Disclaimer: Same as chapter 1.

Chapter 8: Until We Go Down

October

In the short time Rian had returned to school, she had only spent two days with Emmett. Yet, she felt as if she had known him her whole life. She knew next to nothing about him in reality, but she felt oddly comfortable when she had spent time with him. She couldn't explain it, she knew now he was a vampire and that both scared her and calmed her.

Two days had passed since she talked to Alice and Rian was very tempted to talk to whoever Carlisle was. It might be helpful to finally talk about everything without fear. But she wasn't sure how to go about it. She was still deathly afraid of his family and didn't trust any of them enough to see them outside of a public place; which hinders how much they can freely talk about her problems, defeating the whole purpose of changing her doctors. Carlisle wasn't a certified therapist and that meant he couldn't officially be her doctor. And even if he was, she wasn't sure how to tell her current doctor she decided to change doctors. So that left with trying to find the courage to meet Carlisle somewhere less public while still seeing her regular therapist. This was so complicated, it gave her a headache every time she began to think about a solution.

Rian also noticed that Alice had taken to sitting beside her during most of their classes lately, making small talk but never mentioning her mental health. Rian guessed that it was either due to her own willingness to talk about their shared condition or vampire talk, or possibly she realized that Rian hadn't wanted her mental health to be discussed around the school. In a small school, rumors spread quickly and everyone, and I mean EVERYONE (including faculty) knew everyone's business.

The long days had seem to go by quickly, Rian often found herself being locked inside her room or attempted to avoid everyone at school. Her family and friends had begun to express their concern for her, and even Emmett and Alice had concern in their eyes whenever Rian was brave enough to look at either of them.

Another week had passed before Rian finally found the courage to talk to Carlisle. But this meant she would need to be brave enough to talk to one of the Cullen 'children', she found herself more relaxed at the idea of confronting Alice about her decision.

Rian waited until the end of the day to gather the courage and ask Alice to request a meeting with Carlisle. Every time she thought of approaching Alice, her heartbeat would quicken and she'd lose her nerve. But after the last bell of the day rang, she knew she'd have to suck it up and get it over with or, she knew, she'd end up doing the same thing the next day.

The conversation was quick, Alice kindly agreed to pass on her request and her conditions of wanting to meet in a public area for the first few meeting. Maybe if she got to know them she'd be more comfortable with them.

Emmett had to sit back and watch the girl slowly unravel, from the outside she looked as if she were completely normal (something he assumed she desperately tried to portray herself as) but he could feel her slow decent into madness. He had always joked with his brother for 'stalking' Bella. But now he could understand his need to be close, to make sure that the fragile human was safe.

He found himself standing outside the girl's house, staring at her curtains to her bedroom night after night. He listened to her toss and turn, trying to fall asleep. He knew she was afraid to allow herself to sleep, yet she would sink into the darkness still. He listened to her scream, seemingly nightly, as something terrified her so much that she'd wake up from her dreams. He'd watch as the others in the house would be startled by her as often as her nightmares woke her up. None would come to comfort her though, she wouldn't let them. She'd play it off as if it didn't bother her as much as he knew they did. Sometimes she'd fall back asleep, sometimes she'd stay up.

Every night his heart broke all over again as he resisted his urges to make everything better for her. He knew he could do nothing to console her, he was almost sure he was the source of her problems (or at least those of his kind were). She was terrified of him, worried that he would bite her. This also broke his heart every time she screamed, every time she looked at him with those frightened eyes.

When he was home, he was driving Edward crazy with his constant worrying and Jasper was about ready to rip Emmett's head clean off his shoulders because of the emotions that were flooding the giants system. Carlisle and Esme were understanding of his situation, as they had been in Edward's situation. Although Edward didn't have an unstable human … soulmate? (Not that Emmett thought Rian was his soulmate, he had already had his soulmate; Rosalie.) Alice wouldn't say much about her interactions with Rian nor what she saw of Rian's future. Alice had said that Rian's future was hard to see, something about her inability to make decisions until last minute made her future constantly changing.

Then Alice came home one day with the news that Rian had finally made up her mind and took the offer to see Carlisle in a public setting, at least for a while. Emmett had practically jumped out of his seat in surprise and slight excitement. This meant that she might finally start trusting his family and he could start to approach her again without seeing the fear in her eyes. He knew this might take some time seeing as she has had a lifetime of something that has conditioned her to be frightened of vampires (not that she shouldn't; the majority of them should be feared). The big question on his mind though was 'How does she even know about vampires?' This was a question on the whole family's mind. Carlisle was the first to bring of the fact that it might have something to do with her potential power.

Her lungs burned as she inhaled the frigid air around her, the air seemed to never reach her lungs though. The girl's legs pushed herself forward, the path relentless on her bare feet. The rocks and plants cutting as she willed herself to continue running, even though all she wanted to do was stop. Her long, heavy dress weighing her down, she pulled as much of it into her arms. This helped her little in the grand scheme of things; she would still be caught, she was always caught in the end.

Her long black hair wrapped itself around her as she looked back at her pursuer. The thing was no longer behind her. For a second her heartbeat returned to normal, her legs rested as she stopped. She thought her red-eyed attacker was no longer pursuing her. Just for a second, then she came back to her senses; she was still in danger.

She turned to run again, but it was too late. She collided with the red-eyed demon and she felt the strong coldness as he grasped her arms to keep her right where he wanted her. "Ple-" was all she whispered before his elongated teeth were descending upon her neck in the familiar fashion. This was the end again.

Rian was drawing in her sketchbook, the scene that was all too familiar. It was the first nightmare she could remember, the one that plagued her mind the most. The thick forest hiding the horrifying scene from anyone's eyes. The woman in the picture looked remarkably like Rian, minus the dark skin and hair. Then there was the late eighteenth century dress the girl in the picture was wearing. The girl was laying on the ground, blood splattered about her neck, hair and dress. Her eyes were lifeless. And the red-eyed man was standing above the woman, a small satisfied smile on his lips. His dark hair was long, pulled back into a low ponytail, his eyes were slightly too small for his face. But it was his clothes that had sent the girl in her nightmare into a panicked frenzy; the tattered clothing belonged to a different century. It was after that the red eyes made their mark on the girl and she'd began running.

Finally the girl put her sketch pad away in her bag and decided to make her way to the dinner down the street to meet her new doctor. Maybe she could finally get some answers to some of the questions this new reality brought up and help dealing with her mental issues and fears.