A Realm Apart

It was Saturday morning and per usual, I began my morning with the daily internal struggle of not checking his Facebook. To placate my desire, I started to imagine what I would see on his page. What if Jackson added two new friends, both female, and didn’t have any mutual friends? That would obviously insinuate that he randomly fucked two girls! I rolled over and sighed into my pillow, “I’m crazy.”
It had been a difficult summer pretending that Jackson and I were okay being “just friends” or “just friends who make each other orgasm” after our breakup. But we managed just fine until he left for vacation with his older brother and ignored me for 2 months, blocked my number, and never gave an explanation as to why I was suddenly in infinite quarantine. Unfortunately, no matter how harsh his actions had been these past months I still missed him and loved him.
“Wake up,” my sister Cassie sang, her voiced muffled by my closed bedroom door. I moved home to save money after graduating college and the transitional period of being under parental supervision again was rough to say the least. “Are you still sad about Jackson being a dick?” Cassie questioned apathetically, “You guys were on and off for 3 years, shouldn’t you be used to it by now?”
I imagined slapping her across the face but instead I retorted, “I’m over it.”
I was not over it.
“Well Mom said you’re moping and bringing the energies of the house down.”
I scoffed, “I’m sure she did.” Hippies that lived in the apartment below my mother kidnapped her when she was 5. My grandfather found her 3 hours later eating cereal, watching a lava lamp. My mother claims it was a “spiritual awakening.”
I heard Cassie’s footsteps walk away from my bedroom door. I should get up. I needed to find a job, to save money, to move back to Chicago, to find Jackson, to make him see how awesome I am, and to get him to remember he loves me. I looked over at my phone resting on the pillow beside me. “Don’t check his Facebook,” I whispered to myself, in hopes I’d follow my own instructions.
“Violet!” I heard my mother exclaim, the sound of her footsteps getting closer.
“Yeah, mom!” I exclaimed back, quickly so that she wouldn’t try to open the door.
“Violet Velez!” My mother exclaimed again. I rolled my eyes. I had to get up now. “Your sister says you’re still in bed and that you’re being a mope!” She asserted as she opened my door.
Startled at the sudden invasion into my room, I stood up quickly, “Mom! I’m not being a mope! I’m just resting a little longer than usual because it’s Saturday!”
My mother sat at the edge of the bed, “Violet, I know you’re sad. Why don’t you find someone else to light your fire!”
My eyes widen, “Mother!” I exclaimed in partial embarrassment and partial shock of her candor.
She laughed and walked over to my bookshelf, “Why don’t you read more romance? It might ease the pain. Why don’t you read this one again?” She pulled a thick, paperback book from the shelf and handed it to me.
I looked at her incredulously, “Twilight?” I placed the book back in her hands, “Mom, I read that when I was a kid and still a virgin. I’m twenty-two and I’m going to need a little more than sparkly vampires to ease my broken heart.”
She placed the book on my bed and spoke halfway out of the room, “Well just give it another shot. Maybe it’ll inspire you to give love another shot!”
The idea of Twilight inspiring me to do anything besides miss my virginity was laughable. I grabbed the book and thumbed through the pages. Jesus, how many times can a woman write “golden” and “cold” on one page? I laid back down, the book still open, and I began to read. Mocking the literary merit of Stephanie Meyer and the misery of all of her characters did make me feel better. I still can’t decide whether it was the absent personality of the main character or the absence of coffee in my system that morning, but I fell back asleep.

A firm cold hand found home against my cheek, disrupting my midmorning slumber. It was annoying. I batted it away and grumpily spoke, “I know I should be awake, Cassie! You don’t have to be a brat!” A masculine giggle reached my ears. Who the fuck what that? I blinked open my eyes, trying to orient my vision to see who was sitting on my bed, touching my face without my consent.
“Good morning, who’s Cassie?” he questioned sweetly. It was annoying. He was dressed in mostly black, making his pale, porcelain skin look even whiter. His eyes were an eerily unnatural golden brown. I’d never seen the shade in any other person’s iris. His lips were curled in a perfect smile. This person was beautiful and oddly looked very similar to the fictional Edward Cullen.
Better judgment told me to greet him kindly, at the risk of him not being as kind as his smile but my inner Latina spoke first. “Who the fuck are you?” I shouted.
He looked taken aback, like my words offended him personally. “Bella, are you feeling okay?” He questioned with a furrowed, perfect brow.
I laughed. This was a joke. Better yet, this was a dream. I was lucid dreaming this Twilight bullshit scenario. “Listen, I’m not Bella,” I spoke to the Magic Mike-china doll sitting at the foot of my bed. “This is a dream. I’m going back to bed because this takes the gold medal for the weirdest, and most pathetic dream.”
He reached out his hand to grab my chin. I moved. I wish I had dreamt up a less touchy Edward Cullen. “Bella, you’re not dreaming! Did you hit your head last night? Do you have a concussion? Should we see Carlisle?” His concern was concerning. I noted that perhaps my general anxiety disorder was metaphorically being portrayed as my “dream” Edward Cullen.
“I’m fine. I’m dreaming. Please get out of my room so I can wake up.”
“Bella—“ he began.
“I’m not Bella,” I cut him off, growing more and more upset at the realness of my dream, “My name is Violet and you are a fictional character in a horrible book and movie franchise!”
He stood up, now trying to keep his patience, “Okay…Violet?” He said skeptically, “If you’re not Bella, then why do you look like her?”
I laughed. I never dreamt a scenario where I looked different. Well, maybe in a daydream I imagined myself with a bigger ass but nothing substantially different. I got out of the bed, which was not mine, and moved to the mirror across the room, which again was not mine, and looked at the reflection. Staring back at me was a pale faced, skinny, freckled white girl.
“Oh my god,” I said audibly.
“Now you see. You’re Bella. Now let me take you to Carlisle to check your head.” Edward spoke cautiously.
“Are you sure I’m not dreaming?” I questioned, losing my faith that all of this was a dream. The image of myself as Bella Swan had sobered my mentality. This did not feel like a dream anymore, it felt real. In my dreams, everything jumped quickly, like the plotline was going a mile a minute. This dream felt slow enough to be reality.
“Bella, you’re awake. You’re not dreaming,” he mused sweetly, reaching for my hand. I pulled away, again. A million possibilities scattered their way across my mind. What if I had multiple personality disorder? Was I even real? What if I switched bodies like a Lindsey Lohan, Freaky Friday movie? But to switch bodies with a fictional character sounded even more impossible!
“Edward,” I looked him in the eye, “You have to believe what I’m about to say.”
“You’re scaring me,” he sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose in stress.
“ My name is Violet Velez and I have no idea how I ended up in Bella Swan’s body.”

In Edward’s defense, I would have probably reacted the same way to my confession. Regardless, I was still pissed. I was sitting in the Cullen home with a thermometer sticking out of my mouth and Carlisle examining me. The Cullen house was lush as fuck. If Oprah Winfrey wasn’t black, she’d live in a house like this. There were weird artifacts in every corner of the glass house, making the place look like the MoMa, rather then a family home.
“Did you hit your head, Bella?” Carlisle asked for the millionth time.
“I know Bella is a clumsy bitch, so that’s possible but no I didn’t,” I stated frustrated, the thermometer making it hard to speak. “If you’re that concerned that I’m imagining this “other” personality then let’s take another MRI.”
Carlisle laughed underneath his breath. I wasn’t sure if he found me amusing or if he was laughing out of frustration. Before I reached the Cullen home, Edward dragged me into Carlisle’s hospital office where I was poked and probed to their satisfaction. They found nothing wrong, besides the fact that Bella’s body was severely lacking melanin. “So, if you’re really not Bella. Then who are you?”
“I told you,” I spat out the thermometer, “My name is Violet Velez.”
“Tell me about her,” Carlisle questioned, “I mean tell me about yourself.”
“What do you want to know?”
“Where did you grow up?”
“I grew up in northern Illinois with my parents and my younger sister Cassie.”
“Velez is a Spanish last name, correct?”
“It is. My mother is Mexican and my father is Spanish. They met working at a hospital in Lake Forest, Illinois. My dad was a janitor and my mother was a nurse. She taught him English and they fell in love.”
Edward stormed into the room, “Carlisle you cannot enable her delusions!”
Carlisle placed a hand on Edward’s shoulder, “Edward, listen to her. Violet’s story is very detailed. That’s uncommon for people with multiple personality disorder.”
Edward shook off Carlisle’s hand, “This is lunacy! This is impossible!”
“You’re in a world where vampires and werewolves exist, yet this is lunacy?” I chimed in, “Instead of questioning my sanity, how about we try to figure out how I can go home. Back into my body.” Edward stared at me, searching. “I know you love, Bella. I’ve read the books and seen the movies. Your love is a forever love yada yada yada… but I have a love of my own to work on in my world, too. So let’s get this show on the road and switch me out of this lanky pale body and back to my tan one.”
“Books and movies?” A small bell-like voice questioned behind me. I turned to see a petite brunette climbing in through the glass side door of the room.
“You’re Alice, I’m assuming.”
She did a little bow, “And you’re not Bella.”
“I’m Violet.” I greeted with a foreign feeling smile on my face. I looked at the faces before me. Carlisle, Edward, and Alice were all so beautiful and all so dead. The reality of the situation finally hit me like a bus. I was outnumbered in room of blood drinking vampires. I don’t think I gave Bella enough credit. She must have been brave to not be semi-frightened in a room full of Cullen’s.
They all must have heard my heartbeat quicken. “You don’t have to be afraid,” Alice spoke.
“I’m not,” I squeaked.
I was afraid.
“You mentioned movies and books?” Edward spoke. I assume he asked to get my mind of the current gravity of my situation.
“Yeah, in my world, you all are fictional. There are books and movies based off of your lives. The focus is Edward and Bella’s love.”
Edward smiled, “Do you know what happens in the end?”
I thought of the crappy ending where Bella has a mudblood baby, “You probably don’t wanna know. Let’s just say you both live happily ever after.”
They all smiled at each other, “I told you!” Alice said to Edward playfully.
“Although the part where Bella swaps bodies with another random person never appeared in the saga, so I’m at a loss for what happens next.”
“I’m afraid I can’t see your future clearly anymore, either.” Alice admitted sadly.
“Can you hear my thoughts?” I prompted Edward.
“Unfortunately not,” He stated, “If I could, I would have been quicker to accept…this.”
Edwards face was crestfallen. In the afternoon of knowing him, I decided I did not like him. He was pushy, self-righteous and moody; however, I couldn’t help but sympathize for him. I was robbed of my body and he was robbed of his girlfriend’s soul. “This doesn’t make any sense;” I began, “if my brain or soul or whatever is here, then where is Bella?”
“The simplest answer to that question is that she’s in you, in your world,” Carlisle spoke with a focused gaze, “but the most honest answer is that no one here really knows.”
I sighed out of frustration, hoping I wouldn’t start crying. Where was my body? Was I dead? Was this some twisted version of heaven, or worse—hell? If Bella really was in my body, what was she doing? “I do know one thing for sure. If Bella has told my family, my family has already locked my body in a looney bin.”
“Are you sure she still isn’t in there,” Alice questioned, pointing her index finger to her temple.
I closed my eyes and tried to clear my mind. Maybe if my mind were still, she would pop out of some dark corner of my brain. “No. It’s just me,” I answered.
“We’ll just have to search for an answer,” Carlisle said as he walked towards the door. “If there is an answer out there, Violet, we’ll find it.” Carlisle left the room and Edward trailed behind him, not telling me where he was going. I looked to Alice, awkward silence starting to fill the space in the room between us.
“So,” I said, not knowing what I was going to say next. “Do you guys have anything to eat?” I mentally cursed myself for stupidly asking a vampire for snacks, but it was midday and I still hadn’t eaten.
Alice stepped closer, “Oh gosh! You must be hungry!”
“Just a little…” I shrugged.
Just a lot.
“Unfortunately, we don’t have anything that would be palatable for human taste,” She humored, “But I could pick up anything you wanted from the grocery store! I do enjoy shopping, and I don’t often go there for obvious reasons.”
“Please let me come with you!” I urgently requested. Grocery shopping wasn’t something I typically considered fun, but at least I’d be able to search for items that might make me feel more comfortable in this foreign flesh.
“Edward has been keeping a close eye on Bella. There are a few enemies we’ve made along the way…” Alice hesitated. I finally was able to start placing where I landed in the Twilight plotline. Edward and Bella were together and there was an enemy. The only question was whether it was James or Victoria. So I asked. “That red headed bitch has been keeping all of us on edge.” I looked at her in slight disbelief of her profanity. I definitely liked Alice more knowing she might have the tongue of a sailor and the face of an angel. The amusement was short-lived realizing that I existed in the Eclipse plotline. It’d only be a matter of time before I’d have to face an army of newborn vampires and Victoria.
Fuck.
I still wanted to go grocery shopping. “I promise I have more self-preservation than Bella!” Alice laughed, knowing what I said was most likely true. “I also won’t wander off!” I pleaded, unsure of how well my puppy eyes actually worked on my new face.
“Okay!” She relented, “Please don’t die while you’re in my care. Edward is insufferable when he’s mad at me.”
I threw my hands above my head, feeling actually excited. “Yay!” I began to walk into the living room and stopped, “Wait,” I looked back to Alice behind me, “can I borrow twenty bucks? I don’t have my wallet and even if I did, I don’t know Bella’s pin number.”
Alice laughed harder than I had seen her laugh before, “Violet, please don’t ever worry about money when you’re around any of us.”
“Listen, Bella might have had her reservations about having you guys spend money on her, but I do not share those sentiments.” I said truthfully. Bella had a rich boyfriend and never took advantage of her luck. It was another reason she annoyed me in the books. If I had a rich boyfriend (which I guess technically I do now), I’d let him make it rain all over me.
Alice stretched her perfect lips over her perfect white teeth into a perfect smile and joyfully said, “Perfect.”