Mirror Me

Volterra was the town that time had abandoned centuries ago, nothing but a combination of cobbled streets and ancient brick, beautiful, but forgotten, and yet Regan couldn't help but find it's faded exterior completely beguiling.

What secrets did such a place hold?

Sneaking on to the back of an in-progress city tour, had seemed a logical choice for any young woman wishing to pass time quickly.

Following an ethereal voice, Regan found herself and the rest of tour, far beneath the decaying streets of Volterra, when an otherworldly cold suddenly claimed her. Walking a darkening corridor; when an icy hand gripped her heart, and before she could explain it to herself, Regan was falling back from the group, her footsteps suddenly weighted by an unexplained sense of dread. She gazed frantically around her, from the high stone walls, down to the precarious medieval flooring, everything suddenly seemed wrong, and her body screamed for her to run.

Regan's hazel scrutiny briefly met the back of their voluptuous tour guide, and they faltered as the woman – Heidi – disappeared with the babble of tourists through a set of heavy ornate doors.

"Beware all yee who enter here." Regan whispered strangely, gathering her senses as she slowly turned on her heels, and headed back towards the forgotten warmth of the pretty reception area.

That was when the screaming began, and her quick-step stumbled into a terrified sprint. Men, women, children; Regan could hear them all, and they hated her, resented her for not being in that dreaded room with them. She covered her ears.

"I'm sorry." She sobbed.

Once up in the area that presented itself as a welcoming lobby, Regan burst her way though the doors, running forwards, and throwing her fist at the elevator button again and again, until eventually she registered a voice speaking to her, and the panic that faltered through it like fractured heartbeats.

"Signorina, please. What are you doing up here? Why are you not with your tour?"

Regan turned, unsurprised by the fear in the face of the young woman behind her. Unbothered by such matters, she pointed at the elevator.

"Open it." She ordered, having never been one to ever mix her words.

The girl looked horrified. "I-I can not, signorina. Please, let me take you back down, I am sure – "

"No!" Regan barked, grabbing at her own dark roots. Swallowing her fear, she composed herself as best she could. "I am not going back! You think I'm some idiot? I heard them! Those poor people that walked into that God forsaken room. Now open this door, before I do something I am going to regret."

The girl shook her head. "I can't, please, they will kill me."

"Who will?"

"The masters. They are not human, they – "

Suddenly she froze. No doubt sensing, as Regan had, the unmissable presence of the statuesque pair behind them. Heidi had returned with a man, a sly handsome smile tugging playfully at his perfect features, as Heidi's once violet eyes; now horrifyingly crimson, scanned the scene in front of her. They stopped on the cowering figure of the receptionist.

"Luciana, hai imparato niente? What have I told you about how to conduct yourself?" The dark siren scolded crossly, pushing her long thick curls purposely to one side "You represent the whole of the Volturi coven while you are with us, and I come up here to find you begging to some human? Spiegare te!"

Luciana shook her head franticly, rushing to defend herself. "Per favore. I was trying to stop her from leaving, onestamente. This has never happened before, I did not know what to do, Heidi. I – "

"It doesn't matter." Heidi sighed, briefly pinching the bridge of her nose, as if she had suffered this annoyance a thousand times too many. She waved her hand. "Go. Demetri and I will deal with this."

Luciana bowed her head. "Yes, Heidi."

In a rush of heartbeats the girl turned her willowy frame to leave, and Regan in her drowning panic – perhaps it was the hungered look in Demetri's eyes – allowed her hysteria to take hold. Using all her might, she launched herself at Luciana's back, wrapping a thin pale arm around the girl's neck, and pulling her roughly back against her chest.

Luciana screamed. "No! Let go! Liberami!"

"Shut up!" Regan hissed, conscious of keeping a wall behind her, and Heidi and Demetri in front. "You allowed those children to pass you earlier without so much as a twitch, therefore I have no qualms whatsoever about snapping your neck." She threatened, sounding braver than she felt. Making her way toward the desk, Regan glared at the inhuman pair that stood between her and freedom. She steadied herself. "Okay, so this is how things are going to play out. You're going to let me go, and I'm going to pretend that I was never here. I don't care who, or what you are, I just want to leave, okay? I just want to go home. No one needs to get hurt."

Demetri tittered, shaking his head as though indulging a spoilt child. "Come, come now, let Luciana go. There is no need to make this ugly."

"Ugly?" Regan spat, tightening her grip on a struggling Luciana. "Ugly is whatever you did to those people back there. Now open the elevator door."

Demetri sighed. "No."

"Open it!" She cried, her voice now holding a little less authority, and a little more desperation.

He shook his head again, and Regan's hope of getting out alive shattered a little bit more.

Impatient, and true to character, Heidi clicked her tongue. Clearly this had gone on long enough. "Demetri, stop messing around. We were sent to dispose of the straggler, so do it, or I'll have her. I have better things to do than to stand around here talking to food."

Demetri grinned, bending low to kiss Heidi's perfectly manicured hand.

"As you wish, my lady." He purred lowly, before slowly turning back to a troubled Regan. "This really is nothing personal, I happen to find you quite entertaining, but I am afraid I have a job to do, and so does she." He said, motioning to a sobbing Luciana. "Good secretaries are just too hard to come by these days. You understand?"

Regan did understand, and a seed of madness planted itself in the darkest corner of her mind, as what was about to happen – her untimely death – and what she could do to prevent it, exploded into one macabre epiphany. Demetri straightened the lining of his jacket, but before he could finish this small task, Regan had already made up her mind. The glistening call of the letter opener upon the desk, simply too hard an opportunity to ignore.

She reached for it blindly, as though dreaming, drawing a crimson line across Luciana's tanned neck, and inciting a gurgled scream from her open throat, shadowed only by an irritated growl from the beautiful Heidi.

Demetri stared as the body fell limply across the rug, his gaze seemingly fixated on the dark liquid pooling temptingly beneath the dying Luciana.

"Well." He began distractedly. "I certainly wasn't expecting that."

Regan's gaze hardened darkly. "I find I often surprise people. Now." Hazel orbs bravely pierced the faces of her would-be attackers, and she smiled coldly. "I hear you have a job vacancy?"

Please let me know what you think. This is only the start of my first fanfic. Reviews are always appreciated, friends.

Until next time. x