My name is Mary Evans, and I am a vampire.
It still feels weird, using that word to describe what I am. Even with my being alive for over three hundred years. All my life vampires have been nothing but a myth to scare children into never trusting strangers, to never go outside when it's dark. Knowing they have existed for a long time still boggles my mind. I mean, if they have been able to keep well hidden, with the stories that have been passed throughout generation, what other monsters are out there?
I shake my head, disbanding those thoughts.
Sometimes, I find myself forgetting for a glorious moment that I am not human. That I breathe because I actually need too, that the scent of a human doesn't make my throat burn like someone shoved a white-hot branding iron down my throat. That I can go out into the sun without the risk of humans seeing me...
I still remember that night, though. Nothing will make me forget it.
The night I became a vampire...
Here is a little backstory on my life before that night... I was living with my aunt because my parents died when I was ten years old. I was over at a friend's house, just spending some time with her, when a fire started at our home. From what I remember - as much as the memories muddled, the pain lingers; just as strong as it was then - they were trapped inside and slowly suffocated from the smoke.
They were dead before the flames even got near them.
I was mostly taking care of myself for the next six years of my human life because of how badly my aunt treated me.
Now, as for the night I was turned, I was on the way home from the field where I was working. It was indiscreetly, considering it was frowned upon for women to work. My best friend at the time knew I needed the money and because her husband was fairly wealthy, she knew she could pay me for it. It was pretty late in the evening and the sun was just about to set.
That was when I met him.
"Hello." A male speaks. I freeze mid step and look around curiously.
"H-hello?" I ask aloud, no one answers. "Who's there?!" I ask in a louder volume. I still don't get an answer. All of a sudden, the man comes out of the shadows, smiling.
"What do you want?!" I ask, readying myself to run if he shows any ill will towards me.
Not a very good plan I know, but I was scared.
"My name is Maxwell. But I prefer Max." He bows in a mocking fashion. I take the time to look him over as he does so. Sandy brown hair, squared jaw, and he is well built. He's only wearing trousers, which is odd considering how close it is to winter.
When he raises back up, I notice his eyes.
His eyes are blood red! Is he some kind of monster? I need to get out of here! As I turn to run, he appears behind me, wrapping me in his arms so tightly it feels as if my bones are on the verge of breaking. I can barely breathe.
"Now, now. Why do you want to run? You haven't even told me your name. Not very proper is it?" He asks, there is a teasing tone in his voice. I stuck in a breath, shivering wildly at the temperature of his skin.
He is freezing!
"M-my...my name is Mary...Mary E-Evans..." I whisper weakly, I know it was stupid to tell him my full name but at the time I thought that maybe if he knew I was close to the wealthiest family in town he might want to ransom me instead of murderif he knew that then he would realize that I am close to the wealthiest family in town.
"Mary Evans!? Really..." He smirks. "How lucky is that, to run into you of all people..." He mutters to himself.
Confused, I turn my head slightly to look at him. "W-who ar-re you-u?" I ask. At this point I honestly do not have a rational thought in my head because I know I am going to die.
He smiles a wicked smile, showing his teeth. "I'm a friend." That is when he pulls my head to the side. In panic I struggle in his arms which I am sure is causing more harm than good.
"Don't struggle Mary. This will only make it worse for you." He murmurs sweetly as he leans down and bites my neck.
I let out a blood curdling scream as the fire spreads throughout my veins. I am in so much pain I do not even notice him picking me up or when he starts running south. I just want the burning to end.
I feel as if I am being sucked into an abyss and there is no way to escape. I wish he had just killed me instead of doing this. At least then I wouldn't be in pain. Death is peaceful, this isn't peaceful.
This is torture.
It feels like it has been forever since the fire started but at the same time mere minutes. My throat is so sore from all the screaming but the pain from the fire is over powering it.
"Sweetheart it's okay. It's almost over, I promise." What was that voice? It sounded like...
"Annabelle, I doubt she can hear you at this point in the transformation. Even if she can, the pain is probably too unbearable."
The female voice sobs. "Dammit Max! Why did you have to do this?! Why did you turn her!?" She shouts, the noise hurts my ears.
"I was thirsty! I was going to just feed on her but once she said her name." I hear a male sigh. "I had to turn her. It was the easiest way to solve your problems." I recognize that voice. He is the one that did this to me...
"I... I understand Max. Doesn't mean I have to like it."
"I know." He says solemnly. A few minutes of silence passes by before another person speaks.
"What if she doesn't want to hunt humans? She might want to join-"
"Do not even say that mans wretched name Damien! My baby will NOT become some abomination!"
"Anna, we are all abominations! It doesn't matter who or what we feed from!" The unknown male voice shouts.
"It does to me!"
"Will you two hush? You can continue your couple spat later! Listen..." The familiar male voice says, making the others stop talking. "It's almost time."
I have no clue what he means when suddenly the fire starts fading from my body. It gradually leaves from the tips of my fingers, my lower limbs, my upper limbs, then finally the burning is almost entirely gone. Just as I start feeling relieved the fire starts up in my chest, ten times hotter than it was before.
I scream more frantically and I claw at my chest trying to put the flames out. My heart beat gets faster and faster and faster as if it's fighting the flames.
It doesn't succeed.
As soon as the burning intensifies it stops, but so does my heart. I open my eyes slowly, hesitantly, fearing the burning will flare back up again with any sudden movement.
When I am assured it won't, I sit up.
I gasp loudly. It's like waking up in a completely different world. Everything is so clear, so bright, so detailed. Like I was seeing through muddy water before and now I swam to the top and got free.
"Sweetheart?" My back tenses in alert. I turn around slowly and see... my mother!
"Mom?!" I exclaim. I am to shocked at seeing her alive to notice how different my voice is.
"Mary... My sweet little girl!" She murmurs as she walks up to me. The male beside her puts his hand on her shoulder to stop her.
"Remember she is a newborn. We have to explain everything before you can officially reunite." Mom nods and walks back to my father's side.
They are both alive? I can't believe it!
"How in the world are you two alive? You died! In a fire!" I yell, I feel like crying but the tears don't form. I am so confused about all of this.
"They should have died, yes." The man who done this to me speaks. "I rescued them. I wasn't in time though because they were pretty close to death. That's when I decided to turn them into vampires."
"You turned them into WHAT?!" I shriek. Vampires?! WHAT THE HELL! Is that what I am now? Did he turn me into a monster too?
"Now, I know what you are thinking Mary. I turned your parents out of pure necessity. If I hadn't, they would have died." He says in a stern voice. After a few minutes of silence, mainly me just soaking in the information, he sighs and reaches his hand out to me. "I know this is a terrible circumstance, but it's nice to meet you. Your parents told me a lot about you."
Narrowing my eyes, I slowly grab a hold of his hand, shaking it in greeting. "I would say it is nice to meet you. But that would be a lie."
He smirks. "I completely understand. But just so you know, if I hadn't of turned you at that moment, I would have eventually killed you. I, sadly, am not strong enough to ignore the pull of human blood..."
"I don't understand." I whisper.
"Well, we need to rectify that then." He smiles teasingly. And for the rest of the evening, they all explained to me what vampires are.
They told me of the turning process - which can take several days to complete. It depends on how much of our venom enters the blood stream and how close it is to the heart. It at least takes two days; at most it can take a week. My change, apparently took three days.
They also told me of the Volturi, which is this huge vampire clan that acts as our law of sorts. They told me I would have to feed on blood to stop the burning in my throat, it will never really go away but the blood helps make it bearable.
That conversation leads down to the subject of Carlisle Cullen. The one vampire that doesn't drink human blood. My eyes widen at the thought of not having to kill humans. When they begrudgingly told me about him, I wanted so badly to meet him.
My mom didn't like it, but she had little to say in the choice. It was my decision whether I wanted to be like Carlisle or not, and I definitely did. I spent a few months with my parents, to get to know them again, but eventually I left to go find Carlisle. I loved my parents, but the sooner I could learn about Carlisle's ways the better.
I was determined.
But until then I had to comply with them and learn how to hunt humans. I didn't like the idea of feeding on humans, innocent humans at that. So, Max, ever the compromising one, took me out hunting for murderers, thieves, and rapists to make it easier for me.
When I did finally embark on my 'journey' it took several weeks and a lot of digging to find Carlisle. He was living in Italy at the time, among the Volturi. I tried my best to blend in and be noticed as little as possible, but that didn't work out so well.
I was forced to meet the Volturi clan, and it was scary as hell. They wanted to know why I was in their territory and if I was going to be a problem. I admit it took a fair share of will for me not to attack any humans during my search and showing up to their doorstep unfed was probably the dumbest thing I could have ever done.
I told them the truth, that I wanted to meet Carlisle. They thought I was odd. But who wouldn't? I mean, if a newborn vampire who hasn't fed on a drop of blood for weeks just showed up at your door to meet a vampire that is in your clan, how would you feel?
But regardless of how they saw me, they allowed the meeting to happen.
"She wants to meet me?"
"It's odd I know, but we would like to know why she wants to meet you so badly considering she is barely a year old. It's curious." That sounds like Aro, the leader of the Volturi. The unknown male must be Carlisle!
I hear Carlisle sigh. "Well send her in then."
We have been together since. Well, not like that. He has been more of a mentor/father figure to me throughout the years. We got to know each other and he helped me with my self-control. I can be around human blood now and barely have a problem with it.
Of course, I will never be as good as Carlisle. He is like God when it comes to this.
I wrote to my parents though not enough to be super close to them. They came to visit us once; it was super awkward and they never tried to come visit again. We just stuck to the letters.
But, after a few years the letters just stopped coming.
Turns out that they went feral and killed a whole town of humans. It was enough for the Volturi to intervene, which means it was pretty bad. Now they are dead, officially this time.
Max ended up being spared because they could sense he had nothing to do with the slaughter, whatever that means. Having nowhere else to go he ended up joining Carlisle and I. He was irritable about changing his diet but I told him it was the only way he could stay with us.
Max, Carlisle and I have been together for almost over two hundred years now. It was in the year 1918 when he added another vampire to our group, Edward, who was dying from the Spanish influenza.
Pretty soon after that we went from just the three of us to there being nine of us.
I have a family now, a real honest to god family and I am loving it.