[1] Living Forever
"A volte temo che non vi rendete conto che cosa sono, cosa sono in grado di!" His scolding of me echoes in my mind, his Italian-spoken voice comforting to me.
Truth to be told, I was never like this before. Never in my darkest nightmares or every creeping corner of my mind had I ever seen this happening to me. It haunts and stalks me like a spider creeps on its prey; like a lion stalking a zebra. However, I can't dream or have a nightmare from it. But it still haunts me no matter. The dictionary's definition of a monster is any animal or human grotesquely deviating from the normal shape, behavior, or character. My definition? A beautiful, graceful creature that seems completely harmless, with red eyes and shimmers in the sunlight. But in darkest corners of their minds and blackest hearts, the dictionary's definition comes into play. A creature so evil and malicious comes from beneath the graceful, beautiful surface; and will kill and suck the blood of the innocent living. And truth to be told, I am a monster. Some of our kind are pretentious concerning the matter. Personally, I see no reason in being thrilled about this curse I have. It is taking a human's life in order to stay alive, in our world. We are the hated, the loathed, the damned. We are the vampires.
It was a normal day like always as I roamed the streets of Volterra, Italy in 1805. At age seventeen and had been forcefully disowned by my abusive father, there was not much I could do but practically beg for food or water, even clothing. With blond hair to my middle back and brown eyes, and a beggar at such a young age, I was innocent and naive enough. My life was rough and I didn't think things could get any worse. And hell, was I wrong.
A young girl, around nineteen it looked approached me with a bunch of others, at least thirty people, tourists or merchants from other areas I assumed, as they seemed to all be speaking different languages, German to French to Romanian and Russian. The young girl who approached me was gorgeous and statuesque with long, lustrous mahogany hair and long legs. I envied her unnatural beauty and her high-looking standards, embarrassed by looking at her and comparing her to myself, a emaciated young beggar girl. She smiled, revealing perfectly white, straight teeth. Again I felt this ping of envy, a strong feeling that I wanted to be her. Her voice was silky and reassuring.
"Ciao!" She said warmly, "You look quite helpless. But pardon me, allow me to introduce myself. I'm Heidi. What is yours?"
I cautiously but politely replied, "My name is Essence." Heidi smirked, "Essence, what a beautiful name. And are you helpless, girl?"
I was helpless. I had no were to stay [I had been living and sleeping on the streets in various alleyways], I had no place to go, I had no one to care for me. My cheeks burned from my slight blushing as I modestly replied, "Sì." Heidi grinned in a smug-like manner again, her face pleased, "Arrivato, bella. I will take you to food, wine and shelter."
I saw nothing peculiar with this young girl's hospitality and kindness. She was caring and said she would take me to a place where I could get what I needed. Looking back at it now, I was a downright fool for believing such a heartless lie. A trap; of course. The huge group, around thirty-five of us, lined up, stormed down a torched-lit hallway, Heidi leading us. A younger man, at least twenty-four, came down the hallway from the opposite direction. He was unnaturally beautiful as well. He had gleaming red eyes and spiky brown hair. He shot her a smug grin, pointed, gleaming white teeth being revealed. He sleekly murmured to Heidi as he passed by, "Heidi, amore mio. Leave some for me."
Heidi's laughter was graceful and like music, but I almost felt a shock of fear through me once I had heard it. My heart beat faster and faster. I had this feeling of dread and hatred as Heidi guided the large crowd of us towards two large oak doors. I had the slight feeling that I should leave, to run as far away as possible. But it was far too late now, Heidi swung open the two large doors. And my destiny stood before me.
Three men stood there menacingly. The one in the middle had long black hair and unnaturally pale skin, almost papery looking. It looked as though if you were to touch him, he would break; although that [and his deep and threatening red eyes] applied to all three of the men. The one to the left was older-looking, with long brown hair with a sunken face. All three men wore a pendant on their necks that had a large 'V' on it; I noticed Heidi and the younger man who we had passed were also wearing them. But the man on the far right was imprinted into my mind forever.
He was the youngest looking out of the three. He was taller than me by half a foot at least. He had platinum blond hair. His eyes were more red than the others; if even possible. He had a careless and maniacal look on his face, which was flawless and youthful. He wore all black, except for a red scarf on his neck. His face was almost disapproving and bored. I couldn't avert my eyes; he was too beautiful. He locked eyes with me, giving me a guilty expression.
"Meraviglioso, Heidi. You have outdone yourself, bella. They look so appetizing." The black-haired, pale-faced man grinned in almost an evil manner as the large wooden doors behind us was slammed shut, to the large crowd's surprise. Everyone screamed in panic. This was surely not what Heidi had promise me and all of these people. According to all the snippets of fearful conversation I picked up from these foreign strangers around me, I aquirred the information that me were a meal. A meal for vampires; these three men before us. My eyes widened as I realized had been tricked and walked into the trap. And I screamed as the killing started.
All three attacked at the same time, quickly killing each innocent human as every person screamed in fear and agony. Heidi attacked, too. But the three men where bloodthirsty and swift. They killed women, children and men; they seemed to not care what they were doing. I was backed up against the large oak doors. I pressed myself up against it multiple times, trying to escape. But I did not succeed; they were heavily locked and not ready to let me escape. I screamed as I watched people get killed. The most bloodthirsty was the platinum blond-haired young man that had locked his guilty-looking eyes with me. He was tearing people limb from limb. I stared in fear, knowing that I could soon be next. And sure enough, he approached me; I was one out of six left. He had a cat-like slyness about him; he was devious and cruel, the way he approached me. But his eyes locked again with mine, and the guilt in his eyes returned. He hesitantly moved towards me.
"Per favore, per favore," I almost whispered, tears streaming down my face, "Non dolermi, supplico di lei."
His eyes flickered. His evil, smug smile vanished. His eyebrows raised, consideringly. But he dove for my neck and I awaited to be bitten and closed my eyes, tears still spilling down my cheeks. After about ten seconds, I felt no pain. His arm gripped me, hard, surely enough giving me a cut or bruise of some sort, but no bite. I breathed heavily, my heart beating faster and faster. I slowly opened my eyes and I saw that he was inches away from my neck. He was hesitating. The black-haired vampire came forward towards us anxiously, as the older-looking one killed two other humans across the large foyer-like marble room, which had three thrones up on a platform at the far back.
"Dio mio! Caius," The black-haired one adressed the vampire holding me in a surprised tone of voice, "Go through with it! The poor ragazza is awaiting it in agony."
So the blond young man was named Caius. He reluctantly removed his posture from atempting to bit me to upright, and he held my arm in an agonizingly painful grip. The black-haired vampire looked at Caius in great surprise, as did the older vampire who had appeared next to him.
"I--I...I cannot," Caius admitted, his tone abruptly surprised by himself. "I can't, Aro."
The black-haired vampire was apparently Aro. He seemed to be competeing in the leading role of the three vampires with Caius. I couldn't really tell. But I learned the older-looking vampire was named Marcus, and he smirked as I fearfully looked up at all three vampires. Heidi strode over.
"What is the problem?" Heidi wiped some blood away from her mouth.
"Caius cannot seem to kill this human," Aro said irritably. Caius shot a dark look towards Aro, as if trying to insult him by a mere glance. Heidi smiled smugly at this, "This one? This mere beggar girl? I picked her up off the street. She means nothing." Heidi snapped.
I was trembling in fear, almost as though I was going to faint. Fear was overtaking every emotion and I was sure I was going to have a meltdown. Four vampires in front of me. All bloodthirsty. All of them had killed humans in front of me. I blinked a few times, tears streaming down my cheeks, and I realized I was really trembling under Caius's grip. Aro noticed this and calmly turned to me.
"My dear," He cooed, "Your name?"
I couldn't speak; at least it felt that way. My face flushed and I trembled even harder now that this vampire was addressing me. But I answered, not daring to disobey. "Essence Rossi." I replied.
"May I?" Aro asked, and outstretched his hand. I hesitantly put mine in his, not caring much anymore. They would attack me, I knew it. Aro cupped his hand over my trembling one. He brushed over it with his cold and stone-like feeling hand, his papery skin moving over my tentants underneath my skin of the knuckles. His face was undecided and seemed disturbed, but then he lightly smiled. "Ooh, Caius. I now see why you cannot."
Caius shot a look towards Aro. Marcus and Heidi stared over back at him. I stared up at Aro, tears pouring like a waterfall down my cheeks. He returned my hand back to me, and announced, "She disturbs you during thoughts of killing and bloodshed, Caius. A feeling of caution and danger. She has a gift. Nothing I've seen since Jane and Alec. If she is to be one of us, it would be of wonderful value."
Heidi glared at me intimidatingly. I bit my lip, trembling even more. Me, become a vampire?
Caius locked eyes with mine once more. I stared into those red eyes like there was no tomorrow.
Only now, he refused to look away.
I barely had any say in the matter of my mortality and immortality. I had no idea I had any sort of 'gift'. To myself, I was a poor beggar girl out on the streets of Italy. A vampire? Three days before, I had no idea that they had existed. Now I was to become one.
Aro had explained to me everything and anything there was about vampires and their world. I completely understood. They had given me the choice to either become a vampire or to be killed, because they could not afford being discovered and me telling everyone in Italy. I still thought it wasn't much of a choice.
Two days later, Caius bit my neck, traditionally. The pain was excruciating, nothing I had ever felt before. A stinging sensation electrified through my neck, into my veins. As soon as his icy cold lips pressed against my skin and bit down with his white, straight teeth, my life changed forever. I felt as though I would collapse, even though I was laying on a bed. The room around me was fancy and royal-looking. It was marble and had expensive furnishings. Caius stood by the bedside. Aro, Marcus, Heidi and four others [I learned their names as Jane, Alec, Felix and Demitri] stood on the side, giving Caius his space in changing me. I remember how I shook and twisted and turned in pain as the venom went through me. I remember my rebeling against Caius for changing me afterward; yelling to him how it was not fair that I hadn't had a choice. I learned of Caius's short temper and impatience and sometimes cruelness -- he acted as the alpha most of the time. And I remember the day Caius placed the Volturi 'V' pendant around my neck, signaling I was a part of the vampire royal family.
I now twirl the Volturi pendant around my fingers, the metal clashing up against my black-painted fingernails. My skin is as cold as ice. My kisses are ice cold. And I remember am not human. Without Caius by my side, Ifeel as though I feel nothing. My heart is with him. I now attend school in Forks, Washington, in America. Thousands of miles from him.
I live with the Olympic Coven of vegetarian vampires, also known as the Cullen family. None of us are truly related. I have two 'sisters'. Alice Cullen and Rosalie Hale. Then I have three 'brothers'. Edward and Emmett Cullen and Jasper Hale. I am supposed to be a triplet with Rosalie and Jasper as a cover-up in the human world, because I have honey blood hair like them. Now my eyes are honey instead of red. Even though my last name is Hale, Caius gave me his first name as a last name when he changed me.
"Essence Caius-Hale!" Alice sing-songed my name as she caught up with me in the hallway, "Are you ready for Bella's birthday party tonight?"
[[So here it is. My first Twilight Saga: New Moon fanfiction. Please review. I absolutely love Jamie Campbell-Bower, and I thought Caius wasn't talked about enough in New Moon. So here's the new fic about his character and an OC I made up. Please, please, please, please...review!]]
