El Monstruo

"Tell the tales of the trail of dead, lovers learn from slower hands,
Losing self in myself, inner demons make demands.
You're sick, sick as all the secrets that you deny,
Sins like skeletons are so very hard to hide."
-"Reclusion" by Anberlin

"Dame las personas en el pueblo, por favor, Jasper."

I nodded as I stared at Maria. She lazily played with the ends of her dark hair.

"¿Todas las personas?" I asked in the fluent Spanish I had picked up as a side effect of being under her dominion.

She nodded her head and looked at me with hooded, crimson eyes, "Sí. Todas las personas, Jasper, tú no puedes estar fallarme."

I nodded. I wouldn't fail her again. I hadn't brought her new victims after my strange trip to Mississippi. I had been punished for that. I could still feel the sting of venom on my granite skin, to say that I was humiliated was a vast understatement.

Peter was the one who cared for me when the sting made moving unbearable.

He was a kind boy, too young to have been brought into a world of such misery and death. We were such disgusting creatures; but the camaraderie I shared with Peter brought me back to my old self a little.

When I was with him, I was Jasper Whitlock, the young Texan who lied about his age so he could fight the Yankees—I wasn't Jasper the vampire, the monster.

"Hey, mi amigo," Peter said coming next to me, his Spanish was lacking which was a constant thorn in Maria's side but endeared me more to him.

"I just got assigned to do a village raid, you'll come with me as my second in command," I informed him

Peter frowned and brushed crisp strands of his white-blonde hair away from his maroon eyes. "Do we have to rout again?"

I sighed, "Yes. Maria wants us to take everyone in the village."

Peter growled, "I don't like taking children, it makes me feel like a monster."

"Neither do I," I grimaced, remembering those ice blue eyes of that little girl in Biloxi. Every time I'd tried to take a child after my encounter with her I felt the pure, unadulterated guilt settle into my belly.

"God, Jasper," Peter shivered, "Why are you sending me such waves of guilt?"

I snapped to attention and pulled my gift in, not wanting to cause Peter discomfort.

"What's the matter, Jasper, you seem upset?"

"I'm just not in the mood to raid another village," I said through my teeth.

Peter nodded, seeming appeased with my answer.

We waited until nightfall before we set upon the little pueblo. Our skin glowed unnaturally pale in the moonlight, mine and Peter's, Charlotte's and Maria's.

We brought along a few newborns on that particular raid. The pueblo was full of women and the elderly, easy kills. Men tended to fight more and while that was fun, sometimes it was more appealing to have a peaceful meal.

We started with the outer casas first, moving inward towards the more central adobe buildings.

I was already at my limit of blood, having devoured an old man and his entire family easily. The beast within me was satiated and happy. If only for a moment.

I met up with Peter near the town well. He had drying blood at the corners of his drawn lips and his eyes were a delicious ruby colour.

"Had your fill yet?" He asked in a contented tone, patting his own full stomach.

I nodded, the action seemed lazy.

"What do we do now?" Peter asked, staring up at the full moon.

"Wait for Maria, I guess," I shrugged. Several of the newborns fluttered past us in a flurry of white skin and blood-stained eyes. Peter laughed at their wide-eyed eagerness. I forced myself to laugh with him, leeching off his mirth.

Soon Charlotte came timidly from behind one of the large, tan buildings her clothes were disheveled and blood-stained.

"Did someone try to fight you?" Peter asked with what seemed to be unnecessary concern. She nodded, her corn silk hair tumbling past her little shoulders.

"Two brothers tried to attack me after I drained one of their wives. I think they were surprised when they couldn't hurt me," she said, sounding blasé. Her emotions betrayed her, however; she had been scared.

"Are you alright now?" Peter asked her. I glared at him; he seemed far too concerned with her well-being.

She nodded and discreetly slipped her hand within his.

I was shocked but didn't let the emotion register, what they chose to do was no concern of mine. It was natural to want to find a mate. I sometimes felt that longing, that loneliness of wanting for a companion. I couldn't fault Peter or Charlotte for feeling that same thing.

I sent them a little reassurance and couldn't help the dose of lust I sent them.

Peter looked at me questioningly, "Jasper?"

I smirked and looked away with a shrug. Peter sighed and grumble under his breath. "You know?"

"You are holding her hand," I said quietly.

Peter extricated his hand from Charlotte's. I narrowed my eyes, "Don't stop just because I saw. You deserve to find a mate, Peter."

Peter smiled and grabbed Charlotte's hand back.

She was more than a little bewildered that I knew. She was confused and upset, so I tried to make her feel a little more peaceful. She tried to squirm away from my power, feeling discomfort instead of peace.

"Don't worry, Charlotte," I murmured. She turned to look at me, her still ultra-red eyes staring fearfully at me.

"Do not be afraid," I said in a low voice so that the newborns or Maria wouldn't hear, "I won't tell Maria about the two of you. I'll keep your secret."

Peter smiled at me, completely at ease. I hoped that his relaxedness would rub off a little on her. She had no need to fear me, didn't she? I wasn't a monster, was I?

That little girl in Mississippi had been afraid of me. I had felt the fear. Was it truly because I was a monster, though?

I cringed as I heard Maria's tender little footsteps come up behind us. I sent Peter and Charlotte a warning glare, they immediately stepped apart.

"Jasper, Peter, Carlotta, que están haciendo?" She asked, glaring at Peter as he did so. He looked at her sheepishly.

"Nada, Maria. Nosotros habíamos terminado de comer," I shrugged. It was the truth, we all were done.

Maria narrowed her bright garnet-coloured eyes at me, "And what do you think you're doing standing around?" She asked in accented English.

"Like I said, nada," I replied, a bit snidely.

She took a deep, unnecessary, breath and blew it out angrily through her nose. "Jasper, come with me."

I startled, "What do you need me to do."

She started flitting between the barren buildings, full of rotting and dry corpses. I had to run in long strides to catch up with her.

"Maria! What do you need me to do?" I demanded.

"You?" She laughed hysterically, "I've saved you a special victim."

I felt a finger of terror brush up my spine. "A victim?"

She nodded maliciously, "I heard you say something to Peter about how you think you're a monster…I know this must have something to do with that little mission I sent you on. So I'm going to make you be your old self Jasper."

I felt sick to my stomach, all that blood gurgling back into my throat.

Maria ducked into one of the adobe building and brought a little girl out. Her eyes were clenched tight and she was whimpering, fear rolling off her in tight, little waves.

"I want you to take this little girl. You are a monster, Jasper, embrace it," she said in a seductive purr.

I couldn't. I couldn't do it, I couldn't bring that hunger forward; I couldn't make it so that I would drain that precious blood from that little girl. She opened her eyes and they were brilliant and sky blue. Not the normal dirt brown of the Mexicans.

I could already taste the blood coming up into the back of my mouth. I tried to choke it back down.

"Maria, no puedo," I whispered.

"You can't do it?" She demanded, baring her square, white teeth, "You will do it Jasper."

She reached down and pinched a little dirty patch of the girl's skin between her sharp fingernails. A little bubble of red appeared upon the tanned flesh it flowed in a steady stream down her bony arm.

It smelled absolutely heavenly.

I didn't think I could even drink anymore, especially not from that little girl with those startlingly similar eyes, but I did.

I bent forward until my teeth cut easily through her little brown throat. Her scream caught off into a gurgle under my teeth. I could feel the thin bands of her vocal cords contract as she struggled. She clawed uselessly at my forearms, breaking her nails into little nubs in the process.

Her blood tasted fabulous to me. Not too sweet and a little heady. Beautiful. I could feel my eyes roll luxuriously into the back of my head.

God, it was magnificent, and just like that every wall I had built up due to that strange little girl in Biloxi was ripped down.

I dropped that dirty, little pile of bones and flesh as her blood dripped in messy lines down my chin. She choked a little, her eyes still wide she tried to breath but her neck was open to wide and her blood drained nearly enough.

My venom was already making her numb but it was useless to turn her into one of us, she was already dead as far as eternity was concerned; but she did manage one final act before her heart stopped. "Monstruo," she muttered, "monstruo."

This chapter was why I upped the rating on this story. It's M, not because I'm making plans for future scenes of the adult-oriented, nude kind--but because this is going to be rather grotesque. We always get the happy-go-lucky view of the Twilight vampires. Oh yeah, they're vegetarians, but truth is Jasper wasn't. So you're just going to have to deal with Jasper being kind of nefarious until a little bit later on in this story.

Also, this story is NOT going to update regularly. I just can't do that to myself. This is going to be a 'when inspiration hits' kind of story. I'll try not to make it like months between chapters, hopefully I'll get on a roll and really get into this story, but that hasn't happened yet--so no regular updates. I do have good reasons other than being a lazily writer. Most of which deals with school and work, and those come first. I wish they didn't, but they do.

More about this chapter: I'll translate the Spanish for you if you so desire. I think I explained everything that they said pretty well and some of it you can figure out. I always wondered why no one had Maria speaking Spanish in their fanfics or in the actual Twilight books. I know she can speak English, but still Spanish was probably her mother-tongue, so I think she should get to speak it. Yo pienso que ella hable su idioma!!!

Oh, also, because I don't know if this isn't blatantly obvious but I still think I should put it, 'El Monstruo' means 'The Monster'. FYI.

One more thing, the song I quoted at the beginning, "Reculusion" by Anberlin is totally about Jasper. I swear it is. I was going through my iTunes library listening to some older stuff and that song like jumped out and bit me. It's so written about Jasper. If you haven't heard it before YouTube it or go to Project Playlist and look it up!

PLEASE REVIEW!

EDIT: Some of my Spanish has been changed thanks to a kind anonymous reviewer who helped me out a little. Said reviewer was also wondering why Charlotte is called Carlotta, but Peter not Pedro. Maria is going to dislike Peter is this fic, so she barely likes to address him let alone change his name to suit her speech. I think my Microsoft messed some spelling up on my Spanish, too; so if you see any errors, please tell me.