─ ℂ𝕙𝕒𝕡𝕥𝕖𝕣 𝔼𝕚𝕘𝕙𝕥 ─

I wasn't sure what was happening, all I knew was this had to be a nightmare. Another house fire? History could not repeat itself like this, not in this horrifying manner.

Nothing was comprehending in my mind as I stumbled around, exhaustion, panic, and terror all racing through my body. My heart felt like a hummingbird it was beating so fast, I wanted to vomit again and yet there was nothing in my stomach to release.

Smoke filtered the air, the smell of ash being all that anyone could smell for what was probably miles. I wasn't sure what was real anymore. First, the Cullen's turn out to be some sort of blood-drinking monsters, vampires? Was that right, they must have been. There was nothing else that could possibly explain their nature unless they were all psychopaths who attacked animals and just happened to have super-human features.

No, they were definitely vampires. My thoughts paused for a second, was it possible they were good vampires? Could there be good vampires, good creatures of the night? There must have been a reason they were drinking animal blood and not human, a reason that they were all so kind to everyone else.

Carlisle was a doctor for Pete sake! Perhaps, I was judging them too harshly, not to mention the crestfallen expression on Carlisle's face when he saw my terrified form. The right thing to do would be to allow themselves to explain; plus, if they did attack I was more than capable of defending myself. Maybe I would make the wind carry them away, or disappear on the spot.

However, oddly enough, the Cullen family being vampires was not my number one issue right now. My number one issue was the fact that the house I lived in was currently burning to the ground and there was a very good chance someone was dead.

I hoped more than anything my hunch was wrong, and everyone was okay. But I knew, my gift was never wrong, someone was dead. But who? Lauren was long gone, Darren and Bille were most likely at work, so that left... Kora.

"KORA!" I screeched, the exhaustion pushed to the back of my brain as I tried darting inside the burning home.

I was almost there when my form was suddenly picked up, strong arms wrapping themselves around me. I wiggled in the fireman's grasp, but I was not strong enough, he was easily overpowering me.

"No, no, no!" I was desperately slapping at him, kicking and screaming in an attempt to make him let me go. "You don't understand, I can save her! She needs my help!" My ear vaguely picked up on the fireman's voice being drowned out by my wailing. "Kora! She's in there, help her!" The fireman cussed along with a few others, many of the firemen holding hoses to the house drenching it in water and foam.

"Someone is still inside!" The man had now held me tightly to his chest, moving away from the flames. "Someone needs to go in!" I watched as two firefighters placed oxygen masks over the head before diving into the flame fille filled house.

My heart raced as the firefighter who held me brought me over to an ambulance. The EMT immediately began checking me out, words between the firefighter and the EMT passed over us, myself unable to focus on anything they were saying.

A few seconds later the firemen raced away to help fight the flame leaving me to the EMT who was checking me out. "You're in shock, and your blood pressure is spiking, you need to calm down." I brought my hands to my arms rubbing my arms in an attempt to calm myself down.

I received no so suck luck, all my mind could comprehend was the fact that Kora Nash was somewhere in the house probably dead. Dead; and for once, it wasn't my fault.

"What's your name?" The EMT questioned as he put a grey wool blanket over my shoulders, standing next to me as I sat on the back of the ambulance.

"Clara." I didn't think he heard me at first as my voice was extremely quiet among all the chaos.

But, it appeared he had, as a few seconds he addressed me by it. "Clara, I need you to be honest. Were you inside the house at any point during the fire?"

I didn't answer, simply shaking my head the tears which had momentarily stopped due to the panic beginning once more. "No!" I sobbed, my breath heaving in gasps. "I was in the woods, I just came back and saw it up in flames. Kora's dead, she's dead!" Thunder boomed and rain fell harshly, the rain and the hoses working efficiently in washing away the flames leaving the house burnt to a crisp.

The EMT quickly began shushing me, desperately trying to get me to calm down. The heart monitor which I just noticed he hooked me up to began going wild in tune with my panic. It was all falling down. Everything was falling apart and it had only been a week. This was a new record.

Despite the fire now being out, the voices around only got louder. The orders of the firemen, the shouts of the police. A small crowd filled with nosy civilians and neighbors filled the outside space, police officers working in keeping the crowd away from the house. Billie's house looked nothing as it once did.

All the windows were shattered, debris coating the ground and the walls blackened to a crisp. As I looked to the house, the background noises of people speaking seemed to fade away as two firemen walked out of the house. The first one simply looked sad, and the second one came with a state of melancholy carrying someone who I never wished to see in that sort of a state.

In the second firemen's arms was Kora Nash looking completely opposite of how she normally did. Small burn marks coated her arms, ash littered her entire body, her hair was burnt off toward the ends, and worst of all her eyes were closed. Her chest did move, and there was no aura emitting from her.

❛Dead.❜

The voice was only a whisper now, yet the words caused my world to come crumbling down. I did not know Kora Nash very well, but the thought of her dead sent waves of hysteria through me. Looking at her dead body was possibly the worst for me to see.

I barely noticed the heart monitor spiking to the dangerous levels, the EMT working to cover Kora's dead body from my line of vision. Ripping the heart monitor out, I threw the blanket off my shoulders ducking under the guy's arms racing over to the fireman who held Kora.

The weeps were loud, the thunder and lightning picked up to dangerous level overhead. The rain was pelting hard, and yet I ignored this.

"KORA!" I screamed, the EMT managing to grab me just before I could barely into Kora's dead body.

The fireman watched me sadly, looking toward the EMT. "She died of smoke inhalation. She's been dead for at least ten minutes, there's no saving now." Another EMT and fireman walked over placing Kora's body on a stretcher.

"I can save her!" My words were slurred with tears, the EMT holding me tightly as I fought hard to escape his hold.

"Clara!" Billie Myers was running through the crowd, pushing off any firemen or police officers who tried to stop her, Darren just behind.

For the first time, both of them looked completely shocked and appalled at the house. But the expression Billie's face held when she saw the dead Kora was something I would never forget. Her face went pale and before anything, her screams of grief rang out louder than any other voice. She toppled back as if struck, Darren catching her his own wide as he looked to the dead sixteen-year-old girl.

"NO! I'M SO SORRY! KORA!" Billie's words alike to my own were full of hysteria, barely legible. "God, please!" She preached, falling to her knees Darren going down with her as Billie begged to the high heaven's to bring Kora back.

Promises about being better fell from her lips, Darren simply clutching her as she screamed, tears mixed with the rain running down her cheeks messing up her make up. All of us were soaked to the bone, but it didn't matter. Maybe our little foster family was the definition of dysfunctional, but that did not mean death was something we wished for.

"You don't understand, I can save her." My words were drowned out by the sirens, the sympathetic murmuring of the crowd, and the conversation happening between the EMT, firemen, and police.

The EMT continued clutching me, myself only glaring at the crowd of civilians who watched the scene with false sadness and pity in their gaze. They didn't care about us before, they thought Kora was a good-for-nothing delinquent. But now that she was gone that's when they plastered their phony act of kindness.

"Clara!" I jumped when someone grabbed my arms sharply, pulling me away from the EMT.

Karen Forbes; my social worker stood in front of me looking to me with a pale skinny face, her eyes darting around wildly. How she was here, I didn't know, nor did I care. But the familiarity of her strict face was enough to calm me down, even if it was just a bit.

"Excuse me, who do you think you are?" The EMT grabbed my arm pulling me away from Karen, looking at her sternly with his mustache covered upper lip.

Karen narrowed her eyes at him, her hand grabbing my arm. "I think..." She suddenly pulled out some type of identification, showing her business. "That I am her social worker, and I need to talk to her, right now." The EMT wasn't able to argue, only watching in slight concern as Karen pulled me a few feet away from the subtly calming but sad Billie, and Darren who was only blank-faced.

The rain had gotten to Karen, her hair and clothes soaked alike to everyone else standing outside. The salty rain calmed slightly, changing to a moderate drizzle.

"Tell me you didn't do this." Karen's words were calm and yet an undertone of urgency was hidden throughout.

Her blue irises glared into mine as if daring me to lie, everything about her form screaming that she was panicking. I didn't blame her for thinking it was, after all, this exact situation had happened simply three years prior.

I had no doubts my arm would be bruised from how hard she was grabbing me, the ferocity of her glare making me shrink back. She told me she didn't want to come for at least a year, and yet here we were, just over a week later.

"No..." I had finally found my voice, the tears no longer falling, I had no more tears left to cry. "I was in the forest, playing." I was sad, tired, thirsty, and I wanted this to be nothing but a nightmare.

I wished more than anything for things to go back to how they were. I wanted to wake up in New Orleans, no Lauren, no Billie, no Kora, and no Cullen's. I officially hated Astoria, Oregon with all my being, and I prayed Karen wouldn't make me stay here. The thought of leaving the Cullen's hurt, but I remembered that they were probably vampires. And I couldn't be reminded of anything to do with Kora, I had to get somewhere else. Preferably somewhere warm, maybe I could convince Karen to send me to Florida, far away from all of this.

"Okay," I was surprised when Karen's eyes softened, herself nodding her head. "Okay, stay here. I'm going to go speak to the police and find out what happened. Do not move."

I watched sadly as Karen began professionally speaking with a fireman and police officer, wild hand gestures being made by her. Billie was now standing once more, her and Darren both staring blankly into the rainy distance of the forest.

"Dr. Cullen!" My head snapped to an EMT who was flagging down someone in the crowd. My eyes wandered over to the hoard of people that seemed to subtly be getting larger. Toward the front, Carlisle, Alice, and Edward seemed to just be getting there, all their eyes wide with panic and shock. "Thank god you're here, there was a bit of an accident." Carlisle's eyes had moved to the lone EMT.

I wasn't sure whether to be happy or scared. On one hand, the pull hadn't so much as been touched even with the fact that I saw them basically murder a bear and drink its blood like savages. On the other hand, I was still pretty shaken about the whole thing, and this fire wasn't helping at all.

As I watched the EMT walk up, my eyes lit up at the sight of Carlisle's lips moving to form my name. "Is Clara okay? Where is she?" Alice and Edward flanked his sides, the EMT's eyebrows knitting in confusion.

My heart hammered against my ribcage, the thought of the Cullen's actually caring enough to ask about me warming my heart. No, that was crazy, I shouldn't be happy. I should be terrified. They were probably only asking because I now knew their secret, they were probably going to eat me so I didn't tell anyone!

As sensing my thoughts, which at this point I didn't put past it, Edward turned to me relief clouding his gaze along with slight apallment. As if the thought if eating me was entirely horrible. Thank god for that, maybe I wouldn't become dessert then.

Edward met my gaze, his eyes flashing over my form at the speed of light. My heart thudded rapidly, something which no doubt was not healthy in any manner. But I couldn't stop it. This was utterly atrocious. It had been a long few hours, and I truly wasn't sure what to at this point.

I just wanted to curl up and cry, but there was no one to comfort me. I was all alone, like always. Just the thought sent a stronger wave of sadness, tear of anger spilling from my eyes.

❛Dead.❜

I wasn't sure if it was a taunt at this point. Kora would never get to experience the joy of growing into an adult, never laugh again, cry again, she would be seven feet under or incinerated into nothing but ash.

"Clara!" I was vaguely acute of Karen's voice coming near me, but nothing passed through anymore.

All I could hear was the deafening noise of my own scream, I could feel my hands grabbing my hair tugging harshly, and sense the world around me spinning. But nothing matteed anymore.

What was the point of this? Living in this hell that I called a life? I had no mother, no father, no one who cared for me. All I got were temporary homes, and powers that were most likely from the Lucifer himself. I was never a big believer in God, but if he was out there, how could he be so cruel?

What did I ever do to deserve this hell of a life? This awful existence that was nothing but pain. I couldn't do it anymore, I didn't want to do it anymore.

"WHY!" I barely recognized my own voice it was so hysteric and scratchy.

I was falling, but before I could hit the pavement a pair of cold arms were encircling me. I felt the pull before anything else, then I could him. Carlisle.

"Daddy?" My eyes opened only to see Carlisle's frantic face peering into mine, Alice and Edward kneeled on either side of us.

I didn't even care that I referred to this man whom I barely even knew my father. Al I wanted was someone to hug.

"Please, make it stop." I was hugging him, Carlisle shushing my cries as his hands rubbed through my hair.

Everything moved in blurs of motion before it all went dark. The last thing I heard before my senses were chopped off being the voice.

❛Home.❜