Once Upon a Time
I stood there nervously in front of everyone. Deep breathing and trying to figure out where to start. Asher senses my nervousness and walks over to me to standby me and holds my hand. He looks down at me with a genuine smile. I'm not going to lie; I was afraid he would have avoided coming near me until this point. But for him, standing next to me now only signifies more that no matter what, he'd be by my side. I look back at his family and begin.
"I'm not sure where to start," I said silently.
"How about the beginning," Edward said impatiently. Bella smacked him in the arm for his comment.
"Okay. Well, for starters, my name is Xiana and I came from, well, I'm not originally from here."
"What do you mean by here, dear?" Esme asked from besides Carlisle (the only person who seem to realize that I wasn't any harm).
"I mean, I wasn't born here. On earth. More like, fallen to the earth and was morphed into the image of what you see now." I said, trying to ease them into the truth. Carlisle looked at me with wide eyes. Edward looked at him, then at me with shock.
"You're one of the Fallen," Carlisle whispered. Everyone looked at him then back at me. I nodded my head, agreeing with his statement. "But how? I didn't think that was…how is that possible?" He asked, his eyes never leaving mine.
"Well, as most people would know, those who were outcasted fell to the earth. We're immortal, walking amongst humans. Never aging and always on the run. We can die outside of natural causes like other humans, but we can't get sick, have a disease, or anything like that. We can freeze to death, have a heat stroke, catch a bullet, you know, other ways of death. A blessing and a curse, if you will."
"How long have you been here?" Jasper asked.
"You know the book of Genesis?" I looked at them. "After everything was created and the second after Lucifer decided to deceive Adam and Eve. Jealousy is a bitch, and my friends and I fell for it. His charm was uncanny, but his ways were unknown. He and his followers were cast out of Heaven as soon as the bite was taken."
"But you were cast to Hell," Carlisle said.
"Ironic huh? You must remember, whereas this scripture you read today is not what was made yesterday. By the time someone edited it, Hell could be Hell or earth. If the earth has was deemed as such, the earth could have been Hell." I said answering back. They all looked at me and Rosalie asked.
"Don't Angels have wings?"
"Yes," I looked down and away, "But I got rid of mine a long time ago. I felt as if I didn't deserve them after the pain I caused."
"Regret. What happened?" Jasper asked. I looked up and took a deep breath.
"I'll start from the beginning. It'll make things easier." I received a bunch of nods and begun.
"So, as stated before, I have been here since the book of Genesis. I have been through every historical even and experienced every frightening feeling that came with it. So, any questions you may have, I could probably answer and debunk for you." I said smiling.
"I didn't travel earth by myself. I had friends with me as we roam this world together. There were 4 of us. Abdu, who was like the older brother all of us loved, with his twin sister Abdulla, my nearest and dearest sister, and Vevila," I looked down, "The one we all looked up to. She was the most beautiful one, inside and out. She could sing you to sleep and awake. She was the best person to have around. We were never far from one another and stood by each other. Until one day when Vevila started to run off somewhere without our knowledge. It wasn't like we had to know where one was at, but it started to get worrisome when she would disappear for days at a time and come back different.
"She'd come back as a whole different person. Then after a few days, she's back to her normal self, then she'd go missing again. We asked her what was going on and she would just get mad. We knew we were losing her when she would start putting us to sleep mid-conversation when we confronted her or if we woke up in the middle of the night to see her leave. We knew what was happening. She was changing, she was leaving us, just like most of us had done. She found light in the dark realm. Specifically, with a man name Ubel.
"She had tried to coax us into going with her, but to no avail did that happen. The more we refused, the angrier she would get. We tried to reason with her, but she was long gone. And soon, she was permanently gone too. So then, it was just Abdu, Abdulla, and me. It hurt, and we constantly thought of her, but, you know, what can you do?
"This wasn't uncommon; for angels to say, 'fuck this shit, I'm out'" I said shaking my head looking back at everyone. "Hell, I almost said that. Everyone was holding onto forgiveness, redemption, whatever! Then it just got to the point where some of us just…gave up. The feeling of hopelessness and depression consumed you and you spiraled downward. Sometimes, you were targeted and fell for the trap. Hell, some of us were caught off-guard and killed. We were at war, and the ones who were stuck on earth were in the center of the battle. But my friends and I held on…until, well, until Vevila finalized our friendship with death." I looked away and fought off tears that tried to escape through my eyes.
"She killed Abdu and Abdulla, to cause pain and lure me on her path. She cold-blooded killed them and smiled about it. I cried for hours then had to find the strength and courage to bring them back to were we fell originally. I buried them with their weapons and blessed their graves so that no man could find them. No matter how deep a man could dig in their grave, they would never reach them. No matter how close a man could get to them, they wouldn't be able to even walk over them. If the grass around them were to dry up, the grass that lays on their bodies will still be luscious green.
"After that, I was alone. I kept to myself and made sure no one got close to me. I knew how death worked with humans, so why would I risk being near others if I would just lose them in the end? Occasionally, I'd run upon a fallen and it was unknown how the meeting would end. Sometimes I would travel with them, other times, I was fighting to stay away from them. Just like humans, not everyone was peaceful.
"I caught up with Vevila again later. She had given birth to a hybrid—half demon, half angel baby. Her name was Morfran. She was a weird blend of both of her parents. If anything, she could have been beautiful if it wasn't for the fact that her dad is a demon and her mom was a cold heartless bitch." I shook my head and continued onward. "Anyways, they caught up with me and we were fighting out of human eyesight in Pompeii…" I stopped, my breath staggered as I tried to continue onward, reliving, and regretting the memory of that day.
"It was an accident. Vevila and Ubel had Morfran attack me above the volcano. I dodged her attack and removed her from me, I didn't realize what was going on, until…until she fell in. The volcano was already irritable, and her falling in caused the eruption. I stood in shock at what I had done and what was happening. Not only did Morfran die, but so did the town under." I said crying, silent tears falling endlessly. "Innocent lives are taken before they were even ready. I realized later when I went back decades later that they were preparing to leave because the eruption was going to happen. But me killing Morfran, sped up the time and…" I couldn't finish the sentence.
"When I was leaving the scene, Vevila cries could be heard miles away. A cry any woman or parent would have when they lose their child. Morfran may have not been necessarily good, but she was still a kid. After that day, I went back to where I buried Abdu and Abdulla and cut my wings." I heard a gasp and saw faces that were shocked. "I felt like I didn't deserve them anymore. I felt like I did the ultimate crime. I killed a child, children, families, pets, animals, people of all kinds. Good, bad, whatever. I slaughtered a whole city and villages nearby." I was cut off by Ren,
"But you did it on accident Xi. You were protecting yourself."
"At what cost is it to kill innocent lives to save my own. Shouldn't it be the other way around? Shouldn't I risk my life to save others?" I say looking at her. Asher holds me up-right and I finally let go of the part of the painful series I held onto my whole life. After getting myself together, I take a deep breath and continue onto hard part number two.
"After that, I roamed the earth on foot. Unfortunately, I came upon some more challenges in the 15th century." I take a pause and look around the room, waiting for someone to catch on quickly. It didn't take long. Being as brave as she is, Alice said it.
"The transatlantic slave trade…" I nodded my head. The room was silent, and tension settled. If they wanted to know about me, they were going to get the full effect. It's one thing to learn about it in history class, it's another to hear the story from someone who lived through it.
"What? You didn't expect someone immortal that looks like me to get away from historical events, did you?" I said with a sarcastic muse. "If I'm honest, I'm shocked that I even lived through that. Especially since it lasted for over 400 years. Can you imagine? That's over 200,000 calendar days. And every single one of those days was pure agony and torture." I could feel my face become dark, morphing into something that could scare children. I turn away from everyone and look out the window.
"Every day was hell. You didn't know what was going to happen next. I had somehow survived the beatings, watching other people die, toxic environments where you see your friends and family members of all ages die next to you. Survived un-sanitized conditions. One wrong move, one wrong look, hell, I saw someone get beaten for having pneumonia and they coughed too hard. Being hypersexualized, getting raped, presented as prizes and objects, being murdered, being slaughtered for no reason…I somehow survived it. And every day, I wished for death. But I was too scared to end my life on my own. Especially then." I laughed to myself and continued looking back at them this time.
"You know what history didn't tell you? Besides burning the bodies of those who were considered as 'savages' and 'not human', you know what they did, beforehand? They raped and beat us some more. Scalp us and cut us up. Fed us to animals they would eat later. Left us on the side of the road. Not even to bother burying us to hide us from other people. Because, you know, that's too much work to do after killing us brutally.
"It didn't matter what gender you were either. Man or woman, child, adult, or teen; they'd kill you and kiss their wife and baby as if they didn't just kill a wife and baby of someone else. You can only imagine how much worse it got for me when I ran into Vevila and Ubel again. I remember clearly. I was being auctioned off and I could hear a chant being played. I turned and saw them, dressed to the 9's was Vevila and Ubel. They blended in well and bid for me. I was more afraid to go with them than to anyone else. But they didn't win, another man did. But that didn't matter. Vevila and Ubel slaughtered the family, hid their bodies, and took over the plantation until officials came through. During that time, they were worse than the original masters of the house. But what could we do? If we even walked outside without our owner, they'd kill us. But using that time, some of us ran. Some of us made it, others…." I said trailing off.
"It wasn't until I came across a certain someone in New Orleans where I knew I'd be protected, and I didn't even have to bother hiding." I smiled at the thought of the woman who started my journey to get out of the south. "You ever heard of a woman named Marie Laveau?" I said looking up at them with a smile. Eyebrows rose and I took that as a yes.
"There's a common misconception when it came to Blacks owning slaves. Did some of us still get beat? Yes, not saying that didn't happen. But Ms. Laveau didn't do that. She was working with the underground railroad. She allowed slaves, like me, to use her house as a stopping ground before continuing onward. She was a wonderful lady." I smile at the memory of her. "She used her tomb for other slaves since blacks couldn't afford one, freed or not. She helped all of those of every color, and she knew all secrets of them too. She wasn't malicious or spiteful, nor was she evil or conniving. She was a saint to the majority of us. She would provide blessings and give us charms so that we cross safely to our next destination out of the south. I was lucky enough to meet her.
"The second she saw me; she knew what and who I was. She had a vision of someone coming to her in a human form, dressed like those around her, asking for help. She told me she had that vision when she was a teenager. And occasionally, I would pop into her dream. She didn't know what I'd look like exactly, but she could tell by my eyes. She said she could see there was something different about me. Then the vision of her dreams popped into her head and she knew. I cried and broke down in her arms. And like the mother she was, she held me. She knew what I had gone through, what I had seen, felt, and experience. Not only as a woman in that period, but as a black woman then too. She felt the pain of mine and her mother, her mother's mother, and so forth. The only difference with mine was, I was immortal, and I couldn't just die with my secrets naturally as anyone else could've.
"I stayed with her for a year or so, I felt safe for once, but I knew I had to leave eventually. It was only a matter of time before Ubel and Vevila showed up. I hated leaving but we both knew I had to go. Although I was considered a free slave, it didn't mean shit to anyone who saw me. You were dead onsite depending on the mood of the person." I said reliving some of the moments.
"You could only imagine how it was when the Confederacy and Union war started. Trying to run throughout that bullshit was hard. Seeing your brothers, fathers, sons, daughters, mothers, and anyone who resembled you—black or high yellow—on the side of the road from being at the wrong place at the wrong time, was sickening. The whole point of the was …well…fucked up." I say this looking around the room. Jasper, Alice, and Rosalie avoiding my eyes, I turn away and continued.
"After that, it was all about managing to stay alive. When everywhere you turn there was a town slaughtered, you knew who it could've belonged to. When the Civil Rights movement came about, I thought things would lookup. And, granted, to a degree it did. But not by much. The government bombed minority living areas with drugs, guns, and businesses for us to rely on while taring down our own. Continued to kidnap, drug, raped and used Native American, Black, and Hispanic women and girls. We'd go missing at high numbers, and even today, it's still happening. But you can only imagine how much no one gave a shit then, as people finally care now." I say, Asher rubs my back and I lean into him. I see Ren grab Jake's hand and he kisses hers. I smile and continue.
"So needless to say, I've been through some bullshit. But not once did I ever tell anyone all of what I have told you guys. Not even 'Mony and Damion. I wasn't allowed to. It was forbidden to allow anyone to know about us. The punishment was to continue to be stuck here for eternity and more. So, with every relationship and friendship, I ever gain, I never said anything. I had no reason to either since I wasn't going to be in one place very long and because the average age of survival was 35 back then. Sanitation wasn't the best and normally consumed the person if they were sick or had an infection. And to be honest, it wasn't like I knew much about it as time went on. I learned something new every day. Cures and stuff? No idea, I only knew from what time I had spent with Mrs. Laveau. I had gained her knowledge and used that to the best of my abilities." I said honestly, now about to get ready to tell the last painful part of my life.
"I met 'Mony and Damion in Dallas a few years back. I was homeless and, just like Marie, I had a dream about meeting a couple who would take me in as their own and care for me. 'Mony saw me under a bridge and called me to her car in the middle of Dallas traffic. Every time I think back on it, I laugh because I could have been a psycho-killer, and yet, she trusted me at that moment that I wouldn't hurt her." I stopped as tears started to form again.
"Her and Damion took me under as their own. They questioned my story and the fact that I didn't have any identification on me, nor did I have any attached to me in the system. That was probably the hardest thing about living in today's day and age. Technology put a halt on the story I used to give to people. They created an identification file for me, and I became Xiana Smith Oshiro. The Smith was from a random name I gave them that was my parents." I shrugged my shoulders. "I could tell that they wanted to know, but I never told them. I never told them in hopes that I would be forgiven and then one day I would have been able to after that. But I wasn't given that option or chance…" I look down and lean more into Asher.
"So, leading up to the hospital. Yes, I did say that they weren't supposed to be here, because they're not. 'Mony and Damion died. They came to me in a dream to say their goodbyes and crossed over. Their bodies weren't being kept alive by them, not by the machines, but is preserved for-" I was cut off by Edward.
"Vevila and Ubel." I nodded. Asher stiffed and grabbed me tighter.
"That's why something felt off? Those weren't your parents." I shook my head and agreed.
"So, what do we do?" Emmett said.
"I don't know. I can't do anything." I told them taking a deep breath while holding onto Asher.
"There has to be something! We can't allow you to live with them when your family leaves!" Jake said. Everyone agreed, based on the outcome and history I have with them.
"I don't know. I doubt that they will allow me out of their sight, except for school. If you start acting differently around them, they'll know something is up and will do more harm to everyone I love. Knowing them, they've watched me, watched my every move. They know who my friends are, who you guys are, who I hate, and who I love." I said, looking at Asher in the last part.
"We'll figure something out. In the meantime, when your parents are released, we'll keep an eye out for you. Go unnoticed as much as possible and try not to give anything away." Carlisle says. I lean into Asher and say a silent prayer to whoever is willing to listen. I hope everything turns out better than it has been going so far.
"Now I have a question for you guys. When were you guys going to tell me that you are vampires?" I asked, raising an eyebrow.