*Jemima*
"Rosalie said that I was going to die."
Carlisle stood beside me, and sighed.
"Is that true?" I asked, looking up at him. His soft face was drawn, and his amber eyes reflected the sadness in my heart.
"I...cannot say, Jemima. I see no reason why you would be singled out for death, but the Volturi are deadly and sadistic and cunning."
I felt the skin on my forehead tighten, "Then why would she say that?"
The suffering within Carlisle was almost palpable, and part of me wished that I hadn't asked. Before I could apologize, however, Carlisle spoke,
"There was once an army that attacked us. An army of newborns, sent by a vampire named Victoria. I'll spare you the details until later, but one newborn surrendered. She was young, much younger than you, and only wished to be spared. We wanted to help her, to give her a second chance," his eyes turned dark, "but the Volturi don't give second chances. A small group of them arrived after the battle, and sentenced the girl to death. She was killed in front of us."
My mouth was open, "They just...killed her..."
"Tore her small form apart, and threw it on the fire," The disgust in Carlisle's voice was shockingly different to his usual calm tone.
Fear skittered through me, torn apart and burnt. I couldn't even imagine how that felt.
"Do they do this to all newborns?" I knew it was a stupid question, but I was too scared to think. To desperate for some reassurance.
Carlisle smiled weakly, "No. They would not kill you for being a newborn. They kill what they're scared of, usually."
Carlisle stopped, and his eyes widened.
"Carlisle, what is it?" I asked, fear clawing at my heart. Had he heard them? Were they here now?
"Fear of the unknown," He whispered,
"Carlisle, you're scaring me," An extra dagger of fear stabbed my heart as I remembered the last time I'd said that. I stood up quickly,
"Jasper, stop. Please, you're...you're scaring me,"
Carlisle noticed me standing up, or maybe it was the fear in my voice. He looked at me,
"Jemima, calm down." He warned,
My breathing was ragged.
His eyes seemed to be growing darker and darker, but I didn't get a good view of them for long. With an animalistic growl, Jasper's face descended towards my neck. I felt his teeth at my jugular...
I sobbed in fear, barely aware of Carlisle standing with his hands outstretched in calming gestures.
My fingers curled into claws, and I hissed at him.
I struggled to separate his face from Jasper's.
"Jemima..." I saw Carlisle's lips move.
"Jemima get out of here!"
I shook my head, terrified.
"Rosalie! What are you-!"
"Jemima, go!"
She snarled, her arms were pinning Jasper to the wall, but she wasn't strong enough to hold him there properly. He was snarling and scratching at her, desperate to free himself. His wild, black eyes were on me. I was too shocked to move, my eyes fixed on his face.
So I'd fight him first. I snarled at the blonde vampire. I heard another sound, a female shouting. The blonde vampire told her to get away.
Get away from his kill.
I screamed. My fingernails found my head, and I dug them in, praying that I could get away from this nightmare.
"I don't know what's happening to her...she just started screaming. She's scared. She's so scared..."
"I think scared is an understatement."
"Rosalie! Get away from her!"
My head snapped up, and the female vampire shot backwards to join the blonde vampire. I snarled at them both. They were trying to hurt me. I would not be their kill.
I leapt towards them.
A force like a brick wall slammed into my side, throwing me into the kitchen counters. I fell onto the hard marble ground. As soon as I was down, a heavy pair of hands grabbed my forearms, pinning me down. The vampire was straddled across my stomach, his long legs squeezing into my waist, and his full body weight on my arms. Fiercely, I looked into his eyes.
Eyes like a burning sun were searing into my own.
"Relax, Jemima." He commanded.
At once, I was no longer in the smashed up kitchen. I was in an ocean, and there were waves. Waves of calm, washing over me. My body gave up the fight as I submitted to the vampires will.
"Is she alright?" I heard someone say.
There was a long pause.
"Jasper?" The voice was raised, and I recognized it as Carlisle's.
My eyes flew open. Jasper's dark amber ones stared back.
I realized what I'd just done. What I'd just been about to do...
I opened my mouth to speak, but my voice had weakened with all of my screaming.
"She says she's sorry. She's so sorry."
That was Edward. I looked over at him, standing protectively in front of his brunette mate, and tried to send him a psychic message.
Thank you.
He jerked his head in a nod.
Edward.
He looked at me.
I'm sorry.
I hoped that he understood what I meant. That I wasn't apologizing for what had just happened. His lips tightened, but he nodded again.
Can you tell Jasper that he can get off of me now?
Edward struggled to mask his smile. "Jasper. She wants you to get off.
Thanks Edward. I hoped that he picked up on the mental sarcasm. Could he have said that in a crueller way? This time he grinned openly. Maybe I was getting somewhere with the red-headed vampire.
Slowly, Jasper released his grip, and let me sit up. The entire family was crowded into the kitchen. I tried to give apologetic looks at Rosalie and Carlisle, who were partly hid behind Emmett's large form. I don't know if Carlisle saw my look, but it was he who spoke next,
"How did you get here so fast? I thought you weren't getting back for at least two more days."
"Jasper wanted to cut the trip short," Emmett said, "said he missed Jemima."
I lowered my eyes in embarrassment, painfully aware of Jasper kneeling over my legs in such an...unusual position.
"We were running back and I heard your thoughts," Edward looked at me, "they were difficult to miss."
I bit my lip. I couldn't understand what had happened. One moment I was having a normal...not so normal conversation with Carlisle, and the next, I was trying to kill them.
"She was remembering what happened before she was changed."
Jasper's head snapped up to look at me. The shock and pain and grief haunting his amber eyes was hard to behold.
To my surprise, Edward almost seemed to try and comfort his brother, "Being a newborn intensified her emotions to a point that her body and mind couldn't handle. The memory alone wasn't enough," at that point he turned to Carlisle, "what were you talking about?"
I was still fighting the urge to look away from Jasper's face. He was beyond console. He knew that it was his fault that I had done that. That it was him who invigorated such powerfully disastrous emotions within me.
...
One of my signature 'weird mind moments' there. I like to think of them as art...
Anyway, please review if you can!
Thank you
