Celeste Cullen

"*The fire crawled down my body, filling my chest. It centered itself in my heart, and I could barely hear my own screams. The pain was unimaginable.*"

~Celeste on the burning pain of becoming a vampire

Celeste Paige Mae Cullen was born to Alexander Mae and Jane Mae on November 7th, 1954 and lived in Oregon with them. She was changed into a vampire by an unknown man.

## Appearance

Like her mother, Celeste has auburn red hair, though it takes her father’s curly shape. She has dark eyes as a human that she also inherited from her father. Similar to other vampires, her eyes change color depending on her thirst. They are usually an orange or amber that reflects her human and animal diet, but despite her efforts to stay a vegetarian vampire there is always a hint of red in them. Her eyes turn a black that is close to her human eye color when she is thirsty.

## Early Life

Celeste’s mother, Jane Mae, died shortly after giving birth to her, and Celeste was then taken care of by her father. She was a happy child, though Alexander couldn’t supply her with everything. He later remarried after her wish for a mother. Her new stepmother, Fleur Smith, abused her often. When Celeste grew up, she stopped seeing the outdoors, and often sat in a chair that she called the ‘abuse chair’ in a room. If she made noise, Fleur would come up and punish her with a wooden spoon. Sometimes the consequences were worse, and when one day she was found banging on the door, screaming for help, Fleur cut her arm with a knife.

Celeste ran away from her home at the age of seventeen, and kept running into the woods so her stepmother wouldn’t find her. She was later turned into a vampire by another vampire who was preying on hikers. Though she asked for death from the man, he promised to give her something much better so she could never be hurt again. She agreed to this immediately, and so begins her life as a vampire.

## The Forest

The Forest is written by Celeste’s point of view, beginning from the first days of her vampire life.

Alone without guidance, she tried to figure out what the burning in her throat meant. She originally thinks of it as thirst, but the water doesn’t seem to help. She next wonders if it’s hunger, and attacks a buck that is with a group of other deer using a sharp tree branch that she wields like a knife. However, the fresh venison doesn’t satisfy her appetite either, but she soon is drawn to the blood leaking out of the animal. After satisfying some of her thirst with the one animal, she moves on to kill the rest of the group.

Her eyes are tinted with red due to wandering hikers crossing her path, and she is also dressed in the clothes that she stole from her prey. She was called ‘the monster in the forest’ due to the amount of hikers she killed, and she found this out in a torn newspaper page that was nailed onto a tree. Using mud and her finger, she writes ‘be warned’ on the page.

She ran through the forests of Oregon to Washington, where she met Emmett and Edward Cullen while they were on a hunting trip. She originally plans on attacking them, but something about Edward keeps her from killing Emmett in fear that she might accidentally kill him too.

"*I stared at the less-bulkier man. His golden eyes were focusing on me in concentration, his bronze hair wet with the earlier rain. He was pale, much paler than the average human."*

~Celeste on seeing Edward for the first time

Emmett later runs off at the scent of a bear, though Edward stays, explaining vampire life to her. She is grateful for this, considering the fact that she had nobody else to talk to her about her strange new life. She is also digging through her blurry memories of a child to figure out her name when she is asked it by Edward. They end up going over a lot of her memories, focusing on the ones about the abuse when she was a child.

"*He spoke slowly, giving me a chance to process it all. The information was overwhelming. I was a vampire. A newborn vampire, to be exact."*

~Celeste on the explanation of her vampire life

Celeste later joins the Cullens, going to Forks High School after a few weeks of drinking only animal blood, using the surname Cullen. The first day is hard for her, and she has trouble controlling her yearning for blood. Edward speaks for her, gathering gossip of her being a mute. She makes it to lunch before Alice Cullen suggests that she leaves. When Celeste asks why, Alice tells her that she saw Celeste slaughtering the whole school. Celeste later agrees to stay in Edward’s silver Volvo for the rest of the school day.

Edward later takes her on a hunting trip, and she smells a group of hikers when she is searching for deer. Since she is not yet strong enough to resist the smell of human blood, she ends up killing the group of three. She can see Edward’s disappointment in her, but he helps her with the bodies.

"*I could see the disappointment in his eyes. My thoughts ran through things to say, ways to apologize, but the words seemed all wrong, so I kept my silence.*

~Celeste on Edward’s disappointment of her killing the hikers

Celeste was later sent to the Denali coven in Alaska by Carlisle Cullen, where she would be away from humans. She didn’t refuse to this, but was a little worried about leaving Edward. She passed it off as nerves of seeing other vampires, assuring herself that it had nothing to do with Edward.

Tanya helps Celeste with her self-control, and Kate suggested shock treatment to help. Celeste refused this idea, remembering the nights as a teenager that she spent crying herself to sleep in pain, though these memories were blurry.

When Celeste comes back to Forks, only a faint red exists in her eyes. Edward is proud of her for this, and she celebrates with him.

The next day that she goes to Forks High School, she is more controlled, but still has Edward speak for her. When she is asked if she’s a mute by a teacher, Edward answers that she doesn’t wish to speak. When asked again, she answers in a quiet ‘no’, making sure not to breathe. The teacher asks another question, but she isn’t able to make it out due to the ringing in her ears at the warmth of the human. Edward pulls her away before she gets the chance to kill the teacher, and she doesn’t fight back.

In the cafeteria, it is not easy to ignore the humans in the room. She keeps her muscles stiff, and Edward holds onto her as another restraint. She lets him hold her, her eyes taking in the room for the first time. She is amazed by the human architecture, which is simple but intriguing to her because she spent most of her vampire life in the forest.