Chapter 1: Saviour
I was bruised and battered, I couldn't tell what I felt, I was unrecognisable, to myself. Saw my reflection in a window, I didn't know my own face…
(Streets of Philadelphia by Bruce Springsteen.)
Jasper POV
The City of Brotherly Love. Well, I could call no one around me my brother and even in this heavily populated city I felt utterly alone. I had no companion but my own thoughts; and they were my enemy, they taunted me and filled me with disgust.
My mind was filled with images of my last victim; a middle aged man. I had killed him a matter of hours ago. I had avoided hunting for as long as I could but the pain finally got too much. He had been emanating feelings depression and I had crept up silently from behind and ended it for him. Should that let make me feel less guilty than if his mood had been buoyant? I did not even know what had caused the depression; he could have had a family he was struggling to provide for, in which case I had taken him from them. Who did I think I was; someone who could release people from sorrow and think I was doing them a favour? If I truly let that thought ease my conscience then I was even more of a monster than I had thought. I, if anyone should understand him; I was depressed too. Would I want someone to end it for me? I never lost the battle, I was never defeated. But…what if I was overcome? Would I say maybe it's time or would I think no, not yet. There's something else I'm waiting for, something I haven't found yet… even if I didn't know what might be?
I had been travelling for several weeks now through the dirty streets of Philadelphia and I was sickened by the sounds of my own heavy boots hitting the pavement. Sick and tired…of myself. I didn't know what I was searching for or waiting to happen but I vaguely wondered if I would know if I found it.
The grey skies, unnaturally dark for this time in the afternoon were visual symmetry to my thoughts and feelings. Although, perhaps if I were honest, mine were of a darker shade of grey. At least there was hope of a break in the clouds after this storm ended. Storms were only a brief wallow of sorrow and depression. They passed. My dark mood showed no signs of doing the same.
As the rain began to fall I snuck in the door of a small diner, hoping to remain inconspicuous, and quickly took in every small detail to the situation around me. I had never been in here before and yet even before I looked I knew every crack in the faded and peeled paintwork and every crevice of the smooth worn wood would seem unbearably familiar to me. Was there really no more to this existence than to be a lonely traveller?
I saw her instantly.
She was at the other side of the dinner; it was impossible not recognise one of our kind. She had cropped black hair and of course pale porcelain skin; a mark of being a vampire. She was sitting on a bar stool with her back to me, when suddenly she swung around, jumped off the stool, and walked towards me.
I started in shock and tensed for battle. A thousand thoughts exploded in my mind in the fraction of the second it took her to rise and step towards me. She was so tiny! Why would she try to compete with me… what secret weapon did she have? I tasted the atmosphere coming from her, mingled with everyone else's around me. The power of it blew everything else into the distance. Was this some sort of trap? Could she somehow control her emotions to lull me into a false sense of security? If so, how did she know about my power?
I didn't want to get into a fight; I would have to kill all the witnesses and I was tired of killing. I didn't want to kill her either; there was something about her that…held me. What was it, some trick of her eyes? I didn't know what to do, so I waited still and tense to see what she wanted.
She stopped a few feet in front of me and stood there, smiling. Smiling! I wasn't sure what expression was on my own face. Staring into her eyes, all I could feel coming from her was… love? This couldn't be a mask. It was coming sure and steady from her and it hit me so strong it seemed to great for my senses to contain. In all my memories I had never felt something like this before. It was seeping into me, taking over me; her emotion was becoming my emotion.
If this was a trick, then well it was a good one, and I didn't care. If she was hypnotising me, confusing my emotions, I didn't care. Because suddenly, all I could think was that I had never felt something so real and whatever this was I didn't want it to stop. I felt like a powerful connection or bond had almost instantly been formed between us, for in this one second I felt my whole life shifting, and I somehow felt like I could finally become something I wanted to be.
'You've kept me waiting a long time,' she smiled.
I didn't understand her words, but it didn't matter. The words spilled out from my mouth without thinking, like some sort of dream.
'I'm sorry ma'am'.
She gave tinkling laugh and I found myself laughing too. Lightly but carefully. I hadn't laughed in so long, at least not laughter free from callousness or lifelessness, and it felt strange but good; I felt more like myself than I could ever remember. I could feel the looks of shock and wonder still mixed together on my face. If the humans around us were staring at us, I didn't notice, or maybe this whole life- changing scene had just gone past unnoticed to them.
She held out her hand as an invitation, and I took it. Her touch was so gentle. Most touch I was used to normally lead to snapping and tearing; ending a life.
She led me out of the diner. I didn't care where she was taking me, as long as it was somewhere new. A new feeling was coming over me, and it took me a moment to realise what it was…
Hope.
I waited and waited every day was the same hoping and waiting until one day he came i walked up to him"Youve kept me waiting a while." I said.
"Sorry mame."He said in a heavy texan vioce.We got talking and i told him about a coven i saw in a vision there called the cullens.
