I wasn't sure about most things, but I was completely sure of one thing: I was pissed. More than pissed. Infuriated. Red haze filled my vision as I kicked and punched down every tree in sight. Still pissed. I started picking up the fallen trees and began throwing them, smashing them against other trees to knock those down too. I watched as once-giants became nothing more than sawdust and splinters.

In some corner of my mind I began to realize the irony of me, a former environmentalist advocate, single-handedly deforesting a good quarter of a square mile. With this thought, I once again slipped back into the self-loathing and utter despair that usually consumed my never-ending days.

As the fury started to fade, I became aware of my surroundings again. The slight breeze through my hair, sunlight reflecting rainbows off my skin, the animals quiet and hiding from my temper tantrum, the leaves rustling and ...twigs snapping?

My eyes popped open and scanned the edge of my man-made (figuratively speaking) clearing. I tensed. Almost nearing my clearing were a group of people. I sniff. No not people. My type of people. My mind goes into hyper drive.

How many? I looked hard at the group. Eight. Four men, four women. I sniff again. One smells bad. Really bad. The other smells good. Too good. Possibility of escape? I scanned the forest. Slim. Hostile? I looked closer at the approaching group. Maybe. Can't be too safe though. Can they see me? The group stopped at the edge of my clearing, and looked directly at me. Yes they can see me.

This inner assessment takes a couple of seconds at most. The next thirty seconds consisted of a stare down between the group and me. They seemed to be arguing over something, presumably about what to do about me. I stayed stock still and watched from the center of the clearing.
Bored of this, I decided that my possibly of escaping was looking better and better by the second. I took a step backward, and as karma would have it, my foot crunched a few leaves scattered by my mutilation of the trees. This grabbed their attention as all faces suddenly turned to me. The leader, having made some sort of decision, took a step forward.

"Wait," he said calmly. It wasn't a demand, but it also wasn't a plea. His voice held an air of natural authority, like one would expect from a doctor or a teacher or a parent. Although my mind screamed otherwise, my body stopped. Seventeen years of being trained to do as those of authority tell you were enough to override a moment of instinct. "We are not going to harm you," he soothed. He took another step forward, arms up, palms up. Standing in the middle of the clearing with the sun creating a halo-like glow around his golden hair and his skin glittering, he looked like some kind of angel.

I panicked.

"Don't come closer" I warned. Or at least I tried to sound threatening, but failed and sounded scared.

"It's okay," he said quietly. He took another step forward. "Everything will be okay." He took another step forward. "My name is Carlisle." He made to take another step forward" And this is my-"

I stopped him then, as Carlisle took another step forward, by yelling, "Stay back!" and throwing my hands up, palms out in an attempt to force him back with my hand motions.

Unfortunately, that's what happened.

As soon as my arm flexed into a palms forward position, Carlisle flew back into the forest, past the rest of his coven, as though something knocked him backward. My hands went to my mouth and my eyes went wide in shock and regret. The other three males instantly were in a defensive position in front of the women. One of them, the big hulking one, took a step forward as if to confront me but was held back by the handsome one.

"I'm so sorry," I said apologetically. I shook my head. "Really." And I ran. And kept running. I ran as fast as I could and as far as I could. A couple of hours later, I ended up deep in the mountains. It had started to rain and, not wanting to ruin the only outfit I owned, I found a cave to wait out the storm in. I instantly regretted this decision. Without the distraction of running, my mind instantly wandered back to self-loathing.

God, I thought, I can't even be around my own kind. I'm truly a monster. This train of thought quickly brought about, once again, the anger. Not having trees to direct my fury at, I settled for rocks. Not satisfying enough. Rocks don't break like trees. It's not the rocks I hate anyway, I thought. It's me. This thought infuriated me beyond reason and I looked at my hand, disgusted. I saw blood.

The next thing I knew I was curled in the fetal position and in pain. Shocked I look down and cringe at the sight of my now mutilated stump of an arm. I curled protectively around my self-inflicted wound. I started to drift. Not really sleeping but more a state of unawareness that allowed my mind to relax. I came to momentary to wonder when the last time I fed was. The answer was that I couldn't remember. Becoming too weak to care, I slipped back into a haze of oblivion.

It was in this state that they found me sometime later.