It's a short one this week, because next week has the longest chapter yet! :) please enjoy this little scrap of chaos.

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Thursday May 4th, 1933

2 days until the wedding

Of course he moved out of the way in time. When I landed hard on the loveseat he'd just vacated, it splintered under me, splitting itself in half.

"I'm going to literally fucking kill you," I snarled and went for his stomach. He ducked to the side and the floor dented around me.

"Can you stop?" he said, sounding bored. "You're not going to catch me. You're just ruining furniture."

"Furniture's worthless already." I reared my head. "But I'd expect that from your tax bracket."

I reached for his hair. He dodged me.

"Damn!" I screeched. "When is my mind reading supposed to start kicking in?!"

He had the audacity to laugh at me as I swung for him again. "It doesn't work like that, princess. But if it did, at least there would be some thoughts in that head."

My vampire mind, I realized, was gorgeously great at multitasking.

Something about time stretching on forever and ultimately ceasing to exist as a concept allowed me to stop the moment, so to speak. My brain expanded into another plane of reality – huh. It was different.

I knew that he was reading my mind and predicting my every move.

If he was predicting my every move, I'd have to have a next move. If I didn't have a next move in mind, he couldn't see it coming.

I lunged at him. Then, acting on total instinct, I changed my mind and kicked his knees out from under him.

He recovered quickly, but not before I thrashed at him, mouth-first.

He feinted to the side. He wasn't fast enough. My teeth sank into his forearm.

Yes.

I bit down as hard as I could. It was difficult – it felt like biting into a slab of clay – but it felt amazing as I locked my jaw in place. My eyes rolled back into my head, and the trajectory tugged him down to the floor with me. It hurt when we crash-landed, but I couldn't bring myself to care. This pain was worth it.

I'd caught him.

I unsheathed my teeth and spat his arm out of my mouth, scrambling to my feet, not caring about how graceful I looked. I was too triumphant.

I felt even better when I saw that I'd taken his arm off. It had torn in two at the elbow.

And my heart positively soared when I heard him scream.

"Ha!" I spluttered maniacally, mouth dripping with venom. "I caught you!"

Esme was already at his side, kneeling on the floor with his head in her lap as he hollered in agony. Carlisle was picking up the severed arm and – licking it?!

I wiped my own poison saliva from my chin, suddenly hating the taste of it.

Carlisile carefully reattached Edward's limbs. The seams stitched over almost instantly. Like nothing had happened. It didn't even look like he'd have a scar.

I felt my confidence drain away. Almost instantly, revulsion took its place.

What had I become?

Apparently, when acting on instinct alone, I lost myself to the monster within. I became the kind of creature that tore men apart.

I was horrified with myself. I was further horrified that I'd enjoyed it.

Worst of all: I'd fantasized about violence when I wasn't consumed by my feral newborn instincts to hunt, to drain, to feed.

Hadn't I thought about methodically performing a more gruesome version of this act exactly on Royce, just days ago?

"It's alright, Rosalie," Carlisle said, turning to me with his hands up. Now that Edward was intact, he could divert his attention to the threat in the room. "It's okay."

"No, it's not," I panicked. "I'm not – I don't – "

"You are forgiven," he assured me.

"By who, Carlisle?!" Edward hollered, still dramatically splayed out on the floor.

Esme tried to pacify him. "She doesn't know any better."

"Like hell she doesn't." He got to his feet. Carlisle stepped between the two of us before he could start towards me.

"It was your idea," I growled. "I didn't have a single thought in my head."

His hands went up to his hair and twisted into fists.

Esme took Carlisle's place between us as the doctor corralled Edward into the study.

"You're not even going to make her apologize?" Edward moaned.

"Whoever's sins you forgive, they are forgiven. Whoever's sins you retain, they have been retained —"

"I swear to God, Carlisle, if you don't keep her under control — "

"Let he who is without sin cast the first stone —"

"The book of fucking John?! Seriously?"

Carlisle shut the door. I could still hear them, but my attention was immediately diverted to a pair of warm golden eyes.

"Let's hunt."

I couldn't exactly say no.