Looking back, I think blinding is the right word. Blinding pain, making James's attempts to torment me look like a slightly enticing walk through the park. Memory is a fickle thing and yet that day sticks out.
I remembered walking, or perhaps hiking the better phrase. In what I presume was an attempt to relive my memories with Edward, deep in the forest where I first found out the truth. Well the first of many tiny truths, the big one was when he told me I wasn't good enough for him and left me to rot. I'm nearly sure I'd be less bitter towards him if she hadn't caught up to me.
A flash of red, that was the first sign. In retrospect that should have set off alarm bells but it was nearly twenty years ago in my defence. Technically speaking that was two lives ago and it really does feel as if that Bella was another person. Another person who met her end when that red flash, turned out to be hair, a flurry of it in fact which hit me faster than a blink.
Victoria, she may be a psychotic bitch, but you had to admire her on principle; she lost a mate and decided to extract revenge by reducing my bones to powder. Slowly, one by one over the course of about an hour. No biting though, poor thing didn't trust herself not to loose control and rip my throat out; that really would have spoiled the torture. I'll hand it to her, she managed to resist the few drops of blood which oozed out once she had thoroughly shattered my hand.
Screaming was a constant, a shrill thing that would have rang through the woods and alerted any and everyone, or more accurately they would have done if anyone had ever heard them. Begging, that stopped quickly; she really was in no mood to listen. Reasoning with the illogical nightmare proved futile, it didn't matter Edward had left, he would never hear of my death and it wouldn't bring her mate back; the torture mattered, it mattered a lot.
To cut a long story short, which incidentally is how Victoria imagined my eventual end. She went a little more crazy than usual towards the end, instead of biting it was cutting. Using those long black daggers she called nails; the few parts of my body that hadn't been reduced to powder were a web of bloody cuts. She actually resisted, quite impressive for a lunatic; I would have found it interesting but I had a lot of other things on my mind that day.
"Victoria." I recall a dreamlike voice being not a greeting but a note of disapproval. Posh, medium in pitch and distant in my pain racked mind.
"If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times; playing with your meals is wrong." Maybe his phrasing could have been a little better, though he was, in fairness, talking to the vampire; not the now silent mortal who had lost too much blood to talk.
"Henry? What are you doing here?"
"I think the better question is what are you doing here? It seems like a lot of work to drag someone all the way out here, though I must say I associated torture with your mate. Speaking of those with more bestial nature than sense, where is James, I do not detect his scent?" Again my first impressions of this man weren't good, he seemed more concerned with civility than me but then again I was still alive; somehow.
"Ahh I see, dead? Don't answer I can tell, hurt always manifests itself in the minuscule ministrations of our facial features. I can also see hatred, fury and a desperate need for violent relief; that would indeed explain the mortal." The man, even then, could not resist showing off his affinity to comprehend emotions from such subtle canvases.
"Yes, dead. This little sweetie here killed him." She spat with both literal and implied venom. The man felt closer as my eyes began to blur, not just because one was filled with blood.
"Impossible." I zoned out for a short time, barely hearing Victoria concede who actually killed James, then the man's tone brimmed with anger.
"Victoria, you would assert you strength on a mortal who had the misfortune to be lured into the arms of a vampire? A natural response to our kind, which you well know." Firmness crept into his voice now, Victoria who had until this point I believe been leaning over me got to her feet.
"A mate for a mate." The declaration was met as I returned to reality. A short, sharp laugh followed.
"If they were mates he would not have left, if they were mates she would have been protected. Your own logic betrays you Victoria, you are blinded by blood-lust towards a foe far out of your reach. Enough of this, release her." He commanded her with force, his voice laced with a mixture of anger and undertones of threat.
"I will not, if I can't have him, he can't have her." A screeching growl followed, I assumed she attempted to intimate him, again the blinding pain makes any understanding on my part less reliable.
"Who is he? Who is the person you call into being? Name him. Is he James or Edward? Which do you want more, him to return to you upon shining stallions or blood? Don't even answer, we both know what underpins your lust." His voice either became lower through hissing threat or because my dying form was tuning the world out, of course it didn't dull the pain.
"Then what do I do? Just forget? Just allow him to get away with it?" Victoria seethed, her voice I believe was breaking...maybe she was trying to sob if that was at all possible.
"At the very least hunt the right person, from someone who has lost and loved a hundred times, place blame where blame is due!." That angry demand coincided with my breath becoming so short I could barely feel myself. Victoria made a noise that was neither dependant on anger nor resonating from depression.
"You won't let me finish will you?" Her sombre tone was the last I heard from her as a mortal, either Henry nodded or simply waited. Then a blurry image which I would soon know only too well appeared over me.
"I would give you the option, my dear, however it appears that your ability to cognitively function is damaged beyond mortal repair. I apologise in advance, but Victoria must not fulfil her aim of destroying you, lest her learn the wrong lesson from our encounter." With that, something very sharp and cold sliced into my shattered shoulder. How he found an intact vein is still a mystery and yet in that moment I blacked out.
The subsequent pain was a breeze compared to the torture part of my afternoon, or at least it was at first. Then came the nightmares upon nightmares and the intense, indescribable pain which went beyond all comprehension.
In a shimmering haze Edward left me time after time, the entire Cullen clan turned and tore into me again and again, and a few times Victoria returned with torturous instruments so perverse and cruel, they defied the imagination. Those all came to me in graphic detail, with only a shimmering to the outline of my mind to separate them from reality. More of course crept into me, loved ones betrayed or killed; Alice in particular was torn apart and burned more times than I care to remember. Though at the end of each dream I awoke, only to find myself ushered into another wave of nightmares that never seemed to be content with destroying my emotional state.
Silk, the oddest thing was after an eternity of torment; I awoke on silk sheets. An odd creeping cold sensation tempered by a smooth enveloping softness. Little did I know then that it would be the beginning of a trend that was only excused by the luxury of the material.
I was laying under a carefully folded silk quilt, positioned on a king sized bed with four transparent violet curtains drawn to give the spacious room a visible blur. Unaware of anything except the burning sensation at the back of my throat.
"Hello?" I called out expecting my voice to crackle under that burning pressure. Instead I sounded clearer and more alert than ever, something which inspired me to peel back the soft curtains and expose myself to a room that should have been reserved for a princess.
Ornate wooden furniture, beautifully decorated with exquisite carvings and tactically placed to leave no more than a few feet of carpeted floor bare. The carpet was a blood red river running through the room, curving into an imposing wardrobe and a delicately balanced, three legged, table with an assortment of ink inscribed papers lying gently on top.
At the time it was the most beautiful room I had ever seen; paintings hung leisurely on the room depicting an ancient looking city, three almost translucent individuals on a balcony and if I recall a woman of formidable stature. In retrospect I would have appreciated the room an infinite amount more had I not been on the verge of impossible tears, while also trying to place the sudden burning and icy chill.
Indeed had the windows not be closed with layered white curtains; I would have laid eyes on a obsessively maintained garden and could have laid on the enticing Chaise Lounge or even the armchair had it not forced one to look into the silver lined mirror, that panned the length of an overly large window.
If I had time to focus I may have even wondered why every material in the room, the cushions, carpet and curtains; were a variation of silk or alternatively, and albeit rarely, velvet. I had no time to ponder any of the mysterious that the details of this room possessed, perhaps that was a good thing in hindsight because it drove me out that room and into a corridor which impressed almost as much. A stretching hall lined with vibrant violet with white wood panelled walls and painting after painting seemingly built into them. Portraits of people,places that events I didn't have time to study. I was of course told what each and everyone of them was after the event and I would have recognised quite a few I had taken the time to study, though it must be said newborns are not renowned for their intellectual consideration.
So with all my appreciation over and done with I followed the only lit corridor, more accurately the only one with heavy velvet curtains not restraining the natural light. Eventually leading me to the end of a line of portraits of people I didn't stop to recognise, then it was a simple walk down a twisting marble staircase.
"Ahh, she finally awakens, please do enter, my dear girl." The man's voice was the least remarkable aspect of the room I then found myself in. I would later learn the lessons of presentation and yet I was a confused girl who entered an exquisite dining room. The staircase was built into the structure of a token pillar on one side of the room, two real entrances existed behind gold lined oak doors which looked seldom opened. Four fireplaces were lit for a reason I was never able to find out and the table was an odd clouded glass, covered by a silky cloth which only hinted at the obsession I would soon uncover.
As for my host well I found him rather odd, not least because he was sat dead in the middle of the table, on a cloudy glass style chair while folding a paper and sipping a glass which made my stomach burn. It was the first time my nostrils filled with the sweet smell of human blood which was promptly poured into a wine glass.
"Bella, do you mind if I refer to you as such?" I don't believe I ever actually answered him, instead I studied the man who had until this point been little more than disconnected voice. The reality of the man was both what could have been expected while also holding elements to the contrary. He was a tall man, exceptionally thin with the trademark pale skin of a vampire. Though he was considerably older than any vampire I had ever seen ,he looked as if he was in his fifties and well defined wrinkles were sown all over his form. His hair was more of a greying mane than a style and yet kept so neatly it stood unmoving.
Though apart from wrinkles and grey hairs there was little else which defined his age; his face was clearly defined and had a pointed shape which effectively framed all of his features. His blood red eyes were sharp and focused on me with narrowed precision. His mouth was so thinned it bordered on non existent while it somehow completed him.
So that was the man who had saved me, dressed in a burgundy jacket which attempted to shroud his thin form which was covered by a white shirt devoid of all creases. At the neck was something that was neither a scarf nor a tie and yet was wrapped in something resembling a bow. When I did not answer he gestured to the seat next to him.
"Please, do sit; a discussion must be commenced before it can be concluded." I moved so quickly towards the glass, my reflection glittered on the chandeliers which hung dangerously above; lending the room a shadow and its roof, a crystalline shine.
He chuckled as I greedily emptied the glass in moments, I thrust it out for him to refill it and he complied with nothing but a smile.
"I had forgotten the thirst of the newborn, I suppose it has been longer than I care to consider, now I suppose you have questions..." He seemed almost reluctant and yet I had only one.
"Why did you save me?" I had asked, he looked perplexed for a single moment before casting aside with a confident beam.
"It wasn't personal I am afraid to say, Victoria is an old acquaintance who had until recently been defined by her mate. A rather unpleasant individual if I must indulge in the unhealthy habit of speaking ill of the dead but my story goes back a little further." His voice, while never leaving a serene tone that was neither to high too low in pitch, quickened and slowed with unneeded irregularity.
"My presence was called for on the tail of a tour which has, until recently consumed around seven years of my life. My intention was to visit an old friend whom I came across in the midst of a migration to the north, the briefest outline was given when the tale of you and his eldest son was imparted to me." His eloquent speech just managed to prevent the pangs of crushing anger that occurred during that time when I heard the Cullen's mentioned.
"I intended to seal my tour by brokering peace, however Victoria proved elusive and it was almost two months before I caught up to her, though in that time she had caught up to you." The pain was still a fresh memory to my newborn state and I recall him almost laughing at my deepened growl.
"Yes, I once held Victoria in some esteem, she was a very talented young lady before her conversion and yet when she met her mate, well, his influence was of a negative disposition. I did not want her to continue on her path so intervened. You were the direct result of that, I do apologise if it was not the fate you intended," Looking back laughter may have been an appropriate reaction to that, it had been my biggest wish until the moment he left me.
"Who are you?" The question seemed to almost delight him and the subject would never again solely focus on my incident with Victoria, which considering the pain was just fine by me.
"My name is Henry, I have had many last names and forsake the covens? That is the name they use now is it not? I am one of the very few recognised ancient vampires, being some measure older than the Volturi. So old in fact I have at some paint laid eyes on all the wonders of the ancient world, in that time I have constructed many houses, this old Gothic design begin my favourite. I have known many of the great men which define mortal and immortal world alike and yet I do not conduct myself as a vampire usually does." Henry has a way of telling you not to interrupt without actually saying those words, its something in his tone, a trick he used on me for the first of what would be many times.
"While my Athenian origins tell a story it is one so old, speaking of it would only allow long dead embers to glow in my mind once more. I became a vampire approaching the twilight of my life and upon receiving this gift I precoded to indulge in the more vulgar aspects of existence. Time thankfully rendered such indulgences pointless and an odd habit of existence followed, I was an actor and my condition accelerated my abilities." Honestly he explained in such a roundabout way I wish it was possible to put it into simple English, it is however not possible.
"I find life in a one place, simply feeding tedious so instead prefer to act, staying true to my roots. I create characters, mostly in the mortal world, and give them life, tell their story and naturally depart from them when the time is right. It is a cycle I have perfected over the years, I have played popes, kings, queens, great men, questionable men, warmongers, diplomats, aristocrats, peasants and so many more. Characters consume me, then die; from there I journey the world seeing the sights. I've ancient cities degrade, entire civilisations collapse and new ones arise from the ashes, but there will be time for my stories later." He smiled leisurely and by that point I had lost count of the bloody glasses I consumed.
"You show remarkable restraint." He muttered to himself, peering at me with a frown.
"The last time I met a newborn he devoured an entire bottle before I could blink. Regardless that leads me into next aspect of my tale." He spoke certain aspects like a grand announcement, I thinks he's always been aware of it.
"I have had many quittances over the years who have joined in my journeys, many of which I personally transformed. Preforming as duo, well it carries a certain charm that very little else can rival. A charm that requires mutual duality. So that is the basics of my tale which could be summarised so briefly, I have enough stories to entertain you for eternity but I don't have that long." I saw the appeal immediately, for a foolish girl who had been overcome with depression over a boyfriend; escaping seemed ideal.
"As a creator I'm afraid I have very little to offer you. If you desire a home then you may use this manor, I don't intend to return for quite some time. It is in a place of relative comfort, but it becomes tedious after a time. If you wish to be free of me then please you may leave immediately, you show remarkable restraint I doubt you will cause any incident, and I have no claim to you or designs on your independence. You don't know me and yet I have a feeling a fresh start in a world you control would be appealing, a new person, a new life and there is no commitment. This sort of life can only happen if your heart is in it." He illustrated the offer eloquently and looking back I know why I accepted. I wanted a fresh start, from the Cullens no one else; I ignored my family, friends and all those I would leave behind.
So I accepted, at first to run and then as we began to plan the new lives we would lead, began to obsess over details, began to work out how to mask ourselves, create personalties and the pieces fell together. Henry hadn't been exaggerating when he spoke of his acting abilities, though they were not solely his. As a vampire his ability, or gift, was to alter the perceptions of those around him, something that I would have preferred to the shield I ended up with. Only because the amounts of make-up and dye that were needed to alter my appearance to the fit the character was plain ridiculous.
I should clarify, Edward's leaving left me devastated and I think that continued for quite some time. It was some way into the plot myself and Henry had crafted did I wake up one day and realise I had not even thought of the Cullens for a year. It was a big enough move to accept Henry's offer and simply chase after them. Though after so long on Henry's diet of human blood which, he keeps bottled like wine, I'm not entirely sure I could abandon it. The vast blood cellars Henry had were more than worth it, the older the better he said and I can remember drooling when he celebrated with a very sticky concoction from the twenties. So I did get over them leaving, I think and found myself engrossed in a new life, or more accurately a new character.