Chambers of the Soul
Summary: Bella lives with her abusive father; Charlie, her older brother; Maxi and her younger sister; Harmony. She almost thinks there's no hope but what happens when the new family comes to town? Will she ever be happy? What if Bella and her siblings became happy and then someone came back to haunt them…
Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight. All characters and other twilight-related things belong to SM. I only own the storyline.
Bella Swan
I watched my mother carefully as she held Harmony's hand and walked her along the front room of her house. We were a 2 hour drive from Forks, and I was completely devastated. There was no way that I was able to get to Forks to see the Cullen's.
Harmony resisted slightly, tugging at Renee's blouse. Renee ignored her, continuing her walk through the front room and into the kitchen. When they moved from my sight, I followed them quickly.
Maxi was upstairs unpacking our stuff – we didn't really have a choice, but decided to be all in the same bedroom.
Renee didn't like this, but we weren't moving. She hadn't been in our life – we didn't need to obey her.
A bit roughly, Renee swooped Harmony off of her feet and sat her in the highchair.
"Um, Harmony doesn't need a highchair." I shot in my views quickly. "She's 5." Didn't Renee know this? I also noted the strange fact that Renee even had a highchair and all other baby supplies. It freaked me out a little – as if taking us home had been planned months before.
Renee ignored me and continued to do up the straps on the highchair. She crouched down and leaned onto the side of the highchair. "What do you want to eat, darling? Do you like fruit loops?"
Harmony turned her head towards me – confusion and curiosity on her small face.
"Cereal." I said quietly, pulling a chair from the table and sitting next to her. "We're not sure what she likes." I told Renee.
Back at Charlie's, we hardly had food. An odd piece of bread now and again. Some days he'd bring sweets, but that had been rare. At the Cullen's, we'd been given anything we'd wanted but Harmony had refused to eat anything but cereal and bread (toast.)
"Oh," Renee began bluntly. She straightened up and went to the cupboard, pulling out the fruit loops anyway. "Well, unfortunately I haven't bought much else so these will have to do." She smiled. "They are okay though?"
I nodded, trying to smile at her. I didn't trust her, but she seemed to genuinely be working it out for us.
With the fruit loops in front of her, Harmony studied her spoon.
It broke my heart, and little tears blurred my eyes. They didn't fall. Even though Harmony had left the hospital, her little body had been fighting so hard to survive. Someone her age wasn't supposed to survive anything like that, and she was still weak. Esme had taken up the role of carrying her, dressing her and feeding her.
I'd only been in the house for under an hour and I was already ready to leave. It had an extremely odd an uncomfortable vibe to it and I didn't feel part of a family at all. It was like 3 children had been dumped into a random house, with a stranger.
It wasn't nice. Not at all.
I could only imagine what Harmony was thinking and feeling.
She finally grasped the spoon – in the completely wrong way (she was able to do it the right way before the accident) – and it slipped out of her hand into the bowl.
Renee rocked on her feet, reaching forward and then holding back. She backed into the sink and stood there, staring at the wall.
I looked at Harmony, removing the sticky spoon from the cereal and wiping it on a cloth. I took her hand and set the spoon back in it properly. I then guided her hand in picking up a spoonful of loops. I then turned her hand, the spoon coming towards her mouth.
Harmony looked at me the whole time, frustrating tears streaming down her face. She opened her mouth just as the spoon got there and swallowed quickly. She was hungry, but I knew her. She was stubborn and wouldn't eat if I kept feeding her.
She had resisted Esme many times, but as time went on her trust in Esme rose and she depended on her a lot. Now Esme had been ripped from her and I knew she was confused.
She followed my previous actions, failing a few times to hold the spoon, but when she did she popped the food into her mouth.
It took her twice as long to finish the food but when she did, I was very pleased for her. She had done it, with no assistance from Esme or anyone else.
I took her fro the highchair, not even waiting for Renee's approval. "I'm going to take her upstairs; she needs to be changed soon."
Renee stared at me, her eyebrow arched. "She has to be changed?"
I nodded. "Since the…accident…she's been back in diapers. It scared her so bad that she's unable to control her pee and her bladder is trying to adjust to injuries." I didn't feel comfortable discussing Harmony's condition, and I hoped it was just because Renee was still new to us, and I wasn't very trusting.
Renee's face confronted in pain and she shook her head. "How awful. Well, you go on upstairs, I'm going to stay down here."
I couldn't leave the room quick enough. Harmony hooked onto me tightly and I rushed us towards the stairs.
When my foot reached the bottom step, I hesitated. I stared at the dark green carpet covering all of the steps and swallowed my fear. Why was I scared? My instinct was to back away and walk out of the door. Instead, I placed my food on the soft surface and 2 by 2, took the stairs.
I was so restless. It just didn't feel right that the 3 of us were taken from the Cullen's in a blink of an eye and placed into Renee's care when we didn't even know her. Couldn't we have had meetings first? To get to know her?
Did social services not care that Harmony had to adjust to this new home, new person, and new surroundings? She was 5 years old!
I found Maxi in our room, sat on the window seat looking out at the grass surrounding the home. He'd finished packing – all of our stuff packed neatly away. I nodded at him and placed Harmony down on the bed. "Are you scared?" I asked him.
I could hear him take a breath. "Yeah. A little. I was getting used to the Cullen's and they loved us. We could trust them..."
I grabbed the powder and a new pull-up from Harmony's bag. "Do you trust her?"
He knew who I was talking about. "No. Not at all. But I don't know if that's because I don't know her or because she left us."
"Me either."
Before we could speak anymore, there was a huge clanging of something. And it was heavy. A lot of different sounds going off all together from downstairs. It sounded like kitchen sets – pots, pans, metal. It scared us all.
Maxi ran to the stairs, staring down. I followed him, leaving Harmony in the room – away from the danger.
It wasn't that we couldn't see the danger that scared us once on the stairs. It was the fact that the whole downstairs had gone dark and there was absolutely no one in the house.
PLEASE READ!
I have started my new story;D about Emmett and Bella. Inspired by Katiesparks21, thank you! it will be up soon, so watch out!;D
I put this chapter together quickly. Hope its okay! What do you think about Renee?
please review! :)
Savannah
Xxxx