Chapter 1: The Interview Begins

"You do have a story inside you; it lies articulate and waiting to be written — behind your silence and your suffering."

- Anne Rice


"I see…" the vampire said thoughtfully, and slowly she walked across the room towards the window. For a long time she stood there against the bright lights from the street outside and the passing beams of traffic. The man could see the furnishings that decorated the room more clearly now, the chairs, the round walnut table. The man set his briefcase down on the table.

"How much video do you have with you?" asked the vampire, turning with the elegance of a ballet dancer so that the man could finally see her face.

"Enough for a lifetime, if it's a good life, and maybe a little more. This is actually the first time someone has ever agreed to let me interview them as long as I wished."

"Then I would like to tell you the story of my life. Yes, I would like to do that very much," said the vampire as her shadow covered eyes sharpened to the point that no blade could cut as deeply as her simple gaze.

"Great," said the man as he quickly removed the video recorder from his briefcase and set it up to record, making a check of the battery life and how much video space he had. "I'm really excited to learn why you believe you are this vampire."

"Wait," said the vampire in not but the faintest of a whisper, "We cannot begin this way. I hope that your video camera is ready."

The man gave a nod before the Vampire let a smile form on her lips and said, "Good, I'm going to turn on the lights for you."

"Don't vampires hate the light, being creatures of the night and all?" the man asked as a rich laugh greeted his ears, a laugh so beautiful and elegant that he could have sworn she was an angel instead of the vampire she was claiming to be.

"On the contrary, I love the light," the vampire said, only this time she was no longer standing in the illumination of the window but across the room by the lightswitch.

The man had to shield his eyes when dim yellow light threatened to blind him and then, when his eyes adjusted again, the vampire was seated in front of him as if she had been there the entire time. With a yelp, unbefitting a man of his size, the man jumped from the table as if it had burned him and just stared at the woman with wide dilated eyes. The man could see her much clearer now, he could see everything that the shadows had once hidden from him. Firstly her skin was like that of white bones, for there was not a single blemish to be had. Secondly her hair was long and a deep shade of brown, like a wavy river of chocolate that sculpted a marshmallow. Finally it was her eyes that drew the man's attention the most for they were two pools of red that no words could ever hope to describe. This woman, this vampire, was a creature of such physical wonder that calling her beautiful would be an insult to what she truly was.

"Dear God," the man whispered as he slowly lifted up his chair and sat back down and simply continued to stare at the vampire.

"Do you still want an interview?" the vampire asked.

The man opened his mouth to respond but closed it when he found that no words would come from his lips. He composed himself, noticing that the woman didn't even so much as blink as her crimson eyes just watched him, before he opened his mouth and spoke, "Yes."

Slowly the vampire leaned in closer, her pale smooth lips parting as she spoke in the gentlest of tones, "Don't be afraid. Just start recording."

She must have put him under some kind of spell for his hand seemed to move of its own accord, turning on the camera's recording function before simply going limp on his lap. The vampire's lips curved upward, it was so subtle that the man almost didn't see it, but the man did see it and he felt his face flush before remembering just what was sitting across from him. The vampire must have somehow knew what he was thinking because she addressed his concern when she next spoke.

"Trust me, I won't hurt you. This interview means more to me than you could ever possibly know, or even understand," said the vampire as she straightened her back and seemed to take on an appearance of a woman from a time long passed.

"R-Right, maybe we should start with your name," the man managed to say and the vampire simply inclined her head in silent agreement.

"Yes, that would be a good place to start, my name is Isabella Swan and I haven't been human in nearly two thousand years," the vampire said.

"What?"

"The year, by today's calendar, was 203 A.D. and I was eighteen years old, already considered a woman at the time. I was born to darkness,"

"Rome, the capital of the Roman Empire, was a city the likes of which no one had ever seen before. The city streets were beautiful beyond imagination and the very air itself seemed to be rich with intelligence and enough gold to last a thousand lifetimes. I was but the daughter to a nobleman that led one of the few remaining families of influence in Rome. Growing up in Rome was as wonderful as it sounds, for I never wanted for anything and I was a beauty greater than any treasure that my father owned. By this time my father was growing sick, a fever had taken its toll on his already tired body and I was quickly tasked with running the family's accounts and making the decisions that he no longer could," Isabella smiled fondly at remembering her father's face.

"We were given land by the leader of Rome, just outside the city where we could grown many different kinds of food to sell back to the people. My brother and I were tasked with taking care of the plantation and keeping control of the slaves our family owned. I can still remember the smell of fresh apples and corn after a good harvest. Yet my brother wasn't like myself or the rest of my family, no he wanted to free the slaves that we owned. You could say that he was born in the wrong time period, but that is neither here nor there. Soon my brother began to take actions to let his beliefs become a reality, actions that broke even Roman laws, but I could never turn in my own brother for they would surely kill him."

"So what did you do?" the boy asked, leaning in close to me like a child waiting to hear the best part of a story.

"Nothing, for a time. It was only when he attacked one of the guards, that was managing the slaves, that I foolishly grew impatient with him. I remember him begging me for help when they took him away, kicking and screaming like a man possessed, and never before have I felt such shame as I did that day. He died a few days later, killed by another prisoner that had once been a slave. I felt responsible for his death, I could not forgive myself," she continued seamlessly, not bothered in the slightest by the man's questions.

"Did he have a funeral?"

"Oh yes, despite what may have happened he was still a part of the family. I stayed by his tomb for several days, staring at it until I nearly fainted from fatigue, but I refused to be anywhere else at the time. I wanted to sell the plantation, it only ever brought back the memory of my part in my brother's death, so my mother ended up taking over for me. Yet, even when I moved back into Rome, my brother's ghost did not let me escape. Every day I would think of him until I finally decided to try and drown out my pain with something else. I began drinking all the time and went home as little as possible. I lived like a woman who wanted to die but who lacked the will to do it myself. Sex became another way to cover up my pain, both with men and women it didn't matter to me in the slightest. I wanted to die, but it was a Vampire that took me up on my offer. I was with a woman that night, the daughter of a tradesman who wanted to experiment just a little, and he caught me just a few steps out their door."

"You mean he sucked your blood?" the boy asked, his face looking rather pale now.

"Yes," Isabella laughed ever so slightly, "That tends to be how it is done."

"But you're still alive."

Isabella paused for a moment, as if thinking over what her next words should be and how much she should reveal ahead of time. It was subtle, so subtle in fact that the boy didn't even notice it at all, but Isabella had narrowed her eyes and made up her mind.

"He drained me of my blood to the point of near death, which was just enough for him apparently. I was taken to my family the moment I was found, my mother calling the healers to figure out what had happened to me and if anything could be done. I had thought I would die then, since I refused to eat or drink anything they offered me. The Vampire came back a few nights later, I suppose it was to finish me off, but something about me seemed to change his mind entirely. He was elegant in every way possible, with long raven colored hair, the greatest robes ever created at the time, and blood rubies for eyes. At first I though he may have been another doctor summoned by my family, but I banished the thought when he leaned in close and I could see him clearly in the moonlight. I completely forgot myself at that moment, even my wish to die had faded away!" Isabella proclaimed loudly, slightly startling the boy before she calmed down and regained a peaceful expression.

"He then asked me if I still wish to die; he said he would grant me that wish if I asked him. It's only now that I realize that he never would've killed me to begin with, at least not in the way human would expect. So I told him that I didn't want to die, but I also couldn't stand living either. That the world had become so dull, so lifeless, and I saw no more beauty in it. He told me that he could change that, make it so that even a single blades of grass could hold more beauty in it than even the greatest painting of our time. Being physically and mentally weak at the time, I accepted his offer with no regard to the consequences," Isabella continued, her voice having quieted from her previous outburst and excitement, but there seemed to be an almost haunting sadness in her eyes now, as if remembering a great mistake she wished she could have reversed.

"Do you regret it, being turned into a vampire I mean?" the man asked, quickly correcting himself as to not make himself appear rude in Isabella's eyes.

"I can no more regret being what I am now, than water can regret being wet. I simply am what I am and nothing can change me back to what I was," Isabella began, her tone neither angry nor comforting, before going back to her story, "The vampire, who I learned later was named Aro, turn me into what I am that very night and then left as quickly as he came. I would not see my maker for many years after the, and I had found no others like me in all of Rome, though still never forget that first night I opened my new eyes. The night, which at one time seemed so bleak and dark, was now more beautiful than any sunrise I'd ever seen before and even the stone statues around city seemed to move of their own accord now. I could hear the heartbeats of a thousand strangers, or the lone crying of some back alley cat. It was only some time later that I felt the thirst for the first time and had no one around to teach me what I was meant to do."

"Do you remember the first person you ever killed?"

A small smile appeared upon Isabella's face, almost as if she was remembering a fond old memory, "It was the merchant's daughter, the one who had been there that first night. Only two days had passed since I had become a vampire before I stumbled upon the girl again, by mistake of course. She had been at one of the brothels, without her father's knowledge of course, and had ironically been searching for me. I took her back to my home that night and we both gave in to carnal pleasures of the flesh, but it was also in that moment of pure bliss that I discover the price for me being what I was. Something inside me, something that hadn't been there before, awoke at the height of our ecstasy and drowned it in blood. I don't know why she didn't scream, perhaps my teeth had somehow cut her throat deep enough or maybe she didn't even know what was happening, but what I do know is that I've never tasted anything so sweet before my entire life."

The man had grown eerily quieted Isabella's confession, his pupils slightly dilated in possible excitement or fear, and Isabella could hear his heart beating slightly faster. Isabella considered that this was possibly too much for him, that perhaps what she was saying wasn't normal for a normal human to hear.

"What happened next?" Isabella felt herself slightly relax at the man's willingness to continue.

"I did what any rational person would have done in my place, I panicked. Of course no one was home at the time, in fact I don't believe any of them were even in the city, but I was young and had no idea what to do. So I ran, from both my home and my family, and I didn't stop for quite some time. It wasn't until a more recent time, 1918 to be exact, that I came across someone who finally caught my interest. Her name was Mary Alice Brandon, the daughter of a jeweler in the perl traitor, and had been condemned to a mental asylum after her mother had been supposedly murdered. Her file also claim that she could see glimpses of the future, and that she tried to tell everybody that it was her father that had killed her mother," the man had been easily drawn back in by Isabella's words, his earlier nervousness washed away by the new direction of the story.

"I had been assigned to be her caretaker, told to help her with any of her more womanly needs, and I guess you could say that's where the second chapter of my life begins. We'd become fast friends, Mary Alice and I, but of course we couldn't tell any of the doctors or they would have have me removed and someone else brought in. For nearly two years our secret had been kept as just that and our relationship grew beyond that of simple friends. I had been her first kiss, while her pure innocence had brought some semblance of light back into my life, but unfortunately it was not last. Another vampire, one of many I discovered over the years, had caught Mary Alice's sent and was determined to kill her. I did the first thing that came to mind and turned Mary Alice without a second thought, before going off to face this vampire; a man named James. By the time that I returned, Mary Alice was gone and her scent as well. Part of me hoped she had survived and was out there somewhere, my sweet and innocent Mary Alice Brandon," Isabel whispered that last part to herself, low enough that no normal human could hear her.

"Would you tell me more about her, this Mary Alice Brandon?" the man asked, believing that this was his moment to gain more detail about Isabella's life in more than just a general description.

"Where to begin, perhaps the day I first met her?" Isabella asked aloud, perhaps more so to herself than the man sitting across from her.

(FROM THIS POINT ONWARD THE STORY REALLY BEGINS)

The year was 1918 and Isabella Swan had taken up a nurses position at the local psychiatric hospital, located in one of the southernmost counties of Mississippi. By this point in Isabella's life she had seen more of the world than any mortal man and had experienced almost everything there was to experience. Feeding from humans had long since become second nature to her, no matter who they might be, but she also knew that she still had to be careful. While others of her kind had long since been able to harden their skin into diamond and survive the sun's harmful gaze, Isabella chose to remain as she was. Other vampires lost their many abilities, aside from the one they valued the most, but not Isabella. It was only because of the need for a new home that she found herself working at a mental hospital, the night shift of course.

This would give her nearly unlimited access to all the blood she could want, after all many patients died in places like this so what was a few more? Isabella had been assigned to five different patients, each one having a different supposed mental disorder, that she was tasked with taking care of. Each patient was different in their own my, yet it was a common fact that all of them would die in this place, one way or another.

"Mary Alice Brandon, what an interesting name," Isabella said to herself as her ruby red eyes peered into Alice's room and watch the short pixie like girl sleep, still wondering how a girl like her could sleep so peacefully in a place like this.

The sound of people approaching caught Isabella's attention, the night staff here had no reason to disturb the patient's let alone having four large men walking with them. Ah, now she understood what was going to happen and she honestly should've expected it, but this girl was hers now and Isabella was not one to share. It was very little trouble to sneak into Mary Alice's room, it was even less trouble to detach herself from the ground and float up to the ceiling to simply await the inevitable.

"Are you sure this is the right room, were paying you quite a bit of money for this one?" Isabella heard one of the men ask from outside the room, no doubt talking to the nurse who had let them into the building to begin with.

"Yes, I'm sure, now hurry up before someone else comes along. The new nurse arrived today and this girl is one of her patients," the nurse said before quietly unlocking the door and letting the four men walk into the room.

Isabella could hear Mary Alice's heartbeat quicken as the four men entered the room, meaning that she was very much awake and knew what was about to happen to her. Isabella could see the poor girl's eyes squeezed themselves even tighter and her barely trimmed nails slowly dig into her arm, no doubt praying that this was all just a dream. It was only when that foolish nurse close the door behind her, locking the seven of them within the pitch black room, that Isabella allowed herself to silently dropped from the ceiling and land behind them all.

The nurse was the first one to die, her throat nearly being completely ripped out by Isabella's long and deadly fangs. Warm fresh life-giving liquid rushed down Isabella's throat and sent her into a state of ecstasy the likes of which no mortal could ever experience, yet some of the red liquid escaped her mouth and quickly slid down her chin followed by her throat. The nurse's sudden gurgling noise drew the four men's attention, but by the time they had turned around Isabella had already grabbed her first snack and floated back up to the ceiling. It was only once the body was completely drained of blood, leaving behind a near skeletal figure, that the vampire dropped the body.

Isabella was then upon the four remaining men within seconds, her superhuman speed and strength crippling them all before they even had a chance to blink, but not killing them. No, these men who thought themselves predators would soon find out what it meant to be a mere snack to a real predator. However, before she could kill them, she had to do her duty as a nurse.

"You can open your eyes now, I know you're still awake," Isabella commanded, moving over to Mary Alice's side and kneeling down next to her bed, fresh warm blood still trickling down her chin while her matching red eyes watched every movement of the human laying before her.

It felt like an eternity before Mary Alice's eyes finally opened, or perhaps it was simply like that for a vampire, but the small girl held an emotion in her eyes that Isabella had seen many times before. Fear, the kind of fear that a small child has of the monster living under their beds, of the thing in the dark that was going to steal them away from that nice comfy homes. Mary Alice said nothing as she stared at the latest monster into life, having long since been taught not to speak unless the monster spoke first.

"Are you afraid of me?"

"Yes."

"Do you seek death?"

"No."

"Good, I have no use for things that want to die. Do you want these men to die?" Isabella questioned, her eyes never break away from the young girl's.

All Mary Alice could do was slowly nodded her head, too afraid to admit with words the dark desire that her heart actually craved.

"If you want them to die, then do not look away," Isabella commanded before getting up from her kneeling position and walking over to the four paralyzed man, her throat burning in anticipation for what was about to come next.

Isabella slowly knelt down and grabbed the first paralyzed man, whose eyes were looking around like a panicked animal that knew it was about to die. She slowly turned to let Mary see what was about to happen, positioning herself behind the crippled man while locking eyes with the human girl. Mary Alice didn't look away when Isabella finally sunk her fangs into the man's neck, she didn't blink when fresh blood managed to escape the vampire's already red stained mouth, nor did she whimper when the corpse finally hit the ground. The little girl just looked at the vampire, not blinking once.

The next man was noticeably trying to make his body work, trying to save his life with every ounce of willpower that he still had, yet it did not matter in the end. This was the man that did all the talking, the man that was going to do unpleasant things to Isabella's new human, and for that his death would be long lasting. Isabella's sharp nails, which were strong enough to rend steel, left shallow cuts all over the mans face and neck. Twenty times did Isabella cut deeper and deeper over each original cut, taking thirty minutes to turn the man's face into something resembling butchered meat.

"You didn't know she was already mine," Isabella whispered into his ear as the life began leaving his eyes, "That's why I'm not making your death last days.

He was dead moments later, no doubt thankful that he could be released from his pain.

The next two were quickly killed, they were no longer fun to play with now that she'd had her fill on both the nurse and the first man. Then, even as the bodies still lay in small pools of blood, Isabella appeared back in front of Mary Alice, her red eyes practically glowing in the darkness. Slowly Isabella leaned closer, until her blood covered lips were only a breath away from Mary's, stealing the breath out of the little human while her eyes widened.

"You are mine now, Mary Alice," she whispered, "From this day onward, no one else can have you but me. No one else may hurt you, insult you, or use you. You are my human."


For those of you that recognized the beginning, the base of this story is heavily influenced by "Interview With the Vampire", a book and movie that I greatly enjoy. I didn't make it this way to make the beginning of the story easy, I did it to pay tribute to what first got me into vampires. Please drop a review, if you would be so kind, and let me know what you think.