A Child of the Night — Preface

( Bella POV )

My name is Isabella Swan, and I am terrified of the sun. The sun which, in mere seconds, could steal my life away. The sun I've never seen. The sun which barely ever shines, anyway.

I live in Forks, Washington. I've lived here for as long as I can remember, because as soon as my parents received news of my diagnoses, they moved up here in hopes that, when I was older, never seeing the sun wouldn't matter much because no one here really saw it, anyway.

My mom left when I was two, though — she said I was holding her down, keeping her from the life she wanted. I tried to run after her … but I couldn't. My father held me back, and shielded my body with his against the sun which, as fate would have it, was shining on that fateful day. And then it was just me and him, living each day in darkness, fighting together the fight that we would never win.

I truly am a child of the night. I was born with Xeroderma Pigmentosum — better known as XP. It's a condition where my body can't repair damage caused by the ultraviolet rays of the sun, and thus even simple seconds in the light can cause severe sunburns, and enevitably, skin cancer … and then death.

I'm not resentful, though. Even when I have to walk into the other room while Daddy opens the door to escape the light, or when I have to struggle into that fifty pound, space-suit like sun protector to run across the yard to the neighbor's house, I don't mind. I was born this way, and there's nothing I can do to change it.

And even now, as I stand in the sun for the first time in so … so long, I don't mind.

I can't move. I can't run. Because I can't see … because I'm blind, because when I was small, I lost my vision to the disease that haunts me now. I can't find the dark that I'm so comfortable standing in. I can't find anything but the burning warmth on my skin.

I whimper, and press my hands against what I imagine is a stone wall — it's rough under my fingertips. I use it as a guide, and I continue to stumble forward.

But the sun is too much, and I eventually fall. I hear people screaming, crying out, telling someone to call an ambulance. I'm breathing hard, and I know I have to get out of the sun. I have to. I have to. I have to.

"Edward!" I cry, but he doesn't come. I whimper his name again and again, but he doesn't rescue me.

And as I remember his last words, as I remember what led me to start walking, what led me to leave him, to run away, to run to this unfamiliar place, I realize that I don't want to stay awake anymore … because he won't come back. Just like my mom all those years ago, he walked away … and he wasn't coming back.

So I let the darkness wash over me, and as the darkness washes over me, so do his last words.

"Time, Bella … I need time. I … I'll never give you up. I'll a-always fight. Always. But it hurts … so much. I need time. I … I … goodbye … "

 NEXT CHAPTER:

"Hello?" she breathed, and she looked around quickly. "Is anyone there?"