Sadly, again I do not own Twilight, Stephenie Meyer does.
Some of you may recognize the story line for the chapter "Carlisle" in Twilight; I will be taking bits and pieces from it to help form this chapter as Carlisle explains why he hunts animals.
P.S just in case some of you are wondering, anything in quotes that are in italic are thoughts that Edward is reading. If there is an emphasis on any one word, it will be italic AND bolded. Enjoy :)
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Chapter Three: Carlisle's Philosophy
''So Edward, as I've already explained to you about our eyes, the vampires that drink human blood have red eyes, and those who decide to satiate their thirst with animal blood have gold eyes. As I explain each option to you, I hope you will decide to accompany me in my beliefs." I nodded listening intently, Carlisle could have simply thought his explanations, but for some odd reason he felt the need to speak out loud.
"I will start by explaining how my existence happened." He glanced at me to make sure I was paying attention. "Where to start exactly…" Carlisle thought. "I was born in England sometime in the sixteen-forties, time was not accurately marked at the time, but it was shortly before Cromwell's rule. My father was an Anglican pastor; my mother had died when she gave birth to me, and so I did not have the chance to know her. If only I had had the chance…"
"I'm sorry Carlisle." I felt sympathy for Carlisle. He smiled warmly and continued. "Sadly, my father was quite intolerant man, and I was a very obedient son. As the Protestants came into power, he became enthusiastic in his persecution of Roman Catholics and other religions. He also believed strongly in the reality of evil. He had led hunts for witches, werewolves and vampires."
And all this time I thought mythical creatures were indeed just that, mythical. I thought to myself. I paid closer attention to Carlisle's story. "If only father had been more thorough in his searches, so many innocent people…"
"And so many innocent people were burned; it was rare that they were able to catch the real creatures we sought." I noticed how he had used we,I realized that Carlisle had led some of the hunts as well. "As my father grew old, he placed me in charge of the raids, I was a disappointment because I would not accuse so quickly. I was persistent and eventually discovered a coven of true vampires. They lived hidden in the sewers of the city, and only came out at night to hunt."
"In those days, many vampires lived that way. A raid was arranged, people gathered their pitchforks and torches, and we waited for the monsters to exit the sewer." Carlisle's voice grew sad, bleak and angry. "One had emerged; I imagine he was ancient, and weak with hunger. He called out to his coven when he had caught sent of us. He began to run through the streets, I was twenty-three at the time, and very quick and so I led the pursuit."
"If the vampire had not been weak with hunger, he could have escaped, but he decided to turn and attack us. He attacked me first, but many were close behind me and he turned to defend himself. He killed two other men, and left with a third, leaving me bleeding in the streets. I knew what my father would do. The bodies of the infected would be burned, destroyed. I acted to save my own life. I crawled from the alley as the mob continued to follow the fiend; I hid in a cellar, burying myself in rotten potatoes for three days."
"After my transformation was complete I realized what I had become, a vampire." He suddenly broke off, if he were able to cry, I'm sure he would have. I wasn't sure what else I could do so I apologized, for what, I was not sure, but it was all I could think to do. He smiled a small smile again. "Thank you Edward. I hope I did the right thing in changing him…" it was my turn to smile at him, "I'm sure you did Carlisle. So after you realized what you had become, what happened?" My curiosity was raging with the mystery of Carlisle's past. He smiled again and continued.
"After I realized what I had become, I tried to destroy myself; I realized that that is not something that is easily done. I tried jumping from great heights, I tried to drown myself in the ocean, and many other things, but to my dismay at the time, it did not work. From what I have seen of other newborns, the instinct to kill is so much more powerful, but I was so repelled by myself that I had the strength to try and kill myself with starvation. This, again, did not work. There are very few ways we can be killed."
"Eventually I grew very hungry, and very weak. I strayed as far as I could from the human populace as I recognized that my willpower was weakening too. For months I wandered by night looking for the loneliest places, loathing myself. One night a heard of deer passed by my hiding place. I was so wild with thirst that I attacked the herd without thinking. My strength returned and I realized that there was an alternative to being this vile monster I once feared. Over the next few months, my philosophy was born; I could exist without being a demon."
"I began making better use of my time, I studied by night and planned by day, I decided to swim to France and continued through Europe, to the universities there. By night I studied music, science and medicine. I found my calling in medicine, my penance, in that, in saving human lives. It took me two centuries of torturous effort to perfect my self-control. I was studying in Italy when I found the others there; they were much more civilized than the ones of the London Sewers."
"I only spent a few decades with them, they call themselves the Volturi. I greatly admired their civility and their refinement, but they persisted in trying to cure my aversion of my 'natural food source'. They tried to persuade me, and I tried to persuade them, to no avail. At this point I decided to try the New World. I dreamt of finding others like myself as I was becoming very lonely."
"I did not find anyone for a very long time, but as monsters became myths and fairytales I found that I was able to interact with humans without arousing suspicion. I began to practice medicine, but the companionship I craved evaded me. When the influenza epidemic hit here a few months ago, I began working nights at the hospital, and now we have come full circle."
I nodded, acknowledging that he was done telling his tale. "And so, you never hunt humans? You always hunt animals?" He nodded. "If you wish to hunt humans, then I shall have to explain the rules, and why I believe it is a bad idea, would you like me to?" I realized that Carlisle was speaking to me through his thoughts. I wanted to look at all my options, so I nodded.
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Alright, so that was pretty much the chapter "Carlisle" from Twilight… Sorry if it wasn't a very good chapter, but if Edward is going to choose if he wants to follow in Carlisle's steps, or go off on his own… this had to be explained. This was a pretty easy chapter to write, so I'm looking forward to writing the rest.
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Afraid.