𝚃𝚊𝚕𝚔𝚜

    They're dead... because of you.

    Her body rushed forward, gasping for air. Her chest rising and lowering as it grabbed the stilled oxygen in the air. Nightmares crawled through the edge of her mind as she slept. Staring at her hands that was left untouched, unscathed yet that only filled was the callousness that mended her hands for when she wielded a dagger her uncle Emmett made.

    She knew why he made it. Knew the day well.

    Rosalice was just fourteen years old now hiding the scars that made her self conscious, insecure about her body. Having teenage boys and girls around her age question and make fun of them.

    In a new town the first with a common bright sun that warmed everything around. A place where Bella missed and a place where Renee grew adored by it. Rosalice during the middle of the night managed to sneak out of her house, scheduling it where everyone was busy creating their own loud sounds and noises just so she wouldn't be caught.

    Left walking in a street by herself, shoving her hands in her hoodie pocket. Allowing the still warm air licking her pale skin that was left exposed to the air. Kicking a piece of rock down the road following, trailing after it. Crickets loud and the only thing she could hear down the lonely road where no cars made their way for it seemed abandoned. Trails mark into the dirt made by cars from her family.

    Blinding light covering her vision, raising a hand to cover it so she could see. A car heading straight towards her down a lane that was supposed to have nothing but emptiness there. Raising an eyebrow as the car lights dimmed just a bit more, the brights went finally able to see a little more clearly.

    A man exited his car, his silhouette revealing that he was well built. Going, gaining closure to Rosalice as he breaks out into a sheepish smile. "Do you need a lift?" He asks, looking around.

    Roalice shakes her head, knowing the path she took. Right then and there where she stood she was a mile and a half away from home. A half more until she went to her destination where she would sit and think to herself for a couple of minutes until she started her walk back home before the sun would rise. "I'm fine."

    "How old are you?"

    "Fourteen." Rosalice answers.

    "Do your parents know you're out here? Alone?" The man's eyes look around for any sight of a car keeping an eye on the teenager.

    Rosalice shakes her head, "Nope." Making a popping sound towards the end syllable. Her body screamed at her to turn around and run away, to fade beneath the surface of the average naked eye and return home. That this was a bad idea. "I was just heading back home." She listened to those instincts but refused to turn invisible.

    Turning around she starts to head back.

    Only for something to appear before her stopping her in her own tracks. The same man she was just talking to. He was behind her and now in front. His eyes darkened into the same shade as the shadows. Black veins crawling all over his face. Two large sharp fangs dipping just past his lips. "Sorry not sorry." The man forcibly grabs a hold of Rosalice, yanking her into him. His fangs stabbing into her exposed neck.

    Drinking her until he and his hunger was content. Dropping her body that fell to the ground. The vampire rushes back to his car and speeds off leaving her for dead.

    Hours had passed until she was found. Hours of spending time on the ground feeling as her body tried producing more blood than venom refusing to be turned. Her heart was pounding, racing as if it was running in a marathon. Hours where Rosalice thought to herself that she was going to die right then and there and be turned. Turned forcibly, turned without her say in the matter. As if it wasn't her choice to begin with. Turned without those that she loved there. She hated it. Hated every bit of it.

    Hours had passed and yet someone had come to find her, picking her up in his arms. She recognized them. Feeling the muscles cage her in coldness that felt like comforting warmth to her.

    She wasn't blind when looking through his thoughts during those moments, desperate to know what he was thinking, to understand if they were searching for her once their noises ended.

    Looking through his panicked thoughts. All that was circling around was her. Was how he couldn't have prevented her from sneaking out by herself.

    After that while she was in recovery, stuck in bed for some days Emmett had became impatient pacing the room waiting to see her (but Carlisle ordered that no one were to see her, needing her to be comfortable as possible) Emmett had went out and bought daggers and knives for the twins wanting to teach them self defense and have weapons on them in case anything were to happen.

    Once Rosalice was off of the bed and could walk and do everything a normal human teenager could do he began teaching both her and Reneesme how to defend themselves, starting with punches and ending with pulling out knives from their sheaths.

    Pushing herself off of her own bed, she heads downstairs grabbing a cup of tap water. Chugging every ounce of liquid inside the cup. Breathing heavily once done with the cup. Doing it again, and again until she made it to her fourth cup.

    Emmett speaks up, "I believe you are waterboarding yourself."

    Wiping her mouth, she doesn't meet his eyes. "I'm just drinking water." She tells him going to make herself a fifth cup.

    Emmett speeds grabbing a hold of her wrist, looking down at her. "You fill that cup, chug everything, and breathe until you fill that cup again." He notes every detail that happened. "It's like Jake or one of the wolves jump into the water repeatedly barely allowing themselves to take a moment to breathe." He leans against the counter, amber eyes never leaving hers. That same playful smirk on his lips vanished. "It's basically self harming."

    "Self harming involves intentionally hurting yourself," Rosalice reminds a bit too harshly, not realizing nor changing her tone. "I am just getting water."

    Emmett's eyes soften as he hums out, "I know I can't read minds or see into the future or feel emotions like you, Edward, Alice, and Jasper. I know I'll never have a gift or anything traumatic happening to me back then..." His next words became hollow, "Besides that damn bear..." shaking his head he goes back to the conversation, "I know that out of the entire Cullen family I didn't mind changing or dying, I didn't mind when I joined this family. But I know you Sal." Rosalice finally meets his eyes, seeing pain flickering in them. "I know when you go back to those memories; when you kill, becoming guilty." He says. "I know that everytime you chug that damn water, it's you trying to give you the same pain as they felt when you killed them; when you rub against a new wound to remind you of your actions." Emmett drops her wrist grabbing the cup and tossing it into the sink, placing his hands on his niece's shoulder. "I know you Sal." He repeats once again.

    "Em..." Rosalice croaks out.

    "Stop it." Emmett tells her flatly. "Stop trying to drown yourself for those vampires." His grip tightens a bit. Tears formed in his eyes but were never able to fall. "Because fuck them. They don't deserve your guilt. They deserve to burn in hell!" His last words came out as yells but Rosalice could care any less.

    She didn't mind his yells. She understood why he acted like this. Emmett was the one helping and protecting Bella from his family, helping and protecting her and Renee. She understood that her entire life Emmett was always there when harm came her way, he was the one to find her almost dead, barely alive on the side of the road. He was the one who trained her to use knives and hide them well just beneath her own clothing.

    Her arms wrap around her uncle holding him, never daring to let go. His grip fell into nothingness around her shoulders, his arms falling and draped around her, his niece, the girl he called Sal ever since he could remember her calling him Em. Holding the other tightly. The only time they did plan to let go and escape the others' hold was when cries filled the air coming from the nursery.