Soft As Day Break | Carlisle Cullen

We Are Not Equipped For This✨️

Carlisle’s POV:

“What the fuck…”
Emmett’s voice—low, stunned—broke the silence.

And just like that—
Everything snapped back into motion.

“She just vanished,” Edward said immediately.

No hesitation.
No doubt.

Because there was no question about what they had just seen.

Alice stepped forward, eyes still fixed on the space she’d disappeared from.

“I didn’t see it,” she said, but there was no panic in it. Just a quiet sort of of course I didn’t.

Edward exhaled, already moving.
“She’s close,” he said. “She has to be.”

And then he was gone.

Not pacing.
Not frantic.
Focused.

Tanner was right behind him.

“Front and back,” Tanner said quickly as they moved. “She’s not going far if she doesn’t know how she’s doing it.”

Edward nodded once, and they split—
One toward the front of the house, the other circling out back, both moving fast but controlled, scanning everything—listening, watching, searching for any sign of movement.

Inside—
The room settled into something else entirely.

Not panic.
Not yet.

Something lighter.

Because they had all seen Ophelia.

The way she had looked around.

The way her expression had shifted between confusion and curiosity and something just slightly unhinged.

Rosalie crossed her arms slowly, one brow lifting.
“…Of course she did.”

Emmett let out a short laugh, dragging a hand down his face.

“Of course she did,” he echoed. “Most chaotic person we know wakes up as a newborn vampire and immediately unlocks apparation.”

“Teleportation. This isn’t Harry Potter, Emmett.” Alice corrected absently.

“Same thing,” Emmett shot back. “Point is—she’s been awake for what, a couple minutes? And she’s already breaking the rules.”

Jasper huffed a quiet breath that might have been the start of a laugh.
“That wasn’t control,” he said. “That was instinct.”

“Which is worse,” Rosalie added.

“But also very on-brand,” Emmett said.

That—
That was true.

Carlisle finally lowered his hand.

Slowly.
Thoughtfully.

And when he spoke—
There was no fear in it.

“She’s disoriented,” he said. “Newborn senses, heightened awareness… everything will feel overwhelming. Her mind is trying to process too much at once.”

Alice nodded slightly.
“That would explain the confusion.”

The way Ophelia had looked at them.

Like she knew something was supposed to be there—
But couldn’t quite reach it yet.

Carlisle’s expression softened, just slightly.

“She hasn’t forgotten us,” he said, more certain than anything else in the room. “Her mind simply hasn’t caught up yet.”

That settled something.