The Black Flame Candle

Part thirty-six

-𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗸-

The sunset over the river as Rosalie looked out. Bella and Audrey exited. Rosalie knew who was behind her without looking.  "Go blather to someone else about the joys of becoming a newborn," Rosalie spoke up in a harsh tone.  "Okay. Rosalie, I don't understand what I did, to make you hate us so much," Bella asked her.  "I don't hate you. I don't particularly like you, but... Bella, I envy you," Rosalie corrected her.

"I don't even hate Audrey. She knows how hard it is to be immortal."  "Or of supernatural," Audrey added.  "What? That's ridiculous," Bella spoke up.  "No, it's not. You have a choice. I didn't. None of us did. But you do, and you're choosing wrong. I don't care how miserable your human life is," Rosalie answered.  "Our lives are not miserable. It's not perfect, but nobody's life is perfect," Audrey added.

"Mine was. Absolutely perfect," Rosalie sighed.  "It was a long time ago, maybe you're forgetting the bad," Bella asked.   "I remember the day my mother died," Audrey whispered. "Every single day."  Rosalie gave Audrey a reassuring smile.   "I remember. And it was perfect. Till the end...," she explained as she turned toward the river. Bella and Audrey slowly move to her side.

"I had... almost had everything, even though it was the Great Depression. I was eighteen, beautiful. Everyone in Rochester envied me. There's only one thing I wanted that I didn't have..."

-𝗥𝗼𝗰𝗵𝗲𝘀𝘁𝗲𝗿, 𝗡𝗲𝘄 𝗬𝗼𝗿𝗸, 𝗣𝗮𝗿𝗸- (𝟭𝟵𝟯𝟯)-

Human Rosalie, rosy skin, stunning, but naïve, vain. Her eyes longed as she handed the boy back to his mother, Vera, 18.  "I wanted a child badly. A home of my own, a husband to kiss me when he came home from work. And I thought I was going to have all of that...," she told them.

-𝗦𝗵𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀, 𝗗𝗮𝘆 (𝟭𝟵𝟯𝟯)-

Rosalie walked on the arm of the handsome, well-dressed Royce King. People on the street eyed her admiringly. Royce enjoyed the attention she brings him. But it's clear from their looks that Royce himself is not well-liked.  "Royce King was the most eligible bachelor in town. I barely knew him. But I was young. I was in love with the idea of love," she continued as she doesn't see Royce eyeing a pretty woman across the street.

The pretty woman, appalled, hurries along; he wipes the lear off his face. Rosalie blithely only saw her perfect man.  "I was young...," she added. 

-𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗲𝗲𝘁𝘀, 𝗡𝗶𝗴𝗵𝘁- )𝟭𝟵𝟯𝟯)-

Rosalie headed down the empty lamp-lit streets. She pulled her coat close in the chill of the night air.  "On the last night of my life, I left a friend's house late. I wasn't far from home," she explained.  She slowed as she saw a group of five men, gathered under a streetlight. They laughed drunkenly, passing a bottle. Rosalie veered away to avoid them but heard her handsome man.

"Here she is. Hey, Rose. Come over here," Royce called as he saw her.  Rosalie relaxed a little as she realized it was Royce.  "Here, hold this. Hey, come over here. We've been waiting for you," Royce stated as he walked closer to her.  "You're drunk," Rosalie stated as she could smell it off him.  "Isn't she lovely, John? I told you she was a looker," Royce turned to his friends.  "It's hard to say with all those clothes on," John sneered.

Rosalie, uncomfortable, looked to Royce but he just snickered.  "What do you say, Rose? Why don't we take off a few layers?" Royce asked.  "Stop it... I'll see you tomorrow. Sober," Rosalie scoffed as she starts off, but Royce abruptly yanks her hat off.  She cried out in pain as the pins wrenched her hair out. Royce grinned, the sadist in him unmasked now. The men laughed.  "Hey, where do you think you're going?" Royce asked.

"Stop it. Just stop it. Let go. Stop it," Rosalie gasped in shock. "Come back. Hey, you'll do as I say," Royce demands, then he grabbed her coat.  She fought him, scratching his face, but he violently ripped the coat off her. The brass buttons popped off as they scattered on the street.  "I didn't see who he was until that night. Who they all were...," Rosalie finished.

-𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗸-

Bella reeled at the horror of Rosalie's assault. Audrey can tell how she was feeling based on how she felt at the time. Empathy filled us as a stoic Rosalie continued.  "They left me in the street, thinking I was dead. Believe me, I wanted to be. Carlisle found me, he smelled all the blood... Thought he was helping me," Rosalie continued.  "I'm sorry," Bella apologized.   "I got my revenge on them. One at a time. I saved Royce for last, so he'd know I was coming," she smiled. 

-𝗛𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗹 𝗖𝗼𝗿𝗿𝗶𝗱𝗼𝗿- )𝟭𝟵𝟯𝟯)-

Two large men guarded the doorway to a room. They looked up as a specter in white appeared at the other end of the hall. As it neared, it was Rosalie, in her wedding dress. 

-𝗛𝗼𝘁𝗲𝗹 𝗥𝗼𝗼𝗺 )𝟭𝟵𝟯𝟯)-

Royce was terrified as he heard the sound of the two guards' bodies falling heavily to the ground. He backed into a corner as the door splintered open and Rosalie entered. Royce can not hide his horror as she closed in on him. 

-𝗗𝗲𝗰𝗸-

"I was a little theatrical back then. Things got better after I found Emmett. But we'll always be this. Frozen, never moving forward. That's what I miss the most, the possibilities. Sitting on a front porch somewhere, Emmett gray-haired by my side, surrounded by our grandchildren, their laughter," Rosalie finished but fell silent for a beat.  Bella turned to her, empathetic but holding her ground.

"I understand, that's what you want. But there's nothing I'll ever gonna want, what we want more than Edward and Jasper," Bella confirmed her thoughts.  "You're wrong again. After you've been changed, there's one thing you'll want more... One thing you'll kill for... Blood," Rosalie turned to her.  Seeing her point has landed, Rosalie walked off. Bella, shaken, turned back toward the house and sees Edward standing in the window, looking out at her.

Audrey sighed as Jasper walked up to her. Audrey wrapped her arms around him, him kissing her head in comfort.