The Girl Who Was Taken (Renesme Cullens Twin Sister)

Thirty-Seven

Renesme

Things had gone back to normal, or as normal as they could. I made myself focus on what was right in front of me instead Amber. I had asked mom, "If I have a friend who needs help, but won't accept my help, what do I do?"

"Who's your friend?" she had asked.

"It's theoretical," I said.

She frowned, and poured me a cup of tea, and told me, "Well, you can't help someone who doesn't want help. Some people are very stubborn. You need to wait until they ask."

And so, I took her advice, and decided to wait it out. Amber never asked. Another quiet year passed, and I waited everyday, thinking she might come knocking on my brain, asking me to save her. But it never happened. Only sometimes did she lose focus, and bump into my mind with hers, knocking me into her body.

The next time it happened, Dad was giving me a piano lesson, but then the bright room full of windows with our grand piano disappeared. The scent of the freshly picked flowers I put into the vase that morning lingered, but only for a moment before being replaced with a sweet iron sting that hit my nose. My dad's hand left my shoulder, and the piano keys were replaced with warm skin at my fingertips. Pressing my fingers down into the skin didn't create the serene melody that I was practicing. Instead I heard screams.

I was in the round room, it was dark. The castle was always dark. These vampires built their dynasty on fear and the old myths of monsters. I was still trying to figure out if I was a monster myself. It only took a moment to adjust to the new scene, it only took a moment to find the jugular in the neck of the body I was holding in my arms. How was I so terrible that I was able to kill someone without a thought?

The last year had been completely normal. I hadn't touched a drop of blood. I was with my family, and everything was fine. The concussion healed on it's own. But now I had my mouth around someone's neck, blood spurting out of their vein, overflowing from my lips. I couldn't drink quick enough I was so thirsty.

Even when I did slip up with my thoughts. Dad simply thought Amber was my imaginary friend. Alice couldn't see her at all. She just simply wasn't real to them. She had made sure of that. 

But the time I spent pretending like none of this was a big deal ran out, and so did the blood.

It was like sucking on a straw after finishing all the soda. The sloshing ice still melted at the bottom, but I was still thirsty. Maybe if I shook the cup, I'd find more liquid. But I was just shaking a body now. I didn't want to acknowledge that I was surrounded by a dozen other vampires dining on innocent people. Is this what she thinks a family dinner is supposed to be?

There's none of the lightheartedness that my family has when we go hunting. None of the actual laughter across the table when I eat with Charlie and Billy and Sue and Jacob.

I supposed it looked strange, chewing the neck off of an empty body when there were plenty more around me to eat. Even though the body was drained, I didn't want to open my eyes, or think about the fact that I had just murdered someone. I had gotten good at not thinking about those things. Biting the flesh allowed me access to more blood. Though the flood of blood was a million times less than the first bite into the vein. The act was similar to biting my nails. Unnecessary, but easy. It wasn't unsatisfactory to say the least.

"Amber, don't play with your food," I heard Aro's voice.  Though he sounded amused.

I looked up, still gnawing at the meat. Sucking it dry, spitting it out.  I had chewed more than I realized, my tongue hitting something hard, bone. I look back down at what used to be a neck. Now the head is only attached to the body by the spinal chord.