DUSK

one

Copyright © 2018  by Rae White

All rights reserved.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, including photocopying, recording, or other electronic or mechanical methods, without the prior written permission of the publisher, except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical reviews and certain other noncommercial uses permitted by copyright law.

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This was written over ten years ago as alt/spin-off fanfiction for Twilight.   It takes place in the same universe, though a few years later in the timeline and in a different setting. 
 It is a finished story that I thought had some nice turns, though it needs heavy editing.   
So, this version is a bit different from an earlier version, if you've read it before on my wordpress or a forum.  
Enjoy your read!

Tess says this will be the last move for us. I want to believe her.   I'm tired of getting used to people and places only to begin all over again.  Not that I tend to be unpopular.  Quite the contrary.  My peers at once fear me and find my allure irresistible.

You see, I'm not human.

Yes, I know how that sounds, but I haven't been human since 1885 when my family was killed in a fire.

Tess, my current guardian, was hunting in the woods behind my family's church in Florida.  Some bored white boys decided it would be fun to set a negro church on fire during a revival.

I was well-burned at the time, but she saved me. 

I was the only survivor.

She told me that I was such a mess that she'd almost killed me out of pity.  Tess had been alone for so long herself, I think she saved me for purely selfish reasons. I became the daughter she'd never had.

Had she thought on it longer though, she might not have blessed a sixteen-year-old with this strange affliction.

I guess I should count myself lucky. Our need to move has only been because of our ever-present youth. The problem of our addiction has been solved.

Tess is supplied with human blood...  Well, close enough, anyway. It's an experimental synthetic that is shipped to us. I asked her once where she gets it and she only said, "When you are older."

Who am I to argue? She's over three hundred years old, though she looks a tenth of that, at most.

We've had many different kinds of living arrangements due to our special circumstances. Usually, I play her mixed-race daughter, but I have played her young-looking adult half-sister. 

...Though, only a few times.  

Human adults get far too twitchy about a girl who looks as young as I am with my disposition. So, I'd rather be with my visual peers.

It's a sweet hell, I subject myself too. Enduring a taste of the life that was stolen from me that night, but I have no other alternative.   My mother, father, and sisters are all dead, while I go on, just the same.