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.
Even if only a little.
Because if there was one thing Carlisle trusted—
It was Ophelia.
Jasper tilted his head slightly, still focused.
“She didn’t feel panicked,” he said. “Confused, yes. Overstimulated. But not afraid.”
“That tracks,” Emmett muttered. “She looked more like she was trying to figure out if she liked it.”
Rosalie gave him a look.
“…You’re not wrong.”
Alice’s lips twitched faintly.
“She was curious.”
Of course she was.
Of course Ophelia Swan woke up as something entirely new
and immediately went—
oh, this is interesting.
Emmett snorted.
“She’s gonna have a field day with this.”
“That,” Jasper said dryly, “is exactly what should concern us.”
Because now—
Now the reality of it started to settle in.
Not fear.
Not dread.
Just—
Practical concern.
“She doesn’t know how to control it,” Rosalie said.
Carlisle nodded once.
“And if she’s moving on instinct…” Alice added.
“She could end up anywhere,” Jasper finished.
There it was.
That was the problem.
Not that she had disappeared.
But that she might not know where she was going.
Emmett blew out a breath.
“…She’s going to accidentally teleport into a wall or something, isn’t she?”
“Let’s not manifest that,” Alice said quickly.
“I’m just saying—”
“You’re not helping.”
Carlisle almost smiled.
Almost.
Because despite everything—
This was still Ophelia.
Still theirs.
Still someone who, even now, was more likely to cause chaos than harm.
But—
“She’s still a newborn,” he said, grounding the room again. “Which means her instincts will take over before her reasoning does.”
Jasper nodded.
“If she gets overwhelmed, she’ll react without thinking.”
“And now reacting means vanishing,” Rosalie said.
“Or maybe reappearing somewhere equally inconvenient,” Emmett added.
Alice sighed.
“Or both.”
The back door opened a second later.
Edward reappeared first.
Tanner just behind him.
Both of them still, scanning, listening—
Then Edward shook his head once.
“Nothing in the immediate area,” he said.
Tanner leaned slightly against the doorframe, exhaling.
“She’s fast,” he muttered. “Or… wherever she went, it wasn’t just across the yard.”
Edward’s jaw tightened slightly—but not in panic.
In calculation.
“She didn’t know what she was doing,” he said. “That wasn’t intentional movement.”
Carlisle stepped forward slightly.
“Then we assume displacement without control,” he said. “Which means we widen the search—but carefully.”
Alice nodded.
“I’ll watch for anything that shifts,” she said. “Even if I can’t see her, I might see what she affects.”
Jasper glanced toward Edward.
“I’ll go with you.”
Edward gave a small nod.
“We track patterns,” he said. “Not her.”
“Because she could be anywhere,” Tanner added.
“Exactly.”
From downstairs—
A floorboard creaked.
Then another.
Bella’s voice followed, closer now.
“Guys, everything okay up there?”
Every head turned.
Carlisle’s expression shifted—but only slightly.
Because now—
He had to explain.
And somehow—
Make it make sense.
“I’ll tell them,” he said.
Emmett muttered under his breath, “Good luck with that,” earning a sharp look from Rosalie.
Carlisle didn’t respond.
He simply turned—
And made his way toward the stairs.
Bella was already at the bottom when he reached her.
Charlie just behind her.
Both of them looking up.
Waiting.
“What happened?” Bella asked immediately.
Carlisle met her eyes.
Gentle.
Steady.
“Bella,” he said.
And that was all it took.
Her expression shifted.
“Is she awake?”
Charlie’s gaze sharpened beside her.
Carlisle didn’t drag it out.
“Ophelia is no longer in the house.”
Bella blinked.
“Pardon me?”
Charlie stepped forward slightly.
“Define that.”
Carlisle kept his tone calm.
“She… appears to have developed an ability we were not expecting.”
Bella stared at him.
“…spit it out.”
He exhaled softly.
“She disappeared.”
Silence.
Then—
Bella shook her head immediately.
“No—she didn’t.”
“She did,” Carlisle said gently.
Charlie frowned.
“People don’t just disappear into thin air.”
Carlisle inclined his head slightly.
“Normally, no.”
That did not help.
At all.
Bella looked between him and the stairs.
“Did someone take her?”
“No,” Carlisle said immediately.
Firm.
Certain.
That made them both pause.
Charlie’s eyes narrowed slightly.
“No?”
Carlisle shook his head.
“This came from her. From her transition.”
Bella’s breath caught.
“She just vanished?”
There it was.
Carlisle nodded once.
“We believe so.”
Charlie exhaled slowly, processing.
Then—
“…You’re telling me my daughter woke up, got confused, and vanished.”
A beat.
Carlisle gave a small, apologetic nod.
“Yes.”
Charlie stared at him.
Then dragged a hand down his face.
“…Okay.”
Another beat.
“…Okay.”
Bella let out a half-laugh, half-breath of disbelief.
“That is so her.”
And somehow—
That was the first thing that felt right.
Carlisle’s expression softened slightly.
“She’s disoriented,” he said. “This will pass. We just need to find her before she ends up somewhere unintended.”
Charlie huffed quietly.
“…Like another country?”
Carlisle paused.
“…Ideally not.”
Bella let out a small, incredulous laugh.
“Oh my god.”
And despite everything—
Despite the uncertainty—
There was something almost ridiculous about it.
Because of course—
Of course Ophelia Swan would wake up
and immediately become everyone’s problemin the most chaotic way possible.
---
Edward set the pace.
Not frantic, not uncontrolled—just fast enough that the forest blurred at the edges, branches and shadows folding into streaks of green as he moved between them. Behind him, Jasper and Carlisle followed without effort, their steps light, their attention sharpened toward the same singular goal.
Find her.
There was no trail.
That was the first problem.
No scent disrupted the air in a way that could be followed, no clear line of movement through the undergrowth. The forest stood as it always had—still, quiet, untouched by anything that should have been moving through it.
But Ophelia Swan had never been anything close to subtle.
Edward slowed first.
It wasn’t instinct that stopped him—it was the absence of normality. A subtle wrongness that pulled at his focus, something just out of place enough to matter.
Carlisle came to a halt at his side, Jasper a step behind, all three of them turning toward the same point without needing to speak.
At first glance, it looked like storm damage.
A tree—tall, thick-trunked—had been torn through at an angle that didn’t quite make sense. Its upper half leaned heavily into the neighbouring branches, splintered where it had broken, bark stripped in jagged lines that ran down toward the forest floor.
But there had been no storm.
Edward stepped closer, his gaze tracking the damage downward.
The break wasn’t gradual.
It wasn’t rot, or age, or pressure from the wind.
It was sudden.
Violent.
Like something had come down from above and taken it with it.
“…She fell,” Edward said quietly.
Jasper’s eyes moved upward, following the line of destruction back toward the canopy.
“From higher than she should have been,” he added.
Carlisle crouched slightly near the base, his fingers brushing over the splintered bark, the crushed earth beneath it.
“She didn’t land,” he said. “She dropped.”
There was no elegance in it. No control.
Just arrival—abrupt, overwhelming, and entirely unprepared.
Edward exhaled through his nose, straightening.
“…Of course she did.”
It was the most Ophelia thing imaginable.
They didn’t linger.
There was nothing else to learn from it—only confirmation of what they already suspected.
She wasn’t moving.
She was appearing.
And disappearing.
And appearing again somewhere else entirely.
They moved deeper into the forest.
Faster now.
Because now they knew what they were looking for.
Not a path or pattern.
But impact.
The second sign was harder to miss.
Carlisle saw it first this time, his steps slowing as his gaze caught on something that simply should not have existed.
The tree stood upright.
Unbroken.
At least—
From the outside.
But its trunk had been split open from within.
Not cleanly.
Not neatly.
The bark had burst outward in jagged sections, wood cracked and forced apart like something had been trapped inside and chosen the most direct, most destructive way out.
Edward stopped a few paces away, staring at it in silence for a long moment.
“…No,” he said finally.
Jasper folded his arms loosely, his gaze moving over the damage with something that bordered on disbelief.
“She didn’t,” he muttered.
Carlisle stepped closer, examining the break.
“She reappeared inside it,” he said.
Edward let out a quiet breath, dragging a hand over his face.
“…Inside the tree.”
Jasper’s mouth twitched despite himself.
“She got out at least,” he pointed out.
Edward looked at him.
“That is not the part I’m concerned about.”
Carlisle straightened, something softer passing through his expression despite the situation.
“She’s adjusting,” he said.
Because she was.
Even if the method was… less than refined.
Edward glanced back at the shattered trunk.
“…She’s going to be insufferable when she figures this out,” he muttered.
Jasper huffed quietly.
“That assumes she doesn’t take out half the forest first.”
They moved again.
And now—
Now there was a rhythm to it.
Not one they could predict.
But one they could follow.
Moments of disruption scattered through the stillness of the trees, each one a fragment of Ophelia—evidence of her existence stitched unevenly through the forest.
Too high.
Too sudden.
Too chaotic to belong to anything else.
Edward was already shifting direction again when it happened.
There was no warning.
No sound.
No shift in the air that could be tracked or anticipated.
Just—
Presence.
Immediate.
Right behind them.
Edward turned, already moving—
Carlisle a fraction slower—
And then—
Ophelia Swan fell out of nothing.
Not near them.
Not beside them.
Directly on top of Carlisle.
The impact took them both down instantly, her sudden weight and momentum knocking him flat against the forest floor as they tumbled together in a mess of limbs and startled motion.
Ophelia made a sound somewhere between a gasp and a yelp.
“—oh my god—!”
Carlisle’s arms came up on instinct, catching her before she could roll further, steadying her even as they came to a stop.
For a moment—
Everything stilled.
Edward froze where he stood.
Jasper blinked once.
And Carlisle—
lying flat on his back, one arm braced behind him, the other still tightly holding her in place—
looked up.
Ophelia blinked down at him.
Her eyes were wide.
Bright.
Confused in a way that had nothing to do with fear and everything to do with trying to catch up to something her mind hadn’t quite processed yet.
There was a beat.
A long one.
Then—
“…Hi.”
Edward turned away, dragging a hand over his face.
Jasper exhaled sharply, laughter slipping through despite himself.
Carlisle, still on the ground beneath her, let out a quiet breath.
And for the first time since she had disappeared—
he allowed himself to smile.
“Hello, Ophelia.”
okay… let’s talk about THIS chapter for a second 😭
first of all—i had so much fun writing this one. like… the SECOND ophelia disappeared i knew it was going to spiral into absolute chaos, and honestly? she did not disappoint.
of course her first instinct is confusion + curiosity.
of course her power is the most inconvenient, dramatic thing possible.
and of COURSE she immediately starts glitching through existence like a feral little menace.
the cullens trying to be serious while tracking her and just finding increasingly ridiculous evidence??? my favourite thing ever.
✨️falling out of the sky and taking down a tree
✨️spawning INSIDE a tree???
✨️and then just… dropping directly onto carlisle like she ordered express delivery
i’m sorry but that is so painfully ophelia-coded i couldn’t not do it 😭
also!! i really wanted to show here that carlisle isn’t panicking in the way you might expect. he knows her. he trusts her. even with all the confusion, he KNOWS she hasn’t forgotten them—and that grounding is so important going forward.
edward being mildly done with her already? valid.
jasper trying to stay serious and failing? also valid.
emmett absolutely going to bully her about this forever? 100% guaranteed.
next chapter is going to be so fun because now we finally get:
✨ ophelia actually THERE
✨ them trying to keep her grounded
✨ and the very real possibility she just… disappears again mid-conversation
as always, thank you so much for reading, voting, and commenting—it genuinely means everything to me 🤍
tell me what you think in the comments!!!