„Crime and Punishment"
(written by Midwich Cuckoo, beta-ed by Twitter 25)
"You indeed showed you do deserve being given the gift of the venom, Gianna," Aro's voice, in which suddenly there was no anger present, just a mere moment ago, blared through the throne chamber, in which the whole trinity of the self-appointed monarchs of the vampire world had gathered – Caius, Marcus and Aro himself, faces of all of whom expressed quite a unique mixture of feelings their human servant couldn't identify even if she dared to raise her eyes to meet the gaze of her masters. One she never saw their pale inhuman faces expressing, before. Relief maybe... and satisfaction plus a good dose of malice, a hint of that last feeling just appeared in Aro's voice.
All the young woman could do was nod her head with an immense feeling of shame that made her cheeks blush that everybody would have felt if forced to face such a situation. It was not only the shame for her stealing the venom in the most insolent – and strangest actually, way none of them could ever think of, before - to use to transform herself into an indestructible and eternal entity equal to her masters, without their permission. It was also her embarrassment with all the pain she experienced afterwards during the process of transformation – the one experienced in vain, as it turned out. Pain that lasted much, much longer than normally people being turned into vampires were forced to experience. And this is how it started: two weeks ago Gianna accidentally witnessed a quarrel between the witch twins, being unseen and unheard by those two. What she actually did happen to witness was the very ending of it. Everything the servant of the Volturi was the witness to was actually young Jane spitting on the ground after the just finished quarrel with Alec to stress how angry she was – this girl still had so many reflexes of a twelve year old although so many years passed since she actually stopped being one, in spite, of her getting frozen forever in the body of a preteen girl. If Jane was actually an ordinary preteen girl, the spit would be just be mere saliva, not much harmful than ordinary water, though in this case it was nothing less than vampire venom, having the power to transform an ordinary human into one resembling those Gianna served for so long and with this hope deeply hidden in her heart she was going to get the gift of the venom as well, if only she was going to serve them well. She was doing this for a couple of years already and her wish to become a vampire was getting only stronger with every upcoming year. To be an immortal indestructible being enjoying eternal life – what a wonderful thing. Gianna could only hope she was going to get transformed soon, now when she was still young and fresh to enjoy the joys of the eternal life in the body of an eternal twenty something. Having seen what she did, a new thought instantly formed in her head – one that instantly made her heart start beating faster in awaiting what she was going to undergo – earlier than she had expected. Making sure she wasn't noticed, Gianna went to her room as fast as possible bringing a small empty face cream jar she kept in a drawer and quickly yet very carefully collected the tiny dose of the venom into it. It didn't dry up, it seemed its time of lasting was long. She hoped if it did dry up in the small plastic container she put it in, it still was going to retain its peculiar qualities even in a stale form.
The next thing the young woman did in turn was going to one of her masters – she chose Caius deliberately, it couldn't be Aro, as the vampire servant figured out – the mind reader could instantly read her thoughts upon merely touching her hand and not only not to give her permission for doing what she wanted but also taking away the venom she found herself in the possession of, so suddenly and so unexpectedly. Not that Aro, the leader of the Volterra vampires had a habit of touching her as she imagined he was going to, but she had to take all the precautions if she was going to do what she wanted. And what she was going to do – she instantly knew. As she was looking for a vampire she could ask for the permission for leaving Volterra for the next couple of days – was going back to her home in the suburbs of Rome where she could spend the next few days undergoing the painful procedure of transforming herself from an ordinary human woman – beautiful yet still unsatisfyingly and disgustingly mortal – into a creature as beautiful and dangerous and, above all, as timeless as her masters. Gianna realized that stating they were going to be very happy with it when they discovered what she did was a very delicate euphemism for what she was going to face afterwards, upon her coming back, yet she calculated the risk, thinking that she was going after all to get the venom sooner or later – and she was only slowing down the time of awaiting. This is what Gianna consoled herself with as she approached Caius and asked him – she hoped her request sounded innocent enough - if she could go home for the next couple of days. To her surprise she did get the permission – everything her vampire master needed was her starting to explain she had some business to do in Rome and that it couldn't wait.
A couple of hours later Gianna was on the train to Rome, clutching the purse in which a plastic jar, at the bottom of which the venom so carefully collected by her, lied. Every now and then, the woman kept opening it to look at the thing she desired so much, yet was refused to be given, in spite of all her requests. She had a fleeting feeling that Aro actually did sense how strong her desire to be turned into a vampire was, on that occasion while touching her and it was just out of spite that she wasn't given the gift of the venom yet. Like she was supposed to prove she did deserve getting it . Upon getting home finally, Gianna's first hurried steps led the young woman to her small house built of grey stone, empty, as after her parents' death a couple of years ago she lived alone in it - as her siblings left home. Carmela lived in Malta together with her husband and three children – something Gianna knew wasn't ever going to happen to her – not after the change but it wasn't like that she was a maternal type - and Alfredo studied in England. With her heart beating rapidly – out of excitation and fear the same, as the transformation, as Gianna knew, was going to be extremely painful – the woman took time to make all the preparations necessary, cutting her nails, removing hair from her body – she was going to remain smooth for the rest of eternity she was going to share with her masters now, regardless of how hard the punishment awaiting her was going to be – finishing with getting a homemade perm. It was going to be really permanent this time – Gianna expected to be an owner of a big shock of unnaturally curly hair, resembling Claudia from the most famous vampire movie ever. She plucked her eyebrows and curled up her eyelashes, almost gouging her left eye as her shivering hands didn't want to listen to her. Prettified in this way, with her head still wrapped by a big fluffy red towel, the woman took a razor brought from the bathroom, cutting her index finger and carefully, clenching her teeth awaiting the pain, poured the venom from the jar onto the wound. Only one moment and she would writhe in pain yet the award awaiting her afterwards... Only one moment...
Gianna couldn't expect in her boldest dreams what she was going to go through. Never. And if she did, she wouldn't ever be hit by an idea to try to undergo the painful – ah, how painful procedure, at the end of which a long, very long future as a vampire awaited her. Did it really? Writhing in pain, Gianna couldn't believe there was actually any future ahead of her, one that was not a fiery inferno devouring her flesh as the venom was slowly – very slowly – saturating her whole organism. And it wasn't even exactly about the pain as such either. Although she was fully aware of the pain she was going to feel, she really didn't expect this, quite like a mother awaiting birth doesn't fully realize the pain of giving birth until she goes into labour. She couldn't. As it was not only the pain as already said – it was the fact it didn't go away for much much longer than she thought. Two to three days in hell to enter the new world of limitless possibilities? Two days? The woman spent almost two weeks instead; both spent writhing in the most horrible agony she could feel ever. Her two next weeks were one fiery inferno of pain touching her whole body that seemed to burn on the stake. Gianna felt like those witches burnt on stakes had to feel although she wasn't capable of producing any coherent thought – all she could do was wait until the pain goes away. She writhed in bed, experiencing the most horrible pain she could ever feel, clenching her teeth in hope it was going to go soon. She knew she had to be silent, otherwise someone would call the police but how was it possible it was lasting... two weeks? She expected two days rather. Just two days and nothing more; she knew the theory yet why was it like that? What did go wrong? After two weeks the pain stopped – so suddenly as it started. He woman couldn't believe it, it was like she was condemned by God to eternity in fiery hell rather than to eternity in a perfect body of a vampire. Gianna was lying in bed, very surprised that so suddenly she stopped to suffer, grabbing instantly a pocket mirror lying on the desk in hope she was going to see a reflection of a moon pale, beautiful face looking at her from the silvery surface of the mirror... but nothing changed. Nothing at all. Gianna was only paler from the pain she went through in vain as it seemed. She took a look at her hands – she looked like always, beautiful, with long fingers and almond shaped nails but they remained human, made of flesh and not marble.
Gianna clenched her fists. Though still shaky and tired, she felt like howling to the sky; never before did she feel so... cheated? Yes, it was a good word for what she was feeling now, even if quite objectively speaking it was she who had cheated. She had no idea what to do. Should she go to Volterra and tell her masters the truth? Aro certainly was going to find out sooner or later, as he had a habit to touch Gianna's hand from time to time, as if trying to read her mind this way. And, after all, she had to excuse her absence. She was going to spend only like two days in Rome. Those thoughts Gianna was battling as she was lying there in her bed, still very tired after this strain she took – in vain. Finally, Gianna decided to grasp the nettle, catching the train to Volterra. She went to Aro, confessing her guilt. Gianna only needed to reach his hand and with her head bowed in submission stood there, as Aro was reading her thoughts – the story of her ordeal taken in vain. Not saying anything, he called the others. She was standing there shivering slightly, exposed to the penetrating gazes of the vampire masters, one of whom was promising her the venom and the eternal life in this way. Gianna couldn't believe her own ears. She was expecting getting killed but now this? Aro, congratulating her on her boldness – something she never expected to hear. Not only she didn't get the punishment she deserved – she knew she really did – not only wasn't she killed but Aro explained her that the venom was old and that was the reason for her ordeal taken in vain. Back in the early days of his vampire hood, he conducted some researches on how the venom affected people depending on how much time it took from its getting introduced into one's organism. Those who were given the gift of venom, were forced to undergo the ordeal for a much longer time than normally. As he explained to Gianna, all those who were given the venom after more than half an hour, had a very unpleasant occasion to find out that the time of when their organism was fighting the venom was much longer than normally – it took about two weeks. And in the majority of cases nothing happened, as the organism managed to fight old venom. Just like in case of Gianna. Gianna was listening to Aro's voice greedily, now finally understanding the reason of her suffering. If only she knew... Nevertheless, Gianna finally heard the nicest words that ever reached the ears of the young woman. Even though she knew she had to undergo the burning again, she knew that this time there was indeed vampire hood that was awaiting her at the end of this impossibly long road. No pain, no gain. She smiled with her suddenly pale lips. She knew it was going to be painful. She was told to go to her room to wait for him so as he could give her venom once more. She followed his orders.
"Why did you do this? Jane asked amazed when Gianna was already out. This generosity didn't fit Aro. "She deserved punishment."Aro only smiled predatorily. "Well, she did deserve punishment," he said ," and she will get it, as the tests showed clearly that when the next time the fresh venom is introduced into the body of a mortal, it does work this time, properly but now it needs more time. After then, it takes about six months to saturate the whole organism."