My take on how Edward was changed into a vampire. Told from Edward's POV. Oneshot.

The Darkness Consumes

by bellamente

I could feel my body getting weaker and weaker by the second. I was struggling to breathe. I knew that I would not live much longer. My entire body felt hot, like a thousand fires were burning me. I was sliding in and out of consciousness. The darkness was surrounding me, though I tried to push it back. I faintly heard my mother's voice, talking to someone in the room. I caught only bits of the conversation, but I still understood the basic jist of it. My mother was asking the doctor to save me. To do whatever he could to keep me alive.

The darkness filled in around me again, but I struggled to stay conscious. After a moment, I could not fight any longer. I let myself go, and I began to drift.

There was white all around me. Suddenly, I saw my father's face, staring at me intently. Pain hit me as I remembered him. He had died in the first wave of the influenza. His face looked pained, as if he was worried about something. I tried to open my mouth, to speak to him, to tell him that everything was alright. My voice would not work.

My mother's face entered my vision then. She locked eyes with my father, then they both turned to stare back at me. My mother's face also looked pained. Anxious.

I heard a sound like footsteps behind me. I tried to turn, to see who was approaching. I could not move.

My mother and father looked up, and began to talk in quiet, hushed whispers. I could not hear what they were saying. I still did not know who was behind me. But then, a man stepped out from behind me. I recognized him at once—he was the doctor who had been nursing my mother and I. His face was too beautiful—he looked like an angel.

"Save him!" my mother yelled to the doctor.

"I'll do everything in my power," he replied. I felt as if I had heard these word's before. I realized that they were the words my mother had spoken to the doctor, when she had been begging him to keep me alive.

"You must!" my mother continued. Her voice began to fade, and I could no longer understand what she was saying. I felt as if I was falling, and just as suddenly as this vision as began, it was over.

I felt the hospital cot beneath me once again, and my eyes shot open. I saw the doctor with his back turned to me. He was leaning over my mother's cot, his eyes scrutinizing her face. The he wheeled my mother's cot out of the ward. I saw my mother's face briefly, and what I saw shocked me.

She was dead.

The darkness overwhelmed me again.

Not even five minutes later, I felt movement. The darkness was too strong around me, I could not open my eyes. I did not know where I was being taken. My body was hot again, and breathing was nearly impossible.

Then I felt cold spread through my body. The movement had intensified, and I was going much too fast. My body was rocking back and forth, and each time I shifted, I felt more of that strange cold.

I finally had strength enough to open my eyes. I saw that someone was carrying me, and I looked up into the face of the doctor. His eyes were fierce, focused on something ahead of us. He was flying—there was no other way to describe what he was doing, for it was much too fast to be running. I looked at my surroundings, and saw that we were on rooftops. The doctor was easily jumping over the gaps between the houses, flying across one roof in a second.

I knew that my life was over—that I had died. And this doctor was and angel, he was flying me to heaven. I expected that the pain would stop very soon.

I closed my eyes again, but I was not overwhelmed by the darkness. I managed to stay conscious, but the pain did not subside. It only intensified.

And suddenly, the movement stopped. I opened my eyes, and saw that we were inside a house. The doctor gently set me down on a bed, and his eyes bore into mine. I noticed for the first time that his eyes were not green, like mine, or blue, or even brown. They were topaz.

The doctor looked off into space, and seemed to be thinking about something. Then he spoke. "I am very sorry about this, Edward," he whispered. I did not know what he meant. Sorry for what?

He leaned down, and his mouth met my neck, like he was kissing me. My eyes widened, knowing I was in danger. But I was not expecting what he did next.

His lips parted, and his teeth bit down into my flesh.

I screamed out in pain. If I thought the fever was pain, it was nothing compared to this. His mouth quickly moved away from my neck, but only to find my wrist. He bit there, also, and I screamed again. His mouth continued to move around my body, and he placed bites all over me. On my leg, my shoulder, my torso.

I screamed whenever his teeth met my skin. The pain was like a thousand knives cutting into me. And, even worse, a pain like fire began to spread through my body.

The doctor finally pulled away from me, but he stared at me with pain clear in his eyes. Which, I noticed, were now turning from topaz to a more orange color.

"I am so, so very sorry, Edward," he whispered again. I hardly heard him through my screams. I tried not to think about the pain—I tried to focus on his words.

"You were very sick, Edward," the doctor continued, talking to himself more than me. "Your mother begged me to save you. There was nothing else that could be done. There was no other way..." He looked away from me, and seemed ashamed of himself. He took a deep breath and looked as if he was calming himself down. His face turned more calm and serene, and he looked down at me with the smallest hint of a smile on his face. "My name is Carlisle Cullen, Edward. I am a vampire. And you are becoming one, too."

Everything went black, then, as the pain overtook me.

☼►☼►☼

Three awful days later, I knew it was all over. The pain was gone. My eyes shot open, and I felt stronger and more powerful than I had in months—since the influenza hit. I looked around the room, and saw that everything looked different. I could literally see dust particles floating in the air. I took a deep breath, and noticed that my sense of smell had been intensified as well. Just then, I heard footsteps coming up stairs.

I sat up, and saw that the doctor had entered the room. His face lit up when he saw that I was awake. "Edward..." he whispered. There was awe in his voice. Awe and...happiness.

"It worked! It actually worked! I now have a companion! Someone I can talk to, someone I don't have to hide from. Someone who can know the real me..." he said, glee prominent in his voice. I was confused. I tried to remember the events of previous nights. What had he said when he first brought me here?

"Doctor..." I began, but stopped when I heard my voice. It sounded very different. Smoother, lower. Like velvet. I shook my head, confused.

"Please, call me Carlisle," he said. I nodded, but did not speak again. "I am sure that you are very confused, Edward," Carlisle said. I nodded once more. "Well, as I said three days ago, my name is Carlisle Cullen, and I am a vampire. And now, you are, also, a vampire."

That was what he had said. That he was a vampire. How could he actually think that he was a vampire? Vampires are not real. This man was crazy, and I had to get away from him. I finally found my voice. "I don't mean to be rude, Carlisle, but," I did not know exactly how to word this without sounding too rude, "vampires...aren't...real..." I finally muttered. Carlisle grinned.

"I expected that you would say that," he replied, still grinning. He walked over to the bed, and motioned for me to stand up. I got off the bed, and went to stand beside him. He looked over at me, his grin as wide as ever across his too-handsome face, and then he picked up the bed with one hand.

I stared, shocked at the sight I just witnessed. I blinked. I turned to look at Carlisle, who was still holding the bed with one hand. I looked around the room for some sort of string or rope—anything that could be holding up the bed so this trick could be performed.

Understanding hit me then, and I sighed and nodded as everything fell into place. I was dead. Carlisle was an angel, as I had thought twice before. The pain I had felt earlier was something that I had to go through to get to heaven.

And I would see my mother and father soon.

I turned to look at Carlisle, and saw that he had set the bed down.

"He does not believe me...I can see it in his eyes," Carlisle said. I wondered why he had said "he does not believe me," instead of "you do not believe me." I shook my head, and then spoke to Carlisle.

"Carlisle, I thank you for all that you have done for me," I said to him. And I was truly grateful. He had brought me to heaven, and I would be eternally grateful, for he had allowed my parents and I to be reunited. "But, I think I would like to find my parents now."

I looked over at Carlisle expectantly. He sighed, and sadness crossed your face. He looked away from me, out the window. "Poor child. He really does not believe me. And he thinks he's in heaven...I wish I could tell him that he is...and that his parents are here, waiting for him. It would be so much better than the news I must give him now..." He was quiet for a moment, and then spoke again. "How can I prove to him that we really are vampires?"

I was confused again—Carlisle kept talking about me like I was not here. It bothered me.

"Carlisle, I would appreciate it if you would please stop talking about me like I am not here," I said, a bit angry. Carlisle turned to look at me, confusion etched into his face.

"I didn't say anything..." he said slowly. I scoffed at him. Of course he didn't.

"What is he talking about? Is he hearing voices in his head? I do not think that is normal, even for a vampire..." Carlisle said.

I groaned. "Will you please stop with this vampire nonsense! I am not a vampire. You are not a vampire. Vampires do not exist!" I half yelled the last part. Carlisle stared at me, startled.

"Come with me, Edward," he said simply, and motioned for me to follow him. He walked downstairs and out the front door of what I guessed what his home. I found myself in a large, grassy yard, with wildflowers growing on either side of a small stone path. I looked up at Carlisle, who was deeply breathing in the air from the outside. "Such a shame that our bodies do not need this air anymore. This type of clean air is good for the body—cleansing for the soul."

"What do you mean, our bodies do not need this air anymore?" I asked Carlisle. He turned around and looked at me.

"What?" he asked.

"You just said that it is a shame that our bodies do not need this air anymore. What did you mean by that?"

Carlisle stared at me in awe for a moment. "He can hear thoughts?" he said. "That's amazing. But how? But of course! Aro and Marcus both had special powers, and so did many others that lived with them! This must be Edward's power!"

But I noticed for the first time, that Carlisle's lips did not move when he said these things.

"I can hear thoughts?" I asked as everything clicked into place. Carlisle was right. This was why he kept talking about me as if I was not in the room. This is why I had been answering questions that had not asked; responding to things that had not been said.

"Yes, Edward, I think you can hear thoughts," Carlisle said, grinning. I could not suppress a grin, either.

"Wow...this is a very large house. I wonder who lives here! Maybe they'll be kind and generous. Maybe they'll help me..." a high pitched, squeaky voice said.

I turned around to see who was talking. I saw a small man hobbling up the long stone path, towards Carlisle and I. He was wearing old, ragged clothes. They were ripped in many places, and I realized at once that this old man was poor—a beggar. He carried with him only a small pouch, which contained a few coins that I could hear jingling around.

Suddenly I felt a burning in my throat. A want overcame me. A need. A strong desire; an urge. I wanted to pounce on the man. I wanted to rip his throat. I wanted to drink from him. My instincts told me to go, to run, to pounce. I did as my body instructed. I leapt into the air...

Only to be caught by Carlisle. I struggled against his iron grip; I snapped my jaws at the small man. The scent wafting off him was amazing—so sweet and wonderful. The urge to kill him was overpowering me—I had lost all logical train of thought. I snapped my jaws again, and felt my mouth watering, but I could faintly tell that it was not saliva that filled my mouth...

The man looked at me with wide, frightened eyes. As quickly as he had come, he ran away from Carlisle and I, his arms flailing.

"Crazy kid! What's his problem!? I meant him no harm...I only wanted some charity!" I heard him yell as he ran.

As soon as the man was far enough away that I could no longer smell him, Carlisle released me. I came to my senses, and I was able to sit down next to Carlisle on a bench next to some yellow wildflowers. We both sat in silence. I was too lost in my own thoughts to concentrate on Carlisle's.

I had just wanted to kill a man. And not only kill him, but drink his blood. No, that was impossible. People did not drink blood. It must have been something else that I had wanted. Perhaps the man had some food with him—I did not know how long it had been since I last ate some good, real food.

But then, what was that burning in the back of my throat. It was not a feeling I recognized—I knew I had never felt such a want, such a need, before in my life. I had wanted to run at the man—to pounce on him. To rip his throat open and drink...

No. That was absurd. Impossible. But I could not push the idea of vampires out of my head. I tried not to think about it, but my mind began to rethink all the strange, unexplainable events that had happened today.

Humans wouldn't have a special mind reading power.

I have not yet seen my parents—they wouldn't keep me waiting like this.

Carlisle said nothing about heaven—about what my life would be like, about any rules there might be.

I could see dust particles in the air.

I could hear the coins jingling in the small man's coin pouch, even though he had been a hundred feet away.

My mouth had been watering, but not with saliva or any normal human substance.

And the scariest thought of all...

I had wanted to kill the small man and drink his blood.

Vampires wanted to drink blood.

I could not deny it any longer—Carlisle had been telling the truth all along. A looked over at him, and saw that he was staring up and the cloudy sky. But the clouds were moving, and I saw the sun starting to poke its way through them.

As the sun broke through the clouds, my skin began to sparkle. I stared in awe at my hands, glittering as if a thousand tiny diamonds were embedded in my skin. I twisted my hand around, watching as small sparkling rainbows flew off my hand and arm. I looked back up at Carlisle, and saw that he was watching me with a hint of a smile on his face.

"I am a vampire, Edward. And now, you are too."

I sighed and turned to look back at my hand as I spoke.

"I know."