The Partners Fall for the Season of Our Discontent Anonymous Angst Contest!

What thoughts do the following images bring to mind?

Puppies and Rainbows? Happy Holidays and Birthday Parties?

No, obviously these images depict sad, angsty, maybe even heart-failish things. Which is why we love them so much!

The Season of Our Discontent is an anonymous writing contest that's centered around all the stuff we love and crave...stuff that we here in the fandom can't seem to get enough of.

Currently there are 27 entries, and with another three weeks to go, there are sure to be many more. The contest is being hosted and judged by some rather well known authors in the Twilight fandom, including - 22blue, katinki, coldplaywhore, chrometurtle, Feisty Y. Beden, lola-pops, Talula Blue, and Rochelle Allison. With those ladies involved, how could the contest not be amazing?

We here at PIC have read several of the entries, and each one has something unique and wonderful to offer it's readers. We know you won't be disappointed!!

You want a little taste of something? How about this...

*****

He built a crib. Spent countless hours inside the shed in their lovely backyard measuring, sawing, cutting, fitting.

That's what he did. He designed, he built.

A crib, designed to hold a baby – their baby.

She laid eyes upon it and broke into sobs.

He merely patted her back, tried to comfort her, didn't know how.

He painted the baby's room yellow.

She wanted it painted blue.

He placed dinosaurs on the wall.

She placed a small, blue teddy bear in the crib.

"Goddamnit, Bella, I'm trying," he said.

He was at work when her water broke.

Little Jacob Charles Cullen, weighing six pounds, four ounces, twenty inches long, came into the world without his father.

A kind nurse named Alice held Bella's hand, let her nearly break her fingers as she pushed little Jake out into the world.

The cruel, unfair world.

Taking parents, giving life.

A baby, innocent, with a tuft of brown hair and perfect, tiny hands and feet, regretted, resented before he even opened his eyes.

Edward drove them home from the hospital the next day.

"You missed it," mother said to father.

"I couldn't leave," he simply replied.

He could have, she knew.

"Reclamation"

*****

See? What did we tell you? A little more? Fine...

*****

It takes all three of them to load me up into the van, but I'm finally on my way to the beach. My deteriorating body can never display the excitement I feel. I used to live on the beach when I was young. My friends and I would spend long, lazy summer days basking in the heat. We'd jump off the cliffs adjacent to the shore and then lie in the hot sand to warm up. We'd play volleyball on the beach and check out the girls in bikinis. I long for those carefree days. I long for a time when my biggest worry was whether or not Jessica Stanley had the hots for Mike Newton.

Mostly I long for the sun. Its rays are healing in ways I can't explain. I feel free and healthy again, just like that time in Hawaii. If I close my eyes, I can feel the same way I felt when I was sixteen. The smell of the ocean and coolness of the breeze is a sedative to me, lulling me into peace. I can forget my reality.

When we get home this afternoon, they gather at the other side of my room and speak as though I'm not here, which they do a lot these days. I want to yell, "I'm here!" but I can't.

"We shouldn't have allowed him to go. It was too hard on him."

"He won't survive another trip. It's too difficult."

"I'll talk to Bella."

And just like that, I know I'll never go outside again. At least not to the beach. I close my eyes and remember the sun on my face and the smell of the ocean. I'm getting very good at reliving memories.

"My Legacy"

*****

You know you can't resist it, so why try? Go on over to the contest page and start reading all the amazing entries. There are 10 picture prompts for the stories, and each story must be based on or use one of them. It's interesting to see how different authors interpret the same pictures, and it truly makes for a fun and exciting contest.

Entries are being accepted through November 24th, so there's still lots of time to write something and submit it.

Public Voting will take place November 25th through December 10th, and Winners will be announced on December 15th via the contest twitter account - @TwiAngstContest

Check out the contest profile for official rules, a list of awards, and all other information you might need, then get busy reading.

Oh, and have a box of tissues handy. You just might need them...