Darkness Will Come to Light [1]

XVI. Crumbling Down

Thankfully, Melaina stayed conscious. She could not afford to turn her back on these people, much less black out on the floor in front of them.

Mel worried that she'd need stitches from the amount of blood oozing from the back of her head. Going to the hospital would only lead to questions that Mel was never ready to answer.

She stumbled to the stove to grab a towel from the drawer beside it. She pressed the kitchen towel against the open wound to hopefully slow the flow of blood.

Without waiting for her stepdad's approval to leave, Melaina forced her legs to work properly and carry her out of the room. By the time she was in her bedroom, the white flowered towel was soaked through.

Her dress was ruined with blood stains. She tossed it in the trash without a second thought and stepped into the bathroom.

Mel glanced at herself in the mirror and assessed the damage. Her brown hair was nearly black and her face had paled to a deathly white. Her grey eyes were watery.

She winced as she took the towel off her wound. She wished her mother was there to help her; Elizabeth would have applied the medical skills she utilized at her nursing job to fix Melaina in no time.

Mel wasn't sure how to care for a cut in such an odd location. She couldn't just place a Band-Aid over it; Mel shuddered at the thought of tearing a bandage out of her hair.

She prayed it would heal soon and planned to wear a black beanie to school the next day.

She avoided Jeremy in the morning and kept her window unlocked, in case she needed to enter the house that unconventional way.

~*~

Melaina's fifteenth birthday inched closer and closer to the present day. Her birthday coincided with the last day of freshman year, so Mel planned on not being in school on June 12th. She wanted to visit her mother in the morning, and then Savannah had suggested Mel spend the night at her house. The greatest birthday gift of all would be two days free of her wicked stepfather.

Ten more days until summer.

~*~

When a glass bottle shattering against your skull is not the worst part of your week, you know your life is shit.

It all happened so fast.

Before she could process that her legs were no longer supporting her body, Melaina tumbled down the wooden stairs. Her breath got knocked out of her, so her scream was silent. She didn't have a movie reel of her life flash before her eyes. All she saw was her hair splayed in every direction.

Her hand hit off the metal railing at an odd angle, and Mel swore she could feel the bone snap under her skin. Her shoulder banged against the steps, then her knees.

The cup that previously was in her hand crashed against the tile floor and shattered across her face and arms as she made impact at the bottom of the stairs. Tiny shards of glass embedded into her skin. She cried out in pain. Blood and chocolate milk coated Mel's face.

All she had wanted was a glass of chocolate milk before bed. She had never before regretted being thirsty until that moment.

To add insult to injury, Jeremy laughed. It was more of a harsh, drunken chortle, but a laugh at her pain nonetheless. Mel groaned against the floor.

He descended the stairs to survey the damage that he had caused. "You got blood on my floor," he slurred. "And milk. You better make--" Burp. "--sure it doesn't stink up the place."

Jeremy's priorities were obvious and hurtful. He kicked her body away from the bottom step so he could pass her. His bare foot nailed her already bruising wrist, and her face scrunched as she held back another cry.

"Get over it," her stepdad muttered. "Such a baby."

Her vision swirled and two Jeremy's stood over her. One was bad enough. She welcomed the darkness as it pulled her deep into the abyss.

~*~

Alice paced around the Cullen living room as she beat herself up over Mel's accident. When Melaina hadn't shown up for school, Alice knew that it had been done.

Alice saw that Mel planned to skip the last day, not two days before. She was the one to carry the broken human girl to the hospital. "I didn't know when. I should have prevented this."

"You know that you can't change your visions, Alice. They may not be set in stone, but the future happens a certain way for a reason. You pushed the inevitable for as long as it could be held off."

The seer knew her father was right, but it was Jasper who eased her guilt.