Chapter Six

WARNING: Explicit sexual content and graphic violence (torture, rape, sodomy)

Does God want goodness or the choice of goodness?

Is a man who chooses to be bad perhaps in some way better than a man who has the good imposed upon him?

― Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange

In The Woods(Flashback)

Carlisle left early with an affectionate parting kiss and Edward was on his own for the day.

Again…

He considered his options - the library; another looong run to the coast to see the ocean; another trip to the music store to see if any more sheet music had arrived...

He tried to summon some enthusiasm for the day ahead of him and fell far short of the task.

He was lying on the couch, only dimly aware of a change in the buzzing in his brain and, accustomed to blocking out the annoyance, he simply ignored it. Carlisle's "voice", the only one he cared to listen to, the only one he let hover in his head, was gone for the day, and he had had as much as he could tolerate of the nearby neighbors' drama. He made it a point to block them out as much as possible for his own sake, not theirs.

The noise in his head got louder, becoming all but impossible to disregard. Subconsciously, he recognized that the sounds forming were very unlike human thoughts, whose drone was such a stark contrast to Carlisle's hum. What he heard now was distinctly not human – a new frequency, a clarity that was somehow even more vivid than usual. It moved all around the different hemispheres of his brain fluidly, massaging meanings without forming cohesive words. The cadence and circular motions and pulling apart and reforming of ideas called to mind the graceful flow of Carlisle's thoughts.

That was it! He realized, sitting up abruptly. They were vampires! He was very excited by the prospect. He had never met any of his own kind before, save the Scout, though he and Carlisle had traveled a great deal and it seemed to him they should have run into at least one along the way. He had often wondered what the others were like, but Carlisle's experiences in Italy meant that he was destined to live with humans, not his own kind.

He honed his senses, better to hear them.

The next instant he was frowning, his body tensing as his defense mechanisms were aroused.

This was not good. He could hear their intent and feel the evil flowing through them.

They were coming for him.

He knew he had to get away and had only a second to decide. The logical exit would be through the front, to the road and to Carlisle for help. But they had blocked his escape that way. If there were one or two of them, he could make it. But there were so many. Six? No, seven. There was a child's voice. A girl?

They were closer now. Too close. He was running out of time.

Through the back then. Into the woods. He would circle back to the road once he'd put enough distance between them and make it to the hospital the circuitous route. He ran faster than he ever had – he sensed their extreme power and instinctively understood that he must not allow himself under any circumstances to be caught. He had made it almost to the end of the woods – with the intention of turning North and swinging back to the town – when he realized that they were… in front of him? But, no, that made no sense. He had left them far behind. And yet, he could hear them, feel their presence. He halted, leaving deep track marks in the ground and whirled back the way he had come.

And then they were surrounding him. Dear God, how many more of them were there? He began to feel genuinely panicked. Carlisle had never prepared him for anything like this.

Two to the left of him, but if he turned right, another one was there, and he shivered when he saw the thoughts of this one. And there were two behind him, and the little girl in front of him. For some reason, he knew the girl was the last option. Something about her he couldn't quite pinpoint….

He chose left, thinking he might be able to dodge them. But… then she was there as well! He could distinctly hear her on both sides. He was confused. How could she be on both sides of him? He turned again to run straight, losing his bearings. If he turned around anymore, he would be completely lost.

He was no more than a few hundred yards from the house – and the road and the hospital and Carlisle! – when it hit him. He felt as if his entire body had been jolted with thousands of currents of electricity and then pinned down with shards of glass. He could feel a cold knife slicing slowly and repeatedly through his brain, making him shudder; a roiling white hot pole shoved up inside of him, scorching and pulverizing everything in its path; the agonizing tearing of his skin as he was flayed by the glass; the sharp sticks shoved under his fingernails to wrench them from his hands.

Terrifying images assaulted his mind, making him cower on the ground. Horrible beings performing unspeakable acts on others. Somehow he felt it was familiar but he knew he had never even heard of, let alone witnessed, such depravity. The awful shrieking of the victims compounded his pain and terror, culminating in a seizure that left him on the edge of consciousness.

He might have likened the pain to his transformation, but he knew that he had never withstood anything on this scale. He prayed he would die swiftly. But on and on and on it went until his mind began to shut down from the utter exhaustion of enduring it

As abruptly as it had begun, it ceased and he became aware of an angelic face above his. His head was in her lap, and she was stroking his hair lovingly, as if he were her long lost brother. Her eyes were ruby red, and he recoiled when he felt the viciousness emanating from her lovely face. "Edward?" She called softly, smiling down at him. "Are you alright, Edward? Are you better now?" He had to close and reopen his eyes to convince himself that it really was his tormentor addressing him. "I'm so glad we found you!" She crooned, leaning closer to plant a kiss on his forehead.

She looked up at her cohort, still smiling. "Edward is better now! Felix? Do you have something for him?" And a large man, the one Edward had sensed was the most powerful, approached him.

"Indeed!" His red eyes appraised Edward as he bent over to haul him to his feet, breaking his arm in the process. "Edward!"

"NO!" Edward realized their intentions and struggled to get to his feet, but lost his balance. His mind was still a little off-kilter from the girl's assault.

He was dragged unceremoniously to the group of men standing away from the girl. He twisted in Felix's grip, striking him and dropping to the ground in a deft maneuver that might have allowed him to escape had the girl not been there. He heard her delighted laughter and the excruciating pain was back. When he felt his consciousness slipping away, it stopped.

Felix came for him again and dragged him back to the group. He almost didn't care anymore. He was certain that any attempt to fight was useless with the girl there, and it just seemed easier to give up before she started again.

He felt rough hands around him, jerking his belt loose and his trousers open – saw himself in their minds as they eagerly watched Felix, licking their lips in anticipation – and he closed his eyes and held his breath. He wondered fleetingly if Carlisle was close to home and then the pain overwhelmed him.

Felix was brutal, thrusting into him with a savagery that would have made Edward cry if he could. The man's large, coarse hands moved up to wrap around Edward's throat – cracking ribs like sticks in their ascent. It hurt terribly, but the awareness that Felix had latched onto the thin chain around his neck caused him even greater distress and he inhaled sharply. Felix noted the response and hesitated long enough to yank the chain off his neck to examine it.

Edward's ring thudded softly on the ground. Edward's eyes followed it before he could think to stop himself. Felix looked first at him, and then down at the silver band, a look of dawning understanding and then... TRIUMPH shining in his crimson eyes.

"Can that be –? Why, yes! It is!" He pulled out of Edward to bend over and pick it up to display it to his audience. "Carlisle Cullen's ring!"

"No!" Without thinking of the foolishness of his act, Edward reached to take it back.

Felix was ecstatic. "Is this your pretty ring?" He held it dangling by his forefinger just out of reach of Edward's hand while the vulgar crowd cheered him on. "Did your maker give it to you?"

Dumbly, Edward nodded, and though frightened, he still held out his hand for it.

"Well!" Felix turned with mock solemnity back to his brethren. "Who am I to take such a gift from a child?" The others leered at Edward.

"Child," Felix whispered, leaning in, and with an unctuous smile he planted a kiss on Edward's cheek. "I know just the place to keep it safe."

Knowing what was coming, Edward jumped back against the tree's trunk to brace himself for battle. His fingers dug deep in the bark for leverage and he kicked out at Felix as the stronger man came for him. He dropped to the ground to cover himself, digging and clawing to secure his hold.

"Now, now! We can't have that!" Felix chuckled, easily flipping him and bending him at the waist as he pulled Edward's hips higher to restrain him against his broad chest. "Oh, Jane, if he resists…" Jane nodded happily, clasping her hands to her chest.

Edward felt the fist ram into him and he gasped as his insides were torn, giving to the man's sharp fingernails. Deeper and deeper and he screamed out, begging him to stop. The ring was deposited when the hand could go no further and Felix pulled his arm out to the cheering and cackling of the small crowd.

He looked at Jane, who was jumping up and down on her toes excitedly. "Let the good doctor retrieve that!

"Now, where was I?"

It went on for hours and hours. Edward, senseless with pain, was passed back and forth as every man present invaded his body and Jane his mind. He drifted in and out of consciousness and she almost lovingly brought him back each time. He begged her to kill him; she shushed him, stroking his head in her lap, and hugging him tightly before returning him to Felix.

The sun was low in the sky but Edward was too far gone to notice it. It was Demetri who called it to their attention as Jane hovered over the broken figure of the boy. "He'll come soon."

"Ohhh." She sighed. "And I was just starting to enjoy myself." She cast a sidelong glance at the figure in her lap. "Oh, well! We'd best be off." But she bent down one last time and whispered fiercely in his ear, "But we shall meet again, my Edward!" before shoving him aside.

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Somewhere in the deep recesses of his mind, he realized that he was badly hurt. But he was unable to recall how he had come to be here, lying on the forest floor covered in dirt and leaves. Instinctively, he knew he should hide before the danger returned and reflex propelled him to pull himself upright and move toward the house, his home. He staggered the few hundred yards before collapsing and then crawled the remainder of the way. Painfully slow, he climbed - nails digging deep in to the wood - up the back steps. He called out for help, and the raspy, broken sound of his voice frightened him even more.

"Carlisle!"

There was no answer.