Chapter 3: BPOV
It had been months since I last saw Jasper. I didn't know what happened to him. After I woke up from making love with the man that I love I got dressed and headed to his house smiling and enjoying the day. When I got there his mother said that he wasn't in his room and she didn't know where he went off to. It scared me to think that his mother of all people didn't know where he was. Jasper loved his mother and even when he would sneak over to see me when he wasn't allowed she always knew.
I walked the woods, checked the river and the ocean and every other place that I could think he would have been. But there was no sign of him. What had happened to him? I began to cry out and I couldn't believe he was actually gone. It was crazy that he would just leave without telling someone where he was going.
I didn't know what to do. He was the love of my life, he was the reason I woke up and enjoyed living. But here I was sitting on my bed that we had proved to each other how much we loved each other with my heart broken in two. I cried out for him every chance I got. I would walk along the water and wish upon the stars that his face would show. But there was nothing. I wanted to throw myself off the cliff. I missed his smell the smell of the sea, I missed his touch, I missed his encouraging words when I needed them the most, I missed his voice, I missed his lips, and I mostly missed being in his arms and knowing that I was safe.
It had been four months since the love of my life disappeared. It was two weeks before our wedding and still no sign of him at all. I had nightmares about him standing in front of me and me never being able to catch him. I would call out to him and never seemed to get anywhere. I would wake up screaming his name and my mother holding me.
One day I decided to go for a walk and that was when I met a dangerous man. He told me that it was a shame for a pretty lady like me to be walking all alone in the meadow. I haven't realized that I had traveled so far from home. I was upset and all I wanted to do was walk and be alone. However it seemed that I had walked to far from home.
He was amazing, but his eyes were hungry and ruby red. I couldn't understand how a man could get eyes like that. I went to walk away and head back towards my home the only place that I could go without feeling like I would die. I wasn't fast enough, he grabbed me and the next thing I knew my body was on fire. I screamed out in pain, can you please just kill me. That was all I wanted, pictures of Jasper played on and on in my head. I kept thinking that maybe just maybe the burning feeling that I had was because I had given into him and made love to him and then he left me all alone. But then I thought of all the loving moments we shared on how he could look at me and I could feel his love. It was almost like Jasper always knew what I was feeling and could make any situation better. Jasper was my life and now here I was burning like someone wanted me died and all I could think about what the time we shared and how much I had hoped that once the burning went away we would be together again.
I opened my eyes after three long days of burning. I didn't understand what was going on. How could I still be alive? I sat up ever so slowly and was making myself aware of my surroundings. I could hear running water somewhere and from the sounds of it, it was north of where I was. This was crazy, how did I even know that. There was a small burning in my throat that had not been there before. Oh no, I am starting to get sick and then the burning stopped. I continued looking around when my eyes laid upon the beautiful man that I had seen in the meadow. He was sitting there looking at me with a huge smile on his face. He had dark brown hair, kind of wavy, but cut short. His skin was pale white, and his body sparkled like diamonds. That is when I noticed his ruby red eyes again they were staring at me like he wanted something from me.
"What did you do to me? I feel like I was on fire and the burning never seemed to stop until now? I didn't recognize my own voice, was I actually speaking? "My dear you are not a human anymore, you shall walk this earth feeding on humans, getting everything you desire and more. You will outlive anyone you know and you will be mine forever. Allow me to introduce myself, my name is Aro." He looked at me with a smile on his face. His voice was so full of lust that I felt like I could cut it with a knife. "What have you done to me? What do you mean I will feed off humans?" the thought alone made me want to get sick. I could never stand the sight of my own blood let alone someone else's. In fact right now I wanted nothing more than to run. "And what do you mean that I will be yours forever?" He looked at me again and smiled and said "I am your creator and you are mine and only mine." I laughed at him, who was he trying to kid? I belonged to no one, the man that I loved had disappeared and left me alone in this world.
"What my dear do you think is so funny?" He sounded as if he was angry that I would laugh. "You really believe that you will have me?" "I know that I will have you, because if not I will return to your home in Washington and kill all of your family myself." This scared me a little bit, would he really want to do that? "Can I see my family?" I asked, I didn't think he would allow it but I had no choice but to at least try. "Are you kidding me? No you can't not see your family, you are different now. You are no longer a human and if you get close to them you will want to kill them. As far as you are concerned and they are concerned you are dead." I wanted to cry and yell and scream, but I sat there trying to figure out how I was going to get away from him.
For days we would go out in public and he would want me to feed on humans. I couldn't and I never would. I would go after animals and I started to notice that my eyes were turning to the color of brown. They no longer held the red that they once held, the same red that Aro held in his eyes every day. "Can't you just feed on animals like me?" I asked trying to understand why he wanted so badly to kill another human. "No I can't and I won't try. I love the feeling of human blood sliding down my throat and my teeth sinking into their skin. And for that matter you make me sick with the whole eating from animals that I should just kill you myself." I didn't know what to think or do at that point, my only option was to run and that is what I did. I ran and ran and ran until I couldn't run anymore. But the time I had stopped I was coming across the California state line.
I stayed in dark places so no one could see me. I wanted to go home, but I remembered Aro's words so clearly, YOU WILL WANT TO KILL THEM IF YOU SEE THEM. AS FAR AS THEY ARE CONCERNED YOU ARE DEAD. I no longer had a family and I no longer knew who I was. I didn't know what I was going to do and what would happen to anyone I knew now that I had run from Aro. The only thing I knew at the time was that I needed to get away from him and there was no way I was staying with him. He wanted more than I was willing to give to him. So I started walking the world, seeing places that I had never seen or even dreamed of. I was all alone and missing the man I wanted more than anything.
I was moving again, it had been almost 130 years since I became a monster. It had been a life time since I knew what living was. I was headed anywhere and anywhere fast when I ran into another vampire with golden brown eyes. His body was like no other, he had sandy blonde hair cut short and his smell was the sweetest smell I had smelled in a long time. It reminded me of a man I knew so long ago. I slowly walked up to him, I didn't want to scare him away and I didn't know what he would do to me. "Hi, my name is Bella." I spoke so only he could hear me. "Hello darlin, my name is Ryan. And may I say you look like a angel sent from above." He was a smooth talker and that I was sure of.
We talked for hours and it felt like we had known each other our whole lives. He asked me what I remembered from being human and was surprised when I told him I could remember everything from being human. He told me what he could remember and it seemed like we had a lot in common. He once loved someone just like I did, her name was Alice. He told me that he wished he could see her again but that when he was changed he was told he would never see her again. I told him all about Jasper and how we had made love and then I never saw him again. He didn't like that story much; he told me that it didn't have a happy ending just like his story.
I finally noticed that it was getting late and I needed to hunt. It was strange hunting with someone at first. I was used to going on my own and every other vampire I knew drank from humans. He laughed at me when he saw me take down a deer. "You know you aren't bad at doing that, but I am much better, here let me show you." He was right; he took down the next deer with no problems and as I watched him something inside me sparked. I couldn't understand it and I didn't want to, at this point I was just happy not to be alone anymore. Ryan and I had decided that we would travel together for a little while longer and see where things went.