Breathe Again

30 Years Later

It was a nice Tuesday night out for Redding California. The warm yet cool bite to the air. The scent of rain surrounding the small town. However, something weighed on my mind, annoyingly. My Grandfather, Charlie hadn't called. He usually called every Tuesday morning, but today he had neglected to. There was no reason for him not to. He was retired from the force. Injured, more clearly. But was considered retired to save his reputation of being big bad Chief. He should be home. Nothing should have kept him from keeping out routinely call. Although, I wouldn't put passed him to be angry with me. I only had reconnect with Charlie 5 years ago. Call wise, anyway. It'd been 10 years since I'd seen him. He thinks, at least. Perhaps he was angry with me and decided to give me a taste of my own medicine. But I still couldn't help the small feeling that something was terribly wrong.

Rain gently misted my face as I stared straight ahead at my mate, Nahuel.

The small spritz calmed my nerves as I gained my focus on the training my mate was educating me. The hair on the back of my neck stood as I watched him. He stood about a hundred feet away from me. It challenged my damaged but strong eyesight. He roamed from left to right ahead of me. Leaving me to try to determine what my line of attack should be. Nahuel possessed a very dangerous and unique ability. An ability he was training me to shield myself from with my own unique gift. My memory shield. As I was able to penetrate a shield vampire, I was also capable of having my own shield. However it defeated my ability to penetrate other, but I was able to protect myself by reversing it.

I watched him as he dashed towards me head on. I flitted myself towards him as well to meet for an on-coming fight. We stopped at a two foot distance. He swung aggressively towards my left with his right hand, I dodged. He swung another sharp hit towards my right with his left, but this time, I caught his fist and twisted. This wasn't the part I was worried about though. Part of my was terrified this was an attack put into my head with his ability. I continued fighting though, because this was only step one. Combat. I'd gotten better about it.

When I was about to dodge one of his blows, I realized too late that he had influenced the wrong direction into my mind. He swung towards my left, and absentmindedly I moved the wrong direction. He crushed his hand down on my upper chest and flattened me onto the ground. The hit stunned me, while reality came back to me. His position changed rapidly, and I knew this was a mental attack. I tried my best to throw up my own mental defense. I tried to throw up my memories but they all faded, and there, I knew I had reacted too late. He had too much control over me already.

He stood over me, his face looked disappointed. I wanted to get up. But my limbs didn't obey to any of my commands. I watched Nahuel as he stood over me. My eyes threatened tears of fear at the rims but I bit back the pathetic water. He shook his head once more, I looked at my hands, and realized one was raised in a threatening manner. I screamed in my head. But my hands thrust towards me, crushed through my chest cavity and gripped my own heart. My breathing stopped as my hand tugged at my critical and terrified organ.

"Push me out Renesmee! Push me out now! Remember our training!" Nahuel shouted into my mind.

I couldn't though. I watched as my hand ripped out my heart. I laid limp, staring up into the sky as it drifted away. My eye lids felt like weights were pinned to the top as they were pulled down.

I saw blackness. The last thing I heard were the soft wind rustling the tall trees, rolling thunder, and two heavy foot-steps running towards me.

"Renesmee!...Esmee... Re..."

I spent what felt like weeks under a black blanket over my face. Not seeing anything. Until, after a long while, my senses began to come back. Little by little. I could feel the warmth of my blood slowly spread through the bottoms of my feet, my caves. My entire hands. I noticed now, that when the blood flowed through my spine, I could feel that the cold hard ground wasn't pressed against my back. Instead my head was elevated on a soft cloudness. My body was floating on a much softer ground. I could no longer smell the rain, and now, I heard a small tapping of rain water hitting glass.

I let the blood circulate throughout my body and reach my eyes before I slowly opened my eyes. The dim candle light was welcome to my eyes. The room was an overwhelming but calming warmness. I sighed, and let my eyes adjust to the figure in front of me. I felt my senses straighten at first, but then his scent followed and I relaxed myself.

'I can see that a few days of rest did a lot more harm then good. You had no defense Renesmee. If I was my sister, you would already be buried somewhere." Nahuel calmly but cooly stated.

His tone was tinted with a hint of disappointment, worry, and sadness. He let a sigh out.

"At least its just me, though. You're lucky."

I couldn't take too much attention from his words. My chest was agonizingly painful. I looked down at my shirt and realized I was coated with a thick and wet mess of blood all over the front of my body.

"What happened?" I asked. "This usually doesn't happen..." I continued.

"We took 1 day too many off. You got weak, and I was too strong. I tried to stop it, but it backfired on me." Nahuel said, sighed, and shook his head.

"I'm very sorry. I couldn't make it stop. Your mind was already set in motion."

I rolled my eyes. "don't beat yourself up too much over it." I said, as I lifted up my shirt to examine the damage. I looked at Nahuel with a raised brow.

"How bad was it before?" I said, pointing towards the line claw-like scratches that went from my left breast to my right waist.

"Bad. You nearly broke through your chest, and tore the whole front of your skin off." He stated, as I winced.

I attempted to set up to take a shower, but Nahuel's hand pushed gently on my chest to lay me back down flat. I wanted to argue. But he looked at my sternly and I knew he had more to say. I rolled my eyes.

"You weren't just weak. You were distracted. What was it?" Nahuel demanded.

"I don't know. I was thinking of memories I could use." I replied.

I shrugged my shoulders and flitted to the bathroom door. Only for Nahuel to step in front of me. I sighed and crossed my arms. I trained my eye on him impatiently. Silently demanding what he wanted.

"What is it?" he asked again.

"Fine. Charlie hasn't called today. I was worried." I stated coolly and shoved him out of my way. I walked into the bathroom, closed the door and sighed. But before my mind could relax, I heard the chirping of my phone. But it wasn't just any chirping. It was Charlie's specified ring tone. I felt around my jean jacket pockets and located my phone out of my breast pocket. I smiled.

"You're late calling. I was worried." I stated. A smile lit up my face with excitement for Charlie, only to have it brutally murdered by a very familiar, and unwelcome voice.

"Renesmee..." The voice said. Memories flashed into my face. My jaw tightened viciously. I said nothing.

"Renesmee, it's your Father. Don't hang up. I'm calling on Charlie's behalf." Edward's voice was desperate. However, he'd said the right thing to get me to remove my finger off the end button.

I inhale deeply. "What?" I replied harshly through my teeth. "How did you get this number?" I demanded aggressively.

"Charlie is sick. We don't know what it is, but it doesn't look like his body is strong enough to fight it off. He wanted me to contact you, and ask you to return so he could see you." Edward's voice was calmer now. Almost nervous. I squinted my eyes. I had the information I needed. It was my choice now to return. A choice I had to make with great irritation.

I pulled the phone away from my ear and stared at the small plastic device in my hand. I sighed and pressed end. What was I to do? I wanted to see my grandfather. If these were his last days, he deserved to have the only thing he's ever asked from me to be given to him. I rolled my eyes and sighed. My eyes looked into the long oval mirror into my reflection.

It was about this time 30 years ago that I had said goodbye to Forks. A lot had changed about my reflection since then. Replacing the small little girl I last seen in Forks, was a long, bronze haired beauty with ringlets that reached her waist. Almond shaped eyes that thick black lashes outlined and fanned out at the sides. The reflection had changed a lot. Would Charlie see me the same way? If he pressured me for an explanation as to why I hadn't seen him in 10 years, he wouldn't. I turned from my reflection and turned the crystal water faucet and adjusted my shower water.

I peeled my bloody wet clothes from my body and tossed them into the trash and stepped under the warm falling rain from the shower head.