1926, Philadelphia

[themidnightson]

He comes home later than normal, this part is not new.

(Edward spends much time out of the house. Even graduation and giving up medicine has not increased his presence in the house. He is still gone the same amount of time still, leaving and coming sometimes with warnings and others with no more than silent vanishing and appearing. He doesn't avoid them nor does he reject plans they invite, but it’s as though he's walking through them now. A perfect display in public of an endearing brother which ends with the event.


He doesn't comment on Carlisle telling Esme he hasn't seen Edward this restless since their earliest times in America. He doesn't comment on the fact Carlisle isn't telling her everything, that he isn't certain why he's so far away now. He doesn't have any answers when Esme points out she'd love to help him find with whatever he does want to do.

Instead he takes long walks, and he plays his piano, and the days roll on the way they have. They never seem to stop coming, those unchanging, unphased, unstoppable days.)

But he comes home later than normal this specific night, smelling of blood.

Specifically blood that doesn't belong to an animal.