Here's a second chapter. I'm using Florence and the Machine songs for the titles because they definitely inspired me and helped me find the voices of these characters.

I've explored what it was like for Esme, Edward, and Carlisle as onlookers to Rosalie's choice to change Emmett in this first segment, but we'll get into Rosalie's point of view in the second segment of this chapter.

Thank you so much for reading! Enjoy!

My Boy Builds Coffins

My boy builds coffins and I think it's a shame
That when each one's been made, he can't see it again
He crafts every one with love and with care
Then it's thrown in the ground, it just isn't fair

My boy builds coffins he makes them all day
But it's not just for work and it isn't for play
He's made one for himself
One for me too
One of these days he'll make one for you

Esme – A Few Days Later

"Rosalie, darling?" I said softly, announcing my presence in the room as I rounded the corner with Edward.

Rosalie's darkening eyes found mine, then she snarled when she saw Edward.

She sat on the kitchen floor, where just two days ago the pool of blood around her had been fresh and a human heart had struggled to beat in her arms.

Now, the blood had dried in macabre crimson clouds, the heart was strong and erratic, and a newborn vampire was suffering through transformation in her embrace.

I reveled in the new sound of this changing heart.

God, it was strong. What beautiful percussion.

"Go away." Rosalie sneered at Edward defensively, curving her body over the man in her arms.

"I didn't come to kill him, Rosalie, though he'd like that right about now." Edward grimaced at the thoughts.

At the mention, the man gasped and Rosalie held his shoulders down, hushing him.

"Kill me… Please." The man begged in a hoarse voice and through gritted teeth, his rust colored eyes finding the new people in the room to beg us. "Please."

"No. It's almost over." Rosalie's voice raised an octave as she sweetly and shallowly promised him serenity.

"D-don't go." His eyes met hers again and his quick breathing slowed slightly and he clenched his jaw to suppress the screaming he undoubtedly wanted to do.

"I'm not leaving you." Rosalie said strongly, totally confident in making this promise.

It warmed my soul.

As he writhed in her lap, I noticed that her dress was ripped and absolutely saturated with his blood. Her golden hair hung out of a loose braid messily, tendrils falling in her face. I'd never seen her so disheveled in my life - except a little over two years ago in Rochester, New York.

Rosalie's arms were around him as he convulsed in pain, and his knees pronated in anguish as his broken spine straightened and reversed the paralysis.

His head of raven-colored curls buried into the crook of her arm to find comfort in her cold skin. He was tortured and breathing heavily, and she longed to ease his pain.

As I looked upon he and Rosalie, I noticed how much had changed in two days. Despite the charring fire I remembered with all to much clarity, transformation was really such an exquisitely breathtaking process.

It absolutely amazed me that Carlisle had the control to complete such a task.

Our newest family member's torn skin had filled in and had lightened substantially to almost the same marble color as Rosalie's.

Even in pain, he was beautiful but in such a different way than Carlisle and Edward. Their faces were the envy of angels – something sharp, lithe, and stunning about their beauty.

This man's face was divinely handsome in a warm and lively way. He was lovely in the way a summer evening was lovely. If Carlisle and Edward could be compared to snow in the mountains, this man was Southern wisteria in the summer.

I would swear through transformation he'd gotten even taller than he already was when Rosalie brought him here, and I noticed that his face and body had filled out in a way that suggested he hadn't been well fed in his human life and transformation made up for making him into what he would have been.

Edward ignored the man's request to die, pursing his lips into a line as he searched Rosalie's thoughts.

They seemed to be having some sort of conversation.

I watched as Edward's face softened.

"He's doing well, Rosalie - I mean as well as you can during transformation - when he has something else to focus on." Edward nodded, entering his thoughts. "It helps when you've been talking to him."

Edward looked toward Rosalie as if he was trying to assure her for how she'd been talking to him and telling him stories of his new life this whole time.

She clenched her jaw in what appeared to be embarrassment at her vulnerability being outed this way.

"What's his name?" I asked softly.

I saw how comfortable Rosalie was with him and it had made me wonder if they'd known each other for years – a childhood sweetheart or a trusted friend from days gone by.

I wasn't in possession of Edward's gift so I couldn't see her thoughts, but I imagined that with the uncharacteristic trust and comfort of him to Rosalie, that he must've reminded her of something human inside of her. He seemed close to her and not just physically.

She had not been touched by any of our family in two years, successfully avoiding hugs, pats on the back, and passing hints of support and affection.

But now, she sat with a man's upper body in her lap and her arms around him securely.

"I… I don't know." Rosalie furrowed her brow as if the question had caught her off guard. She brushed his wild black hair off his forehead, looking down on him with care and concern.

I swallowed as Edward shot me a look. He saw her thoughts, but his expression didn't reveal them to me.

Was he really just a stranger?

"Why don't you ask him?" I suggested, kneeling tentatively beside Rosalie and the man.

She looked over to me, then to Edward as if looking for reassurance. She and Edward had another little mental conversation.

Edward nodded and raised an eyebrow which seemed to prompt Rosalie to open her mouth.

"My name is Rosalie." She spoke in a velvety voice seeming to be reserved for the man in her lap.

His eyes snapped to focus on her face as he panted through gnashed teeth, his chest rising and falling rapidly.

"What's your name?" She asked, pinning his arms by his side as sweetly as one could do such a labored task.

"It… burns…" He spoke with a voice with the power of a rushing river.

"I know…" She breathed with sadness deep in her eyes at his plight.

He arched his back high, letting a tortured half-stifled scream escape his lips as he fought against her and the pain.

"Shhh, it doesn't do any good to scream." She said in an angelic coo, but I noticed the pain in her eyes as she watched him suffer.

Her caring attentiveness made me see what a drastically different person she'd become in just a few short days. She seemed present. She seemed here in this moment with our family. With him.

"What's your name?" Rosalie asked again, and I heard Carlisle enter the room from a day working at the hospital and inconspicuously gathering some clothes to fit our newest housemate.

"E-Emmett." He managed, and she smiled a radiant smile down at him.

"It's almost over, Emmett." She stroked his raven curls from his forehead, then her fingers fixated at a curl at the nape of his neck.

There was a slight tug at the corner of her mouth as she was the first person to speak his name.

He brought a shaking hand to his throat as if he could claw it out and escape the pain. Rosalie softly redirected his hand, holding tight to his fingers.

"How is he faring?" Carlisle asked, unbuttoning his sleeves and pushing them up to his elbows.

He knelt beside me, kissing me on the cheek tenderly, but setting my soul on fire.

At the presence of Carlisle, Emmett immediately reacted negatively, curling away from him and gasping in pain.

As Carlisle reached out, Emmett flailed away from him the best he could.

"No!" Emmett fought, torture in his tone as he clutched to Rosalie desperately.

She let him.

I furrowed my brow, and we all looked over at Edward in confusion. He could illuminate the motivating thoughts of Emmett's odd behavior.

Rosalie tried to calm Emmett, hushing him like a nightmare ridden child.

"He thinks Carlisle is God." Edward was amused by this of course and I couldn't help but giggle.

Carlisle snorted humorlessly.

I covered my mouth to disguise it, but Rosalie had already seen Edward, Carlisle, and I.

Because Emmett was suffering, Rosalie couldn't join us in our amusement. Betrayal filled her eyes and she clenched her jaw.

Carlisle cleared his throat and we wiped every trace of humor off our faces.

"He thinks Carlisle's here to take Rosalie away." Edward mumbled as if he were trying to make amends with Rosalie by disclosing this information. "He's going to be tragically disappointed when he wakes up and realizes Rosalie isn't an angel."

"Sometimes I really just want to rip your throat out." Rosalie narrowed her eyes, her arms tightening around Emmett as he writhed.

"I was just messing with you, Rosalie." Edward smiled a little, crossing his arms over his chest as he leaned against the doorframe, the door still splintered and off its hinges as it leaned against the wall.

"Well, I wasn't." Rosalie raised an eyebrow, but ultimately was good-humored now.

"I know." Edward chuckled.

Oh, how I'd missed their banter.

"It shouldn't be too much longer." Carlisle half-smiled to her. "Rosalie, why don't you get cleaned up?"

He looked over to her with her arms wound around Emmett as he gasped in pain again.

"God…" Emmett shut his eyes tight as he climbed Rosalie like a tree, burying his face in her neck to find solace in her icy skin.

Rosalie wouldn't look over at Carlisle as Emmett's cheek struggled to find solace her cold skin. Though it would be no real ease of the pain, nothing could be during transformation, he still found some small comfort in the temperature of her vampire skin if just for a fleeting moment.

Carlisle watched Rosalie carefully and protectively like only a father would. Outside of transformation, Emmett's embrace of her was inappropriate for company. Rosalie seemed to find nothing but innocence in it, trailing her cool hand across his burning cheek as his body curled around hers.

"I can't leave him, Carlisle." Rosalie said in barely a whisper, almost as if she was going to wake a sleeping child.

"Edward and I are going to move him, change him out of those bloody clothes, and get this room cleaned up." Carlisle said in almost an order, knowing that Rosalie needed a break.

Emmett's forehead pressed against Rosalie's long swan's neck as he let out a writhing scream. Her jaw clenched and she remained steadfast in her claim to not leave him.

"Rosalie…" Carlisle began to protest.

"You're going to live forever." Rosalie ignored Carlisle and said softly, speaking only to Emmett, cradling his head as she ignored the rest of us. "You'll always be young, never tired… You will be strong, and fast, and… beautiful."

These shallow comforts did little to ease his pain, but he didn't scream again, instead just dug his fingers into Rosalie's back. He struggled to breathe as he stifled his screams, but he clenched his teeth together to look up at her with an iron tether between their gazes.

"Rosalie…" Carlisle began.

He stepped forward, but wouldn't ever put his hands on her.

We all knew how she felt about that.

Then, something happened that made Carlisle pause.

"Live… forever…" Emmett processed Rosalie's words, panting them between pained noises from the back of his throat.

"Forever." Rosalie nodded with a little smile.

"With no more pain." Rosalie promised even though that hadn't been true entirely for her.

This life had been nothing but pain for her.

He stuttered over an inhale so it came out as a cry.

Rosalie held him tighter.

"You can swim deeper and farther than you could ever imagine. You can see through the darkness, hear birds singing from miles away, and sometimes, when the sunrise reflects on your skin, it can seem like heaven." Rosalie whispered more good things to him.

This small arrangement of words made Carlisle, Edward, and I all freeze for a moment and stare at her. Rosalie… our heavy leaden Rosalie had made a sort of peace with her existence as a vampire as she revealed such a beautiful perspective on such an insignificant effect of her immortality.

I smiled at Carlisle, who smiled right back. Rosalie could be happy. This…. This could save her.

"Rosalie…" I began again, putting my hand on her shoulder.

She flinched away as I imagined she would.

"Stop… Leave me… Just a few more minutes… Please." Rosalie looked up to Carlisle and I with pleading eyes full of desperation.

I put my hand in Carlisle's, lacing our fingers together.

He looked over at me with concern, but I nodded.

"We're going to gather up some things to clean up then we'll be back. Then, you need to hunt and get cleaned up."

"Okay." Rosalie accepted, looking up to us with big, open eyes.

I didn't know if she was serious and if she was really going to listen or that she said this to appease us.

Edward had already dismissed himself and Carlisle and I floated closely behind.

Just before Rosalie was out of our sight line, I saw her softly reposition herself so her cheek pressed into Emmett's bare chest. His chest rose and fell quickly, but she closed her eyes listening to his erratic heartbeat while it still held rhythm.

I understood that her desperation was because she realized in just a few hours, she'd never hear it again.

Rosalie

I sat, stone still in the chair by the fireplace. Though a fire wasn't burning, I stared into the ashes as I reveled in the sound of Emmett's last few heartbeats.

Edward was sitting across from me, reading Shakespeare to try and cleanse his mind of everyone else's thoughts. I knew mine most often annoyed him, but he did complain incessantly about Emmett's – thoughts during transformation weren't exactly fairytales and Edward had begun to endure enough of his agony.

Carlisle believed it would be less threatening for Emmett to wake up with just one other vampire in the room, to test the waters, so Carlisle had opted to be there when he woke up to explain everything to him, but we were to stand close by in case…

In case he was uncontrollably volatile.

Everyone thought that I'd be the best choice to be in there with him. He'd likely recognize me, so I should be in there with him when he woke.

However, I was vain and selfish and generally awful so when I returned from hunting and had been alone with my thoughts as I fixed up, I'd chickened out and made Carlisle do it - the next best person for the job.

I'd stared at Emmett's blood running off my skin and down the drain of my shower and I'd gotten overwhelmed. I couldn't be cognizant of why, but something deep inside of me had been triggered, like a flip of a switch and I withdrew. I had watched the last trace of his blood run off my body, and I'd started to cry tearless cries.

What had I done?

I was wringing my hands nervously and I could tell everyone's thoughts began to overwhelm Edward because he hadn't turned the page in quite a while.

Then, Emmett's heart stopped.

I realized with melancholy sentimentality that I'd never hear it again.

In a long moment of silence, Edward's eyes moved up from his page, and Esme stood from her chair, her hands clasped in front of her elatedly as she stood.

I didn't dare move. I didn't blink. I didn't breathe.

"He's awake." Esme said in barely a whisper and grinned happily.

I heard him jolt to sit up, taking a swift inhale.

"Emmett," Carlisle began softly and I heard him fly to the farthest wall of the room, his back making a crunch in the plaster.

Esme tensed up, no doubt imagining the destruction of a home we'd have to move out of now.

"He's looking for you." Edward told me quietly.

If I could blush, I would have, but I just relaxed the grip of my nervous hands, turning away shyly even though I knew Edward could intrude on my thoughts regardless.

"You should…" He began.

I clenched my jaw, turning away stubbornly and practicing my French grammar in my head to keep Edward out.

I knew I should go into the room, calm him down… I remembered how terrifying and overwhelming that first sensory overload was.

The first thirst…

"My name is Carlisle and I'll explain everything." Carlisle's voice was calm as he began the script I remembered with perfect clarity from my awakening.

"I'm dead." Emmett finally said in a thick, velvety voice that was painted with a rich Southern accent.

His voice was like a summer thunderstorm coated in molten chocolate.

It was the most charming thing to ever grace my ears.

I heard him move again, this time in obvious defensiveness and shock at the new sound of his own voice.

"Well, not exactly. We still exist on earth, but as… something supernatural." Carlisle said calmly.

"Why can I see every thread in your shirt?" Emmett interrupted this thought process, reminding me of just how easily distracted I was during the discovery of the heightened senses.

"I can taste the rain outside." He said, and I heard him move again.

It was disorienting.

"You will discover a lot about your new life is… enhanced." Carlisle chose his words and I heard his weight shift in response, defensive...

Carlisle should have this speech rehearsed by now.

Granted, I hadn't been so eager to learn or ask questions as Emmett seemed to be, so he was throwing Carlisle off.

I just knew I was cursed when I awoke.

I accepted it all as consequences of the curse…

I shuddered, remembering. I had remained in a catatonic shock for most of my first few months as a vampire.

I made sure Carlisle knew I acknowledged and resented that he had damned me.

"Roses…" Emmett said and my hand came to my collarbone. "And honey…"

Me. He caught my scent.

"I remember…" He seemed to try and piece it together as he took another deep breath.

Edward's eyes were staring holes in my head.

I didn't dare breathe.

"Emmett, you were dying, and the only way to save you was to change you…"

"So the angel?..." Emmett began, and I felt something human in my core begin to flutter.

"Rosalie saw you dying in the woods and brought you here to make you like her. To make you like us. My family and I... we're vampires, and..."

"Rosalie," Emmett repeated my name and I felt my arms and legs get heavy in an oddly nervous way.

The way my name sounded... Now, that… was the most charming thing I'd ever heard.

I felt a side of my mouth turn up breaking the icy cold I'd surrounded myself in. I found it amusing the part of the sentence he attached to was not that he was a vampire. He'd attached to my name.

I heard Emmett's weight shift dramatically fast and I worried.

A foul curse word I'd never heard spoken in my entire life came rattling from Emmett's mouth.

Fuck.

I noticed my jaw hung open incredulously and a sound I hadn't heard in ages escaped my own mouth.

I giggled like a little school girl.

My eyes darted down and I suppressed an amused smile.

I felt Edward's eyes on me and counted down from one hundred in French as I looked over at Esme's reaction.

Esme's face looked whiter than usual.

"You're thirsty." Carlisle explained to Emmett.

All humor was sucked out of the situation and I felt my venom run cold.

"You need blood." Carlisle tried to ease him into it.

I felt the change in the air. I didn't even have to see it. I could sense it.

I hated myself for doing this to him. There was no turning back now.

I closed my eyes as I woefully imagined it for the first time, the animalistic, predatory, and instinctually vicious in him beginning to take over.

Thinking of him like that terrified me in an anciently familiar way.

It was too much to focus on so I had to turn away and Esme noticed, taking a step toward me as I remembered what it was like to be human and feel nauseous and faint.

"Each of us has chosen to live our after-lives in a way we believe is virtuous. We feed on animals to forego human prey. We hope you will stay with us and make this same choice."

"I need it." Emmett growled, ignoring Carlisle's soliloquy.

Edward shot me a look, and I hid behind my eyelashes.

"Rosalie…" Edward pressed in a way that suggested I take responsibility for what I'd done…

I immediately felt defensive, as if Edward were treating me like I'd brought a stray dog home and was seeing how long it would take before I'd admit I regretted it and couldn't handle it.

"There are others…" Emmett acknowledged that he sensed us in the other room, and I noticed something vicious in his voice.

Instinctually he felt threatened by the three other vampires he sensed that hadn't shown themselves.

"Rosalie, you need to go get him." Edward started again, but I was bolted to the chair.

I shook my head. I couldn't move.

"All right." Edward exhaled, standing from his own chair and walking slowly into the room.

"You are safe and no one wants to threaten you." Carlisle continued, sensing Edward approaching as Emmett did.

He didn't want Emmett turning on any of us as a paranoid newborn.

"Do you understand?" Carlisle asked. "Everyone is like family."

Emmett didn't respond, but I felt the thickness in the air. I also felt Esme's eyes heavy on me.

I stood from my seat, my legs feeling wobbly and weak.

As Edward opened the door, he didn't turn around to see if I was coming. He already knew I was a coward.

I stood right outside of the doorframe, where I could see Emmett from the shadow where I stood.

He took my breath away. Time stood still. The earth tilted on its axis.

Something in the air felt different. Something was different.

For the first time in a long time, I felt… warm.

"This is Edward, my son." Carlisle put his hand on Edward's shoulder as he stepped forward to take Emmett hunting.

Emmett snarled which was something awful that rattled my bones to my core. I heard Carlisle explaining the concept of a coven and family to Emmett as he introduced Edward and explained to him about hunting.

Emmett stopped the hostility toward Edward but not with ease.

Emmett had been consumed by blood lust.

I didn't even recognize him.

My stomach dropped through the floor and I felt panic coursing through the venom in my veins.

His brilliant red eyes gave away his curse as they hunted the room conspicuously and I found myself shrinking back further into the shadows.

I watched his hands curl into fists as if in frustration, but he still brought his long fingers to his throat as if he could ease the thirst.

Blood was the only thing he could focus on now – the only thing that mattered, the only thing that would matter for a long while.