Chapter 3

If felt like a lifetime ago that I had a moment to myself like I had just then. I had once again, found myself lying on the useless bed in my room, trying to escape this hell of a life that I had managed to put myself into, both literally and figuratively. This was really my only form of escape, as no matter where I "tried" to go or what I did, there was no alone time. It seemed that no matter what, someone was always watching me, making sure I wasn't planning to run away; not like I could anyway, considering Demetri could track me down and drag me back here against my will.

Demetri is a tracker, and a very skilled one. Just by picking up on someone's thoughts, he could track down anyone, no matter how far away they were. It was quite scary, and, to be honest, the only hitch in my escape plans, from what I could see.

The Volturi, as I had soon learned their cult was called, had a vast number of "gifted" vampires. Aro like to collect them; he was quite power hungry. For instance, Chelsea, another high ranking member of the guard, was able to influence people's relationships. She could force anyone to stay with the Volturi against their will. Unfortunately for Aro and the rest of the Volturi, her gift didn't work on me, due to my special talents. And yes, I did mean talents.

Originally, Aro had thought I was a physical shield, meaning I could block attacks. He and I soon learned, however, that I had a form of telekinesis, allowing me to control objects with my mind. So that day when I sent Felix off into the great unknown? Yeah, I apparently pushed him away with my mind.

As for my second gift? Yeah, I tried to keep that a secret as long as possible, but Aro started to get very suspicious of me when Chelsea's gift stopped working on me out of nowhere. It was extremely rare, but possible, for a vampire to have multiple gifts. This particular gift was extremely powerful, and I hated using it unless I absolutely needed to. You see, my second gift allowed me to influence people's thoughts, go so far as to fabricate whole memories and stories in their minds. It was dangerous and very powerful at the same time.

At first, I didn't even know I had that gift. It wasn't until I discovered what came along with it, that I knew it was there. It was extremely handy to have because I could sense whenever someone tried to use a gift on me that affected my mind. It was as if I could feel it trying to force its way into my mind. That was when I'd reject it; pushing whatever foreign thing that tried to weasel its way into my mind straight out. I had originally thought that I had some sort of mental shield, but it turned out that what I had been doing was, well, in laymen's terms, bitch slapping the hell out of whoever was trying to control me.

I eventually had realized that the source was Chelsea, who, under Aro's orders, was trying to change my feelings towards the Volturi to trap me there. Of course, she realized it wasn't working, and after a while, confronted me about it. Needless to say, she stopped trying to control me after that encounter.

It took a lot of effort to try and hide this second gift, but Aro had eventually found out about it. It was a complete and total mistake on my end, but afterwards, he had found an even worse use for my talents.

I had come back from hunting one day, forcing myself to at least try not to kill humans after how horrible I felt that very first day. Aro had called me up to speak to him, basically as one of his lame ass attempts to figure out where I ran off to when they were all enjoying their meals. He forced me to show him what I had been doing by taking my hand, and invading the privacy of my memories. As my go to reaction, I had forced him out of my mind, and in that instant, revealed that I could manipulate thoughts. You see, I had inadvertently told him to get out of my mind by changing his thoughts. I had basically told him that he didn't want to be inside my head, while he was inside my head. It's a complicated and probably confusing explanation, but I'm trying my best.

Anyway, after that moment, Aro had decided to use me as a way of interrogating people. I was forced to make vampires suspected of breaking the laws of our kind to reveal if they had or not. Unfortunately for Jane, she was used as sort of a last resort during these times. She rather liked using her gift on others, as she had the ability to make others feel immense pain with her mind. In all honesty, I'd rather Jane be the one forced to use her gift than me, even though the results for those being interrogated always ended up being the same; death. Jane's gift was more painful to tolerate watching, but at least she wasn't the one being forced to create false memories in people's minds just so the Volturi could have the satisfaction of murdering a person just for the hell of it. It made me sick each and every time I was forced to use that gift, and I wished I had never slipped up.

It got harder each day I was trapped here. Eventually though, the Volturi allowed me some freedom to hunt on my own, however, it came with its conditions, all of which I was not okay with. It allowed me some sort of feeling of freedom, and if I wanted to keep that teensy bit of freedom I had, I had to agree with those conditions. They had exhausted every opportunity they had to get me to be "normal," but after being held captive against my will, I wanted some control over my own life, and choosing my own diet was the only thing I could control. So after quite a few years, the Volturi had given up, and allowed me to retain that one bit of control. It was a small step towards freedom, but it was a step.

Once I had finally gained control over my thirst, they eventually allowed me to venture out of the castle, as long as I was with someone else from the guard. They still didn't trust that I wouldn't try to run away. They shouldn't, honestly, as I've been plotting my escape ever since I got here, and so far, I've come up with nothing.

I continued to think about various ways to get out of this hell on earth, when my thoughts were interrupted by a knock on my door. Rather than get up, I used my power to just open the door, knowing that no matter who was there, they'd just come in anyway.

"Are you going to mope around in here forever?" Demetri asked. I scoffed.

"Of course not," I said, not moving from my place on the bed while continuing to stare up at the ceiling. "That would be a complete bore and waste of time."

"Would you at least get up then?" I sighed and sat up on the bed, looking at him as he stood in the doorway to my room, or as I referred to it, my jail cell.

"For the 8,367th time. you do know you can actually walk into the room right?" He smiled at me and took one step into the room, just as he always did. I just rolled my eyes at him.

"Attempting to learn another language, I see."

"Considering there's not much else to do around here, why not?" I had already learned five languages in the last 30 years that I'd been there. I figured a 6th wouldn't hurt. "It's the only other thing I can think of doing to pass the time."

"I'm assuming drum lessons weren't working out so well," he said.

"They were," I replied, "up until Felix barged in and threw the drum set out the window." Yeah, that was interesting. Apparently I was too loud and giving him a headache. Like that was even possible. "Besides, I was getting bored of that."

"You're getting bored of everything," he said with a sigh. "Are you ever going to learn to give this place a chance? You might actually enjoy it here."

"Yeah, okay," I said sarcastically. "I definitely enjoy having absolutely no freedom whatsoever."

"Quit being so dramatic, Roxanne. Just give this place a chance, and I'm sure it will grow on you." I highly doubted that, but there was no point in telling him. That wasn't the first time we had had that conversation; that conversation happened multiple times a week, if not every day. Demetri was also one of the only people in the guard to call me Roxanne. The rest either didn't talk to me, or chose to call me Eris. Even thinking about that name made me cringe.

"So what was it that you really wanted?" I asked. He usually only came to talk to me if I was needed for something or if I was in trouble, which tended to happen way too often.

"Aro would like to see you," he said. I rolled my eyes and groaned.

"Great," I said. "What does his royal pain in my ass want this time?"

"I'm not sure, but it did sound urgent," Demetri answered, refusing to acknowledge my previous comment.

"Fine," I said, and got up off of my bed. "Do you think I could convince them to let me leave the castle for once?"

"Doubt it," he said. I nodded and sighed. They'd never let me leave, no matter what.

Demetri gestured for me to go ahead of him. Sighing again, I walked out of my room, with him following. Whatever it was that they wanted this time, I knew it wasn't going to be good; they never wanted anything from me that I approved of. The only thing they ever wanted me for was "interrogations." I internally shivered at that thought. After the last one I had to do, I wasn't sure I'd ever be okay to do that again. No doubt, that's what they wanted me for, and I was going to have no choice but to go through with it.

I walked silently in front of Demetri, through the long hallways towards the throne room. The last thing I needed to do was be loud and obnoxious in front of Aro. If I was ever going to get out of here, I needed to be on my best behavior around them. Yeah, that was going to be easy. I scoffed, causing Demetri to give me an odd look. I just ignored him and kept walking.

I approached the doors, and, with an unnecessary deep breath, opened them. I took a quick look around the room to see if there was anyone in the room that I did not already recognize. After deeming it a non-interrogation call, plastering a vacant expression on my face, I entered the room. I stood before Aro, Marcus, and Caius and remained silent, waiting for one of them to speak.

"Ah, Eris," Aro finally said. "How wonderful it is to see you." 'You summoned me here asshole,' I thought. I just nodded my head. "I bet you are wondering why we asked you here." Again, I nodded, making sure not to physically roll my eyes like I had in my head. That would not have gone over well with them. "We felt it was time to let you venture outside of the castle walls." I just about dropped dead (again) from shock. He couldn't be serious about this, could he? "This may come to a surprise to you, but we felt that now you have some control over your thirst, it would be alright to let you go outside." I internally cheered, this was what I had been waiting for for so long. "Of course, you'd need to be accompanied by another member of the guard." And then my happiness died down. My shoulders slumped a bit, realizing that even though I'd be getting more freedom, I was, for all intents and purposes, getting a babysitter. "So, if you would like to go now, Felix will be waiting to take you."

"What?!" I yelled. Oops. I hadn't meant to say that out loud. Felix? Felix was going to be my babysitter. I all but gagged at that thought. "I mean, um, couldn't I maybe go with someone else?" 'Like, anyone else,' I added mentally.

"Now, Eris," Aro said. "We are being more than fair by allowing you to leave the castle."

"Well yeah, and thanks for that," I said. "But he probably doesn't even want to go." I tried to argue my case, but it didn't seem that they were going to let me get my way. "What if Demetri took me instead. I'm sure he'd be willing to take me." Aro seemed to think about it for a minute, before opening his mouth to speak. I knew, however, that he was going to say no, considering the last thing he wanted was for me to be happy in this place. So, before he even got a chance to answer, I decided to experiment with my other gift on him. Now I knew it was a risky move, because if it worked I would get my way, but there was no way he wasn't going to find out about it. If it didn't work though, I was definitely screwed. 'Worth a shot,' I thought. So, without any time left, I sort of pushed the idea into his head to send Demetri with me instead, just as an experiment. His expression went blank for a moment before his normal expression returned.

"What a wonderful idea," he said. I was confused. "Demetri, you will accompany Eris today." I was shocked. That actually worked. 'If only I had known about this sooner,' I thought. 'Then maybe I could've gotten out of here sooner.' Holy shit! How had I not thought of that sooner. I may have finally found a permanent way out of this place after all. Now I just needed time to come up with a plan.

Demetri nodded his head at Aro, and we proceeded to make our way out of the castle. After passing by the newest receptionist, we made our way up the elevator and through the long tunnels that I had not seen since I first arrived at this place.

Once we made it out onto the surface, Demetri had stated that it was cloudy, and it would not be completely necessary for me to put up the hood on my cloak. I nodded and started to venture out towards the street.

"Where do you think you're going?" Demetri asked while placing a hand on my shoulder.

"Into the city?" I said, more like a question than a statement. Demetri shook his head.

"We are not to be seen by humans," he said. I slumped my shoulders.

"But," I said. "I thought the whole point of letting me out was to let me out." He shook his head again and smiled sadly at me.

"I'm sorry, Roxanne," he said. "But we are not to enter the streets of the city. We can observe from a distance, but that's all." I sighed and stared out into the streets. People flooded the city and seemed to be enjoying themselves. They were all smiles and laughs. For the first time in a while, I wished I were human again, just so I could know what it felt like to be that free and happy.

"Okay," I said sadly. Demetri led me away from that area and further away from the city. I looked back, and again wished I were one of those people.

"So," Demetri said, after we had walked to another area outside of the city. "How did you manage to convince Aro to let me escort you out?"

"I didn't do anything," I said, looking away. Of course he knew I had to have done something. Demetri had been with the Volturi long enough to know that Aro would never willingly change his mind like that. I looked over at him and he looked at me skeptically. "Oh alright! I may or may not have manipulated his thoughts… maybe."

"Roxanne, do you have any idea how much trouble you could get in if anyone finds out what you have done?"

"Of course I do," I said. "But I didn't think it would actually work. I mean, think about it, Demetri. I have this gift, and I've only been allowed to use it when they wanted me to. Don't you think I deserve to use it for myself for once?" I looked at him questioningly, almost begging him to understand where I was coming from. I doubt he would fully understand it, as Chelsea's been using her gift on everyone in the castle. He was still very much under their control. He sighed.

"Well yes, but that does not make it alright," he said. "Just promise you won't use it again." I thought about it for a minute. I really did hate using that gift, but at the moment, it was my only shot at getting out of this place permanently. I don't think I could possibly make that promise, but I knew that Demetri was only looking out for me like he had been since the day he and Felix found me in the forest.

"I promise," I said. I knew I didn't actually mean it, but what he didn't know, wouldn't hurt him. He smiled slightly at me and stated that it was time to head back to the castle.

On the way back, I couldn't help but think of the how exactly I could use that gift to get me out of the Volturi, permanently. I knew that there was no way I could convince Aro and the rest of the Volturi to let me leave, but there had to be some alternative that was just as good, right?

We arrived back at the castle, and I went back to my room, still thinking of the various ways to leave that place. That became a daily occurrence. I would leave the castle for a while, with either Demetri, or another member of the guard, such as Jane ─ who became Aro's favorite to go with me ─ and I would think about the different ways I could use my gift on the Volturi to allow me to go. It became apparent that Aro, Marcus, and Caius began to trust that I wouldn't run away when they eventually sent me out with other high ranking guard members to go "collect" the vampires that broke our laws.

After a few months, I began to earn their trust so well, that they allowed me to venture into the city on my own. Of course, I knew I wasn't completely alone as a guard member could always be spotted nearby, and I still tended to stick out in the crowds of people, even though I was dressed as a regular human, rather than in my normal all black attire that I had grown accustomed to.

One day, as I was thinking about how to use that gift, it finally came to me. Aro had trusted me almost completely enough at this point to let me venture out on my own. 'What if I told him I wanted to travel,' I thought. That would at least buy me enough time to come up with an even better plan to leave. Then I slumped my shoulders. 'He would eventually send Demetri after me to bring me back though.' I perked up again when another thought hit me. Maybe if I told them that I'd come back each and every time they needed me, they'd led me continue to travel. At least then they'd know that I would come back, and they could use Demetri as a last resort. I smiled happily. This plan would have to work no matter what. I needed to get out of that place permanently.

I began to research where the cloudiest places in the world were, on the computer that I had bought on one of my trips in the city. Even though sunny places were very appealing as I hadn't seen the sun in God knows how long, unfortunately, being in a place where the sun was out all the time was definitely out of the picture. The last thing I needed to do was break any of the laws while I was out on my own. That would call for a one-way ticket back to Volterra and my death. I knew I definitely needed to get out of Europe, because that would be too short of a trip for any of the guard to come and bring me back.

I then narrowed my search to the United States, feeling a little nostalgic at the moment. It seemed as though the states closest to Alaska were the cloudiest, and settled on either Oregon or Washington state. I then narrowed my search even further to little known towns, so as not to attract attention to myself. As I was almost done with my search, there was a knock on my door.

I quickly closed the computer, and used my telekinesis to open the door. I was surprised to see Jane on the other side of the door as she never comes to my room.

"Aro would like to see you," she simply stated, before turning away and, most likely, walked towards the throne room. I got up and followed after her, making sure to grab my black cloak from off of the bed frame as I left.

I silently made my towards the throne room, worriedly wondering what Aro could want. He had, up until this point, been using me as a form of interrogation out in the field when I went out to collect the law breaking vampires with various members of the guard. I began to worry that he had somehow gotten wind of what I was up to, and once I reached the doors to the throne room, I let out an unnecessarily shaky breath before opening the door.

"Eris," Aro said happily, as I walked into the room. This concerned me as he was rarely ever genuinely happy to see me. At least, it appeared that he was genuinely happy to see me. I stood before the three of them and nodded my head. "It has been brought to my attention that you seem to be getting restless here. Is that true?" I attempted to hide my shock as best as I possibly could at that point. 'How in the world could he have found out about that?' I thought. Sure, I had been extremely unhappy since I got there, but he just started to notice this now? I nodded my head slowly, afraid that he would do something horrible to me soon. "Well, it seems that even though we have allowed you to venture outside of these walls on your own for a few hours, that you still are unhappy with this arrangement. How can we make this better for you?" He was seriously asking me to tell him how I could be happier living there? Was he out of his old, crazy ass mind?

I thought about it for a little bit, beginning to wonder if he somehow found out about my plans. There was no way though, as he would have had to read my mind in order for those plans to be exposed, and I never allowed him to read those thoughts when he forced me to share them with him.

"No, I don't think so," I squeaked out. It was far too early to put my plan into action, especially since I was now basically being called out on it.

"Now now, Eris," he said. "Don't be so shy. Please, if there is anything we can do, feel free to share it." I looked at him again and realized that maybe he wasn't asking because he knew about my plan, he was asking because he was afraid that with the new freedom he gave me, that I had a chance to run away. Oh shit, this was definitely the perfect time to ask.

"Well," I said. "I always wanted to travel." I just threw caution to the wind with that one, and hoped to God that he wouldn't take away the little freedom he already allowed for bringing that up. He seemed to be thinking about it for a minute, and it started to worry me. I may have began to panic. "It wouldn't be a permanent thing," I added mentally smacking myself.

"That is an interesting idea," he said. I could tell there was no way in hell that he would agree to it. Panicking, I did the one thing I (kind of) promised Demetri I wouldn't do; I messed with his thoughts. He again, got that blank stare on his face as I forced my idea into his head, telling him to allow me to travel, as long as I came back when called. The minute I knew the thought had sunk in, I pulled away and allowed him to speak. "Here is my thought," he continued. Again, I mentally cringed waiting for the idea to be rejected. Instead, what he said next surprised the hell out of me. "We will agree to let you travel, however, you must return when we request that you return. Is that understood?" I stared at him, willing my surprise not to betray what I had just done. Instead, I put on a blank face, and made him think I was taking the time to think it over. After I felt I allotted enough time to "process" this plan, I simply nodded my head. "Wonderful. Demetri." Demetri stepped forward and gave me a skeptical look before turning back to Aro, Caius and Marcus. He bowed his head in acknowledgment. "You will be responsible for keeping track of Eris. I know you won't fail."

"Yes master," he said. Aro clapped his hands together with a smile on his face.

"Wonderful!" he said. "Feel free to leave when you are ready." I smiled at him and began to walk back towards my room to collect some things. "Eris," he called. I stopped and turned back towards him. "Do wait until sundown. I would hate for you to draw unwanted attention towards yourself." I nodded my head in acknowledgment and made my way back towards my room with Demetri following closely behind.

Once we were back in the comfort of my room, Demetri broke the silence.

"You've done it again, haven't you?" he asked. I ignored him and began to gather some of the things I was planning on taking with me. "Roxanne!"

"What did you expect me to do?" I asked. "I thought he was gearing up to get rid of me!"

"I told you not to use your gift on him," he replied.

"I panicked, okay? I mean honestly, it wasn't even that strong this time," I said. "I just kind of, threw it at him alright?"

"It still doesn't make things right, Roxanne," Demetri said. "You do realize he will find out eventually."

"No shit," I said. "But until then, I, at least, have some time to come up with another plan to figure things out."

"Was this what you've been doing all along? Planning an escape?" I sighed. Did he honestly think that 30 years of this hell was going to change my mind in the slightest? Apparently he did, because he was looking at me like I had completely lost my mind.

"Demetri," I said. "You may have learned to love this place, but I don't belong here. We are two completely different classes of vampire. You eat people and I eat animals. Nothing is going to change my diet, and lord knows they tried. I need to be able to come and go, whenever I want. I won't get that here, ever. Just let me do this."

Demetri looked at me for a moment, letting what I had just said sink in. He finally realized that I was right, and sighed.

"You do know that I will have to come after you when the time comes," he said.

"And that's why I prepared," I said, throwing a phone at him. "There's only one phone number programmed in there. Just call me before you come to get me, alright? I at least want a warning before you and whoever else Aro sends you with, come popping in." He nodded and stared at the phone, trying to figure out exactly how it worked. "You flip it open and press the green button." He looked up at me with a blank stare on his face.

"I knew that," he said. I smiled and shook my head at him. "Be careful."

"Always am," I replied with a smile. Demetri shook his head at me and left me to pack my things.

I grabbed the phone and put it into the pocket of the duffel bag that I had bought on one of my trips into the city. It was a wonder how I managed to sneak these things inside without anyone noticing. I also packed a few of the dresses knowing that I would need them when Demetri called.

I continued to gather my things until everything I knew I was going to need was packed away. Afterwards, I flipped the laptop back open and continued on with my research. What I didn't tell Aro or Demetri was that I was not planning on travelling; I was planning on permanently relocating. Hopefully it would be to a place I could hide out for a while, and then move on to somewhere new.

After having narrowed things down, the computer screen showed only two possible places for me to live; one located in Oregon, the other in Washington. Although both sounded appealing, I needed one that was completely inconspicuous, and the last place anyone would ever think to look for me. I juggled the two places in my head, trying to decide on the least conspicuous place, when I finally made up my mind. I shutdown the laptop, and packed it away in the duffel bag.

I eagerly waited until sundown, knowing that once it was dark enough, I was leaving this city for good. Once the sun set, I left my room with my bag, and made my way through the halls and out through the throne room.

I said a quick goodbye to our current receptionist, whose name I had forgotten, and out onto the streets of Volterra. From there, I headed to the closest airport and bought a ticket to the first city in the United States I could find.

After a long flight, I took another plane to Seattle, Washington, where from there, I would head to my new home; Forks.

Well that's another chapter done. I hope you enjoyed it! As always leave lots of reviews as they keep me motivated. Sure, it's fun and exciting seeing the amount of views a story gets, but reviewing actually lets me know what your opinions are of the story. So please, take the time to drop even a simple "nice story" or whatever you feel in the review section.

Big thanks to my beta Res_CVX for editing this chapter for me, even though she had almost no time to do it this week. For updates on my story progress feel free to check out my tumblr page (link is in my profile). I have decided to forgo the livejournal as it was getting to be a gigantic pain to update. You can also feel free to pm me with any questions you have about this story or any of my other ones. I'm also on AO3, and the link to that is also in my profile. Again, I hope you enjoyed it!

~Incandescent Midnight28