The Hunter

(a/n: My other story, Her Golden Eyes is being put on hold for the moment, until I can get over my writer's block. But any suggestions that you have would be appreciated! Anyway enjoy the story and please review!!)

Night…the time when predator became prey and the hunter became the hunted. Night turned the world on it's head, it brought fear and hysteria, it was a time when primal instincts ruled in place of common sense.

This was my domain.

I was forced to remain hidden during the day, but with the coming twilight, the hunt began.

I stalked quietly thought the shadows, searching the minds of the unsuspecting city for the appropriate victim, someone who deserved a fate worse than death. I knew it wasn't really my place to decide who lived or died; but those I killed were the scum of the earth, who didn't deserve the normal definition of justice.

I peered out the entryway of the alley, still concealed in the shadows. I could see parents with young children looking through show windows. With Christmas fast approaching, the children would be even more excited about the nutcrackers and dolls in the window. A horseman rushed past me, pushing his steed ever faster, his thoughts a tangled mass of worries from his superficial life.

No, these people had no idea what kind of monsters lived beyond their streetlights, what kind of animals were waiting to pounce at the first opportune moment…

With a jolt my mind stopped its wandering.

I had found him.

He was currently eying a young girl, no older that seventeen. She, like so many others around her, was peering through a shop window at a dress that she no doubt wanted to buy. Her long brown hair swirled around her shoulders and her chocolate eyes were lit up in excitement as she pressed her face against the glass. The monster was eying her hungrily.He, like I, was waiting to pounce. Little did he know, he was going to be the victim this night.

I checked my surroundings, ensuring that there were no wandering human eyes watching and jumped high onto the rooftops, leaping over twenty feet as easily as if it had been one. Three blocks over I stopped, jumped down into the shadows, and crouched, waiting.

The girl, Elizabeth was her name, sighed and turned away from the shop window with obvious disappointment and continued walking down the street. I learned from her thoughts that she was heading home, but if was in a darker, more dangerous part of the city. The man followed eagerly, awaiting the spoils of his hunt. Simple minds like his sickened me. But he was cunning and he knew how to get what he desired. He had done this many times before; he liked to see his victims squirm.

I stalked after the pair, following a good hundred feet behind, sticking to the shadowed undersides of the buildings. Several times, the animal looked back from his chase, seeming the sense that someone was following him. But I moved too quickly for the human eye to detect.

Elizabeth continued walking for about twenty minutes. We had reached the city docks by this time and she, like her stalker, sensed that someone was following her. Her breathing and heart rate quickened and she started walking a little faster, her footsteps resonating off of the empty streets.

Just a little longer.

She turned into an empty alleyway; probably the stupidest thing that she could possibly do in this situation - but then again, the human mind was an incredibly limited thing- and hit a dead end. The predator took this chance to spring. He approached her slowly, relishing her fear.

"Hey baby, why so scared? I just want to have a little fun. No harm in that is there?"

He pinned her arms next to her terrified face and smiled wickedly. I closed in behind him and chuckled softly. He spun around, alarmed, eyes wide.

"Who do you think you are?!" He said, way too bravely for someone in his predicament.

"You humans really amuse me."

I could see the fear in his eyes. I imagined what I would have looked like to him, my pale complexion coupled with my glowing red eyes. I would be the monster from his nightmares, a wraith from hell.

"I-I'm not afraid of you." he stuttered.

I laughed again and smiled. "You should be."

He trembled and made a feeble attempt to look me in the eyes, but failed…miserably.

"W-What are you?"

"That doesn't matter," I said dismissively. "What does matter is that you are about to pay for all the people you have ever hurt. You can start by letting her go."

"Why? What could you possibly do to me?!" he asked, suddenly brave again. I smiled, showing all of my teeth, which made him cringe back toward the alley wall. In the meantime, the girl had scooted farther away from him with her back still against the wall. It was as if she knew, by some vague human instinct, what was about to happen to him.

"You'll find out soon enough." I said in a soft voice.

I leapt at him so quickly that he didn't have time to react. I held him up by his collar and slammed him against the alley wall. He screamed as I bit his neck, easily snapping it. Sinking my teeth into the soft flesh, I began to drink the warm blood. Almost immediately I began to fell my never-ending thirst weaken and I began to feel stronger.

Once I had finished my feast of sorts and disposed of the body, I turned and looked back at the girl. She was huddled in the back corner of the alley, trembling from head to toe. I saw the look of horror plastered on her face and in that moment I realized that I probably terrified her more by saving her that her predator ever could have.

I truly was a monster, no more fit to walk the earth than the scum that I hunted.

So this was the fate of my kind, to walk this earth until judgment day and feed off of the fear of others.

But I didn't' have to be this monster. I had a choice. I could go back to Carlisle and Esme, hope that they would accept me, and start my "life" over again. I wasn't sure if this would amend what I had done. But it was a start.

Looking back at the girl-whose thoughts were filled with incomprehensible fear- I nodded, hopefully in a reassuring way, turned and rushed out of the alley. I would head north, to where Tanya and her family were. Maybe, just maybe, on my way I would catch Carlisle's scent, and I could rejoin my family. And, at this thought, for the first time in a long time, I felt hope.

Push the pretty purple button….you know you want to… (