Friend Of The Dead

An Exquisite Torture

Sophie opened her eyes, strenuously breathing in; it felt as though her lungs were empty of any air. She closed her eyes again and breathed in and out, feeling as though she just broke the surface of water and was breathing for the first time in a long time.

She exhaled, feeling the ground underneath her with her hands, curling and digging her fingers into the ground. She blinked her eyes open and frowned in concentration, her chest sagging, turning her head to the side so that her cheek pressed softly against the damp ground, and she started inspecting the strange substance her fingers were feeling. She stared into the side, her eyes unfocused, glazed, blurred with images she couldn't dissect, colors and shapes of brown and green that mashed up together to create the scene that was before her.

Odd, she thought.

She dug her fingers in the strange substance on the floor, grabbed fistfuls of it, and managed to dig her hands deep enough into the ground for her to push herself up, first onto her elbows, then on her butt---her spine cracking like an old-staircase---needing some time to adjust to the sitting position before she started to observe the scenery around her. It took some time for her eyes to start focusing, the pale blue color slowly coming into steadiness, and with a few blinks, she could see clearly around her. She was supposedly in some kind of forest, the trees were wide and high and covered in moss, they were enclosed around the area she was sitting at, and when she looked up, only stray patches of grey could be seen between the thickets of the trees. The ground underneath her was wet and damp, and sticks and leaves covered it.

She recognized it without a second blink; she was in the Forks' Woods.

She bent her fingers towards her legs, and with surprise, realized she was still wearing the same clothes as before. Except as strange as it was, she didn't know how these clothes were titled as the same ones as before---for she had no idea what she had been doing before, or what had happened then. Her legs were stiff and numb, and when she pulled them up to her chest she was under the mercy of pins and needles.

She stood up with the help of her hands, and once she was successfully balanced, she put one foot after the other, and started to walk. The forest was dark and green, moss-draped, shadow-drenched. Tortured tree trunks twist upward, reaching for rare sunlight. And if you listened with a keen ear, you could hear the chirping of the birds, the rusting of the trees, the soft pitter-patter of the rain and the quick hooves of the Deer's as they loitered around in the forest.

She didn't know where she was going, but the quiet and peace she felt were so satisfying that she didn't care where the unseen path was taking her, as long as the journey was calm. She continued her walk, at last seeing herself at the edge of the forest.

Suddenly she stops, as she sees something she can recognize.

It was Bella.

She was pale, and wet, and she wasn't alone. Alongside her was Edward Cullen, whom Sophie had mixed feelings for. She didn't know if she should be intrigued by him or terrified. That unresolved feeling deep in her gut that wanted her to appreciate his beauty, to take notes of his angelic features and dangerous nature, to ask questions no human's ever dared to ask. She wanted to sit down and paint him onto a canvas, to store him in safe place so that one day, in the future, men would find it and would have solid proof that someone as beautiful as Edward Cullen had existed, and he had a coven of people who were like him. She wanted to sculpture him so that the world would know such people exist, and would continue to do so until mankind was reduced to nothing but ashes and dust.

And yet, on another matter, his kind could be the hunter that would be the cause of that ruination. A beautiful predator, with the powers to both lure and kill. Yes, she most certainly had mixed feelings about the creature dating her older sister, her incredibly human and fragile and breakable sister.