CHAPTER SIX
feeding - the interlude

My first two weeks at school slipped by faster than I expected, yet every day was heavier with moments I hadn't foreseen. After the incident with Bella in biology, Edward Cullen vanished from both classes and the cafeteria. His family stayed, but he did not.

Bella searched for him, too. She never spoke his name, but her eyes betrayed the worry she tried to conceal.

Every lunch, she'd unwrap a can of Pepsi and nibble an apple, then turn to stare at the Cullens' table, her brow furrowed in silent confusion. I didn't understand it, how she could still care after the way Edward looked at her. That hateful gaze was so cold it stung like poison. I was stunned she allowed herself to think of him at all.

Edward's constant covering of his nose and mouth made me suspect it was the scent of human blood driving him away. But why only Bella? The targeted cruelty felt like something else beneath the surface. Something I couldn't yet name.

I found myself watching the Cullens more than I wanted. The thought of vampires in school still unsettled me, though the full family astonished me. This was no simple legend. Their golden eyes held a terrible clarity, unnatural and almost regal in their glow.

I wanted to learn more about them, about their life, their survival. I'd been alone in this form for so long, hiding my true nature, barely knowing the edges of what I was anymore. But the fear of discovery tightened around me like a noose. I had the gift to hide, to vanish in plain sight, and for now, that had to be enough.

Alice Cullen's stare haunted me most of all. Her amber eyes flickered through my thoughts at unexpected moments, bright and piercing as if she'd seen right through every layer I'd built. It was an unyielding gaze, addictive and fierce, a true vampire's hold.

But beneath that intensity, I felt something more dangerous: fear. What if her eyes could unravel the secrets I guarded? What if she sensed what I didn't dare speak aloud? The uncertainty made my chest tighten.

That evening, I left the inn earlier than usual. Mrs. Rochester sat at her desk, buried beneath piles of papers, her tired eyes lifting as I passed. She mumbled a greeting, which I returned without pause, heading toward the dining room where clattering dishes echoed softly.

She hurried after me, her voice sharp in the quiet.

"Your payment is due, Miss Masters," she squeaked, emphasising my name like a warning.

"The envelope's been on your desk for two days," I said flatly. She scowled and folded her arms, waiting.

"I won't be needing breakfast tomorrow," I added. "Leaving early."

Her brow arched in challenge, but she only sighed, letting me go.

"Fine by me," she muttered, not moving from the doorway.

I nodded, climbed the stairs, and shut the door behind me, the faint mumble of insults trailing after.

The next morning, I slipped quietly into the woods behind the inn. I should have gone farther, escaped deeper into the green silence, but after half an hour of running, when the sun barely kissed the treetops and the mist still clung to every leaf and branch, I stopped.

I hunted.

The word felt both like a curse and a benediction. To hunt was to claim life, yet in claiming, to take something that could never be returned. I hated it. I loved it. I was both predator and prisoner, bound to an ancient need that gnawed at my edges like a slow poison.

Early morning was the only time the world made sense, when the mist was thick enough to hide me, when the dampness hung soft and cold against my skin that no longer truly belonged to me, when the forest whispered secrets only I could hear. In these moments, I became something other, something raw and wild and terrible.

The trees swayed gently in the breeze, their leaves trembling like fragile glass. The forest breathed around me, alive with hidden life. My senses sharpened beyond human limits, the scent of earth and pine, the faint rustle of a distant animal's step, the whisper of a bird's wings against the fog.

Then, a snap, the crisp break of a branch underfoot.

The world condensed into a pinpoint of focus. There, through the shrouded veil of mist, a deer moved cautiously, its delicate nostrils flaring, unaware of the shadow that stalked it.

I was invisible. My form blended seamlessly with the greying woods, a wraith in a landscape of muted colour and quiet breath. Time seemed to fold, slow and endless and sharp all at once.

I moved forward, silent as the mist, each step measured, every muscle coiled like a spring. My breath was still. My hunger was a hollow drum inside my chest, a soundless echo that grew louder with every passing second.

was a creature caught between worlds, the ghost of what I once was and the nightmare I had become. Flesh and blood long surrendered to the cold embrace of death, replaced by something eternal and endlessly hungry.

In the stillness, I felt the weight of solitude press down on me like a shroud. This hunger was mine alone to bear. No one could understand it, not the living, not the dead. It was a secret carved into my bones, whispered in shadows no one else dared enter.

The deer lifted its head, nostrils flaring as it caught something in the air, something it could not see but knew was there. I held my breath, the pulse of the forest beating in my ears. The moment stretched thin, fragile as spun glass.

And then, I leapt.

Time shattered.

The world narrowed to a single point, the feel of hot blood, the surge of life ebbing beneath my fangs. A cruel and perfect gift. The sharpness of pain mingled with the sweetness of survival.

I fed.

In that instant, nothing else existed. No fears, no memories, no loneliness. Only the primal rhythm of need and fulfilment, the fierce and terrible grace of being alive in a body that no longer belonged to me.

When it was over, I stood in the mist, the forest closing silently around me once more. The hunger abated, replaced by a cold emptiness that would return again, sooner than I dared to hope.

I was a creature of shadows and longing, bound forever to the twilight between worlds. And in that silence, I wondered how long before the darkness would consume me completely?