are you all right?"

His voice snapped me out of my daze. He looked uncomfortable, and I realized I had been staring. I thought quickly. If I had somehow gone back in time, then I would need some help taking care of myself here. I had no place to stay, no clothes, no money, no food – a very precarious situation. And if anyone were to help me, it might as well be Edward – why would I be in this time and place if not to see him, anyway?

"Actually," I said carefully, "I'm a bit lost."

"Where are you going? Perhaps I can help you find your way."

"Um...maybe 'lost' wasn't the right word. I don't have any place to go."

I saw the traces of a smile at the corners of his mouth. "You don't live in Chicago?" So i was in Chicago that's good to know.

"No," I replied, deciding to stay as close to the truth as possible, so I would be less likely to confuse myself. "I'm from Washington."

He frowned in that disapproving way of his. "And you're here unattended? You've no one to take care of you?"