Chapter Text
Welcome to the first chapter of Evening Falls, my second Twilight fanfic. This story is a sequel to Extraordinary, and while it's not completely necessary to read that one first, I'd strongly recommend it. It's not too long (13 chapters) and it will help you to understand who Elisa is, and why she's part of Bella and Edward's story. This story takes place post Eclipse. I started it before Breaking Dawn came out, so you'll get to experience my take on Bella and Edward's wedding, their wedding night, and her (potential) transformation because let's face it, something is ALWAYS trying to kill that girl, and how our delightful disaster Elisa manages to make all of this so much more complicated. And with luck, more fun.
Elisa:
“And without thinking, without worrying about the fact that fifty people were watching, Harry kissed her…”
“It’s about time, Harry,” I muttered, turning the page as I shifted to a more comfortable position in the dining room chair. “She’s only been waiting on you to get a clue for five years…”
Somewhere in the distance, there was a click and then a low buzzing noise filled the kitchen, but I was miles away, picturing Harry and Ginny strolling the green grounds of Hogwarts hand in hand.
Brrrriiiing! I jumped a mile as the round timer on the table next to me began to peal. Jumping up, I immediately registered the rich smells filling the kitchen and the sound of the oven timer going off behind me. Dinner was done — no more time for daydreaming. Quickly I tossed my copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince on the kitchen counter and turned off my own timer with a grateful click. Buying a back-up timer was probably the smartest five bucks I’d ever spent... without it I would have probably burnt the house down by now, lost as I could get in my own head.
By the time I heard the front door open I’d put Mom’s potato and fettucine casserole on the stove to cool, gotten the bowl of salad out of the fridge and onto the table, and was setting bowls at everyone’s place.
“Take a shower, Colby!” I heard my father yell after my little brother as Colby went tearing up the stairs with barely a hi to me. He must have been dying to check the latest football scores on my computer.
“Hey, Elisa.” My father’s voice was cautious as he made his way from the front room into the dining room. I saw him relax as he saw the nearly set table. “Looks good… do you need any help?”
“Hmmm…” I looked around. “It’s about done, but if you can get me a stack of plates…”
Agreeably, my father went over to the cupboard and got the plates for everyone as I quickly got the bottles of salad dressing from the fridge. He put the stack on the table and then went back to get the casserole for me, probably so I wouldn’t drop it all over the kitchen floor and spoil what was looking more and more like a completely accident-free night.
I was just about to sit down, my father and brother already at the table, when Dad reached behind him, picked up my Harry Potter book off the counter, and handed it to me.
“Harry Potter again?” he asked with a smile, his blue eyes crinkled at the corner. “Haven’t you memorized that series by now?”
I smiled sheepishly as I put the book near my glass of Sprite. “Pretty much,” I admitted.
“Hmm.” Dad looked at me with that perplexed expression he so often got these days, the look that said he was trying his hardest to think of something to say to keep the conversation going. I suppressed a smile. Really, it was nice to see him make the effort. A few months ago, he wouldn’t have bothered — back then he had apparently accepted that we did not, nor would we ever have anything in common. But that was before… I shook my head. So much had happened these last few months… more than I had energy to remember at the moment.
“Whatever happened to those Moonlight books you used to like so much?” Dad’s voice brought me out of my own thoughts again.
“Twilight, Dad.” I corrected automatically, then swallowed. What happened to Twilight indeed… he had no idea what he was asking. The books that I had once loved so much, that had been my escape from everything, were still locked in a trunk upstairs in my closet, where they had been for months.
There had been many, many times that I had been tempted to just forget everything that had happened and get them out once more. I missed them like I missed a vital body part… like I had lost something that had been such a big part of me that I would never be quite the same without it. But I couldn’t go back there. Twilight was more than a book series to me. Far, far more. Getting lost in those books again could mean losing myself for real, and I couldn’t take that chance.
“Elisa?” Dad was still looking at me. “Everything ok?” His eyes were a little worried now.
“Oh yeah.” I forced a smile and picked up my fork. “Um, I guess I just…” I couldn’t bring myself to say that I got tired of the Twilight series. It was such an enormous lie I just couldn’t force the words past my lips.
Dad shrugged, assuming what I was going to say. “Outgrew them, did you? You know, Elisa, if you’re running out of things to read you should go to the bookstore this weekend, use that credit card Mom and I got you and stock up.”
Colby scowled and slumped in his seat, folding his arms across his unimpressive twelve-year-old chest. “So unfair that Elisa gets a credit card and I don’t.” He grumbled loudly for about the millionth time.
I rolled my eyes. “Hello, Colby, how many times do we have to remind you that the only reason I have enough money in my account to pay for a credit card is because of the accident settlement? Believe me, if some Valium-popping idiot runs over you someday and breaks half the bones in your body, you’ll definitely deserve the comfort only Visa can bring you. Until then, remember that I’ll be using that card to do your Christmas shopping and be grateful.”
Colby brightened. “Elisa, have I told you lately that you’re the best sister ever?” He grinned sweetly at me.
I sighed. I was so going to get snowed into buying him an Xbox, I just knew it.
“Speaking of the idiot…” My dad’s voice was a growl now. He hated talking about the guy who had hit me the previous March. It still galled him beyond belief that he’d never been able to get the man alone and deal his own justice, the legal kind being far too lenient for his taste. “I got the monthly report from his probation officer, saying he’s doing well, still drug free, all that crap. Bastard almost killed my little girl and that’s supposed to make me feel better. Should be in jail the rest of his useless, stinking life.”
I nodded in agreement. As far as my whole family was concerned, the only redeeming quality that the driver of the car that had hit me possessed was the fact that he’d had really good insurance. Most of the money from the fairly large settlement he’d been forced to pay my family went into my college fund and to pay off the medical bills that our health insurance didn’t cover, but there had still been enough for my parents to set up my own bank account and get me a credit card. I guess they felt I’d deserved something for all the pain I went through and I had to agree.
It had been weeks of suffering and agony as I tried to recover from my numerous injuries. I’d broken both my right arm and my right leg in the accident, plus several ribs. I’d also ruptured my spleen, which had to be removed. Scariest of all for my parents were the head injuries that had left me unresponsive for over eleven hours while the doctors told them that I might never wake up. To this day, I didn’t remember most of what had happened the day of my accident. At least nothing that had happened here, anyway. What had been going on in my head while I lay between life and death was a whole different story…
I shook my head, determined to get off that dangerous road before my memories became too vivid. Luckily, my mother chose that moment to make her entrance.
“Hello, everyone!” she sang out as she came through the front door, shrugging out of her light overcoat. “Elisa, everything looks wonderful!” She came into the dining room, eyeing the table and then patting my hair fondly. “You’re such a help to me… what would I do without you?”
“Hi sweetheart!” Dad jumped up to kiss my mother lightly. “Sorry, Anne, I thought you’d be later or we would have waited.”
Mom shook her head, still smiling as she sat down next to me. “I managed to duck out a bit early and I also wrangled a long weekend off.” She beamed at us. “I think we should all go somewhere together, before the weather turns too dismal.”
“Sounds good. We’ll talk about it tonight.” Dad turned back to his plate.
I stood up to take my own empty plate to the sink and Mom looked up. “Are you finished already, Elisa?”
I nodded. “I think I’m going to go upstairs and get ready for bed.”
Mom’s face immediately turned concerned. “This early? Are you feeling alright? Is your arm bothering you, or your head? We can take you to the doctor’s—”
“Relax, Mom.” I laughed, and then swung my arm in a circle so she could see how easily it moved. “I’m all healed, remember? I’m just a little tired, plus I have a lot of homework.” I groaned softly as I realized the truth of that statement.
“Well, OK, then if you’re sure…” Mom still looked doubtful, so I flashed her my best all is well grin as I left the kitchen and then hurried up the stairs to my room.
It was a relief to be alone once again. It seemed like I didn’t get much time anymore to sit down with my own thoughts. My life was so crammed… it was September and I was starting my sophomore year still a bit behind after all I’d missed last school year thanks to my weeks in the hospital and at home on bed rest. Plus a million new activities were popping up…
I’d had to give up my spot on the cheerleading squad since my doctors didn’t want me doing stunts, but I’d been taking dance classes since summer and we had recital auditions soon. I’d also joined the drama club at school and was trying to talk myself out of taking a creative writing elective next semester. On top of all that, my friend Vanessa was trying to get me to run for Student Council, which had to be her craziest idea ever, considering my utter lack of any type of organizational or leadership skills. Plus I had to schedule in two study sessions a week with my math tutor on top of everything else, and I just didn’t know where I was going to find the time for everything.
I had to admit though, that I did have an ulterior motive to keeping so crazy-busy, and it wasn’t just because I was trying to catch up on everything I’d missed during my convalescence. It was because when I was quiet, relaxed and alone, like now, the memories came back.
Memories… or were they fantasies? All those crazy dreams I’d had, before my accident, dreams where I went into another world, a world where my favorite story characters from Twilight actually lived, and I was part of their lives. I changed their lives… with some totally disastrous consequences.
Still, for that short time that I’d had them, I lived for those dreams. I loved being part of another world, even as frightening and dangerous as it had been for me. It was the world I’d always wanted to be a part of. It was so much more than I could ever imagine, and I missed it. I missed them.
But I couldn’t let myself think like that, like it had all been real. It couldn’t have been. No one else remembered the way things had changed because of my actions. Of course I’d changed it back, so they wouldn’t remember but… no. It was crazy. OK, crazy wasn’t the right word.
I hadn’t even realized, until I was able to look back on it later, how depressed I had been then. My friend Nancy had suggested that maybe I’d made it all up in my head to escape my life and I’d accepted she was right. I’d moved on. I hardly ever even thought about it anymore.
OK, that was such a lie. It was true that for a long time, I had been able to keep myself occupied enough not to linger on it, but lately, the forbidden thoughts had been creeping in on me more and more, filling me with a longing for something I knew I could never have again.
I couldn’t deny it — I wanted to go back, at least one more time, see them again: Bella, Edward, Carlisle… everyone. I couldn’t. It was completely selfish and irrational of me to want to get lost in fantasyland again. I had a really good life now. Everything had been going so well, and I couldn’t risk it for a bunch of daydreams.
My mind firmly made up once more, I hurried through my homework, setting the hated math aside for my tutor to go over the next day, showered, and got ready for bed. Once I was in my pajama bottoms and tank top, I carefully cleared off my night table except for the well-used oil burner that was always there.
Then I poured a small amount of lavender oil into the burner and lit the candle at the bottom, frowning as I realized how low my oil supply was getting. Not that oil was essential for meditation, but I liked it. I’d have to stop at Nancy’s shop soon and pick up some more.
Then I turned my CD player on low, hopped onto my bed, crossed my legs and closed my eyes, inhaling deeply as the melodious voice sounded from the speakers. It was my nightly ritual before bed: meditation. I’d started way back when I was still in the hospital, after Nancy had sent me a gift basket replacing all of my supplies that had been destroyed in the accident.
I’d come to rely on it, although my parents had been convinced for weeks that it was just some New Age phase that I was going through. They had no idea how badly I needed the relaxation and control it helped me achieve. I couldn’t be 100% sure that it was responsible for the fact that my Twilight dreams had never returned. Maybe they just hadn’t come back because I had finally convinced myself that I didn’t need them anymore. Still, it was better to be safe than sorry.
Once my CD had ended I blew out the candle, clicked off the light, and settled back against my pillows, looking out the window at the moon in the dark sky as my eyelids got heavier and heavier, finally sending me off into a peaceful, dreamless sleep.