Chapter One: The Encounter
I awaken in a fetal position, my oversized grey t-shirt plastered to my thin figure. I emerge from my sheets like a bear coming out of hibernation, my long, light brown hair a tangled mess upon my pale-skinned head. I blink my brown eyes, waiting for my vision to un-fuzz itself. When I could see well enough, I cracked open my window and let the air circulate around my room. I stared across the treetops of Forks, my new home.
I have just moved here from Malibu, California because of my dad's transfer to the local college as one of the History Professors. My mom died when I was little of some kind of rare brain cancer and I haven't really grown up since. She died when I was 7 and in most ways I still think like a 7-year-old. I see things differently than most people because I enjoy the little things in life, like a sunny day or chasing fireflies at night. I don't really like to focus on the future, but I do want to someday become an artist or a singer.
I wearily stood up from bed and stumbled to the bathroom to take a quick shower before school. The boiling hot water woke me up as it pounded my back and then got out, wrapping myself in a fluffy pink towel. I quickly got ready for school, dressing myself in a pair of dark wash skinny jeans, my sand-colored tall UGGs, a baby blue t-shirt, and my dark brown bomber-jacket with a faux-fur lined hood. I tied my hair into a messy bun and jogged downstairs. I grabbed an Oreo pop-tart and shoved the whole thing into my mouth.
"Bye," I said with a mouthful to my dad who was typing on his laptop.
"Bye Winnie," said my dad.
That's my name, Winnie Angela Caldwell.
I jogged out of the house trying to doge the rain as I made my way out to my electric VW bug. I started the car and blasted the heat. I backed out of the driveway and saw my dad coming out of the house. I figured he was heading to work early to beat the traffic into Seattle. I turned onto the main highway and sped up to 50 mph. I rounded the sharp corner and suddenly something ran out of the woods and into the highway in front of my car. I slammed on the brakes and my car began to spin.
Crap! Black Ice. Great I'm in for it now!
I didn't even realize that I was screaming. Suddenly my car hit the side-rail of the highway and everything went black.
I awoke feeling a mixture of cold and, what was this new feeling? I wanted to say thirsty, but was that really the right thing to say. My head was pounding and my throat ached. What was this new feeling; what is this overwhelming sent I smell?
I look around the room and realize that I am in some kind of lab. A hospital maybe. No, it's not white enough. I eye a small fridge that I think the scent is coming from. I leap from the bed, or cot, or whatever the heck this fluffy thing I was lying on was properly called. I open the fridge and to my surprise there are many bags of a thick, reddish mixture. My nose goes haywire and my throat thirsts for the unappealing mixture I am seeing.
I grab one of the bags and rip open a small hole, letting the thick mixture wash down my throat. My throat had little relief and I found some pleasure in this unrecognizable mixture. Suddenly I stop my common sense starting sink in. I stood up, trying to find a mirror to at least glimpse at my reflection. I found that there was a full length mirror tacked to the back of the door. I nearly screamed at my reflection.
My skin was unusually pale, the interworking facets of it literally sparkling in the sunlight. My eyes were a bright crimson, their once beautiful brown now stolen from their very essence. My hair was now shimmery and shiny, like a model's or like a wig, but it was real. I tugged on the brown locks to be sure. My lips were pale, like my skin, no longer the soft pink that they used to be. Lavender seemed to be a color painted beneath my eyes. A realization of what I had become sunk in.
The mixture dripping from my mouth was blood. I was human anymore; I was a vampire.
I scream in my new found, musical voice; the note is pure and in some ways beautiful. I hear no response to my sound, but suddenly the most beautiful man I had ever seen opened the door, worry ripe on his face and strong within his golden eyes. Auburn hair falls over his face and he looks like me, only more beautiful.
"You're awake," he breathed.
The scent of his breath enticed my nose even more than the blood had enticed my thirst.
"Winnie, you're a vampire now. It was the only way we could save you, the only way I could save you. You got into a car crash and my father couldn't repair you in human ways, so we turned you. I couldn't loose you; I don't know why but you mean more to me then anything in the world and we've only met now," he continued. "Alice says that she's seen you in her visions before, she knew this was going to happen. Please, don't be afraid Winnie, I'm safe for you. Nothing is ever going to happen to you again. I'll protect you with every piece of my existence. My name is Edward Anthony Masen Cullen, and I love you Winnie. More then I could ever explain."
"Uh," I murmured.
How do I respond to this? I must be dreaming... I mean, how many times do I have a random hot guy confessing his love to me when I don't even know who he is?
"Oh, so that's how you feel," Edward replied, bowing his head,
"Huh?" I replied.
"I don't mean to, but I can read your thoughts. I didn't exactly ask for this little ability, but it just kind of happened like that. Sorry," Edward confessed.
"Oh, uh, ok. It's fine. It's not like you can't help it," I replied. "I'm just a little confused and I'm being a little bombarded with all this new stuff. Just wait for me to have things sink in a little and then I'll be able to respond."
How am I keeping myself so composed like this? Normally I stutter, or mess up my words. What is going on??????
"Come on, I'll introduce you to my family," Edward smiled.
"Wait! She isn't going anywhere!" exclaimed a musical little pixie-looking girl who instantly grabbed my hand and dragged me down the hall and up to a room that I presumed to be hers.
She tossed some clothes at me and then walked into her bathroom grabbing a few things.
"I'm Alice by the way. I like to experiment on people, so there's no sense in protesting because I don't take no for an answer," she said with a smile.
I nodded and put on the dark blue silk camisole and white skinny jeans she had tossed me. She took a damp cloth and wiped the blood from my face. Then in about 10 minutes she had pulled my hair up into the perfect ponytail and applied small, complementing touches to my face with make up. When she had deemed me "appropriate" she guided me downstairs into their large great room.
In the rooms stood who Alice referred to as 'the others'. After the introductions I knew them all by name.
Rosalie was a blonde and was 'bound' to Emmet, a large, bulky brunette. Jasper, a blonde, was bound to Alice, who had short black pixie hair. Carlisile, another blonde, was bound to Esme, a maternal brunette woman.
So... this is my new family... Interesting...