Prelude.
He didn't know when it started, but he knew why. It was all because of his own stubborn nature, his obsessive thoughts, his being tired of being alone, and his first look into the mirror.
He never knew that looking into a mirror could change your life, or end it, but for some reason, ever since he looked into that one mirror that one stormy day, unusual things have been happening, things no one could explain, even though they themselves were the unusual; vampires.
How could this simple object kill off vampires? Vampires? This thought ran through his head as he sought ways to rid himself of this curse, his curse. He was no longer the monster, but after he did what had to be done, he would feel like one.
Why him? Sure there were wrongs he had committed in the past, but he was a changed vampire now. He knew better, he had learned from his mistakes, or so he thought….
Chapter One: The Mirror.
Edward Cullen sat up in his room one rainy day in Forks, Washington, listening to the soft melodies playing through his stereo and gazing out of his window. Something was obviously on his mind today.
It didn't feel right today, nothing did. Sure, he was with a family that loved him, and sure he was awkward being the only single vampire in the house, but something was just wrong. It was all just so different some how in some very unknown, invisible way.
He had felt as if something was going to happen, something unexplainable that could change his life forever. He had asked his sister, Alice, about it earlier, but she dismissed it saying, "Nothing out of the ordinary is going to happen, Edward." She had rolled her eyes and dismissed him as well as though to remind him whom the real physic was. If something were to happen, she definitely would see it coming.
The thoughts of his family were starting to get to him now; it was beginning to be too much.
"I'm going for a walk." He said quietly as he walked out the door, though he knew they could hear him as clearly as if he'd shouted it in their ears. They were used to him leaving every now and then, so there was no problem.
As he walked into the rainy forest, he let his thoughts consume him.
He walked for what felt like days, though he knew he had only been gone for an hour and a half at the most. Though after all that walking, he had wondered what had pulled him out of his thoughts.
Looking up and moving his drenched hair from his face to get a "better view," Edward gasped in shock and surprise.
He was outside an old mansion. It wasn't the kind of mansion he lived in with his family, oh no, not at all. It was the kind you'd see in the olden days, where fancy masquerade balls and such were taken place, where the wealthy, top-notch families stayed.
Seeing as how it was abandoned, he considered entering to explore. It looked as though it hadn't been stepped through in ages.
The wood the house was built with was rotting, falling apart and the old white paint was withered and peeled. It was at least five stories tall, very grand indeed. Windows decorated the place extravagantly, with vines climbing up a few pillars at the front to greet whoever should be looking through them.
Where it seemed that there should have been black elegant gates, there was rusty old bars, fallen apart, with the designs hardly recognizable even to the vampire's eye.
Past the gate and just in front of the many steps to the elegant rotting house was a grand fountain, rusted and cracked, but beautiful in a way.
To the sides of the fairly large yard's stone path leading to the house were patches of over grown grass, which cleverly hid two amazing, cracked, stone angel statues, both facing the other.
Though he could imagine there being a family graveyard in the back, the place had a sort of beauty to it, something like he had never seen before. What was such an extravagant place as this doing in this condition in the middle of the forest?
He could practically see the place alive in his mind, how it must have looked in its glory days, the people who owned it, the parties and guests that entered. And as beautiful as it seemed, he couldn't shake the eerie feeling the place gave him. It was as if his instinct was telling him to leave, to never come back, and forget the place. Something wasn't right, but he wanted to get to the bottom of it all.
Taking a deep, unnecessary breath, he started walking towards the house, and after what felt like forever, he was finally walking up the grand, cracked, marble staircase leading to the rotting wooden door.
Though un-needed, he felt the need to knock on the door, so he did. After the expected no-reply, he opened it gently, careful not to use his vampire strength to crush it as he easily could have, and stepped inside.
As soon as he stepped inside, the stench of rotten wood and dust hit him ten-fold. He wrinkled his nose slightly but looked around, not wanting to back out because of a bad smell. As horrid as it smelt though, he wanted to experience it all.
There were cobwebs and dust everywhere. There was obviously furniture in the room (he could make a few pieces out), though it was all covered in white sheets. There were two grand, spiraling staircases covered in a velveteen purple cloth, leading to the second floor, accompanied by a once-fancy though now rotten wooden railing.
In awe, he carefully decided to head up the right set of stairs, gently touching the railing as he went along. As he went up, he noticed many painted portraits accompanying him along the way. He figured the people must be the past owners of the place. It was sort of unnerving though, the way their eyes seemed to follow his every move, even though he knew it was but an illusion.
As he finally made it to the top, now on the second floor, he decided to turn right again, seeing a door there. He took notice of the multiple candles around, and glanced back to see the grand chandelier. Again, he wondered what it was like when the place was alive.
Cautiously opening the door he was met with, he found it to be a narrow hallway lined with more portraits and a single door at the end. Carefully walking to the other end, sometimes glancing out one of the two windows showing the side of the house, he made his way to the door.
He tried opening it, only to find it was locked. Slightly disappointed, he turned back to explore what was on the left side of the staircase. He was here to explore, not destroy the place with his curiosity.
Opening the door on the left, he was met with a slightly wider hallway, with exactly three doors. He walked to the first door (on his right, on his left was outside) he came across and opened it. It was an empty room. Nothing at all in it except for dust, dust, and more dust. Once more disappointed, he closed the door and walked to the second door.
Opening the second door, he was met with a bedroom. Taking a quick look around, he decided he didn't want to explore. There were porcelain dolls all over the room, watching him with their glass eyes, telling him secrets he couldn't decipher, and he didn't like it one bit. Gently closing the door, he preceded to the last door.
Opening it, he saw it was a staircase, obviously leading to the third floor.
On the third floor, it seemed like a ballroom. There was red carpet adorning the floor collecting dust with mirrors covering all the walls and even the ceiling, as if to create a confusing illusion to the dancers. He noticed strangely, that the mirrors weren't dusty like the rest of the house, yet there was no sign of anyone being here for at least a hundred years.
Once more though, he could see the place alive in his mind, or it must have been a sort of delusion. There were men and women in fancy suits and gowns with artistic masks covering their upper faces, all dancing gracefully while laughing and simply whisking the night away. In a sudden flash though, he remembered the timing and it all vanished before his eyes.
After carefully observing the room, he realized there were two doors covered by the mirrors. He carefully tried one, but saw it only led to a balcony, so closed it and walked to the other.
Opening it, he saw it was another staircase, leading to the fourth floor.
At the top of the staircase, it seemed as though there where two hallways branching off and meeting behind the wall he was being faced with.
Deciding to try the right, he saw the area was covered in very disturbing paintings. There were portraits of people being beaten or tortured, some people bloody and begging, and over all just suffering. Was whoever taking residence on this floor highly sadistic?
He saw a door indeed behind the wall where he had calculated, and decided to look on the left side to see if there were any others. There were only more sadistic paintings. Walking to the door curiously, he opened it cautiously, only to be met with a brick wall. It was a phony, a trick. No, something wasn't right, there were supposed to be five floors.
Inspecting the walls carefully, he realized after a few seconds (which happened to feel like hours to him) that there was a door sealed behind the floral wallpaper. In such high curiosity, he gently peeled off the area of rotted wallpaper to see that there was indeed a door. After it was fully revealed, he gently opened the door.
Looking around, he let out the breath he didn't realize he was holding and walked in. It was obviously the bedroom of a young girl, but there was something about it. Something was telling him to walk away now, before it was too late. At the same time though, something else, another unknown force, was pulling him in, urging him to walk in and stay there forever.
There was nothing extraordinary about it. There was an elegant bed fit for a princess in the center, a vanity set off to the right against the wall, a large window with an amazing view of the back draped in elegant curtains of navy blue velvet (And there was to his grave satisfaction a graveyard (No pun intended)), a wardrobe next to the window, a large trunk to the other side of the window, and a large mirror occupying the entire space where the door was not.
He walked over to the chest curiously, only to find it locked. The vanity set was empty as well. Sighing slightly, he walked to the wardrobe; opening it to find it full of fancy dresses a wealthy family's daughter would wear. It definitely was a woman's room.
For some reason unknown to himself, he trudged to the over-sized mirror, looking curiously at his reflection.
His clothes were still damp, though not as wet as they were before, and his unnaturally bronze hair was tousled and wildly all over the place. He didn't bother trying to calm it; it would just become a mess again.
He closed his light topaz eyes for a mere second and, though he didn't know it at the moment, it was the biggest mistake of his life.
When he reopened them not over a minute later, to say he was shocked would be an understatement. The room through the mirror looked completely clean, as if he were standing in it while it was in perfect shape. That was not the most of it.
On the bed, a girl around the age of seventeen was sitting, writing in a journal. He turned back, shocked to find the whole room was as he had last seen it; unused and dusty.
Turning back to the mirror though, there was another story. He took a slight step closer to the mirror, which happened to be his second biggest mistake ever.
As that slight step was made, the girl looked up, startled. She closed her journal and smiled seeing him.
"So you've arrived well, I see." She had the most heavenly voice he had ever heard. She had mahogany brown hair that went mid-back with the most lovely chocolate-brown eyes and a heart shaped face. She was sort of pale for a human, but something told her she wasn't. She seemed like an angel to him, and he couldn't move or speak, so he watched her in awe.
She smiled knowingly, a glint in her eyes and she stood and walked over to him. She gently touched his arm in a way that sent shivers up and down his spine. He looked down, seeing that it was unreal. No matter how unreal it was, it felt so much like a reality.
"Now care to tell me why you kept a lady waiting, my Edward?"
He was overly shocked now. Was it possible for vampires to dream? That's what this felt like. And then the way she said "my Edward" rather then just "Edward" was so… amazing!
"I'm sorry, ma'am. I didn't mean to keep you waiting." He mentally slapped himself. That was the best he could say? How pathetic!
She giggled slightly. "It's fine, you're here now and we're together finally."
As she spoke those words, a strange feeling went through him. Something was wrong, but this felt so right. He smiled. It was then he realized, he had to get home. Alice must have seen something and start to fear for his sanity. He was starting to fear for his own sanity.
Frowning slightly he had announced, "I'm sorry, I have to leave…." He trailed off, not wanting to finish and thinking she'd get the point. As those words were spoken, her innocent chocolate brown eyes widened so slightly.
"No, you can't leave me, love. You only just arrived!" Her response was worried and frantic.
No, he couldn't leave her! Not all alone here! She had even said he had kept her waiting herself! He couldn't just leave her when she was just discovered. He realized the only solution was to take the mirror with him, where she could stay with him, hopefully forever.
A graceful smile came upon his lips. "I'll just have to take you with me, then." And with that, he picked up the mirror and left the mansion the way he came. He never realized that the whole time this was happened, he had no more control over his actions, not since he first looked into her eyes.
He never came to realize that he never explored the first floor, never found the other doors hidden in the house, and never saw the mischevious glint in the girl's eye.
Once at home, he walked straight up to his room and placed the mirror carefully, covering his musical collection just to face him. That was his third mistake ever.