Darkness Will Come to Light [1]

V. Little Bird

"...But mama, I feel so low. Mama, where do I go? Mama, what do I know? Mama, we reap what we sow. They always said that you knew best..."

~*~

"I'm so sorry, mom," Melaina muttered to the heavens as she shot across the emptying hallway. She knew her mother would have not wanted this for her, but it was a choice that only Melaina could make for herself.

Alice used her vampire speed to follow Melaina into the ladies' room. She swiped the girl's pocket knife before Mel even had the chance to close the stall door.

Oblivious, Melaina locked the door and shuffled through her backpack. Her shuffling became more frantic when she didn't find the blade where she had last hidden it. Shaking and anxious, Melaina burst out of the stall minutes later and dumped the contents of her bag on the floor in desperation. She didn't even notice the short-haired girl standing at the sink.

"Hi, Melaina? I'm Alice Cullen. Are you okay?" Mel vaguely recognized the name of her newest classmate, but her focus was elsewhere. She scoured the contents of her backpack on the tiled floor--pencils, notebooks, candy wrappers. Mel felt trapped in her own skin when she couldn't find what she needed. Her breathing accelerated, and with her vampire hearing, Alice heard Melaina's heartbeat pick up speed as well.

Melaina clasped a hand tightly in her hair as she panicked. She was too wrapped up in her feeling of anxiety to be embarrassed at her display in front of a stranger.

"No, no, no," she whimpered. The distraught girl collapsed against the bathroom wall and held her knees to her chest. She tried to calm her breathing but failed. Her skin felt wrong on her body and the walls seemed to be closing in around her. Mel choked on another gasp of air.

Alice kneeled beside her. "Melaina, breathe with me. Come on. Breathe in for five..." Mel obediently followed her order; she didn't know what else to do about the suffocating feeling in her lungs. "Breathe out for five." Alice led Mel through the calming technique several more times before Mel's breathing lost its erratic pattern.

Breathing softly once again, Melaina closed her eyes and cried into her hands. "I'm sorry," she whispered through her sniffles. "I'm sorry."

"You did nothing wrong. You're stronger than you think, okay? All it took was breathing."

Mel didn't know how Alice knew, but she sensed that the pale girl was aware of Mel's dark desire.

"Thank you for, you know..." Mel met Alice's golden eyes for the first time. It took until this moment to actually process that Alice Cullen had helped her through an anxiety attack. Mel bit her lip and turned her gaze to the tiled floor. She didn't know what else to say to the beautiful creature in front of her.

"Are you okay to go to class?"

Melaina shook her head. "I'm never okay enough to handle math class," she admitted.

Alice smiled, showing her bright white teeth. "I like you. I can see us being friends."

At Alice's words, Mel regained her senses and retreated back into her depressive shell. She would not condemn anyone to be her friend in her time of darkness. "I'm fine with being a loner, but thank you. I can't--" Mel stopped. "I have to go."

Mel quickly shoved everything back into her school bag and stood. Alice stayed and watched her leave with worried eyes.

~*~

Melaina stopped by her locker in the back hall before going to art class. She avoided Alice Cullen's gaze and slipped into an empty seat by the window.

Jasper looked between his wife and Melaina questioningly. He felt the girl's embarrassment and sadness, while Alice felt hopeful and concerned. "Alice?"

Alice briefly explained running into Melaina in the girls' room. She focused on the anxiety attack part when she recalled what happened, and left out bits about Jasper drinking Mel's blood in her vision. "How is she feeling? She looks so lonely."

Jasper brushed a hand over her cheek to make her look at him. "She is human," Jasper said quietly. "You cannot care for her. Think of the family."

"I'm always thinking of the family," Alice said defensively, turning her face away from her husband's gaze. "I can care for a girl's well-being without it bringing the Volturi down on us."

The pathokinetic felt her change in mood and sighed. She was protective of the human girl.

"Don't get too attached, m'love."

Melaina silently work on her papier-mâché project of a flying falcon. She had her earbuds in and blared a song by Annie Lennox on repeat.

"...I wish that I could be that bird
And fly away from here
I wish I had the wings to fly away from here..."

Jasper wished Alice would stay away from the human.

Alice wished she could do more for Melaina.

Melaina wished she could go home and cry.