Too Close | Rosalie Hale

Chapter 1

The burning in her throat was the first thing that Lex noticed when she opened her eyes. It was a sensation reminiscent to the pain that she had felt right before she had passed out, but it was solely concentrated in one location, much to her relief. The pain she had felt after being bit by that woman had been worse than she could ever describe.

 The second thing that Lex noticed, was that she no longer had to breathe, she was laying on a cold cement floor, motionless and un-breathing. Upon further inspection, her heart was completely silent. No matter how hard she concentrated, she couldn't feel the rhythm of her heartbeat.

Was she... dead?

That's ridiculous, she thought. She could see, hear, smell, think, therefore she had to be alive. She was just in shock, or something. That had to be it.

Lex finally looked at her surroundings, and was shocked to realize that she could see the dust particles floating through the air. Beyond the dust, she could see that she was in a large crowded basement— there were kids around her age, all deathly pale with various shades of red eyes that almost glowed through the dimness of the room. The walls were a musty gray and there were no windows, keeping her from knowing what time of day it was. The only light in the room came from a single bulb that dangled from the ceiling by a black cord.

"Where the fuck am I?" Lex murmured to herself as she got up from the cold floor where she had been dumped— presumably by the people who had attacked her.

A few of the kids snickered at her lack of knowledge, and they looked at her as if they were sizing her up. Their leers filled Lex with a sense of unease.

"You're awake," a voice spoke. Lex whipped her head around to see the man who had attacked her— he was still wearing the same dark sunglasses that he had been wearing when he had attacked her.

"I was starting to think you were a goner," he said. "You were out for almost five days, the transformation usually fails when it takes that long."

"Who are you?" Lex asked him cautiously. She didn't trust this guy for a second— he had attacked her the last time they had met. 

The burning in her throat intensified, and it took everything in her not to scream out in pain.

"My name is Riley," the man boasted. "I'm in charge around here."

"What did you do to me?" she croaked out as she clutched her neck.

"I turned you into a god. Well, she did, but I picked you," Riley smirked. "You're faster, stronger, more beautiful better in every conceivable way."

"What are you talking about?" Lex pressed on through the fire in her throat. If her heart still worked, it would have been pounding in her chest.

"You're a vampire," Riley shrugged. 

"Vampires aren't real," Lex deadpanned. This guy was insane. "And I definitely am not one. That's— that's impossible."

Riley handed her a small mirror. "Take a look."

She gasped at what she saw. While Lex had always been pale, now her skin lacked any pigment at all. Her acne scars and pimples had all vanished without a trace, and her cheekbones were sharper, and more pronounced. Her lips were fuller and pinker than they had ever been, and her hair looked impossibly silky. But the feature that struck her the most was her eyes— her irises that had once been a beautiful jade green, were now a bright crimson.

"Don't you feel that burning in your throat?" he asked her, tearing her eyes away from her reflection. "You're thirsty."

Her throat burned even harder in response to his words— she felt like she had swallowed molten lava and chased it down with a wildfire. She whimpered in pain.