Chapter Two – Diamonds, Visions and A Reflection
I looked at myself again – I clearly needed to come by clothing. And for clothing I clearly needed money. I came to the decision that I would need to get a job of sorts, but wasn't entirely sure that I would be able to get one very easily.
I considered what sorts of jobs I would be able to do without being too conspicuous, for I assumed as I had thought vampires to be a myth before I became one that the existence of us was meant to be kept a secret.
The burn in my throat took this moment to project itself into my conscious thoughts, and even though it must have been only five or six hours since I had last fed, I knew that I would have to hunt again soon.
As I rose from the floor that I had seated myself on, I was surprised yet again by the fluency of the movement and the fact that I wasn't stiff at all, for I had been sitting still on the hard ground for more than four hours.
I ran back towards the clearing by the mountain range, but when I got there this time, there was a smell unlike any another I'd smelt the last time I'd come here, earlier this day. It was easily the most delicious thing that I had encountered in this short existence.
As I took the position that I already knew was the one that I started to hunt in, another of the visions that I had been having came before my eyes.
It was of a man, maybe in his late twenties, or early thirties walking through a sparse forest, more of a collection of trees.
For a moment or two, I wondered why I saw the future of this man, until I saw myself running so fast it was a little blurred, even to my eyes, with a savage, hungry expression on my face. I saw him look terrified momentarily, before I leapt at him, and attacked his neck and devour his blood.
I knew that he was the delicious smell that I could sense now, and from the clear focus of the vision, knew that it was inevitable if I hunted within a twenty mile radius of here, and the fire in my throat couldn't last that long, even if it would only take a few minutes to run that.
As the vision cleared, I bunched my muscles in preparation, and sprang forward at the lightning speed that exhilarated me, toward the delicious smell. As I crossed the clearing to the scene that I had looked upon just minutes, if not seconds before, I came in sight of the man. His face was holding the expression that I already knew would be there.
I leapt at him, and savagely attacked his neck, trying to end this as quickly as possible for him.
The blood that ran down my throat was unbelievably sweet and I was keen for more and more. When the poor man was drained and dead, I surveyed his broken body; distraught at the deed I had just done, blinded by the fierce need to quench the fire that overpowered all sense of right and wrong.
I swore to myself never to drink the blood of a human again, and hoped that I would be able to remember that promise the next time I felt the need to quench the unending thirst that I seemed to have.
Keen to keep the thirst at bay so as not to lose control like that again, I came across a deer, and decided that it would have to do. I felt full, saturated even, and was confident that this would keep me content for another ten hours or so.
I made my way to a boulder, and on taking a seat on it, again being shocked by how fragile it felt underneath me. Wanting to see how strong I really was, I pressed my fingers into it, and to my amazement, it started to crumble beneath them. I scooped some of the strangely soft element into my hand and brought my hand into a fist around it.
I opened my hand and was astonished to find that my palm was full of merely dust – I must be strong then, very strong. I giggled, for what I realised had to be the first time ever in this body, and the beautiful sound that came from my lips gave me instant gratification, and immediately reminded me that my face was beautiful, too.
I wanted to find that river again, so that I could have another chance to look at my new face. I kept my eyes open this time, in the hope to see it through the trees while also listening intently to try and hear it.
I decided that smell might also help to find it and I breathed in deeply.
I found the creek that I'd looked in before, and flew to it in my sudden yearning to look at my face again.
As I arrived at the river, I let out a breath that I hadn't realised I was holding, clearly, I reminded myself with another exquisite giggle, because I hadn't needed to take it in the first place.
My face was exactly how I remembered, perfectly recalled like a snapshot in my brain, it was beautiful and even though I spent quite a time searching for a flaw, I couldn't find one.
This time I looked at it more thoroughly.
My eyes were still a vivid crimson, but as I tried to look away from them, I noticed that my eyelashes were thick and long, my eyes themselves a perfect oval shape.
My nose was perfectly straight; decidedly small and definitely button like, but it suited my face perfectly.
My skin was the palest thing that I'd ever seen; similarly pallid to snow, or clouds, but it was also flawless, without a blemish or imperfection anywhere on its surface. Decidedly the piece of my face that I adored most was my lips.
They were a perfect rosy colour, one that harmonized with my face entirely, despite the white shade of my skin. My bottom lip was perfectly formed and my top lip had the perfect dip exactly in the centre. Together, they formed not quite rosebud lips, but more of a pucker, which I decided I liked more than rosebud anyway.
The wind blew lightly, making me aware of my hair for the first time, fanning my face. It was a deep black, and was sticking out in all directions as the wind blew.
After five minutes of attempting fruitlessly to straighten it, I decided that the messy look suited me and returned to staring at my face.
I noticed the sky start to darken after a time, and rising from my cross-legged form, I saw in my reflection that I was tiny.
Minute.
I couldn't have been five foot even. I shrugged it off, still glowing in the intense gratification of my face.
The night and darkness did nothing to affect my seemingly flawless vision, just changed the colours around.
The tree trunks were black now, with leaves that were deep purple. I looked with fascination at the grass, which I noticed was now a much darker shade of green, and the solitary boulder that I could see from half a mile away across the clearing was pitch black.
I wondered what I would do on these endless days and nights, how was I going to get clothes and money and most importantly, what my name was.
I tried to stretch my mind back to being human, but yet again found that I couldn't find anything. I tried to remember anything, a face, a name, a person, a job, a parent, anything.
As I concentrated on my name, one came through my seemingly impenetrable barrier.
Alice.
Alice.
Alice.
My name was Alice.
I liked it, it had a…quality to it somehow, and I think it suited me, well me now, anyway. Names reminded me of Japer Whitlock, I wonder what my surname was?
I thought hard, but nothing came to me, so I assumed it was something that I wouldn't ever know. Hmm…
Alice Whitlock…
Jasper and Alice Whitlock…
Not now, I told myself, one day, but not know. I had a strange yearning for this man that I'd never met, and as much as that should have troubled me, it really didn't.
It was at that moment that I had another vision.
Carlisle Cullen was in some sort of white suit, and was standing in a large room, full of, sort of…carts, with wheels on, but on top of them there seemed to be something holding up the lumps covered in white sheets.
He noticed something going on outside so Carlisle went to the door and looked surprised to see a mangled woman on a stretcher being carried towards him. I then realised that the lumps were dead humans, and wondered at how strong Carlisle's self-control must be like to work at a hospital.
The woman on the stretcher was in an awful state, I think she was dead, in fact, I was almost certain she was dead, covered in her own blood and her legs and arms bent at odd angles that a human could surely not be in.
Carlisle came out and helped the people carry her in, for they did not have the immeasurable strength that we had. He took her in and bid the humans goodbye, and turned around to the woman.
Her heart was still beating.
He took a deep breath, walked over to the door, locking it and returned to the woman. She made barely a sound when his teeth bit into the flesh of her neck. All that came from her lips was the tiniest gasp that only could have been heard by ears like ours.
When he pulled away he had such a look of deep compassion in his eyes that they almost were burning.
The vision abruptly came to and end, and I was thrown back into reality, in a slight state of shock.
How had Carlisle managed to pull back after biting this woman?
I remembered his control as I thought back to his job occupation. A doctor? Why would a vampire have any want to be a human doctor?
He must be just as compassionate as the look in his eyes had shown to do such a thing for humans.
I replayed my older vision in my head, of Carlisle, the first one I'd had of him, to see if he had others with him. Now that I knew he drank from animals, and that fact didn't shock me quite as much to distract me anymore, I remembered seeing someone in the background.
It was a man, but he looked decidedly younger that Carlisle, for his face definitely had more boyish features.
He was a vampire, too.
I knew this instantly from his eyes, which were also the gold colour of Carlisle's.
His hair was messy, and a strange bronze colour, his nose and features, like Carlisle's and mine, were perfectly set and straight. He had high cheekbones, full lips, a strong jaw line, and was tall at what I reckoned to be over 6ft.
Despite his height he was surprisingly slender, yet still somehow muscular. Strange. Maybe that's how all male vampires were; come to think of it Carlisle and Jasper were quite muscular as well, though Jasper had more of a build than the one with the bronze hair.
What was his name?
Edward.
His name was Edward Cullen, and he was changed at the age of 17, in Chicago in 1918 by Carlisle when he was dying of the Spanish Influenza.
He had a gift, just like me, which I was slight put out to find that it was that he could read minds. Surely that was better than being able to see the future?
Oh well, seeing the future is pretty good, too.
I thought to myself, thinking that it would be annoying to have voices talking in your head the whole time. I least I had a power, most vampires didn't, Carlisle doesn't have one.
My mind returned to the vision I had just had, it was going to happen soon, I could tell that. It couldn't be in longer than a few days, at the most.
I was very happy for Carlisle, for he had been alone for centuries and he had only recently found Edward, three years back.
Carlisle had been very anxious about how to go about transforming Edward, as it was his first experience, but it looked as if he'd found out the proper method after that, knowing his compassion, probably to cause as little pain as possible.
Pain? I rethought that, something that my brilliant mind was not used to doing.
I now somehow knew that in the transformation, one went through frightful pain, like a burning fire, but I recalled no pain, no burning, other than the one that was beginning to return to my throat.
Strange… Oh well, I guess I was really lucky not to have experienced it, and felt dreadfully sorry for this poor woman who was soon to go through it.
I began to have another one of the visions, and slumped against the bolder I had wandered over to while thinking of Carlisle.
Her name was Esme.
She was lying on her back on a stretcher, her eyes wide in alarm, staring at Carlisle who was standing over her.
She had caramel-colored hair; she also had a heart-shaped face with dimples, which made her look very endearing. Her figure was slender, but rounded and soft, giving her more of a motherly look.
Her perfect little face contained eyes the same vivid crimson colour as mine, so I came to the conclusion that it must have something to do with only just becoming a vampire. As she looked at Carlisle, the same spark of recognition I'd noticed in Carlisle's eyes when she'd been carried in appeared in her own, along with a look of…want?
She began to talk of a burn in her throat, a fire, and I winced as I remembered the feeling of the all consming thirst.
When her eyes opened I noticed a massive amount of relief sweep through Carlisle's eyes, and I wondered why, because he had changed Edward before her, and he knew the process of the change.
Maybe Esme meant more to Carlisle than I had had originally realised.
The vision ended there.
So Carlisle was not alone, like I had originally thought. He lived with another man, and now a woman, who might soon be a wife.
I wonder if I tried to see the future of someone, then I could? It's worth a try…
Esme and Carlisle…together…
A picture covered my vision, and I was pleased that I was able to see it after searching. It was a wedding. A very small wedding, in fact. There was a beautiful arch that was woven with all sorts of flowers, it the colours of white, light pink, a creamy colour, all of them pale, harmonising well.
I had an overwhelming urge to do something about the wedding, plan it, choose dresses, arrange hair and do make-up. As I considered doing this, a bubble of excitement crept up my throat, but shot right back down again because I reminded myself that of course I couldn't.
Esme was being led, up the aisle strangely, by Edward, but it made sense to me when I thought that her father definitely wouldn't be there to do that, and Edward was the only other person there apart from Carlisle, Esme and the minister.
I then found out that Edward was posing as Esme's brother at that point in time, so it only made sense in they eyes of the minister.
After leading Esme up the aisle, he stood between them, opposite the minister holding two beautiful rings. One of them was a simple gold band with an expensive look to it, and the other held a beautiful, sparkling diamond, with the band encrusted with them too.
I didn't have to be the genius I admittedly was to figure out which was whose.
Esme's dress was gorgeous, and I craved it at once, thinking about the awful state of the rags I was in.
Carlisle was wearing a tuxedo, and Edward was wearing a simple suit with a tie.
Esme looked even more stunning than she had the first time I had seen her, though I had to admit that I could have done a better job on her hair, even though it did look nice.
It felt like I was sitting watching the wedding and no one knew of my presence. All three of them were smiling, Esme's and Carlisle's, with joy, though Edward's looked slightly, proud?
He must be pleased that Carlisle had finally found someone after all the time he had spent alone.
I'm sure if someone were to see me now, I would be wearing a giant grin, and once they had got over the fact that I was wearing just rags, if they did, they may be concerned for my mental health.
As Carlisle lifted Esme up slowly and like a human, I could see his irate expression at having to put on a human charade in front of the minister. He began to walk with Esme in his arms down the isle, though he knew he was perfectly capable to sprint, for the weight did nothing to slow him down.
I had gotten so into it that I was a little disorientated as the vision finished.
It had reminded me that I really needed proper clothes, and that somehow I needed to get money to buy them.
I sighed as my thirst began to return – it had only been five or six hours since night had fallen and I'd last hunted – and began to head back into the forest, glad of the fact that it would work out for Carlisle and Esme.
X x X
The sun began to break through the clouds as I was finishing my hunt. The sun didn't come out at all yesterday, and I hoped that it was just chance and not the general weather here because I liked the sun.
As I returned to my familiar bolder, now in odd shapes and twists as a result of the experiment I had done on it earlier, the sun broke through the clouds and I scuttled into it to see if it would warm my freezing skin and gasped in shock as I looked at my arms.
As I looked at the rays of weak light on my arms, I was not only being warmed up a little.
I was glittering.
Sparkling.
I looked like my skin was covered in diamonds everywhere the rays touched.
The sun burst further through the clouds, and my whole body was covered in the shining, shimmering mass of glitter.
Hang on a minute…weren't vampires meant to melt in the sun? Huh, I guess that was a myth, then. Pretty good thing that it was a myth, too, because otherwise I would have been a little puddle by now. What other myths are there about vampires?
A stake through my heart?
Well, supposing that stakes are made of wood and I can crush a boulder, I'm assuming that's also a myth. I can understand where the myth of vampires melting came from, what with us not being able to go out in the sun and all that…but a stake? Maybe just something to make humans believe that they had a chance against our superior strength and speed… And I guess that garlic is the same kind of thing, because I really doubt that of all things, garlic would penetrate our defence. I wondered how I knew this, but let it go, as I was
Okay…
…So I am a vampire…
…I sparkle in the sunlight…
…I don't drink human blood I drink animal blood…
…I don't sleep…
…I don't eat…
…I'm amazingly fast and strong…
…I'm incredibly beautiful…
…I can see the future…
…and my name is Alice.
Okay, so now I have nine lines about who and what I am. That's everything about me in the entire world.
Well, I guess it's a start…