A/N: Hello. I spared you any rambling last chapter, but just thought I'd pop up and say hey this time around. This chapter's a lot longer than the last, see Chapter One more as just a little introduction to the story, and to this Bella.
Okay, so I'm not going to be completely ass-raping canon in this story, I like Canon, I think everyone does, (with exception of Canon-Bella). So, despite the obvious exception of Rosalie, the Cullens will still be just that ... the Cullens. There'll only be minor changes to Alice's story, which will be tackled later, and Emmett was still saved by the bear. It's just that it was Esme who found him, though she had similar motives to Rose in that she saw how cutesy-wutesy Emmy was and just HAD to save him.
You'll also notice some familiar faces/names in this chapter, particularly of vampires, who are not so vampire here.

Breathe Me- Sia

#2- ... If You're Alone In The Dark?

I ground my teeth together once again to keep them from chattering. The kitchen tile was cold beneath me but had now become just another twinge racing across my body. I let myself lean closer to the radiator as my wet hair began to form into damp clumps that hung over my face.

"Merde." The silence at the long, metal dining table a few feet from me had been broken. Laurent dropped his face to his hands as he repeated himself. "Merde, merde, merde." Beside him Mike sat with his eyes wide as he chewed on his lips, showing no reaction as Jessica's head rolled on his shoulder in muffled sobs.

I pressed myself further into the wall, hoping I'd burst through it and end up somewhere else, or at least burst through it and have the entire building collapse on me, that'd feel better than this.

Another round of tears trickled down my quivering cheeks. My face stung. My head throbbed. Everything fucking hurt. And Rozz was gone.

I sucked up. Licking the tears from around my lips and scrubbing the ones from my eyes with my cold, damp sleeve. When I smelled the river on the material I dropped my face to my arm, sinking my teeth into my flesh. I felt as I broke through the skin, creating little punctures. As I let the echoes of the small pain reverberate through my body I threw my head back, banging it on the wall behind me.

I set my jaw tight. What did tears do? Fuck all, that's what. I'd learned as a kid that tears didn't bring people back, however hard I screamed and yelled as I shed thousands of the fucking things. I hadn't cried since then. Until tonight at least.

Laurent's body shifted in his chair, facing me as his elbows fell to his knees.

"What happened, Bella?" I sniffed again and felt my chin quiver. My lips pulled back as I forced myself into composure.

"She fell." The words came out on the wave of a deep exhale. A loud, high-pitched squeak came from Jessica as another sob fell over her and her arm flew across Newton in search of comfort. Fake fucking bitch.

Laurent nodded slowly, crouching his body lower.

"Yes, Bella. The river, you said. But …" He stopped when the front door crashed open, the sound of melodic laughter drifting into the kitchen. James and Victoria. They entered, intertwined as usual. James' arm draped over his lover's shoulder, his fingers buried deep in her fiery hair as hers ran under his shirt and across his stomach. As they took in the sombre expressions of those at the table, they dropped into chairs, never breaking intimate contact.

"What? Why does everybody look so goddamn sullen?" There was a chuckle in James' voice as his eyes swept those sat around him.

"Rozz is dead." Newton chirped, never missing an opportunity to kiss James' ass. If he ever fucking called her Rozz again I'd break his creepy little spine. And I'd do it with a smile on my face too. She hated that nickname as much as I despised 'Izz'; the nickname a vain but loyal twelve-year old Rosalie insisted on giving the dark and disturbed ten-year old Isabella. But we were both stubborn bitches, even as kids. So when I'd retorted with 'Rozz', neither bowed down, so they stuck, and were never to be uttered by any but the two of us.

Victoria straightened, pulling her face from its position buried in the crook of James' neck.

"What? When? What about Bella?" Laurent met her eyes and nodded in my direction. They hadn't notice me, cooped in my corner; fucking classic. Her flame-red hair flicked out as she span round to where I was, her eyes flying wide as she took in my appearance. James peered over his shoulder at me before leaning closer to Laurent,

"How?"

"She drowned." Fucking Newton. Who the hell asked him? James' stare must have conveyed the same message as my thoughts, because Mike's eyes fell to the floor and his body shrank deeper into his chair. James' eyes fell over his shoulder again as he looked me over before nodding slowly. Clearly me looking like a drowned rat reinforced the story enough for him. His hands connected on the table and he leaned farther forward, turning to Laurent as Victoria draped her head across his back, still watching me.

"And how did this happen? Not a late night swim in the river, I suppose?" I knew the icy tone that swamped James' voice now; he was in hunter mode, and it contrasted starkly with Laurent's considerate undertaking as he spoke.

"No, James. Bella and Rose were on a hunt by the river when Rose fell in. I was about to ask Bella more when you and Victoria arrived." James span around then, and Laurent turned back to me, their expressions expectant.

I searched my mind for words, my body still quaking.

"She was chasing him, and she fell."

"Him?" James growled, his body shooting further forward. "Him, Bella?" It wasn't a rule. Each vampire being an 'it' was just something that came naturally to me given my entrance into this world, the world where we hunted them. They weren't human. And each of us knew they didn't deserve recognition of anything even remotely so.

But this one, this vampire, he'd been a he since I watched the video of the three men on the CCTV.

"He was different." Jessica had stopped sobbing, every eye in the room fixed intently on me. James dropped his head to a side,

"So it … wasn't a vampire?" His voice shifted, his tone now condescending. I took a deep breath, those eyes vivid in my mind as my darkest memories.

"He … it, it was." That couldn't be doubted. The thirst in those eyes, the want, couldn't be mistaken; I'd seen it too many times. His movements were vampire, one well in control, and fast. "But his eyes. He had golden eyes." I spoke as though to myself. Accentuating each word as their impossibility rang through me.

James chuckled, spinning back to Laurent.

"What shall we do about the body?" The body. Rozz's body. I squeezed my eyes shut and sub-vocally screamed back the new tears.

"Retrieval will of course be difficult, perhaps impossible. I do not see what we can do." With only the sounds of the room and the chill of my body filling my conscious, Laurent's rhythmic accent and his permanently sorrowful voice could not conceal the ice that each of his words drove into me.

"We can't just leave it there, Laurent. If anyone were to find it, run tests, it could have dire consequences for us all." My arms wrapped tighter around my legs as my mind struggled to grasp that it was Rozz they were talking about. Her body. Her lifeless fucking body at the bottom of a goddamn river.

"James, Karen returns from Italy in the morning. She will know what to do."

"Bella!" Angela shrieked as she passed through the doorway. She wore light-blue pyjamas. Of course. Angela was normal. And normal people slept at Five AM. She fell to her knees before me, her hands retracting quickly from where they were on my shoulder after she felt the cold damp. "Bella, what happened to you?"

"Rosalie's dead." Fucking Newton! He'd hopped to his feet and strode over, his face contorted into a sickening sadness. Angela's mouth dropped open, her hands returning to my shoulders quickly.

"I - I, Bella, I'm so sorry." Her hand ran across my forehead, my body was numb to the contact. "Bella, you'll catch your death if you stay here like this. Come on, let's get you upstairs." I shook my head. No sympathy, I couldn't have sympathy.

"Come on, Izz. Let's get you to bed." Fucking Newton! Angela slid out of the way as I dived for him, throwing my body on top of his as it crashed to the floor. He wriggled and I brought my hand to his neck to keep him in place, my fingers delayed in their responses to my will.

"I swear to God, Mike, if you ever fucking call me that again I'll throw a firepod down your throat you little creep!" Jessica shrieked, James chuckled and Laurent sighed as Mike gagged beneath me. Angela's hands returned to my shoulders from behind, tugging me gently.

"Come on, Bella. Come upstairs." I released Newton and stormed out of the kitchen, launching my body up the stairs. By the third step I felt dizzy. Before my buckling knees could send me rolling backwards Angela's arms came around my waist. "It's okay, Bella. I've got you." The rest went blurry. Angela managed to drag me up to the first floor, easing me to the floor and propping me against the sink in my bathroom. She rushed to the bathtub, spinning the hot tap quickly and sitting beside it, her hand in the rising water as she kept track of its temperature.

With every breath my chest ached. My whole body felt slow, like there was a long delay between my mind issuing orders and my limbs obeying them. I couldn't even think. Everything was slow and painful.

"Bella? Bella?" I forced open my heavy eyes. Angela stared back at me, her expression full of concern. "You're so cold, Bella. Come on, get this off." She pulled the jacket from my limp body. The simple vest top I wore beneath exposed my arms, which felt raw and achy. The cotton was like ice against my stomach and back, so I didn't protest when Angela pulled it over my head, tossing it aside with the jacket. After my shoes, I tried to wriggle in assistance as she tugged of my bottoms but instead found darkness clouding my vision and my head rocking to the side. "Bella, stay awake. I need you awake, Bella. Okay?"

I leaned close against Angela's warm body as she lifted me to my feet and helped me climb into the bath. I'm sure it was supposed to be warm, but to me it felt like nothing. My body was numb to all sensation as it was lowered into the water.

"I'll be right back." I nodded slowly, my eyelids now too heavy to fight.

:-:-:

When they opened again Angela was on the floor beside the tub, looking up at me with tired eyes. I lifted my right hand, each finger pruned. I could feel the water now and it was still warm.

"How long have I been in here?"

"About an hour. I kept refreshing the water so it wouldn't get cold." When I sat up my muscles burned and I grunted through my teeth. Angela leaned over to me, grabbing my arms to help me up.

"No, I'm okay. You go to bed. I'll be fine." She took a second to stare into my eyes. Angela was smart. She knew us all too well to insist. So she just nodded and left.

I dressed slowly, pausing to fight back tears more than once. The mirror before the sink was all fogged over. I went to wipe it but pulled away at the thought of my pathetic face staring back at me.

The house was silent as I dropped into bed. It was gone six. The luxury of turning in this late was that I got to miss the nightly sounds of James and Victoria moaning and screaming upstairs. Their fucking was something I've had to live with since James met Victoria three years ago. Some places were worse than others. In some houses the walls were paper thin, whereas in others we all got the luxury of peace and quiet, be it from a separate building or thicker walls. This house was old and sturdy, but with their room directly above mine, it'd been my i-pod in my ears every night since we got here, blocking them out.

I rolled up tighter when I thought of the empty bedroom on the other side of the wall behind me. Rozz's room. It would be dark in there now. It would never have been dark if Rozz was in there. She couldn't sleep in the dark. She couldn't be alone and vulnerable in the dark. At her age, in this house, that may be a cause for mockery. But we'd all seen her the night she changed, the night the darkness she'd since been so scared of crept into her soul.

:-:-:

It was just under a year ago. We were all on the outskirts of Moscow, hunting a particularly large coven. We caught up with them in the dead of night, in the woods where a blanket of snow covered everything. There were five of them and eight of us, we'd never come across a coven of this size. And in the snow we knew building fires was impossible. So our only options were to get our anti-venom in somehow - without getting killed, or burn them on the spot. Vamp-venom burned like gasoline. But getting a vampire to hold still long enough to spark them off, could get tricky.

At first it had been me and Rozz, like always. Working in pairs always made sense, but with a group of older vampires it was easier to get separated. I'd burned the first one whilst Rozz fought off one who was getting especially volatile over us. We used the first two as a base to burn the rest. James and Victoria pulling one apart and throwing it onto the flames. When I found myself pinned beneath one, snarling with black eyes, the venom almost dribbling from its lips, I squirmed and called for Rozz through gritted teeth as I fought to keep the suckers face from closing the few inches gap between us. It was Laurent who threw it off, rolling onto its torso and detaching the head whilst I jumped up and did the same to the legs. I looked up, almost everyone had gathered around the pile of four burning bodies. "Where's Rozz?". They all looked around, breathless and clueless. I started screeching her name. There was still a vamp out there, and now Rozz was missing.

A blood-curdling scream penetrated the dark silence of the woods. In a flash we were each racing towards it. My body was giddy with panic as I ran, my heart sinking into the pit of my stomach when I saw her. She was spread out across the snowy floor, the bloodsucker leaning over her, a twisted grin across its face. James and Laurent flew into it, pulling it to the floor and keeping it there. I dropped down beside Rozz. Her eyes were wide and her breathing rapid. When I shook her she didn't respond, she just kept staring, breathing and shaking. "Rozz, Rozz. Look at me!" There was no response, and I could see the vampire still wriggling beneath James and Laurent. "It's a Gifted!" We didn't fuck around with Gifted's. In any other situation this vamp would have suffered. We'd have killed it with anti-venom; the most painful method we had. But instead we had to be quick. Tear it apart and burn it before it could do any of its freaky shit on us.

As soon as I heard the first crack of the sucker's flesh splitting, Rozz woke up. She screamed and thrashed beneath me. Clawing and kicking as I tried to hold her down. "Rozz, Calm down! It's ok, it's me! It's Izz!" She didn't listen, just shrieked and punched and writhed across the ground. "Get off me! Don't touch me! No, no, stop, no!"

It took all of us to drag her back to the house. In the effort, a powerful kick made contact with Victoria's chin, Laurent was tossed against a tree, whilst, Jessica and I got bruises and scratch marks all over us. Rozz still screamed and wriggled as James caged her in his arms and dragged her into the house. He threw her down on the floor, Laurent and Victoria helping to pin her down. I crawled to her side, barely recognising my friend through the snarling and crying. As her body was pressed into the wooden floor she lifted her head repeatedly, driving it back down with frightening force as she screamed. I slid my hand into the gap, my fingers throbbing as she thrashed against them instead. I continued to shush her, tried to talk to her. She seemed unresponsive and just kept screaming, "Stop touching me! Stop! Please, stop!" Karen raced into the room, a needle in her hands. James released one of Rozz's arms from beneath him, Victoria wrestling with it as Karen drove in the needle. Moments later, Rozz was quiet.

I sat at her side as she slept. Though she was silent and still, there was no peace to her. No calm. Rozz was never at peace or calm after that night. When she woke she was drowsy, but still terrified. I just held her face and made her stare at me until she recognized who I was. "Izz?" The tears in her eyes twinkled in the dark room. While she'd slept everyone else had discussed the effect the Gifted had had on them. Each had been exposed to a split reality. Though the Gifted may have been too distracted to subject the full brunt of its power on any of them, they'd all seen, felt, and heard, terrible things. I'd not felt anything. No darkness got into my mind. My only nightmare was the reality of that night. Rozz had not been so lucky. "They kept touching me, Izz. Their hands were everywhere, and they wouldn't stop."

Nobody had touched her. The naked men that had torn at Rozz's clothes, beaten her, violated her; they didn't exist. But it was real.

The effects of that night on Rozz were so vast and irreversible that nobody could deny the reality of it.

:-:-:

I groaned as my body leapt awake. The tiniest movement causing everything to throb. I buried my head back into the pillow, thankful the thick curtains were shielding me from the morning sun. For a moment I could have been anywhere, anyone. As my brain booted up all that mattered was the pillow beneath my head and the beating of my heart; that I was alive.

Then I really woke up. Then I remembered.

I remembered what that meant now, being alive. I was without Rozz. Without the only person in the world I really cared about. The only one who I couldn't bear to lose; and she was the one who'd never be coming back.

The tears rose up in me like bile, and I forced them back with full determination. Tears were useless. Absolutely fucking pointless in a world where there's nobody there to wipe them away. Tears get you nothing. Tears get you nowhere.

Upstairs I heard voices and footsteps. They came from Karen's study. A room only to be accessed with permission or when called. A room locked, it's only key kept with Karen at all times. Now it was open, it could only mean she was back. Fucking fantastic.

I rolled from the bed, practically grinding my teeth as I moved. I pulled on a grey vest and dark sweats and crawled up the flight of stairs, flicking open the study door. Fuck knocking. I'm not knocking for any fucker today.

Everyone stopped in their tracks as I stood in the doorway, their eyes darting towards me. Karen sat behind her antique oak desk, her elbows resting before her and her fingers interlocked. James and Victoria stood before her, their bodies as good as coitally intertwined. Laurent was at the side of the room, watching me intently.

"Come in, Bella." Karen sighed as she spoke, and the implied disappointment in the sound had me throwing the door shut behind me. I smirked as she raised an eyebrow in warning and her eyes darkened. Karen blew air threw her pursed lips and straightened back against her chair. "We were just discussing last night, Bella. Would you like to tell us more of what happened?" I took a deep breath and clenched my fists. This was being discussed like a fucking argument or a smashed window. I looked over to Laurent who still watched me. His eyes were understanding. He knew what this was like; standing here and discussing the loss of a loved one so frivolously. It was how it was done. I rolled my glance over to the lascivious pair beside me. Would I give a fuck if it had been Victoria at the bottom of the river right now?

"She tripped, hit her head, and fell in the river." Karen nodded. I stared back into her dark eyes with a scowl and a sneer at my lips.

"And the vampire?"

"Got away." Karen's eyes devoured me. She watched as my teeth clenched and my knuckles grew white with the pressure I was applying to them. She nodded slowly; a small smile playing at her lips like my reaction pleased her.

"And nobody saw what happened?"

"No." She nodded again and slouched a little into her seat.

"Well, Bella. I think that's all."

"No. No it's not. The vampire had golden eyes." James chuckled and rolled his head. "He fucking did!"

"There you go with that he again, Bella. Hell, this sucker must have been special. Not only did it have you delusional but it drove poor Rosie gaga enough to send her to the bottom of the fucking Thames!"

"I'm not delusional. I know what I saw!"

"Sure. If you ask me you were spending too much time with that crazy bitch. Maybe you saw gold the same way little Rose felt all those men screwing her that night."

The force as my fist collided with James' face sent him crumbling back into Victoria's arms.

In a second Laurent's arms were around my waist and Karen had leapt over the desk, standing between a shocked James and me.

"Fuck you, you fucking asshole! I'll kill you I swear." James shot forward, snarling towards me, restrained by Victoria and pushed back by Karen.

"I'd like to see you try, little girl!" I lunged forward, but didn't get any closer to my target as Laurent's arms tightened around my ribs.

"Enough!" Karen yelled and we fell silent. The only sounds were the laboured pants of everyone in the room. "All of you, out now. I need to speak with Bella." James snarled and shrugged from Victoria's grip before storming from the room. Victoria raced after him and Laurent lowered me to the floor before leaving.

"Bella, that was completely uncalled for." Karen returned to her chair behind the desk. I bit my tongue. The sooner she said her piece the sooner I could get the fuck out of here. "And I hear you attacked Michael last night."

"He fucking deserved it!" Fucking Newton! I couldn't help it. I couldn't bite my tongue when that asshole came up. Just like I couldn't resist throwing him against a wall every now and then.

"Bella, I will not have you treating my son that way. He deserves your respect. As does James. And I won't accept that kind of language either. Now sit down." I scowled but didn't budge. Newton was such a Momma's boy it was ridiculous. Karen set her jaw and hissed, "Sit down, Bella." I threw myself into the chair, letting my legs dangle over one of the armrests. "I understand that what happened last night will have upset you, Bella. But it is no excuse for this kind of behaviour. We are family, Bella." I shrunk at the word. This wasn't a family. This was a collective. We lived under the same roof, hunted the same predators, but didn't give a fuck about the well-being of one another, the only exceptions being for our own little bonds. Me and Rozz. James and Victoria. Newton and his fucking Mother. "Your principal concern must always be to your family. You cannot just fall apart, you have to stay strong." I wanted to spit in her face. Rozz had been dead less than twelve hours and Karen was talking about getting the fuck over it. Not that anyone in this house needed to get over it. To them, she was gone, and that was it. That's how things worked round here.

"You listen to me, Bella. These outbursts of yours are not acceptable. I will not have you going down that road, not again." I sneered. She had no idea what 'little outbursts' I was capable of. At that second I felt like ripping this fucking townhouse to pieces. Smashing every window. Pulling down every wall. Breaking every bone of every inhabitant. Karen sighed and dropped back into her seat.

"Or perhaps, if this event is too painful for you, we should send you away for a while." My body flew upright and Karen grinned. No. I couldn't leave now. I could never leave Rozz behind. The thought of her body lying at the bottom of a river, alone and forgotten whilst I lived and breathed a million miles away made me sick to my stomach. "Perhaps time with your father would help you heal." I leapt to my feet and dropped my fists onto the desk. Karen just smiled. She knew she fucking had me. She knew I wouldn't step a foot out of line so long as the threat of being shipped to Forks hung over me.

"No."

"He must miss you, Bella. When did you last call?" I drove my fists back into the dark oak.

"No!"

"Then don't give me a reason." She looked me over and spun the blood-red gemstone ring she always wore on the middle finger of her left hand. "You're special, Bella. Do your job, and accept the costs that come with it. You are excused." I turned to leave, but stopped in the doorway, not turning back when Karen called.

"Oh, and Bella. No more nonsense about golden eyes, am I understood?" I didn't answer, just let the door drop behind me.

:-:-:

In the kitchen Angela and Jessica stood around the stove, cooking eggs. Mike and Laurent were at the table. Mike span a spoon between his fingers as Laurent read the paper. I wanted to scream at the sight. It was so normal, so everyday. Nothing should be normal when somebody dies. The whole world should stop. Everyone should pay attention and be altered. There should be silence and reflection, not newspapers and eggs. Everyone should empathise. Everyone should feel the loss and have to know that life will never be the same again.

"Bella! Good morning. How are you feeling?" Angela strode over to me cautiously. I know inside she wanted to be sad, she just couldn't. She'd been programmed to accept the losses that weren't hers. Like most of us, Angela knew loss. She knew what it felt like to be haunted by the knowledge and memory of someone beloved being torn from this world.

"I'm fine."

"Are you hungry? You should eat something." I couldn't eat. The normality of the scene before me was turning my stomach.

"No. I'm not hungry." I turned and ran back upstairs, not sure why I'd even come down in the first place.

In my room I dressed quickly. Scraping my hair into a ponytail, my body almost quaking with the need to be out of this fucking house.

I took the stairs in leaps, Angela shouting after me as I threw open the front door.

"Bella! Where are you going?"

"Out." I ran at a standard pace, weaving through the civilians until I reached the place I knew I needed to be.

:-:-:

The cover of the manhole lay in its place. As I stared down I remembered I'd last seen it thrown to the side after the bloodsucker threw it out of the way. I stood and waited until the dark alleyway was completely empty, then lifted the cover and jumped down.

My stomach wrenched as I made my way down the dark tunnel. The tunnel I'd walked only hours ago, with Rozz's hand in mine. The door beneath me had been locked. Without a doubt someone, or something, had been back here. I only hoped that whatever it was, it was still here.

No light flooded the tunnel when I lifted the door. The abandoned station was pitch-black. I didn't reach for my torch. I didn't want to be able to see. As I walked forward I felt my knees shake. I stood to gather myself and reached out for the tiled wall for support, shrinking away when I remembered how Rozz had ran her hands across the tiles. How she'd looked around this place with awe and fascination. And that dangerous fucking excitement of hers.

I sniffed, sucking back those useless tears and walked over to where I knew the rafter would be. The rafter he'd crouched in.

'It', Bella. Fucking 'it'!

Those golden eyes were singed into my memory. More even than the image of Rozz's body tumbling into the river I remembered those goddamn eyes. Nobody, not James or Karen or anybody could convince me they weren't real.

The way they'd stared at me. The way that fucking vampire wanted me was so palpable. But he hadn't moved. He'd been there, before I'd even spotted him he would have seen me, smelled me. But nothing. He didn't jump for me, didn't dive for my flesh like I'd seen so many do before. He almost … fought?

I rolled my eyes at the thought. Vampires didn't fight their thirst. It wasn't in their nature, I fucking knew that too well.

My foot met something and the sound of rolling metal had me crouching to the floor and fumbling to find what it was. I rolled the item in my hands. It was the empty canister of firefoam, the one I'd emptied onto the flames Rozz had ignited.

What ifs were as useful as tears, and just as inescapable. What if I hadn't bothered with the flames? What if I'd taken after Rozz straight away, been right beside her instead of so far behind?

I dropped to the ground and leaned back against the wall, biting my lip to keep back the tears. What if the bloodsucker had just done it? Gone for me, sucked me dry. He'd be dead. I might be. But Rozz would be alive. I had no idea what a Rozz without me would be. There'd be nobody looking after her, nobody upholding what little sanity had been left. Not that I'd done a very good job.

:-:-:

I'd been sat for what felt like eternity in the darkness, clenching my teeth and groaning when I felt the moisture building up in my eyes. When the darkness got tedious, when I just wanted to be able to see, I pulled out my torch. I scanned the room with the light. No vampire. I needed that fucker. I needed to see it again. I don't know what I'd do when I did. What was more important, me taking out my pain on him, the pain for which he was partly fucking responsible, or proving to every fucker back home he had golden eyes?

I chuckled when I imagined Karen's face when I dropped that vamps severed head on her desk. Then we'd see how fucking delusional I was.

Something shone from the other side of the platform. I crawled towards it, stopping when it fell under the beam of light from my torch. Rozz's knife.

I picked it up and dropped back into a sitting position. The tears rolled down my cheeks of their own accord now, and there was nothing I could do about them. I gripped the handle as the sobs tore through me. It must have dropped from her belt when she pulled out the firepod. I was glad. Glad that whatever afterlife Rozz may have gone to, she would not have this. She couldn't cut herself. She could be happy. She could be safe.

I traced a line across my wrist with the blade, stopping for a second before pushing.

Blood flowed from the wound. I watched as it dripped down and around my arm, listened to the gentle pit-pat as the little droplets made contact with the floor. The clarity of the pain ripped through me, filling me with ice cold insight. Gone were the feelings of the past hours. The dormant anger, so veiled by numbness, erupted. The tears were gone as I clasped my hand over the wound, pushing down to stop the flow of liquid. If that sucker wanted my blood it could fucking come and get it. I wanted to see it lose its fucking mind.

After wrapping layers of bandage around quickly, I pulled out my handheld, replaying the video that started all this. I knew which one it was; the small one. That's the one I wanted.

I wouldn't give Karen a reason to ship me off to Charlie.

I wouldn't fall apart, wouldn't crumble.

But I would have my revenge. I'd find this bloodsucker. I'd never stop until I had it in my grip.