Tuesday, December 30, 2008

Chapter 2 Naked, New Vampire

This is a fan fiction story set pre Twilight. All is property of Stephenie Meyer. 


There is some light cursing. Please do not read any further if that upsets you!!! 



All characters, settings and Twilight related stuff belong to author Stephenie Meyer. No copyright infringement intended.

Chapter One

Drink You Alive

 

Breathe.

Breathe.

Eyes are open.

Only darkness.

Please.

Out.

Oh God.

 

Please.

Where was I? A coffin. It must be.

Please. Please. The burning. The inside of my body is burning slowly. Hot, red coals on the inside. My blood is turning to lava.

Scream.

My voice won’t come out. Help! I call in my head.

Panting. I won’t reach out my hands. What will I touch? It could be anything.

 

Soil.

 

Wood.

 

Satin of my coffin.

 

Please no coffin.

Black.

 

Time passed. I was sure of it. I opened my eyes. The black was dulling. My eyes seemed better at seeing. That can't be.

 

I am not breathing. I must be dead. But I am moving. Where did my heartbeat go? I felt all the fear in my heart before.

The dim shades of light comfort me. I feel strong. I listen. I hear gentle whispering next to me, above me.

Bits of. ..conversation…No not conversation. One way thoughts.

The murmuring makes no sense. So many voices. They seem to be getting louder.

 

The panic of the enclosed space surrounds me. I need to find my voice and scream. For help.

 

All at the same time I scream out and kick my feet. The door to my enclosure flies open. I hush my screaming just as quick. I hear the door slam against a wall. I quickly scurry out. So fast. How am I standing here already?

 

Looking around the room. I have only seen a place like this on TV.

The morgue.

The doors are like stacks of mini fridges.

Hunger.

 

I feel the hunger in my throat threatening to drive me insane. Unless I already am. 

 

I am naked. Except for the toe Tag with “Sasha Duncan” printed in Ariel font. 

 

The voices from in the mini fridges get louder, Confused voices. They are not sure where they are. 

I snatch a lab coat from the hook by the door and button it up. Scrub pants come out of the laundry hamper marked “Biohazard” by the door.

 

I sit right there on the concrete floor with the drain in it.

I need to remember.

Where was I?

Before this place.

Back when my heart was beating.

 

I didn’t feel dead.

 

I pushed my fingers into my throat searching for a pulse. No luck. I tried at my wrist.

 

Still.

 

Everything that used to flutter under my skin had stilled.

 

Remembering was my only tool to sanity.

 

It had been New Year’s Eve. Of course. I was invited to a party in the city. Karen had an apartment she shared with a few coworkers from the design agency.

“My roommate's brother is coming” Karen taunted me with a singsong voice over the phone.

 

Maybe the cop I had a crush on would need some lips to kiss when the clock struck 12:00.

 

“I’ll be there early to help you set up.”

After spending the morning cleaning the apartment with Karen and her roommates, we opened the door to the catering company we had all chipped in for.

 

Karen and I fluffed and prepped while the caterers set to work preparing hors d'oeuvres and a bar.   We got a good hard laugh at the similar dresses we had picked out for the night.  They were short and black with a white sash around our waists, inspiring us to take a picture of ourselves. The night held so much promise.

 

How did I go from a friend filled party to sitting on a morgue floor holding my toe tag?

My brain seemed reluctant. Like it was refusing to reveal a horror. I held my hands over my ears to block out the whispers from the freezers on the wall.

I remember when the cop, Derek, walked in. I could feel the butterflies.

 

I won’t say anything stupid this time. I prompted myself. He arrived without a date. His eyes searched the room until he found me. Before I could glance away, he caught me looking. He smiled his beautiful white smile, revealing his adorable dimples. The night was looking up.

 

After a few drinks and a few dances with Derek, I met up with Karen on my way to the bathroom.  She dragged me into her room for some girl talk. Her boyfriend had shown up and she thought he had a ring box in his pocket. We squealed and turned into a hopping, hugging tangle of arms.

 

By the time I got back to the living room, Derek was waiting with a glass of champagne. The dimples were out to get me again. We toasted. I knew I was blushing.

 

The clock was inching towards midnight. Feeling three glasses of champagne bold, I spun on my heel and headed for the balcony. Derek would follow, I was almost positive. I set my glass down and looked up at the sky.

 

Too bad you can’t see the stars in the city.

I don’t know what compelled me to do it. But I looked down the building towards the road.

And then.

 

And then.

 

God, what was that! Crawling up the building like a spider. A blurry, fast spider. Before my brain could translate into a scream he was on me. The door to the balcony was shut with his hand securing it that way. His other hand held my throat.

 

“Breathe” he said “I want to drink you alive.”

Drink me Confusion, disbelief, but the most visceral reaction I had was fight.

 

I could hear Derek banging on the balcony door.

 

“Open the Door! This is the Police”

 

The drunk police I thought stupidly.

 

 

I started to kick his shin, at the same time I poked him in the eye. His eyelid shut immediately and my useless, jabbing finger felt like I was poking a piece of metal.

 

“That’s right baby, fight me. Make me earn it.” His voice was calm and buttery. He was enjoying this. His eyes were blood red. What was wrong with his eyes?

 

“I wonder why you are so important to them. Imperative they find you.”

 

I knew. One thing was different about me. The rest was the same as any other girl my age.

 

He must have seen the recognition in my eyes.

 “You know Bitch. Tell me. Right now.” He was giddy with anticipation all the while holding my throat.

 

His demonic eyes sparkled with interest. He was so beautiful. How could something so gorgeous radiate such death.

 

“Playing hard to get? How bout this, you tell me and I don’t kill every single person in this room behind you.” His smile was so wide it made his teeth look huge.

 

I had never told a soul. I could never tell anyone. But Karen, her soon to be fiancé, and Derek were in that room. Sweet Derek, who was trying to break down the door with a chair at that very moment.

 

I motioned to my throat and my silent mouth. He understood and loosened his grip.

 

“I will tell you, but not near them.” My voice was so scratchy and harsh.

“Fine.” He snapped.

I was on his rock hard shoulder like a sack of potatoes in a blink. I watched as my cute black heels slid from my feet to clatter to the road so far below me.

 

We were climbing up the side of the building. No ropes. I knew he wasn’t human. I knew he was evil. I started to sob cry as we reached the roof of the building. He took off running (or was it flying?). I felt the jolt when he launched himself across to the roof of the building next door.

 

He set me down again.

 

“Talk.” He no longer felt the need to hold my throat. I wanted to be braver. I had gotten him away from my friends. They had time to get away. But would they? This thing in front of me was the grim reaper on crack.

 

He tensed, closed his eyes and took a massive breath through his nose. His red eyes rolled in their sockets before he fixed them on me.

“We are not alone.”

I turned to run. He wrapped my hair around his fist and yanked me back. I felt his vice grip across my chest as he tilted my head using my hair.

 

 

He put his ice cold lips to my jaw and licked his way down to my neck.

 

I could feel the bite. My neck. The teeth were so sharp, it didn’t even hurt. At first.  Then the sucking began. I could feel all the blood draining.

 

I could move my arms. But they were numb and tingling. Everything. All at once. Numb. I grabbed onto his arm to keep from collapsing. He was sucking and murmuring sweet nothings.  We looked to all the world like lovers. His icy cold body felt nice, taking some of the pain from my skin.

 

Would he drink every drop?

Vampire. He was a vampire. Oh God. I could feel the force of his decision so deeply. I was to be ingested. My blood, my soul. Everything. Maybe I would be inside out by the time he was done.

 

When he was hit, it was the sound of boulders colliding.

I found myself cradled in a pair of cold arms. I peered through my eyes to see what I was facing.

 

A different man. “He’s gone, for now.” Looking up at this face I saw compassion. Gold eyes seemed to be assessing my injuries.

 


The burning started at my neck. If I could crawl, I would find my stalker to finish the job. I needed to get out of this body as much as possible. A lot. Now.

Being held by him felt like being next to a drafty window in the winter. I could feel the cold reaching out to touch me.

 

“The police are coming. I am so sorry Sasha, I did not arrive in time. Listen to my words.”

 

Like I have  a choice. I was dying. I could not even move my lips.

 

“I don’t need your lips for me to hear you. You will undergo a change. I will get to you as soon as I can. Don’t kill anyone.’

 

I am afraid, I thought.

 

“It will hurt, I am not going to lie to you. But the pain will come to an end.”

 

You can hear my thoughts?

 

I closed my eyes.

 

“Yes.” He said it quietly.

 

He threatened my friends. Can you keep them safe? I desperately tried to keep from blacking out to hear his answer.

 

“I will protect them” his vow was so earnest, I had to believe him.

 

Then the cold was gone. His cradling arms had laid me on the roof.

 

And then nothing.

 

Back sitting on the floor of the morgue. I could piece it together. If I pretended I was stark raving mad and all the stupid fairy tales I’d heard as a child were true.

 

Then I was a vampire now. Because I wasn’t dead.

 

Well that sucks.

 

I knew from my thirst that I wanted something. I have never before craved red sludge with an iron after taste. But now I did. I wanted it more then anything.

 

This had to be a dream. I punched myself in the face. It was like trying to stop a train with my nose. I heard the sickening crunch of my cheek bones, and anything else that was important to my facial structure. I stood up and could see the reflection of me in the one way mirror that dominated most of the wall.. My hair looked great. My face, on the other hand looked like a human pug.

 

Great. Not only is this not a dream, but also I managed to make myself the ugliest vampire in the world with minutes of coming to my senses.

As I watched the face before me uncrumpled. I could feel the bones knitting back together like a sponge regaining it’s shape after being squeezed.

 

Soon I was staring at my face again. Not my face really. The face you picture just before you look in the mirror. No freckles, pimples or weird sloops. The perfect version of my face.

I wanted to eat. I wanted to run through the walls of this hospital all Fred Flintstone, leaving me shaped holes in my wake.

 

Until I could silence a heart.

 

I looked at the wooden chair to my left. As soon as I thought about it, my body reacted. I was holding a jagged piece of the chair. I grabbed it with both of my hands.

I knew what I was. Right away, I could feel the changes to my cells, my moral compass. I would make excuses for the dead bodies. I would never put someone alive in an ambulance. If I knew anything about myself, it was that I had an addictive personally. If I tried a meal and I liked it, I would make it every day until I couldn’t look at it anymore. I would listen to my favorite song over and over.

 

And this wanting to stop a heart was so powerful; I knew I would never stop. Ever. I would kill.

 

I grabbed my make shift stake and jammed it into my chest.

I waited. It was uncomfortable. I could tolerate it, but I sure didn’t like it.

When the door flew open, I was crouched and snarling before the light from the hall had streamed into the room.

 

In front of me stood another vampire.

 

“Well that won’t work” He said in a condescending tone. “Forget silver, crosses, garlic too.”

 

I recognized the voice.

 

From the dying night. He could hear my thoughts that night. I wonder if he could still.

 

“Yes, I can.” He immediately responded in a totally emo put upon way.

“I am not Emo”

Wow. He was really cute.

 

Again with the bored look.

He strode up to me purposefully.

 

He was so unexpected in my little morgue wakemare, I did not know what his intention was.

Kiss I thought in a panic.

 

What does my breath smell like after being dead? I bet my armpits smell like a dead skunk’s ass.

 

He started out and out laughing. I noticed belatedly that he had pulled the stake out of my chest. I had noticed the relief, like picking a wedgie, but now I saw only the Lab jacket had a hole. I no longer did.

 

“You have a funny head”

“You should have seen it right after I punched myself” I grabbed my throat. Shocked. I recalled this feeling, when you suck on a helium balloon, and your voice gets all chipmunky.

But instead of chipmunk I was rocking sultry, scratchy woman voice.

 

 

He stopped laughing and looked searchingly into my eyes.

 

 

“Your change is different. I don’t think your throat completely healed”

He stepped closer again.

“Your breath is fine. And I don't know what a skunk's hind end smells like anyway.”

He rolled a set of Amber golden eyes towards the ceiling.

“Would you mind very much if I touched your neck?”

I nodded my consent and moved my hands.

What could he possibly do? Kill me?

 

His hands rested on my neck, while his thumbs caressed the front of my throat. The shiver went down my spine

“Sorry, that might be a sensitive part for you for a while, considering how you went.”

 

 

You mean how I was killed. I thought in his direction.

‘I was not fast enough. I was trying to read his thoughts and he sent me mixed messages.”

This guy seemed polite. His reasoning tinged with as much emotion as a bored telemarketer. He could really care less, just doing his job. Was he my vampire aide or something?

He inclined his head. Agreeing with my thoughts. God that was creepy. He gave me a stern look.

 

“Listen, If I am reading your thoughts right, you are clinging to the last vestiges of reason you had as a human. I am Edward Cullen, I have been sent here to help you with your transition.”

 

I almost laughed. He sounded so clinical.

“Well, I do have a few medical degrees.”

For humans or monsters?

Before he could answer, my emotions got the best of me. Like the crack of a whip, the word “Monster” on my psyche filled my body with shame and anger. I did not want this.

 

My thoughts were beginning to change. Colors, blocks of colors filled with needs. The blocks shuffled in front of my eyes like a view master toy. It settled on red.

Red. Feed. Red.

I turned to the exit and pushed the metal door aside like a curtain. Bare foot, I began stomping. Edward was in front of me. Still trying to talk quickly.

 

“Ok, you are really strong right now, all newborn vampires are. And you want to eat. I understand. My family, we only eat animals. Not humans. It’s an option you might want to consider.”

 

I began running. Edward remained in front of me running backwards without glancing to see where he was headed.

 

I could feel my mind settling itself into gear. Feed. Now. Find Blood. Silence a heart.

I saw doubt flit across his handsome and young face. How old was this kid anyway? This child needed to clear a path before I hurt him.

 

The night was quiet. The city morgue was in the center of the well laid out buildings. All tall. Alleys were calling to me. I could sense I would find success. Homeless people that could not even begin to fight.

He kept talking.

“You don’t have to worry about a fight, you won’t have one. You could over power almost anything on the planet right now. Including me.”

A smile touched my thirsty eyes.

“You wouldn’t enjoy my blood. It would be like trying to dilute water with more water. My body may look young, but I have been around long enough to know how to easily put an end to you.”

I stopped in my tracks.

 

I don’t want to be a murderer. And I don’t want to eat animals. Before I died I was a vegetarian. The thought of killing a defenseless animal hurt me where my heart used to be. And yet this child feels that is a good option.

 

“17. I am 17 not really a child. Please remember your moods will be very changeable. And vicious.” He was trying to convey so much in a short period of time.

 

I am 22, that makes me your elder, hot shot. Go home and do some homework. Mama’s got some murdering to do. I looked into his eyes while I thought.

 

Edward stopped talking. He seemed to take on the roll of silent, scientific observer. I had trouble shaking the feeling that I had let him down.

I looked to my left. The storefront reflected what I was. A bare footed, half dressed, crazed lady. My eyes were pure black.

 

I noticed behind the glass, a stack of chocolate truffles. A candy store! All painted in whimsical colors. Looking garishly normal. I stepped up to the glass and put my hand through it. The noise was so much louder to these vampire ears. I could distinctly hear each shard of glass tinkling on the concrete sidewalk.

I grabbed a handful of chocolates and stuffed them into my mouth, trying to abate the need to feed. I happened to see his face as I tried to wrap my jaws around the giant ball of chocolates in my hand.

 

There was a sparkle of amusement.

Quit staring at me like I am a freak show.

One eyebrow shot up.

I tried to gag down the ball. A phantom impulse compelled me to fill my lungs with air. I felt the panic seep into my eyes.

I am choking! Do the Heimlich or something!

“Breathe through your nose, Einstein.” He could not keep the snarkyness out of his golden voice.

And I did. And I was fine.

“We don’t need to breathe, as a rule.” His crooked little smile letting me know he was not worried about my faux choking.

 I felt stupid. It was like thinking you were drowning in 8 inches of water, and then standing up like a big chooch in ankle high water.

 

“Chooch? Is that even a word?”

Shut up and help me. I am stuck. This giant ball of chocolate is freezing into a solid.

“Well your core temperature is acting much like a freezer would.” He pointed out in his very scholarly sounding voice.

Great. A know it all 17 year old. We really need a few more of those in the world. 

“Well, you just made the decision for me.” Edward whipped out his cell phone and snapped a picture of my chocolate ball catastrophe.  I was waving my hands around my face in distress.

 

He walked up and placed one of his long fingered hands on my forehead and whacked the back of my head with the other. The chocolate ball shot out of my mouth and lodged in the back wall of the candy shop.

 

“For future reference, your jaws are just as strong as the rest of you. Bite down next time.” He shook his head in amazement. “Why do I feel like this won’t be the last time this happens to you?” His gorgeous white teeth sparkled as grinned.

“So there was no need for the head wacking? Nice. Freaking nice. It hurt by the way.”

He was too busy setting the chocolate picture he seemed so proud of as his wallpaper on his cell phone."No, it didn't"

I resisted the urge to say, "Yes, it did" and stick out my tongue.

I snatched the phone out of his hands. I meant to take off running when I felt him slam me into the brick of the candy shop building. I quickly crushed the cell phone into a squished up silver play dough art. I felt better.

He whispered with satisfaction “I sent that picture to all my cell phones”

 

I shot daggers with my eyes, which I bet were still all creepy and black.

He nodded. His eyes seemed to lose their focus. Then he sighed.

 

“Well, your little PMS craving set off a silent alarm, the police are on their way.”

PMS sounds all pansy when you say it in your proper, old fashioned voice.

I was noticing the dent we had left in the brick building. Brick. We dented brick!

 

And then all reason left me. I could feel my eyes roll into my head. I took a deep, thick breath. I could smell it. I could hear it. Heartbeat. Human. Feed.

Oh God.

Now.