CHAPTER FOUR
I DID SOMETHING BAD

In the year: 1939

GRIEF. A simple word with a deep meaning. Most people will experience grief if they haven't already.

Why was everything moving so fast?

Thea couldn't stop questioning as she stood the the porch of her two-story home.

It was a perfect home on the outside. The wind chimes whistled, the wood creaked and the porch swing swung.

But now it wasn't. Now it seemed to be wind chimes that whistled, wood that creaked, a porch swing that swung, and a frantic newborn vampire that was being fueled by every emotion you could think of.

Thea knocked on the door, suddenly not even feeling like a member of her own home.

Thea could hear faint footsteps getting closer and the closer they got—she could hear the heartbeat. Thea was overwhelmed, but lately, she'd gotten used to the feeling.

The door opened and there stood her mother. Ethel Quarts. She seemed perfect. No tears, no puffy eyes, flushed cheeks, or red nose but her eyes were wide. "Thea?"

Thea didn't understand why her mother saying her name only fueled her rage, "what did you do?"

Ethel was loss of words, she blinked frantically, hoping it was just a fragment of her imagination but there Thea Quarts was. "You look...different?"

Thea's sense of smell was then taken over by a familiar smell. She frowns, her crimson eyes snapping over to her mother, realizing the elder woman was wearing an apron.

"Mom, who is it?" She hears Ava call for her.

Thea rushes past her mother, causing her to press back against the door.

Thea walked through the hallway, passing by family pictures that were for nothing but the show of guests. She turned sharply, stopping when she saw her two sisters sitting at a dinner table.

A table was set. A huge dinner lay across the tables.

"Thea?" Harper gasps, jumping up from the table along with Ava. "How are you alive?"

Thea could now hear three strong heartbeats—yet she hadn't ripped out any of their throats. "What is this?" Thea snapped her eyes to her mother, who'd followed her in, "What is this?! A celebration?! A dinner?"

Ethel shakes her head, "of course not—"

"What did you do with Dr. Sinclair—where is my child?!" Thea's voice rose with every word she spoke.

"Thea, honey—"

"This is your fault," Thea rushed, "you are the reason I died."

"Mom tried to help you—" Ava jumps to her mother's aid, "help this family which you almost destroyed by being a pathetic wh—"

Thea hand came up around Ava's throat, choking her, "this isn't a family...it never was! Father was abusive and mom has done nothing but favor you two ever since his passing and forgotten all about me."

Ethel scoffs, "Don't be crazy, Thea," she chuckles, "let go of your sister now—"

Thea kicks the back of Ava's knee, causing her to fall into both of them. Her whole life was flashing in her brain. Her father died, her mother neglected her, and her sisters treated her like garbage.

"Thea Quarts—stop it!" Ethel demands.

Thea keeps Ava down on her knees. "Tell me."

"Tell you what?"

"Tell me where my child is or else—"

Ethel lets out an airy breath, "or else what, Thea? Stop this now, a demand it!"

Thea knew at that moment—she would do anything to see her baby. Even if that meant—

"I'll kill her." Thea clenched her teeth. "I will kill her right in front of you so you can see how it feels to lose your child and be helpless."

Harper had quietly stepped away from Thea and behind her mother, watching worryingly at Ava, who looked petrified.

Ethel smiles, calling her bluff, "That is not your child! Are you trying to ruin this family? Everything me and your father created?!"

"Tell me!" Thea yells. Ethel couldn't take her eyes away from Thea, who almost seemed to be shaking in rage. "Where is my baby?"

"...that baby...is no child of yours—"

The rotation of Ava's neck caused a jarring snap to ring through the air. Ethel and Harper's deafening screams were soon to follow.

There Ava laid. Dead. Gone from this earth. And what was even crazier...Thea felt nothing at all.

"Oh god." Harper runs to the floor where Ava lies, her cheeks wet with salty tears.

Thea felt the burning in her throat intensify, "so tell me, Mother, will you cover up another daughter's death?"

Ethel's eyes were popped out of her skull, tears threatening her waterline.

Thea lifts her head high, "Tell me where my son is or I swear to god, tonight will be your last night on this green earth."

Harper slowly looked up at her, now trembling.

Ethel tilts her head, "Me? You would kill me?"

"You killed me!" Thea screams, making the room go quiet. "You had the chance to save my life but were too worried about your image to even care."

Thea continues, "I heard them crying right before I..." Thea clenched her fist before letting them rest at her side. She tried a calmer approach, "Please, just let me see my baby's face."

Harper wipes her tears, looking at her mother, "Mama, please, just tell her, I don't want to die like this."

Ethel lets out a breath of air, "Fine...but only under one condition...I just want a hug from my eldest child."

Thea squints harshly at her mother. "Why?"

"I want to apologize—for everything I have done, for how I have treated you." Ethel slowly walks closer to Thea.

Thea's expression softened, "And you will tell me where my child is?"

"Yes." Ethel smiles ear to ear, "You can come home and we can start over...be a family."

Ethel finally got her arms wrapped around Thea's neck, pulling her closer for a hug even though Thea was freezing.

Thea felt like a child again, she wanted to cry, wanted to smile but she then stared down at Harper, who was cradling Ava in her arms and her smile faded.

"Liar," Thea whispers in her mother's ear. She quickly maneuvers her vision behind her, coming in sight with the knife inches away from stabbing her in the middle of her back.

Thea easily takes the knife by twisting her mother's wrist and holding her neck with her other hand. "Where is my child? Tell me!" Thea screams in her mother's face, who is losing air by the second.

When Ethel fails to respond, Thea sends the knife directly into her shoulder, causing her to fall to the floor in tears.

Thea falls on top of her, realizing her blood is now exposed and the scent is filling her nose. "...tell me," her voice trembles.

She was losing her patience and when Ethel only glared in her direction, Thea stabbed her in the middle of her chest.

She removed it, blood now leaking from the womb.

"A disgrace to this family." , "pathetic.", "a whore."

All those nine months were appearing in her head, Ethel never had love for her—not even as a child and Thea felt like an idiot forever thinking Ethel could love her...that anyone could love her.

Thea repeats the motion in the middle of her chest.

And again.

And again.

And again.

"You. You." Thea growls lowly under her breath, hearing the sound of the steel being removed from her flesh.

Ethel tried stopping the blade, "Harper?—stop—"

She's cut off by another brutal stab to her chest. Her motions were drastic, causing blood to splatter on the walls and all over her. Yet, Thea didn't want her blood, she just wanted Ethel to feel how she feels.

Her crimson eyes were cold. Her cries filled the air and she screamed in her mother's dead face, backing away with her eyes scanning the room.

She notices Harper is gone, and Ava is lying there, dead.

She stands up in her blood dress, walking to the front door that was open, revealing the front lawn. Thea stepped out of the door.

The wind chimes whistled, the wood creaked, the porch swing swung, and Thea Quarts stood there covered in her mother's blood.

"Thea?" A voice broke her from her blank stare at the grass.

It was Esme Cullen. Her eyes scanned Thea's figure.

Thea simply lowers her eyes to the wooden porch, "I did something bad."

ragerwrites, So is Thea psychotic or an icon, or both?

wordcount, 1413