DISCLAIMER: I OWN NOTHING STEPHENIE MEYER DOES!
A new place; this time a town. It always starts like this.
It's a cloudy day, so I am out and about. They stare at me – I am a new beauty to them – and I look for one that I can take, one that will not be noticed. There, I see one. She is pretty; beautiful even, though nothing compared to me. However, she is poor, so she does not catch one person's eye. Wait.
Perhaps I thought too soon. She has caught one person's eye. I stare, and he feels my eyes. He turns, and I face a moment of surprise. His eyes, as they meet mine, are the same blood red as mine.
I look at the girl and raise one eyebrow at the man. A challenge. He nods and we go on. Let the best one of us win.
I track her for a week, just to make sure that she is not someone who will be noticed when she is gone. I find she sleeps on a different street every night; she will not be missed.
I notice the other one like me has also been following her, though I am certain he has been doing this far longer than I have. I am confused. He could have gotten her long ago, yet he has not. I wonder why. I suppose it does not matter.
Because tonight is the night that she will be my meal. Not his.
I find her where she sleeps tonight and see him a little ways off, under the shadow of a building. I smile and wink at him, and then go in for the kill.
After I am done, I look up to see a shocked look on his face. He begins to snarl, and I can tell that he is used to getting his way. I hear his low growl, see his stance, and I run and jump across the town. This form my sister has given me can do wondrous things, and I slip from his grasp though I know he cannot be far behind me. But I get away. I always get away.
I have been hopping from region to region now, always followed by him. I stay just long enough to see who he wants. I always get them first. And then I always escape from him.
I believe he is now obsessed with hunting me.
But I tire of these games. They were fun at first, skipping from town to town, city to city, always slipping away. Now, however, after a year, I just want to see someone I know. I am afraid, though, to lead him back to my family. What if he takes an interest in one of them?
It is time for a truce.
If he will take it.
I have run in a circle for a month, and I decide to stop in a glade in the forest. I know he will follow behind shortly, but I will make it seem like it is an accident.
So I drop my necklace and keep running around, heading indirectly back toward the glade I have chosen and dropped my necklace in. I search the ground far away from it, and like clockwork he follows directly behind, stopping at the edge, still in shadow. The sun is shining on me; I sparkle like a crystal.
He declares that he has finally caught me. I look up and feign surprise. He walks towards me and stops directly in front of me. He asks who I am.
I reply with my name. Victoria.
He nods. I ask him the same question. He answers James. He says he does not want to kill me, that I show potential, and that we would be a great team, should I desire that.
I smile, and agree.
He smiles, and I notice that he shines. He is quite handsome. I smile bigger, and he reaches out his hand.
As I take it, I realize that, though he is the one from whom I have been running, I am quite drawn to him.
