AN- This chapter is the first in a story about the short human life's of Jane and Alec. Myself, 'ThebonkersvampireofDoom' and 'Heather Lee Magneson' are on this joint account, and this is the first story we are collaborating our efforts to. We both feel that many of the minor characters, the Volturi in particular, have many undeveloped stories and we both thought that Jane and Alec's would be a good place to start. Please note that all pms and reviews to this account will come to me first, so if you get a reply, it's more likely to be from me rather than Heather, but that's not to say she won't be able to see any feedback we get;) Anyway, here goes first chapter. Jane and Alec are four years old in this, and discover their supernatural human abilities for the first time. Enjoy : )
A small village in Italy, 17th century
The sound of children's delightful squeals and contagious laughter filled the orchard at the centre of the village. Grunts and groans were also adding into the mix of the noise, but it was mostly the sounds of happy children, doing what they did best. Playing, and in this case, playing pretend fights.
'Mush his eyes out!' a small, high pitched voice called out, away from the action. In the centre of the orchard, two small boys were taking turns in grabbing each other's limbs. It was merely feeble pinches they were giving each other, but it was enough to raise a pandonium of giggling and cheering from the four other four year olds congregated around the two boys fighting. For the next ten minutes, the pinching and pushing continued, until one of them kicked the other's ankle from behind, causing him to fall face first into the now muddy grass. The gardeners were not going to be too happy about the brown mess in the centre of the lawn, but these children were too busy jumping up and down in excitement about the climax the fight had reached to worry about the mess they had created. The boy who had fallen was now underneath the triumphant boy's foot. He stood in a melodramatic manner, with his hands raised above his head and one of his feet weighing on his opponents back. He looked around with a smug, victorious expression.
'Yay! My Alec won!' a small girl with light brown hair gushed, jumping up and down enthusiastically even more than the other three spectators.
'It was easy', the boy who had won, Alec, said, smiling at the girl, 'Do you want to fight me next, Jane?'
'But she's your twin. You can't fight her', a voice called from the ground, still giggling despite the fact he had been defeated.
'Shut up Leonardo. I will fight her as soon as I have put a curse on you', Alec said with playful superiority in his tone. The others all fell silent and waited with great anticipation for Alec to put his pretend curse on Leonardo. Alec slowly removed his foot from Leonardo's back and moved round so that he still faced him but had his back to the others. He took a long, deep breath, and bellowed as best as his age would allow his made up curse.
'Leonardo, I, Alec, have defeated you. I now put a curse on you so that you will be blind forever!'
While the rest of the children started cheering and clapping enthusiastically, Leonardo, who should have been giggling the most, remained silent. He realised something was wrong as soon as Alec had finished putting his pretend spell on him. It was only now that he had begun to realise exactly what it was. Though he was certain he had his eyes open, he couldn't see the green grass and the others cheering. He could hear them though, and that was what confused him. He thought me might have some mud in his eyes, though mud was brown; all he could see was black. He blinked a few times, nothing happened. He did it again, screwing his eyes up this time. That didn't work either. It was only then that it occurred to him that Alec's supposedly made up curse, had actually worked; he was well and truly blind. Then, as panic began to engulf him, he did the natural thing; he screamed.
The others, who had been practically worshipping Alec, leapt into the air at the sudden horror filled screaming that filled the air. Alec, who had been thoroughly enjoying his glory, realised that the cheering had subsided, and all that was to be heard was screaming. He lowered his eyes, and with an element of shock, saw that it was Leonardo's screaming that had silenced everybody.
'I CAN'T SEE! I'M BLIND!' Leonardo gasped and squirmed around and was desperately fumbling around with his hands on the ground. With horror filled realisation that it was his fault, Alec racked his brain to find a means of reversing the curse. Almost immediately, the screaming subsided, and Leonardo was on his feet. His brown eyes glared at Alec with pure rage. Alec froze on the spot, paralysed by fear. He knew that Leonardo and he were going to have another fight, but this time it wasn't just going to be two children playing around; Leonardo really meant to hurt Alec, badly.
Leonardo stood very still for a few seconds, his nostrils flaring, his fingers clawed, his jaw clenched. The children were totally silent, five scared witless, one crazed with fury.
'DAMN YOU!' Leonardo roared, and then raised his fist towards Alec. Jane, who had been staring at the scene with her heart pounding, immediately began to fear for her brother's safety. She wanted to go up and hurt Leonardo, to punish him for even thinking about hurting her twin brother. However, before she or anyone, or even Alec, could react, Leonardo's body jerked, let out a yelp, then fell to the floor in a heap. Her mind still focused on hurting Leonardo, she took advantage of his now vulnerable position and stepped a few paces forward. Every step she took nearer, Leonardo's body jerked more violently, his screams grew louder and more agonising, and the eyes of Alec and the other's grew wider and more horrified. Jane however, found Leonardo's pain enjoyable, and as she worked out it was how near she was that made his pain intensify, she walked even closer, forcing Leonardo to produce screams that may have come from a man that had been hit by lightning, and the jerking became more consistent.
'Jane!' Alec called out, distracting her from Leonardo. In the split second she had jerked her head away to look at Alec, and then back again to Leonardo, he had managed to spring to his feet. For a few moments he stared at the twins with a mixture of disbelief and horror on his face, and then his face started to crumple. He turned away and started running in the direction of his home. No doubt he was going to see his mother. He'll tell her everything. Jane and Alec nervously glanced at each other, and then together turned around to face the other three. They were staring at the twins in a deafening silence, their eyes wide and filled with the same fear and disbelief Leonardo's had been. Then, without much warning, one of the started to scream. He turned and fled from the orchard, the other two following in the same manner. The twins stared after them for a few minutes, then turned and looked at each other. Jane, stood facing Alec with fear in her eyes for a few moments, began to shake, and her bottom lip began to quiver. Despite the sudden icy chill that had entered the soft breeze, Alec removed his tatty jacket and placed it in Jane's slightly outstretched arms. Rather than putting it on, she grasped it with her bony fingers, and buried her face into it, hiding the tears that had begun to trickle down her face. However, this did not fool Alec. He placed both his arms around his sister's frail shoulders comfortingly, and leant his head on hers. He was scared and confused too, but he didn't tend to show his emotions as much as Jane.
'Alec', Jane sobbed into his jacket 'I'm scared', Alec didn't say anything, just pulled his arms tighter around his sister, and let a small tear escape from his own terrified eyes. That was the novelty of being twins; they didn't have to say much to each other to be able to communicate. So even tough Alec remained silence, Jane knew better.
By the next morning, the entire village had been informed about the incident, and so began the miserable chain of events that were to happen to the twins in the years to come.
AN- So, did you like? Please give us some feedback. And be warned, since this is a joint effort between two people on opposite sides of the Atlantic Ocean, there may be a while in between updates. Replies should be rather punctual, though : )