When Blood Loses Its Appeal – Chapter 1

Edward lay on his back, looking up at the shadows created on the ceiling by the moonlight dancing through the curtains. Occasionally they would come together and form images which he recognised, but then they would drift away into the shadows again. His favourite so far had been the face of a grizzly bear. It had come together just briefly, noble, and majestic. Edward was sure it had winked at him for a split second, then the image was gone, replaced by the dancing shadows which were deciding which image they would form next.

Edward glanced at the bedside clock. Not that he really needed to see the time, as his senses told him it was around 2:45am. The red numbers on the clock confirmed his senses were correct. Damn! No sleep yet.

He heard the gentle sound of snoring from Bella, who lay on her side next to him. She was emitting what Edward liked to refer to as her bee snore. If you closed your eyes and listened, the sound would conjure up the image of a worker bee flying amongst flowers and plants, capturing the pollen which it so craved. This was Edwards favourite snoring noise which Bella could make. She had two other noises which she made while sleeping. Edward had names for all of them. There was the lip snore, which always made him chuckle when he heard it. Somehow Bella's lips would make a rattling sound as she exhaled, almost like blowing a raspberry, but gentler. It was a little noisier than the bee snore. Then there was the soldier snore, which Bella did not do too often, but when she did, he worried she would wake everyone in the house up. The noise was like a machine gun being fired in short, loud bursts. Most certainly his least favourite snore of them all, but thankfully Bella didn't do that one too often.

He focussed back on why he was having trouble getting to sleep. It had been on his mind for a couple of days now, but the concern was deeper now because tomorrow would be a problem for him. He was going to go hunting with the other guys. They had all done it together for so long. Every couple of weeks for so, so many years. They all loved it, getting back to their natural instincts, or as close to that as they could. Hunting prey, sensing its fear, closing in for the kill, then the reward of the blood. How many times must he and the other guys have done it over the years. Thousands for sure. They had done it before cars existed, before phones existed, before even electricity existed. In those days things seemed a lot simpler, so few distractions and complications. Less chance of being seen by the others.

Edward could still tune in to the feeling of excitement and power from all his previous hunting trips. He could still invoke the memories of how absolutely alive he felt when drinking fresh blood. It was a feeling like no other. Yet those feelings were now being overwritten by a new feeling which he was afraid of. One which he knew would be looked upon with disdain by the other guys if they knew about it. He could not pinpoint exactly when the feeling had started. It was likely a gradual thing, which is why he could not visualise the start of it.

He pushed the thoughts out of his head and decided to try and focus on the technique Carlisle had told him about, which he claimed would always guarantee to bring on sleep. "The, the, the, the, the" he said silently in his head repeatedly. A minute or so later he was fast asleep. The clock showed 3:07am.