"I never wanted to be what I am."
Edward put his back firmly against the concrete wall in his cell and slid down, pulling his knees up to his chest.
"You still with me, Charlie?" He lit a smoke, pulled hard on it.
"Still here, Edward. Where'm I gonna go? Besides, you were gonna show me the ropes. Newborn shit, you said. Keep my mind occupied. Given that I'm twitchin' over here, I could use a few tips."
"Tips. Don't have those, Charlie. All I have is a story."
"And all I got is time, son." Charlie grunted. "Distract me. Spin me a yarn."
Edward laughed. "After I was turned, my family dead, I knew, Charlie. I knew I was a killer."
He studied the ash at the tip of his cigarette. He flicked it away and watched as it tumbled to the floor and disappeared, a puff of gray.
"I ran. Had to get out of there. The death. The smell of all that blood. I was afraid. Afraid of what I'd become. Afraid of what I would do."
Somewhere far off, a steel door clanked. Someone screamed. Edward closed his eyes, shutting out the view of the mold-crusted prison walls, the heavy titanium bars, the dark hallway that led to nowhere. He crushed his butt against the wall and lit another.
"Thought I could hide from it. If I didn't face the truth, I wouldn't have to accept it." He laughed. "Little did I fucking know."
"Where'd you go, Edward?" Charlie said. He sounded winded. Out of breath. "This was Chicago, right? World War One in full swing. The roaring Twenties about to get underway. It's not like you could get away from people."
"By then," Edward said, "the munitions factories that had sprouted up around Chicago started closing down. The war, though far from over, was turning our way. We were going to win, it was clear.
"So I hid. Plenty of space to do it in. Those old factories. I told myself I'd never become like them. I'd never do what they had done to me. To my family. I thought about revenge, for a while. But I didn't have it in me, Charlie. Not then I didn't."
He flicked another spent smoke across his cell. Picked at his fingernails.
"Thought I'd kill myself." He laughed. "Tried cutting my veins open. They healed too quickly. Tried shooting myself, but armor-piercing ammo was a little tough to come by back then. Thought I could starve myself to death. Just refuse to feed, no matter the urge."
He was quiet then. Listened to the sounds of the Volturi prison. Far-off footsteps. Snippets of conversation.
"It wasn't too hard at first. No humans around, of course. Not in an abandoned factory. The rats. Fuckin' rats everywhere. I disgusted myself, the urges. Went so far as to catch one once. Killed it. Smelled that fuckin' rat blood, oozing down my hand. The smell, invading me. Taking over. Hadn't eaten in days. Not so much as a drop of blood since I'd been turned.
"Don't know how I did it, but I threw that fucking rat corpse through the window. Told myself then and there I was gonna starve, no matter what."
A member of the Volturi Guard came by. Strolled past Edward's cell door like a fucking robot. Edward read his mind, as he always did when they passed him by. But Caius wasn't stupid. The guard knew nothing.
"Boy," he heard Charlie call out. The guard's feet stopped moving. "We ain't been fed since we got in here two days ago," Charlie said. "Why don't you see if you can do something about that."
The guard walked off without a word.
"No offense, Charlie," Edward said. "I know you must be starving, being a newborn and all. I've been there. But I wouldn't touch whatever they bring. There's no telling where it might come from." He was thinking about Bella, probably strapped down to a table somewhere, her veins tapped, draining her life away. All so Caius could build an army.
"Yeah, I know that. I have an idea, is all. Now, you were telling me a story. I want to hear the rest of it, if you find yourself capable of telling it."
Edward lit another smoke. He was disheartened to see that he was more than halfway through his last pack.
"Days went by. A week, maybe. I don't know. I think it would have worked, starving myself. I was getting weaker by the day. Got so bad I couldn't even chase the rats away. They chewed through my clothes. One even tried feeding on my flesh, but that didn't work out too well for the creature. Seized and collapsed, dead, right on the spot. Even the other rats wouldn't feed on its corpse.
"At first, when the two humans broke in, I thought I was hallucinating. I had been already. Visions of my mother, doing laundry on that lake shore."
He closed his eyes tightly, bit into his lower lip until it hurt.
"They thought I was dead, and I suppose I must have been pretty close by then. Kicked me. Felt for a pulse. Rifled through my pockets. And I let them, Charlie. I let them treat me like an object because that's what I thought I was."
He stood. Pounded a fist into the wall.
"We're not getting out of here, Charlie. We both know that."
"You don't know shit, Edward. Quit your fucking whining and finish the story." He was screaming now, sounded desperate.
Edward winced. "There's no point. What's it matter whether you learn what it's like to be a newborn or not? You're not gonna get a chance. They're going to bleed Bella dry, and then they're gonna kill us. You know the only reason we're still alive is so they can use us as leverage. Force her to comply."
"God dammit, Edward. Get ahold of yourself. You're the toughest man I've ever known. Don't you get that? Special forces, a career on the force. Those people have nothing on you, because the only enemy they ever faced was out there, outside themselves.
"But you? You've been fighting the demon inside you every day, every single fucking day, for almost a hundred years. And you're winning."
"That's bullshit and you know it, Charlie. Take your happy talk and get the fuck out of here. You ain't no shrink, and I ain't your patient."
The two men stewed in silence for a while.
"I can hear what you're thinking, Charlie."
"Good."
Edward sighed. "You wanna hear the rest? Before we get started?"
"You heard what I was thinking, dumbass."
Edward laughed. "I'd rip your head off if it weren't for these bars, you know that?"
"Like to see you try, boy."
Edward lit another smoke. Peered into the pack. Six left.
"I killed them both, of course, bled them dry. Two thugs. They'd made their way across the southland, mugging and killing. Been doing it for years by the time they found me. It felt good, Charlie. And I don't just mean the blood. That made me strong. Stronger, faster than I'd ever been before. Than I'd ever imagined I could be.
"But I mean the killing itself. It felt really, really good. I was in my natural element for the first time in my life."
"You couldn't help that, Edward. It's not your fault."
Another guard approached, walked by without a word. That was the second in the last hour. Activity was picking up. Predictably, the guard's thoughts revealed nothing.
"So I worked out a plan, after that. I'd kill only bad people. It should be easy, I figured. I can read thoughts. I'd find people with wicked thoughts, kill them, drink their blood, move on. It was a way of satisfying the urge, but satiating my conscience."
"Pie in the sky, wasn't it?" Charlie said. "Turns out, we all have wicked thoughts."
Edward smoked another. Five left. "Yeah." He sighed. "People are fucked up. All of 'em. So I gave up trying. I figured if everyone's bad, why bother picking and choosing.
"I killed whomever I wanted from then on, whenever and however I wanted. Had to lay low, of course. It's not like the Volturi would give me a pass.
"But I enjoyed it. Came to see the killing as my punishment. For failing to kill myself. For killing those two men in the factory. For being unable to protect my family. I became a monster."
Charlie grunted. "I've seen my share of monsters," he said. "Every one of them a human. You ain't no monster, Edward. Wouldn't let you near my kid if I thought you were."
"Like to see you try to stop me."
"The fuck you would."
Edward flicked another butt against the wall. Watched it burst, sparks flying, drifting to the floor like spent fireworks.
"You gotta get out of here, Charlie. You don't sound good."
"You ain't my dad." Charlie coughed. Kept going. Sounded like he was hacking up a lung.
"Fuck!" He screamed. He flew into a rage then, one Edward was glad he couldn't see from his cell. It sounded like Charlie was ripping the cell apart, bolt-by-bolt.
Concrete splintered, sending dust into the hallway. Steel clanged against steel. The force shook dust from the ceiling, shook the bars of Edward's cell.
"Guard!" Edward yelled.
Charlie kept pounding. Boom! Boom! Edward wasn't sure if this was Charlie's plan out into action or something else. Something worse.
He sensed someone coming. He hoped that whoever it was would listen. Would get Charlie help, would get him blood, before it was too late.
"Don't worry, Edward," Charlie whispered. "I know what I'm doing."
A trio of guards showed up. Charlie kept pounding. Boom!
Backup arrived. A dozen guards in all, including the hooded figure who'd led them into these cells in the first place. Still, Edward could not get a read on the man.
The hooded vamp nodded, and one of the guards keyed Charlie's cell door open.
Charlie attacked. Edward heard it all, helpless. The growling. The screaming. A headless corpse flew past his cell door. Another. Charlie was killing them one by one.
The hooded vampire stayed still, arms folded, face shrouded in darkness. He watched Edward only. Never turning his head toward the chaos.
Charlie grunted. The sound of bones snapping. Visceral screaming. A cry of rage like none Edward had ever heard before.
The hooded vamp spoke. "Take him to the hole. And throw the seeing one in there with him. Tell her if she can't control him, we'll kill them all."
He came for Edward next.
-30-