MacKenzie Elizabeth Cullen

01. the start of evil

It's not hard to imagine how complicated a vampire's 'life' is. Being immortal and everything that comes with it — it has its ups and downs, that's for sure. But there's only a handful of people who can understand what it's like to be a vampire-human hybrid. I'm willing to bet our lives are even more complicated than that of your average  vampire.

My twin sister – Renesmee – and I are both half human and half vampire. If it weren't for our DNA, nobody would believe we are twins. The ying-yang most accurately represents us. We're nothing alike. Everything from our looks to our personalities is completely different. And without a doubt, she's the better half.

Renesmee has bronze hair and brown eyes. Her facial features are a perfect mixture of our parents. On top of that, she's gifted. She can communicate through touch. For a while, that was her preferred method of communication, but now she's starting to talk more. Unfortunately, I don't share that gift. However, our father claims he can't read my mind, just as he can't read our mother's. I may not have a gift, but at least I can have privacy to my own thoughts.

On the other hand – actually, on the other side of the entire universe, I was born with curly orange hair and blue eyes. Neither of my parents have orange hair or blue eyes. If that doesn't already scream weird, I don't know what does.

Our family had a misunderstanding with the Volturi, but we were able to send them away without a fight. It's been almost two years since Renesmee and I were born – since we almost lost our lives to the Volturi. We haven't stopped changing, and for that reason we aren't allowed to visit public places, although there are a few exceptions.

Sometimes Renesmee goes out of town with Alice or Rosalie. Sometimes our mom's father – Charlie – visits us, even though he is human. And sometimes Renesmee convinces our parents to let her go to school for a few weeks, but I choose to stay home and be homeschooled by Esme.

I was sitting on the couch in the living room, feigning interest in a magazine Rosalie got for me. Emmett and Jasper were on the other side of the couch watching TV – sports, most likely. I didn't care to look up.

I've never really clicked with my family. Not only am I the opposite of my sister, but I have nothing in common with any of them. Plus, they don't seem to appreciate my dark humor. Sometimes Emmett does, but that's it.

Esme and Rosalie are probably the only two that I somewhat like. Esme takes care of me and homeschools me. Rosalie at least tries to understand me. She lets me help her work on cars, despite my lack of interest. She lends me her fashion magazines even though they bore me.

My parents... well, they say they don't have a favorite, but I know that my mother loves Renesmee more than me. Everyone knows it. Maybe it's because she doesn't understand why I am the way I am. Why do I have orange hair? Blue eyes? Why am I so pessimistic? Why don't Renesmee and I have anything in common? Even I don't have those answers.

Our father, however... I'm not sure if Renesmee agrees with me, but I always thought our father favors me. He doesn't try to teach me things I'm not interested in, he lets me get what I want, and sometimes, when it's just the two of us, we have conversations that last hours. But that could easily be because he can't hear my thoughts, so he's trying to figure me out.

Renesmee and I, despite our differences, are really close. We share a room together, just as we share our clothes from time to time – but her style is completely different from mine. Renesmee came out of our room and took the magazine out of my hands. "Charlie's coming over in a bit. Get dressed."

I rolled my eyes at her but complied, retreated to our room and threw on dark skinny jeans and a black t-shirt. As soon as I finished buttoning my jeans, I heard Charlie opening the front door to be greeted by his daughter.