Anti-Spork: The Darkest Hour by Mrs. Hyde - Chapter 2 Part 2 (Section C)
SOS: Welcome, readers, to another part of the anti-sporking. As William said in the last part, Edward...is still as in denial as ever and determined to go and see his childhood home, despite the fact that it should be more than clear that nothing good will come of this. It shall be very painful.
Joining me this time is Brian!
Brian: Erm...hi, guys...
SOS: Let’s dally no further and dive right in!
So, in the last part, Edward was basically told to his face that God doesn’t want him anymore, and left the church in a huff. To compound how tragic this scene it, it starts to freaking RAIN.
Brian: And we know that Edward still feels uncomfortable from the cold and rain, so he’s having physical misery added to his mental anguish.
SOS: Even the WEATHER is conspiring against the guy! Really!
Even better, Mrs. Hyde again reminds us of how much his childhood home was a part of his life and his nature by having his feet still remember the way home. It’s also probably symbolic for how places that are filled with happy childhood memories draws Edward to them like a magnet. A very, very tragic magnet.
Brian: And it’s probably done in preparation for when he has his fond childhood memories ripped away from him as well, so that he would have nowhere to hide and nothing to comfort himself with. Because when you take something away from your characters, when you make them sacrifice something, you have to establish how important that thing is to them firstly, so that we can appreciate how big the sacrifice is. If you don’t do that, the scene just falls flat.
SOS: ...Edward ACTUALLY FUCKING WAKES UP A LITTLE and tells himself that this ISN’T HIS HOME. But I can’t even appreciate THIS little flash of LOGIC, because it’s immediately followed by this passage: ‘Lights were winking on in the surrounding houses as the weak afternoon light began to fail, the rain and the sinking sun bringing darkness slowly upon the town.’
It’s amazing how nature is used in this story. It’s both a source of comfort for Edward and oftentimes a reflection of Edward himself. It’s the perfect sanctuary, as not only does it offer Edward peace, but also understanding. As Edward’s world starts falling apart, as he FINALLY realises that there’s nothing left for him anymore, light flees the world around him and darkness falls. And once again, he finds himself outside, in the rain, and terribly alone.
There’s even the contrast, again, of the lights in the houses! The people inside have families and a place in society and somewhere to belong to, and thus are surrounded by light, while Edward is left in the dark.
Brian: And isn’t it kind of symbolic in another way, as in...he’s literally in the dark? He doesn’t quite know what he’s meant to be doing and where to go? He’s just blundering around, utterly blinded, getting hurt in the process. And he can’t escape the darkness, because it has filled his world. ...That, or I’m just projecting William onto everyone I meet.
SOS: Again, Edward DISPLAYS ACTUAL LOGIC and thinks that he should be there, as...well, there’s nothing more to be done there. The house was probably resold and the world has moved on. Just because it was once his, doesn’t mean it still belongs to him.
Yes, Edward, I COMPLETELY AGREE. NOW, TURN AROUND AND GO AWAY AND, OH I DON’T KNOW, GO TRAVELLING OR SOMETHING! It would make everyone’s lives a LOT less painful!
‘No-but he wanted to see it. Needed to see it, needed to know that some part of him remained here.’
Brian: On the one hand, I suppose it is quite in-character that he would cling to that miniscule hope that he could still belong in SOME miniscule corner of the world, seeing as that had been his hope for the past decade and his primary method of coping. This was the only place he remembered being truly happy at. It doesn’t surprise me that he would long for it after the disastrous rejection at the church. He obviously needs reassurance right now, but on the other hand...
SOS: HE’S AN IDIOT! HE’S A GODDAMNED IDIOT! HE’S ALREADY ACKNOWLEDGED THAT THERE’S NO WAY THIS COULD END WELL, AND HE’S STILL FREAKING DOING IT!
Brian: Well, again, it’s very much in-character for him, as well as many other people who are in denial, to do this. It’s...pretty realistic, actually.
SOS: BUT I CAN STILL RANT ABOUT HOW ILLOGICAL PEOPLE ARE! This is going to HURT, dammit, all because he’s too...too caught up in his memories to LET THE FUCK GO!
Brian: To be fair, you’d be ranting even if he let go, because...that’d be characterisation rape.
SOS: God, this fic turns me into a Suethor...
Mrs. Hyde decides to hurry up and get the pain started and Edward quickly arrives at his house, and then...OH CHRIST, SHE GIVES HIM A FUCKING HOPE SPOT. A HOPE SPOT!!! RIGHT BEFORE WHAT WE ALL KNEW WAS COMING, SHE GIVES EDWARD A FUCKING HOPE SPOT.
‘There-and for a moment, there in the failing light, it was as if he was home.’
And he goes on to describe how it was exactly as if he was coming home from the library and he could imagine going into the house and there his parents would be, completely unchanged, greeting him back with a warm smile and OH MY GOD, I cannot do this. I CANNOT. It’s not possible. All I can muster up at this point is WHYYYYYY, MRS. HYDE, WHYYYYYYYY? And that’s not very entertaining.
So, I’ll just say this: Mrs. Hyde, YOU ARE A SADISTIC BASTARD, to lure him into a sense of security. You are a BASTARD for giving him a taste of what he had, all the while knowing that he’ll never gain it back again. You are a goddamned BASTARD for letting him taste what belonging is like, for giving him hope, for the specific purpose of ripping it to SHREDS. YOU BASTARD.
Brian: This is a powerful moment for the readers as well. From Chapter 1, we know Edward longs for humanity and misses his human life, but back then, we didn’t know what his life was like before becoming a vampire - he was so preoccupied by his mind-reading and bloodlust that he could hardly think about anything else - so we didn’t really appreciate what he had lost. This chapter showed us his past. This chapter showed us what he was missing. This chapter showed us what he LOST.
This brings everything into perspective, because this allows us to feel the same sense of bitterness as Edward, because we now know exactly what had been robbed from him.
This is all an attempt to make us empathise with and immerse into Edward. By first heaping such misery on him and showing us how much his life sucks, Mrs. Hyde shows us a brief vision of what had been - of what could still be if only Edward wasn’t a vampire. Naturally, we would want it, just as Edward wants it. And at the same time, we would know it wasn’t possible, just like how Edward knows it’s not possible. And thus, we would share in his longing and loss.
SOS: And by GOD, did she succeed.
‘His heart no longer beat, but he still felt a sudden, painful thump in his chest as he snapped from his fantasy.’
I swear to God, Mrs. Hyde is the MASTER at writing heart motifs for people who aren’t supposed to have heartbeats. First her Supernatural fic, and now this. She has it down to an art form.
Brian: It’s sort of reminds us of how...human Edward is, by giving him an essentially human reaction. Because even though, physically, he’s a vampire, he’s never been one mentally. Everything about him was fundamentally human, and that’s why it’s so hard to read about his vampirism preventing him from belonging in human society, because we know that deep down, he IS human.
SOS: Oh, and by ‘snapped from his fantasy’, Mrs. Hyde MEANS snapped from his fantasy. Now that he’s here, staring in the face of the symbolism of his childhood, he can no long cling onto his past. Now, all the glaring differences are jumping out at him and pointing out exactly how much the times have moved on. What he had been comforting himself with for the past...decade has just been ripped from him.
And this is arguably even worse than the previous section, because...though Edward’s faith is important and intrinsic to him, it’s only been called to our attention in the last section. Mrs. Hyde did a great job of telling us just how much he longs for the comfort of a church, but it’s still a rather sudden development. His memories, however, have been there since the very start. All throughout this chapter, we’ve been shown time and time again just how much he clings to it, how he uses it as a coping mechanism. So, when it’s taken away from him here, we can really understand his despair and pain.
Brian: In fact, I have a feeling that the church incident is there partially as a way to fuel even more pain into this scene. Even at the church, he’s being made to acknowledge on some level that there’s nothing left here for him anymore - his father and mother no longer participate in church, and he himself hasn’t been there in a decade. But still, he clings to his memories with almost palpable desperation. His belief in his ability to belong here had been shaken, and now he must prove that there’s at least one corner left for him to himself.
SOS: Not to mention, all the pain and anger he has pent up from that encounter with the Deacon is only going to pent up higher during this.
Despite the suddenness with which his denial was ripped away from him, the process with which Edward discovered just how much time has moved on is actually quite gradual. Because Mrs. Hyde wants to make it as slow and painful as she can, DAMMIT.
At first, he only notices the cosmetic changes - the decorations around the windows are a bit different, the house was painted another colour, and so on and so forth. It’s almost as if he was concentrating on those in one last bid to hold onto his delusions and convince himself that his parents were still here, that the changes didn’t matter. But then, the more obvious and heart-wrenching differences come through.
Edward realises that the house wasn’t just CHANGED. Oh no. It was DESTROYED.
‘His mother’s prize rosebushes were gone, ripped out, and the planters were instead filled with an ill-kempt riot of juniper and a stand of deadened bushes, jutting blackly out from the mounds of old snow that still filled them. The meticulously-kept lawn was brown and shaggy…’
Not only has time moved on, but it has moved on in such a way that it didn’t build up on or improve the past - it killed the past.
If his childhood home was a symbol of everything Edward held dear - his parents, his memories, his humanity - then we see here just how much the passage of time has render each and one of them a cruel mockery of the original.
What her mother had sown and cultivated and carefully brought up has been uprooted and replaced by something half-dead, wild, and twisted and wrong. And there was no one around to get rid of the pest and restore the place. And Edward cannot do anything about it either, because the situation was out of his hands. His childhood belonged to someone else now, and as much as he wants to, he can never enter what was once his safe haven.
Brian: The words used to describe the scene, ‘ripped out…ill-kempt riot…jutting out blackly’ carry quite violent connotations, probably alluding both to the cruelty of time and Edward’s own mounting fury.
SOS: Even worse, there’s apparently a party going on inside, and everyone is having a GREAT time.
Not only was the past destroyed, but the people don’t care at all. They don’t appreciate the significance of what they had bulldozed over. They don’t realise what they had lost. And even worse than that, they were revelling in it. They don’t care that the rosebushes had been grown over by weeds; in fact, they probably liked what they did with the juniper out there. They were having a great time.
The world is perfectly content in the state it is. Only Edward can tell how inadequate and destructive it is, because he’s an outsider, but it is BECAUSE he’s an outsider that he can’t do anything about it.
Brian: Knowing his mind-reading, that party must be like salt in a wound. These people aren’t just trampling all over what he treasured, but rubbing the fact that they have what he’ll never have in his face. His home, his sanctuary, his place of belonging is now theirs. And they can do whatever they want to it, and he won’t be able to do a thing to stop it because…it was their right. That place, his childhood home, belonged to them now.
This is not a good combination with his pent up anger and frustration.
SOS: Having STILL not learned from his experiences, Edward creeps up to the house (he’s having to be STEALTHY around his OWN HOME because if he was caught around it, he COULD be arrested - that is just plain cruel) and looks in the parlour.
Of course, the inside is drastically changed, too.
‘The soft cream-colored walls had been papered over with a garish paisley, and thick carpet covered the wooden floors. The fireplace was cold and dark, but the hideous parti-colored shades on the multitude of lamps gave the place a wild, hedonistic look.’
So, inside the house, the past had been covered up, buried under new changes. It’s still there, but no one can see it anymore, because they are too focused on the present.
Brian: More than that. What was being covered up was not only the past, but also nature. The natural wooden floors are covered by carpet, the natural warmth and light from the fireplace is being replaced by lamps…It’s not just the past that was forgotten, but also nature, which is being replaced by the artificial. And nature is every bit as important to Edward as his childhood home at this point.
SOS: Mrs. Hyde goes on to emphasise one of the points I made earlier with this passage:
‘The house was packed and loud with wild, riotous guests, abandoned drinks littering the furniture, and Edward stared bleakly inside, cold and lost outside the window.’
Even with how much his home has changed, even when it has been corrupted and twisted into a faint shadow of its former self, Edward still longs to get inside because…the very reason he clings to his past so is because he wants to BELONG.
Brian: But that is exactly how he spends most of his time - trapped outside, because everything about his circumstances conspires to keep him alone.
SOS: Of course, Edward STILL keep searching for something, anything, that might be left over from his past - and we get a feeling that this isn’t denial any longer. It’s just plain, old desperation. This place was literally his last hope and he’s clinging to it like a drowning man to a straw.
He climbs up the trellis to the second story of the house and looks into his parents’ room. And, of course, it’s also completely destroyed, with the old walls covered with new paper and the room messy and covered with dirty clothes. GOD, the WORST people got their hands on Edward’s home, didn’t they? It almost seems like they were TRYING to rub their presence in Edward’s face.
‘Clenching his jaw, he crawled across the eaves, clinging to the side of the house like a spider…’
Ooh~ I see what you did there. Quite a few superhero references in this story, huh?
Brian: That, and description like that help paint a far clearer picture than hundreds of reiterations of ‘gracefully’ and ‘perfectly’. This actually allows us to visualise what Edward looks like as he crawls across the house.
SOS: Confronted with more and more evidence that NOTHING remains here for him anymore - such as how his mother’s sewing room had been turned into a sort of storage unit for useless trinkets - Edward still determinedly makes his way over to his former room.
‘…and found himself looking in on a frilly pink nightmare, not a book in sight, the shelves crammed full of vapid feminine knickknacks, his photographs of Europe and his Yale and Cubs pennants replaced with obnoxious posters of New York City and Rudolph Valentino.’
Frankly, Edward, were you surprised? Everything else you once held dear has been utterly destroyed and buried, why not this too?
Brian: This moment, I think, is especially poignant just because of HOW drastically the room had changed.
SOS: The change was totally unexpected - symbolic, too, in that even if Edward had expected change to happen, he would never have expected the direction or result of the change.
Brian: Not only that, but it was just inconceivable that he might be able to one day belong in this room. The party downstairs may have been an effrontery to everything Edward knew, but he might be able to blend in, in an environment like that, if he opened his mind and let himself drown. But here, there was nothing he can do to adapt to or belong in this new environment. He is a stranger to it in every conceivable way.
SOS: And with the word choices, ‘nightmare…obnoxious…’ it’s quite obvious that he doesn’t WANT to belong here anymore. His childhood home had not only transformed into something strange, but also something repulsive.
He might have been only angry with the current society before, but now he’s outright disgusted. They weren’t just crushing the past as a part of moving forward - they were outright mocking it, to him, at least. And this disgust will only be fuelled by his future encounters with less than pleasant people and will be a big part of his motivation for vigilantism - because he was the only one who knew and he was the only one who CARED.
In a very symbolic moment, stuck by the ignorance and casual cruelty of society, Edward lets go of his clinging and falls.
This moment is followed by a lengthy bit of internal monologue as we see Edward’s despair and pain as his last happy memory being defiled thus. He cracks. And all throughout the rest of this chapter and the beginning of the next, he’s desperately trying to hold himself together, but the crack only grows wider and wider…until he breaks.
I think this calls for some sporking.
This is what he’d come back to? He traveled halfway across the country to see this?
SOS: And FINALLY, he sees what the readers have been screaming at him for an entire chapter - it’s not worth it. What he’s seen in the towns he’s passed through will only be amplified here. What he saw is very much what we imagine - possibly worse - and it’s not worth it. He would have done far better for himself if he just, I don’t know, when sightseeing around parts of the world that he’s never been to.
Brian: But really, whatever was waiting for him here, he’d still be disappointed. He’s used to seeing his past with such rose-coloured glasses, he’s idealised everything associated with it so much, that no matter what he’s presented with, there’s just no way his expectation of PERFECTION can be fulfilled. Even if he had come home to a house that was completely unchanged, all that would do is accentuate just how much he’s lost by emphasising the PEOPLE that can’t be there anymore. And he’d only realise how hollow his house is without his parents.
Hell, even if, through some miracle, his PARENTS had been there, living their lives…that would still only serve to emphasise to him how much HE had changed, because…he can’t go back now. He can’t just walk in the house and be greeted by warm smiles like he did when he was a kid. He’s CHANGED. The world might have stayed still, but HE would have been the one to have been forced to move on in this case.
So, he was setting himself up for disappointment no matter what circumstances.
This tawdry testament to this debauched decade?
SOS: Mrs. Hyde said that Edward doesn’t like the 20s, or anything to do with the 20s, really. And, as much as it is an association between the decade and what he did during it, I think a major part of the reason is also what the decade did to HIM. He idealised the 1910s, and this decade was the one that came along and destroyed everything. With his rose-coloured lenses, it’s no wonder that he saw every new introduction of the decade as an abomination upon something that was pure and good. So, no wonder he can’t appreciate the Cultural Revolution during the time.
Brian: And as for the later decades, well, he obviously wasn’t idealising the 20s or the 30s, so it made sense that he wouldn’t be too pained to see them go. And as he starts putting away his denial about the past, he is able to see things more objectively and start appreciating all the new values and technology.
His house-his home-gone, and this left in its place?
SOS: To Edward, there was simply nothing worthy about the decade. The disgust, the repulsion, in the line is just PALPABLE. We see here that although his denial had been ripped from him, he is still as blind as ever. He can’t accept or even see the good things change has brought, because he is STILL very much clinging to the image of his perfect past. Sure, he knows that he can’t regain it anymore, but now he has an idea of who he can blame for it. In fact, I’m fairly certain that this is the MAIN reason Edward despises the 20s. To him, the 20s was personally responsible for taking everything he had away from him.
Where was the piano where his mother had first taught him his scales? Where was Father’s old roll top desk where he would sit on Saturday afternoons? Where were the sheaves of sheet music that he played and all the phonographs that he would listen to in the evenings? Where was his collection of baseball cards that he and his father had amassed together? Where were all the books in the library, the collections of Shakespeare and Dickens and Tennyson and Twain? Where was his grandfather Edward’s Civil War rifle and medals, his father’s pocket watch, his mother’s diamond necklace, the Mason family Bible, his parents’ photographs-
SOS: Here we see JUST how important a role this house played in Edward’s life. Of course, we always knew how much his sanity depended upon it, but it is here that we see how almost everything Edward loved had come from here. His parents, their nurturing, his hobbies, his ancestors, love, faith, belong, EVERYTHING he prized, it was all rooted in this house.
Brian: Even more stunning is the level of detail here. Rather than brushing everything over with a few generalisations, Mrs. Hyde is really precise here - the pocket watch, the necklace, etc - because, like SOS said before, it’s the little things that make it work. The tiny details that make or break a book. And here, it REALLY makes this story great, because we see here just HOW obsessed Edward had been that he can recall such minute details after a decade of not seeing the house. As well, this really paints a picture of not only what the house looked like, but how the household that inhabited it functioned. We’re told that the family was quite wealthy, with very sophisticated tastes in music and literature, was close with the grand-parents who were war veterans, was quite religious…every few words tell us so much about the Mason family. And the more we know about them, the more we appreciate exactly what Edward had lost and even start to relate and empathise with him.
Where was his life?!
SOS: That’s why you’re called ‘undead’, dear. You have no life.
Brian: But the distinction is rather interesting, though. What he was looking for all throughout the past chapters wasn’t just life, it was HIS life. Obviously, he felt that for the past decade, he had been living someone else’s live. And it does make sense, too. He was being forced to be something he had never even heard about. He had been thrown from human to vampire in the blink of an eye. And even now, his body is a stranger to him. And now, he’s searching for HIS life, the life of Edward Mason, the life of a human. And, of course, it’s gone now, just as his humanity was gone. The life he identified with was ripped from him with his identity.
SOS: It’s interesting how he defines ‘life’, too. He exists now, he lives (to some degree). He needs nutrients. He goes to school. He has a goal. He has a family (sort of). Just how DOES he define ‘living’? Easy.
Living equals belonging to Edward.
And it’s only when he can belong that he feels alive.
And so he came to this place, something that not only signified his former identify, but also the very concept of belonging itself, in order to search for life.
His hands flew up to his head, grabbing handfuls of his hair as he pressed his forehead to his knees.
SOS: This is actually a fairly common action Edward does against emotional pain - he did it after he tried to have sex with the prostitute in Chapter 1, he’s doing it now, and he’ll do it again twice in the future. I’ll talk more on it later, but the act of curling up in fetal position and being utterly helpless, to the point that he can do nothing but pull at his hair in impotent frustration, really creates an air of vulnerability. It brings home just how fragile Edward is and how easily he could break apart.
Brian: And it does make sense why he’d do this because…well, the most common way to express pain is crying, and that option is not open to him. He can’t cry. He can’t vent his pain that way. So, he has to find something else.
SOS: Not to mention, it kind of brings home just how alone Edward is. There’s no one to hold him, no one to warm him, so he has to curl in and hold himself together. Point is, it’s utterly heart-breaking because it brings home all the things that make this character so tragic - his naivety, his vulnerability, and his…aloneness.
Was there nothing here left of him, not even the slightest remnant or memory to show that Edward Anthony Mason had once lived and laughed and loved and died here? Was ten years all it took to erase everything about him?
SOS: Edward, when Carlisle faked that death certificate….well, he wasn’t faking it. He really had killed Edward Mason that day. Of course there’s nothing left of you. You’ve been dead for a decade!
Brian: I…really have nothing to say. I think that passage was pretty self-explanatory. Anything I can say would just take away from it.
With a bitter laugh, he realized that even he had nothing left of his life;
SOS: See? I told you, all the childhood memories we’ve been treated to last and this chapter are all building up to this point. Because…even Edward didn’t retain anything of Mason on him. The little nub of a bone in his wrist caused by the accident was gone. His appearance had subtly changed. Hell, even his personality had transformed, becoming more bitter and jaded over the years.
Brian: And that must have been a harsh blow to Edward because a part of him has always thought of himself as Edward Mason. That’s why he refuses to eat people, that’s why he was so outraged by impolite gentlemen, that’s why he was so frustrated at being refused entry into church. He still identified himself as Edward Mason, and he’s just been told that he WASN’T. Edward Mason wouldn’t have learned how to hunt down wild animals and eat them raw. Edward Mason wouldn’t feel the constant urge to murder. Edward Mason wouldn’t be plagued by foreign thoughts.
the only evidence that his family had ever existed at all were the two wedding rings on the chain around his neck-
SOS: Let me draw a comparison to canon again, here, even though we ALL know that The Darkest Hour is vastly superior.
In Eclipse, we learned that Edward had inherited all of his parents things, which, frankly, makes no sense. Not if he wants to protect his identity. Because the government actually checks into who the hell is claiming inheritance. There is simply no way that he could have pulled that off without some serious Author Intervention. And we all know that it’s solely to make him even richer than the other disgustingly rich Cullens.
And he gives his mother’s ring to Bella as a part of his proposal, all the while laughing about it and calling it a bauble and making it clear that the ring had no sentimental value to him. Furthermore, he even gave away a few of his parents’ trinkets to his family members.
We see it clearly that these things don’t matter to him. His past, his real family, even his humanity is nothing but a cheap gift in a mountain of cheap gifts to be given away at a moment’s notice. And as such, not only do we find it difficult to sympathise with him (because we ARE human), but it also reduces the significant of his giving Bella that ring. It’s not like he’s parting with an incredibly precious treasure, thus showing how much Bella’s love matter to him. He’s just handing out cheap, old stuff and everyone got a share.
Brian: If Hyde!Edward eventually decides to use these rings as a part of his proposal, then all we need to do is look back upon this chapter and we’ll see how grave a gesture that is. It’s the only thing he had left of his parents, the last reminder of the Mason family, and it’s more than clear here just how much his human family matters to him. Thus, we would really appreciate just how much Bella means to him by the fact that he was willing to part with such a priceless (in sentimental value, at least) artefact. And it would show how highly he thought of her, that he thought she deserved something that belonged to his mother, whom he views through rose-coloured lenses.
all that Carlisle had seen fit to scavenge from his parents’ bodies as he smuggled their dying son out of the hospital.
SOS: This is a rather symbolic gesture on his part. Not only is he giving Edward something to remember his parents and human life by, but the item he chose symbolised his parents love - the love that resulted in Edward’s existence. So, in a way, we can say that his parents are still living close to his heart (since he wears the rings on a chain), always together, and their love is always with him. And he’s made sure that they are always remembered.
Brian: I can’t help but think it was a rather cruel thing to do, putting a reminder that his parents sacrificed themselves out of love for him right in Edward’s face…but I guess it would be even more cruel to have let those rings be buried with his parents and really remove all trace that the Mason family had once existed.
And for what?
SOS: See, Meyer? If you want us to believe that your characters hate being a monster, you actually have to have them believe that they are a monster. You actually have to make them believe that this life isn’t worth living. You actually have to praise humanity and elevate us to almost god-like status, in order to convince us that your character longs for humanity.
This not-life that stretched endlessly on, an eternity of pointless monotony, of pretending to be something that he wasn’t, a never-ending waste of everything he had ever been, of his hopes and dreams and aspirations? To live on after everyone and everything he’d ever cared about was gone, with no chance of ever reclaiming it again?
SOS: I really don’t think anything needs to be said here. This is basically just a summary of everything we’ve seen of Edward’s beliefs and attitude, from Chapter 1 until now. Again, it’s self-explanatory, and if you don’t get what about that is brilliant or heart-breaking, then nothing I can say can convince you.
Let’s go back to…um…very wordy recapping, shall we?
Brian: Yes, of course.
SOS: Edward’s musing is interrupted as a flash light shines into his eyes. He scrambles about a bit and realises that it’s a police officer…who’s just caught him having an emotional breakdown on PRIVATE property. How fantastic.
Brian: He just…never gets a moment of peace, does he? I mean, not that what he was having was PEACEFUL in any stretch on imagination, but it’s just stunning how bad things just keep happening to him, one on the heels of another. He’s never allowed any respite.
SOS: Of course not. And it’s interesting that EVERYONE he meets is inconsiderate and unknowingly pushes his buttons. Mrs. Hyde is building him up, so of course, she can’t give him a rest and let all the tension that’s building towards a climax go to waste.
Well, anyways, the police officer demands what he’s doing here and Edward explains that he was just ‘taking a bit of a walk down memory lane.’ And he approaches the police officer with his hands raised.
Needless to say, this person doesn’t react all that well to him either, with the combination of his tattered clothes and predatory aura. He thinks, ‘(This looks like the bum what got spotted sleazing around here)’.
Looking back upon the chapter, only one person could have reported and described him to the police - the Deacon.
Edward is being forced from his house and treated like an intruder in his own hometown directly because he tried to get closer to God. And in a way, you almost can’t blame him…because this story was very necessary for Edward. Although even at the start, he was miles above canon!Edward because he was a butt-monkey instead of an asshole, it was his future experiences as a vigilante that taught him WHY Carlisle had the philosophy he had. That forced him to make a conscious decision of embarking on life with Carlisle with an animal-diet. That allowed him to appreciate his vampire family and develop a sibling bond with Rosalie and Emmett.
God is getting rid of a Stu for us, and it just sucks that…he decided to do so in such a heart-wrenching way.
The officer is understandably not impressed with Edward’s excuse (seriously, you were sitting on someone else’s lawn, in foetal position, pulling your own hair out. What about that would make him think you were taking a trip down memory lane?) and tells him that he’s breaking the law, thinking in his head that Edward was likely doing drugs…which I guess makes sense, if you consider gaunt, haunted appearance.
Brian: Edward meets some…very rude people, but those people always have a valid reason for acting the way they do. They’re understandable. Edward is just too wrapped up in his own troubles to notice how valid their reactions are. He’s too preoccupied to see the redeeming qualities of people.
SOS: I’m sure you see where this will lead.
Foreshadowing is good, Meyer, but only when it’s SUBTLE.
Edward protests that he lived there before, and the police officer makes fun of him, basically CALLING him a hobo.
Brian: …I take that back. Now he has no excuses, whatsoever. He’s just an asshole.
SOS: It’s interesting that every authority figure that represents justice that Edward sees is both incompetent and just plain asshole-ish. This, again, reinforces his distrust in the justice system, eventually leading to him becoming a vigilante. Because, in his experience, not only are the police incompetent, they are often criminals or mistake the innocent for criminals themselves.
Anyways, they argue back and forth for a bit before the officer issues Edward an ultimatum: leave now and never come back or he’ll MAKE Edward leave. Specifically, he says, ‘…we don’t like your kind around here, boy’.
After being told that he can no longer belong to this place, after being told that he is an intruder upon his own house, you can see how that line might push Edward’s buttons.
Brian: The very person who is meant to protect him from intruders and help make this a safe and welcoming environment to belong to is telling him to GTFO because no one likes him here. He’s being told to leave because no one WANTS him here. And Edward can’t argue against that because…the officer is RIGHT. The town wouldn’t want a vampire there. The town wouldn’t even want a wandering vagabond there.
SOS: Precisely. Which is why Edward comes up with one of the weakest excuses ever.
‘“This is a public place, and I have every right to walk here if I want!” Edward growled.’
No, Edward, you were sitting on someone’s back lawn. That’s…really not a public place.
Brian: But just the fact that he had to make an excuse at all for being around his own home is heart-breaking by itself.
SOS: Well, the officer decides to go the short route and starts yelling at Edward and trying to hit him. Needless to say, that does NOT go well, for much the same reason telling him no one wants him here before was a bad idea.
Edward easily fends off the attack and drags the police officer towards him by the stick. It’s kind of scary how EVERY TIME Edward’s body does work with him and does exactly what he wants, it always amounts to hurting people and causing him to slip and start to lose hold of his humanity. Again, it’s like everything is conspiring against him to push him towards that final leap off the cliff.
And that’s exactly what happens here. Although Edward’s outrage is rather justified in this case (I mean, the police officer was an asshole), it still created a sinking feeling of dread in me because I knows exactly what this MEANS. Not only is it his pent up frustration threatening to explode, but also yet another regression into his vampire side. Although Edward starts off with the intention of quite justifiably telling the policeman that he’s being rude and asshole-ish, we all know where this is going. It doesn’t matter his intention, because we know the result of it. Rather nice foreshadowing, huh?
Brian: It’s also quite impressive and no matter how many times Edward has been tempted thus, Mrs. Hyde always manages to maintain the same level (perhaps even higher) of suspense. We never really know if THIS is the time will push him over the edge. And even here, it’s still basically an even chance whether Edward will be able to pull him back or not.
And think about just how cruel THAT will be. To have him commit murder on grounds so sacred to him. To have him lose his humanity outside the biggest representation of his humanity. To have him violate the sanctity of life beside the reminder of his parents, who died so that he may live.
And frankly, that’s quite a real possibility here. Edward has mountains of barely suppressed anger and frustration in him, he’s just been told by a stranger (quite rudely) that he has no place in his own home, and was violently assaulted. It’s not hard to see him snapping in this case.
SOS: And it’s really quite amazing, too, just how sympathetic Mrs. Hyde can turn such an asshole. In fact, it’s amazing how she can manipulate our moods to swing this fast within only a few paragraphs. The policeman was ignorant. Sure, he was rude and abrasive, but when you see his confusion and terror in the face of Edward, it’s hard not to remember that he’s just a human, possibly with a family, and that he was doing nothing but his job, albeit in a rather extreme manner. He doesn’t deserve this. If Edward did kill him here, nothing about it would be the least bit justifiable, no matter how much of an asshole he was. And it does NOT help just how…very vampiric Edward becomes when he is provoked like this.
I really love that Edward’s fall wasn’t a sudden thing that was just randomly triggered by an event. It’s always been there, from the first chapter onwards - the subtle dark side that sometimes briefly emerges and is quickly squashed down. That undercurrent of unbalance. The constant threat that he could LITERALLY snap, and the only reason he hasn’t yet is because of how much he clings to humanity. And all the events that happened are only building up pressure, making the explosion of his dark side more and more inevitable…but you knew from the start that he was capable of this, you could imagine him doing this (unlike with Carlisle, who you really couldn’t imagine to turn into a bloodthirsty monster), and you knew that even without all of this pressure, could still accidentally loose grip one day and give in.
And…it really doesn’t help how damned NATURALLY thoughts like this come to him:
‘Oh, no, little man, you can’t escape me-you don’t want my kind here, do you?-well, let me show you exactly what kind you’re dealing with!’
Brian: This, in a way, went beyond being told that he wasn’t allowed around his own childhood home. He’s using his vampirism AGAINST the policeman. We’ve always seen him act dismissive towards certain humans, but he’s always almost worshipped humanity as a whole - but here, he’s clearly taking advantage of our physical disadvantage and….in a way, he almost resembles canon!Edward for a brief moment here, so sure in his abilities and so very…vampiric.
SOS: Every time something like this happens, Edward sinks further and further before he’s able to snap out of it and pull himself up again. The first time, he managed to walk away with a polite word, and now, he’s not only indulging in fantasies, he’s fully intending to put the plan to work. It’s definitely not at all hard to imagine that one day, he might find that he’s fallen too far to ever climb back up again.
But, in the end, it’s his mind-reading that snaps him out of it.
‘…he suddenly saw himself through the man’s-Officer John McMannis, husband and father of three-eyes: his face bloodless and livid, his eyes wild and black, his teeth gleaming in the glow of the streetlights as he advanced.
He looked like a madman.
Or a monster.’
SOS: I know I’ve said before that his mind-reading makes it hard for him to feed on humans even if he wanted to, simply because it forces him to know them and to EMPATHISE with them. But it’s still nice to see it in action. He not only knows the victims intimately, but he also sees the event in their eyes, feel their terror and fear, and witness just how monstrous he could be. And for someone who prizes their humanity so much, it’s no wonder that Edward would be snapped out of it by this.
Brian: So…the officer SAW his fangs? Well, I guess you could say that he later decided it was just a hallucination or a trick of the light, but that seems dangerous…I’m surprised this wasn’t a plot point that Edward would get in trouble for later. Though I guess another event is used in the future to explore this theme - that disastrous things result from a minor slip-up in a moment of passion.
SOS: Oh, also? Those last two lines. THEY ARE SUCH BRILLIANT FORESHADOWING, OH MY GOD. I SWEAR TO GOD, I DIDN’T EVEN REALISE THAT THERE WERE HINTS THIS EARLY IN THE FIC UNTIL I READ IT JUST NOW.
OH MY GOD, MRS. HYDE, MARRY ME.
…ahem, anyways.
Edward manages to somehow suppress his urge to…to hunt in this case and flees the scene. And this encounter with the policeman, the anger, the lust, and the horror and shame he inspired in Edward will only add to the pressure upon him and makes it even more likely that he would give in one day.
Brian: Even in the end, he never really released all that pent-up frustration and anger, which would definitely be worse now, because he had to deny his body the very instinct to chase down a prey and strike. And though he managed to stop himself in time, that urge, that desire, is going to stay with him, because his instincts had found a prey, dammit, and it wants to hunt RIGHT NOW, DAMMIT.
SOS: Well, Edward runs right out of Oak Park (though I can’t fault him from removing himself from the scene of temptation in this case, I’m still quite amused that he’s dealing with this by, what else, RUNNIG AWAY). And with that, I’ll end this section. See you next time, when Edward…ugh. He visits his parents’ grave. Do I even need to tell you how painful that would be?
Brian: *Gives a sympathetic look before he pops away*
SOS: Well, until next time, guys.
Go Forward to: Chapter 2 Part 2, Section D
Go Back to: Chapter 2 Part 2, Section B