Chapter Four

Tanya had slowly grown used to living with the Cullens but she had decided that it wouldn't remain permanent. Their behaviour at times was odd and they went on hiking trips, leaving her alone in the house everytime good weather showed for opportunity, but she was thankful because she was not very active nor socially inclined.

She still hadn't gotten any closer with Jasper or the rest of the group, however there had been a new family member that showed up during the holidays who was now going to stay with them. He was fairly quiet when comapred to others who seemed more outgoing, Gustav, was his name, quite unorthodox for her to hear, really as it wasn't a name you'd meet often.

It had been a rather sunny week and so the Cullens, including Gustav, had all left to be on their own with yet another camping trip so Tanya finally took the opportunity to pack up the very little amount of belongings she had and call the only person she knew, who could help her. He had always been there for her, regardless of the situation at hand, though most often if not them meeting only had two goals, for Tanya to get high and forget her own reality and for him to get laid.

Her fingers idly slid across the screen, typing out his number and finally pressing call. She had been sitting on the stairs in front of the house, looking on at the forest idly. The call was connecting for a while before he finally picked up.

"Tanya, it's good to hear from you again, it has been a while, hasn't it?" He spoke, his voice was deep and raspy, she quite enjoyed listening to him speak, it was refreshing to say the least.

"It has been a while, Marcus, can you come pick me up? I'm in Forks at the moment, staying at my aunt's friend's house since she passed." She said the last part more somberly as she continued looking on, noticing odd movement in the woods but deciding that it had been wind or her mind playing tricks on her.

"Yeah, can you send me your GPS address? You're in Forks right? I should be able to be there in 20 minutes, maybe less." He said thoughtfully, but she could hear background noise on his end that sounded like him closing the doors to his apartment.

"Yeah, I will in a minute, see you soon." She answered quietly before hanging up and doing as he had asked before raising her eyes back towards the forest, her eyes intently trying to make out the weird movement of the trees and brushes.

It seemed to keep her focused before she heard someone walking behind her, warily she turned her head towards the house realizing no one was there as she continued looking around before it stopped. She was bewildered to say the least but then she noticed, Alice's Porsche and the silver Volvo coming towards the house. Curiously she looked on at them before pinching her nose and brushing the sounds off as hallucinations.

"Taaanya!" Alice shouted as she nearly jumped out of her car, Jasper getting out of the passenger seat and Bella and Edward following suit, "What are you doing outside? Did you miss us?" She inquired in her sing song voice, looking at her happily.

"Actually, I have a friend coming to pick me up, he should be here soon." Tanya answered honestly, noticing all of their expressions changing for a split second before they were back to looking on at her joyfully.

"I see, we should invite him in for dinner then, any friend of yours is a friend of ours!" She exclaimed to which both Jasper and Edward nodded, only Bella looked on at her solemnly.

"I can ask him if he'd like to, most likely not since we have some business to take care of that have been long overdue." She said cryptically thinking back to the previous meetings to which Edward grimaced.

Bella and Alice ushered the woman back inside of their house whilst Edward and Jasper pretended to stay back, taking care of the cars and checking oil. They were keeping an eye out for Marcus, they knew him, he was a vampire and he had shown up in Alice's visions while they had been out at the fields, playing games.

They heard several cars pulling up, realizing that they had been just the rest of the family they eased up, nodding at them, as if signaling that Tanya was still here. Marcus wouldn't show up here if he knows that she's surrounded by vampires and they'd be sure to let him know that. He was nothing but a piece of trash from what they had gathered in the short amount of time available to them.

It hadn't been long until the man finally showed up, noticed all of the Cullen men and Gustav outside, he smirked recognizing Gustav as someone who had been a customer decades ago. Customer for what though? Blood, amazing and precisely selected blood from very specific humans. The humans of course, were never aware of what was happening to them as they had been under a large dose of drug influence, however usually the drugs that were given to them didn't affect or end up in the blood stream, they worked slightly different as they had more numbing properties for pain.

Marcus was quick of of the car, brushing down and straightening out his suit jacket, walking towards the men as his hand ran through his dark curls looking at the men.

"It is indeed pleasure to finally meet the rumored Cullen family, I didn't imagine you'd have joined them Gustav, the fact that they'd consider allowing you to join them in itself alone is fascinating." He said, giving the other man a sharktoothed grin which was broken down quite easily by Carlisle, "Gustav has adapted to our family policy and if you want anything to do with Tanya, you may find that you will have to as well. She's legally under my guardianship and whilst she chooses to ignore it, by human law and vampire law, I am to take care of her." He said respectfully, offering the man a gentle smile.

"I see, can I at least talk to her? We do have some unfinished business that don't relate to what I do, if it offers you any ease, she was never a part of the business aspect, she's really quite a great listener once she is high though, quite wise for being such a petty human." He murmured, looking into the house as he saw her back which had been turned to him as the woman he knew as Rose due to previous encounters shot him daggers before moving the woman away from the window and out of view.

"Sadly, we cannot afford you that chance, perhaps in some time..." Carlisle trailed off thoughtfully, to which the man nodded in response, "Don't let her know I was here then, I'll message her that I got into an accident or something along those lines."

The men were rather surprised, they hadn't taken into account that the man may actually care for her beyond his possible interest in her blood, but they said nothing, watching the man get into his car and drive off. They moved back towards the house, entering and Edward was immediately hit by a sea of thoughts coming from Tanya, it was erratic and most of it didn't make much sense besides some keywords that stood out in his mind from them all, she had been thinking about death.

Tanya was rather quick to excuse herself to the room she was staying in, saying that she was feeling tired as she locked the doors behind her. She fell into the bed, staring at the ceiling as she realized that for some reason, she wouldn't be able to leave because things kept coming up every time she tried to leave. It was frustrating, as she had tried several times during the two months she had stayed her – sneaking off after school always landed her caught because the town was so small and they'd always split up and find her and ensure that she got home safely. They cared so much that it sickened her. She never took them up on their offer to have dinner together, she didn't enjoy dinners with people after her family life had crumbled during several. It was all too much, she just wanted to leave and live in solitude, peace and quiet – the only things she wanted.

She couldn't fault the Cullen's for caring as she had been their friends niece and they more than likely were aware of what happened and under what circumstances she was here as Carlisle had made here aware of the fact that he was her legal guardian not long after she had settled in.

With a heavy sigh she picked herself up, moving towards the bathroom as she stripped and took a hot shower, briefly it felt like her skin was burning but after a while she got used to it, letting the warm water wash over her like sea waves. She felt at peace in the warmth, it was curious yet welcome.

She stood there, solemnly looking her body over, some bruises looked fresh, others now yellowed and close to disappearing off of her body. She hated herself, she hated the hand she had been dealt in life and most of all she hated that she never had a choice to do as she liked. The only choice she could take was to end it all, regardless of when or where.

Tanya's train of thought was broken as she heard a knock on the bathroom door, curiously, remembering that she had locked the doors to her room she turned off the water and asked in a small voice, "Who's there?"

She didn't receive a reply, instead the knocking was louder, so she asked louder herself, "Who is there?"

Once again, no reply came. Tanya was puzzled, she stepped out of the shower, wrapping a bathrobe around her body as she opened the door to see that there was nobody there. She stared at every corner in the room, before walking to the door that separated her from the rest of the Cullen family, unlocking the doors and curiously shouting, "Was anyone in my room or knocking on my door?"

Once again, no reply.

Confused she moved back into the room only to come face to face with Marcus, a scream escaping her lips as she clutched at her chest, "What the fuck, man?" She asked staring at him, while breathing heavily.

"Sorry love, I packed clothes for you already, had to take my chances to get you out of here, I know how much you would prefer to be alone somewhere, get changed quickly and we leave together." He encouraged her to which she nodded mindlessly, dropping the bathrobe in front of the man as she changed into the clothes he had left on the bed for her out of the things she had already owned.

She hadn't been shy around him, she was fairly certain he knew her body better than she did, so she never had much to hide from the man. She was dressed in a few minutes and out the house first moving towards his car.

"Do you by chance know where they went?" She asked curiously, eyeing the man as she got into his black BMW.

"Not sure, nobody was here when I got here, I thought I'd get held up longer at the car crash scene but it seemed to get resolved quickly, sorry for letting you down." He apologized as he drove out of the driveway and back onto the main road.

"Don't worry about it, I just want to be somewhere else finally." She answered, interlacing her fingers with his as he held onto the steer with one hand, giving her a soft smile.