Forget Me Not | ✓

39 | The Ailing Storm

         
39
Breaking Dawn   [Pt.1]
T h e   S t o r m
   
     
 

 

17 MAY 1898
 

 
    
THE ROOFTOP OF the manor was slick with rain and lightning crackled overhead amid the raging storm. Carlisle and Adele thought the windows would shattered with the force of the beating rain as they sat in the solitude of the study, which was accented with mahogany everything. Carlisle was seated in a comfortable armchair in the back of the room, studying new medical research while Adele was settled in a chair next to one of the tall windows, reading a Shakespearean novel.

When she was an innocent hild, she vividly remembered how she used to watch the raindrops race to the bottom of the window for entertainment when she was still unable to read. The thought brought a bittersweet smile to her face.

The violent storm raged on upon the small suburb, as if expressing a feeling of rage – rage for the terrible fate of Adele Cullen to occur in mere moments from then. Carlisle was the first tone notice, with his exceptional hearing, the unusually fast pace at which her heart was beating.

"Adelina? Are you alright?" He looked up from his papers. She peered over her book and he recognized the childish apprehension in her big, blue eyes as thunder crashed all around them. An amused smile graced his charming face. "Centuries have passed and still you fear thunder?"

"I do not fear thunder."

"Your racing heart says otherwise."

She returned to her book, muttering, "I just do not like it, is all."

But in the deepest recess of her mind, as her eyes swept over the pages, she couldn't understand the real reason why she felt so anxious.
    
Carlisle dismissed her racing pulse as caused by her irrational fear, anxiety,  until her heart began to beat faster. He glanced up at her, but she appeared to be fine, and it was only when he returned to his paperwork that she froze. She was paralyzed, helpless, as every muscle in her body began to constrict, surrendering to her heart as it screamed under the pressure.

Her book slipped from her hands. Before it hit the ground, Carlisle was already by her side as he swept her out of the chair on onto the floor. He was confused, worried, frightened – the time had finally come.

"ADELE!"

Her veins darkened beneath her flesh – a dark, haunting blue color that traveled from her bosom to the tips of her fingers and toes. Her heart was screaming in agony as it fought in vain to filter out the venom that had, alas, finally reached her heart after almost two centuries since she was bitten. There was no stopping it, no stalling it. Her heart was racing against time itself and she clung to what was left of her human life, tainted by vampirism, as the minutes counted down.

A scorching sensation like liquid fire pulsated through her quickening heart and she caterwauled. Her father had described his transition to her a few times before. He recalled feeling like his insides were on fire, but everywhere else he was cold. This was nothing like fire. This was much, much worse – molten lava coursing through her veins.

Carlisle effortlessly swooped her up into his arms, sped her into her bedroom, and lay her down on the bed as she writhed and screamed a silent scream. The worst part of it was that she was consciously aware of what was happening to her. She could feel the last of her humanity ebbing away. She screamed and screamed while her father wept over her. He took her hand into his own and she clutched onto it for dear life as the burning agony consumed her into unconsciousness.