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.

Today we are featuring the amazing drotuno, author of fandom favorites like the Gravity Series, Man Behind the Mask, and Masen Manor. She has graciously agreed to share a sneak of her upcoming new fic, Once Upon Another Time. She's promised this one is something different and we can't wait to see where she takes us!

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Once Upon Another Time

by 

Drotuno

Summary: We’d promised each other in blood and ink to return if the threat ever came back to Forks. My breath caught at the sight inside that box. I reached in and picked up the ornate brass key with a note: “Keep it safe. Keep it hidden. It’s started again.” AU/ExB 

~oOxOo~

EDWARD

I thumbed through my journal, pondering the point of it all. Was I writing to me? Was I documenting something no one would believe? Or was I simply sinking into memories just to keep it all close?

Shaking my head, I sat back in my desk chair and stared out into the city. Seattle at night almost seemed peaceful. It wasn’t, but it looked that way from thirteen stories up.

There was a time where my life wasn’t surrounded by buildings and glass. It was surrounded by trees and rain, immersed in friendships so deep that we were practically family. Blood didn’t mean shit when you had friends who would die for you. In fact, sometimes, blood wasn’t worth knowing. I also remembered a time when night was far from fucking peaceful.

A knock tapped lightly on my home office door, snapping me out of memories I either needed to get down on paper – or at least a computer document file – or forget completely.

“Come in,” I answered, smiling at my assistant.

“You’ve got mail, Edward,” Garrett said, holding up a stack of envelopes and a magazine or two. But the interesting thing was a small box on top. I didn’t remember ordering anything lately.

Garrett was a good guy, young, using his time with me to learn. He wanted to be in publishing, maybe editing, not to mention write screenplays – Kevin Smith was his hero, where Stephen King had always been mine. He was a sophomore at UW, and working as my assistant was earning him experience. I had a feeling I wouldn’t have him much longer. He’d truly outgrow getting my mail, managing my schedule, and answering calls soon enough. He was too talented for that.

And really, I could do those things for myself, but the English Lit professor at UW was a friend, so he would send me his newest and brightest for experience. Marcus had done the same thing with me when I’d entered his classroom, and now I was published, with two books on the bestsellers list. 

I held my hand out. “Thanks, Garrett,” I said with a smile, taking the stack from him. “If you want, you can cut out early. How’s Katie?”

“Stunning,” he answered immediately, nodding a little. “Yup, she makes me feel dumb as a fucking rock.”

Laughing, I nodded. “Yeah, a pretty girl can do that to a guy.”

Suddenly, memories of dark-brown hair and even darker brown eyes flooded me. First kisses and secret smiles, laughter and adventure, tears and moving away – it all came with the thought of her. She was a girl I’d loved my whole life, it seemed.

“You hear from her lately, Ed?” Garrett asked sadly.

“Not in a long time,” I muttered, frowning down at the pile of mail. “Too long.”

I tossed coupons and insurance ads into the garbage, set bills and bank statements aside for later, and studied an envelope and the small box.

“Does she know?” he asked, pointing toward my bookshelf. 

Snorting, I shook my head. “Does she know she’s the basis for my life’s work?” I clarified, and when he nodded, I smiled sadly. “No, probably not. I don’t even know if she reads my shit.”

He cracked a smile. “Fair enough.”

Garrett’s first day was question after question concerning my book series. He wanted to know why I wrote supernatural thrillers and how I got my ideas. He wanted to know the basis for my work, including all the key players. But specifically, he wanted to know who the gorgeous and brilliant brunette was, if she was real. 

She was very real. 

And I told him a few stories, using real-life relationships as a teaching method for the future writer. What he loved even more were stories about my friends growing up, which was probably why my journal was calling to me.

I picked up the box, turning it over, and my eyebrows shot up at the return address.

Forks.

“I wonder…” I mumbled, using a letter opener to cut the tape. 

My breath caught at the sight inside that box. It was something I hadn’t seen for ten years. A glance at the calendar made me shake my head. Not quite ten years.

I reached inside and picked the ornate brass key up out of the bed of wadded-up brown paper. It was heavy, tarnished a little, but the sight of the cross made my brow break out into a sweat. 

With a shaky hand, I reached in to pick up the folded note inside the box.

Keep it safe. Keep it hidden. It’s started again. – J 

“Oh, fuck,” I whispered, crumpling the note in my hand.

Without realizing it, I rubbed my fingers across the ink on my chest over my heart. Ink that just happened to match the fucking key in my hand. 

“You okay, boss?” Garrett asked. “Dude, you just went white as a sheet.”

Swallowing nervously, I nodded. I set the key down on the top of my desk and reached for the plain white envelope. It, too, was postmarked from Forks. I ripped it open, pulling out a few clipped articles from a newspaper.

Four Campers Attacked by Bear in Olympic National Forest, No Survivors

Local Man Goes Missing, Feared Animal Attack

Forks Sheriff, Charlie Swan, Dead at 51

My ears started to ring, my vision went a little dark, and deep down, I was fucking angry. But what was overriding all of that was pure fear.

~oOxOo~

Remember to put drotuno on alert so you don't miss out! Once Upon Another Time begins posting Sunday, August 14.