unending

I was in a hurry at work that day. We’d had a slight rush of tourists for some reason, and they had apparently decided to demolish the store in thanks for the help we provided them. I was trying to rearrange the photography section, thinking about Will. Trying to figure out if I should really allow myself to really like him. Gorgeous, successful, sweet, kind, he helped me move my books; it was just the whole werewolf thing kind of through me for a loop.

“Miss?” The voice made my train of thought completely derail. It was like velvet sliding against freshly polished silver.

I turned to face the voice, and the face did not disappoint me. It took me a moment to find my own voice so I could respond. His skin was smooth and qdpale; his eyes were the stuff you read about in romance novels, the color of fresh summer grass. It was startling, having never seen the color outside of vegetation. His lips were incredible and pink and it took a lot of strength to not kiss him. Not that I would have, even if I had been much braver. His hair was pure black, no blue highlights or any other color that you would achieve from using a boxed dye. “Uhhh, c-can I help you?” I tried to smile, but I wasn’t sure if I had full control over my body yet.

He did, and the resulting smile almost sent me to the floor. “You’re the new girl, right?”

I had my control back, and I could feel the emotion strongly coursing through me was not incredulity from his looks, but from annoyance. I didn’t like to be insulted, and the way he implied the sentiment was quite insulting. “I’m sorry, who are you?”

“Oh I’m so sorry, I’m Edward, or Ned.” So this was Edward, or Ned, whatever. I remember when Will was talking about some of the local people in town, he mentioned him. His face hadn’t looked very happy mentioning Ned’s name. It was so close to a snarl then, I hadn’t wanted to press the issue of his dislike. Now I understood. I was starting to feel the same dislike, and we’d only just been introduced.

It was too bad I liked both of his names. Not fair. “Oh. Well, what do you want Ned?”

“Well, I thought I might introduce myself. You know, you’re the buzz of the town gossip mill. Nobody knows where you came from. You’re a bit of a mystery.”

I felt an overpowering urge to slap this overconfident, overly gorgeous stupid head. “You know, you don’t seem to have many manners. If you need help finding a book, please let me know. But if you don’t, please go and bother someone else. I have tourists to clean up after.”

He seemed to look at me closer, regarding me as though I’d said something groundbreaking. “You’re…different, aren’t you Ellie?”

My mouth dropped open in response. I was fuming with so much anger that I couldn’t think of a proper answer, not even something simple. I didn’t know why his words were affecting me so horribly. I’d never felt so angry towards someone I had only just met. I just shook my head and turned away from him, placing books in their proper order, trying to calm myself down. I took a deep breath and threw a brilliant smile onto my face. “Sir, if I may be of assistance, please let me know. Otherwise, I have a lot of work to get through before I leave in,” I checked my watch, my smile faltered for a moment when I realized the time, “45 minutes. So if you’ll please excuse me.”

He thought it over for a moment and nodded once. “You’re right, I apologize for bothering you.” He turned to leave me, heading towards the front of the store.

 His mood had changed so quickly I wasn’t sure how to feel. I felt guilty for the anger, and my rudeness towards him. It wasn’t his fault that his words had upset me. He could have meant them in the most complimentary way possible. I sighed, shaking my head. “Ned, wait.” I put the books I’d been holding on their shelves quickly and rushed over to him. For such a gorgeous man, he sure moved quickly. “Listen, I’m sorry to be rude, I just-I guess you kind of ticked me off with the way you phrased things. If you want to, we can go out for coffee or something after I get off. Well, if there are any coffee places around here. It’ll be my treat, to apologize for being so mean back to you.”

He once again nodded, but a smile took the place of his impassive expression. “I know of a place with the best coffee in town, and it’s open all the time.”

“Oh yeah, where’s that?”

When you finally make it up the long driveway that comes off of the main road, you find yourself in a clearing. It’s wide and open and totally inviting. Not scary in the slightest. The house isn’t very large. It’s painted yellow, a very happy shade, and it has a nicely sized wraparound porch that’s painted white. The front door is actually two. They both have the regular front door cut outs, but neither have windows in them, which is strange for a front door. Like there used to be more of the house, but they knocked down the walls to make the porch. As you enter the house, you’re instantly shown almost every single room. It’s not a large house by any means. It has two bedrooms, one larger than the other by only two feet either way. When you set foot inside the doorway, you enter the living room. A perfect square, there is an older TV against the west wall with a couch on the opposite side. The couch is a light cream color, tainted from years of use, although it’s not very comfortable. There’s a coffee table that’s rectangular in shape, a dark cherry wood. You have to step in between the table and the couch to make it through the small room. On the other side of the couch (no wall behind the couch) is a much older kitchen. The sink, fridge, even the oven are all rounded appliances, white with silver accents. The counters are white, like most of the front of the home. Except for the fridge, everything else is against the east wall. The fridge is on your right when you enter. The south wall. There’s an island in the middle of the space regulated to the kitchen. It’s white like the rest of the counters. Going further into the home, you pass by a bathroom on the east just after the hallway starts. There’s a stand alone sink, white with silver accents again, and a small toilet. There’s a small medicine cabinet that stands in btween the toilet and sink. The clawfoot tub sits against the east wall with a new shower system that’s meant to look old, but does wonders for the water pressure. Unlike most of the accents in the house, this is the only thing that isn’t silver. It’s brass colored. The wallpaper in the bathroom is a light pink color with white base boards. The hallway is a bright blue color, like you’re wandering down a path made in the sky. The floors are all wood. The bathroom takes up most of the east side of the house. It’s something they definitely allowed some room for. Back in the hall, on the west side, is the first bedroom, it’s the smaller of the two. There isn’t much in there except for a small day bed against the west wall, under a high, rounded window. It has a small closet against the north wall, with the same sorts of sliding doors that bend in the middle, like in most homes nowadays. The south wall holds a tall and wide chest of draws. It takes up a lot of the wall, but it’s not very large, the house is just not that big. There isn’t a TV in this room. The walls have light green wallpaper, like spring easter colors. White baseboards just like the bathroom. There is only one more door which leads to the master bedroom. It’s on the south wall, a door you can see from the front door as you enter the house. There is a sprig of holly that hangs from just above the door to the last bedroom. The door opens to a room that seems much larger than the last room than it actually is. The wallpaper in here is much more interesting than the other rooms. It’s a bright gold, with gorgeous damask designs printed on it. The bed is on the east wall, so when you enter, you see a beautiful print of “Four Dancers” by Edgar Degas above an intricately carved dresser made of burled wood with a brown marble top. Off to the right is the window that sits above the bed, just like in the last room. It’s slightly larger than the other rounded window, with more delicate seeming glass. Light filters in through here, giving the room a safe and happy feeling. Across from the bed near the west wall is a simple stand with long spindly legs that holds a nicer TV. The night stand is a simple thing, made of dark wood with two doors that open outward, and a drawer on top of them. There isn’t anything special about it, barely anything about it has any special carvings on it. There’s a large window seat that takes up most of the west wall. The seat is voluminous with cushions, all of them in varying shades of pinks and reds. The entire room seems soft and understated, a very feminine place. Outside, on the back side of the house is the woods. There is a small swing in between two trees and a small shed off to the right of it. It looks barely big enough to hold anything more than a few garden tools, which is exactly all that is hides from the eye. The house is basically surrounded by trees, but it doesn’t seem lonely or foreboding. It seems comforting, like a home should.

I shoved everything I could into my car, a green focus station wagon. Anything that didn’t fit was sold, given to charity, or put in the trash. I brought all the books I had, clothes, a TV, my laptop, and my DVDs. Other than that, I didn’t have much that I cared about. I’d found a very, very small house just off Route 40. The person whose home I was living in was apparently just about never home. I basically had the place to myself. It was an older, well off woman who had inherited the home from a parent that died when she was 20. Since then she’d been staying with family, renting the home cheap to offset some of the utilities and taxes. It already came furnished except for the nightstand which I picked up from Taylor’s Antique Mall.

I got a job at the Barnes & Noble in town, I knew enough about books and making coffee to last me a lifetime in the retail industry. I would make just enough to pay my bills and maybe buy a book or two with my discount. Oh, and some food too. Everything was set, and after I had arrived, I felt like I was going to throw up each time I glanced around at the unfamiliar territory. All I had unloaded from my car was my TV and some toiletries. The books were too heavy to unload by myself and in Florida, my roommate and her boyfriend had helped me put them into the car. I hadn’t stopped to think that I wouldn’t have someone to help me outside of the state.

I sat on the back bumper of my car, the trunk door opened, protecting me from the light rain that was coming down. I suddenly had the overwhelming sense of buyer’s remorse. Or, mover’s remorse. There weren’t many houses in this area, my house was definitely isolated by trees on all sides, the back of the house even had a small forest. In Florida, that seemed amazing. In winter I would finally be able to see snow blanketing trees. Now it just seemed that it was another way to isolate me from outside life, which my personality already kind of did.

The house, a one story house with a wraparound porch, had been built in 1928, as I stated earlier, by the old woman’s (Floris) parents. The key for the house had been sent to me while I was still 6 states away so that Floris didn’t need to leave whatever state she was in at the moment. The closest neighbor was about half a mile away. I didn’t start my new job for another week so I could “settle in”, so I didn’t even have any work friends to call.

I didn’t even realize I started to cry until I felt the drops on my hands. I was falling apart, me, the strong one. I didn’t even have family around to help me out. This was a first for me. I felt incredibly lame, and overwhelmed.

“Um, hello?” The words startled me, I jumped up and in my rush to figure out who was speaking me to me, hit my head on the corner of the trunk door.

“Ouch.” I put my hand to my head, already able to feel the pounding of the blood throughout the area.

There was a person by my side in an instant. “Oh no, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you, are you ok?” They were speaking in a rush, unsure. It was a man, and it took a moment before my head stopped swimming so that I could actually look at him.

He was much taller than I was. His dark hair was cut close to his head, but it looked incredibly soft and luxurious to me; although I chalked that particular observation up to the head trauma. His skin was a nice color, not very tan, but it looked -well- warm. His mouth was wide, it looked made for smiles at the time, and he had deep brown eyes. His entire face looked as though it would be very inviting under normal circumstances, but at the moment, his forehead was scrunched up in worry for my head injury. “It’s fine, I’m sorry, I’m usually much less apt to bang my head against things.”

The worry eased from his face and he broke into a smile that left my knees a bit wobbly. “Well, now that I’ve officially put you in pain, I’m William Brendt, or you can call me Will.”

He stuck out his hand to shake hello, and I returned the action automatically. “Hi, I’m Ellie, or Elle Moloch. It’s great to meet you.”

His smile morphed into a grin. “As in the world famous supermodel?”

“Actually it’s more like Isabelle Aurora. My mother had a thing for Italians and Sleeping Beauty. She was…one of a kind.”

“Well, the name definitely fits you, it’s quite beautiful.” He looked away, embarrassed, and after a quick moment turned back to me, flashing another amazing smile. ”So, you’re taking over this place, huh? Do you need some help with all that?”

His smile was catching it seemed, “That’d be great! The rest of these are all of my books, they’re pretty heavy.”

He moved confidently to the trunk, easily grabbing two boxes and walking inside. Will had a catching enthusiastic attitude, making me a bit more optimistic to be here. I grabbed a smaller box, following him inside.

By the time all of the boxes had been brought inside, it was already dark outside. “I feel so bad, I’d invite you to stay for some dinner, but I haven’t really had the chance to actually go to the store and buy food yet.” I felt guilty taking advantage of his muscles. Which were incredibly nice, but I wasn’t going to let that fact slip out.

“I have a better idea, how about you stay here and I’ll bring some food over and make you dinner. It’ll be a ‘welcome to the neighborhood’ date. I mean dinner.” He blushed, looking away quickly, and I had to fight a giggle back. His confident yet shy attitude was incredibly adorable.

“I couldn’t let you to do that! That’s far too nice.”

“It will be my pleasure.” He winked at me and slipped out the door, heading back home.

I ran to the bathroom, trying to determine what part of me to work on first. He wouldn’t be gone long enough for a shower, so I opted for changing and throwing on something to make me smell like something other than moving boxes. I ran a brush through my hair and went about making a list of things I’d need to buy from Wal-Mart, which was starting to get much too long. And it looked like it would make a rather large dent in my moving in fund that my dad had thrust into my car as I was leaving Florida.

A knock on the door interrupted my list making. Looking through the peephole, I saw that Will was on the other side, holding a pretty big box. I opened the door and stood aside to let him in. “Why grandma, what a big box you have!”

Will set the box down on the kitchen island as I shut and locked the door. “Why, all the better to feed you with my dear.” I giggled and bit down on my lip to stop. I was starting to like this place more and more. Very nice (looking) men who knew how to take a joke without assuming (I hoped) that you were trying to get them into bed.

I peeked inside the box. “What in the world are you making? There’s enough food in here for an army!” And there almost was: a glass jar of strawberry preserves (complete with a quaint piece of checkerboard fabric stretched across the top), a loaf of some specialty bread, some crunchy peanut butter, a Ziploc bag of muffins, some meat wrapped in white paper, a few small bottles of spices, a half gallon of milk, a large bottle of water, an assortment of condiments and canned vegetables, and a pint of some kind of Ben & Jerry’s ice cream.

Will started picking things out of the box, arranging some of the items on the island, putting some in the fridge, and then a few others in a cabinet near the sink. “Well, I’m making a steak with a side of corn and banana bread.” He started going through the lower cabinets, looking for some pans, which helped me establish that we actually had some. I crossed those off my list, thinking it would save me a nice amount to not have to get some. “The rest of this mountain is for you.”

I felt my mouth fall open. “You can’t give me food! That’s way, way too nice.”

He looked at me curiously, unwrapping the white paper from the steak as he spoke. “Well, actually, it’s a gift from Floris. She came by to clean the place up before she left for her son’s place in New Mexico. Thought you might be too tired to go shopping once you got all moved in.” He prepped the large pan on the stove, covering the steak in different spices and putting something into the pan. “She’s quite lively for someone her age. At least, when she lived here full time, she used to be.” All I was able to do was nod; I was really taken aback by this woman’s kindness. I had never met her, just sent her some money for the move in, and all of our business had been conducted through someone else. Yet here she had baked muffins and bread and gotten me fridge staples until I could get around to the grocery store.

I sat heavily into one of the chairs surrounding the small kitchen table. Will and Floris’ kindness was almost overwhelming. It was a complete 180 from my time in Florida and in a very good way. “That’s very kind of her, of both of you, to do this. I really appreciate it. You have no idea.” I mustered up a small smile and Will returned with his own bright one.

Dinner was ready after only 45 minutes and we sat down to eat. The steak was delicious, and I usually don’t eat red meat. The banana bread that Floris had made was absolutely wonderful. All in all, my first meal in Ellicott was great. And the company I had definitely made it a smidge better.

We sat in the living room afterwards, talking about the town and its inhabitants. Will told me about some of the ghost stories including St. Mary’s College (which had been torn down recently), seven hills road, and lastly, Lilburn Mansion. “It’s this huge gothic-style mansion on College Avenue. People bought it a while back, wanted to turn it into a bed & breakfast, but for some reason, it fell through. The grounds have a three story cottage, and the main house which has a tower attached to it that gives it the look of a small castle. They say that ever since some renovations started in around 1928 that the ghosts of some of the old owners made themselves known.”

“Is it open to the public now?”

Will’s normally happy face turned dark, his mouth turning into a frown. “No, it’s privately owned now. Edward Periculo.”

“I’m guessing you don’t like him.”

“Not at all.” His face was so dark that I was afraid to ask about why he didn’t like this Edward person. Hopefully I wouldn’t come across this guy in town. Of course, if he owned a mansion, I figured he wouldn’t be the kind to mix with the “townies” anyway.

Will left that night just as the clock hit 12 am. He had helped me rearrange the furniture in the bedroom and set up my tv as well as put a few books on the shelves in the living room. I had found a note taped to the fridge from Floris basically telling me to set up the house as my own since she wouldn’t be back in town for at least a few more months. I put the box that had held all the food under the sink, shut off the lights, and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

**

The next day passed in a blur. I completely reorganised the kitchen, looked up some shops in the area where I could get the things I’d need to fill in the holes of what wasn’t provided already, and even invited Will to dinner that night. The few days I had before I started work would be dedicated to buying what I need in town and browsing the library. Hopefully it wouldn’t be a complete waste of time.

I had told Will to show up for dinner at 7 pm and he was -amazingly- right on time. He had brought over a can opener which he’d dressed up with a bright red bow. “My momma told me to never show up empty handed.” I’d told him on the phone that I’d been having trouble finding a can opener earlier today, which was a lot more annoying than it might seem. You try opening a can with a knife. It’s not fun, I promise.

“Thank you so much! I can actually finish dinner now! It’ll just be five minutes.” It was weird how comfortable I felt with Will already.

It was late outside. My roommate was in Philly at the moment while I sat on the couch reading, just a table lamp on for light. I had a bit of music playing so the house wasn’t absolutely silent. I suddenly became very aware that I was not alone. There was someone outside, in my backyard. My eyes flashed up to confirm, and there, in the very center of the grass was a man. I froze, pretending to still be reading and not have noticed him while I tried to think of where the closest thing I could get that could be used as a weapon against someone. I came up blank. The only things close to me to get without seeming strange to pick up would be TV remotes or a picture frame. And if the man had a gun, I would be absolutely powerless.

Ali, my roommate’s dog, suddenly went to the sliding glass doors that looked over the yard as if wanting to go outside. But she never barked, not noticing the man. I couldn’t bring myself to get up. I was still contemplating whether I should try to fight or call the police or just run screaming out my front door. I looked to the glass doors, the lock wasn’t clicked. The doors which I relied on for some measure of protection, were completely open and unlocked. I was fucked.

I was too young to die, I thought suddenly. I was only 20. I’d been to psychics as a joke and I’d always been told I would have 2 kids and die of old age. As much as I laughed then, I clung to those words like a blanket now. I couldn’t die. I couldn’t die. I just kept repeating that to myself as I felt myself rising from the couch. Why the hell was I going towards the bad guy?! I felt completely out of control of myself. What was I doing?

I reached the sliding doors and my hand froze on the handle. He wasn’t there anymore. Maybe I had been mistaken. The darkness always plays tricks on people. They see things moving, hear things, this could easily have been my eyes playing tricks on me. I was, afterall, reading a novel about vampires. I was probably just moving the things in the book into real life. My back yard, more specifically.

I finally convinced myself that all was well. I opened the door and Ali ran out. Thankful to be able to run around. I smiled, breathing a sigh of relief that I couldn’t see anyone standing in the backyard. Or at least I did until I saw what was coming in the side door of the back porch.

It was beautiful. Tall, lean yet muscular, the light was too dim for me to see the specifics of his features, but slowly they came into focus. He had dark hair, medium length, falling just below his ears. His skin was pale, but had a light pink tinge to it. His eyes were the last part I was able to take in. They were so entrancing that I felt myself take up roots to the floor. The cool concrete of the porch got colder as he took a step closer to me. Ali, unaware of the stranger on the porch, gleefully ran around the backyard, playing with something that I couldn’t see. I heard an unfamiliar bark that scared me enough to manage to look away from this man’s eyes. There was another dog in the yard.

“I-I have a gun inside.” I tried to sound menacing, to sound absolutely sure of myself, but for the first time in my life, I was faced with something bad and I felt no confidence in myself. I was always the calm one under pressure, under fear, now, when it mattered most, I was falling apart.

The man looked at me, confused for a moment, and then abruptly, laughed out loud. “Do you really? Why, that’s quite fascinating!” He was amused by my fright. And it seemed, trying to make me feel at ease.

“Excuse me? Listen, I don’t want any trouble, if you want, you can take whatever you want. Just please, don’t hurt the dog.” I realised I was leaving something important out. “Er-or me. Please.”

“Hurt you? No! Oh goodness, I’m very sorry. I must have frightened you!” Understanding dawned on his features. Which I saw were just as gorgeous laughing as they were serious. “You see, my dog got out, and we’re a little new to the neighborhood, so I was afraid he wouldn’t find his way back so I let myself into your yard. I think he dug a hole somewhere around the fence and got in. I would have knocked otherwise!”

Relief flooded over me and I felt myself slump slightly. He wasn’t trying to kill Ali. Or me. “Oh thank god. I thought you were a vampire - or worse, a murderer!”

He straightened for a moment when I said vampire. Even his dog seemed to stop playing in the yard. He smiled again. “A murderer is worse than a vampire?” He studied my face for a moment.

“Well, I suppose it would depend on my relationship to the vampire, but yes. Definitely worse. Your dog is absolutely huge! What breed is he?” I felt at ease around him, the conversation wasn’t strained, and now that I knew he wasn’t going to kill me, I thought it might be nice to get to know the absolutely beautiful next door neighbor.

“Elias is actually a crossbreed between a Great Dane and a Mastiff. And I’m Edward Collins, by the way.”

“Edward? I’m Juliet Moloch. Nice to meet you.” I smiled, automatically sticking my hand out to shake his hand. I’ve loved the name Edward since I was little, and it was hard for me to keep back the giggle of my favorite name being coupled with his amazing good looks. I hoped I didn’t look too horrible, although I held no hope he would be interested in me as anything more than a friend.

“You as well. You have a very…interesting last name.” He smiled again, and I couldn’t do anything but stop breathing, something had changed about the smile he’d given me earlier, it was a darker somehow. But it made me want to get closer to him. Probably just the danger enthuiast in me leaking a bit.

The dogs reappeared through the same door as Edward had. Ali, a pitt bull mix, looked like a chihuahua compared to Edward’s Elias. The dog seemed to come higher than my waist and I was 5′6″. Ali looked beat, she slunk back into the house and went directly to the couch and curled up in a ball to fall asleep. Elias came over to me and started sniffing me. “He doesn’t bite, does he?”

The dog finished his sniffing and went back to Edward. He looked down to Elias and he almost seemed to nod up at him. “Elias is too sweet, he’d never hurt a fly.” The dog in question sniffed angrily and turned back to the yard.

“I think you’ve insulted him.”

“Maybe, but there are much more interesting things to focus on for now.” He looked down to the watch he was wearing. “It’s getting late, I should let you get back to your night. I’d love to chat with you some more sometime soon, will you be available tomorrow evening?”

I blushed and looked to Ali through the doors to try and hide the pleasure I felt from the invitation. Which was absurd to be so happy to receive. He probably has a gorgeous girlfriend or something that he lives with. I tried to talk my excitement down. “Absolutely, what time?”

We arranged the time and I found that he had moved into the house down the road that the entire neighborhood had been built around. It was only two stories, but incredibly huge and elegant. It had always reminded me of an old plantation home, but I’d thought that some old family that originally lived in the area owned it, passing it down from son to son. I’d heard that the last son had passed on a few weeks ago. Maybe he was some long lost relative, here to stake his claim.

Going back inside I felt unusually optimistic. I got ready for bed, brushed my teeth, and was so glad to have the next two days off. Laying down, my mind was jumping in all sorts of directions but I found myself falling asleep faster than usual. And then I had the first dream.

I knew I had to be dreaming, I’d had a similar dream a few years ago, but it all felt so real. I was standing in the old house down the road, looking in a huge closet. Standing next to me was a woman, just a little older than I was probably 22 or so, and we were laughing. She was holding up old dresses, they looked intricate with detail, long skirts with multiple petticoats that were strewn across an old chest of drawers. There was no sound but I felt screams coming from somewhere in the house. The girl’s eyes widened and she pulled me by the hand further into the closet, quickly shutting and locking the door that connected us to the other room. Pushing one of the dressers aside she opened a small door. “Get in!” She shoved me inside the door, then shut it quickly and I could hear the dresser being pushed back into place. The screams came next. I tried to find a way out, but there was nothing. I tried pushing against the door or trying to find another way out, but I seemed to be trapped. I felt tears coming down my face as I laid down, rocking in place hearing the screams.

I started to hear the sounds of wood moving against wood, and I bolted upright. I looked around and found myself in my room, awake. I was safe.

****

It was easy enough to find my way to Edward’s house that night. It was something I always passed by whenever I walked Ali, and the walk there only takes about 2 minutes. Thankfully, the Florida night was relatively cool for May.

When I actually stood on the porch, I realised how intimidatingly huge this house was. Just the outside made my own home go to shame. I rang the doorbell and automatically tugged on my shirt, pulled up my jeans (since they always refused to stay where they should), and prayed to the beauty gods for some sort of miracle for the hair that would absolutely not behave.

After a few moments, the door opened and my memory had not done Edward justice. In the bright lights of his home, what I thought had been dark hair was actually a golden brown color. His eyes were a deep shade of blue, and the pink tinge of his skin seemed to have disappeared, leaving him paler than the night before. “Juliet! Please come in!” He smiled warmly at me, gesturing into the house.

He led me through the foyer to the sitting room which was twice the size of my living room at home. There were portraits lining the walls of older generations but not much in the way of furniture. The middle of the room held a circle of love seats, giving the impression that they often entertained couples…or had some interesting parties. There was a small coffee table in the center that held a silver platter of crackers, small cakes, and petit fours. I felt horribly underdressed. I sat, cursing myself that I hadn’t worn a skirt, or dress, or something that didn’t shout “Hey! I’m a yank!” He offered me a drink, and after he had brought it back (on another silver tray), he sat across from me.

“Your house is absolutely gorgeous, how’d you come by it?” I didn’t feel the need to go through the regular boring small talk with him, which was a great change.

“My family has owned it since it was built. I grew up in this place, but I’ve been away from home for quite a few years. I have to say though, I’m glad the scenery has gotten better around here.” If anyone else had said that, I probably would have slapped them, but the way he winked at me after he said it just about stopped my heart. So I didn’t have much of a choice other than to just sit there.

I composed myself enough to realise that his dog wasn’t around. “Where’s Elias?”

“I’m right here!” A man strolled out of a nearby doorway to lean against the frame and my jaw almost dropped open. He was just as gorgeous as Edward, but in a much more…earthly way. His hair was a deep black, his skin a tan color that didn’t look as though it came from the sun, and his eyes were a breathtaking black color. Which generally wouldn’t be breathtaking, but I guess these two just got the lucky sticks when they were being made.

Edward shot a dark look to him. “I think she meant the other Elias.”

The human Elias just smiled to me, “Hi there, I’m Elias.” He came over to me, quickly dropping into one of the other love seats. “You must be Juliet.”

I was officially the ugly pimento cheese next to freshly baked french bread.

I’ve had only one continuous obsession throughout my life. I wish all the time that they truely existed although I’ve always had a strange feeling that, in some capacity, they do. Gorgeous beings with pale skin, graceful actions, built for destruction. Intoxicating to be around, especially knowing that in one swift move you could be no more.

In a word? Vampires.

Yes, I’m sure most people go through this phase at some point. But mostly they grow out of it surely. And if they don’t…well they generally grow up to be one of those silly people that look like they want all attention on them, pretending to be what they think a vampire would be in real life. Yet vampires wouldn’t draw that sort of attention to themselves. Bloodsucking “evil” creatures of the night that can kill and have been hunted for centuries, and even today, they still are. I wouldn’t want to flaunt myself if I knew fifteen million people would be coming for me with pitchforks raised and muskets in hand. Would you? Vampires naturally draw all the attention to them. It’s not something done with fancy fake clothes or dentist sharpened teeth, it’s something in their very being that draws all eyes to them. But let’s get back on topic, shall we? 

Like I said, I’ve had this obsession for as far back as I can remember. I’m not 20 years old. Mostly normal, employed, not much of a life as my job takes up most of it, followed by reading and sleeping. My days are generally normal, save for one recent day.

For work, I’m a hotel call center reservationist. It’s quite the mouthful, but it’s easy, the people are nice, and the money isn’t half bad. I also run a small travel blog for the resort and one recent night I was told to go out and get pictures of some of the places I talked about. Which were to include the town of Celebration, Old Town, and also Disney World. I got a complimentary pass to go into the last and I got out of work early to go and grab some night time shots of the parks. I was still in heels from work, but thankfully I still had a pair of flats in the backseat of my car, a great little Focus wagon.

I got through the lines rather quickly since it was late and entered the Magic Kingdom with camera in hand. I started snapping shots just as soon as I was through the underbelly of the Train Station. I worked my way slowly up main street, pausing only to look at the pictures. In one or two of them seemed to be a man of nice height, with gorgeous dark hair and understated clothes. He almost seemed to be smiling at the camera everytime he was in frame, but that had to be a mistake, he must have been looking at his -no doubt- drop dead gorgeous family, though he didn’t look much older than me in these.

Finally I reached the castle. I decided to go around to the side where Cinderella’s wishing well was to get some crowd shots. I’d only gotten one in when my camera suddenly fell from my hands, heading towards to the dark depths of the well.

“I think you might be needing this.” A hand held out my camera to me, I hadn’t even realized someone had caught it before it fell in.

I smiled politely automatically and looked up. But before I could say “thank you”, I looked into the face of the man from the pictures on main street. It was even more gorgeous up close. “Uhh…t-thank you.”

He smiled at me and I felt suddenly aware that my shirt was slightly askew from a long day at work, that my make up had probably melted through the heat of the day, and that I wished I could get something to make me look halfway decent enough for him to be interested in me. Of course, that was all incredibly ridiculous, he probably already had a loving, model worthy wife at home. “You’re quite welcome. You should be a bit more careful, you wouldn’t want something so pretty getting hurt.”

I felt blood rush to my cheeks in embarrassment. “Yeah…you’re right.” Obviously my brain was working a lot less than it should with this man in front of me.

“I’m Elias. And you are?”

“Shantelle…it’s nice to meet you.” I was trying not to stare at him, so I looked down at my camera and fiddled with the settings.

I glanced back up at him and he was staring down at me with curiosity in his features. “I haven’t eaten all day…would you be interested in maybe grabbing a bite with me?”

“Seriously?”

He laughed as though I’d just said the funniest thing and the sound automatically made me smile in return. “Yes, quite seriously. I had a reservation and at the last moment, my collegue cancelled on me and I very much wanted to try the restaurant. So you see,” he leaned just a hair closer and my breath caught in my chest, “my fate is in your hands.”

I struggled to realize that I was being asked a question, so I nodded my head in consent. He gestured toward the walkway and he fell into step beside me. “So what restaurant is it we’re headed to?” I expected one of the simpler ones. A quick service perhaps. I saw we were headed back towards the front of the caste and heading up the stairway and dared to hope for only a moment that we were heading to Cinderella’s Palace, but squashed that down automatically. Hoping was bad for me.

“Well, it’s this rather nice place. Which is one of the reasons I didn’t want to go alone.” He gestured to go right after the beautifully tiled walls to the hostess station for- “Cinderella’s Round Table. At least now I can say it wasn’t my idea to go…just to save a slice of dignity.” He looked over at me and winked.

I tried to keep my excitement inside, where I was screaming and jumping with joy that not only had a random, gorgeous stranger asked me to dinner, but I was finally going to go to the restaurant in Cinderella’s castle. I smiled up at him and he turned to the hostess to check in for his reservation. At the same moment I frantically took down my messy pony tail, wiped under my eyes and threw on some chapstick that I had in my bag. I was placing my camera back in my bag as he turned around and I struggled to smooth the hurried look on my face with a pleased smile. He once again gestured for me to go first, and I followed the waitress into the castle.

Once we were seated and dinner had been ordered, Elias turned back to me. “So are you a photographer Shantelle?”

I shook my head. “I actually make reservations for a local resort. Photography is just a hobby, and these are for a little project at work.” I took a sip of my drink which had been quietly placed in front of me, forcing myself to look away from him. I noticed his hair was actually a dark red in this light. I wondered briefly what it would look like in the sun and immediately pushed the though away. Stranger Shantelle. Stranger. This will more than likely go no further than tonight.

“A project?”

“Well I run a very small blog for my hotel. It basically just talks about things to do in the area that a lot of tourists wouldn’t know about. My boss made me go out tonight though and get pictures of some of the places I mention so they aren’t walking blindly into some place.” I rolled my eyes, remembering speaking with my boss about this. He grinned, and I noticed he still hadn’t taken so much of a sip of his drink. “Not thirsty?”

“Not particularly.” The waitress came then with our plates, which inhibited talking. My dinner partner barely touched his food in the time it took me to get halfway trhough my own, which took a while considering the portion.

“I thought you said you hadn’t eaten all day?”

“True, but I never said I was hungry.” He chuckled to himself, although an inside joke I was not yet in on. “I have to admit,” he leaned closer to me, speaking softly, “it was a ruse to get you to dinner. I noticed you taking pictures and I thought you seemed…interesting.”

I blushed again, wishing I wasn’t so easily embarrassed. “Well, thanks.” I wasn’t much for being complimented, but I thought it would be better just to thank him than to argue.

The check came and Elias automatically took it, sliding something into the holder and handing it swiftly back to the waitress. We left the restaurant heading back towards the front of the park. We reached the trams having spoken mainly about each other’s work and the general first date things. I found out he was 25, self employed, doing something in a freelance field. He was in town for a few months doing something for some company (he never went into specifics on that…or I was just staring to hard to hear). While we waited for the tram to arrive, he started to look…nervous. But the emotion seemed foreign to his face for some reason. “Listen, I was just wondering if you would possibly be interested in doing this again. I don’t know too many people, and you’re - well - you seem great. So do you maybe have a number I could reach you at?”

He was babbling it seemed, which was quite endearing for someone so gorgeous to seem so nervous. “Sure!” I was so excited that he would actually be interested in me in any way that I didn’t bother to try and squash the hope that he might actually call. I knew it was rather…unfeminist, but to hell with it. This man was absolutely breath taking. We stepped onto the tram that had finally gotten here and as soon as we were seated I scribbled my number on a piece of paper I found in my bag and handed it over to him. He folded it up, placed it in his pocket, and smiled as he stepped off the tram to the area that held his car. I looked down and waited for my stop to come, barely able to contain my joy and cell phone before I called my best friend to gloat.

He was there to see how they compared the fictional creatures to the real thing. He’d read the books, satisfied with how Stephanie (Ms. Meyers as he spoke it) had portrayed his kind, but he still worried over how the movie would deal with things. That’s where I saw him. The Monday following opening weekend of the movie “Twilight”. I’d finally gotten some time off work to see the movie and I showed up looking horrible. I was not feeling well, my hair was not perfect, and in no way was my skin a perfect clear glorious thing to behold (it was pale though, especially for Florida). I walked into the theatre, alone and with my bag of goodies (hot tamales and milk duds) and a great big icee. I was not a person that someone would call “hot”. But there he was, his eyes boring holes into me. And I was trying to avert my eyes from him. Though it was very hard.

He was around 6 foot, maybe taller. He was perfect seeming in everyway. If you were to think of vampires, he would fit the bill. And of course my obsession being just that, it was the first thing my mind went to. That’s ridiculous, Shantelle. If there were vampires, they wouldn’t be in Florida. And even if they were, one wouldn’t be staring at you. And if he is actually staring at you…well… I was out of rationalizations. This guy must be staring at someone else…anyone else. I walked across the lobby, leaving the concession counter behind just as Mr. Gorgeous Not a Vampire rose from his chair.

too scattered. must restart this one. The theatre is not clean enough, no vision.