Earthshine (Twilight Fan Fiction)

Epilogue

I trudged through the thick snow, it slowing me down slightly. If I wanted to, I could run as fast as I cared, my feet barely touching the ground before they stepped forwards, but I decided against it. Sometimes it was good to walk, or run at a human pace, just to let me be free inside my head. I had so many unanswered questions, so many that I desperately wanted answering. Most of them were about Seth, or about Sue. Why did she suddenly burst? Surely she knew that I loved Seth?

I shrugged to myself. Snow had begun to fall, landing in my hair and on my shoulders. It was the second winter I had spent with the Cullen’s, and I still hadn’t gotten used to it.

I caught onto a scent, my head flicking towards it. I had already hunted, but it had only been a fawn. My throat, as usual, burned for human blood, but I ignored it. My pace picked up, wanting to find the fully grown deer I had caught the smell of. My feet were light in the snow, making dips only a few millimetres deep. I ran until I caught sight of the deer.

It was grazing on a patch of grass it had dug up from the snow. Lowering into a crouch, I felt a growl of hunger rise in my throat.

I leaped at the deer, my hands closing around its torso. My teeth sunk into its neck, and the deer fell limp before it could even cry out. I had become good at hunting.

Suddenly I heard a noise, like someone crying out. It was a quiet, strained voice. “Help,” the voice cried out again. It was a male voice, but the male was no older than I was. My head snapped up from the deer’s carcass, scanning the area. I could see no one. Not even far away.

“Help!” the voice said again, and I looked towards the place it had come from. Rising slowly out of my crouch, I trudged through the snow towards it. Please make sure there is no blood, I thought, over and over again. Even after hunting, I would still be drawn to it like a magnet to metal.

I walked at a human pace, partly not wanting to see whom it was, partly making sure that if they did see me, I would look human. “Help,” the voice said again. It was much closer. I scanned the area again, and stopped when I saw a flicker of movement.

I saw a tuft of short, curly black hair disappear behind a tree. I saw a leg sticking out from behind the tree, clothed in thick, black trousers.

“Is anyone there? Can you help me?” the voice said again. I took a deep breath in and listened. I couldn’t smell any blood at all. And I couldn’t hear a heartbeat. Instead I smelt the sweet smell of a vampire.

I ran past the trees, not caring that it didn’t look human. I stopped beside the boy, kneeling beside him. He looked too young to be a man, but too old to be a boy, with deep black hair, and an olive pallor to his pale skin.

He looked up at me, his crimson eyes shimmering with fear. He had one hand clutched to his chest, where he wore a dark golden waistcoat over a long-sleeved black jumper. Around his neck was wound a dull, dark blue scarf.

“Oh no,” the boy said, his voice lower than when he had called out, “you’ve come to kill me, haven’t you?” his eyes widened even more with fear.

“Wasn’t that you who called out?” I whispered. The boy nodded, but stopped and squinted in pain. He drew his hands up to his waistcoat and began to undo the buttons, each time wheezing in pain.

“Do you want help?” I asked, not knowing if to help him or not. The boy nodded again, and his hands slipped away from his chest. I leant over him and began to undo them, finishing within seconds. The boy began to try to undo his jumper, and I helped him with it, not knowing that there was nothing underneath. I pulled the jumper away, showing his bare chest. It was the same dark colour as his skin, a slight definition of his chest muscles. From the top of his right breast to beside his bellybutton ran a thick crack, the edges of it already pulling together as it tried to heal.