Author's Note: From here on out, just assume people are speaking in Italian, I'll specify when there is a switch back to English.
05/14/10: FOUR YEARS LATER:
*~*Elizabeth*~*
College was a fantastic time for me. I met so many more people I could relate to. I loved my friends in Olympia and Forks, I just couldn't relate to a good portion of them. College was definitely one of the hardest, but best times of my life. The bullshit that happened in high school wasn't existent in college, or if it was, it was completely over my head.
I was almost finished as well. I continued to work on my dream of becoming a teacher. I also got an opportunity from one of my professors. There was a secondary school teacher in Italy, Mrs. Isabel Rossi, who was looking for a teacher to take over after she retired. She had tried many other student teachers, but all of them failed to meet her high standards. My Italian Professor, Professor Richard Rossi, was her twin brother, and he recommended me to her, and made plans that I would do my student teaching portion in Italy.
I was excited, I was finally able to go to Italy at last. I would definitely have to go to every Renaissance landmark possible during my stay. I also was ecstatic that I was going to live in Volterra, one of the many places around the world my great grandmother has ventured.
Right now, I was on a tour bus that was making its way to Volterra. I stared out the window, marveling at the beauty of the setting sun, and Tuscan aura to the farms surrounding Volterra. It was so surreal that I had the potential to live in this beautiful place, having the career I had always dreamed of. It was like some fairytale, except, it didn't really require a Prince Charming.
The tour bus stopped a few blocks away from the motel I would be staying at. I took my old trunk that was once my great grandmother's, tipped the bus driver, and walked to the motel. Volterra on the inside was just as beautiful as the farmland surrounding it, there was just so much going on.
For example, I saw a notice that tomorrow, there was a festival to celebrate a man called Caius, who I remember from my college history course, that he was a ruthless knight that legend said, took down an entire Persian army with nothing but a dagger. I was certain that the legend wasn't true, that Caius had some assistance from the army he led, but it was a good story.
I checked into the motel and immediately was looking for a good, inexpensive apartment I could live in. I eventually found one, to sum it up, it was rather shitty looking, but it wasn't covered in mold nor had extensive damage. It was also the least expensive one in Volterra.
Tomorrow, I would go and get the room from the landlord, but for now, I just wanted to walk around Volterra. The sun had almost disappeared over the horizon by the time I was out the door, the last sliver of blue and orange sky was almost swallowed whole by the black of night.
I walked through the closing marketplaces, watching as goods were put back in boxes and crates to be taken back to where they came from. I got curious looks from the vendors, most of the tourists would be resting in their hotel rooms at this hour, most of the interesting happenings occurred in the day.
Or so they liked to make us think.
I saw the iconic marble fountain in front of the Volturi mansion. I sat down on it and looked up at the mansion, admiring its architectural beauty, I would definitely have to take a tour in there during my stay. Maybe I would do it tomorrow during the festival to celebrate Caius.
I looked into the window, and I could have sworn I saw an apparition I haven't seen since my senior year of high school. I stood bolt upright, backing away to see if I could get a closer look.
I couldn't be sure, but there was definitely someone standing there, watching me with a sharp eye. A gust of wind came from the north, making what appeared to be a cloak billow out, making this figure more ominous.
" Hello?" I asked, walking closer to the mansion, somehow, I was being drawn closer, it was a feeling of being drawn that I hadn't felt in years.
The figure didn't come to me at that moment, but then I had a hunch that if it was the person I was thinking of, maybe if I blinked, he would appear right in front of me. So I did blink, my eyes were closed longer than necessary, I was just mentally preparing myself for what I might end up seeing. When I opened my eyes, no amount of mental preparation could have really done me a favor when seeing two red eyes looking right into mine.
It was the man who made the last part of my senior year a living hell, but his eyes, they weren't blue. I was considering running away, but I jut couldn't move, all I could do was stare right into those red eyes.
After I got over the fact he had red eyes, I slung my arms around his neck, hugging him tightly to me. Tears of happiness were actually forming in my eyes. Seeing him now made me realize just how much I missed him.
" Elizabeth." He said, his arms wrapping around my waist, pulling me closer to him. " I have missed you my dear."
" Four years, you were gone, for four god damned years." I said sobbing. " I don't know how I can miss someone as much as I have missed you, especially that I barley know you."
" All that matters is that you're here. I have much to tell you." He said.
" Finally." I said, he chuckled, pulling me even tighter against him. " Can you start with your name at least?" I asked.
" Aro." He whispered. I mouthed the name, it rolled right off my tongue. " Would you walk with me my dear?" He asked. I nodded against his shoulder. I pulled away from his embrace and began to walk with him through the rest of Volterra.
" First of the many things I wish to tell you, will leave you shocked, and possibly terrified. Have you ever wondered if there was something, inhuman about me?" Aro asked. I nodded. " Naturally, you would. It is the last of true human instincts that is common in every human. I am sure you have guessed many times about what I was, and I am sure by now, you have pieced the puzzle together."
" Vampire." I said.
" Exactly. I am not some friendly puppet vampire that does basic mathematics though." He continued. I started laughing hysterically. " I am the general mythological package. I drink human blood, I burn if exposed to the sun for too long, and I am immortal. Before you ask, I do not sleep in coffins, I honestly have no idea how that legend came about." Aro looked at me, noticing the unsettled look on my face. " Are you frightened my dear?"
" It would take an idiot not to be. I mean, you're the predator, and I am prey, it's a natural cycle of fear." I said.
" Are you repulsed by me?" Aro asked. I shook my head.
" Why should I be? You're at the top of the food chain, it's in your nature. It's like stigmatizing cats for eating birds." I said, smiling.
" And if I told you there are some vampires who abstain from drinking human blood, and feed from animals instead?"
" You can feed a cat vegetables, but it will not make it any more moral. In the end, it will always crave the bird." I said.
" I am grateful for your philosophy on the matter. Not many are as understanding of us as you are."
" So, am I a dead woman walking?" I asked Aro.
" Never." He replied. " The second thing I wish to explain to you, is that some of our kind has special abilities. Mine being that I can read every thought and memory in your mind with a simple touch."
I stopped, I assumed I had a deer in the headlights look on my face. No wonder Aro completely bailed after he touched me at the graduation party, he knew everything, every little secret and fantasy that was inside my mind. I wanted to find a cliff and jump off it I was so embarrassed.
" Oh god! I am so sorry you had to see what is inside my head! That is not a fate that no one should have." I apologized. Aro laughed and cupped my cheek with his hand, looking me right in the eye.
" I have read many minds that are worse than yours. I am used to obscure, risqué thoughts inside people's heads. I found yours rather entertaining." Aro told me. " Also, what I saw the night you graduated, do not be embarrassed by that, it was among the most beautiful things I have ever seen."
" Did you really have to bring that up? It's humiliating." I told him.
" Sexuality is something that should never bring humiliation. That is one of the terrible flaws of humans, making something so primeval into something that brings needless controversy. I have lived in time periods where people were condemned to death and torture for sexual acts outside of marriage. Many people this day in age believe it was more often than not women who suffered these chastisements, but just as many men suffered as well." Aro said.
" I do not wish to seem like a whore, which if I am not bashful about sex, I would be seen as such." I stated. " I have never been considered a whore, and I don't plan on it."
" Which my darling, is your choice entirely. But I just want to let you know, you do not have to act ashamed around me." Aro told me. " Also, one final thing I will tell you tonight, is that I apparently have been predestined to love you. It is not something I can control. You feel it as well, don't tell me you don't, I have seen it in your mind."
" I never said I didn't." I told him.
" Knowing you, you would have said something impertinent just for the sake of defying me."
" Maybe when I was eighteen, but I honestly feel it too. It's more than love, it's more complex. Never did anyone prepare us for this. It leaves me rather clueless of what to do." I said.
" Might I make a suggestion my love?" Aro asked. I looked at him quizzically and nodded.
The hand that was on my cheek brought my face closer to his until the gap between us was sealed with a kiss. It was wonderful, the way pleasure made its cry where Aro's lips touched mine. My heart was beating faster, for reasons of love, and fear. I was being kissed by a man who could just as easily cause pain as he did pleasure. Finally, some of our frustrations could be let out, but new frustration would build up when our lips went their separate ways. This is when I accepted that the frustration I have been feeling for more than four years would never cease, but at least they could be released now that I had Aro.
His touch, powerful, invigorating, and territorial, making it known to all that I belonged to him, and his alone. The consequences if one tried to get between us, would be fatal without trial. I would have to stake my claims for the world to know that he was as much mine as I was his.
Our mouths parted, the tongues that had once been in a dance together retreated back to where they were bound. My eyes opened to look at Aro's lips, that had been satisfied with mine, for they turned into a cunning smirk to match the devilish look in his eyes.
" What a wonderful suggestion." I told him, my lips quivering from shock that this was actually reality and not some dream my eighteen year old self would be having. He chuckled, his hand moving down to my neck, though his thumb stayed at my face, caressing my cheek.
" I am made of many." Aro spoke, his voice was lower than it had been before, making my heart skip a beat, and my eyelids fluttered. " Something I need to discuss with you is your living situation. I would much rather you live with me than live in those ghastly apartments."
" Do you even have a bed, being a vampire, not sleeping and all of that?" I asked him. " Also, how much would the rent be?"
" My dear Elizabeth, of course I have a bed, that is not used for sleeping." Aro said. I gasped quietly, imagining him with some woman every night. My god did I envy any and every woman who had been taken to that bed. " Also, you would stay in my company for no charge."
" I think that would be wonderful. It's not everyday you're offered free housing when you're a college student." I told him, not even believing that I wouldn't have to speak to the landlord of those horrible apartments. " Where do you live?" I asked. " I'm a little tired right now."
We walked back to the fountain in the town square, Aro gestured with his hand that it was the mansion he lived in. There was no way this could be real, the fact that I was going to live in one of the world's most beautiful building, and even less realistic that I would be living there with no charge.
" You can't be serious." I gasped.
" I am entirely." Aro said with a chuckle. With superhuman speed, he was suddenly at the door, holding it open for me. " After you my darling."
" I need my luggage, it is at the motel I'm staying in." I said.
" I'll send someone for your luggage, but for now, you need rest. You have an important day ahead of you." Aro said with a smile.
" Thank you." I said, walking through the door to reveal an estate that was even more surreal than a fairytale castle.
History was its walls, art was its foundation, and sophistication was its roof. Everything that was going to change in my life started once I passed through that door. It was established that I was in a relationship with my lover, and our physical bond has finally sealed itself, for its mental bond was there when we saw each other.