AN: This may not be exactly what some of you have in mind for this situation, but it was an idea that tickled me, so I went with it.

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Darkness

Light

The pain is excruciating. He cannot move. He is curled up on their bed. The light hurts. He wants to go back to…

Darkness

Light

He finds himself at the hospital. How he got there he has no idea. He is next to a nurse who looks at him expectantly. Clearly they had been conversing, she is touching his arm. He jerks away, stunned that he has been functioning in the…

Darkness

Light

The next moment of awareness is tainted by a scent that revolts him. Moving around the house, he enters the unused kitchen to find a covered dish of some sort of stew congealing on the bench. Beside is a note, "Something for you for dinner my dear. You need eat more, E." E? There is only one E and he is gone. He cannot recall another. He does agree with the note, he needs to feed. Leaving the house he slips on the steps, falling into the…

Darkness

Light

A woman is laughing, her arm wrapped around his as they walk in the early evening. He stiffens and tries to move away. She stops a look of hurt on her face. "Carlisle, you promised to try. Please don't slip into the depression again." She tugs on his arm and he allows himself to be lead to a park bench. He is baffled at who she is and why he would be with her. She sits stroking his arm. He can feel a fog starting to creep in his mind. The last thing he hears is, "That's right love, come back to me," then….

Darkness

Light

He is lying in bed, naked. He sits up excitedly. Is he back? Did he return? A scent hits him from within the sheets, a scent that he vaguely recalls from a single moment of light. It is that woman, that Ethel or Edna. He stops. He was naked, in his bed, with the smell of a human all over him. Panic sets in, he has been unfaithful. He has been betrayed by his mind, by escaping into the black he is destroying what little he has left. He must stay here in the light, he must not succumb to the…

Darkness

Light

He is walking up a flight of stairs with a suitcase in each hand. He stops as a voice asks, "Carlisle do you even have any tea?" He turns to see her, that woman, at the base of the stairs hands on hips looking up at him with an unattractive pout.

"Why are you here?" He enquires, confused as to the turn of events.

She rolls her eyes, "We have been through this. We decided it would be best I move in with you." The woman Ethel, Edna, something steps closer. "Remember we talked about renovating this house, making it our home." She smiles gently, touching his arm.

"You agreed. We would start to ease out your brother's presence, which reminds me the removalists are coming to take the piano tomorrow morning." As she continues, he can feel the black creeping into his mind. "I mean for goodness sake Carlisle, Edward is gone, he is a useless bum who left you with not so much as a bye or leave. You are better off without him. WE will start a new life without him."

Suddenly the encroaching darkness shifts as it is enveloped by…

RED…EXPLOSIVE…FIREY…RED

Carlisle wakes as if from a deep sleep. His mind clears as if from a fog, he feels the most alert than he has since Edward left. He can hear a soft sound, of liquid landing on wood. Looking around he is shocked to find that the room is covered in blood and human tissue as if someone had been eviscerated by a predator.

He looks at his hands, covered in blood with strands of long brown hair caught in his finger nails. Looking at the hair his mind releases the memories from his times of darkness. How this woman – Esme - had attached onto him in his time of grief, how she had badgered and pressured him into a relationship when he was at his weakest and most vulnerable.

She had told him what to do, when to do it and sometimes when it came to the bedroom, how to do it. She slowly started to take Edward away, she encouraged the darkness, she was the devil and she had been bent to destroy him. He was right to eradicate the threat she posed to his life and future with Edward.

He stands and walks to the powder room. As he washes the blood from his hands and face, he looks in the mirror and is unsurprised that his eyes are blood red. He was glad that he had had the wherewithal not to waste the blood.

As he stares in the mirror he starts to see a replay of how he slaughtered the demon. He watches as he grabs her hand, placing his own over her mouth to stop her evil venom spiting from her mouth, stoping her from telling her lies as she demands that Carlisle remove Edward. He could not, he would never, remove Edward. No matter his physical proximity, the young vampire was in him and with him forever.

He watches himself slowly ripping the skin from the body, ignoring the screams. He drank the blood layer by layer removing muscle, ligaments, sinew, tissue and organs, all the way to the bone. Each strand of tissue pulled from her body with his delicate surgeons fingers. Each strand sucked clean before throwing it into the room so he can focus on the next.

He took his time, ensuring that she felt the pain that he had. She had invaded his life and had tried to remove Edward from him. He knew now the pain had created the darkness and she had encouraged him to return to that state.

At some point the screams became whimpers, then eventually gurgled moans which ceased soon after.

He watches the last of the carnage feeling a twinge of regret and guilt. He wonders if he could have shaken the darkness, have gotten rid of the devil before she could do her damage, before she had said such horrible things about his beautiful boy.

Moving to the kitchen he opens a cupboard. Removing a bucket, mop and garbage bag, he then moves around the room, cleaning up the remains. Whistling as he works he works out his cover story so to explain Esme's disappearance. He could not leave. He needed to be here when Edward returned. Edward, his…

Light!