Turn Scars to Stars [2]

Destruction

Q: Is there anything that you're looking forward to most in this series? (And yes, Mel will have a love interest, don't worry!)

♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡♡

As fast as the commotion had started, it was over. Carlisle lifted Bella out of the pile of what used to be a glass vase. She bled in bright steams down her pale arm.

Mel started to follow Rosalie to the front door where Jasper had been dragged away by his brothers.

"Mel, stay in the house." She turned and frowned at Carlisle. His bright ocher eyes hadn't darkened like the others.

"Why?"

"Go upstairs while I tend to Bella. Your room or my office, please." His response did not answer Mel's question, and she didn't like that.

Carlisle led an injured Bella to the stairs. He paused to look at his human daughter while Bella shuffled beside him.

"Melaina," Carlisle said sharply-- his no-nonsense tone nearly as sharp as the glass shards that Mel had been eyeing.

She flinched at his tone, but nonetheless took a step towards the broken pieces littering the carpet. "I could help clean this up," she said without looking at Carlisle. There was a monster within her that begged to resurface.

"No," he said firmly. "I will be back to clear the floor. Come upstairs."

"I don't mind--"

"You know that I cannot allow it. Please. Upstairs."

Mel knew that she shouldn't get into it now, with Bella bleeding out, so she paused her argument for later. She was not finished. She was too anxious.

With a huffed sigh, Mel climbed the stairs behind Carlisle and Bella. They stayed on the second floor for him to sew Bella's cuts in the kitchen, and Mel continued up to her room.

~*~

Melaina was upstairs for less than ten minutes before the full-blown anxiety attack hit. She tried to remind herself that she wouldn't want to ruin her beautiful new tattoo... But there were other places on her body that the blade longed to touch.

She had no way to release the pressure building in her mind or the knot tightening in her stomach. Her pulse raced; her fingers shook.

Gah! Why am I this way?!

Mel repeatedly clenched and unclenched her hands into fists. She paced her room as she tried to think of a way out.

She needed to go downstairs before anyone had the chance to clear the mess of glass.

~*~

"Melaina Rose!"

Startled, Mel dropped the handful of glittering shards.

A cold hand clamped onto Mel's shoulder and her body was turned around to face him.

"You disobeyed me."

Mel set her jaw and avoided Carlisle's eyes. She was angry that she got caught. Of course, Mel knew that she had a slim to none chance of actually getting away with anything in the Cullen home, but she had hoped Carlisle was too tied up with repairing Bella to worry about her.

Carlisle's free hand gripped her chin gently but firmly and tilted her head back so their eyes met. "Melaina, are you listening to me?"

"No," Mel said honestly and carelessly. She knew that he had been talking, but her mind was somewhere else, trapped in a craze to lessen her anxiety.

"Hoodie off. Pockets out. Show me your hands," Carlisle ordered. He was not taking any chances when it came to the daughter he had come to love.

Carlisle released her face and stepped back. Mel didn't move.

"Stop trying to control me! I'm not a dog to order about." She stormed past her new father and into her room before he could say another word.

He watched her go with saddened eyes. When would she learn that she was stronger than the lure of self-harm?

~*~

There was no lock on her bedroom window. Her family probably thought that she wouldn't be dumb enough to try to sneak out down the side of the house again, since last time she twisted her ankle upon landing.

They thought wrong.

No one came to bother her as she bundled herself into warmer clothes and grabbed her iPod from her nightstand. She shoved her feet into a pair of new purple Converse.

Mel didn't have a destination in mind as she scaled down a nearby tree. Her traction-less shoes nearly caused her to tumble straight to the ground. She caught herself on the porch ledge below.

Carlisle had taken Bella home when none of the other Cullens returned. Mel assumed they were hunting the night away. She needed to make a break for it while Alice was distracted.

Mel pulled the top of her Pierce the Veil hoodie over her head to block the sprinkling rain. She took off in the opposite direction that Carlisle had gone.

The distressed girl found herself at her mother's grave. 

Melaina held a piece of the glass vase delicately between her fingers as she cried.

Why am I this way? I don't want to be me. I don't want this to be me...