twispitefic

Title: His Real Face

Author: amadris

Fandom(s): Twilight (1st book)

Rating: PG-13

Word Count: 947

Inspiration: Chapter 12 and 13 when the Great Sparkle is revealed.

Warnings: Some violence

Summary: Bella sees Edward’s real face for the very first time. She doesn’t like what she sees.

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Finally I spotted him, still under the dense shade of the canopy at the edge of the hollow, watching me withcautious eyes. Only then did I remember what the beauty of the meadow had driven from my mind — the enigma of Edward and the sun, which he'd promised to illustrate for me today.

I took a step back toward him, my eyes alight with curiosity. His eyes were wary, reluctant. I smiled

encouragingly and beckoned to him with my hand, taking another step back to him. He held up a hand inwarning, and I hesitated, rocking back onto my heels.

Edward seemed to take a deep breath, and then he stepped out into the bright glow of the midday sun.

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The light hit him instantly, illuminating his flawless face with golden glow. But his beauty faltered in the cruel sunlight and started to fall away, like a mask that could not stand the bright light of the day.

And under a mask, there was another Edward – one whose existance I hadn’t known about.

His tall posture fell down into a crouch, his muscular form diminishing into stick-like shape. His hair became ragged, like a rough mane. His beautiful hands were little more than terrifying talons that clicked against each other. And his face... Oh God, his face!

Peeking meekly from the masses of thick mane, his white face was a sight from nightmares. His big eyes, with no eyelashes to surround them, were coal black. His nose resembled a bird’s beak - the way it thrusted forward from his otherwise sunken face created a shocking contrast. His skin (it reminded me of that of lizards) was white and strained over his unevenly shaped face and his lips were very thin, almost non-existent. A set of needle-like teeth, ideal for cutting into the bodies of his victims, were visible in his gaping mouth. A tasted the bitterness of bile in my mouth and I wanted to throw up at the sight of this hideous monster.

“This is my true face”, he said, and only his voice had preserved its low musical tone. It was a mockery to this monstrous vision in the front of me.

“Where is Edward? What did you do to him? Bring him back! Bring back my beautiful angel!” I screamed, searching desperately for the flawless face in the shadows. But there were none, and deep down, I knew this was the truth. This thing in the front of me was real Edward.

“I am Edward! Don’t you see? The sunlight, God’s allseeing eye, reveals our true form. When I go back to the shadows, I’ll be every bit as beautiful as I were before!” he said, approaching me, and I stumbled back with nauseating feelings rolling inside me. I just wanted to run as fast as I could, but my body wouldn’t work. Terror almost froze me on the spot.

“You’re ugly! Get away from me!” I shrieked. “You were supposed to be beautiful and perfect, not some disgusting monster!”

He seemed taken aback by my words. The expression on his mishapen face was anguished one.

“But Bella, that’s what we vampires are”, he whispered quietly. “I thought you knew that. I thought it didn’t matter. I thought that... that perhaps you were different than all those girls who only wanted me for my pretentious mask.”

His despair and big, fat tears that were rolling on his sunken cheeks would not move my heart. I had no pity for such disgusting creatures.

I could not love a face so horrible.

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He did not mean to do anything. He didn’t mean to hurt her – he only wanted to touch her face and brush away those horrible tears that were streaming on her face. He could not bear to see her crying, for it broke his heart. Maybe, if he showed some tenderness, she would realize that this was worth loving, not the beauty and grace he had in shadows.

But it was still his fault that his clumsy talons, so eager to help her yet so uncontrollable with his pain of being rejected over something so superficial as his face, pierced right through her eyes.

Some small part of him, the dark part he had tried to push away for so long, felt almost satisfied for the blood that immediately mingled with the tears on her cheeks. Her eyes for the wound in his heart.

The despair of what he had done to her was greater, though. He had wanted to believe so badly that he could be with her without hurting her. But not only had he revealed his true form to her today. She had shown her real colors too. She would rather take him as he was in shadows – beautiful, controlling, condescending – than when he was in his real form: ugly, but with much gentler heart. But now he saw it: Bella could never be Beauty to his Beast.

As carefully as he could with his deadly hands, he picked her up so that she was nestled on his arms – the safer part of his body – and started back to the woods. Little had he known that the first time and only time he would hold her in his arms would be with her badly hurt and screaming insults at him. His mind dark, he could not help but think how appropriate her punishment had been. She would not see ever again. And she would never again make assumptions based on how people looked like.

Edward brought her back and left her at the hospital. Ashamed for what he had done and pained for her rejection, he left Forks forever.

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A/N: In case you were wondering, the idea of Edward’s two shapes was that even though he is beautiful and graceful in the dark, his personality becomes ugly as seen in Twilight. This is reversed when he stands in the light: his outlooks become ugly, but he regains his true self – a meek and uncertain yet gentle and loving creature. Bella would rather have him as he is in the dark, which is in my opinion the real tragedy here.

I'm also kind of bad in classifications, so I apologize if I put wrong tags on this one. Feel free to correct me in that case!