Wingbeats from a High Balcony

A tale or a dream
His other life seemed
As he slunk through the shadows of night.
Barely remembered,
That fateful November,
When dark swallowed all of the light.
The bite.
The pain spreading through him,
The poisonous fangs dripping red.
As twilight consumed him,
He looked at what doomed him,
And these are the words that it said:

Creature of night,
Take heart,
Take flight.
You're free now to do what you will.
No morals, no life,
To live out in strife,
Your pleasure will come from the kill.

As he had been fated,
He gorged and he sated
His thirst on the blood of the living.
Warm, dark and red,
The innocent bled,
Unaware of the curse they were giving.
Unliving.
He longed for the killing,
And in each waking moment it grew.
The feeling of spite
For all that was right
As his soul frosted over anew.

So now in the dark
He waits for the spark
Of a life that is ripe for the taking.
He longs for the day
And he can't get away
From atrancethat's not sleeping or waking.
Lonely,
He wonders if only
The kiss of the sun would bring peace.
And so, come the morning
Despite instinct's warning,
He'll lie down and hope for release.

Unknown's point of view:

The pain was bewildering.

Exactly that, I was feeling bewildered. I couldn't understand, couldn't make sense of what was happening.

Who am I? Where am I? And most important of all, what is happening to me?

Everything is burning. The fire, the pain, they are everywhere. My body tried to reject the pain, and I was sucked once again into the blackness that cut out whole seconds or maybe even minutes of the agony, making it that much harder to keep up with reality.

I tried to separate them, in vain.

Non-reality was black, and it didn't hurt much.

Reality was red, and it felt like I was being sawed in half, hit by a truck, punched by an Olympic prize fighter, trampled by a dozen bulls, and submerged in acid, all at the same time.

Reality was feeling my body twist and turn when I couldn't even move due to the pain.

Reality was not knowing what is going on and knowing nothing, yet you have the feeling that something out there is so important that your life are tied to it, but you cannot remember what it was.

Reality is that frustrating. And it had come on so fast.

Through the darkness, I heard the sound of an angel.

"I am so sorry to put you through this. I really am." The velvety voice whispered, clearly in guilt. But what is he guilty over? I wonder. And is he speaking to me?

Another voice, full of kindness and benevolence, spoke up, "Edward, don't blame yourself. No one can prevent this. She's just a human who was at the wrong place at the wrong time." He consoled the angel with the melodious voice, Edward.

Another wave of darkness rode over me, and I fell into another deep and thankfully, painless slumber.

Edward's Point of View:

"How can you do this to us?! We'll need to leave! We need to find somewhere else to go, to be isolation until she can curb her thirst! And who the heck knows how long will it take?" Rosalie screeched in my face. There goes Miss-whatever-I-say-is-brilliant-and-correct.

After placing the girl in my room, Carlisle came down. The whole family is gathered in the living room. Rosalie was glaring at me, and as usual, she is trying to make things worse than it already is, while Emmett, to no avail, is trying to calm her down.

"Rosalie, drop it! And am I blind? I should know whether she will be a problem!" Alice couldn't take it anymore and snapped at Rosalie, who blanched and finally shut up.

After 2 days:

Just then, Alice's eyes glazed over as another vision hit her, I looked into her thoughts.

The girl is stirring on my bed. She might wake up in about 2 minutes, her transformation is almost over and she looks just...stunning.

"She's waking up soon!" Alice chirped and in a flash, all of us shot into my room and waited patiently for our sleeping beauty to wake up. We watched, not breathing, as her eyelids fluttered and slowly opened.

Unknown's point of view:

The burning slowly faded away. I slowly opened my eyes and gasped at the sight in front of me.

Everything was so clear.

Sharp. Defined.

The brilliant light overhead was still blinding-bright, and yet, I could plainly see the glowing strands of the filaments inside the bulb. I could see each colour of the rainbow in the white light, and, at the very edge of the spectrum, an eighth colour that I had no name for.

Behind the light, I could distinguish the individual grains in the dark wood ceiling above. In front of it, I could see the dust motes in the air, the sides of the light touched, and the dark sides, distinct and separate. They spun like little planets, moving around each other in a celestial dance.

The dust was so beautiful that I inhaled in shock; the air whistled down my throat, swirling the motes into a vortex. The action felt wrong. I considered and realized the problem was that there was no relief tied to the action. I didn't need the air. My lungs weren't waiting for it. They reacted differently to the influx.

I did not need the air, but I liked it. In it, I could taste the room around me: taste the lovely dust motes, the mix of the stagnant air from the open door. Taste of a lush whiff of silk.

Just then, I registered the sound of the seven others around me in the room, breathing again now that I did.

My instinct kicked in and my body responded to defend itself in a way that shocked me.

Air hissed up my throat, spitting through my clenched teeth with a low menacing sound like a swarm of bees. Before the sound was out, my muscles blanched and arched, twisting away from the unknown. I flipped off my back from the bed I was lying on, in a spin so fast that it should have turned the room into an incomprehensible blur to my eyes, but it did not. I saw every dust mote, every splinter in the wood-panelled walls, every loose thread in microscopic detail as my eyes whirled past them.

So by the time I found myself crouched against the wall defensively, about a sixteenth of a second later, I already realized that I had simply overreacted. The other seven people did not move into a protective stance when I did, but merely stood around, showing me that they meant no harm.

My eyes automatically focused on all of them.

The one farthest from me, a gentle and motherly woman with soft brown hair smiled at me, and out of my principles, I smiled back.

"My name is Esme, my dear." She said in a voice so soft and soothing, almost like a flowing river or steam.

A petite, but all the same, amazingly gorgeous pixie skipped in front of me and threw me a hug before I could react.

"Hi! My name is Alice, and I know you and I are going to be great friends!" She giggled in her charm-like voice. It was like the tinkling music that your hear in those beautiful music boxes.

I smiled.

The blonde, who was looking slightly annoyed about something, smiled at me and simply put herself as, "Rosalie". Her voice is as beautiful as her looks, but she might need sometime to be able to warm up on me. That I can tell.

As the guy with pale shaggy-blonde hair appeared in my eyesight, I fought back my instinct to snarl at the many scars on his thorso. I knew that it is rude and hence smiled at him. It seemed to take him by surprise and he grinned, "Jasper, nice to meet ya'" He had a polite and somehow military southern drawl. I

Followed up was the bear like guy, who is so huge that he intimidates me, but the cheesy grin on his face told me that I should not fear him.
"Emmett" he boomed, I cringed internally at his loud bass voice. Its... so loud.

I nodded my head, and before I could say "Nice to meet you", he had strangled me in a hug. Part of my head noted that this wasn't particularly uncomfortable, but it was just annoying. I was sure that I could easily break his hold, but that would probably hurt his feeling, so I didn't fight against his hug.

A cough from Carlisle, the man that I supposed was the head of the family.
Emmett looked up, bewildered.

"Emmett, you might cause discomfort to our guest and she might lose her temper." He raised an eyebrow at Emmett. As if some knowledge which was temporarily forgotten hit him, Emmett nodded and retreated a few steps back.

Before Carlisle and Edward, the gorgeous angel, could introduce themselves, I spoke out their names.

"Carlisle and Edward." I stopped abruptly, my voice seemed different. Not that I remember what my voice sounded like, but it definitely wasn't and could not be like this in the past. My voice was like the rustling of leaves, gentle. Yet it has a define firmness in it. Somehow, it sounded melodious at the same time, like I was singing gently.

The others seemed shocked by my knowledge of their names.

"How...?" Carlisle started to ask.

"I heard you two mentioning each others' names and remembered it." I spoke simply, slightly distracted by my new voice, not suited to it yet.

"What?! You mean you were conscious all these time?" Emmett could not hold back his surprise and boomed.

I shook my head.

"Well, I was not conscious the whole way, other times I was like...being sucked into darkness, because when I am conscious, I feel...uncomfortable." I decided against telling them about the burning and pain.

They could only stare in amazement.

The amazingly beautiful Edward finally took a step forward to look at me full in the face.

I gasped when his eyes met mine, as rays of light shot out from his body and towards me.

"What's wrong?" The others seemed worried.

I explained what I saw to them, "Didn't you see it?"

They shook their head.

Then, suddenly, my head was flooded.

Oh, We will become such great friends! We can go shopping for clothes, shoes and EVERYTHING! ~Alice

I do hope she won't decide to leave, I love her already, poor child. ~ Esme

Man! I want to watch my basketball match! ~Emmett

Maybe having a new member would not be so bad, I will make an effort to be her friend, sisters, even. ~Rosalie

She's feeling confused. Of course, who wouldn't? ~Jasper

Well, maybe she will be a part of our coven? Or maybe... ~Carlisle

What have I done! Will she hate me for cursing her this eternal damnation? ~ Edward

"WHOA, wait! One at a time please!" I yelled. Why are they all talking at the same time.

Silence.

"Dear, we were silent for the past 10 seconds." Esme spoke to me gently.

WHAT?

"But...but I don't want to go shopping with Alice, and thanks for accepting me, Esme and Rose, I'm sorry that you missed your game, and I AM confused, Jasper. Carlisle, what is a coven? And Edward, why would I hate you and what's the eternal damnation you are talking about?" In my haste to explain, I had blurted out...

A whole load of rubbish.

Silence.

"HOLY SHIT! YOU READ OUR MINDS!" Emmett boomed.

I was stunned.

"I...what?"

"Everyone, why don't we proceed down to the living room to sort out all these and explain things?" Carlisle suggested and everyone nodded and moved.

Why am I moving so fast, as they are?

When we were all seated at the living room of the lovely white mansion, Carlisle started to speak.

"Before I explain, what is your name, my dear?"

Before, I gave no thoughts nor panic to my disability to remember my past. But now, horror shot through me.

"I...I don't know...my name" I whispered softly.

"But, surely you didn't forgot about your human past?" Rosalie spoke up, worry clear in her voice.

Wait.

She said HUMAN PAST!

Everyone noticed that the same time as I did, Rosalie clamped her hand over her mouth in horror.

"Ok...so I am NOT human? Then am I dead? Or am I something else?" I asked.

They seemed taken aback by my calmness.

"Well, yes , no and yes. You can actually say you look kind of human, but you are not. And you are somehow dead, but still alive. And you are something else." Edward finally spoken up.

I looked at him firmly.

"Which is?" I probed.

Everyone sighed before speaking simultaneously, magnifying the effect.

"Vampire"

Their thoughts were ringing alarmingly in my mind. They are panicked, worried and afraid. Panicked because I have been silent for the past 2 minutes, but that's because I was listening to their thoughts. Worried that I wouldn't be able to accept the fact, when I already did, it is just that they don't know. Afraid that I would leave them if I cannot accept the truth.

"Ok...everyone calm down, I can hear your thoughts, you know? I just need to clear some things up." I hurriedly broke the silence before things got out of hand.

Everyone immediately calm down.

"Can I ask a few questions?" I asked.

They nodded.

"They might sound ridiculous...but why aren't we supposed to only move around in the dark?"

That brought about a round of laughter.

Finally, Carlisle got a hold of himself and said, "Hollywood's version contains so many errors that we were wickedly amused over them, they're really a bit of a joke."

"So that's a myth?"

They nodded again.

"How about being burned to ashes in the sun?"

"Of course that's a myth! We just sparkle like diamonds." Rosalie responded this time, smiling at me gently.

"Erm...so there's no coffins? No bats? No fangs?"

They all shook their head.

I let out a sigh of relief.

"That's great! I would like to die right now if the Hollywood Version is true. They suck." I muttered under my breath, forgetting that my words are as clear as crystal.

Emmett burst into roars of laughter at this.

"Nice one! Finally, someone else who can tell jokes!" he clapped me on my back and I grinned.

Then I noticed that Edward was looking incredibly annoyed.

"But you have yet to ask the most important question!" his words came out as a snarl, startling me and earning looks from the others.

"What?" I was confused.

Then I read his thought and I understood.

"Our diet!" He growled at the exact moment I read his mind.

"Oh that" I muttered.

"Yes, that." He said, still annoyed.

"But you guys feed on animal blood, don't you?" I asked, still confused.

Everyone was stunned, again.

"How'd you know that?" Alice asked.

I tapped my head. "Erm, I read your thoughts in my head, somehow...is that abnormal?"

They laughed again, even Edward.

"No, you aren't, and we nearly forgot about that. Well, the curious thing is, my dear, Edward can also read mind." Esme spoke.

"I know that, I read that in his head...but did I get it from him?" I asked.

Before anyone can respond, Alice suddenly glazed over, a vacant expression on her face.
The second this happened, the same ray of light burst from her body and once again, entered mine. Abruptly, a vision is playing in my head.

I was with Edward, we were listening to music and chatting happily.

"Wow, what was that?" I exclaimed.

"Did you see that?!" Alice chirped. She did that to test me. To test if I will get her ability too. And her test got the result.

"I can copy you two's ability!" I gasped.

Jasper took a step forward.

And there's the light again.

And then, I am an empath, like him.

God, I have a power too.

"You can duplicate powers!" Everyone voiced out their thoughts.

I know it's not perfect…One day I'll look back and edit lots of stuff…LOL, But do review and read my other stories.

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