Anti-Spork: The Darkest Hour by Mrs. Hyde - Chapter 2 Part 2 (Section B):

[sos_sporkers]

SOS: *Takes a deep breath* Remember how I spent the last chapter throwing a gigantic baby fit about how Mrs. Hyde was beating on Edward too hard? Well…THIS is actually the point where the true heart-stomping starts. Oh yeah, everything we’ve read before? JUST A PREVIEW. Joining me here is William. Say hi, William.

William: *Death glare* You know I hate you, right?

SOS: *Waves hand* You hate everything.

Anyways, Edward looks around and sees Grace Church and YES, one was ACTUALLY near Oak Park. So, if you had ANY doubt that Mrs. Hyde is a Goddess of Research (not that I imagine you would, after ERNEST FUCKING HEMINGWAY), here is proof that she learnt the street directory for Chicago JUST to write this story.

And secondly, the rest of this chapter can be split into three parts, where three things Edward prizes the most are taken away from him. Since I already mentioned a church, I have no doubt that you have already figured out what the first thing is going to be - his faith. To start everything off, Mrs. Hyde first removes his trust in a higher authority, his belief that bad things happen to bad people, in order to prepare him for his vigilante lifestyle. At the same time, she is also removing someone that Edward can turn to for help and comfort, rendering him completely alone. Furthermore, the structure of The Darkest Hour actually follows the Catholic Sacrament of Reconciliation almost exactly. Edward’s relationship with others (Carlisle and Esme), God, and himself are severed one by one, and because of this, he falls to darkness. And when he is redeemed, he has to acknowledge that he has done something wrong, repent for it, and try to make thing better, thus rebuilding his connection with God and others…though he doesn’t really rebuild a connection with himself until later.

See, Meyer, if you want to bring your religion into your story, you have to make sure it makes goddamned sense there! You have to make sure the story is ENRICHED by the inclusion of religion!

William: Well, and then there’s how all the things taken away from him in this chapter is crucial to maintain one’s identity. Basically, Mrs. Hyde is stripping away all remnants of Edward the Human, so allow his dark side to take over more easily.

SOS: I hate to start off doing this, but let’s spork a little, because I have no idea how to summarise this.

He stared at the huge, looming edifice that stood out in stark relief against the leaden sky, jutting proudly up over the surrounding still-snowy houses and skeletal trees.

SOS: First of all, the imagery in that is JUST amazing. There is no other way to go about it. It is AMAZING. It’s passages like this that really make me want to see this fic made into a visual medium, because that would be AWESOME.

Secondly, notice the feeling of insignificance in front of a Church. There’s all that sense of immovability, of eternity…here is something that Edward has known all his life, is still here, and probably will remain here for decades to come. And for the first time, Edward knows that what he’s looking at isn’t trivial and fleeting.

William: The way the Church is described makes it sound ominous and foreboding is very nice foreshadowing, too.

Almost unconsciously, his feet turned and began to carry him towards it.

SOS: We see here how faithful and religious Edward had been, so much so that it sounds like he is naturally attracted to God. It’s been such a part of his life that he has muscle memory associated with it. And now that we know just how important and intrinsic and natural his religion is to him, we can really appreciate the joy of having it torn away from him.

William: This is probably also a hint at just how desperate Edward is for comfort and guidance. He has no direction or purpose and every idea he’s had has ended up causing him pain, and now that he thinks he’s seen someone who can offer him a helping hand and teach him where to go and what to do, he goes towards that source of potential comfort without even realising it. This even ties into his theme of denial. The action has to be unconscious, because otherwise, he would be forced to admit how lost he was.

SOS: Yes, and you’re the expert on denial around here, aren’t you?

William: *Grits teeth* If you don’t want me to say anything, then don’t call me out here.

SOS: Nah, it’s not that. Just pointing out the irony here.

As he neared, the church grew taller, dominating first the landscape and then his field of vision,

SOS: As he draws near and realises just how great an opportunity this is, his faith, which had been neglected due to his preoccupation up until now, grows within him until he can think of nothing else. Removed from Carlisle, he’s found his Father again, and now he’s going to desperately cling to that.

and he felt as if he had shrunk down, was seven years old again,

SOS: This growth of faith transports him to a bygone era, when he was still human and naïve and trusted in God for all manners of guidance. Basically, the Church provided him with yet another way to connect to humanity, and we all know how Edward acts around chances to be closer to human again.

William: This does introduce an interesting point of how Edward IS a child. He is a character of extremes, being both the weary, old traveller who has seen far more of society than he wants to AND the naïve little child who still trusts in everything. As much experience as Edward has had, he still doesn’t understand, he still doesn’t know. It’s this ignorance and this lack of experience when it came to communication that will lead to his downfall.

scrubbed and clean and wearing his suit,

SOS: I don’t have anything to say here except I DEMAND FANART NAO. NAO, DAMMIT.

Mother holding his hand as they went to church on Sunday as they did every week.

William: The church-going is actually a routine, a staple in his life that he lacks now. It was something that was a constant presence in his human life, so no wonder he associates it with humanity.

SOS: And it ties back into his family life, too, something we’ve also seen how much he’s attached to in the last Part. This is NOT a good combination, guys.

Before and after church was time for socializing, Mother serving and chatting at picnics and teas, and Father hobnobbing with his fellow businessmen,

SOS: Even more than that, it was a time for connection, for community, for SOCIALISING. It was a place to belong.

William: And so we see that throughout his life, Edward had only ever been around people who belonged. Both his mother and father were popular in their social circles, and even as a loner, he could still belong in his books. Being thrown into vampirism suddenly took what he took for granted as just another facet of life away, and he simply couldn’t deal with it.

but when in the church, Mother told him, he was with God.

Edward stopped at the foot of the stairs and looked up, craning his head back to see the top of the tower. The massive, gray stone structure had always filled him with a sense of awe, not just from the sheer size, but because Mother told him that God lived there. When he was older, he’d come to understand the more abstract nature of that statement, and yet every time he had come here, walked up the steps to go inside, he’d felt that flutter of fearful excitement in his stomach, and deep inside, he was still that little boy who just knew that he was going to go through the doors and meet God face to face.

SOS: I’m sorry for leaving a huge chunk in like that un-sporked, but…I have to confess here that I DO know how significant that passage is in establishing Edward’s character and his relationship with God, and maybe even how he thinks of God (as a friend and companion), but…I can’t analyse it. I’m not religious, I really don’t understand the concept of church…he’s trying to describe music to a deaf person here.

I’m not saying that I don’t relate to him in this passage. I do understand his feelings of awe mixed with fear (that’s the exact emotion I feel towards Mrs. Hyde). I do understand Edward’s childish trust and dependency on God. I do understand how he’d been taught that God was a constant presence in his life, and is his guardian and companion. I do understand how all of this is important in that it shows us just how much Edward values his religion, so that Maximum Tear-Jerking Value will be achieved. This passage does everything it should. Hell, it doesn’t even break me out of my synchronisation with Edward. I feel the same fearful excitement as him! I just don’t really understand why!

I’d say that’s a huge achievement. So, again, I’m not saying the passage is weak or doesn’t convey what it should. I’m just REALLY not qualified to be analysing someone’s relationship with God when I don’t believe God exists.

He shook himself a little. He wasn’t seven, he was seventeen-no, he was twenty-six

William: Ah, the time motif. It’s really quite nice, the confusion Edward has towards his age. It conveys how time has no meaning for him very effectively.

SOS: And it’s interesting that Edward still instinctively thinks of himself as 17, because that’s the age he has to pretend to be, that’s the age everyone treats him as, and so he can’t get out of that age zone.

William: And despite how Edward tells himself that he’s older now, we still see that he reacts to the church much as the little boy he used to be. It doesn’t matter what his physical age is, in front of Grace Church, he is every bit the seven-year-old that he once was.

SOS: It’s kind of heartbreaking, too, how Edward almost forces himself to grow up here, despite how much peace just being the awed seven-year-old brought him. And really, there was nothing wrong with feeling ‘fearful excitement’ in front of a Church. There’s nothing wrong with being awed by God. And yet he still rejects that and tries to appear a man, because that is what he thinks he should be. It’s a product carried over from Chapter 1, where he is desperate to be acknowledged as the 26-year-old he is in mind, and not be constantly dismissed as a teenager. Having it come back here really compounds how bad vampirism is for his psyche, so much so that he is rejecting completely innocuous activity because he is striving to become an ideal.

-and he smiled a little at his own folly, although if he was going to be honest with himself, it felt a little forced.

William: Honest with yourself? Isn’t it a little bit too late?

SOS: Oh, shut up. You have no right. Not to mention, he’s right here. There is nothing funny about the situation. After seeing how time has flowed past, another reminder of how he is stranded outside the time stream is not amusing. Nor is a child forced to grow up funny at all.

He unlocked his legs and mounted the steps slowly, his shoes clocking over the stone beneath them, the sound loud to him but quiet enough that a human could not hear it.

SOS: In movies, when the footsteps of a character are exaggerated, it usually means a very significant action is about to take place or they are going to a significant place. Here, the fact that it is ONLY exaggerated for Edward signifies how the complete mundane action has PERSONAL significance towards him. GODDAMMIT, WHY IS THIS NOT A MOVIE?

William: To be fair, given the usual trend in adapting books to screen, I’d rather no Hollywood director ever gets his hands on this. Because the result will likely be an utter insult to novel.

The huge open window that spanned the front of the building stared down at him like a great lidless eye,

SOS: …great lidless eye?


Uh…Edward, I hate to break it to you, but I don’t think that’s a Church. Or, at least, not a Catholic Church. As far as I know, Catholics didn’t worship Sauron.

and he stopped again.

William: *Raises eyebrow* Oh, I see now. This is actually quite a central theme of belonging explored by many writers. Despite how we long for belonging, when actually offered the chance to be part of society, inevitably, we falter and we fear. There are too many uncertain, too many doubts, too much distrust. And this hesitance is really not surprising when we look at Edward’s history and how every attempt at belonging he’s tried has failed miserably. Now that what he thinks is what he wants is right within his grasp, no wonder he hesitates. It wouldn’t be surprising if this was just another cruel trick of fate

SOS: I…think you’re just projecting there, William, but I do agree that his hesitancy here is not unfound. Subconsciously, he must know that things have changed and that…well, it doesn’t hit until Chapter 6, but he must have thought about how God may not want him anymore. After all, he is now a monster created by other monsters, someone who has to fight off the urge of murder every day of his existence. I can see why he would interpret such ominous imagery into the Church, as even now, he’s feeling alienated.

As he stared up at the church before him, Edward suddenly felt himself overwhelmed by unease. He was still himself, yes, and this was his church-but he was a vampire.

SOS: O_O I swear to GOD I didn’t know this line was here when I said that paragraph up there. I swear I didn’t. I totally just predicted the story, dude.

William: Well, given how you’re all ~synchronised~ with Edward, frankly, it’s nothing to be proud of.

SOS: But really, this highlights what’s wrong with Edward’s situation so well. He was still himself, still human, still not that different from Edward Mason, just with more worries. And the old, familiar locations are still there, unchanged. But he can’t belong anymore, he can’t go back there and just fit right in, because…vampire. He’s a VAMPIRE. Not only can’t he return because of the law governing him, but also because…VAMPIRE. Do I even need to explain why it might be hard for a vampire to fit in seamlessly into human society? After 2 bloody chapters?

No, he wasn’t a demon from those ridiculous horror stories used to frighten children, he had a reflection and didn’t sleep in a coffin and the sight of a crucifix didn’t send him fleeing, and yet…

SOS: That, viewers, is some truly EPIC foreshadowing, and oh GOD is this going to come back and bite us in the ass.

William: That’s because this has nothing to do with the physical, Edward. It doesn’t matter if you had a reflection or not. That’s just a minor detail. What IS important is that you, like traditional vampires, require blood (preferably human blood) for sustenance. Your existence is built around murder. That’s why you don’t feel right approaching a Church of a supposedly benevolent God.

Now he was being ridiculous.

SOS: Yes, you are. Now, stop being ridiculous, get out of Chicago, and go sight-seeing I don’t care where. JUST GET OUT OF THERE, YOU IDIOT.

Carlisle had been around much longer than he had-even still going to church when he could

SOS: Oh, nice. How interesting. Uh…no. There’s really no deeper analyses here, because…yeah, I could talk about the juxtaposition of Carlisle and Edward and maybe even a hint of hope here that one day, Edward can learn to be like Carlisle…but I really just liked the nice little characterisation here. You have no idea how convincing Carlisle’s faith is with just that one sentence, as opposed to canon!Carlisle, who was supposedly faithful, but never went to church.

-and he was firmly convinced that vampires were just another of God’s creatures

William: I wonder if that’s not Carlisle’s personal coping mechanism, convincing himself that God wanted this, had meant for this to happen. So, he clings to his faith, just as Esme clings to him and Edward clings to the last remnants of his humanity.

SOS: Oh, and you just HAD to go and make the only…what, well-adjusted people in this fic have a whole bunch of psychological problems too?

William: *Shrugs* In a fic containing this many mental issues, you eventually start expecting them. But really, how could he believe that otherwise? Mrs. Hyde’s vampires clearly break a lot of laws of physics with…magic. So, unless he’s saying vampires are ‘special’ children of God, he has to be deluding himself to some degree…

-for surely, didn’t God create all things?

SOS: Which is an interesting question. Did God create vampires? If so, why did he use such a different set of rules for them than everyone else? What purpose were they created for? If Carlisle is Christian, then he must have heard God give humanity mastery over all other animals in Genesis…so how do vampires fit into the scheme? I’m not saying that it’s ridiculous for him to believe this, I understand why he would completely - I’m just interested in people’s philosophies.

William: *Raises eyebrows* I have to say that Carlisle disturbs me. He has accepted vampires as a part of nature, as God’s creation also. And since God makes no mistakes…doesn’t that mean he INTENDED for vampires to kill humans? Doesn’t that mean vampires have every right to murder for food? Really, I wonder how many vampires have used that excuse as a get-out-of-jail-free card, ‘Oh, but it’s in our nature! Surely, god wanted us to do it!’ Carlisle is a good person here, his only fault is perhaps just a few bad decisions which everyone has made in their lives, but his philosophy can be twisted so easily...

He wasn’t a demon, had made no deal with the Devil to become what he was,

SOS: Uh…are you sure about that Edward? You…well, YOU didn’t make a deal with Carlisle, you mother did, and I guess you can’t call Carlisle the fucking Devil…but you did say ‘yes’. You did agree to become a vampire in exchange for your life. Just because you regretted giving consent, doesn’t mean it was non-consensual…

William: And since when did people who made deals with the Devil automatically become demons? Because that seems a rather risky recruiting program to me…

SOS: Hey, theology works differently in different universes. Just because you have concrete proof that every demon in your world was once a fallen angel, doesn’t mean it applies to other dimensions now.

and most importantly, he didn’t feed on the blood of the living.

SOS: So, basically, the reason he thinks he still deserves to be in the presence of God is because a) he didn’t want this life he’s living and didn’t actively choose to participate in it and b) because nothing he has done is really morally wrong yet. I think you can see how horrible this is going to turn out.

William: *Sighs* Really, he should learn to stop showing how he treasures something, because as soon as he does that, that thing ALWAYS gets taken away from him in the most cruel manner imaginable.

Taking a deep breath and squaring his shoulders, now determined to go inside for no real reason that he could fathom, he marched up the remaining steps.

SOS: Here, let me help you: you want to go inside in order to prove that you’re not a demon, that your existence is not an abomination upon creation. You want to go inside to prove to yourself that all of your desperate denials are true. You want to go inside not just because it contained good memories and was a staple of your childhood, but it might also be the one place where you can still find a friend anymore. You want to go inside because you want to prove to yourself that god still wants you and loves you.

William: And because you want all that, you will not be getting it. Because ALL writers are sadistic bitches.

SOS: HEY! Only I get to say that, okay? And that’s because I AM sort of vaguely a writer myself!

William: Given what I’ve suffered at your hands, I think I have the right to a bit of complaining.

SOS: *Sighs* Well, that and bitching is basically your central character trait.

I think I’ll go back to recapping now, because I can’t Spork the ENTIRETY of this section. That would be rude.

As Edward approaches the door, it swings open…almost as if God sensed Edward coming, huh?

William: And yes, that statement will bite us on the ass VERY shortly.

SOS: It’s quite important that Edward’s approach to the Church is cut short. He never gets inside. He never enters the House of God. It continues the motif of Edward being stuck outside in the rain AND emphasises how he can’t quite return to his faith, whether because of his own hesitancy or because…well, because he has changed and time has passed on and what was once his is no longer there.

We once again see Edward’s powers in action, as he immediately tells that the man who came out was Deacon Parsons, a rather new minister. *Sighs* Even the TYPE of information that’s the most prominent in his mind-reading, the type we get informed about, emphasises the negative, doesn’t it? It specifically emphasises how the Deacon is young and inexperienced and how Edward had been to the Church for far longer than he has. Yeah, this is not going to turn out well.

Parsons is very surprised by Edward, even jumping a little as he sees him (CONSISTENCY, FUCK YEAH), but Edward remains polite and calm and greets him. The fact that Edward is trying so hard here to be courteous is NOT going to make the situation better, because it will just inevitably make us hate Parsons even more. All he sees is a dangerous-looking teenager loitering around, but we can see how hard Edward is trying, we KNOW how important this is to him, and we KNOW how devastated he would be if he was denied his last refuge.

And by making Edward so polite, Mrs. Hyde shows us that the ONLY reason he wasn’t accepted into Church would be because of his vampiric nature. As in, she just confirmed his belief that God no longer wants him in his house because he’s a vampire now. There is no other reason a minister would be sent to turn him away.

William: This also reminds us, in a way, that Edward is not bad at social interaction, per se. As we’ve seen, he’s polite and gentlemanly, with quite a witty sense of humour. The only reason we can find that he’s not as popular as he should be is that he exudes an aura of threat. This pins the blame for why Edward is not able to belong right on his vampirism. We all know that he would be a charming person, if not for the fact that we instinctively fear him.

This also makes us relate to Edward more, as we, the readers, don’t feel the threatening aura, so we are perfectly able to sympathise with him. Therefore, we feel the same frustration and anger as him when the people around him are affected and treat him with hostility.

SOS: In this case, it’s not just that! Remember, Edward HAS been living in the element for long, and the pale, sunken-eyed look that apparently all vampires have just makes him look like a drifter, which, of course, does NOT help the situation.

Understandably, Parsons is wary and asks what Edward wants.

Again, Edward tries hard to be unthreatening and ‘pleasant’, specifically saying that, ‘his presence enough was alarming on its own, no need to add to it.’

It’s perfectly understandable, but it still kind of pains me to see just how ashamed he is of himself. I mean, it’s reasonable here, but this still feels like body image issues.

William: Well, vampirism is basically a shame to Edward. And it’s quite amazing here how far he goes to make sure Parsons is comfortable around him. Sure, a part of the reason he’s doing this is to get in Parsons’ favour so he can be let into the church, but a huge part of it is also that he doesn’t want to be feared, he doesn’t want to use his nature charm or nature threat to manipulate people into giving him what he want. He just wants to…to belong, to have people be nothing more than comfortable around him. He just wants to be human.

SOS: Edward tells Parsons that he wants to see the church because he used to attend it, but Parsons is doubtful. Specifically, he thinks so because Edward’s clothing is rumpled and dirty and his hair is messy. Again, it’s a very human reaction to judge people by how they look…but GOD, does being shallow like this piss me off. Of course, a huge reason is because we KNOW and Parsons doesn’t…it just occurred to me that if ANYONE else in the story had mind-reading as a power, everyone would be a lot happier. This power was literally handed to the WORST person possible.

William: Again, here, there is a regression to childhood, as Edward expresses sudden shame for his appearance and thinks about how his mother would be ‘appalled to see him like this’. He is being transported back to the scrubbed and cleaned 7-year-old mommy’s boy he was, which is appropriate as a large reason he is going to church in the first place is to reclaim his humanity. This also makes us hate the Deacon even more, as psychologically speaking, he’s not just crushing yet another one of Edward’s hopes, but also essentially turning a 7-year-old away from church. We can’t blame him, but that doesn’t mean we can really like him.

SOS: He probably would have had problems with vandals before or something, but it still made me grit my teeth when he coldly informs Edward that service is tomorrow afternoon, so he should kindly GTFO. I’m really not sure if I’m immersing with Edward or adopting him as a son, because people who hurt him press my Mama Bear button like crazy. No matter how justified they are, I still want to jump in the story and tear them a new one…

William: Which, I guess, is a borderline good thing. That means the author of this story actually succeeded in making you care about her main character and not want him to be hurt.

SOS: Edward argues that everyone should be allowed in a church, which is a very valid point. No matter how run down they look, actually, ESPECIALLY if they look run down, the Church should be open as a place for anyone at all to seek shelter and comfort. And turning someone away from God because they’re not dressed nicely enough is just…dickish. I mean, people dress well at Church to pay their respect, but that shouldn’t be a REQUIREMENT for being allowed in the House of God.

William: And that’s just it. That’s exactly what should happen in an ideal society. But this isn’t an ideal society. This is a place where people are paranoid and distrustful and shallow and asshole-ish on general principle. Edward had lived a sheltered life where everything he had heard about how great God was, was never contradicted. Now, suddenly shown the darker side of society, suddenly being confronted by people who aren’t nice to him (because he’s no longer a child)…of course, he would be confused. Again, even after a long decade, Edward is still a sheltered little kid who’s seeing the unpleasant sides of humanity for the first time. It really doesn’t surprise me that he resorted to vigilantism in the end.

SOS: Anyways, Parsons blocks Edward’s way and snidely tells him that ONLY those who ‘seek prayer and comfort’ is welcome in Church, and not people who are obviously looking to sleep in the place or steal something. Okay, again, I totally understand that he needs to maintain the image of the church and having random hobos lying around isn’t the way to do is…but isn’t the House of God meant to be a shelter, a sanctuary?

William: *Shrugs* Not all people can be ideal, as Edward is learning now.

SOS: This is probably even more insulting to Edward because what the Deacon is saying is that Edward couldn’t POSSIBLY need prayer or comfort. He wants nothing from God himself. And we all know that the only reason Edward approached the church in the first place is because he NEEDS God, he needs guidance, he needs COMFORT. The Deacon is downplaying everything Edward had been through, dismissing his longing and despair as if it’s nothing. He doesn’t know he’s doing it, and so we can’t blame him for it, but we can also understand exactly why Edward would snap.

And that’s exactly what he does.

He seethes at the Deacon in anger and rants on the inside about how he was a part of the church community, his father and mother have both contributed to it, and he had been a member of the church for years, and he lived in the immediate area and…

William: Yes, again, we have a contrast to his childhood. He WAS a part of the community and contributed to it. He WAS once welcome in this place. He DID have every right to enter that church. And yet none of these reasons will allow him entry now. He wasn’t Edward Mason any longer. He can’t claim to be officially related to his father and mother without invoking the wrath of the Imperials. And he didn’t live here anymore. He was a stranger in a familiar land. And it doesn’t matter how he can remember everything, because nothing remembers him.

SOS: Edward acknowledges that, too. ‘His father no longer donated money, and his mother had made that cloth nearly twenty years ago, and it was probably gone long since, and he…was a vagrant, a man with no home, living in the woods and hopping trains like an indigent. He wasn’t part of this church anymore.’

Things have CHANGED. What once facilitated belonging - his parents, his home, his humanity - have all been taken away from him. He became Edward Cullen a decade ago, but he didn’t realise just how much he had to sacrifice because of that. He never realised that he needed to stop thinking of himself as Edward Mason. And this whole chapter is basically about that - Edward realising that he wasn’t a Mason anymore and will never be one again and how that realisation affects him.

William: Hint: it’s not pretty.

SOS: Edward stiffly bids the Deacon farewell and leaves. Throughout this chapter and the start of the next, Edward steadily gets angrier and angrier at society, and he deals with that rage in the worst way possible - by bottling it up and keeping it suppressed until everything comes to a head and he explodes. Like here, how he is obviously angry, and yet just keeps is all inside. I’m not saying that he should beat the priest up. But…what he’s doing definitely isn’t healthy, either. I mean…ugh…I’m really not sure WHAT he should be doing instead, but watching all of this rage pent up inside him just makes me shiver in dread.

William: Of course, it doesn’t help that Edward STILL DOESN’T LEARN ANYTHING, because he goes right on and heads for his home. This is beyond denial. This is just being masochistic. Really, after everything that has happened, after being beaten on the head with a hammer labelled, ‘MOVED ON, THERE’S NOTHING HERE FOR YOU’, he STILL insists on clinging to his past.

SOS: Of course, there’s really nothing Edward CAN do in these circumstances. It’d actually be out-of-character for him to stop clinging to his past, because that’s all he’s been doing since day one. It’s because delusion is such a big part of his character that Mrs. Hyde has to bring out the big guns and BEAT some sense into him. Doesn’t mean she’s not a sadistic bastard, though.

Well, that’s it for today. You can leave now, William.

William: *Wryly* Thank you for your gracious permission. *Pops away*

SOS: See you next time, guys, where Edward continues to be an absolute IDIOT and go back to his childhood home. If I know myself, there will likely be a lot of tantrum-ing and crying.

Go Forward to: Chapter 2 Part 2, Section C

Go Back to: Chapter 2 Part 2, Section A