--the end of it--

"I never saw it coming"-Paramore

I pressed myself against the tree, digging my cold, stoney forehead into my hands. My teeth grounded together, creating a sound similar to two rocks colliding. My hair--my disgustingly perfect, beautiful hair--created a veil, blocking the all to vivid world around me.

I don't know where I was. California?

My throat burned, and my muscles convulsed like small snakes under my skin. I breathed heavily, counting each to take my mind off the fact that the breaths were completely unnecessary.

I was not human. I was not human. I was not human.

My thoughts shifted, displaying a grainy, hardly legible flashback from my childhood. I laughed as my new bike rolled down the hill, my grip tight against the handlebars--so much so the white of my knuckles shone through.

The front wheel skidded against a twig, and I went flying foreword. As I landed, my knee stabbed itself into a pointed, jagged rock, and blood oozed down my knee.

If it could, my mouth would water.

No, a voice whispered, don't think about it.

I let myself choke mid-breath, the unnatural indifference my lungs felt only adding to the isolation. In a situation such as this, at any other time, I would have heard my heart pounding against my chest and the blood running through my ears. I heard none of it, though. Only the trees rustling and the footsteps--

Footsteps.

A sudden wave of sweet aroma assaulted my nose like a rock slide, crushing me into the tree bark and sending me into a hungered craze, my muscles tensing into knots and my throat sizzling at the beck of my neck.

Men's laughter reached my ears, joking and chuckling at private jokes shared. I gripped the tree bark so hard my fingers left ten inch indents in the surface. The wind blew it--the wonderful smell--harder and faster, too the point where I felt like I could pass out.

"Hey," a voice said. "It's a girl."

No, I silently begged, not trusting my own voice. Don't come near me.

"Hey, you okay?"

My ears picked up the sound of their feet rustling, louder and louder until they were like bullhorns, pressing me farther into the tree. My nose twitched, and my throat ached. I tried to cut off the breathing, the hissing, the intake of this scent...

Impossible.

"I think she's hurt," said another voice.

"Should we call someone?"

No. No.

A hand moved towards me, touching my shoulder, "Dude, she's ice cold."

It smelled...so...good.

They all got closer...and closer...

I let out a sound like a lion being stabbed, jerking away from them so quickly they jumped.

"Hey," one said. "We're not goin' to hurt you."

That's not what I'm worried about, I thought.

So sweet. The sweetest thing I've ever smelled. Like flowers, and Spring, and everything else that I could imagine. I couldn't think. I couldn't remember anything. Charlie, Renee, Edward...they all disappeared behind the veil of hunger and longing. It was all gone, and I could see. My senses dispersed. I couldn't feel, or hear, or talk. Just smell that sweet, beautiful smell...

"Hey," his wrist, his veins, lay right in front of me, my nose, my mouth...

No.

"You okay?"

God.

I am

so

thirsty.

A/N Okay, posted to get it over with. This chapter's been sitting around for months.