A New Hope
A BRUTAL AWAKENING
***CHAPTER 1***
The young child ran down the dirt path.
"MAMA, PAPA! I'M HOME!" she cried out, smiling like the giddy preschooler that she was. Her father was first to great her.
"Hello my sweet little rosette. How are you?" He smiled. He was tan as ever with his signature beautiful white smile. He picked her up.
"Is my little Vesaulius hungry?" He chuckled. Janelle nodded, giggling and curling into her father's arms contentedly. He walked into their modest house, walking to meet his wife, a beautiful blonde haired German woman.
"Mutti!" Janelle cried out happily, waving to her. Janelle was only 4 and a half. She was young and happy-go-lucky.
"Gertrude...make her a snack whilst I try to get her cleaned up?" her father asked of the German woman.
"Of course, Antonio." She smiled. She was very pale. She almost looked dead.
Janelle clung to her father possessively, never wanting to leave his warm arms.
He smiled and set her down.
"Disrobe, the tub's already ready," he chuckled, his deep voice and Italian accent rolling off his tongue. She nodded and pulled off her small leather boots and untied a few careful knots that her mother had made. The frumpy looking dress dropped down around her ankles.
He picked her up and set her down in the warm water, using a small bar of soap to clean her tiny body. Then he put some perfumes on his hands and gently massaged the good smelling liquids into her golden blonde hair. Soon she was clean and her father picked her up, drying his daughter off with a scratchy wool towel.
Janelle pouted a bit as he put her back into the dress she was previously wearing. She was happy again when her father picked her up.
"Papa?" she asked, curling her small tan hands into his shirt; she had her mother's eyes, golden eyes.
"Yes Janelle?" he answered, tightening his grip on his daughter.
"I've always noticed that I'm stronger and faster than all the other children...why is that?" Janelle was so innocent. He didn't want her learn about what she was so soon.
"It's because…you're just different, alright sweetie?" Antonio mumbled, tensing up.
"But my teeth ache all the time and sometimes they get sharp. And I feel all tingly when the moon comes out at night..." she had started to shiver. This had been scaring her for months now.
He looked at her for a while, with sad emerald green eyes.
"Gertrude, it's time to tell her," he called sadly to his wife.
"But Antonio, she's too young..." her mother said warily.
"We have to-" But he was cut off by a knock at the door.
"I'll get it," she whispered. Something passed between her father and mother as they looked at each other. Her father moved to the cellar and opened the door put Janelle down.
"Stay here until I tell you to come out." He said gently, kissing her forehead.
"But Papa...don't go!" she cried.
"Stay here, Janelle. Whatever you see or hear, don't make a sound." He said, smiling at her and gently stroking her cheek. "Good bye my little rosette," He said sadly, moving away, closing the door and locking it. What Janelle heard next would never leave her memories.
It was about a week later when her uncle came to visit.
"Antonio? Gertrude? Janelle? Where is my cute niece?" He smiled when opening the door, but his expression quickly was changed to a look of horror.
He morphed into a wolf and moved slowly into the battlefield. He sniffed about. The Volturi had been here, explaining why his brother and sister-in-law had been so obviously brutally murdered. But the thing he feared the most was that his niece had been taken. Thankfully, her scent was still strong in the place. He followed it until he came upon the cellar door.
He morphed back into a human and unlocked the door, finding a sniffling, shivering, pale, and starving Janelle. He picked her up, pressing her face into his shoulder, so she wouldn't see the scene or smell the scent of her father and mother's blood.
He moved skillfully and quickly out of the house and to his horse.
"Uncle Romano!" she wailed, curling into his arms, sobbing.
"You heard them, killing...didn't you?" He asked, gently bouncing her. She nodded into his arms.
"I will take care of you, little one," he said, remounting his black mare. Janelle curled into his arms, clinging to his shirt.