1: My First Night

Annalise's first night, as she wakes up in a strange place.

Immortal in France, Chapter one: My First Nights

 

White skin. Black hair. Blue eyes. Red lips. Blood. A rush. Those are the only things I could remember when I woke up. I remember a sensation on my neck. Almost as if I had been bitten or something.

I woke up in a dark room, with what looked to be curtains over the windows. I couldn’t tell if it was night or day. I sat up, moving aside the thick linens on the bed. I had a throbbing pain in the back of my head. Man did it hurt. I could barely see anything. I moved my hands over to where the night stand would be, trying to find a lamp. Finally I found it, and flipped the switch to turn it on. Now I could get a good look at the room. Yes, there was curtains over every window. The bed was so beautiful, with a white sheet tied to the bed posts. I was wearing a white sleeping gown, and my hair was perfectly curled. I wish I had a mirror. I felt my neck, but it was perfectly smooth. That’s strange.

I heard a knock on the door, so I ran back to the bed. I struggled to turn off the light, but finally I got it. I laid in bed, trying to look like I was asleep. I heard talking outside. A man and a woman. It sounded like they were arguing. Finally I heard a key unlock the door. The man and woman entered, I could tell by their footsteps. They were getting closer. They were both quiet as could be. I heard them walk over to the bed, I could tell they were looking at me. I was hoping that they couldn’t tell I was awake. I felt a hand caress my neck, and pull back my hair. The hand was freezing, I almost flinched from the coldness. Luckily I didn’t. I felt a kiss on my neck. What the hell is going on? And who is this man and woman? I heard the woman walk back out of the room, and close the door. The light was still on. I was in the middle of the bed, waiting to see what would happen next. The man sat on the edge of the bed, I could smell his sweet cologne. He had his hand laying on my waist, on top of the blanket. After a few seconds he took his hand back, and got up. I could hear him moving to the door. I could hear his soft breathing still. I could tell he was by the door, when I heard the footsteps stop. I heard the door open. I opened my eyes slightly to look at the man. He was standing by the door, facing away from me. He still had his hand on the door knob. But he was just standing there, waiting. He turned around, I closed my eyes. “ Goodnight.” He went out the door, and closed it behind him. I opened my eyes again, sighing. When the door opened again, I rushed to close my eyes. “Oh, and darling. I know you’re awake.” He turned the light off, and walked out the door. I heard the key go back into the lock. I was locked in there.

All I could think about at that moment, was the man. Why did he kiss me? What the hell is happening? Why am I here? And why cant I remember anything? I got back up, and turned on the light. There was a desk in the corner of the room. Dark wood desk, with tons of notebooks on top of it. I went and sat down in the desk, opening up the notebooks to find any information on what was happening. There was at least seven notebooks. I opened up the first one to find a story written in perfect cursive. I read the first few paragraphs. It talked about a man who’s son had died. And how thirteen years later, the man was sitting in his living room looking out the window, when he saw his sixteen year old son, who had died, walking up the steps. Quite nice story really.

I opened the second notebook, after I was done reading the last story. The whole book was filled with drawings. There were drawings of skulls, flowers, people, objects, animals. Drawings of everything. They were all beautiful in their own way. Whoever drew these, has amazing talent. I needed to meet the artist.

After I was done scanning the wonderful black ink drawings, I opened up a few of the other notebooks. They were all empty. I had one last notebook left to look at. The cover was blue, my favorite color. I opened it to find the name ‘Annalise’ written in big cursive across the page. That’s my name. I was confused. I flipped to the second page. Then the third, and forth. I flipped quickly through the whole book. Each page had a different drawing of a woman. With long curled hair, long eyelashes. With deep eyes, and thin lips. That woman was me. On every page was a different portrait of me. I started breathing heavy. I was scared. It’s not really fun to wake up in a strange house, to find that all you can remember is a scary flash of a man running at you. And then to find a notebook filled with drawings of me? What the hell. I need to know what’s going on. At this point, my head still hurt. But not nearly as much as it did when I first woke up.

I heard another knock on the door. I jumped from the chair, not expecting anyone to be back so soon. I didn’t know what to say. “Miss Annalise,” I heard a woman ask. I turned toward the door, eyes wide. Is this the same woman I heard come in earlier? “Are you awake?”

I started choking on air, “Yes.” I blurted out. What else was I to say? The man from earlier already knew I was awake. Might as well say yes, and figure out what’s going on. I heard a key in the door again, and the door opened. The girl was wearing a maids uniform, classic black and white. She was probably about twelve. She had beautiful long brown hair in a petite bun on top of her head. She had a maids headband on. She had gorgeous green eyes. But her face was very pale, and her eyes were lifeless. That is until she saw me, her eyes brightened right away. She was carrying a silver tray, with silver cups and a silver teapot on top. I could smell soup too. She came in and shut the door behind her. I sat on the bed, watching her.

“I brought you some tea, and soup,” she said, in a British accent. She was a beautiful girl, but looked as if she hadn’t got the chance to actually live yet. “I made it myself, I hope you like it.” I stared at her as she came towards me with the tray. She set it on the nightstand. She poured me a glass of tea, and handed it to me. As she moved the cup towards me, I flinched. “Don’t be scared. It’s just tea. No need to worry.”

I accepted the tea. But I sure as hell wasn’t going to drink any of it, until I found out more about this girl. “Thank you.” I said, pretending to take a sip.

“Oh, what bad manners I have. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Isabelle. But most people call me Belle. I work as a maid here. It’s nice to finally meet you.”

“Where am I?” I asked angrily. “Tell me what’s going on.”

“You’re in France. You’re at the Velente mansion.”

“France?” I asked. I don’t remember where I lived before, but I’m sure it wasn’t France. I couldn’t really remember anything, except the horrifying scene of some one’s death. I knew what I looked like, and I knew my name. I remember a few things, but not a lot. I remember my mother teaching me to play piano. I remember me and a boy running through the woods together, playing, when I was a teenager. Now I’m 23. That’s all I could remember at the moment.

“Yes.”

“Well who is this Velente family?” I asked, trying to push more information out of the girl.

“Charles Velente, is a millionaire. He has tons of money! He lives here with a woman, his sister. They’re both very pleasant.”

“Alright.” I said taking everything in. “Well, what am I doing here?”

“Charles saved you. You had been attacked. He found you on the street bleeding out, he took you in and nursed you back to health. You’ve been sleeping for days. I was wondering if you were ever going to wake up. But Charles believed you would. He kept on telling us to just wait. He knew you would be ok.”

Attacked? I had been attacked? Or had I died? The persons death I was playing back in my head was mine. Just then I had a vision, clear as ever. It was me. I was walking down a cobblestone street, when I heard footsteps behind me. I started walking faster, the typical scary movie scene. The footsteps got closer. I began to run. I felt a hand on my shoulder. And a sharp pain in my neck. The person was biting me. I remember the sensation as his sharp incisors touched my neck, and pierced my flesh. I fell to the ground. All I could feel was pain. All I heard was the sound of the ocean tumbling. It was night time. The man was biting me, and, excuse me, sucking my blood. He was a vampire. But vampires aren’t real? Are they? I felt a rush go through my body as his blood mixed with mine. I saw myself gasping for air, all I could feel was coldness. I remember looking towards the ocean, looking at the stirring waters. It was a cloudy day. I felt his hand on the back of my head, the other around my waist. I was laying on the ground, and he was holding me. I looked over at his striking blue eyes, though it took a lot of effort to move my head around to look at him. He had long blonde hair that was in a pony tail. Then the vision ended, as I saw myself drifting off to sleep, as the vampire ran away. “Miss Annalise? Are you alright?” That’s the last thing I remember hearing that night, as I drifted to sleep with the vision of myself dying. I remember Belle shaking me, trying to wake me up. I hear screaming, as I hit the floor. I had fell forward as I was going unconscious. Then I was out.

Author's Note

Sorry about the format, if it's screwed up.

Reviews

[~Artemis~]

I know about the format, it does that to my stories all the time. This is an interesting beginning, but I like it, you jump right into the action, but without leaving your readers totally confused.
I wasn't expecting the vampire bit, but that'll be exciting, I've been looking for a good vampire story. It was interesting writing too, it kind of followed her thought process, I'll be interested to see how that plays out in later chapters.
Like I said, i think this is a great way to start a promising book.

[E. Kang]

i can't wait to read more !