Disclaimer: I don't own anything associated with Twilight

Authors note: I'm really excited about this chapter because it has both Charlie and Beth's POV in it! Wahoo! I hope you like it and, just so you know, this is the beginning of my main plot!...it's all planned out in my head right now…

Tragedy strikes

Bella's POV

Charlie and Beth were now eight years old and were out hunting together. This wasn't the first time they had been out hunting without adult supervision, nor would it be the last but that didn't stop the feeling of anxiety in my chest as I sat with the rest of the family, waiting.

A small gasp broke the silence and I looked up to see Alice tensed with her eyes glazed over and shock clouding her expression. I froze, the feeling of anxiety had intensified; something was wrong. And it concerned our children. That I knew. I turned my head slowly towards Edward as he sat beside me with a mixture of disbelief and sadness on his features.

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Charlie's POV

Me and Beth are now hunting, finally. Sure it's only been a week since we last went but I'm hungry and the human food that Mum and Dad try to feed me tastes pretty disgusting.

We are running through the woods now, the trees whizzing past us as we searched the air for scents. I've always loved running and when I'm doing that with Beth it can be…interesting. She always seems to enjoy putting obstacles in my way, trees, rocks and other things like that. We used to hunt together a lot when we were younger but now, not so much, although we do stay pretty close together.

Beth ran off to the right and I caught the scent of a mountain lion from the direction she was headed in. I really don't know why she likes them so much; they're not as great as dad makes them out to be. I prefer wolves myself; they've got a cinnamon type taste and it really reminds me of ginger bread men which are one of the few human foods I'm willing to eat.

I continued running through the woods, smelling lots of different scents but none of them were very appealing. It was deer mostly but they are so boring to hunt. Most of the time they don't know you're there until you show yourself and then they run away. They don't try and fight back like bears or wolves or mountain lions, probably because they're not predators but still, they're boring.

A breeze blew towards me, carrying a scent with it and I froze where I was. The shock of such a delicious scent hit me so hard I almost fell. The sore thirst at the back of my throat burned stronger than it ever had, even when I was little and mum was still human. It was spicy, kind of cinnamony but definitely not wolf. It smelled so much better, sweeter. It was wonderful. I had to taste it, I had to.

I turned sharply to my left and ran through the woods faster than I thought possible, following the lovely scent. I felt as if I was going to go mad if I didn't taste it soon. I stopped in a small clearing and glanced around it. She was close; the one who belonged to the delicious scent was very close.

At the back of my mind I remembered daddy saying something about singers. That they're blood is more appealing than anyone else's. At the time I didn't believe that. How could blood be anymore appealing even if it was animal? But now, now I know what he meant.

I took a few steps into the clearing, my eyes searching it frantically for the source of the scent. At the sound of bushes rustling my eyes darted to one side of the clearing just as a girl stumbled out into view.

She looked a bit younger than me, maybe five or six with wavy brown hair and clear blue eyes. I took a step towards her, eyeing her hungrily. She looked up at me with a tearstained face and I noticed her trousers were covered in mud. She smiled when she saw me and closed the distance between us a bit.

"Have you seen me Mummy and daddy?" She asked and I just stared at her. She smelled wonderful and I knew she would taste that way too but a part of me, a tiny part, remembered when my mum and dad had taught me. Drink only animals, not human. "I'm lost. Are you lost too? Can you help me find my Mummy and Daddy?" She asked and walked closer to me so she was only a couple of steps in front of me.

Her scent surrounded me and I couldn't stop myself from breathing it in. A snarl left me before I could stop it and I took a step towards her with a grin on my face. Who cares if I wasn't supposed to drink human blood? She smelled too good to waste.

The smile fell from her face and she took a few steps back, her eyes filled with fear but I didn't notice her terror because my eyes were firmly focused on her neck. On the blood pulsing just below the surface.

"Don't go, stay." I told her and I noticed my voice was layered and musical. Her eyes went blank for a few seconds before returning to normal, hypnotised. I quickly closed the distance between us and sunk my teeth into her neck, drinking her warm blood hungrily. She screamed loudly, the sound piercing the air but I ignored it, revelling in the taste of the warm liquid flowing down my throat.

I was right, it did taste better than it smelled. I felt her wriggling against me but tightened my arms around her as I continued to drink from her. Her blood was the sweetest thing I had ever tasted, sweet and spicy but absolutely delicious. Her struggles became less and less before stopping completely.

"Charlie?" My head snapped up towards the source of my name, a growl erupting from my chest and the blood trickling down my chin.

Beth's POV

I stepped away from the mountain lion carcass and glanced around the woods. I had always found the thought of me fighting a lion funny. It just seemed strange that someone as small as me could take down a fully grown mountain lion. My triumphant smile was replaced for a frown. I couldn't see or hear Charlie anywhere which was really unusual when we were hunting.

I heard a distant scream loud and clear and my face paled. I ran towards it, panicking over what I might find. When I got the edge of a clearing I stopped and stared at the scene in front of me, completely shocked.

Charlie stood hunched over with a small lifeless body of a girl in his arms and his teeth sunk into her neck. "Charlie?" I whispered, the shock I was feeling didn't let me talk any louder.

He looked up at me, growling. His eyes were bright crimson instead of the golden colour they had been not that long ago and they matched a trickle of blood running down his chin which he licked off absent-mindedly. I had never seen my brother like this before. Never. He looked like a monster, his hair sticking up, his red eyes glowing brightly and his face scrunched in anger. A shiver of fear ran down my spine as I glanced from him to the small body in his arms. I strained my ears but I definitely couldn't hear a heart beat at all.

I moved my eyes back to Charlie to see him staring at the girl in his arms with disbelief, as if he hadn't seen her before, hadn't been conscious of what he was doing, what he had done, until now.

My heart panged at the sight of him gently tracing his fingers up the side of her neck where the crescent shaped cut was then the side of her cheek, her forehead then her eyelids as tears poured from his eyes, dripping off the end of his nose and landing on her lifeless face.

He couldn't have done this, he wouldn't. The Charlie I knew would never have hurt her but he obviously had. The proof of his actions lay limp in his arms.

My pocket vibrated and I pulled out the cell phone dad had insisted I take with us. I flipped it open and slowly placed it against my ear, my hand shaking at I continued to stare at Charlie.

"Hello." My voice was barely a whisper.

"Beth, where's Charlie? Is he with you?" Alice's frantic voice spoke through the phone.

I nodded my head slightly but spoke, knowing she couldn't see me. "Yes." I'm sure the shock in my voice told her all she needed to know.

"Stay with him. We're on our way and will be there in a few seconds." She stated and I vaguely noticed the sound of rushing air when she was speaking. They must have been running while she was on the phone. I hung up and placed the phone into my pocket before dropping my arm limply to my side.

I felt my own tears prickle my eyes as I watched Charlie shaking the small girl gently as he spoke softly to her. "Wake up. Please, wake up." He urged her as the tears continued to spill from his eyes. "I didn't mean it. I'm sorry, just wake up…please." He whispered.

I tore my gaze off him as I saw the figures of the rest of my family emerge from the surrounding trees. Mum rushed to my side and scooped me up in her arms while I returned my eyes towards Charlie, just staring blankly at him.

Emmett and Daddy went to Charlie, gently taking the girl from his arms and pulling him away from her as he struggled against them. "No! No, she's going to be all right. Let me go. Don't take her away from me. She'll be ok, wont she?" He asked desperately as he fought against them holding him.

Rosalie gently picked the small girl up in her arms and ran into the woods with her, probably somehow disposing of her body in a way that would avoid suspicion. Charlie screams got louder and more frantic as Rose disappeared into the trees. "Come back! No, she's going to be ok. Bring her back. Please, don't take her away. Let me go. She's going to be alright." His voice was high pitched and frantic as he repeated himself over and over again.

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Edward's POV

It was a few hours after we had collected Beth and Charlie. The silence in the house was almost eerie. Most of the family was sitting in the living room; Beth was in her room, Esme and Carlisle had been out all day so they had yet to know about what happened and Rose had just returned from disposing of the little girl, making it look like she had been attacked by an animal when she got lost.

Charlie sat on the floor at one side of the room, staring blankly at the wall as he had been for the past few hours since we got back. It had taken a while to calm him but when we did he just sat staring at nothing, not talking, not even responding to anyone who spoke to him.

I didn't blame him at all. What happened was terrible, it probably could have been avoided but I couldn't blame Charlie. I knew how it felt to find your singer because that's exactly what he had done. I knew how hard it had been for me that first day when Bella walked into biology. I had almost killed her and an entire classroom full of children just to drink her blood and I had over ninety years of control. Charlie was only eight and although he had good control around humans he wouldn't have stood a chance to control himself around his singer.

To say I was worried about him would be a gross understatement. Physically he was only eight years old and his mental capacity was much older but he was still a child. And no child should have to endure the knowledge that they had ended someone's life, no matter what. I should have gone with them. If I had been there maybe this wouldn't have happened and Charlie wouldn't be beating himself up about it.

My concern for him was magnified by how unresponsive he was being and the blank look in his eyes. I winced as I remembered the image from Jake's memory of Bella when Sam found her just after I left. The look on both Charlie and Bella at that time was almost identical and it frightened me. I knew how much pain Bella had gone through because I had endured that too when we had been apart and now my son was going through it too but for a different reason entirely.

I glanced over the pensive expressions on the faces of my siblings then back to Charlie who had barely moved since we got here. One thing was absolutely certain; life was never going to be the same again. For any of us.

A/N: Depressing or what? See, I told you the drama was coming…anyway, the review that inspired this was from amobutterfly25 like I have said already and in the review was the question 'I wonder if the first person killed by Charlie will be mike?' and it got me thinking because I wasn't actually going to have Charlie kill anyone but a plot seemed to stem from that one idea so thank you!

See, reviews are inspiration! I hope you enjoyed reading, please review!