Disclaimer: I disclaim all but my original characters, including any references to songs or movies.
"Lu, this is good for you. You should spend some time out and about instead of cooped up in your greenhouse all the time!"
I looked up at the much taller boy who spoke to me and sneered.
I knew he meant well, but I'd never wanted to see the world like the other kids. I liked the safe comfort of my greenhouse. I liked the plants, blooming, fragrant, colorful, spilling out of pots and climbing the walls, hanging from the ceiling. It was green, warm, dark, moist, safe.
The world outside of my sanctuary was so different. It was bright outside and dangerous. You see, I was never healthy. I never claimed to be, but there were two specific unhealthy things that hindered my connection to that outside place. Solar Urticaria was one. I was allergic to sunlight. It wasn't a serious, life threatening illness, just a rash every time I left the safety of a building without my parasol.
That wasn't the real problem, it just made me look like a freak in any social setting. The problem lied with my fragile bones. I had Osteogenesis Imperfecta, better known as "brittle bone syndrome". I was constantly breaking something. Constantly hurting myself and visiting doctors and looking at the faces of the people around me. They pitied me; I could see it in their eyes and it made me sick inside.
Rickie wasn't like that though. We'd known each other since we were kids in the shelter. He never once pitied me, and at the same time he looked after me. In return, I shared my food with him, and I sang him to sleep when he had nightmares. He was three years younger than me, but always big, and always old behind his eyes. We all were.
We were rejects. Unwanted by anyone, especially our parents. I'd been dropped off by a hooker as soon as I was born, already broken in places. They barely kept me alive at the hospital, and I never really recovered. Rickie came in when he was five. His folks were, well, the violent sort. Somehow though, he turned out so ...good.
I looked at his annoyed expression. He knew I'd spaced out and wasn't really listening anymore. I smiled sweetly beneath my crooked nose.
"I like the greenhouse."
"We're going to Italy. I got this deal for a vacation package from this lady I met down, at the-" I stopped him with a hand over his jabbering mouth.
"She wasn't into you if she's as hot as your reaction says she was." He clenched his jaw and frowned, but he didn't say anything else. He looked away, at the hydrangea, the blue one, and my favorite. I looked at him. I looked at his shaved head, his brown eyes and dark, beautiful, chocolate skin. I looked up at his face, square and masculine, his muscular build, and the tense way he was holding himself.
'Richard Lewis Freeman the Second why do I let you have your way?' I thought, then I sighed, "Is your heart really set on this Italy thing Rickie?" I asked the question, but I already knew the answer, and, just like that, he knew I was saying yes.
I felt a little sick inside with dread at what I had just agreed to. A little more than usual. His face lit up and he grinned his toothy grin at me. He patted me very gently on the head, got up from the table and bounced out of the greenhouse like a nine year old on meth, probably to pack. I watched him go and forgot about feeling sick.
You're wondering why he needed me to go with him. That would be because I would be footing the bill for our impromptu trip to Europe. I'd been adopted when I was thirteen by a rich old widow with no children who pitied me more than anyone I'd ever met. (I'd hated her just as much.) But when she kicked the bucket she left me her estate, her millions, and my own little greenhouse sanctuary. I was almost eighteen when she croaked, and the first thing I did was go back to that hellhole shelter and grab my little brother of heart if not blood.
We'd had two years to live in our own private world when Rickie started getting restless, and this trip seemed to be the straw on a particularly unstable camel. I looked down at my hands then. They were a little deformed from so many breaks. Hell, so was the rest of me. I looked down further, onto the reflective mosaic of mirrors on the tabletop. My image was broken into lots of tiny bits. Dark red hair, thick, and in loose waves down my back. Ashen pale skin with freckles. Dull blue-gray eyes; tired, tired, tired, tired...
Marcus was bored. Marcus was always bored. Everyday. And Marcus had seen many, many days. Hundreds of thousands. But today, of all those days, Marcus was not quite as bored as usual. In fact he was a little unsettled. You see, Marcus was facing a rather imminent crisis forced upon him by his eccentric brother (for the sake of research). Today, of all of those hundreds of thousands of days, Marcus was to chose a human female and copulate.
He couldn't think of it in less demeaning terms, because that was what it would be. He was to choose a woman, impregnate her, and give the child to his brothers for the sake of "a better understanding of ourselves and our possibilities". The whole concept made him... unsettled.
He was unsettled because he wouldn't go as far as to feel upset. He hadn't felt upset in many, many days. Tens of thousands. For, you see, it had been tens of thousands of days since he had felt the warmth of his beloved Didyme. But today, out of all of the tens of thousands he'd lived without Didyme, Marcus was to chose a human female and ...copulate.
Were he capable, he would be repulsed. But seeing as Marcus was not capable, and his brothers' wives were not lost to them, it was decided that Marcus would bear the burden and copulate with a human, for the sake of "a better understanding of ourselves and our possibilities". How ...unsettling.
Marcus looked in boredom at his brother Caius. Caius was not as pleased with the idea of creating a half-breed mutant and studying it. Caius looked like he wanted to kill something, but, then again, Caius usually looked like he wanted to kill something. His short white hair fluttered as he leaned forward in his throne, anticipating the coming return of Heidi, with the days catch.
Marcus settled his bored gaze then on his other brother, Aro. Aro was in charge here, and everyone knew it subconsciously. From his long, straight black hair, his arrogant jaw, and the avarice in his filmy red eyes, Aro was the ideal tyrannical ruler. He looked hungry for power and knowledge. But, then again, Aro usually looked hungry for these sorts of pursuits.
Marcus usually looked bored, and, from the many, many hundreds of thousands of days he'd existed, tens of thousands of which without his Didyme, perhaps he had the right idea about it.
Marcus looked around the rest of the room and spotted his brother's wives and the rest of the guard. Most of their names he'd never bothered to ask or learn. Why bother? A few he knew though, like Jane and Alec, were Marcus capable of dislike, he would dislike the twins. And Demetri, he knew Demetri. Marcus vaguely recalled that there had once been a vampire called Eleazer, that, were he capable, Marcus might have liked.
But, as it was, Marcus was not capable of like or dislike, only boredom.
He looked down at his white hands. Frail looking, but the strength beneath the surface was devastating, he knew. He imagined for a moment what those hands would do to the girl he decided to... He sighed, which caught the attention of his brothers. Marcus didn't often sigh.
"Come now Marcus my brother!" Aro spoke in whispered tones, "This discovery I dare say could cure even your unhappy disposition. Imagine! A child! One that grows and is made from you, your talent! It is such an exciting venture we undertake here!"
Caius snorted. "Only you could be so enthusiastic about such a disgusting idea. Did no one ever tell you not to play with your food Aro?"
"Ah, but my dear Caius, the offspring of our kind and theirs is an idea that must be explored thoroughly. And what better way than to create one within our family?" Aro stopped there, and everyone turned to the sounds coming from down the hallway.
"Heidi's returned," said Marcus, as though there were not so many unsettling thoughts associated with her return.
The beautiful woman entered the room just then, speaking to a group of doomed tourists about Volterra, and the building they were entering. Their tomb. As the rest of the herd filed into the room, the fascinated faces turned confused. Marcus watched as the big one of the guard, his name was not important, closed the door behind them and leaned himself against it to look at today's meal.
Then Marcus turned his attention to the group who began to murmur and fidget nervously. Aro stood and began speaking in his normal jovial manner, whilst shooting Marcus with a telling look. Choose one.
"Welcome to our city!" He sighed, "I hope that you..."
Marcus stopped paying attention to Aro's theatrics and looked over the crowd. They were all rather faceless to him, with the exception of one individual. She lay in the arms of a large dark skinned man looking frail and delicate and frightened, like the rest. But her eyes told a different story.
She seemed to know, somehow, that death was upon her. But he saw no fear, and, as if she felt his gaze, she looked up to meet it. He saw a tiny connection form between them at that moment. It wasn't much. She wasn't his Didyme, but it was enough to make her interesting. He walked over to Aro and touched his hand.
Marcus had made his decision.
Thanks to my reviewer! I was going to draw this out and add more Marcus, but if I had, I would have been scrambling around a block, so I went ahead and updated with what I have to let you know I'm still writing, and appreciate the feedback! :D The story should match up with Marcus's perspective in the first chapter in my next update.