Fire.
Scorching hot fire.
My body screamed and it took everything in me to not follow suit and let out my own wails.
This is it, I thought amidst the pain. This is my punishment for my life of sin.
The fire raged in my every nerve for three whole days, though time passed so slowly that it felt like a lifetime.
Please, God, please let this suffering end. Why must I burn before facing the fires of Hell for the rest of eternity?
Finally, the scorching pain subsided. I laid still, afraid that movement would spark it up once again. After a few minutes, I tried moving my body one appendage at a time. My fingers and toes were fine, as were my arms and legs. I sat up with surprising ease and looked down at my unblemished body.
"Why is my skin unmarked? Where are the burns?" I mused aloud. "Surely that man had set me alight…"
I looked around and tried to slowly stand. I say "try" because I ended up moving much faster than I ever thought I could. I furrowed my brows, once again looking over my unfamiliar body.
I realized that I was along the riverbank outside of the city, hidden among reeds. I looked into the water and was rendered speechless at my reflection. I reached for my face and, sure enough, the woman staring back at me did the same. Even among the distorted ripples, I could tell that I was different. Not just different, but almost ethereal with new beauty.
Despite the dim light of the night, I could see as clearly as if it were day. My brown hair was vibrant and showed tints of red I'd never seen before. My skin no longer held the wear of the sickness that had kept me bedridden for the last two weeks. Instead, it seemed healthy yet was as pale as the moon above.
My eyes…oh, my eyes. The were no longer the warm earth tones given to me by my mother. Now they were a brilliant scarlet, reminiscent of the demons portrayed in the paintings in the church.
"Oh Father," I cried out, my heart sinking in my chest as I fell to my knees, reaching toward the reflection before me. "Father, please forgive your sinful daughter. Please forgive her for the heresy she has spoken and the blasphemy she has committed. I must be receiving my punishment, for there is no way these eyes belong to one worthy to be your child."
As I mourned my new fate, I realized that the water before me looked more detailed than I had ever noticed before. I could see tadpoles resting among the rocky river bottom with intense clarity. I also noticed that my voice seemed more melodic than before, as if a choir of bells sang along with my words.
Panicking at this new sight and sound, I rose from my kneeling position and looking to my surroundings. I could see the dew forming on the vegetation, glistening under the moon's light. Under the dew, the veins of the plants. Beneath the veins, grains of dirt and sand. On the dirt, tiny bugs in a hurry to get their food back to their hill.
I swallowed, trying to chase away the fire that still resided in my throat, and bitterly admired the world as I now saw it. It seemed my damnation was also a sour blessing. It would be many weeks before I realized how much of a curse it really was, when the scorching was unbearable and an innocent merchant traveling in his cart came across my path.
Blood. Drink. Drink blood. Prey. Eat. Thirst.
It was as if my mind became an animal. I launched myself at the merchant, teeth bared and instincts taking control. He was shouting, struggling, and cried out, "Demon!"
At that word, I froze. I stared down at the man in horror, terrified at what I had almost done. I leapt away from him, my new sense of smell telling me there was a different source of blood nearby. My head whipped around to the merchant's mule and, once again, my body went into a frenzy of its own. Before I knew it, the burning in my throat was satiated and the mule in my grasp was limp.
In that moment, I fully realized that the monster I had become was the very same one I had lost my father to years before. I couldn't sleep, no matter how long I laid still. I couldn't eat, throwing up the moment a piece of bread reached my stomach. Surprisingly, I could go out in sunlight, but the effect of doing so very obviously pointed to me not being human. No human shone beneath the sun like light reflecting through stained glass windows.
After the encounter with the merchant, I made my way back to the river to wash away the mule's blood.
"Isabella," I muttered to the girl reflected in the water. "You've become a demon. You know what you are. Why can't you say it out loud? You must. You must accept it and follow a path Father would be proud of despite your new form."
I sighed, pain evident on the face looking up at me.
"Isabella," I whispered, my throat clenching, trying to stop the next words from escaping my lips, "you've become…a vampire."
Months passed as I tried to adjust to my new life. From the moment I realized I could satisfy my thirst with the blood of animals, I decided I would never become one of the monsters my father fell to. Human blood would never cross my lips.
Sometimes I felt as if I was being watched from the shadows, but my newly heightened senses could never find anything to confirm this feeling. I wondered if this paranoia was from fear of being tracked down by Grandfather and his men. It saddened me to think that he didn't know what happened to me after I disappeared in the middle of the night, though I faintly hoped that he had a suspicion.
I trekked across the countryside, never stopping and never with an end goal in mind. I quickly found that I could not drown nor perish from falling off a cliff. I could neither cut my skin with a knife nor succumb to the hangman's noose. Try as I might, this was an existence I was burdened with and had no way out of. It was as if I had turned into one of the marble statues at the church.
There was a single day that I had hope of an escape. I was feasting upon a bear in its cave in southeastern Franch when I heard footsteps approach me. I rose slowly, ready to run if it was a human. I saw that the one who approached me was human in form, but the scent of copper wafting off him told me he was not as he appeared. I couldn't see his eyes as they were hidden by the large brim of a cavalier hat.
"My child," he greeted me with a disturbingly sweet grin and outstretched arms, blocking my exit as he noticed my eyes dart around in search of a path. "It is such a pleasure to see you up close once again."
I recognized his voice and the smell of figs, albeit only faintly. It was like something out of a dream I had when I was young, though I knew that was not right. Regardless of where I recognized him from, my instincts screamed danger.
"Who are you?" I growled, moving into a defensive stance. "And how do you know my name?"
"It saddens me to know that you do not recognize me, my child," his gentle yet grating voice sounded amused as he made a show of taking his hat off. "Though I suppose it can't be helped. After all, that night was very dark."
As soon as he said that, I knew where I had heard him before. If I were still human, my blood would have ran cold.
"I see the recognition in your eyes now," he purred. "You finally remember your father."
"You are not my father," I spat at the stranger. In looks alone, he was the exact opposite of the man who brought me into this world. Where my father had hair as gold as the midday sun, this man had locks that matched the midnight sky. Where Father was pale from life spent in overcast London, this man had skin that hinted at a homeland far south. Where Father was gentle in appearance and stance, this man was obviously a predator.
The biggest difference, though, was his eyes. Father's eyes were soft. This man's were piercing. Father's eyes were like frozen dew on a winter's morning. This man's eyes were like rivers of blood.
"I may not have been the one to create you, but I am the one who created you." He started stepping forward, like a cat creeping up on prey. "You were brought into this world by a man and a woman, but I am the one who made you what you are. I am your sire."
"You're the one who turned me into this demon," I whispered, feeling very much like a mouse. I knew I was strong, but I also knew strength meant nothing when faced with experience, and experience is something I felt that this vampire had plenty of.
"Ah but child, you are no demon," he chided. "You are a perfect being. Some say we are angels. Some say we are gifts from the gods. Some say we are gods ourselves. Whatever we are, we are the most highest creatures to walk this earth."
I was silent, taking in his words and watching his approach. I again tried to find an open path around him. I had speed, but I didn't know how fast he was either.
"Now I am here to show you how to live your life as a vampire," he continued. If he caught on to my planning, he didn't acknowledge it. "I know you've been drinking the blood of animals and avoiding humans at all cost. What you're doing may be admirable to some, but I want you to know it is unnecessary. Humans are naught but our cattle, meant to be taken to slaughter when we see fit."
"What does that make me to you?" I retorted. "A steer cannot become a farmhand and yet here I am."
"In the sense of cattle and their farmers, you would be correct. A cow cannot turn into a farmer no more than a potato can turn into an apple. However." He finally stopped his slow approach no more than ten feet from me. "As I said before, you and I are perfect beings. We get to choose our children from those already born. This is what allows us to remain perfect. We don't have to arrange marriages and hope our spouses gift us with a remarkable child. We can pick one out like we can choose vegetables at the market. And you, my dear, are the ripest of vegetables. Your beauty, your lineage, and your ease in throwing away the Christian God are all qualities that make you an ideal candidate."
"I did not throw away the Christian God," I growled at him. "I simply acknowledged the existence of other gods. I still believe in the God my father devoted his life to."
"Ah, Carlisle. What a dedicated lad," the creature before me chuckled. I hissed when he said Father's name. "He was too young to be a feast for my brother. It's a shame he had to end up in the gutter like that, leaving his precious daughter all alone for twelve long years."
Rage boiled inside of me, but I did not react outwardly. I would not give him that victory.
"I don't know why he didn't stay home that night," he continued. "He should have been home with his poor daughter. Why, he knew that you would be an orphan if he did not come back. After all, you became motherless the day you came into this world. Though considering the loveless arranged marriage between your parents, perhaps it was best she wasn't around after all."
"If you're trying to taunt me, demon, it's not going to work." I narrowed my eyes, momentarily questioning how it was that he knew so much about my family. He brought his hand to his mouth in feigned shock at my remark.
"What would I gain by angering my daughter?" he exclaimed. "I have no desire to do such a thing. As I said, I simply want to teach you how to live this wondrous life."
"I've figured it out fine on my own the last few months. I think I will be okay without your tutelage."
"But that's where you're wrong, Isabella. You need me or you'll be at their mercy."
"Whose?"
He tutted. "I can't tell you if you're not going to follow me."
"Then I guess I'll learn when they come for me."
His jaw clenched in frustration. I could tell the stubbornness that used to drive my father up a wall was now coming in handy in keeping this vampire at bay.
"You have no choice in this matter, Isabella," he warned, his tone slowly turning sharp.
"I would rather end this miserable existence here than become someone, something like you," I spat.
The amusement returned to his eyes as if he had a brilliant idea.
"Well child, I suppose I can't make you change your mind." He threw his hands up in surrender, though it seemed as fake as his smile. "Though I don't need you to agree. You will become my apprentice, my perfect offspring, whether you desire it or not."
As soon as he said that final word, it felt like time stopped. I could see his movements as if he were going at a human speed, though I knew he would be nothing but a blur to the naked eye. It's because of this moment that I was able to dodge his grasp and run for the cave's exit. It was easy enough that it almost seemed as if he allowed me to escape.
I could sense my sire chasing me over the hills as I ran harder and faster than I ever had. I was grateful that I didn't need to breathe or rest. I hoped I would be able to lose him in the approaching mountains of my own accord.
I bounded from boulder to boulder, cliff to cliff, tree top to tree top. I traversed as far off the ground as I could manage in an effort to not leave any footprints for my pursuer to follow. Eventually I came to a steep drop plunging into a raging river below.
I didn't look back or hesitate as I took that leap of faith, trusting the roaring waters would wash away my scent and take me to a place that my sire could not follow.