I didn't want to submit. Can I just say that? I wasn't going to, I don't like it. But my 'friend' Jessica (PsychoVampGirl, who is looking over my shoulder as I type) said she'd submit it on her own account and tell everyone I did it, because she's saved it to her laptop. And she would totally do it, too, so I figured I'd at least do it of my own free will (sorta).
So yeah. I don't like this. :P Go ahead now.
Pain.
Agony.
It was everywhere, around me, inside me. It was a whole new dimension of feeling.
It blocked everything else out, blocking every sense. It was all I heard, all I saw, all I smelt. It was nearly tangible. There was no release. No weakening. And it would now allow me to slip into unconsciousness, which I would have literally killed for. I wanted death, I wanted rest. I would have begged for it out loud if it could have stopped screaming.
When it first started I heard other yells that didn't belong to me. They shouted words I was too busy to listen to. I was picked up by a pair of freezing arms, and an eternity later passed to the different, unfamiliar arms of a stranger. The idea of protesting was on my mind for a second, but as I forced my eyes open I saw Edward Cullen's face. He kissed my forehead, then looked away and disappeared.
No.
The pain instantly multiplied and took over once more.
"What do we do when she gets it all together? We gotta tell her everything?" a voice sighed. A boy.
"No, the male said she knew about our kind. "Said her name was...damn, what was it now?" another voice, older and more mature, said. "Isabella."
"Isabella what?"
"It'll come to me later. Maybe she'll remember."
I opened my eyes and groaned quietly. They were so loud. My vision was blurred and shaky, but I could make out two figures. I was lying down on something – a sofa?
"Oh, look who's up!" the first voice declared. "Who knew someone could scream that long?"
"Shut it, Joey, you probably screamed like a girl too."
"Hey!"
I propped myself up with my right arm and instantly my vision cleared – but more than I was expecting. It was as if the pain had sharpened all my senses during its control – I heard the heartbeats of small animals outside, and could estimate the distance away from me immediately. I could smell and identify them, too. Every line of every object was sharp and precise, with every color fuller than I'd ever seen. Though the moon could clearly be seen outside, it was only a little dim to my eyes.
"Where am I?" I asked quietly, my throat raw and rough. It was such an intense thirst, my stomach felt it too.
"Ottowa. Well, near it." 'Joey' replied. "Whereja think?" I turned toward him. He looked around 14, maybe 15, with short black hair and pale skin. He had light purple shadows under his red eyes.
Wait a minute.
Before I could figure out what was so important about his appearance, a young man stepped into view. He looked in his late 20s, and similar to the boy, except taller and with light red hair. "Isabella, right?"
Isabella. For a moment the name was foreign and unfamiliar, but I quickly realized it was mine. Isabella Marie Swan. Yes! Memories started prodding at my mind but as I nodded the man continued.
"A young man dropped you off here four days ago. He said you knew about vampires – is that so?"
"Yes – yes, Edward!" I remembered him carrying me for a long period of time, of him disappearing as he handed me to someone. "Where is he?"
"Edward, huh? I don't know. He said he needed for you to come here – he must have found our scent or known we were here through another family. Isabella – "
"That's long. Is Izzy okay?" the younger boy interrupted, leaning forward.
Izzy...the name wasn't as disagreeable as it had been before. "Yeah." I nodded.
The man frowned at Joey and continued. "Izzy, then...do you know – you're a vampire?"
A vampire. That would explain everything. The heightened senses, the thirst, the pain – but not Edward's absence and this new family. They were vampires, I could tell that, and realized with a jolt of fear that the red eyes indicated that they were either newborns or not vegetarians.
"I need to go." I blurted out, swinging my legs off the sofa and standing with strange grace. "I need to find Edward. Did he tell you why he took me here?"
He frowned in thought, but then shook his head. "He said he had to leave you here for a while, and asked if we'd take you – of course we agreed, but he didn't know when he'd be back. He asked to keep you here – I'm afraid I don't know if it was him who turned you, or even it was this Edward you're talking about."
"Does that mean she's staying here?" Joey asked quickly. "She's a girl!"
"Good observation, Joe, and yes. She'll stay here as long as she likes."
The boy made a face, but seemed to only be teasing. "I'm Joseph Paisley. Everyone calls me Joey, though."
"Or Joe Parsley." the man grinned. "I'm Desmond York. There are others, of course, but I believe they've gone out for a while; I ask you to stay until you get used to your vampire body, and we'd be charmed for you to join our coven."
"Isabella Swan, but I – I have to go home, I'm sorry." I said lamely. "My father's there, and he must be worried sick, and – "
"Where is home?" Joey interrupted.
"Forks, Washington. I need to get back, I'm really sorry."
"Forks?" he blinked.
"Izzy – wait a while. You've only just become a vampire, I doubt you even have all your memories. You might be thinking of things years ago – please, wait." Desmond fixed me with a red-eyed look right into my own eyes.
"It might be kinda cool to have a girl here." Joey added, tilting his head to one side like a puppy. "It'd be best to stay for at least a little while. You don't know when this Edward guy's gonna come back."
I realized they were right. Edward would probably be back as soon as he could with a perfectly logical reason to hand me off to another coven for a while...but why not a vegetarian one? Why not the Denali coven?
Still...Edward must know best. "Just for a while. Thank you." I nodded.
"This is Walter!" Joey introduced a vampire about my age cheerfully. He was tall and lean, with messy red hair like Desmond and dark red eyes.
"Just Walt." he smiled, nodding at me.
"Izzy." I smiled back shyly, adopting the nickname I'd been given. It wasn't really so bad, I figured.
We were standing outside the small run-down house the coven lived in, and apparently I was about to hunt. I only hoped the others just happened to be vegetarian newborns, but this was extremely unlikely and I knew it.
"Um – what do we - ?" I asked.
"Blood, silly. Everyone knows that." Joey laughed.
"But people? Or animals? I'm kind of vegetarian."
Joey and Walt stared at me, then burst out laughing simultaneously. If I had blood in my system I would have blushed.
"A vegetarian vampire?" Joey gasped for unnecessary air. "You have got to be kidding me! Urgh, who would want to drink from animals?!"
"That sounds pretty disgusting. Trust me, the whole hunting thing's not as bad as it sounds." Walt straightened and grinned at me. "You get used to it, and instinct pretty much takes over."
"No, really, I – " but before I could complete my sentence Joey had grabbed my arm and was pulling me along as he ran at vampire speed. Walt was beside me, still snickering.
"Run!" the latter encouraged, pushing my shoulder gently. Walt gave my arm one final tug and let go as, more from momentum than anything else, I hurtled forward, the scenery blurred beside me. I picked up scents from miles around, heard the gentle buzzing of a city far away.
Cities meant
humans.
Just the thought of one made my mouth fill with venom and
the ache in my throat flare up. My mind went on autopilot as I
started sprinting of my own accord, my newborn speed surpassing the
two behind me. I ran an impossible number of miles in minutes and saw
the faint bright spot in the distance get closer and closer. People.
Humans. Blood.
"Holy mother, Izzy, slow down or you'll get seen!" Walt called. I shuddered to a stop for five seconds, and then we were all running again, with one thing on our minds. Even me.
"See her, she's alone." Joey muttered, nudging me as we stood in an alley. How cliché, hanging around in the dark waiting for people to walk by...I wasn't thinking about that then, only about the woman, standing on the sidewalk.
"I want..." I whispered, almost shaking with thirst.
Could I go?
I heard heartbeats and voices everywhere, messing up my hearing so I couldn't tell if people were coming.
"Go!" Walt said, and before he'd even finished that single syllable I was on the woman, several times quicker than a bullet and much more deadly. For a brief moment I was confused and afraid of what I was doing, and begged myself to stop, but instinctively I snapped the woman's neck and plunged my teeth into the side of her throat.
And immediately I understood why most vampires didn't drink from animals. I understood how death was fair and necessary, and how the food chain was simply a hard fact. The body supplying my parched throat with blood was not a human who had a life and hopes and dreams and fears and a family, and maybe a husband and children and a pet. She had lived, but now she had died, and it wasn't anything to be sad about. It was art. It was beautiful. Why did the Cullens turn their back on it? To reject this was a sick, cold action.
I bathed in the feeling of bloodlust and its satisfaction.
See?! SEE?! IT SUCKS! I'm gonna submit the next one if I get any nice reviews :P Shut up Jessica. Anyway, review to tell me what you like, dislike, how I can improve. Gah.