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Disclaimer: Stephenie Meyer owns Twilight, I just like to play with her characters.
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Chapter 1 - Awoken
I jolted up. My actions faster than the gusting wind howling through a crack in the window. I was sat on a cold, hard, stone slab; at least it would've been cold and hard if my skin wasn't icy and stone-like itself. When I opened my eyes, the first thing I noticed was how I could see everything. From the tiny insects crawling up the bricks at the far end of the room, which was metres away, to the 8 colours of the electric lantern to my left. Strange, I had never seen so many colours coming together to form a blur of light. Maybe I had woken from that strange, eternal dream? Then I realised I wasn't breathing. OK, I'm not dreaming and I'm not awake, I must be dead, I thought.
I didn't need air, but I took a gulp anyway. I didn't feel blood coursing through my veins and I didn't have a heartbeat. Definitely dead. I heard a shuffle in the far corner behind me. Instinctively I flew of the slab onto the floor in a crouch with a swift, graceful movement and hissed. I felt threatened and turned in the direction of the noise. There, in the corner, sat a dishevelled old man. He too had no beating heart and his crimson eyes bore into mine. Immediately he rose, not threatened by my suddenly menacing position and unsurprised by my speed and agility.
"Alice!" He spoke with excitement. I was confused. This old man must be deranged. I cocked my head to the side to get a better look at this stranger. His skin seemed to be covered in tiny, shimmering diamonds, his face chiselled to perfection, which contrasted his greasy, matted, grey hair tremendously. He wore a tatty, worn, brown robe and his boots were scuffed within an inch of life, had they been living.
It seemed like an eighth of a second had passed since he spoke my name. His voice was soft, yet had a deep essence to it. It comforted me. I needed to hear it again. It was my turn to speak, "Alice?" I gave the old man a quizzical look before realising my voice was high and pixie-like. I liked it. A wide grin spread from one end of my face to the other. Given the circumstances, it wouldn't surprise me if the man thought I was mad. Then again, I was dead.
This time he looked at me with an almost amused expression, "you always find a way to make me smile Alice. I'm surprised, you seem so much alive, it suits you. I made the right decision in your change." What was he talking about? His riddles flew around in my mind. I was trying to understand them. I rose from my crouch to a standing position before I even thought of moving. I was still extremely short, the man was at least a head taller than me. "Who are you, who am I and what is going on?" I asked impatiently. I clenched my fists waiting for an answer and then clenched my jaw. It was then I felt it. An excruciating pain rising up my throat. It felt like fire and thirst all rolled into an unbearable feeling. Instinctively, I clutched my throat. I needed water..
At the far end of the room was a small pail. I reached it in less than a second and gulped. In my mouth it tasted rancid. It was worse than the burning sensation in my throat. I spat out the water and crumpled to the floor. Before I looked up a cup was thrust at me. "Drink," I understood now that the old man wanted to help. Through my nose I could smell the water from the pail. It smelt awful, like urine mixed with various bodily secretions. My nose crumpled in disgust before I came back to the cup. I held it in my left hand and could smell the warmth of it. I couldn't stop myself. I drank it in one fluid movement and wiped my mouth. The burning beast was tamed for the moment. "Thank you sir."
I felt extremely grateful to this man. He couldn't even begin to understand the pain I had felt. Then his soft, musical voice began to register in my ears. It was a fluid movement and extremely fast, but I heard every word. "Your name is Mary Alice Brandon. I have known you as Alice for two years, since I met you. I know nothing of the family who left you before then but what is important is that I'm your family now and you, my dear, are a vampire." His thin, pale lips crawled into a smile and his eyes brightened. "OK." I took this in my stride. If I was a vampire, so be it. I believed in myths, I saw things and finally I could see a path forming in my mind. He was my creator, he was called George. I took another lung full of air and spoke again, "you're George?" It came out as more of a question than a statement. He nodded and we sat in silence for a few moments.
"Alice, there is something I must ask, curiosity gets the best of me at times." His eyes glistened and then he continued, " you see, some of us vampires have special talents. A friend in the far North can stop time, well movements, for small periods, but it is very limiting and so he uses it very rarely. I on the other hand work like a history book."
I gave a confused look and George continued, "well, when I meet someone, I can see into their pasts through their minds. I have never been able to do that with you though Alice. I suppose that is what drew me to you as a human. You also had a quite unique gift yourself." I processed the information slowly. Mere minutes ago I thought I was dead and now here I was, sat on a floor in what seemed to be a morgue with a crazy, old vampire called George. What amazed me the most though, was that I believed every single word he spoke.
"You see Alice, when you were human, you were quite out of reality. Maybe that is why you ended up in the asylum. You never took yourself away from your visions and one day you told me that you would become a vampire. It shocked me. That morning I had decided to change you and you knew what the future held.." He seemed calm and reached for my hand. I let him take it in his own. He was my friend now and he would help me.
Immediately the burning sensation in my throat returned. "Ah, young vampires need feeding more often than use old ones," he chuckled. I glared at him before he spoke again, "let us hunt." With that we were both on our feet walking away from the morgue. The morgue seemed to dampen my senses, as now I could smell George. On top of his musky vampire scent, he smelt of tobacco. A smoker in his human life perhaps?
Soon we were running through the forest at immense speed. Among all the regular, less noticeable scents of the forest I could smell wood, pine, smoke and blood. Yes. Blood. I turned my face in the direction of the blood and ran. I stopped behind a tree to see a camp set up. There was a mother and child and also a father tending to the fire. Behind me George stopped and whispered in a low voice, "what are you waiting for?"
I turned around and ran in the opposite direction, never looking back. The beast in my throat was thrashing but the feeling of ache in my non-beating heart was worse. I stopped and thrust my hand through a tree trunk. Then I fell to the ground and clawed at the dirt. Between my dry sobs I smelt something different. Not as appetising as human but good nonetheless. By the river, a pack of ten to twenty deer were drinking. My subconscious was telling me to hunt them. I picked myself from the ground and made my way to the river at lightening speed. I scanned the herd and found one of the deer at the back, it smelt more appetising than the others and its scent was the strongest of the herd. I could sneak in and grab my snack.. I positioned myself into a crouch ready to spring. Before I knew it, my teeth had sunk into the neck of the deer, cutting through the sinew and muscle into its jugular with ease. Like biting into soft chocolate or warm butter. The blood was warm and clean and tasted strange, unnatural, but it quenched my thirst and that was all that mattered.
After chasing a further two deer and draining them dry I followed the familiar musky tobacco scent of George. Eventually I found him perched on a fallen branch. He stared at me and stood, rage in his eyes, "what the hell happened back there? You had a chance to eat and you blew it off. Your thirst must be killing you by now!" I could tell he was concerned about me. "Relax George, I've had my fill, I'm fine. I couldn't take them humans, they were a family, I have a conscience you know!" My voice had begun at a quiet reassurance but reached a loud and menacing growl. "Fascinating." George replied and sat back on the broken branch. "So, if you didn't touch any humans, what did you eat? Did you find a pub and have beer and bread?" He was trying to ease the tension building, but he was only adding fuel to the fire. "Actually, I had a few deer." I felt smug watching his jaw drop. "You never cease to amaze me Alice." He sat back on the branch and we talked about what happened in the last hour in the forest. I felt warm despite the cold surrounding me. I wasn't alone and finally felt alive.