"If you've been up all night and cried till you have no more tears left in you - you will know that there comes in the end a sort of quietness. You feel as if nothing was ever going to happen again." -C.S. Lewis

Two

Irina watched me watch her. Uncle Laurent said he'd be back soon, but that time frame could be from five minutes to a month.

We were sitting in a rotting cabin in Alaska. It was May, so it was still really really cold. I had grown to look like a five year old, aging a human year in mere months. I had been 'three' last spring, when Daddy had been murdered.

Irina didn't smile as she looked at me. Uncle Laurent said Irina's mom had been killed because of an immortal child. I was different, not that she seemed to care. She had brought me a new dress; white, with blue flowers, and a soft creamy cardigan that was as long as the dress.

"I could take you to church with me," she said in front of Uncle Laurent, who smiled at her comment. His eyes were ugly, no longer red. They were turning that pukey yellow, the traitorous yellow Mommy had been telling me about. The yellow of the disgusting coven that live amongst humans in their filth, watching as they destroyed the earth.

But Mommy wasn't here, so I wore the white dress and the cream cardigan and I shut up. Irina was part of a different coven, anyways, and Uncle Laurent needed her information.

Uncle Laurent came back, blood down the front of his shirt. He wasn't smiling, so he must have eaten an animal. Humans always put him in a good mood.

He carried a bright red apple in one hand, which he threw at me.

"Go outside for a bit. Not too far."

I took the apple and left, knowing that the two of them would be taking off each other's clothes and making weird noises.

I carved faces into the apple with my nails as I walked around the forest. The ground was mostly soft and squishy, and cold, but sometimes I stepped on a root or a rock and I'd hiss in pain.

When my tummy rumbled I bit into the apple, letting the juice run down my face as if it were blood. I wish it were. Uncle Laurent hadn't let me hunt since he met Irina, which was nearly a year ago. I couldn't use my power (not that I was allowed to, ever) and I couldn't run faster than a jog without getting spots in my vision.

Mommy was too busy to care the two times she came to visit. The first time I just listened to her talk about the evil coven. The second time she didn't even talk to me.

I heard a weird scream and I knew they'd be done in a few minutes.

"Can't you just kill her? Victoria doesn't even like her and she puts you in such danger…"

"Victoria would lose it if I killed her now. Just be patient. Soon Victoria will stop with her revenge plots, and the two of them will be out of our lives forever. Please, let me do this last favour for a friend."

Laurent's words appeased Irina, just like had told Mommy they would. Although he sounded a little too happy about the prospect of killing me. I felt like telling Mommy, but then in a rush of anger I realized she wasn't near, nor would she be any time soon.

When the rotting cabin came back into view, Irina and Uncle Laurent made their way to Irina's parked car. Uncle Laurent pulled out a paper bag full of groceries.

"No wandering." He said as he pushed the groceries into my small arms. "See you in a few days."

Mommy was home and I couldn't be happier. She was quiet, which was odd, but I was draped across her lap and she was stroking my hair. She could be screaming at the top of her lungs and I would't move a muscle.

We sat like that, in the rotting cabin, for a long time. Mommy cried sometimes, but she did so quietly and her chest shook. I hurt when Mommy cried, so sometimes I cried too, but this didn't help.

I got an idea, so I swallowed and took a deep breath.

"Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan, Edmund and Lucy."

I paused as Mommy stopped shaking.

"This story is about something that happened to them when they were sent away from London during the war because of air raids." I continued, and she began to stroke my hair again

"They were sent to the house of an old Professor who lived in the heart of the country, ten miles from the nearest railway station and two miles from the nearest post office..."

I was reciting the third chapter when Uncle Laurent pulled open the cabin door, or rather pulled it off its hinges.

"Vicky," he said, smiling brightly at her. I sat up slowly and Mommy stood to embrace Uncle Laurent.

"How's life with the yellow eyes?" She asked, and Uncle Laurent groaned.

"It tastes terrible, that's for sure." He said, and pulled a can of peaches out of his pocket, setting it on the table. He was showing off for Mommy.

"But you told Irina that her cat was tasty." I said, and then Mommy turned to Uncle Laurent, who was frozen in place.

"Some animals taste better than others." He said slowly, and smiled sheepishly at Mommy. Mommy ran a hand through her hair and sighed.

"Tell me what you've learned from her." Mommy said, taking the can of peaches from the table and handing it to me.

"Apparently the Cullens moved."

"Mhm." Mommy said, picking something off of her jeans.

I opened the can and sipped the juice. The Cullens must be the evil coven.

"That's not all," Uncle Laurent said, and Mommy's eyes turned to him with interest.

"They didn't take the human girl."

Mommy was very still for a minute, and then a smile slowly spread across her face. It didn't look like a happy smile; her incisors seemed sharper and whiter, her dark red eyes crisply red, like an apple, instead of warm red, like my hoodie.

Mommy was gone in the morning.

"Is Mommy investigating?" I asked Uncle Laurent, who twirled an apple on the tip of one finger.

"No. She's doing some research."

"On the yellow-eyed people?"

"No."

"On the human girl?"

"No. Shut up."

He let the apple drop. It landed on a rock, and then rolled to my feet.

"I'm going to do some investigating. If Irina comes by, tell her I'm helping your mother with something."

Irina came by almost every day for the past few weeks.

"Did he say when he'd be back?"

"No ma'am."

She asked me the same question every day. When she looked at me, sometimes she looked like Mommy, the way Mommy looked when she held my head and said my eyes looked like Daddy's.

"Here," she said, pulling out a candy bar from her purse. She was careful not to touch me.

"I don't have a scent." I said as I unwrapped the bar and stuck a corner in my mouth. I was tired of eating apples.

"What?"

"It's part of my power. That's what Mommy says. That's why I have to stay in the cabin, so Mommy knows where to find me."

Irina slowly sat down across from me.

"What's the rest of your power?"

"I'm not allowed to tell people." I said, biting the bar. The chocolate was creamy, but made me thirsty. As if on cue she pulled out a bottle of water and opened it for me.

"Does Laurent talk about me?" she asked as I gulped down the water and wiped my face.

"Yes."

"Really? What does he say?"

Now I dug myself into a hole. I paused for a minute, gnawing on the bar to get some time.

"He said he wants Mommy to get better so he can stay with you."

A smile spread across her face, a warm one, not like Mommy's last smile.

"You must be lonely here. Why don't I bring you a treat tomorrow? What would you like?"

"Something bloody," I said, and she laughed until she realized I was serious, and then she laughed some more.

"Meredith, wake up."

I opened my eyes to find Mommy in front of me. Moonlight shone through the broken glass of the cabin window.

"Mommy?"

"I said, get up!"

She grabbed me and dragged me out of the cabin, tossing me onto her shoulder and she began to run.

My tummy growled and I realized that I wouldn't be getting my something bloody from Irina.

Mommy didn't talk as she ran, and she ran at full speed. She had the crazy eyes, like when Daddy died, and when she found out the human girl was left by the vampires.

"Once there were four children whose names were Peter, Susan-"

"Shut up." Mommy growled, switching me to her other shoulder. Her bones dug into my empty stomach, but I didn't say a word as she ran all night.