WARNING!!! MATURE CONTENT TO FOLLOW!!! This story contains character death, murder, betrayal, and graphic lemons!!!!! PLEASE click off now if this is not your thing!
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"The Soviet Union launched another unmanned spacecraft yesterday. Target: the Moon. After a three-day journey, the four ton probe wi--"
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"A Transnational Airlines Lockheed L-1011 Tristar, on a nonstop flight from Sydney to Los Angeles, vanished from radar screens yesterday over the Pacific. While search and rescue efforts have already begun, the suddenness of the disappearance from tracking equipment and lack of a distress signal does not bode well for the 218 passeng--"
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"A mortar attack on the US Army's main base of operations in North Vietnam at Khe Sanh has claimed the lives of three US soldiers. Ongoing engagements with NVA regulars and Viet Minh insurgents around the area have been costly for both sides, with some estimating that a--"
Isabella Marie Swan sighed and turned off the TV. Sometimes she wondered why she'd bought it; it never held her interest long. Mumbling under her breath, she jumped up from the couch and made her way to the kitchen. As she began chopping up an onion, she fell back on what was rapidly becoming her favorite pastime: trying to figure out what Edward Masen could be.
She'd noticed two main things about the man that attended most of the classes she did at the University of Washington on her first day there. His ruby red eyes and the fact that she was - for some inexplicable reason - determined to find out more about him. Of course there were other odd things about him - many more - such as his unnatural beauty, his impeccable manners, his cold, hard skin, and the fact that he seemed to have an uncanny ability to predict what people were going to say, with everyone except her.
She had compiled this list and attempted to conduct research with her ever inquisitive mind, but she was bogged down at UniWash much as the country was stuck in a quagmire in Southeast Asia, and her free time was mainly spent sleeping or studying. She had good grades to show for it, but it was exhausting. Just two more years... Just two... she thought to herself as she finished flavoring dinner. Leaving the pot to boil, she walked to her roommate's door to tell her that dinner was forthcoming.
She knocked. Waited. Knocked again. Waited.
She frowned. Odd. Her roommate - Angela Weber - was just as tired as she was at the end of a long day, but always answered when she was in. And Bella knew she was in there.
She suddenly felt something cool come into contact with her bare foot. Looking down, she saw a pool of blood leaking from the crack under the door. Swallowing, she opened the door and entered. Later she would wonder why she did that. She tended to run AWAY from blood, not head TOWARD it. And she knew even as the door swung open that what she should have done was gone back into the kitchen and dialed 911. But she felt an unexplainable pull from the other side of that door. Much the same as what she felt whenever she was around...
...Edward Masen. Who was, at the moment, standing behind her roommate's bed. Or rather, her former roommate, as Angela Weber was lying on the hardwood floor with a nauseatingly large pool of blood around a massive gash in her neck. Absurdly, she seemed to have been smiling.
Bella froze in fear. Edward Masen stepped slowly around the bed with an apologetic smile on his face. When he spoke, it sounded like wind chimes.
"In my 51 years in this world, you are one of the only Humans I've ever encountered who has realized that things are not as they should be. And that's exactly why I have to kill you now."
Bella felt the raw terror those words instilled in her. She got ready to plead for her life. Before she could find her voice, however, Edward had moved, impossibly fast, and covered her mouth with an ice cold hand. Tears filled Bella's eyes.
Then Edward removed his hand. But Bella had realized she wouldn't be escaping this alive. Thinking of her father and mother, she managed one last, half whispered, half sobbed "Please."
Edward shook his head. "I really am sorry, Isabella. But sometimes bad things happen to good people. I will make this quick."
Bella felt something cold against her neck. With her last bit of will to live, she breathed "Wait."
She didn't expect him to hear. He did however, and - polite as ever - he waited. "Make me one of you." Bella said in a thick voice.
Bella heard a sharp intake of breath, and knew she had surprised him. This gave her hope. "I don't know what you are, but I know that your... your... better than me and every other Human in Seattle. I don't care if it hurts, I don't care if I have to give up everything. I just don't want to die!
Edward visibly hesitated. "You don't want to be like me Isabella. I hurt people."
Bella didn't know why she said what she did next. She'd always been the kindest soul out there. But when she said the words she knew she meant them. "Maybe I want to hurt people too."
Edward Masen stepped back and regarded her. "You are certainly a remarkable specimen, Isabella Swan. All right then. You want to be one of me, I suppose I cannot, in good concise, turn you down."
With that, he lunged forward and battened his razor sharp teeth on her jugular. Bella gave a strangled little cry and fainted dead away.