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Chapter 2

Transitioning

Annabel barely remembered anything during those three days of her transition, except the burning—the constant burning that never seemed to relieve itself. The "demon" had completely drained her, but he had disappeared when she finally awoke from her temporary coma. Nothing prepared her for the shock she would feel when she saw herself in the mirror. True, she had not been a plain girl, but the girl standing before her was not Annabel. This girl was the most beautiful thing she had ever seen with long blond hair, perfect alabaster skin, sharp angular features—a DaVinci carving of an angel. The thing that caught her off guard most was the red blood eyes… this confirmed the suspicion of what she had become… a vampire.

Like her brother, Annabel cherished life and the thought of harming another human being made her sick to her stomach. There was no one to prepare her for this new life and when she finally ventured out into the world the scent of human blood overwhelmed her. Annabel would spend the next several decades growing accustom to humans. She learned to feed off of vermin and learned several things about her "new" self. The one instinct that is innate in any vampire is survival and she knew that she must never show her true self to a human being. She found new things about herself including the scent that lured in humans, the speed, strength, focus, the coldness, hardness, and glitter of skin, the beauty, and venom. She lived as a nomad and would occasionally run into another vampire through whom she learned about the Volturi and their rules of existence.

She knew that she would be lonely and unhappy until she found her brother. Her focus on her mission to find her brother seemed a hundred times more potent than it had in her human life. Between finding him and learning to act human, Annabel kept herself busy reading books, studying new hobbies (such as playing the piano), and transitioning into each new century. When she did meet other vampires, their human diet seemed to interfere into their personalities; therefore, this caused a conflict in making friends who did not live the same life she did. She seemed to be an outcast in this life and she prayed that she would find her brother so at last she would belong somewhere.

Fade into present day…

Over the last three hundred years, Annabelle had been searching for her long lost brother. Her parents had sent out search parties for Carlisle and her years after they disappeared. She had a made a few mistakes during those years appearing in her hometown from time to time to check on her parents. The last trip home had almost cost her life… hound dogs had caught her scent (on a sunny day of all days) and led humans almost directly to her. Thankfully, she had found a place to hide near bushes of honeysuckle which had masked her sweet scent. After this occasion, she never visited her town or her parent's place again. Eventually they would die and Annabel was left alone in this world.

This revelation drove Annabel to new heights to search for her brother. Fortunately for a vampire, they tend to grow assets over the course of time. This allotted Annabel with enough resources to try and find her brother. Annabel searched and searched for any trace of Carlisle. She eventually came upon a painting of him with the Volturi in a small art gallery in the south of France. She had recently been spending time there and taking a break from the search. Annabel was at her wits end and was about to give up the search, considering she had been searching for well over 300 years and had not found a single clue.

Her love of art had brought her to this small gallery to admire the local painters… and there it stood… the answer to her prayers, dreams, and hopes. Through some charm and flirting, she was able to find out how long the painting had been there and where it had been brought from. "The Observers," the name of the painting, had been painted around the end of the 17th century and originally from Volterra, Italy. At long last, Annabel felt relief, hope, and finally some happiness in this very lonely existence. Tomorrow morning she would book a flight to Italy and set out to find the Volturi for some answers.

Author's Note: Finally got this chapter written. It is still short because I am still figuring how to overlap these chapters correctly. I hope that I gave you enough introductions to who Annabel is as a person and enough suspense to last until next time. I'm hoping to have the next chapter up in the next few weeks or so. Please let me know what you think of this so far. Thanks for all the reviews so far!