So, I guess it's author's note time. I would like to inform my wonderful readers that I will do my best to update this every week at least. The first few chapters are just pouring out of me, but I don't expect the daily production to last. Still, I will try my best to stick to my weekly deadline. Thank you!

-Sang et Or

EPOV

A ferocious snarl erupted from my lips before I had the sense to quell it. I stared at her, the young girl that now owned me, across my tiny room. She was wearing only her black satin nightgown that covered very little of her legs or her chest. Her wavy brown hair fell around her shoulders lightly and her deep brown eyes stared up at me in fear. She knelt just inches away from where I had just been asleep, and my brain, still recovering from the vicious nightmare that had just held me, struggled to make sense of the situation. Slowly, my face began to mirror hers, as I realized the potential consequences for what I had just done. Carefully, I relaxed from my crouch and stood straight up into a more human position. I put my hands behind my back slowly to show her that I did not mean her physical harm, and hoped that I would not be disciplined.

"I'm sorry, Miss." I said, slowly and carefully. My voice seemed to break her out of her trance, and her face composed itself. I listened for a way to appeal to her wishes, for the voice of desires, fears, and fantasies that all others speak to me through their minds to try to avoid punishment, but her mind was surprisingly silent. Her mind had most likely stalled like an engine from the surprise at my previous action.

"Oh… that's alright." She said, rather breathily, probably from the shock of just being snarled at by a vampire. As she slowly raised herself to her feet, I wondered why she had woken me up. Her mind remained mute, so I was about to ask her when she spoke.

"Umm… I'm Bella. What's your name?" She spoke quietly, and her eyes never left mine. This confused me greatly, as I realized that in order to put together a sentence, even one as simple and elementary as that, would require some form of thought process that I had been unable to hear. As an afterthought, I realized that it had been a very long time since I had been called anything other than "boy," "vampire," or "you."

"My name is Edward." I said, still assessing the silent creature that stood before me.

"Pleased to make your acquaintance." She said. I assumed that this was simply out of habit, as she lifted her right hand as if to shake mine, but thought better of it.

There was an uncomfortable silence as I waited for her to make her demands, or to reach for a Sangenite club, or anything really. She just stood there, staring at me in a way that seemed familiar, but I could not find the word for it. My inability to read human facial expressions was forcefully brought to my attention as I realized I had never needed to do so before. In fact, I had never even tried. This mental mute vexed me, and promised to be a dangerous mistress, as I could in no way foresee her wishes as I had with those who corralled us at the market.

"Was there a reason that you woke me, Miss Bella?" I asked, after what seemed like an eternity. I reminded myself that humans require far more time to process than vampires. The twenty three seconds of discomfort that I endured probably felt like nothing to her.

"Yes." She said simply, appearing very distracted by my face. I had to physically stop myself from sighing in exasperation. Humans found us beautiful, I knew, but this one seemed especially susceptible to my allure, and it was incredibly frustrating not to know what she wanted, or why she was in my pathetic excuse for a bedroom. I looked at her expectantly, and she finally seemed to regain conscious control of herself. "You don't remember?" She asked curiously.

"Remember what?" I began, quickly replaying the last few minutes in my head. Then I remembered the Night Terror. My brothers at the market who had served humans before warned me of the effects of the pills. They had told me that they gave some of us the most horrific nightmares, and I must say that I concur. The face of the Warden had hung before me in the sky like that of a God, enraged at the sins of his creations. I was bound in Sangenite chains that seared my wrists with a fire hotter than a thousand suns. I was suspended above a pit of silver, bubbling, churning liquid, that gurgled and popped, tiny droplets flying up to singe my ankles. The vile droplets burned and bore into my flesh like fiery ticks, burrowing ever deeper. I realized it was molten Sangenite, and that I was in Hell. I was going to burn, scald, and disintegrate in the Lake of Fire that lay beneath me as punishment for the monster that I was. I curled myself up, trying to keep my feet from the second death below me, but my chains were slowly lowering. The face of the Warden lit up with vicious delight, and he laughed the most fearsome deafening roar as my toes touched the liquid, even with my knees held up to my chest. I screamed my fear and agony, but this only fueled the Warden's hateful laughter. The liquid had consumed up to my ankles when cool soft arms had reached around my shoulders and pulled me from that reality. The Warden continued to laugh as the scene in front of me distorted and stretched away, like the sky had been snatched in the middle, and ripped off its hinges away from me. I shut my eyes, for fear of being sucked away with the world, and when I opened them, I was in my bedroom, in the arms of the strange fragile creature that now stood before me.

It took only a fraction of a second for me to relive the Night Terror, before she replied, "You were crying out… screaming in your sleep. I thought you were having a bad dream, so…" She trailed off, clearly unsure of what to say next. She seemed uncomfortable having done even a minute kindness for a vampire, or perhaps she was simply still frightened of me. It was annoying not to be sure.

"I apologize if I woke you Miss Bella. Do you wish for me to take another pill?" I asked, trying to mask the terror that I felt at the prospect of returning to that hell.

"No! Well… ummm… I mean… Do you think it would happen again?" She asked, appearing flustered.

"I apologize once again, Miss Bella, but I cannot control any sounds I may make during the slumber." I said darkly.

She blushed, looking ashamed. I noticed that the red that colored her cheeks looked both delectable and adorable, though I quickly dismissed the thought. She was a human, and one that owned me in addition. She was to be loathed along with the rest of her miserable race. She must be loathed because of her ignorance of her own fortune, fortune that ought to have still been mine. She had no idea what any one of us would give to be human again… nor had she any idea what it was like to be vampire: to be hated and used and abused. She was one of the ones that hated and used and abused us. For that she must be loathed.

"That's not what I meant." She whispered, looking back up at me. "You seemed… very frightened. Do you think that you would have a dream like that again?" Who was this creature? Why would she ask me such a thing, and why could I not hear what she was thinking?

"I don't know." I replied honestly, figuring I had nothing to gain from lying. There was a brief silence as she appeared to consider what to do next.

"What does it feel like?" She asked suddenly, taking me by surprise, though it is not easy to take a vampire by surprise.

"What?" I asked thickly, as a knee jerk response to her outburst.

"The slumber. You know… because you don't really sleep. Is it like being on drugs? Do you feel trapped, is that why it's scary?" She looked at me with wide eyes like a child looking at an insect. She was curious, and innocent enough, but disturbingly wanton and unaffected by the horrors of which she spoke.

"No. I do not feel trapped precisely. It is the images that I see… the situations that I feel within the slumber that are… unpleasant. It may feel similarly to the way you might were you on drugs. I would not know. I did not do drugs in my human life." I wondered vaguely why I was sharing this information with her. It certainly wasn't any of her business. Her gleaming brown eyes compelled me, though, and I justified that there was no harm in giving her what she wanted, and it would most likely save me from beatings if I did. "I do not remember sleep very well, but I don't believe that the slumber is much akin to human sleep. I feel fully alert and awake, only, within a reality that is not this one." I stared at her as she processed this information and looked back at me.

"Have you taken the pills before?" She asked, with a little more confidence now. I was not sure if I liked the fact that she appeared to be getting more comfortable with me.

"No." I said simply, but she looked dissatisfied with the brevity of my response. "It was too expensive, and unnecessary to provide us all with pills at the market. They simply kept us chained up at night, and during the day." I tried not to notice how my voice cracked over the word "chained," but it did not escape her attention.

"Do they hurt?" She asked, glancing over at the shackles in the corner. I looked back at them too, before responding.

"Unbelievably."

For the tiniest moment, her eyes seemed to turn sad, and she looked away. Turning towards the door, her satin nightgown reflected what little light there was in the tiny room, and she took a step to leave. Remembering my purpose in this tiny room, which was albeit larger and decidedly cleaner that where I was kept at the market, I took a small step to follow her.

"Would you like me to accompany you, Miss Bella?" She turned to me confused, and I couldn't help but smirk as understanding slowly dawned on her and spread across her face. I had to admit that when it came to work as a pleasure slave, there were certainly less appealing mistresses I could have had.

"No, thank you, Edward." She said, blushing furiously. "Your… services… will not be necessary tonight." I felt inexplicably disappointed at her response, as I had not desired human contact in the better part of 80 years. I also noticed that I enjoyed the way blood pooled in her face when she was embarrassed. It indicated her feelings to me, as her silent mind did not, and I found that the color was somewhat aesthetically pleasing. Remembering her fascination with my face earlier, I wondered why she declined. Furthermore remembering that I was wearing only tattered cloth shorts, I wondered if she found the rest of my body unappealing.

"Do you wish for me to take another pill, Miss Bella?" I asked.

"You don't have to," She replied, "If it will be unpleasant for you."

I swallowed nervously, "Are you going to have me chained up?" She looked back at me quickly, with what looked like anger on her pretty face before saying, "Of course not." Rather aggressively.

"Do you not fear for your safety?" I asked, a malevolent smile sneaking onto my lips.

"Not particularly. You are not as frightening as I had thought you'd be." She said with a shy smile.

"Perhaps it is part of a ruse, to lull you into a false sense of security." I suggested, not entirely sure why I was playing with this human creature.

"Then you gamble with your future, Edward." She said, turning to walk out again. My stomach turned in a foreign manner as she spoke my name. I watched intently as she stepped carefully out of my tiny room and turned back to face me. Peering back in with one eye as she closed the door, she whispered, "I'm sure you know the penalty for killing a human."

I listened through the door as she made her way towards her luxurious bed. I heard her sigh through the rustling of cotton as she climbed into the place that she would rest.

Over and over again I replayed my first conversation with Bella in my head while I deliberated taking another pill. On the one hand, I had no idea if the pill would bring about another Night Terror. Presumably not all vampires suffered them, or at least not every night. If they did, their humans would never get any sleep through their screaming and moaning. Conversely, the prospect of suffering that agonizing death again, trapped within my own head was mortifying. I was not sure I had the courage to swallow that terrible pill.

Bella. Bella. Bella. I rolled the name over my tongue almost silently, just loud enough for me to hear myself. It felt pleasant to me, and sounded nice to my ears that were all too used to screaming commands and insults. I realized bitterly that this was perhaps the longest that I had ever gone without being struck by the horrifying Sangenite clubs that the guards at the market always carried. The men and women at the market were so unlike those that I had found here. Not to say that the humans I had interacted with at the Swan Estate were friendly exactly, but they did not seem to take as much pleasure in my senseless torture as those at the market.

I wondered if I would be lonely here. I remember aching for solitude as I was packed into a room smaller than the one in which I currently resided, with three or four other vampires. I was tormented by their tragic, depressing, furious, and vengeful thoughts. Since vampires do not produce waste or sweat or require rest as humans do, it was considered acceptable to pack us into tiny rooms for storage. We needed nothing but the artificial blood that they fed us. Some longed for human blood, not because of the thirst, as this was quelled by the synthetic blood, but for the flavor and the freedom. Synthetic blood was metallic and empty; it had very little taste at all. I suppose it would be similar to hard water for a human: mostly tasteless, but with a strange unnatural tang of minerals in the aftertaste. It was worse, however, because it dulled the senses. This was perhaps one of the ways it quelled our bloodlust, making humans smell less appealing because we simply could not smell as well.

I longed for animal blood. I have little memory of my human life… it was so long ago, and the memories are murky and dark, like watching them on a television set submerged in a scummy pond. Still, I remember the Great War. I remember, before I was inflicted by the Spanish Influenza, before I was turned, and long before I was captured and enslaved, that I killed a man. I remember the look in his eyes as I pulled the stiff trigger of the reliable Lee-Enfield rifle that we were all issued and the bullet buried itself deep in his chest. I remember his tears and his sick, spluttering, heaving breaths as his eyes glazed over and he choked on his own blood. I have killed men since this soldier, whose name I never learned, after my first death. I have killed many humans and sucked them dry of every drop of blood in their bodies. When I am in the frenzy, I have no remorse, only hunger. Only thirst. After they are dead, and I regain control of myself, however, I look at their faces and I always see the tragic young man from the trenches. I am certain he was younger than me. Only a boy, perhaps fifteen. His face haunts me.

I never wanted to be a monster. Carlisle… my maker… my… father. He taught me to respect human life again after I'd been changed. He helped me see that I could still choose the way I wanted to live, even with the curses that had been bestowed on me. I never blamed Carlisle for what I am. He was lonely. I understood that. He was lonely and he thought he was saving me. Until my capture and enslavement, I might have even agreed with him. I still don't blame him; I just don't think he's right anymore. I hope that he's alright. I don't believe that he was captured the day that I was. We had been in hiding since the changes began in human civilization. I hope that he is still free somewhere.

For perhaps the billionth time since I had first been struck by a Sangenite club, I wished that things could just go back to the way they were. I could go back to my old self-loathing. It was easier then, when I was alone in that. Now the entire human race shared my hatred for myself and my kind, and in this particular case, misery does not in fact love company. The vampire condition, much like the human condition, was difficult to explain and even more difficult to endure. I longed for the time when I endured it in peace. I longed for the time that I did not resent humans for their actions, but merely envied them.

Grudgingly, I decided that it would be in my best interests to try the pill once more. The human, Bella, appeared undisturbed by my waking her, and I hoped that should the Night Terror descend once more upon my slumber, that her patience too would return. As I carefully lay down so that I would not collapse from the sedative, I took the pill. The slumber sneaks up, and can be dangerous for one standing when swallowing the wretched little pill. As I swallowed it thickly, I longed for a simpler time that I would surely never see again.

Please Review! They motivate me to write more :)