Alive | Jasper Hale | Book 1

13. Change

EDIT/UPDATE: So, originally I had Carlisle turn Hollie. But then I remembered the promise / treaty between them and the werewolves. But I was already flipping through "Life and Death" to get some inspiration to write 'Dead' when I came across part of it. Alice changed Hollie because technically,  she wasn't there when they made the treaty. And so... yeah.

As he said the words, my heartbeat took off, skipping erratically. I clutched onto Rosalie as if that would help, but it didn't. Nothing did. Realization swooped in and caught me by the throat. This was it. I was finally turning into a vampire—all my hopes crushed. However, I didn't have it in me to fight anymore. It was completely useless having so many vampires around.

Breathing deeply, I nodded my head. It was sort of like an, "okay, fine, whatever."

Alice was the one who stepped forward. She had a soft expression on her face. Her gold eyes said things she didn't want to say out loud. Alice was asking permission, if it was all right she was the one who changed me. 

I nodded my head again.

Rosalie forced my fingers to let go of her, and gently, she pushed me towards Alice. My legs wobbled, threatening to collapse beneath me, but Alice was already holding me before it could happen. 

"You promise, after she starts going through the changes, you will leave?" Carlisle spoke, his voice strong and loud.

"Of course," Aro quipped. "We have to make sure she doesn't cheat death a second time around. The first was enough."

There was a moment of silence before Alice pulled away and looked at me. "Are you ready for this, Hollie? Mentally, are you prepared?"

Very little times, Lexi has spoken about the transformation from human to vampire. It was a dark thing, I presumed, that no one liked to talk about (I even tried to ask a couple of Lexi's friends who weren't keen on talking about it, so I dropped it). Eventually, Lexi told me that during the transformation it feels ten of the worst painful things you could think of and magnetized by a hundred. It feels like your being burned and skinned alive, and it's one of the most painful things she had to endure.

I knew it would hurt, if that's what Alice was asking. I knew that it would hurt beyond anything I've ever felt. Some part of me felt ready and to take this transformation head on, but the other part of me felt like that was an incredibly dumb thing to do.

So, I shook my head.

"No," I told her honestly, "But you can't ever be ready for something like this, can you?"

The small, humorless smile was the only answer I got.

Alice rubbed my shoulder, as if to comfort me, while she grabbed my wrist. My breath hitched and I kept my eyes shut while I waited for it, for his fangs to pierce the skin on my wrist.

It wasn't two sharp piercing objects like so many unrealistic teenage books thought. It was a full set of teeth biting down into my skin, and it hurt. I gasped and tried to yank my wrist away, but she held it there firmly.

Just as Alice began to pull away, I felt it. I felt the force of the pain and crumpled to my knees, gasping. After a moment there was another full set of teeth at my neck. 

Suddenly, I was submerged into a colorless world. Everything was endless and black, like the depths of the sea. There was nothing that was bright or anything that made the darkness more comfortable. Through it all, though, I tried to imagine the faces of the Cullen family. Their golden eyes, their pale color, and the way they looked today.

It was too dark to see anything, though. It was like I was dropped in the darkest pits of Hell and left to survive on my own.

Throughout everything that happened—with Lexi, the Volturi, my memory being wiped—I simply moved on and kept moving forward. My foot just kept on taking that step, no matter what happened. One small step.