Iridescence | Edward x OC

34

"How are you feeling?" She asked softly.

He let a gust of air exit his chest, running one of his hands through his hair, while the other remained on the steering wheel as he backed out of the parking lot.

"Honestly, I'm not sure." He confessed, his voice full of confusion. "I was expecting something so much... worse. I was expecting that Charlie killed himself afterwards, or Bella had tons of friends who were still mourning, or... I don't know. I was just expecting that I'd find out something that would make me feel even worse about the whole thing. I didn't expect to find out that people had moved on from the incident." He rambled, struggling to form his thoughts into words, but Aris understood everything perfectly that he was trying to say.

"Edward," Aris started quietly after a moment, "seeing how they were all able to move on, don't you think that maybe it's time for you to move on yourself?"

He sighed, saying nothing for a while, until he finally nodded.

"I've been thinking that I should for a while, but I think now I finally can do it, and for good this time. I don't want to continue to wallow in this guilt for the rest of my existence, when there's nothing that I can do to change what's happened."

Aris smiled, placing her hand atop his free one that was resting on the center console between them. No words needed to be shared as they just continued to enjoy this freeing, successful mood in the atmosphere for the rest of the drive. However, Edward quickly started to feel bad, realizing that his problem had been solved, though Aris's still hadn't.

"Do you think that your nightmares will go away now that you don't have to worry about me trying to off myself?" He asked with a chuckle.

Aris sighed, looking out the window.

"I'm not sure. The nightmare of you asking me to kill you seems to be gone, and I don't know if that has to do with me finally feeling confident that you wouldn't do that in real life, or if just randomly disappeared. My other nightmare about the Volturi that I've started having most recently however, doesn't seem like it's going to go away anytime soon, since I can't think of any "closure" that I could get that would help my subconscious to stop fearing them." She explained.

Edward frowned, upset that there didn't seem to be a clear solution to this problem.

"I don't know if it'll do much, or anything at all really, but I know that for a lot of people, keeping a journal where you write down your dreams and nightmares can over time help you start to control them." He suggested. "It's a lucid dreaming tactic, and I feel like if you could learn to control your nightmares, then it might really help. You can also use the journal as a diary of sorts too, where you can keep track of how you feel after each dream or nightmare that you wake up from, or just how you feel in general."

Aris hummed, thinking about this.

"I'll honestly try anything at this point, and a journal doesn't seem like such a bad idea." She shrugged.

Edward nodded, typing in a nearby convenience store into the GPS, and then hitting the gas and heading that way.

They arrived only a few minutes later, heading towards the entrance of the Dollar General. They were met with a gust of warm wind as they stepped into the old looking store, the entire place seeming to be nearly deserted, aside from a lady who looked to be about 85 years old, who was sleeping at the nearest cash register.

It was obvious that the store was on its last legs, looking like it hadn't been refurbished in at least fifty years. The smell of cigarette smoke clouded the air vents and scented the store, along with the lines and lines of dust bunnies up and down each aisle, coating practically every item, and just making the air quality all the more stuffy.

They headed towards the aisle labeled School Supplies, knowing that their best luck with finding a journal would be in there. Not to their surprise, there was a whole section dedicated to college ruled notebooks, sketch books, and journals.

Edward started at one end, while Aris started at the other, skimming through each and every possible option, trying to find one that would be adequate for her, and also reflected who she was as a person.

'Too pink, too plain, too sparkly. Hmm, this one's okay...' Aris held up the basic, blue and green marble covered journal. It was pretty boring, but it seemed to be the best option of all the ones she'd looked at so far.

"Hey, what about this one?" Edward called out from a little ways down the aisle, holding up the deep red one with a humorous smile on his face.

Aris's breath caught in her chest, her heart instantaneously skipping a beat. She was frozen. Too petrified to move a muscle. She felt her face go cold and white as all blood drained from it, her eyes scanning across the book again and again, begging it to disappear, begging it to not be real.

"Aris, what's wrong?" Edward asked worriedly, speeding over to her. "I'm sorry, I thought it was funny." He frowned, holding the book out to her, in small, fine print engraved lettering, the cover read: Vampires Don't Weep.

Aris still said nothing, still unable to move as she processed the book in front of her that Edward was holding.

"Tell me what's going on." His voice was firm, yet desperate.

"Edward..." She met his eyes slowly, terrifyingly. "That's the journal from my nightmare."