drowned out your [ben] mind

[ser]

She was getting desperate. She couldn't think about anything else but that tiny little human girl. Damian couldn't get her to calm down, she was absolutely loosing her mind. She remembered the day, that happened two weeks ago, seven hours, twelve minutes and forty seconds ago, and it still killed her. That day, she had Marcellina at the beginning, starting off like any other day. Damian was making snippy comments as Marcellina sat at the table eating her cereal, swinging her little feet on her chair. Serenity had been rubbing Damian's back, trying to calm him down and she would laugh lightly when Marcellina said something in Italian that she understood as "Stop talking mean man", and Damian's face made her laugh. Her lips pressing lightly to his cheek before he looked at her, completely love struck. It was something she had grown used to seeing on his face when he looked at her. Sometimes it was almost like shock, like she was loving him back the best she could.

It was getting easier to "love" him, though she felt like he didn't have her heart. She felt like it had been given to someone a long time ago and she never got it back to give to Damian, like he had given his to her. It wasn't a mutual exchange, but he had been nothing but caring and loving towards her, so she tried to be with him the best she could. And it was getting easier as time went by, though it was still hard because little miss Marcellina didn't really like him. She was always pushing his buttons until Serenity had to step in and either take Damian away or Marcellina somewhere so Damian wasn't tempted to tear the house apart. As Marcellina ate, Damian kept his arm around her waist as she put away the milk and cereal, following her around and whispering things into her ear. Some of them were just plain silly, causing her to giggle and push him away before returning to being "busy".

He was just getting a joy out of her laughter and eventually, his phone rang and he left. She always wondered who was calling him, keeping him away for hours at a time to talk. She never intruded on his conversations though, because that was his business. And besides, it had given her time to be with Marcellina and let her have her whole attention and not have to worry about the green monster in Damian come out. Her eyes had changed to a dark copper color. Not exactly a gold like she had seen a lot of vampires with, but close enough. But that day, when she noticed that they needed to get more food for Marcellina, she started to make a list. At which Marcellina decided to help, telling her to by more of the gummy snacks that she enjoys ever so much. Damian came back inside, at which Serenity asked if he needed anything, and he simple said no and sat at the table.

When she told him that he was going to have to watch Marcellina, so she could shop without buying a ton of unneeded things because she couldn't deny that little girl. Only a few times she had. Damian of course gave her this glare as she said it, at which she put a hand on her hip, as if daring him to fight her about it. He seemed to almost say something, but his harsh face melted and he smiled at her lightly. She smiled, grabbing her truck keys and giving the two people in the house a kiss. As she left, her jeans got wet around the edges, thanks to the growing puddles around her house before she jumped into the truck. She left at that time, and thats when it happened. A vampire snuck in while she was gone shopping and stole Marcellina. And not only did he steal her, but he ran her scent everywhere! Serenity followed it, only to have it loop back and turn into another trail and it just went everywhere. She was worried, her baby was gone! Someone took her baby.

She broke down at the end of the day, weeping though no tears fell from her eyes, thanks to being a vampire. She cursed Damian up and down and hit him a few times. Of course, he didn't fight back, though she knew he was happy that Marcellina was gone. There was now nothing that would take away her attention from him, or interrupt his time with her. But after a week had passed, and she refused to hunt, and refused to even talk to him, he started to understand how hurt she was. He tried to apologize and started promising he would look for her to, but every day there was no success in finding her. She swore up and down that she was going to kill that vampire that took her, she had his or her scent in her head and she was going to kill them for taking away her baby. And if Marcellina so much as had a scratch on her, oh it was going to be a long and torturous death for him/her. She laid in Marcellina's bed as she soaked in her scent. Who would want to take her?

There was a light knock on the door, and she looked up as Damian came in. He went to her, sitting down on the floral bed spread on her bed she he grabbed Serenity and held her tight. She placed her forehead on his shoulder and let him hold her, frankly she needed some comfort at the moment. "Go out and hunt, please baby," He pleaded her for the 100th time this week, her eyes as black as night. When she didn't answer, his hold tightened on her, "Starving yourself isn't going to bring her back. Serenity, please," he said, his voice full of pain. She raised her head, and stood up, taking his advice and by the way he smiled, she knew that he was happy. Not that she really cared at the moment because he was leaving soon to go back to Italy to handle something. She stared at him, waiting for him to say good bye before she left because he was probably leaving now to make his flight. Damian stood, walking over to her and kissing her right on the mouth. He held that connection for a while before breaking away. "Be safe, I love you," and like that he was gone.

She listened to his car back out of the driveway and drive down the road. Serenity thought about just laying back down, but she was really starving, and she knew that by the way the venom soaked her tongue and throat at the thought of finding something to hunt. Her body took over and before she knew it, she was running. Her long brown hair flying behind her and her yellow tank top was like a flash of lightening through the woods as she ran. The next thing she knew, she had a warm body under her's and blood was running down her throat. She moaned at the warmth, drawing it closer and yet, skillfully keeping the blood from hitting her shirt as she drank in needy pulls. The blood ran out to quickly, and she was running after the next deer that still hadn't gotten to far from her. After she drained that one, she just stood there, her body leaning against a tree as she listened around her. Her now dark gold eyes closed, her small frame almost looked breakable as she stood there, heart broken. She was left alone in Forks, without the man that brought her there, or the child she thought was her own.

As she slid to the ground, she started to cry again, wrapping her arms around her legs as she tried to stop her cries. She was so confused, so hurt and alone that she felt like she couldn't live another second. The memories of the blank face man came again, and she almost screamed out in frustration at them. Being in his arms, running through the forest and stopping at a cliff. His shirt wet from the rain, plastered to his perfect body as her clothes clung to her. She tried to strain on his face, see what he looked like, but the memory slipped from her before she could. Whoever that man was, he was driving her to the edge and she was going to snap if she didn't find him. She needed him with such a craving, she could never get it from anything else. Even if she starved herself for weeks and weeks, that craving would never be so bad. She eventually unfolded herself from the ground and got up, prepared to run back home.

As she took a few steps, she smelled something that made her eyes snap back to black. That scent, that beautiful scent was that of the one that took Marcellina. She bared her teeth and let out such a frightening snarl that she was sure that everything would back the hell off. Few things were more dangerous than her right now, and those things were called hurricanes and tidal waves. She took off after that scent, plowing over a few trees in her way as she went. This vampire was so dead when she got there, but she wanted Marcellina first, she wanted to see her and know she was alright before she dealt with him/her. Her eyes were so terrifying that she swore that everything was red as she ran. When she came to a screaming halt, she stood at the back of a house, and thats when she let hell loose. She stomped forward, grabbing hold of the back door and ripping it off of the house before she tossed it to the side. Her jean covered legs moved her forward into the house, looking around and trying to find where the strongest scent for Marcellina was.

Luck for her, that wasn't hard to find. Except she wasn't lucky for long as she heard movement to her right.

[darcy]

Two weeks. Two whole weeks. That was how long Benjamin had gotten away with keeping the tiny human girl Serenity had stolen from Italy. He wasn’t sure what he had anticipated to happen, but he knew it wasn’t this. He never imagined keeping that little girl at his own home for so long and he certainly never thought he would have come to love her as a father loves a daughter. She gave her love willingly, so trusting of those who kept her fed and clothed. It was unnatural for a being to trust someone as easily as little Marcellina did. Most children were supposed to trust those closest to them, their parents and possibly siblings. They were meant to be skeptical of others who came into their lives. Marcellina was no ordinary child. She was exceptionally intelligent, at her three years of age. She could speak both English and Italian fluently. She could count and read and even write. She put others in her age group to shame. Yet, with all her sophistication she still remained a lovable little girl who ate fruitsnacks and snuggled into her carriers shoulder at the end of a long day. She still desired to have stories read to her before bed and she liked a goodnight kiss. She would still climb into Ben and Aine’s bed every morning and wake them up by kissing them both lovingly on the cheek or forehead. It was everything that a daughter should do, and yet she wasn’t their daughter. For one thing, Ben and Aine weren’t together like that. Aine knew that Ben was head over heels for Serenity. She knew that his every quest in life was to get her back. She had accepted that. However, that didn’t mean that Ben didn’t still feel some of his old lingering feelings for Aine. Of course he still loved her. He just loved her a different way.

For another thing, Marcellina was not Ben’s actual daughter. From the moment he had laid eyes on her he felt a paternal, protective feeling stir deep within him. He felt compelled to protect this little girl no matter what she came across in life. He wanted to be with her, be around her. He wanted to love her and wake up every morning to make her breakfast and take her to school when the time came. He wanted to watch her sports games or ballet recitals. It was impossible to not feel the paternal affection for this little girl. She had even referred to Ben as “dad”. She had called Serenity her mother, after losing her own mother to the two ravaging Vampires back in Italy. Marcellina didn’t quite know the details, but she knew that her mother was gone forever and not coming back. She didn’t seem to mind at all. She was happy to have Serenity as her mother. She told Ben one night, while eating a plate of messy spaghetti Aine had cooked for the two of them, that her mother had always been away from Marcellina. She went on long trips a lot to faraway places. Marcellina was left either with her Grandparents and the nanny they hired for her or she was left with one of her mother’s friends. She liked how Serenity stayed with her all the time. The little girl seemed to have a constantly moving memory. She could remember her real mother, but she preferred to think of Serenity as her real mother. When it came to fathers on the other hand, the girl said she never had one. Marcellina described to Ben how her mother had told her that something had happened to her father when she was just a baby and that was why she didn’t remember him. In Bens opinion, the little girl still was just a baby. When she noticed pictures around Bens house of him and Serenity, she put two and two together and began to call him Daddy. Ben had no arguments. He had fallen in love with the little girl the second he spotted her, sleeping innocently on the couch.

Marcellina was surprisingly not too phased by the absence of Serenity. Ben thought he would cause panic in the heart of the little child but she seemed to not mind her mother’s absence whatsoever. Ben couldn’t help himself though. One day he had asked why she didn’t ask about Serenity. The answer he received was stunning. Marcellina stopped playing with a pair of his Italian loafers, she adored playing with his shoes, and looked Ben square in the eye as she spoke. “Mommy is everywhere in this house. Her clothes, her makeup, her pictures. She will come home and get me and then we can all live together as a family. She’s coming back.” She’s coming back. Those three little words had been running through Bens mind from the moment they left the little girls mouth. It had been exactly that which he had told himself from the day Serenity had gone missing. The town had basically proclaimed the seventeen year old girl dead. She had gone missing months ago. Almost a year actually. Ben remembered every second of those months. He remembered the way he had come home that day from school, he had been grading some papers in his office, and found that Serenity wasn't waiting at home like she had promised. He had stuck around the house, waiting a little while for her to return from wherever it was she had gone. The minutes ticked by and still no Serenity. Ben wondered if she had gone home or something and so he went there, still nothing. When evening fell Ben really started to panic. He searched all over town for her scent and discovered her truck parked by the side of the road near a few acres of forestry. There was another scent, the scent of a Vampire.

Ben was the only one that knew the real reason for Serenity's disappearance. She had either been devoured by the Vampire or she had been taken by it. Ben figured if she had been attacked he would have found the body. There were no signs of her blood being spilt, at least not where he was looking. The town went into a sort of frenzy, wondering if this had anything to do with the disappearances of the people from a little while back when the wolves started appearing. It never was the wolves who had been attacking, just more stealthy murderers. Days went by before Ben heard from Serenity, and then after that his search was whipped up into a storm. He travelled to Italy and Alaska, searching for anywhere he might find his beloved and her captor. But the man who had taken her was smart. He hid her when Ben arrived and he was eventually forced back to Forks. It had been months since he had heard from Serenity, but he was positive that she was like him now. Then all of a sudden there was Aine, the ironically found dare devil who happened to be Ben's exgirlfriend/fiancee. When she appeared everything was postponed. Ben started to remember things. Aine told him stories of his family and friends, of the two of them and things he had once been interested in. It was so amazing. He could remember! It was no replacement for Serenity, but it was something to focus his thoughts on while he figured out what to do about that situation. Finally the day came when Ben was driving down the street and spotted a very familiar looking girl driving a different vehicle than the one he had always seen her in. He followed her of course, watching as she pulled onto the La Push reservation.

After Ben saw Serenity, saw what she was, he felt as though he had lost the battle. He felt like though he still loved Serenity, she was no longer the same girl he had fallen for. She wasn't the fragile little human he had to protect. She didn't need his help anymore. She didn't need him at all. She could live her life as an immortal and he would be left in the dust. However, he then saw her turn towards the back door, reach inside and draw out a tiny little human girl. He knew she was human because he could hear the faint thumping of her tiny heart. He couldn't believe his eyes. At first he thought she was going to kill the little girl, but then he saw the way she handled her. It was like she was acting as her caretaker. And that just wasn't right. Ben didn't know just how much control Serenity had over her newborn thirst. One little scrape and that little girl was toast. His seeing the pair at the beach of course then lead to Ben following them home and later sneaking in to steal the little girl. And thus they were brought full circle. After stealing Marcellina away from the home of the Vampire, he brought her back to his own home where he was sure he wouldn't be any sort of threat to her. And he had Aine, surely she had to know about taking care of a human child. She herself was human, so she knew the needs better. Ben of course still remembered the basics, but it was a little hard to keep tabs of them for someone as small as Marcellina. She wasn't quite on the same level as a 19 year old college guy, which was what he was eternally stuck as.

Ben kneeled on the carpet in his living room, his elbows propped on the couch cushion in front of him. His hands covered his eyes loosely and he muttered numbers under his breath as he counted slowly to 20. He somewhat shouted the final number and stood cautiously from the ground, his bright golden eyes searching the room around him. Hide and seek seemed to be a very popular game with Marcellina lately. Aine must have taught her how to play since Ben knew he hadn't and she had never wanted to play before. When Ben was at the school Aine was the one to look after Marcellina and the two had grown quite close. Ben frowned slightly, unable to find the little girl in the living room, which was seperated from the kitchen by an island countertop. He could hear the dicing of vegetables and the clanking of pots as Aine bustled around making dinner. "Marcellina, are you in here?" He asked, stepping out from between the coffee table and couch and turning to face the rest of the room. His eyes wandered towards the kitchen where he saw Aine and he smiled lightly. "No!" A tiny, muffled voice called back. She was in the living room. Ben tried not to laugh but a small chuckle escaped and he gently shook his head, causing a few strands of dark brown hair to fall in front of his eyes. With a swift brush they were pushed back into place. He silently crept to the side of the couch and sure enough a tiny par of pink sock colored feet were peeking out from behind the sidetable. "Where on earth have you gone, Mar?" Ben called, swinging his head to look around the room again. He slowly lowered himself down onto the floor, winking at Aine as he reached out to tickle the little girls feet.

Marcellina squealed with laughter and wiggled her way out from behind the table. Ben laughed in turn, pulling the little girl onto his lap. His fingers probed the little girls rib cage and she giggled, trying to wiggle her way away from him. Little did Ben know, someone else had made their way onto the property his house was settled on. An earsplitting crack shattered through the house as the sliding back door was torn right off its mount. Ben was on his feet in seconds, pushing the tiny human girl behind him and calling for Aine to get into the same position. Two humans, one Vampire. He could certainly protect them both. His bright golden eyes landed on the burning black hues of none other than Serenity. She had finally found them. Her stance was rigid as she looked in at the three, her face contorted with rage. She was soooo pissed. Ben snarled protectively at her, a warning of sorts. He was almost certain she didn't remember him and as much as that hurt him, he just had to make sure she didn't do anything stupid. He wasn't about to let her have Marcellina back to kill. She was as good as his daughter now, there was no way he was going to put her in that kind of danger. And then there was Aine. He sure as hell wasn't about to let Serenity hurt her either. He loved Aine. Marcellina gripped Ben's leg tightly, evidently not very comfortable with the way her "mommy" looked at the moment. She had a few tiny rips and tears in her clothing and her expression was monsterous. To put it bluntly, she looked rather scary. Ben placed a protective hand on his daughters head, snarling at Serenity again.

[aineroberts]

The house was generally quiet now—or at least for the time being, whilst Ben and Marcellina were playing hide and seek. As Ben covered his eyes, kneeling down in front of the sofa in the living room, Aine smiled to herself and hardly suppressed a giggle as little Marcellina waved her hands around, signaling for her not to watch as she hid. She’d taught the little girl about a week ago to play the game; but she never would have guessed that it would become her favorite pastime as it had…not in a million years… Aine shook her head, still smiling, and returned to cutting vegetables for the dinner she was making for Marcellina and herself, just like every other night before this one that they had been staying with Ben. She still cried frequently when not in the absence of Ben or little Marcellina, and still felt a hole eating away at her heart when she thought of how the man she loved had grown to love someone else in the years she had thought him dead, but she had decided rather quickly after seeing just how much he clearly loved Serenity that she would help him, no matter what, to find her again; no matter how much it may hurt her to do so… Hell, she figured that after he had Serenity back, she could just wallow her way home, work off her newly received injury at the local dance studio and maybe even start teaching dance lessons there as well once she was able to actually do it herself…

She would become just another shadow in Ben’s life, no longer stalling his new eternal life that he apparently was now capable of living with Serenity, who had been turned into a vampire herself after she had been taken away. Looking up from her cutting at Ben where he knelt on the floor, she breathed a very gentle sigh and blinked, turning back to her work and pulling out a pot. She walked to the sink as Ben finished counting and got to his feet and turned on the tap, waiting for the water to get hot and glancing into the living room, where Ben was currently searching for Marcellina, with another warm smile growing on her lips. "Marcellina, are you in here?" she heard him ask, and an involuntary shiver ran down her spine at the sound of it. Damn it…she was going to have to get herself past this sometime soon or leaving was going to actually kill her this time where her fall hadn’t. The water finally was hot enough to scorch the palm of her hand and she yanked it back, hissing slightly and shaking the hand that had been burned slightly in the air, shaking her head at her clumsiness. She rinsed out the pot and then filled it half of the way with the scorching-hot water before returning to the counter and combing the vegetables into it. Uh oh, she’d forgotten one of the carrots she’d pulled out. Oh, well…she’d just go ahead and chop it now and then she’d put them all on the stove to boil.

She heard Marcellina’s reply to Ben’s question from moments before and held a hand to her lips to keep a laugh from passing, stopping her work to watch for a moment or two. Ben shook his head and she heard him chuckle, a few strands of hair falling into his face. If this moment had occurred only a few years earlier, she would have been able to reach up and tuck those strands back away from his face, and her fingertips ached and tingled with a longing to do just that right now, but she knew that that would be an idiotic thing to do, and it would make her look desperate and pathetic… Ben winked at her and she offered a shaky smile as she limped carefully around the island to lean against it on one side. She truly hoped that she would get her footing back soon…all of this limping was beginning to be tiresome, and it was especially upsetting for someone who had spent their entire life dancing… Ben was reaching around the side of the sofa, and she heard Mar laugh; so apparently he’s tickled her feet that had been hanging out from behind the sofa… She shook her head and had to laugh when Ben pulled the small girl into his lap, tickling her. If this had not been such a normal occurrence over the past few weeks that they had had Marcellina living with them, then it would have made Aine think back yet again to her own years spent with Ben, how he used to tickle her as well, and how it had been one of his favorite things to do, despite her apparent loathing for it… But the truth—and she was almost sure that Ben had known it then too, else he would have stopped the torment—was that she had lived for moments like those with Ben, just having a good time with him and seeing him smile. There was nothing she wouldn’t give to be near him, if even for a millisecond, and everyone who knew her had noticed.

Which was probably why they were all so scared shitless to even talk to her after Ben’s father had come home from their Alaska trip and broken the news to her that Ben was ‘dead.’ Her mother had practically closed her off after it had happened, offering her no form of comfort in what she absolutely knew to be the darkest hour of her life. Or symbolic hour at least, considering the fact that it had lasted much, much longer than that. Hell, she was actually with Ben now and she still broke down almost every day. After all, as cruel as it may sound for her to think as bitterly as this, loosing someone to death may be a horrible and shattering thing, but its never their actual death that we as humans mourn for. It is more that the heart-wrenching sadness is born from a selfish part of us on the inside. People mourn for their lost loved ones, not because of the dead person’s feelings, but because now that they are gone, they will no longer ever be around to spend time with and give love to. It had been precisely what Aine had cried for when she was told he was gone, and she still cried for the same reasons now, because even though he was not dead, he was at least still completely unattainable for her… A crack sounded from the other side of the house, and Aine’s smile dissipated immediately, her eyes growing wide. Ben called for her to get behind him, and she moved as quickly as she could with her bum leg to do so, shaking now from head to toe.

And the shaking was only made worse when she saw who it was that was standing and staring in at the three of them, Aine and Marcellina hidden behind a snarling Ben. Serenity… She wondered how agonizing it must be for Ben to be staring at the woman that he loved right now and realizing that she had absolutely no recollection of his identity, and that she might even be willing to kill him right then and there if she was capable, if only it meant that she could get to Marcellina. In fact, from the look on Serenity’s face, Aine had no doubt that the woman would have no problem whatsoever with killing both Ben and herself to get to her little girl, and that she might even want to. That was a sickening thought to have run through her mind, and the daredevil inside of her shriveled up and died. Damn thing. Right when she’d needed her bravery, it had abandoned her and left her a pathetic shaking coward in the face of the greatest danger she’d ever encountered—greater than falling from that cliff, and greater even than bleeding out all over the cliff and having Ben, a vampire, standing there and catching a whiff of her blood. This was the definition of horrific scenes, and even Marcellina seemed afraid as she clung to Ben’s leg, staring at Serenity…

god, this is horrible. I apologize for the wait and the shotty quality, cram and cassie. <3