TLS Special SNEAK PEEK Feature

The Lemonade Stand has spent so many years bringing you the best the Twilight fandom has to offer, and we are very excited to have the chance to offer you even MORE. We've watched stories grow and develop from first post through COMPLETE, and now we're lucky enough to share previews of the stories that will soon be your new addiction.

My first week as a TLS Admin, we had a discussion about the classics. When I admitted I hadn't yet read There is a Light by belladonnacullen, I heard the collective gasp and pearl clutch of my fellow admins through the computer screen. So I dove right in and read it straight through. Yes, my kids had cereal for breakfast, lunch, and dinner that day - but I regret nothing! There is a Light was everything and more, and when I heard that belladonnacullen had a sequel in the works based on her Babies at the Border Compilation contribution, I went full-on Hunger Games, volunteering TLS as tribute to spread the word about the continuation of this Edward and Bella's epic love story. It is our pleasure to feature this Sneak Peek Saturday with one of our fandom faves, belladonnacullen.
~LayAtHomeMom

banner by Yourvixen

It Never Goes Out

by

belladonnacullen

Summary: Seven years after Bella and Edward’s long-awaited happily ever after, the world has other ideas. Bella and Edward face their worst fears, but will they be able to face one another?

xXxXx

There is a Light was a story about what might really happen if a much older, very moody guy fell for a teenager. It was a weird riff on Twilight, mixed with many references to The Smiths - the band I was in love with as a kid. Somewhere in the middle of There is a Light, we hear Bella thinking:

“Now it should be clear why I doubted myself for so many years. I had an affair with a rock star that burned brilliant and bright, like a shooting star. Like all shooting stars, though, it burned as brightly as it did because it was falling from the start, because it was being torn apart before our eyes. 

I loved Edward Cullen without reservation. He was the light of my life. He was my launching point. He took a girl and made her a woman, and then betrayed that woman completely. You shouldn’t love someone like that forever, but sometimes you do despite yourself. 

For so many years I saw that love as a weakness. I saw it as a disease. I tried to exorcize the feeling I’d buried deep inside, but in the end I admitted it was impossible.”

There is a Light was a story about a woman that was brave enough to admit that she was still in love after decades, even though most of the people close to her thought it was a mistake. It Never Goes Out is the other half of that song lyric from The Smiths, and hopefully it will be the other half of Bella and Edward’s story.

Edward tried valiantly to hold onto that happily ever after at the end of TiaL, but the death of a friend made him see that in order to hold onto Bella he’d been holding himself back. Then the world changed and it impacted each member of the Swan/Clearwater/Cullen household. This is the story of how they all attempt to deal with these changes. Will they grow apart? Can Bella accept something in Edward that she never bargained for?

I’m not going to lie; Edward’s actions in It Never Goes Out make me SO nervous. I’ve been angry with him in this new fic, but I’ve also grown to love him so much more: seeing him as a teen, then as an aspiring punk rock star, then randomly meeting the kid that would change his life. He makes me alternately sad and swoony.

“Fault found its home in me. It always had; it always would. It was born into me and flowed through my veins. Sometimes it made me soar and sometimes it dragged me so far down I couldn’t imagine getting up again. It’s why my mom locked me away, it’s why they’d hooked me up to electrodes - to try to kill the faulty piece of me that had been fucking up from the beginning. 

That inborn unworthiness is why I’d written a poem when I was a kid asking my parents to love me despite who I was. Back in the early days I’d screamed the words into the mic. Then when we recorded it for The Masens demo, Alice suggested a quieter take. Jasper tapped out something swinging and slow, and like a lullaby the words fell from my lips. The same words rippled out into the air around me that night, like my thoughts come to life. An octave higher, hesitant yet plaintive, the truth was sung sweetly, drifting on the damp breeze from the bay. Someone was using my words, asking my parents to like me for the person I was, imperfections and all.”

That was from June 1989, behind an amphitheater on Long Island. Have you read TiaL? Do you know who was singing his song?

It Never Goes Out will begin posting on December 20th. I’m a slower writer these days, so I’ll update as frequently as possible. With characters I love this much, I want to make sure I get it right. I hope you come along for the ride.

~BDC

Be sure and put belladonnacullen on alert so you can follow along with us!