The Girl Who Was Taken (Renesme Cullens Twin Sister)

Sixty-Two

The big mistake wasn't quick or sudden. I had time to think about it, time to mull it over, consider my choices and the best route of action, and I went into it thinking that I could control the variables and the damage and end the day with everyone happy.

It all started because Renesme had a problem. She was refusing to eat. Anything and everything, even her favorite meal, which was Sue's lasagna, which Billy had asked Sue specially to make it for her, but Renesme took one look at it, and scrunched her nose up and went back to her room. That was three days ago.

Billy had taken to leaving plates of food outside her door, knocking on it softly, "Some tuna fish for ya if you want it!" he'd call through the door, listening for a reply. She didn't reply. He'd roll his wheelchair backwards down the hallway to the kitchen and then he'd look despondent too. In some way, I think he was more aware of the situation than our actual grandpa's, be it Carlisle or Charlie. With how close she had been to Jacob, she'd spent the most time in this house, and Billy seemed happy to take her on as one extra kid to look after. And when I showed up, he did the same for me.

And it was one thing to see her moping around, fighting a moral battle in her head every day, and starving herself of everything on top of food. That was all her own doing, her own suffering, and the couple times I had asked about it, she'd told me to leave her alone. But seeing Billy now, watching him watching her slowly waste away until one day she might wake up as a skeleton, which could be very possible since not that much was known about us half vampires and how long we lived, and under what circumstances we would die. But watching him lose hope that she would get better, seeing the frown in his brow, and how much effort he had put into that tuna fish sandwich for her, even cutting it into a funky oval with a tale so that it looked like a fish. He placed a red cherry tomato by the mouth, with a slice of onion as a line that attached to a celery fishing pole.

But it would sit in front of the door, and she'd never appreciate it for how much it really meant. And so, I knew I had to do something. I couldn't go on sitting by, watching her lose weight, just to disappear into nothing. I knew it was risky, but it was the best plan I could think up. I got up from the couch, pushing away the college brochures that Billy had gotten out for me. He had saved them from all the way back when Rebecca and Rachel, his daughters had gone to college. They had graduated and were living somewhere else now.

I quietly entered our bedroom, stepping over the tuna fish sandwich, and found Renesme sleeping on her bed. The blanket covered her, curled up, looking like a very skinny mountain range. "Ness," I said, to get her attention.

"Mmmmm," she moaned as if that was a good enough an answer. I pulled the blanket off her face, and she blinked up at me bleary eyed with her hair tangled up around her pale complexion.

"You need to get up. We're going out. Come on."

She snuggled back into her pillow, and mumbled something like, "No. Leave me alone."

I put my hands on my hips, raising my eyebrows at her like Jane used to do to me sometimes. "We're going. Get up. This isn't a request."

She sighed, and grabbed for her blanket again, pulling it back up to her head. But I knew I was going to have to take drastic measures. "Fine," I said. And I grabbed her feet and started dragging her out of the bed. She slipped easily through the sheets she was tangled in and off the bed, too dazed to react until I was pulling her across the floor, and through the doorway, knocking the tuna fish sandwich off its plate an smashing it on the floor. Then she grabbed onto the doorframe, "What the fuck?" she yelled at me.

"Let go," I said, pulling on her ankles. "We need to go out."

"I don't want to go," she said, hugging the doorway, kicking her feet at me.