Hey guys, I can't thank you guys enough for joining me on another ride. This chapter is short, but I'll make up for that next chapter. I do hope you enjoy.

Thank you to Kyla713 for looking over this and putting up with me, as well as Packeh and Heather.

Enjoy.

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The taste of her was still on my tongue. It was taunting and teasing me, making me crave more, but I was determined not to let this one human girl get to me. Her blood wasn't that special. Besides, it was as if she could hide from me. I could easily find her on her scent alone, days from then. So I wasn't worried; I'd finish her off eventually.

So instead of going after my prey, I sat at my piano and drowned myself in music. I rarely touched it, as it brought back memories I'd rather not deal with or remember. There, unfortunately, was no escaping memories long repressed the minute I began to play one of Chopin's Nocturnes. Memories of a family I once left behind.

"You play so beautifully, Edward." Esme said as she sat down on the piano bench next to me. "Carlisle really did us all a favor, buying this for you. I don't think I could ever tire of you playing."

I turned my head to look at the woman who had become my mother and flashed her a smile. "So, is that your way of asking me to play your song...again?"

"Only if you want to," she replied, winking.

Carlisle, came in then, his hands in his pants pockets. I looked at him, taking in the man who saved me back in nineteen eighteen and made me into what I am. While, thankful for the life he gave me, I struggled with the day-to-day life of the existence itself.

He began to walk towards us and placed his hand on my shoulder. "What do you say to hitting the town square and celebrating the new year?"

"I don't see the point. Nineteen twenty-one will be no different than any other year before."

"Oh, Edward, cheer up a bit, yeah? We'll have fun, that's all the matters," Carlisle told me, before grabbing Esme's hand and pulling her up with him, showing off a devilish smile. I could hear his thoughts, and I knew I didn't want to be there with what he had in mind.

"Fine. I'll meet you guys there then," I replied, getting up and leaving the room.

I wandered around the dark parts of town, watching revelers get drunker and drunker as midnight drew closer. I had no intention of meeting up with them; I didn't feel like being the third wheel again. But before I could continue on, a voice infiltrated my head of a young girl, lost and wondering if she should ask for directions. I followed her mind and found her, crouching down in an alley, obviously drunk.

"Are you lost?" I asked, walking closer to the helpless girl.

She looked up at me, her hazel eyes growing wider as she took me in. "Yes. Um... I was supposed to meet my friends up in the university district and I seem to have become lost. Can you help me?"

'Oh, my helpless girl, I can definitely help you. Just not in the way you're thinking. I shook my head, trying to clear it of dark thoughts, stamping down the monster inside me.

"Just follow me, you're only a few blocks off. I'll be glad to take you." I held out my hand to help her up, hoping she wouldn't notice my coldness. We began to walk, but the venom that began coating my throat and inside of my mouth was becoming hard to handle. I swallowed repeatedly, hoping I could just leave the girl and go back to the house.

The venom and hunger pangs won out. Before we rounded the next corner, I pulled the girl back into a vacant alley, completely dark and devoid of anyone who could save her. I pressed her up against the brick building, my body caging her in.

"I'm so sorry," I whispered before my lips and teeth found her neck and I drank greedily. Her blood coating my throat was so much better than the animal blood I had lived on for the past few years. I drank to the last drop, listening as her heart gave its last thump as I dropped her to the ground and walked away, not at all looking back at my first victim.

I never returned to Carlisle and Esme after that night, nor had I spoken to them since. I caught Carlisle's scent once, and then left the city as quick as I could. I couldn't face him and have him know the shame and guilt that I still carried.

Slamming the piano cover down, I stood up and paced my small apartment, nostrils flaring as I remembered her scent, her blood, everything about her. I stepped outside and breathed in as deep as I could and traced her scent. I then began to follow it until I came up to a brick town house, the lights off and house quiet. I scaled the building, hitting the third floor, where I found a window open, which I then climbed into.

Her room was at the end of the hall, I could tell by the scent that overwhelmed me coming from under the door. Venom flooded me as I closed my eyes, willing it to retreat along with my hard on. I opened the door and silently walked into her room. She was laying on her side, blankets bunched up to her hips, her hair a tangled mess across her pillow.

I sat and watched her that night, calculating my next move, my next fix. I'd have her, and there was nothing she could do about it. She was in my line of sight and I never let my prey go so easily.

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Thank you for reading. So, thoughts?