The Story of Emma Salvatore

Chapter 21

        I let the lifeless body drop.

        When I turned back to Anna, I half expected her to run away in terror. Instead she came up a hug. When she pulled back she gripped my arms tightly. ''Are you alright?'' She asked in a worried tone.
        I nodded to her. I honestly didn't know how I was but I thought it would be better not to worry her. ''Everything is so.. different.'' It was true. It was a whole new world. I could see through the darkness as if it were bright as day. I could see the sun rising slightly above the horizon.
        ''Yes, it takes a while to get used to.'' She gave me a smile and grabbed my hand. ''Come on! I have to show you what you can do now!'' She shrieked with excitement.
        I looked back at the lifeless body that I had just killed. ''But wait, what about her?''
        Anna rolled her eyes. ''We let her there. We are in the middle of the woods so another animal is bound to find her.'' She yanked on my hand again and this time I followed without looking back behind me.

        A thought dawned upon me. I was a vampire. A monster that I had hated only the night before. Now it was what I craved to be. It was what I had to be. I had no other choice. I would have been blamed for my fathers death. Not only that but my brothers were no longer in that life so I had no purpose there. This was my world now.

        ''Okay, so first things first.'' Anna said once we got far enough away from civilization and from the body. ''There are a few tricks I should teach you.'' Anna laughed and so did I.
        ''I'm guessing how you can run fast and how you can control minds?'' I listed the facts that I knew about vampires.
        ''Exactly. What do you want to start with?''
        I pondered this for a moment. ''Running.'' I finally answered. Anna nodded her head and ran towards me. Anna was a great teacher. Although running was part of this nature, it was difficult to get the hang of. But once I got the hang of it, Anna and I went for a run.

        I must admit, it was really incredible to be able to move that fast. It felt as if I were almost flying. We kept running for a while. I didn't know where we were going but I just followed her. We kept running for an hour. I started to get tired. I had no idea that we could get tired! There was so much to learn. Fortunately, I had a long time to figure it out.

        "So where are we going Anna?" I called up to her. She had explained to me that since she was older than me that she was stronger so she could run faster than I could and for a longer time period. She slowed down for me to catch up.
        "To a place my mother showed me. She told me to go there if I needed a place to stay, that I would be safe there."
        I stopped. "Stay? Anna I can't stay. I have to find my brothers." I had done this to help my brothers. But she apparently was not kidding. Her face was sad and there was depression in her eyes. "Anna you know that. The whole reason I became like this was to find them and help them and get them to remember me."
        Her face continued to look hurt and there was pain in her words "Oh, I thought that we were going to be together for a while then when you learn more then you can go find them."

        I just starred at her. How could she think that? It's not that I didn't want to be with her and learn about what I am but I had more important things to do. I opened my mouth to tell her that but I couldn't say it. Looking that the pain in her eyes was to much. I remembered that she had lost her mother the night before. I knew she was in pain. I couldn't cause her more. I did not want to.

        "Okay, take me to this place. But first can I go hunting quick? That running took a lot out of me." I smiled sheepishly at her.
        "You're young." Anna laughed."The road is that way," She pointed behind me. "Just wait there until you see a carriage, make them stop and feed." She returned my smile, she had gotten over the brief saddness. "Would you like me to go with you?"
        "No I should learn to do this on my own. But thank you."
        "Okay well I am going to go ahead. Just follow my scent, I'll make it clearly marked."

        I nodded at her and gave her one last look before turning around and running towards the road. I didn't want to cause her more pain. But I had no choice. I had to help my brothers. I first ran back to my old house. The door was still left open from when I had left in a rush. I walked to the door to go inside. I wanted to take one last look. I went to step inside when I heard footsteps coming from the house.

        Quickly I ran to the back of the house, faster than I had run before. Once I was safe in the garden, I glanced around at my home. It seemed different and I knew this wasn't my home anymore.I looked down in my hand to see the Vervain necklace in its box. Well if I was leaving my human life behind why not leave all of it?

        I walked over to my favorite tree that I had sat beside many times. Writing and such. There was a hole that I would see bird and animals building nests in just at my arm level. I took one last look at the necklace before shoving it in the hole, leaving my human feelings with it.Suddenly, I could feel it. This sensation going through me telling me not to feel. It was so clear. I could turn everything off. Shut out the world. I closed my eyes and when I reopened them back up, my whole outtake on life was different. I was a vampire. Strong and powerful.

        And now, I was hungry.