Midnight Sun Reveals What Edward Was *Really* Doing While Bella Slept

There are many questions that Twilight fans had about Edward's decision to sneak into Bella's room at night and watch her sleep — namely, why — and now, it seems like they're finally getting answers. While recounting the events of the first book from Edward's point of view, Stephanie Meyer's new release Midnight Sun reveals what Edward really did while Bella was asleep after he snuck into her room.

For those who haven't reread — or rewatched — Twilight recently, after Edward fell in love with Bella, he would sneak into her bedroom at night in order to watch her sleep, and make sure that nothing would hurt or harm her overnight. But, if you thought he might have indulged in some inappropriate behavior while creeping in Bella's room, think again. According to Twitter user @galacticidiots, who shared screenshots of Midnight Sun on social media while reading the book, Edward didn't just stare at Bella all night, he actually spent the time while she was sleeping killing the spiders in her room. "I reached out with one finger and crushed [the brown hobo spider] silently," the book reads, with Edward adding that "the thought of anything hurting her was intolerable."

At other points in that chapter, per the excerpt posted, Edward explains that he "brought oil to grease the mechanism" of Bella's window, in order to sneak in more easily, and "the window moved silently out of my way" as he climbed in. And, because he's Edward Cullen and he's hopelessly obsessed, he also watched her toss and turn and listened to her talk in her sleep about the characters in the book she had been reading during the day. (In this case, she was apparently dreaming about Edmund Bertram from Jane Austen's Mansfield Park, which briefly got his hopes up that Bella may have been thinking of him.)

Since Twilight's release in 2008, both fans and critics of the franchise have argued about Edward's behavior and whether his (somewhat overbearing) attempts to protect Bella from any and all forms of bodily harm cross the line from loving to abusive. However, Meyer intended for Midnight Sun to present some of his more problematic behavior — primarily, his habit of sneaking into Bella's bedroom to watch her sleep every night without her knowledge — along with his self-deprecating interior monologue, which reveals that Edward finds himself just as problematic as the reader does.

"I don't know if anyone has ever realized how incredibly guilty he feels all the time, how he feels like he can destroy her with a breath," the author told Bustle ahead of Midnight Sun's release. "So that I think comes out a lot in how he is around Bella. He's an extremely anxious person and you don't get that from the other side where he seems so suave. But when you're in his head, it's a whole different experience."

While many people missed that element of self-hatred, Robert Pattinson revealed back in 2019 that he always viewed Twilight as a "strange" love story, and that aspect was always present in how he both played Edward and promoted the movies. "Twilight is about this guy who finds the one girl he wants to be with, and also wants to eat her," he said during Variety's Actors on Actors series. "Well, not eat — drink her blood or whatever. I thought it was a strange story. ... It's strange how people responded."

"When you read the book, it's like, 'Edward Cullen was so beautiful I creamed myself.' I mean, every line is like that," Pattinson once said during an interview about the character. "[Edward is] the most ridiculous person. The more I read the script, the more I hated this guy. Plus, he's a 108-year-old virgin, so he's obviously got some issues there." So, if you've ever wondered exactly what a Twilight book written by Pattinson would be like, it sounds like Midnight Sun is the self-effacing, guilty and awkward take on the teenage love story you've been searching for.