Charlie Swan: Vampire Hunter

2

Where I had expected a deer to be lying on the road was the pale figure of a boy. I took a few steps closer and saw it was one of Carlisle's boys. Edward I think his name is. Was. I'd just run him over. A direct hit at 60 mph, there was no way he'd survive it. I took another step closer and Edward groaned and rolled over onto his back. I jumped back.
How in the living hell was he alive let alone moving?
"That...was not the most pleasant sensation in the world." He said looking at me from the ground. "Maybe look where you're going next time?"
He sat up. I retreaded back a few more steps mutely. He was alive. How the hell was he alive? I felt the sun on my back and looked up. There was a small part in the near constant clouds. Just enough for a single sunbeam to sneak through.
I followed the sun back down to earth and to the boy sitting on the tarmac massaging his shoulder. Once again I had to do a double take. Where the sunlight hit is bare skin, it glittered.
All the Cullens had pale skin. I'd assumed it was a family trait, and it was in a way. I'd never seen skin like this. The glitter was faint at first, but grew stronger as the clouds parted more.
Edward blocked the sun with a hand and looked at me, for the first time fear clouding his eyes.
"Forget this. Forget me. This didn't happen." He said, slowly standing and backing away.
I stared at him, indignation slowly overcoming the adrenaline coursing in my veins. "Like hell!" I responded.
He only shook his head and kept backing up. "Please. Please, forget this."
I shook my head.
He nodded and closed his eyes.
"Very well. Don't tell anyone what you've seen. It's important. Do you understand?"
"What are you?" I asked, my mind slowly starting to work again.
"I'm just like you. I have a rare skin disorder that's all." He said, hands out backing towards the woods.
"No, you're not like me. I ran you over, but you're seemingly unhurt. You aren't human. So, what are you?"  I asked again.
He stayed silent, but sped up his retreat. I didn't try to stop him when he reached the trees, turned and ran into the dark of the forest.
——
I returned to my truck slowly, my mind racing a mile a minute. How was it that he had been run over and survived? Anyone else would have been dead after a crash like that. My truck, miraculously, was nearly unharmed. There was a large dent in the front, but beyond that it seemed fine.
And then there was his skin. Why did it glitter in the sunlight? And the skin tone, he and his family were so pale it was nearly unnatural. Was it natural? It couldn't be, not with all the other things that were... strange about the boy. The family as a whole.
They kept to themselves. The kids went to school, but beyond that no one really saw much of them. Carlisle was a local doctor, but, like his children, outside of work no one saw him much.  They had a mansion easy back in the woods on the edge of town, and presumably spent most of their time there.
I sat in the truck, hands on the wheel staring ahead, until a car passed me, the occupant looking at me with concern. In Forks, you know almost everyone and as as the police chief, I know more of the town than many. I'm sure I know whoever was in that car, on a normal day I could have told you, but not now. My thoughts were still spinning when I put on my blinker and turning onto the road, heading towards the school once again.