Time passed. I refused to see the Monster until he let me see Alice. He refused to let me see Alice until I had turned into... whatever he was. He came in one day, ignoring my protests. "Anna. Stop this... this... CHILDISHNESS! You are too old to play these ridiculous games. Come now, whether you want it or not, it is time." As I realized what he meant, my eyes widened. "No! No no no no no! I won't let you! If you really love me like you say you do, you will give me more time. I don't want to be a... a.... VAMPIRE!" The taboo word that I had forbidden myself to even think came bursting out of my lips. I shuddered, thinking about all of the innocent humans that I would have to kill. The Monster came closer. "Before I turn you, would you like to know my name?" I shook my head at him. I wanted to know nothing about this thing, this hideous man that claimed I was his spawn. He spoke anyway, and I learned the one thing about him that I never wanted to know. "They call me Caius."
I burned. There is no word that can describe my pain. Torture, flaming, burning, agony, all seem mundane and nothing compared to the burning. It took days and days of this for the agony to fade away, or so I am told. The pain was breathtaking. I had no idea how long I was under; I just knew that I wanted it to stop. Caius was with me the whole time, and I cursed him. I told him that I would never forgive him, that I would run away as soon as inhumanly possible. He just held my hand and looked down at me with concern and love in his eyes. The pain slowly, oh so agonizingly slowly, faded away. When my heart stopped beating, he looked down at me. It was all I could do not to punch the Monster in the face. What had he done to me?!
He told me more about myself. As it turns out, I don't eat, I don't sleep, I don't have the ability to procreate. That was one thing that knocked me down – I had always wanted children, somewhere in the future. It took me weeks to come to terms with my new self. I had wildly roiling emotions, and couldn't stop myself from killing huge amounts of humans, filling myself with the delicious elixir that they so conveniently created for me. I grew stronger, and began to resist the mindless killing. I didn't like it, but believed it necessary. So, I started going hunting by myself, looking into the future of everyone that I killed. If they wanted to die, or they were cruel, or they had terrible, unhappy lives, I did them a favour. If not? I left them alone. They didn't deserve to die and I was anything if not heartless.
One day, about 30 years after I had been turned, I asked Caius when we would see Alice. That was when he told me the hardest truth I have ever heard him utter; it forced its way out of his body as if he wanted it out of him as soon as possible. The news crushed me, hurt me, and left me bleeding. "I'm sorry my lovely; she died in the asylum some 25 years ago. I didn't let you know because I didn't want to cause you pain..." A strange keening sound filled the room of our glorious mansion in Italy. I realized, with a strange detachment, that it was me. My heart was breaking; the one person that I had loved in my human life was dead. I fell to the ground, my eternally 16 body failing me for the first time in 30 years. I looked to the future, and saw blackness; but then, I never have been able to see anything about Alice. I ran, and ran, and ran.
When I reached the asylum graveyard, I found her grave. "Mary Alice Brandon", it stated. It was wrong. Her name may have been Mary, but she hated that name; she was Alice, ever since we were babies. I crumpled in a heap, dry tears bursting out. The last thing that I noticed before giving myself over to grief was Caius pulling me into his arms, trying in vain to comfort me.
The next time I resurfaced, it had been nearly a week. I pulled myself up, mentally slapped myself. Alice wouldn't want this, I told myself. So, I returned to Caius, the only loving father that I have ever known. He was sitting in his study. I had grown to love him over the years; His laugh was contagious, and he laughed often. He, too, hated the killing of humans, but knew no other way to live. He loved me too, and after our bad start, we became as father and daughter should be. I loved him so much.
One day, soon after my breakdown, he called me to him and told me he had a proposition for me. "Anna my lovely. You know that I work with the Volturi." This was a touchy topic with him; I thought that the punishments were too hard, while he maintained that the breakers of the law needed to be made examples of. So, to avoid an argument, I simply nodded my head. He continued "Aro has been willing to meet you for many years now. I think it prudent that you come with me to work tomorrow. Will you look to the future for me? I know it is hard for you, but I really need to know how this will go." He was right; it had been getting increasingly hard for me to look to the future. He suspected that it was like a muscle, and if I did not exercise my talent, it would soon leave me for good. I did not care; without Alice, my talent bored and frustrated me. So, with a heft of my mental defences, I looked to the future. It came to me in a series of flashes.
A tall pale man with dark hair, so beautiful... Three empty thrones... Four thrones, with a young woman that I could not quite see in the newest one, seated next to Aro... The new woman, her features blurred so that I could not see her clearly, marrying Aro...
I surfaced with a gasp. When questioned by Caius, I told him that everything was to go well, and that I needed some time to think. As I retired to my room, I thought over this new girl. Her life would obviously impact mine in some way, or else why would I have seen her? And, more importantly, why couldn't I see her? I was not used to my gift failing me. I went back to Caius, telling him I would go with him tomorrow, and then sat talking with him about inconsequential things for the rest of the night.