Black Moon

3 - Starvation

3

As soon as I reached the house, I could tell that they were all waiting for me. The girls, at least. I could hear Alice, Rosalie, and Esme sitting on the couch and watching chic flics, a custom for them on every other Friday.

The guys, on the other hand, were playing a game of football chuckling to themselves as they made a contest out of who could throw the ball the hardest. As much as I wanted to go out with the guys and try to have fun, I knew that I certainly didn’t have enough energy to play. In fact, it was probably one of the first times in my existence that I actually physically felt my age. All I wanted to do was put on some records and lay in my room for a while.

Hopefully I’d be able to make it past the girls without them knowing. 

I clenched my fists and began to sprint across the yard at super-human speed, trying to catch them off-guard as I passed through the door, through the living room, up the stairs—”

“Stop!”

Short, high, and shrill, my body completely froze and I sheepishly turned to stare at Esme, one hand resting lightly on the polished wooden banner.

“Where are you going?”

This had been the first time in about eighty years that she’d tried to talk to me like a teenage boy. Trying not to growl, I clenched my teeth over my tongue and swallowed the flaming venom that pooled in my throat.

“To my room.” Luckily, I could keep my expression and my smooth, velvet tone under control. “The deer don’t smell too good tonight. I think I’ll just put on some records.”

Alice stepped up this time and stood by Esme, putting one hand on our mother’s forearm. She didn’t even try to hide her worried expression, and when I dipped into her thoughts, I could hear they were fragmented and quick.

“You haven’t eaten for three weeks now,” said Alice slowly, trying to judge and predict my reaction.

Has it already been three? I could’ve sworn it was only two…

“I’ve been eating,” I laughed humorlessly.

“No, you haven’t.” Her voice was sharper this time, more accusing. Her amber eyes flared with a sort-of angry passion, and I could feel my teeth grinding harder.

“Alice, it’s fine.”

“Please, Edward.” This time it was Esme who spoke up again. Now she, too, sounded worried. My dead heart—if I even had one at all—ached dully. The one thing I couldn’t stand to see was Esme unhappy. And now she was unhappy because of me. “At least drink some O-negative blood in the freezer to tide you over.”

Though the thought of drinking synthesized blood completely repulsed me, I nodded slightly and cast my eyes to the ground. “Okay. Do you mind if I wait awhile?”

Esme and Alice both sighed simultaneously, but at least I could tell they were breaking down. Meeting me halfway, they looked at each other and Esme said, “Alright. But don’t try to get out of this, Edward.”

I gave the wooden banner a light squeeze. “I won’t.”

Alice kept her gaze on her for a hard moment before she turned to Esme and coaxed her into sitting down. I watched as Esme reluctantly obliged before I turned and headed up into my room, shutting the door quietly behind me.

Now safely in my room, I grabbed a stack of records and sprawled out in the middle of my carpeted bedroom floor, getting lost in each fifteen-minute sonata, staring up at the blank ceiling with the lights shut off. Despite it being nighttime, the bright moon cast beams through my window and pelted itself into the carpet around me. The music seemed to float calmingly around me, and for a moment it almost seemed like I could get to sleep.

Somebody suddenly knocked at my door, though before I had to time to snap out of it and identify them by their thoughts, they’d left. Like an old man, I slowly got up and answered it.

Of course there was no one.

But on the floor rest a small glass of blood, the crimson liquid glinting under the light.

Looking around, I could only guess whether it was Esme or Alice. But nonetheless, I took the glass gingerly in my hands before slowly shutting the door behind me.