Does it even make a difference?

When I'm sober, I feel pain

As we run under the stars

Through cemetery backyards (backyards)

Celebrate the way the night hides scars.

- Props & Mayhem Pierce the Veil

Rosangela Zanetti still couldn't believe how much her life had changed, in the span of three years she had lost her mother, fallen into an abusive relationship, gotten out after being severely beaten, learned to live as a cripple confined to a wheel chair, lost her father, and fought to keep her younger siblings out of the foster system. If you had told her four years ago that any of this the now nineteen year old girl would have laughed at the mere notion of anything dramatic ever happening. She had grown up in a completely average Italian-American household; her mother was a homemaker staying at home to take care of her and her siblings while her father worked as an accountant. They lived in a normal four bed, three and a half bath, two story house with a big backyard where she and her father would kick around the soccer ball while her mother entertained her baby siblings.

Things started to change when Rosangela was sixteen, her mother had taken a bath while she put the babies down for the night and apparently she fell asleep. By the time she realized something was wrong her mother had already drowned, her mother's death was devastating but she stayed strong becoming the rock that grounded her father. While he took time to grieve the passing of his beloved wife she took on the responsibility of caring for her twin siblings. Serena and Renzo were only one when their mother died and because of this they didn't remember her, to them Rosangela was their mother. Serena's first word was Ela the closest she could come to pronouncing her older sisters rather complex name; Renzo's on the other hand was no, something that was unsurprising considering how many times Rosangela had use the word around him. Renzo was a little hellion constantly getting himself into trouble even at the age of one, if she turned her back on him for more than a few minutes he was guaranteed to find some way to cause mischief.

Because she had to take care of her younger siblings Rosangela dropped out of her high school and finished her sophomore year online so that she could spend all her time at home. Her father snapped out of his sorrow driven stupor that summer and she was more than a bit relieved, he apologized to her over and over for neglecting her and the babies for so long but she simply gave him a hug and welcomed him back. The first thing he did was find a nanny for the twins so that Rosangela would be able to go back to public school to finish her last two years, she had told him that she was perfectly fine not going back but he had been stubborn. Looking back at she wished she had been more insistent, had she held her ground then she would have ended up in a very different place.

She had met Trent Michelson in her junior English class; they were paired together for a project and became fast friends. They continued to hang out throughout that year and at the end of the year pep rally he asked her to be his girlfriend. She said yes thinking it was a dream come true, she finally had her first boyfriend and she couldn't think of another boy she would rather have a relationship with.

Oh how wrong she was, far from a dream come true she soon found herself in a living nightmare. Trent expected her to spend every waking moment with him during the summer, verbally berating her when she chose to spend time with the twins instead of him and yelling at her when she decided to go home when they did hang out. She contemplated leaving him but he would always apologize a few days later and she was convinced that if she just had patience and waited it out he would grow out of it; again she was wrong. Instead of getting better Trent just got worse, a ways into their senior year he hit her when she told him she didn't want to go to the homecoming game because she had a ton of homework to get done, she had been shocked when his palm made contact with her cheek but he had been quick to plead forgiveness for his action and promised never to do it again.

Blinded by her supposed love for him she took his word for truth and continued to be with him even as the abuse became steadily worse throughout the year. By the time prom rolled around he had broken her arm when he had all but thrown her into a wall and left so many bruises on her body that she had to wear a dress with long sleeves and a high neckline to cover them all. She didn't put her foot down until right after they graduated. Because they were both out of school Trent expected Rosangela to move in with him and when she refused he hit her, when she continued to reject the idea he flew into a wild rage and beat her nearly to death. Luckily for her some of Trent's neighbors heard her screaming and the cops were called, she was rushed to the hospital and was in surgery the same day but he damage was already done. Along with breaking her jaw, left arm, and cracking five of her ribs Trent had managed to break her lower spine as he had stomped on her back while she as curled up on the ground effectively immobilizing her from the waist down.

At first she had difficulty acclimating to being in a wheelchair twenty-four-seven but found consolation in the fact that Trent had failed to kill her, something she was sure he would have done had someone not stopped him. The only thing that made her situation even remotely better was the twins, Selena and Renzo now age three didn't treat her any different because of her new found disability and took great pleasure in climbing into her lap so that they could ride around with her. Her father on the other hand didn't take the whole event nearly as well, he was devastated that this had all been happening to his daughter right under his nose and he hadn't noticed it. He felt like a failure as a father and the guilt slowly ate away at his already weak mind until he couldn't take it anymore. Between his wife's death and his daughter's abuse he became severely depressed until one day in early June a few weeks before Rosangela's birthday he got in his car and drove it straight off the bridge into the lake near his house.

His funeral was held the day after Rosangela turned nineteen and for the second time in her life, Rosangela found herself thrust into a position of responsibility before she was ready. Because she had just become a legal adult the state wanted to take the twins away from her and put them into foster care. Distraught at the idea of losing the last of her family she fought long and hard to keep them in her custody, finally winning when she agreed to move out to Los Angeles to a house that was five minutes away from one of her aunts.

Which brings us to the here and now of Rosangela's story, not two months after her father's death and her own tragedy and she is now the legal guardian of two twins and the owner of a decent sized one story home. The neighborhood her family was now located in was a beautifully historical one; according to her aunt their new house was located directly across from the most famous house of all, the murder house. Apparently named as such because of the numerous amount of deaths that had occurred within it, something she found rather disturbing. She wasn't a superstitious by any means but even she found the idea of so many deaths occurring in one singular place was rather unsettling.

The latest owners of the house were a nice family if not a bit strange, however they were nothing compared to their next door neighbor. Constance Langdon was by far the rudest most ill-mannered woman she had ever met; the day that they moved in Constance invited herself over barging into their house as if she owned the place. She then proceeded to give Rosangela backhanded compliments while subtly questioning her ability to raise two small children on her own considering her condition. It took everything she had not to snap at the old woman when she had offered her services as a babysitter of sorts, instead she graciously thanked her for her offer but informed her that they would be perfectly fine on their own before telling her that they had a lot of unpacking to get done and seeing her to the door.

She met Vivien Harmon about a half an hour later when the woman came over to see if Constance had caused her and her family any trouble. As they sat in the kitchen she explained to the woman why they had moved out to Los Angeles she could see the woman's heart breaking for her and her family.

"I can't even begin to imagine what you must be going through, if you ever need anything feel free to stop by me and my husband would be more than happy to help in any way we can."

"Thank you very much Mrs. Harmon I appreciate the offer. I don't think I'll have too many problems but if I do you'll be the first person I turn to."

"Glad to hear it and please call me Vivien, Mrs. Harmon makes me feel old. I have a daughter who's about your age in fact. Her name is Violet you'll have to come over and meet her some time."

"I'll be sure to do that, how about I stop by after we finish unpacking."

"That sounds wonderful in fact, bring your siblings and we'll have a little dinner party to welcome you to the neighborhood."

Rosangela thanked her amiably for the warm invitation and they chatted for a few more minutes before the older woman departed. It took her a week before she could take up Vivian up on her offer. It was a Friday when they finally finished unpacking and so she quickly got the twins bathed and dressed some of their nicer clothes before taking care of her and wheeling over. She was embarrassed however when she got stuck at the bottom of the stairs and had to send the twins up to knock on the door. An older woman in a maids outfit opened the door and upon seeing Rosangela's predicament called for Mr. Harmon to come help. It ended up taking both Mr. and Mrs. Harmon to get her into the house and she apologized profusely for the inconvenience. But the couple would have none of it and Mr. Harmon, who insisted she call him Ben, told her he would install a ramp that weekend so that she could visit anytime she wanted without the stairs hindering her.

She met Violet about half an hour later when she came home from school. At first the younger girl seemed hesitant to talk to the stranger in her house but upon hearing that she had just moved out and had disliked high school just as much as Violet did now she began open up. Soon they were both having a grand time discussing different bands and TV shows while the twins played in the living room, and so the rest of the night went extremely well the dinner was fantastic and the three of them ended up staying until close to nine o'clock. Rosangela loved being around Vivian and the motherly presence that seemed to radiate from her, she had a harder time being around Ben but that was simply because her relationship with Trent had left her with a fear of men.

After that night she and the twins became a rather consistent presence in the house, any time Rosangela needed to go somewhere Vivian would watch the kids and occasionally she would send them over to her aunts for the night so that she and Violet could have a sleepover. She grew very close to the two women however she couldn't bring herself to get too close to Ben. She knew that he was a kind man and nothing like Trent but the fear in her heart was gripping and she felt extremely uncomfortable whenever she was near him for any extended period of time. This was something Ben caught onto quick and he was insistent that he could help her overcome her fears if she would allow him to have a few sessions with her, however she obstinately refused.

As she grew closer to Violet the younger girl told her about one of her father's patients named Tate who she had apparently been getting close to, however in all her times that she had visited the Harmon household she had never once encountered the young man. However that didn't mean that Tate hadn't encountered her.

Tate couldn't help but be intrigued by the girl who had come to live across the street from him. He loved watching her and Violet when they had their sleepovers, she was a good influence on the girl. The fact that she was in a wheelchair because of some unexplained "accident" made him want to know everything about her, Violet was by far his favorite person in the house but Rosangela was a close second.

He would watch her sleep at night, completely still as opposed to Violet who would toss and turn every now and then. The first night she stayed over he found it a little unsettling; he had even checked her pulse to make sure she was actually still alive she had seemed so much like a corpse. And during the day he found himself wondering if she ever got tired of being confined to a wheelchair, but his favorite thing about her was her relationship with the twins. He adored watching her play with them and give them rides around the house, he found it amazing that she could be such a good mother to her younger siblings when she was barely even an adult herself. Sometimes he found himself envious of the two children whom she gave so much attention too, for so many years he had longed for similar attention from his own mother and he found it hard to believe that a nineteen year old girl was more capable of parenting than Constance was when she had him.

He had heard Violet telling her about him and had considered showing himself to her as well but couldn't bring himself to do it. He felt like Violet could understand him and his twisted dark outlook on life but he was afraid that Rosangela wouldn't and he wasn't sure that he could handle being rejected by her, he was afraid that if she rejected him Violet would follow suit and he had become too attached to the girl to allow that to happen. Maybe he would appear to her in time when he was sure she wouldn't shun him, or maybe not only time would tell.

The first time Violet visited Rosangela was right after Tate scared Leah for her, she had expected Tate to jump out with a scary mask or some sort of demented makeup on and say some freaky ass shit to scare her but whatever had happened in the basement that day had been beyond anything she could have imagined and Violet hadn't known who else to go to. She couldn't talk to her parents because they would immediately call the cops on Tate or make him stop coming over and Rosangela had become like an older sister to her.

And so as soon as Leah had run out and she had confronted Tate she ran across the street and into Rosangela's arms. That night the older girl simply sat as Violet revealed all of her troubles and fears. She eventually fell asleep with her head in Rosangela's lap; the two had eventually found made their way into her room where they had sat for hours talking about Violet's attraction to Tate and if she was crazy for still liking him even after what he had done. Rosangela wasn't sure if she should condone their relationship but she couldn't help but feel like the relationship was an okay one. Obviously Tate hadn't meant to hurt Violet in any way and so in her mind there was nothing wrong with what had happened, call her cynical but in her mind some people needed to be hurt in order to open their eyes to what the world is really like. Had Trent not almost killed her she had no doubt that she would still be in an abusive relationship with him or some other douchebag like him, and in some ways she was grateful for what had happened. If nothing else her near death experience had made her tougher and taught her a few important life lessons that would likely spare her a lot of grief in the future. She wasn't sure if Violet and Tate's relationship would be a good one or if it would even last if there was one thing she was sure about it was that she would be there for Violet every step of the way.

Hey so I just finished the first season of American Horror Story and I couldn't help but write a Fanfiction about Tate. This is a Tate/OC story but it won't happen until later in the story. I hope you all enjoyed the first chapter!

PLEASE REVIEW: I NEED FEEDBACK!

-Ambercat999