Here's the second chapter. I hope you all enjoy it. Let me know what you think of the rewrite, and if you've read the past version, it would really help me if you gave me some ideas of what you liked and didn't like as well as some suggestions, because there wasn't much of a plot in the last one.
Pain and burning became my constant companions in the time after the attack. Death didn't claim me as I thought it would, instead, it just laughed as I writhed on the forest floor. The pain claimed nearly all of my mind, making it impossible for me to tell how long I was there. It could have been minutes, hours, days, weeks, months; I couldn't tell. All I knew was that my entire body felt like it was burning from the inside out, and it seemed endless. There were times when it hurt less than others, but it was constant, always there, never disappearing completely.
Only recently had the pain began to recede. There weren't any drastic differences from before, just short increments of blissful relief before the pain returned just as intense as before. It was hard to keep track of how much time passed between each moment, but I had a feeling it was getting slightly shorter each time. I could have sworn my fingertips stopped burning with the most recent wave.
This process continued for… some time; each time granted me more freedom from the burn. There was no doubt in my mind that the fire within me was fading. After an immeasurable amount of time, the fire had faded from all parts of my body besides my heart. The burning seemed to congregate there, building until it became unbearable. If I had thought the pain was horrible before, it was nothing compared to what I was feeling now. I'd never felt anything close to this. I might have screamed; it was hard to tell. The only thing I could hear was my heart beating erratically in my chest.
This torture went on for what seemed like forever. Where my heart was once beating faster than a hummingbird's wings, it was now slowed to a worrying rate… to the point where I was only hearing the occasional beat. I listened carefully as my heart beat once, twice, three times, before settling for good. My heart had stopped beating. My heart…. stopped beating! I was prepared for the arms of death to take me away to the afterlife then, finally done watching me suffer, but they never came. I sat there for a bit longer, just to make sure, before doing a mental check of my body.
Wiggling my fingers and toes, I was assured that this was real, and I somehow hadn't died from that fatal encounter. Slowly, I opened my eyes and gasped at everything I was seeing. Everything was so much clearer! The sounds and smells of the forest that I'd been appreciating during my walk were now so powerful and intense that they were almost overwhelming. I gazed around in wonder, taking in everything new that I hadn't noticed before. The thing that seemed to stand out the most to me was a leaf that was falling towards the ground. While that normally wouldn't be anything to bat an eye at, it was now the most entrancing thing. It seemed to be falling as if it were in slow motion, and though I was far away, I could see it as if I were standing right beside it. Wanting to observe it further, I stood to move closer.
To my surprise, the leaves on the ground were lifted from the ground at my speed. It didn't seem as if I was moving as fast as I apparently was. Turning around, I was able to make out the spot where I'd been with perfect clarity. The leaves and dirt were upturned from where I'd likely been thrashing. The memory of what had happened had me stiffening where I stood. I'd gotten distracted and momentarily forgotten.
Lifting a hand to my chest, I held it over the place where my heart should have been beating. Nothing. I couldn't hear even the faintest sound of my heart beating nor feel it. This had to be some type of lucid dream; one last hoorah before I was taken into the afterlife. I took a deep breath to try and calm my rising panic. Immediately after, my hands flew up to my throat as the burning returned. The feeling was almost as intense as the fire that came from the bite, but it was only centered in one place. Don't tell me it's gonna be more burning. I'd rather die than go through that again.
Panting breaths left me as my eyes flitted around wildly, hopelessly looking around for something that could help. Assessing myself, I realized that I was overwhelmingly thirsty. I could drink an entire lake right now and still have the need for more. As I stood there, clutching my throat, things began to fall into place in my mind. I'd become whatever my attacker had been. Going off the fact that he'd been sucking the blood from my body, I was positive that he was a vampire… and now I was, too.
Tears came to my eyes, and I was both frustrated and intrigued when they didn't fall no matter how much I wanted to cry. I didn't want to be like that monster. I didn't want to run around killing people just for sustenance; I refused to! Though the burn was unbearable, I'd rather endure it than sink to his level.
Just as I was about to allow my body to sink back to the ground, a thought hit me. It was so out of the blue that it almost seemed like it hadn't even come from me. Blood is blood, no matter where it comes from. My eyes widened as I whipped around, searching. No one was there, only me. There was a low rumbling sound that resembled an old engine reverberating through the trees, and it took me a moment to realize it was coming from me. As soon as I realized that, the vibration from my throat ceased. It was frustrating how new and confusing everything was.
The burning in my throat flared, reminding me that it was still there; I grimaced. There was time for me to come to terms with what I was later. Right now, I needed to work on stopping this pain. My mind went back to the thought from earlier. The myths and shows usually depicted vampires drinking from humans, but they also said that vampires burned in the sun. The sky was currently a greyish-blue-as bright as it usually got in Forks-and I wasn't a pile of ash. If that was wrong, who was to say that vampires needed human blood to survive?
Ba-dump. Ba-dump.
My head snapped in the direction of the sound, and I was running before I could fully realize what I was doing. The closer I got, the easier the sound was to distinguish. It was a heartbeat. My mouth nearly started salivating when I heard the blood moving through the arteries and veins. I wanted it, and I wanted it bad.
Without thinking, I lunged at the entrancing sound and tackled the thing to the ground. I could vaguely feel something struggling beneath me, but it hardly even fazed me. The hits felt more like little pokes than anything. Before I knew it, my teeth were sinking into something pliable and a delicious liquid was flooding my mouth. Groaning, I gripped the thing tighter and began eagerly sucking up the delicious fluid. It was better than anything I'd ever tasted in my life, making everything else pale in comparison.
All too soon, the ambrosia was gone. The rumbling sound started in my chest again and I unlatched myself from the empty sack. The burn was still as intense as before. I needed more. Closing my eyes, I slowed my breathing so I could focus on the sounds around me.
Ba-dump. Bad-dump. Ba-dump.
My feet were nearly gliding across the ground as I followed my ears towards the heartbeat. There was something inside me saying that I needed to calm down and take snap out of it, but the pain in my throat was in control.
I'd like to say I lost count of how many things I'd tracked down and drained, but a mental tally I hadn't even realized I'd been taking let me know that it was six. Even after all that, I could still feel the tingling of thirst and idly wondered if it would ever go away fully.
With my mind clear of the bloodlust, I was able to process all that had just happened. I'd killed six animals with my bare hands and teeth without a second thought, and the only injuries that I'd gotten had been to my clothes. They were dirty and slightly torn from rolling around the forest floor and the claws of a wolf-who's blood had been better than the few deer and elk before. Grimacing, I wiped off as much dirt as I could before looking down at my latest kill.
Guilt washed over me like a wave as I took notice of the savage way the throat was torn. Its eyes were still wide open, terror evident in its blank gaze. As I stared down at it, I couldn't help but wonder who the real animal was. The way that I'd torn into it wasn't anything fitting of a human being, then again, I no longer was a human being, was I?
The feeling of wanting to cry returned, and, yet again, no tears fell from my dry eyes. Even though I'd only experienced-or hadn't experienced-this feeling twice, it was beginning to be one of the most frustrating things in the world. Crying is a healthy coping mechanism that allows for stress and pent up emotions to be released, and right now, I could really use some healthy crying.
I stood over the deer carcass for a while… an hour, six minutes, and twenty-eight seconds to be exact. I knew that because there was a part of my brain keeping track the entire time. It felt odd, to be aware of so many things at once, and I knew that it could only be chalked down to what I had become. The first thing I had to do when I got home was some thorough research on what vampires actually are. Of course, that computer would be a pain to use with how ancient it looked, but I was willing to suffer through it to find answers… answers that I knew would be difficult to find. The internet was so covered with the movie version of vampires that nearly everyone accepted that it would probably close to impossible to find facts that were actually true. Maybe I'd get lucky and find an article that listed everything I needed to know in one handy place. The site could even be run by vampires. That idea didn't seem likely though. What supernatural creature would want to be found out by a bunch of change-hating humans? The word 'humans' made me shudder as the realization that I was no longer one of them hit me again.
That entire tangent in my mind had taken no longer than three seconds, ideas flowing through like a coursing river. It was too easy to shift from one thought to the next.
Not wanting to be reminded of what I'd just done any longer, I stepped over the carcass and moved in the direction that felt like home. It didn't feel like I was moving fast at all, but the leaves being upturned as I moved told me otherwise. I made it to the break in the trees by my backyard in a minute and sixteen seconds. The walk to where I'd been had easily taken forty-five minutes or more, yet I was able to clear it now in far less than half the time. I couldn't decide whether to settle on being amazed or wanting to cry again. My humanity… no, my normality was so obviously gone, and I couldn't help but feel mournful.
I took great care to walk slowly to the door of the house, not wanting to raise any suspicion in the neighbors… even if none of them were home, thankfully. I just knew that things would have ended badly if I'd heard another heartbeat. While my thirst for… blood was momentarily sated, it was nowhere near gone. It was still nagging at me, urging me to go find more animals or people to suck dry. I dutifully ignored it.
Once I made it to the entrance, I carefully placed my hand on the doorknob and twisted slowly. If the way I'd tackled those deer like they were nothing was anything to go by, I was much stronger than I was before and would need to take care not to break anything. The door opened with a creak that sounded louder than any siren to my sensitive ears. I could recall it being nearly soundless when I'd walked in with Dad before.
So many scents greeted me when I entered. The overwhelming smell of dust that probably came from years of not cleaning well enough was what hit me first. Beyond that was the stench of beer that resonated from the kitchen trash can. And even further than that was something that had my throat blazing yet again. Charlie. My mind blanked for a split second, and I was suddenly in his room and crouching next to his bed. My teeth were bared and a growl was ripped from my throat. It took me longer than it should have to realize just what I was doing.
I threw myself away from the bed and across the room, staring at the bed with horror in my eyes. The burn in my throat was still urging me to find the source of the scent and drain it, but I resisted. Had Dad been home, I would have killed him. I would have snapped his neck and drained him dry. My throat pulsed at the thought, and I put a hand to it to try and ease some of the burn. It didn't work.
Holding my breath, I rushed to my bedroom and closed the door, causing the whole wall to rattle. A part of my brain noted that while the other parts were focused on the gravity of what could have happened. I would have killed Charlie. I would have killed my own father. The worst part about the situation was that I couldn't get the thought of how good he would have tasted out of my mind. That had easily been one of the best things I had smelled in my life, better than any food and even better than the animal blood I'd had earlier. The fact that the scent alone had smelled better than the actual animal blood tasted worried me.
Curling myself into a ball, I stared blankly at the wall ahead of me. What am I gonna do? What can I do? It was clear that I wouldn't be able to go back into any kind of civilization in my state. If Charlie, my own father, smelled better than a five-star meal, how could I expect to resist against anyone else? I could hide away in the deepest forest I could find, but what would that do to Charlie? He'd go searching for me, that I was sure, and I wouldn't want him to keep that up for the rest of his life while I stayed hidden. That was just cruel.
I could always change back into a human.
There it was again, the thought that seemed too out there, too knowing, to be my own. I knew there was no one in the room with me, I would have sensed them, yet how else could I explain it? Everything else seemed too out there and reaching… though so was becoming a vampire, so who was I kidding?
Rather than question it further, I simply closed my eyes and did what felt right. I resumed my breathing, which I'd stopped for a whopping three minutes and five seconds, and focused on my heart. After sitting there for ten minutes and twelve seconds, I started to feel something shift. The smells of the house weren't getting to me as much and I could no longer hear the sounds of the forest from where I was, which my mind had noticed and pushed to the background. Finally, the most notable change came in the form of a stuttered heartbeat. It beat awkwardly a few times before eventually finding a rhythm, nowhere near as strong as a healthy heartbeat, but it had rhythm at least.
I slowly blinked my eyes open and gasped, the influx of air actually choking me. My vision was normal, slightly above average, but normal enough to where I couldn't see each individual fiber of the comforter beneath me. I gripped it tightly with both my fists and an incredulous laugh escaped my lips as it didn't tear. Somehow, through some miracle, I was normal again.
A single tear fell, followed by another and another and another until I was full on sobbing with a mixture of both fear, relief, and frustration. I'd never take crying for granted again.