Author's note:

Gee, thanks for the plentiful of reviews on the last chapter! And now we're actually about a month away from Halloween. If you haven't noticed, it's something I'm super excited about. I'm also excited to tell you how Marcus ended up in the nursing home. To answer alexmas question, you'll just have to wait and see ;D Oh, and since this story is mostly based on the Volturis appearences in the movies, Marcus will look older rather than how he appears in the book. Also this chapter has a bit more mature language than usual – or immature if you want to look at it that way.

All the lonely people

Where do they all come from?

All the lonely people

Where do they all belong?

- The Beatles

You know how you think to yourself sometimes, "wow has this been a crazy week or what?"

For me, that was starting to become the norm every week.

For example – going for a visit to your grandma. Nothing dramatic or crazy about that is there? Unless you know, she's high on PCP and dancing around naked in the front yard. Which has only happened once, by the way. The point here is, you normally don't expect to find yet another vampire in the most unlikely of places. Hell, or maybe that is what we're suppose to expect now? Better pen down a list of places so we're prepared next time.

1.Daycare center

2.Hair salon

3.The gynocologist's office…

At first I could only stare and stare and stare at Marcus sitting in that frickin rocking chair. He stared back. I stared some more. His stare was more sad than mine though, and eventually he looked away and sighed. He clearly did not know how to play the staring game.

"If you have gotten yourself lost…the common room is not far from here. " he croaked, looking down at one of his hands. I stepped closer to him and made my voice sound a bit more gentle.

"Marcus? That is you isn't it?" I asked, for clarification.

His eyes snapped up to meet mine cautiously. They were a dull, dark shade or red that could almost be mistaken for a strange brown hue. Maybe that's what happened when vampires fed poorly?

"You seem to know me. How is this so?" he asked, but he didn't sound all that concerned that a mortal knew his identity. It seemed he didn't care much about anything right now. Nevertheless I felt it important to explain to him what the hell was going on in this universe.

"Well, this is going to be a bit hard to believe. Or not, anyway – right now I'm kind of a roommate with Aro. And Caius is my…my.." I stopped to think. Huh, I hadn't thought about that. What was Caius to me really? Not a friend, surely.

Our pretty princess?

"…my pretty princess." Wait, that's not what – oh nevermind. Marcus left eye twitched and he turned his head away.

"Oh, are they here?" he moaned. I nodded.

"Mhmm, and I bet they'd love to see you." Marcus once again sighed, shifting in the chair to look up at the dripping IV stand with a listless expression on his face.

"Perhaps, if you could be so kind as to not mention me to them?" I blinked, confused.

What.

"Wait a second here, first you have to tell me how you ended up in this place." I said, gesturing around us.

"And is this a command?"

"No, more like a concerned plea." I answered, settling down on a nearby chair and folding my arms. I was not leaving until he had spilled the beans. He folded his hand in his lap and set his eyes on me.

"Very well." Red is of course a warm color. Heck, I'm an artist so I should know about this stuff. I don't know how he was doing it but somehow his red was sort of blue. Purple?

"I remember something like a deep sleep, which cannot be possible. Then when I came to I was standing under the alcove of a church. A kindly Christian woman found me there, and she said some sweet things to me while she dialed the number to this establishment. I didn't struggle when they asked me to come, and here I am now." I tapped a foot against the floor, mulling this statement over. It's not too different from how Aro ended up in this world in the first place. But something about it seemed even more strange.

"And why didn't you struggle? You do know that this is a home for old, mortal people right?" I asked him, quirking an eyebrow. Marcus just lowered his head again, hair shrouding his face.

"And I feel both old, tired and mortal. I need some peace, time to be alone."

"And this is why you do not wish for me to tell the others about you being here?"

"Yes."

I nodded thoughtfully. Knowing the things I did about Marcus, it made some sense. The guy needed his space after some odd 3000 years of being pestered by Aro's crazy behavior 24/7. It was risky keeping secrets from Aro though. He would be pretty mad if he found out…

You could flash him, I bet he'd forget about any silly secrets then.

Hgauehguhaeughdfh!

"Okay, I won't tell on you. But you have got to get out of this place, it's far too depressing and…I can't believe I'm saying it but the idea of a vampire living in a nursing home is more morbid than eating a tub full of mayo. And promise me that at some point you will actually talk to Aro and Caius, because frankly this is a pretty big secret to keep. "

"I don't see what I will do outside of this place." Marcus said, more to himself than anyone else. Aww, the poor baby. I sat down on my knees in front of him so I could meet his face better as he persisted at looking down like a big grumpster.

"But there are a lot of things you could do!" I insisted, trying to cheer him up. Admittedly I hadn't known him personally for very long, but I hated to see him upset.

"Like what?" he whispered dejectedly, still looking down.

"Well, you can be a writer. I bet 3000 years worth of knowledge is worth writing down."

He made some disagreeable faces, but I could see that my words weren't just hitting a wall. What's a really meaningful job that he would like…oh I know!

"or I bet that you could be a really good teacher. "

Bingo. His eyes did not look quite as dead anymore.

"And what would I teach?" he muttered.

"Anything you want! "

"Poetry perhaps…" he mused, but still in that mopey tone of his. I smiled, because poetry sounded like a neat idea. Also the image of Marcus teaching...it just felt right.

"Yeah! A poetry professor, now that's something."

"I shall take what you have said into account. You may go now if you wish."

"Okay, I can take a hint. But before I go, this is my cellphone number. I want you to call me if there is anything you need, or if you just need someone to talk to or something. I'm not giving you my blood though, sorry." I left a scrap of paper with my number on it on the dresser next to his chair. He waved a hand at me, as if he was royalty dismissing someone from his court.

Well, vampire royalty. duh...

"Go in peace my child. Go in peace…"

I repressed the weird urge to curtsy in front of him, and told him I'd visit again before I left. As I was getting on the bus home, I suddenly got a text from Heather.

Hey biatch,

Wanna come over and play Mario cart? My roommate don't wanna play it anymore because she claims it encourages "unhealthy competitive behavior". I've got chips and dip ready to be ravaged. xoxo

That sounded like a nice break from what was becoming my pretty crazy life so far.

Hey my little cumdragon,

Sounds like a plan. I'll just tell Aro and come straight over ;D

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Don't you mean BEND over? Don't forget to finger me first. Ha-ha.

,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,,

Hold that thought ;) I'll be there with lube in 15.

I texted Aro that I would be at Heathers for the night and that I would probably stay over, since it was still winter break and school hadn't started again yet. He sent a response five minutes later that was alarmingly cryptic:

As you wish,

-A

But I had decided that I had been thinking and plotting enough for one day. It was time to drop all responsibilities and surrender to the seductive calling of an almighty force – namely the xbox. I got to heathers student apartment and opened it with the key she had given me. The front door had swollen in the cold weather, so you had to really but your back into it if you wanted to get it open.

After collecting snacks from her kitchen that would last for most of the night, painting our nails poo poo brown and old urine yellow, we each had a shot of orange juice to get us in the mood for the game.

We sat down in front of her tv and rummaged around in her box of different games before we settled on Mario cart with a little slice of silent hill after midnight. She picked bowser and I picked wario, who I always picked. If you wish to analyze that from a psychological point of view, you may. We played casually for a bit at first, but soon enough we were totally absorbed into the game. Heather was accidentally dipping her long dark hair in the glass of chocolate milk at her left, but none of us did or said anything about it.

"So…" Heather muttered, sounding distracted as she barely avoided an oil stain on the race track. Damn mystery boxes and their useless trinkets!

"So…" I replied, sounding just as robotic.

"What uhhh, what did you do today?" she asked, eyes glazed over while trying to eat a cheezit without looking away from the screen. It hit her cheek twice before it went in. oh hey, innuendo bingo!

"I uhh, visited grandma and saw Marc…" I quickly shut my gab, realizing what I was saying. The lesser people knew about Marcus right now, the better. And besides Heather couldn't keep a secret to save her life – proven earlier when the rumors of an Italian stallion circulated at school. Worse yet was that particular rumor was true, heaven forbid they somehow heard about Marcus. That could get twisted in so many ways, most probably of the double penetration variety. I glanced over at Heather and saw that she had paused the game. Oops, bad sign.

"Marc who?" she asked, blinking her eyes innocently at me.

"Ehhh..Marc, you know. It's slang for mcdonalds. Gosh, aren't you behind the times kiddo."

"You know lying gives me skin rash kitten."

"Okay I saw Marcus, the vampire. Marcus the third vulture leader, eyore of the undead. Woe is me and edgar allen poe is jealous of my grievences. "

"Oh my god. Where?" she asked, as we bizarrely continued to play the game. I sighed and shrugged, not really surprised that I couldn't keep it from her.

"At the elderly home. He went all Greta Garbo on me and said he wanted to be left alone for awhile. But look, you can't tell anyone about this. And I mean NO ONE." Heather moved as if to zip her lips, smiling.

"Right, I gotcha."

"Not your boy toy Carlos either." Then she slumped over and moaned like a sullen child.

"What, he doesn't hear half the stuff I say anyway- I'm too busy filling my mouth with his cock as it is."

Ahhhhhhhhhhh!

"Too much information Heatherlumps."

"Well sorr-y, but my nickname wasn't "the vacuum vortex" in high school like yours."

Hahahaha, yeah…

I turned my head and glared at her.

"That was because I accidentally set the windblower loose on the grade schoolers art project and you know it."

She responded by maturely throwing some m'ms at my thick skull.