Josie really didn't mind the cold, she wasn't bothered by the gloominess or the rain. She didn't care that wolves could be heard howling in the forest when it wasn't entirely realistic that they would reside in the same dense, thin areas of forest positioned so closely to human populated areas all the time. In fact, she didn't even pay too much attention to the strange behaviour and features of the Cullens' guests from the previous year - creepy eyes and all.
What Josephine did find upsetting was the complete lack of faith she had in any prospects for her future. Don't get the girl wrong - she adored Forks - the people, the community, the weather, the quirks...
But there were very little resources when it came to ambitions beyond small town life. Trinity Sawyer had always told her little girl to aspire for more and embrace the wildest of her dreams, but had somehow figured that tiny, dreary Forks, Washington was the best place for her five kids to do just that. Josephine was only the second oldest, and she knew how damned she was career wise. It was all well and good for her brother, Teddy. He was tall and naturally fit and imposing. With his laidback charm and speedy thinking (and running) Theodore had always been a shoo-in for a top notch member of the local police department. He had never had any problems with his future.
The sibling below Josie in age by just over a year was Thea - soft, wise and willowy Thea - with her pale blond hair and bottomless eyes. Teddy and Josephine had been the two born from their mother's first marriage, while Thea was the first and only from the second. Despite that, she was untroubled, ever-kind and somehow all knowing. If Teddy was social and Josephine was creative, Thea was spiritual - and had found her calling when she was 14. She loved all things mystical and soul searching, and possessed the ability to make you really believe and feel what she was telling you about your fortune, your aura, or your future. Thea was peaceful and calming, so Josie very much doubted that she worried about anything, let alone her future.
The fourth sibling down the line was Raksha - whose name meant demon, but whose appearance portrayed otherwise. She was the product of Trinity's brief fling with a guy named Shapur Kaveh while she lived and studied in Persia. From her father, Raksha inherited a rich, middling skin tone and dark, exotic eyes. Long eyelashes and longer luscious hair to boot, and Raksha was noticeably foreign. From their mother, she got her small frame, coppery highlights and redeeming personality traits. All in all, Raksha was a small curiosity, and would always live up to her namesake. Josephine reckoned this particular sibling was most likely to share her despair.
Last but not least was the little boy kicking away inside Trinity's swollen belly. He was the only child in the family lucky enough to be the baby born of a love that would last. Mystery baby's dad, Dan Sawyer, was the love of Trinity's life, and Josephine couldn't explain why, but she just knew it. From the moment she had met her stepdad, she had never questioned it, and accepted it to be a fact that he was her mother's soulmate.
"Yo." Josephine turned her attention from the window to observe her sister in the doorway. Raksha was only just getting up, and looked like some kind of sleepy dragon. "Your toast is burning."
Her sister moved at a mummified pace to the sink, while Josephine sprung off her stool to go salvage her breakfast. Teddy's annoying super hearing prevailed again, and he laughed from somewhere upstairs. Josephine frowned, and turned to her sister. Raksha was smirking.
A substitute banana later, Josephine trudged out into the damp world outside and set off down the road, as she always did, to make her way down to her favourite part of Forks forestry - her camera hung around her neck, and her notebook stuffed firmly into her coat packet. She yawned and scratched at an itch persisting at the spot behind and just below her right ear, and shivered at the chill in the air that she couldn't feel through her parka but was still aware of.
The forest was quiet that day, eerie in it's near silence. Usually there was at least a low hubbub of animal related sounds - birds trilling or little furry things darting through the greenery of the forest floor - but today there was almost nothing. As she trod her way carefully through, Josie could only pick up on the leaves rustling with the wind in the trees. It was as if the animals had all abandoned the area, had scarpered and run away.
Josephine stilled, a faint sound from somewhere ahead of her caught her attention. She waited.
Silence.
Ignoring the sinking feeling in her stomach, Josephine kept going forwards, albeit more quietly now, until she had found the intruder. A beautiful golden head of hair cascaded down the stranger's back, a halo practically atop their head. The sound went off again, and Josephine flinched. In a motion that was quicker than swift, the person turned around, and revealed themself to be Rosalie Hale, an expensive looking camera in her delicate hands, and a carefully blank expression on her face. She was breathtakingly beautiful, and painfully perfect. Amongst the trees, she looked like an exquisite painting of an angel amongst nature.
The sound from before was just the shutter going off, Josie surmised.
She could feel Rosalie's shrewd, amber eyes studying her, landing briefly on the camera and focusing longer on her face. Oddly, Rosalie said nothing, and simply turned her attention back to the trees, shutter sound going off a few times as she snapped more shots. Josephine tried to relax, but the weird lack of ambience around them bothered her too much to allow it. As if she had somehow sensed it, Rosalie's comment cut sharply through the quiet.
"There are too many predators nearby."
"What?"
Rosalie looked at her. "For the animals." Josephine felt stupid. Rosalie sniffed, looking somehow superior. "So they're hiding. That's why it's quiet."
Josephine nodded, although she wasn't so sure it made sense. "Oh."
"It's rare. It's not commonly reported, but it does happen."
Why was she explaining herself so much?
Josie just nodded. Rosalie seemed to accept that, and walked gracefully away. Josephine had barely blinked three times, and she was gone.
