Blood Moon [a Twilight Saga FanFiction]

Mr Masen

THE PLAGUE IN THE SANITARIUM KILLED ANOTHER TWO PEOPLE BEFORE IT WAS COMPLETELY ERADICATED FROM MILLEDGEVILLE, Georgia, and I was finally able to return to properly working at the Medical Hospital.
      Dr Bill Smith, upon my return, surprised me. Mayhap it was how he was having to look after every floor of the Hospital, and only had me via messenger in a hazmat suit. But he had taken over the care of the centre floor of the Hospital, leaving me with just the top two.
     I never saw him sleeping in the staff cafeteria again.
     And then, a year later, we got an unexpected visit from Carlisle and his new son. Well, it was unexpected until the day before when Igor and I got a warning from Verity saying, "Uncle Carlisle and Edward will be here tomorrow at dawn". So the next day, come dawn, I waited on the front patio for Carlisle and Edward.
     I ran straight to my brother and tightly embraced him. I hadn't noticed how much I had missed him, all the time I could have potentially felt alone, was filled with Igor.
     "I missed you, brother," I said as he hugged me back.
     "I missed you, too," Carlisle laughed in my ear before letting me go. "Elizabeth, meet-"
     "Edward!" I said and turned to him. "It's a pleasure to finally meet you, officially."
     Edward nodded and shook Igor's hand when he joined us.
     Meeting Edward in this life was interesting. And emphasised differences between the two timelines. I knew his human life the first time he lived it. Knew his fathers' love, knew the fear and pride when his father was drafted, and the confusing shame and happiness when he returned. The influenza that ended it all, watching his parents die first...
     But this timeline, his father was not so... fatherly.
     I knew of his now abusive father, how he'd hit his wife and Edward when he misbehaved as a boy. Knew how he witnessed his grandmothers suicide. Knew about his pride and joy when they got the letter saying that his father had been killed at the war, and yet, still wanted to go but was too young.
     Watching his mother die of influenza, the only family he had left. Too soon, much sooner than the other time... and then him.
     "Why?" Edward asked, his brows frowning at me. Verity had come out and was welcoming her Uncle with a hug. "Why is it that different?"
     "What's different?" Carlisle asked.
     "The past has changed," I explained. "It probably had effects on your present and future as it may have everybody else's."
     "But that different?" Edward asked.
     "Miss Elizabeth? How much has changed for Edward?" Igor asked.
     "Edward's father passed in War in this timeline, and his mother got sick much earlier, but that is all I noticed," Carlisle listed.
     Do you want to tell them? I thought, looking at him. We can keep it between us if you wish.
     "My human father was a horrible man," Edward admitted. "He would abuse my mother, and me when I misbehaved." His eyes rose to me. "I was grateful when we got the letter telling us he had died."
     "Edward," Carlisle gasped. "I am sorry."
     "Don't be. I don't even remember him," Edward chuckled. "That's all I know because that's all Liz is telling me."
     I noticed he left out the part of his grandmothers' suicide and how it affected him as a child, but I let that stay a secret if that's what he wanted.
     "So your fathers' entire personality is different, and when your mother got sick is different as well," Verity muttered. "And Mary is sicker than she was last time."
     "Alice is sick?" Carlisle asked.
     "Her treatment is different this time. I've had no control over it unlike when it was just me in the asylum," Igor sighed. "She's sicker, yes, but she also had the two of us watching over her. She's surviving."
     "Makes you wonder what else has changed," Verity muttered. "Hi, Verity Farkas."
     "Edward," Edward kissed her hand like a gentleman.
     The wind blew strong, moving all of our scents around us. Edward looked between Verity and me as I could only imagine what flew through our heads at that moment.
     I knew Carlisle was attempting to control his mind from Esme, it was easier with Edward there to distract him, but also harder as he knew Esme was closer to him. The time Esme would be with him again was drawing nearer. But he was trying. Very hard.
     Edward was also all up to date about the previous timeline, thanks to Carlisle's thoughts. I could only imagine what went through Verity's head.
     "Dad, you need to get to work," Verity warned.
     "What do you know?" Igor asked.
     "It's Mary. Something's going to happen. She's not there tonight."
     "What?"
     "The sun?" I asked.
     "Will stay behind the clouds today," Verity nodded. "No sunshine at all."
     "Go," I hissed to Igor and he excused himself from the conversation and left for the sanitarium.
     I walked Carlisle and Edward inside, Verity following.
     "So, Edward, exactly how much do you know?" I asked and pulled out a very specific sketchbook.
     It was a sketchbook I hadn't told Carlisle, or Verity, or Igor about. Though I wasn't surprised when Verity didn't react at the sketchbook other than with a smile.
     It wasn't as much a scrapbook or sketchpad, as it was a whole group of pictures I had been doing in private every time I had my dream of the past.
     "Don't you already know the answer to that?" Edward asked.
     "I have found that words tell stories better than the past."
     Edward looked to Carlisle before looking back to me.
     "Enough, according to Carlisle."
     "What year were they sent back, too?" Verity asked as she sat down on one of the chairs.
     "1658" Edward answered, watching her.
     "Who was killed?"
     "Everyone of our kind except seventeen."
     "Anyone important?" Verity continued to quiz.
     "Practically our whole family."
     "Every life lost is important, Edward," Verity sighed.
     "Then you asked a trick question."
     "I thought you could read minds?"
     Carlisle and I laughed as Edward glared at her.
     "Don't bother trying, Edward," Verity muttered again after a while, she turned to lay down on the chair. "I've been practising keeping my mind busy with meaningless thoughts since I learnt about my future mind-reading cousin. You should ask Mother what's on those papers though."
     Edward looked at me and I smiled at him.
     "Pictures from that time," Edward answered.
     "Correct," I said, I could feel Carlisle's eyes on me. "Having my memories of that time being only a dream, I decided that in every private moment I had, I'd draw what I knew, what I remembered, or anything new. Some things in here... well, why spoil the surprise? Some of the things in here are never going to happen anyway, but it's good to have the memory."
     "Is she in there?" Edward asked after looking back to Carlisle briefly.
      "Which she are you referring to? Pardon my confusion but you did look towards my brother."
     "Not Esme," Edward smirked softly a half-smirk that really showed off his seventeen-year-old youth.
     Bella. "Yes, she's in here. But again, Edward, why spoil a surprise?" I asked.
     "Then why bring it out?"
     "Edward," Carlisle hissed.
     "Because I know you know about her," I responded and pulled out of the pictures. I knew where it was, right in the middle. "So thought you'd like your own little memory."
     I handed him the picture and he stared at it. The image I had drawn was from his past of that timeline, the very first time he had looked at Bella, in the cafeteria at Forks High School, Washington State. Her friend, Jessica, had been telling Bella about the Cullens when Edward had looked up and their eyes had met.
     "Something to look forward, too."
     "Is this for me?" he asked.
     "If you want it, yes," I answered. "But that's all your getting."
     "When we all get our memories back..." Edward muttered, as he folded the picture and put it in his pocket. "It's going to hurt."
     "No, it won't," Verity sighed.
     "He's talking of a different kind of pain, Verity," I sighed and rested my hand on my nephew's cheek. He knew Bella died. "When that pain comes, Edward, you will not be alone. There are those of us who will be feeling it right with you."
     He nodded and gently removed my hand from his cheek.
     "I know."
     "You're just going to have to remember to be strong. Those of us who lost, we all are."
     "Mum?"
     I looked over to Verity, who always begun to worry when I spoke of the time I lost her father. I then walked over and kissed her head.
     "I'm okay, sweetheart."
     "You remember it, don't you?" Edward asked his thick bronze coloured brows, pulling together. "Can I get a sort of forewarning?"
     I knew what he was asking, he was asking what to expect. How it was going to feel when he had his memories back? The pain... the heartache...
     The joy when I saw his face again for the first time after that dream.
     I tried to not think about the pain the dream caused me every night I had it, the hollowness, emptiness...
     His brows pulled together and Verity squeezed my hand, bringing me back into my present mind.
     I looked from my daughter to Edward, the pain and worry in his golden eyes.
     "There is your forewarning."
     "Elizabeth," Carlisle stepped forward. "Are you alright?"
     "I'll be better when he gets home."
     Carlisle rested his hand on my head in comfort, only to then turn back to his Edward.
     "Yeah, think of what you're going to do to him when he gets home," Verity chuckled. "Or don't," she finished, her eyes shooting to her cousin who chuckled.
     "It's okay," Edward said with a smirk. "Carlisle's anticipating reconnecting with an Esme in the new decade, he won't stop thinking about her."
      Carlisle chuckled nervously, Verity laughed with him.
     "Ah, but I would gamble that he's been thinking about her for a lot longer than you'd think, Edward," I responded with a laugh of my own.
     "I'm sure he has."
     I laughed at my brothers' embarrassment, Edward was laughing with me.
     It wasn't until the two of us had stopped laughing when I realised Verity was looking out into the distance, her brows together, chewing on her bottom lip. Her eyes shot to me, probably feeling me watching her.
     "I'm just thinking," she said to me.
    "About?"
     "The future."
     "Anything about it we should be worried about?" Carlisle asked and Verity looked from them to me.
     I forgot to look to Edward for some sort of hint.
     "I think I should go to Wisconsin with them," she muttered, her eyes staying firm on mine. "I know how Aunty Esme's going to react. It'll have been twenty-six years, with the same dream every single week. And ten-years since she saw you last? On top of that, seeing Edward, in something other than a dream... I don't know what takes her to Wisconsin, but I know it'll be better for her if I'm there."
      Her blue eyes, so filled with determination... it was a familiar determination. Something I often felt myself, and I often saw in Igor's eyes.
      "Verity," I answered. "Of course you can go with them. We will miss you greatly, but neither of us can deny that you are old enough to go wherever you please."
     "I'll miss you, too," Verity muttered. She crawled so she was on her knees, facing me as I ran up to her and pulled her into a tight embrace.
     The thought of her leaving my side, actually properly leaving the house and not coming home at the end of the day. Being in a completely different part of the country. It hurt, and it was terrifying. But I understood, especially once I had her past, knew what she knew. Based on her own decisions she had found out that it was better for her to be there when Esme sees Carlisle again, and Edward for the first time.
     It hurt, but I understood.
     "I'm sorry, Mum," she whispered.
     "Don't be, you're doing your part to protect and help this family. As much as it'll hurt, it'll be good, for all of us, and besides," I looked over my shoulder to Edward. "It'll probably make it easier for Edward, for him to have at least someone nearby with a steady head."
     "I've got practice," Carlisle sighed. "It won't be that bad-"
     "Keep telling yourself that, Uncle," Verity stated and made Edward, and myself laugh.
     Carlisle shook his head and began to walk out, so while Verity and Edward were still chuckling, I stopped my own laughter and walked out to join him.
     "Come on," Verity said inside. "I want to show you something, physically."
     Verity ran upstairs to my studio, Edward slowly followed her.
     "Bella's going to love him," I stated, looking into the trees.
     "I try to hide from him as much as I can," Carlisle responded. "He knows she died, and that he won't be able to hear her like he does the rest of us."
     "I wonder how it'll alter their meeting. If he'll realise it's the Bella who has just moved to live with her Father, rather than just Bella."
     "I worry about her scent," Carlisle muttered quietly. "Her scent to him... it nearly broke him last time. If he is unprepared."
     "Brother," I held Carlisle's hand and he looked at me, I looked back over Verity's past, what she knew of the future was faded, but there were scenes, snippets of it that I knew, that I saw, because she thought of them, pictured them often. "You don't have to worry about it, Edward will do fine as he did then."
     He turned away from my glance, looking back out into the distance.
     "There is something else bothering you?"
     "Why does Esme go to Wisconsin this time?" Carlisle asked. "Verity clearly states that it is where we unite again, but why? Did she once again marry, Charles? Did he abuse her again? How? What's happened-"
     "You're such a worrier," I chuckled. "No matter her reason to go to Wisconsin, there is something that wouldn't have changed. Nothing will change how she will feel about it, or how she does feel about you. Nothing will change your future with her."
     "I suppose, I may be a little nervous," Carlisle chuckled at himself.
     "Don't be," I laughed with him. "But you are a man. And I do seem to remember a very distinct conversation we had while we were mortal? A conversation that reminded you of just how human, and how much a man, you were."
     He glared at me from the corner of his eyes and I had to laugh, he remembered our conversation also. My promise.
     "I'm sure Esme would love to hear about-"
     "You wouldn't dare," Carlisle hissed.
     "I'm your sister, Carlisle," I laughed. "I'd dare take any opportunity to embarrass you."
     Verity laughed from inside, even Edward chuckled slightly, but it was distracted. His mind was elsewhere.
     "You promised me," Carlisle reminded me in a whisper.
     I sighed and leant my head on his shoulder.
     "I know."
     "Elizabeth," I heard Edward mutter from my studio.
     My studio, the only things in it were my easel, lots of canvas, a sketch table, and a small couch for Igor or Verity to sit on. The easel was facing the outer walls, a corner, the walls were only made of glass so I could see out towards the horizon. I also knew the solid walls, were covered in art. My art. I wondered which he was looking at.
     "You are very talented," Edward muttered.
     "Thank you," I said and turned back to walk inside. "I'd like to hope I am not the only talented one in the family. Do you play any instruments, Edward?" I asked.
     "No," he said rather stiffly, but then chuckled as he and Verity joined us back on the ground floor. "Not yet, apparently."
     "You should take up the piano," I coached and Carlisle chuckled beside me. "Something tells me you'd be brilliant."
     Edward smirked his half-smirk and looked over to our piano.

     And it'll help keep your mind distracted while you wait for Her, surrounded by your loving family. I thought and he slowly approached the piano.