3: Cry Little Sister

Rosalie and Alice had finished hunting and were slowly walking through the forest, a good 100, 150 miles from home. Alice turned her head to the darkening sky and tilted it carefully, listening almost. “It’s going to rain soon” she said, looking at Rosalie.
“What a surprise” she muttered, keeping her eyes forward. Alice sighed and Rosalie untied and retied her long blonde hair for what had to be the millionth time that day. “Ready?” she asked Alice, stopping and getting ready to run. She nodded and just before they were to take off, they heard a long high pitched howl.
“What was that?” Alice asked, shooting a worried look to Rosalie. Rosalie shook her head.
“Sounded like a wolf” she responded.
“Sounded like Jake. Like something was wrong.” The two shared a look of pure panic before racing home; racing faster than either had ever gone before.
It was at this same time that IT stopped and listened. IT could hear three separate groups of vampires: one that had two, female, one that had four, maybe five, all male, and the last was a mixture of both male and female and an unknown number though IT was certain that it was higher than what IT had just killed.
IT had made up IT’s mind to take on the largest group-not only would IT get satisfaction out of it but master would be quite pleased. IT stopped dead in IT’s tracks and listened-the two female were closest, somewhere in Washington, the four or five were coming to Washington from the west and the largest group was somewhere far down south-possibly South America, even further. IT did not care and took off faster than any vampire.
The two reached the outskirts of home and halted, listening. Again, another loud howl of utter despair and agony. They exchanged a look before walking slowly through the woods and closer to home, not seeing anything at first. Once again, Alice caught it before Rosalie did, sniffing the air. “You smell that?” she asked, looking at her.
Rosalie inhaled and nodded. “Yeah…Smells like something was burned.”
“Burned” echoed Alice, suddenly feeling weak in the knees. Rosalie caught her and looked at her, worried.
“What?”
“Burned, Rosalie. How are we destroyed for good?” Rosalie stood perfectly still, the words coming in one shock wave after another.
“No” she finally said, heading for home, each stride longer and faster than the one before. “No, no, no, no” she said again and again as she walked inside the back door and looked around quickly, not seeing anything out of place.
Total silence greeted her. “No, no, no” she continued her mantra as she walked up the stairs, slower than before, she walked in each room, though each was empty. She walked to the front then and gasped at what she saw: the down-stairs was an absolute mess, glass from one of the windows lay strewn about in shards all around the room, and the sofa lay in ribbons, the stuffing pulled out and looked like fresh snow, Esme’s antique table lay shattered like toothpicks. But the most damaging of all was the grand piano: it had been demolished beyond recognition almost; subtract the scattered keys and the pedal.
Rosalie couldn’t move, couldn’t think, and couldn’t speak. She knew that what had happened here had left no survivors. And yet a part of her could not accept that.
“Rose!” She heard the yell and walked down the stairs slowly, in a trance almost, and out the back door, not being able to so much as think about what was in the front of it. “Rose!” She followed Alice’s voice down a path that headed west from the home. She took in a breath and realized she smelled something other than the burning…Something sweet and tempting.
Blood.
She looked down and followed the trail a quarter of a mile, finally stopping when she saw Alice kneeling next to a shaken Jacob who lay curled in the fetal position, sobbing so hard each one shook his entire body. “Jake” said Alice softly, careful not to touch him but keeping herself close that he could feel her presence. Rosalie stayed where she was, though she could catch every sound around them.
“Dead.”
Alice looked at him, hoping she had heard him say something else-anything else. Rosalie held on to a tree behind her, certain that when he spoke again she would not be able to stand.
“Dead. They’re all dead.”
“Who?” Alice asked him gently. Rosalie shut her eyes and clutched the tree tighter, a life support to a drowning man at sea.
“Everyone! Carlisle, Esme, Edward, Bella, Jasper, Emmett, Renesmee.” He started sobbing again, true ones that started in the stomach and worked their way up to his throat and finally out his mouth. Alice could only stare at him, his words leaving her paralyzed.
“What?” she finally managed, her worried gaze going from Jacob to Rosalie who leaned against the tree, her back to Alice.
“This…Thing…I don’t know what it was, never even saw it…”
“What?” Alice repeated.
“It was invisible. None of us could see it. And it was fast…No offense…But…It made even the fastest vampire look…Slow…” He choked on his words then, his breath getting caught in another sob that rocked his body. “And vicious…God!...It…It killed them so violently…And I could do nothing to stop it….Even when I tried to protect Renesmee, it threw me out the window with such force…When I finally came to, I smelled the burning and knew…I was too...late.” He took in another sharp breath as the two vampires stayed still, letting the news come slowly and painfully.
Jake sat up then, leaning against the fallen tree. He stood shakily and started to walk slowly. Alice finally found her voice and asked “where are you going?”
Without turning he answered “anywhere but here.” He took off running and was eventually out of sight.
Silence encircled the two; even the usual sounds of the forest were silent. “What are we going to do?” Rosalie finally asked her voice weak and small. For once, despite her abilities to see the future, Alice was unable to answer.
She broke away from the tree and started to walk back to the house. She knew she couldn’t go back in there-ever again. Not after what had happened there. Even if she hadn’t seen it, even if she hadn’t been there… She shook her head and stopped. Never had she felt this sort of helplessness before.
Never.
Well, once but…
She looked up at Alice. “I’m going to the Volturi” she said simply.
Alice’s jaw fell. “Whoa! No no no! I know this situation is…Well I don’t have a word for it but death is not the way out.”
Rosalie laughed bitterly. “Oh isn’t it?” Alice looked at her again then away. “I’m nothing without him…I was nothing without any of them.”
Alice gritted her teeth and grasped her tightly by the forearms (she would have grabbed her face but couldn’t reach that high) and said “look at me, Rosalie.” She turned her face from hers, but Alice’s grip was stronger than her will and she stopped fighting and did as Alice asked. “You’re not the only one in pain here, ok? But I need you to be strong now, hard as that sounds, I need you to be strong. We will overcome this, ok? We will mourn but we will not give up on our own lives, do you hear me Rosalie?”
“I can’t…”
“Yes you can! I will help you. We will get through this together.” Rosalie looked at the ground, her feet gently kicking the soft dirt under them. Finally, she nodded in agreement. Alice nodded as well.
“How come you couldn’t see this?” Rosalie asked her quietly. Alice looked at her then away. That had been bothering her as well.
“I don’t know. I…Whatever Jacob saw happening…It isn’t human and it isn’t one of us.” She paused then, considering what was left. “I just don’t know.”
“What do we do now? Where do we go? What…Happens next?”
Again, Alice could only say “I don’t know.”