Author's note: yes, my very first fanfiction. i have several stories on .com/~zenasilverwing though, if you like this one. i luv vampires, as you can see from any of the stories, and this one. twilight is one of my fave series and has been for about a year. please enjoy the first chapter of this story that started out as a daydream.

Disclaimer: i DO NOT own anything in Twilight! this story i do own however.

Chapter 1

I took in a deep breath, letting the scent burn my throat. Venom overflowed my mouth at the sweet smell. I sighed, knowing that that smell would be mine soon enough. I followed my nose, taking a sharp turn down a small darkened alley.

"Good, he's alone," I murmured.

Yes, there he was, sitting on the ground, sweat matting his hair and dripping off his face. He thought he could outrun me; I had given him a head start. My approach was silent, so I kicked a can, just to see the look on his face as he jolted up. He barely moved, too tired to do much. Good, that would make things much easier.

A smirk on my face, I sauntered towards him, knowing he would be mine in just a few seconds. His thoughts were full of pleads and vows—anything to not face his impending fate.

I was bored by this quite easily. It was never any fun to have your prey plea before they die. I was still a little merciful, even if what I was about to do was the exact opposite. Therefore, I let him think about the one thing he couldn't live without. Let that be his last thought. Of course, like so many middle-aged men, it was his wife. She was beautiful—not as beautiful as my sister, or even me, but no one can top that—and looked very caring. The look in her eyes could have brought my mother to tears.

I looked into the man's face then. He was smiling; he would miss his wife terribly. And she would miss him. No, that won't do. She would always love him—much better. His grin became more pronounced. But that was his last thought.

At that point, I pounced, not wanting to have to change anything else in his head. It almost made me lose my appetite. My razor-sharp teeth connected with his neck and broke skin immediately. His blood was better than it smelled, warm and delicious. It curbed the burning in the back of my throat and made me feel stronger.

However, I had barely begun my feeding when I heard someone coming. She was shouting a man's name. I didn't know what to do. I never did when there was pooling blood around me. I kept drinking, thinking that she would pass this alley without looking in.

I was wrong.

The footsteps stopped at the mouth of the alley. I turned around to see the face of the man's wife, this time connected to a body. She had those same caring eyes, but this face wasn't smiling. She had her mouth hung slightly open at the sight of her husband lying pale and dead on the ground, his blood spilling over his neck-wound.

"Damn," I cursed under my breath. My head still wasn't clear of the blood's smell and I wasn't done feeding. I did the first thing that came to mind and ran to the woman so fast she didn't see it coming.

Her head banged against the wall of one of the buildings surrounding us and bounced off, knocking her to the ground. I knew she was still alive, but my meal was getting cold. I rushed over to the man sprawled on the ground and finished my business hastily.

Then I looked over at the woman, finally coming to. One thought was in her head: the face of her husband. I wanted to take her blood too, but knew that was just wrong to impose the fate of the man on the wife as well. Instead, I easily lifted her body off the ground and laid her next to the dead man. She was crying and I wanted to do something. It wasn't right to take two people's lives. What if they had children to take care of?

Her thoughts were only filled with the man. No kids. That was good. But I couldn't leave her there suffering. She barely even registered my presence. She knew her husband was dead and she was dying, but nothing else. I carefully placed one cold, hard hand on either side of her neck, whispered an apology, and twisted my hands. I heard a snap and a whimper, then nothing.

By this time, the sun was beginning to rise.

"OH, CRAP!" I needed to get back home before I was seen. It wasn't bad enough that I was covered in blood, but now my skin had to give me away too?

I ran out of the alley as fast as I could, not caring who I pushed to the ground. My skin was glinting in the rising sun and casting off rainbows of light in every direction. There were no shadows to keep to and I was passing too many people not to go unnoticed. If my heart could beat, it would have been racing as fast as my feet.

I turned corners and crossed streets, not bothered that I was stopping traffic in the process. A few people would probably go blind today. It didn't matter. I needed to get back home, to be safe.

My mind was racing ahead of me and I could barely keep track of my own thoughts. I had never truly been confused in this life, but now I was. My brain wasn't working correctly. That's why I jumped into the first tinted-windowed taxi I saw, climbed into the front seat, knocked out the driver, and took the wheel before I even knew what I was doing.

I sped down the highway as fast as I could go, hoping that even if I had caused a huge scene running through the city, at least the bodies wouldn't be found right away. They couldn't trace them back to me, a person that didn't even exist. I usually dispose of the bodies more effectively, but I didn't have any time.

My thoughts were still jumbled up, so when I was almost at the house, I placed the driver back in his seat, kept his foot on the gas pedal, and crashed through the passenger window. His taxi would crash somewhere….

I raced through the trees, making a beeline straight for the house. My clothes snagged on branches and leaves and twigs stuck in my hair. Pieces of glass were still caught in my clothes and the blood all over me was just beginning to dry. My red eyes must have looked wild and crazy.

I must have looked like a monster as I plowed through the door, surrounded by my family, and cried, "They're coming, aren't they? I've doomed us all! The Volturi are coming! I'm sorry!"