Rosalie POV

The rusted gate release a low creak as I slowly pushed it open, its hinges protesting the movement. The graveyard was old, beginning beyond my time, old decrepit headstones dotted the ground, a proud mausoleum the center piece of the final resting place for so many people. I sighed, as I carefully made my way across the soden ground. Graveyards were always so depressing to even the most normal of creatures, those who feared death, feared the final judgment, feared the ground and what resided in it. I always felt as if the melancholy feeling that arose from being here was always so much more intense than that of the others. Not because I feared death... but because I would welcome it. I would gratefully trade places with any of the poor souls that were now resting in a rotting coffin, most already reduced to dust and bones.

I made my way toward the center of the cemetery. There was a reason for my coming here, other than to pull myself into a slight depression. No...I'm more masochistic than that.

His grave would be easy to locate, even if I hadn't visited it time and time again before. The stone was a hard shiny granite, fancy for his time, but not unsurprising considering his status. It had been kept up nicely for a few years...until Emmett. He came with me on one of my rendevous' here, and lost his temper when he saw the name. Now what had once been grand, was not missing chunks and had the name completely scratched out. But I still saw it... ROYCE KING JR. His name would forever be burned into my very being. He was the King who obtained everything he wanted, took everything he wanted whether or not he had permission. Isn't she prettier than your Georgia peaches? He was the dictator who loved to see his prizes dance in the palm of his hand like marionettes. Come on Rose, show them what you look like. He was the ruler who was always looking for a new jester. Looks like you're going to need to find a new bride, Royce!

That's all I was. A puppet... a clown... a prize aprehended through a pack of lies and cheats.

Standing before his grave, that I had the honor of placing him in, I found myself wondering. What if I had stayed at Vera's only a little longer? He said he had been waiting for me...but what if he wasn't? What if he gave up on me and drunkenly stumbled home with his friends? Nothing would've changed. The wedding would've went on as planned, I would've become a queen amongst the Kings, I would've had the life I always wanted, I wouldn't've changed. I hadn't wanted to leave Vera's in the first place. I had wanted to stay and play with her little Henry, relish in the homey feeling her home created and dream of how my life would soon be like that. But it was getting late... Father would've been worried... What if I had fought harder, gotten away from the place I did not want to be? What if I had gotten away from them, called off the wedding, sent Royce and his filthy demon friends to rot in jail? I could've been buried in this very cemetery now. I could've found someone else-who knows, maybe I would've found Emmett in a human life-and had children, grandchildren, fond human memories, and go to my grave with a smile gracing my lips.

But I can't. I did leave then and he was waiting. I did not fight hard enough and my soul was shatter. I was changed and for a time being...I was afraid-afraid of life and men and beauty and love and lies and truth...I was afraid of everything. And even though I had my justice and killed them all with my cold dead bare hands...I would still not get what I wanted most. I would have no children, I would have no human memories in time, I will not die on my deathbed with a smile on my face. For who could smile as they are ripped into pieces or burned to ash?

"You ruined me." I whispered, the sound disappearing in the wind. Without sparing another glance at the stone, I turned on my heel and headed back to the creaking gate. Through the gate I would run a mile to the Jeep that would be sitting outside the woods. I would get into the Jeep, and be pulled into the arms of the man who fixed me. And all thoughts of Royce would disappear from my mind as I was reminded of everything I had and will forever have until the flames lick my skin. A love that he could never have given me, a love that would never die, and a love that would never hurt me in anyway.

Esme POV

I looked up from my shaking hands, only to see a woman before me. Her skin was sallow in the lighting of the bathroom, the red rims around her swollen eyes seeming more prominent than they were. It looked almost as if someone had taken a quil, dipped it in blood, and drew a ring around her eyes. One side of her face was marginally paler than the other. A bruise would make itself known over night, she'd have to find a way to cover the whole side fo her face, bare a smile, and 'lovingly dote' on her husband such as a wifes 'duty'. She will have to use her parents teachings and just stay quiet about everything that happens behind closed doors. She will spend all day dreading being alone with her husband, her imagination telling her that this time he will go too far, telling her that this time...she will be met with a light that was brighter than all others.

I wasn't afraid of that thought...the light would be so much better than living through this every second of every day. I stared at my reflection, examining the damage. I had done this so often I felt as if I should be certified to become a doctor. I did not even need to go to the hospital anymore...I could patch myself up just as easily. Besides...I always looked for him when I was at the hospital. It was childish and impossible to secretly hope that the man, that handsome and kind doctor I had met so many years ago would show up at the hospital. I was almost ashamed of the fact that I had an unhealthy and immoral infatuation with him, though I knew him only briefly.

I was a child when I met him. A child who was trying to escape the life she was living, trying to get away from the expectations her parents had set up for her. A child who fell out of the tree and heard her leg snap under her. A child who tried to remain cold and aloof as this gorgeous man worked over her, securing her leg in a cast. A child who imagined his eyes appraising her with affection and love. A child who dreamed of him whisking her away from where she was, her knight in shining armor.

I laughed darkly to myself, turning on the silver faucet. I was such a dreamer then. How could someone as unbelievably wonderful as he come for the child me? Besides, it has been years. He may not even be the same person I saw when I was sixteen. And if he were...the medieval times were over and done, knights no longer went around saving damsels.

"I never wanted to go, I never wanted to stay, I never wanted to be afraid.
But still, childhood sees what childhood will.
But nothing ever stays the same"

A/N; What? She's updating again? WHAT IS THIS? :DD I personally blame the lunar eclipse that will begin in just under 4 hours :DD Anywhoo...reviews are loved!