The Edge of Insanity | Rosalie Hale

Chapter 26: Leaving Forks

Daniel ran into the forest, branches slapping his face. His hands trembled. His chest heaved with pure, suffocating panic. He stumbled forward, collapsing to his knees among the ferns and moss. The quiet hum of the forest closed in around him.

He stared at his hands, still shaking.
What have I done?

Behind him — a crack of twigs. A rustle of leaves. Footsteps.

"Daniel!"

Rosalie's voice cut through the darkness like a single thread of light.

"Don't—" he gasped. "Don't come closer." His voice broke. "Please."

She stopped a few feet away. "Daniel, look at me."

"I can't," he whispered, folding in on himself. "I don't want to hurt you."

"You won't."

"You don't know that!" His voice cracked, strained and desperate. "You didn't see—" He looked down at his hands again, trying to comprehend what he had done. "I lost control, Rose. I didn't mean to... but I did."

She stepped forward.

"Stay back," he said quickly, his voice trembling.

But Rosalie stayed rooted, leaves crunching softly beneath her feet, her hands shaking at her sides. Her voice was barely above a whisper.

"Daniel, please... let me help you."

He shook his head violently. "You can't. You don't understand—" His voice caught, strangled with grief. "I should be dead, Rosalie. I should've died years ago. In the war, with the Volturi, anywhere. At least then I wouldn't have—"

His breath hitched.

She took a slow step forward.

"I said stay back!" he roared.

His voice cracked through the trees, startling a flock of crows into the air. His eyes glowed in the shadows, teeth bared in a snarl — but not at her. At himself.

"I lost it," he spat, voice shaking, hands curling into fists so tight his nails pierced his marble skin. "You saw what I did. To Esme. To Emmett. I threw Carlisle into a wall. I nearly ripped his spine out, Rosalie—"

She flinched. A tiny, involuntary thing. And it shattered him.

"And you—" he choked, stumbling backward until his shoulders hit a tree. He sank down, fists pounding the earth. "You. I almost destroyed you."

Rosalie knelt a few feet away, tears streaking down her face.

"I saw your face," he whispered, staring past her. "You were afraid of me. That look... I can't forget it."

The silence wrapped around them like a shroud, heavy with grief and guilt.

"I promised I'd protect you," Daniel said. "And instead, I—I became the very thing I swore I'd never be. I don't know what's happening to me anymore, Rose. It's like I'm still here, but... I'm not. Every time I close my eyes, I smell human blood. I taste it. I see their faces."

The whispers returned then — faint and cruel. Useless. Dangerous. Monster.

Rosalie inched toward him, slow and careful, until she was within reach. She didn't touch him. Not yet. But her voice tethered him to the earth.

"You're not a monster."

He laughed — sharp, bitter. "Tell that to our family."

"They don't blame you."

"I do!" he screamed, slamming his fists against his skull. "I blame myself. Every second. I can't breathe, I can't think. I hear a sound and I see fire. I smell blood and I want it."