I took in the same surrounding as before but somehow they were different, crisper, cleaner, and more detailed. A weird sort of light filtered in that I had never seen before and it just made everything more so than it had been. Whatever had happened to me had made everything more than it had been. I could hear more: the cars out on the streets along with the soft conversations of people next door and outside. Someone had music playing up the street, a new tune that I had heard played in the hospital wing just days before, but now that I thought about it the sound had been dulled somehow. Now that I listened to it I could pick out every instrument in the band and the notes that were being played something that I had only tried to do before with the music training I had. When I had tried it had taken me months to get out just one instrument and be able to play it by ear and here I could do it in a matter of seconds. The thing that intrigued me most was the sound of a steadily beating heart. I could tell that the thumping was coming from inside the room but as I pivoted my head on the table, looking around what appeared to be a dining room I couldn't see anyone. I could hear other people in the room next door though, a struggle it appeared to be.
"Edward, no!" The familiar voice of Dr. Cullen shouted and I sat up quicker than I ever had in my life, quicker that I thought possible as my hair whipped out behind me. Before I even really thought about getting up I had jumped off the table which I seemed to note in the back of my mind had a lot of very distinct scraps in the fine wood: four deep gashes over and over on either side of where I had been. Quickly, I pulled open the door and it came right off the hinges, flying across the room. In utter shock I just looked at it land with a crash and then looked down at my hands.
Unable to do anything else I just looked at the pale flesh and perfectly shaped nails on them. I had always been a creamy white, the acceptable tone of beauty in society but this was almost on the verge of horror as it had this sort of glow to the white that was unnatural. Then as I focused on the nails I could see wood splinters under the perfectly manicured nails and thought back to the table. Suddenly I was shoved to the ground by a force that I wasn't expecting and it seemed as if an animalistic side that was new and untapped sprung forward.
Letting out a growl, I pushed against the force and heard the crash of the body as it hit the beautiful crystal chandelier above and then crashed down. Sneering, I jumped to my feet and into a protective stance narrowing my eyes until they set on the semi-familiar face of Edward. He jumped to his feet, mimicking my stance and then we both truly set eyes on each other. I saw the white skin first, it was hard to miss and was identical to my own, just like the hair that seemed to hold an even stranger but alluring bronze tint. Then I looked to his features which were more angular and grown looking, taking away from the picture of the boy I knew. Seeking the confirmation that it was him I looked to the eyes, hoping for the emerald green, my emerald green, our mother's emerald green but let out a gasp. My own eyes went wide as I set on the vivid red that they were, bright blood red and backed up in shock. His own eyes grew wide and quickly raised his hand to his face touching just below his eyes as he straightened out of his stance. Flicking his eyes over to me, his got this look of pain on his face, a pain that I just wanted to stop.
"Genevieve?" he whispered questioningly, but it wasn't a question of who I was, but more what was happening. What he was seeking must have been answered as he looked at me. And I knew that he must have found a comfort in me that I hadn't yet found in him as the room went silent all except the same steady beating which was beginning to grow annoying to me. So annoying that I wished it would stop and it did, leaving us in silence as he locked eyes with me once more and he then let out his own shocked gasp. Just then I caught a slight movement to the side and I flicked my eyes over to see none other than Dr. Cullen standing in the open doorway. It was only then that I saw something which I hadn't ever before and that was the glow that his pale skin had to it, just as mine did now. The once handsome doctor was even more so now at I took in every detail of his flawless face, just as Edward was now. His angular features made my once handsome brother even more so and I wondered what the girls of the neighborhood that fawned over him would think now.
Just then he let out a snort of almost laughter looking over at me and I glanced over in confusion along with Dr. Cullen. "What?" I questioned thinking that it was a very weird thing to do at the moment like this. But then his amused looked turned to one of horror and confusion and he closed his eyes and the expression grew. Reaching up he covered his ears.
"Stop," he said quietly.
"Stop what?" I questioned in worry and thoughts of what was happening raced through my mind.
"Talking," he said a little louder, clamping his hands over his ears.
"No one's talking, Edward," I rushed over to him, covering the ten feet between us in less than a second and crouched down beside him. Gripping his chin, I tilted his face up to look at me as I had when we were kids, a trait that I had learned from mother but with my eyes drilling into him he was never able to keep something hidden from me. "Tell me what's wrong," I demanded and instantly his eyes glazed over.
"I can hear voices in my head," He replied in this sort of dull, monotone voice. Quickly I pulled away and his eyes went back to normal. "They're so loud," he cried and I stood, looking to Dr. Cullen. While he wasn't exactly my favorite person at the moment he was the only one that could help and he seemed to get that it was needed. With confusion etched on his face he moved in and focused on Edward. "Yes," Edward said to something with a nod and the confusion turned to astonishment on Dr. Cullen's part. "Ok," He spoke again and I saw the pain on his face slowly start to fade away. Slowly Edward's hands dropped to his sides and he let out a soft sigh, but kept his eyes closed. "They aren't as bad now," he whispered, almost as if afraid to upset a delicate balance.
"If it happens again just focus in on my thoughts and push it to the back of your mind like I told you," Dr. Cullen said and I figured out that he had been feeding Edward thoughts: he had been reading the minds of those around us. Still stooped on the ground he kept his eyes closed as Dr. Cullen stood and looked to me quizzically. I swallowed once and only now noticed the burning pain in the back of my throat, almost as if I had just had once of my coughing fits.
He continued to look at me, but more specifically my eyes and feeling uncomfortable under his stare, even though it had been less than a minute, I spoke. "What?"
"Well it's just that you both are quite unusual even for this life," he whispered, but it was almost to himself.
It was then that the burning question flew out of my mouth, causing Edward to finally look up as well. "What are we?"
oOo
"You're joking," I deadpanned.
"He's not," Edward murmured, I'm guessing from having read his thoughts.
Carlisle, as I learned his first name was, had told us both his story after sitting down in the undamaged sitting room. This had lead up to the realization that we were vampires, "living," "breathing," vampires. We would, from now on, drink blood and live forever unless killed by some force which would tear us apart and burn us. It was a morbid and unsettling thought that we were now defying the thought of the cycle of life by being here.
Forever I would be frozen as a 19 year old woman, right as I was right now. But then there was also the slightly unsettling thought that we couldn't even be normal vampires, we were unusual monsters. Edward could read mind, every mind and he was getting startlingly good at it even in the hour which we had woken up. He had his lapses and I would see him cringe as voices flooded his own mind then it would cease and the questioning, straight face would come back.
Then there was me. I had woken up with a heartbeat, which surprised, confused and I think even maybe annoyed Carlisle because he didn't have a definite answer as to what had happened as he did with Edward. And then there also were my eyes which all hadn't changed as they should have. Both said that when they first saw me my eyes had been the normal emerald green that they had always been, but then once the sound of the heartbeat had stopped they turn to the vivid red which they were supposed to be. There was one thing that Carlisle had been able to pinpoint and that was the demand I had asked of Edward.
"So you're saying that I can compel people to tell me whatever I want by looking in their eyes?" I murmured after he touched on the subject.
"I'm guessing that you can do more than that once you get the hang of it. You also might not even have to look in their eyes," He guessed with a hint of curiosity in his voice.
Already we were freaks in a world of freaks, but Carlisle didn't seem to mind and we had each other. Even with that support though I found myself numb, and unable to properly process what exactly had happened. Edward I could tell just by his demeanor was a little disgusted with what we were; using the word monster with a malice I had never heard him use as Carlisle described the process of feeding. Carlisle seemed to take note of the malice but wasn't hurt by it, his compassion and understanding that I remembered from before, leeching through. But I, well…as I stared down at the grain on the slightly warped wooden floor board—something that would have gone unnoticed by a human—I felt nothing; just as when I saw the empty space where my mother had been around three days ago.
It was as if I had accepted the fact of dying for so long that I couldn't mourn the death of this life that I felt I should've had. I couldn't be happy for living because I truly wasn't. I doubt that I would find a man to love…or vampire…and even if I did I couldn't have the family that every girl dreams of. But I wouldn't have had those anyway because I would have died from the Spanish influenza. I couldn't be bitter over losing a life and I couldn't be happy about living to see another sunset so I was stuck in the middle, just like my life. Never truly living nor dying, just being here to observe. Closing my eyes I silently wished that I could have that life that I had dreamed about for so long. I wanted my life back, to how it was before the stupid epidemic. I wanted the beating heart and emerald green eyes that my husband could see and feel.
Suddenly they were there, or at least the heart was, but as I flipped open my eyes in surprise, I saw the shock increase on Carlisle's face and knew that the eyes were there also.
"How did you do that?" he questioned and I was starting to realize just how curious he was. How he craved this new knowledge and I bet he was like that with everything. Wanting to learn all he could and he still was at over 250 years old, which was a good thing I guess because it meant that even then you could always learn more.
"I don't know," I answered honestly. "I just wanted it to happen and it did, I guess," I said as more than a question as opposed to the answer I had meant it to be. "But…" I furrowed my brows, "now that I think about it before I had wanted the beating to stop and it did."
"What about the eyes?" Edward asked, looking to the color and I could see a wistful look cross his face.
"I don't even know about them half the time. Maybe it's connected?" Again I said it more as a question and Carlisle furrowed his brows along with pursing his lips in thought.
"Maybe it has something to do with the compulsion," he guessed, thoughtfully. "It's interesting though. It will make it easier for you to fit into society.
"I guess," I murmured, still unsure how I felt about being around people now since at any moment I could snap and take someone's life.
"Well, not now of course," he corrected seeming to catch onto the thought even though Edward was the mind reader. "For now, at least for a few months I'll bring you in blood—animal of course—before bringing you out at night to hunt. When you can start to go outside in the late hours with few people around, in about four months we'll move to somewhere more remote. That will give me enough time to put in a resignation and leave without drawing attention."
Both Edward and I agreed with the plan, neither of us wanting to risk a life and then drank our first taste of blood. A small animal with Carlisle had caught and drained in a hurry, not wanting to leave two newborns unattended in a large city alone for a long time. It was delicious but not the most delicious thing that I could imagine. It had an almost bitter taste which Carlisle said was from the animal being a herbivore, but it dulled the burning in the back of my throat.
It was our first steps at being a vampire. Both of us now freaks among freaks, but we had little else for choice now and back when we were human.
