We had been outside for a few minutes now, and the cool air felt nice against my skin. I was surprised that Demetri had even agreed to take me out, but considering it was cloudy with no sun, I guess he thought it would be okay. Aro must have also approved of it at some point, or else we wouldn't be walking around town right now. I stayed close to Demetri as he took me down the street to one of the city's museums, and I saw him smile as we stopped outside of it.

I looked up at him and frowned, trying to figure out what it was. I couldn't read the words written on the sign outside of the museum, but I could make a very good guess at what they stood for, "Museo della Tortura." My thoughts were proven right when I looked at the chair that was sitting outside of the museum's door. There were spikes all over it, and I involuntarily cringed.

Demetri chuckled beside me. "Don't worry. They don't use those anymore. At least, I think Caius got rid of his."

I knew I probably had some sort of horrified look on my face. He was joking, right? Caius had never really had one of these things, had he? I turned away from the chair and to Demetri. "Do they own this place, too?"

"They do." He smirked beside me. "This place was Caius's idea. It's part of his collection. We don't have as much room as you might think, so it's best that they leave some of their things in public. It helps to generate a nice profit, as well."

"Did he actually use that chair on anyone?" I asked, not really sure if I wanted to know the answer.

Demetri shrugged. "Aro likes torturing the mind, whereas Caius likes torturing the body. Or rather, he likes to see the limits of the human body, such as how much it can take before giving out. Aro doesn't approve of the hobby necessarily, but it's always been a favorite pastime."

We stepped inside the museum, me following slowly behind Demetri, not really knowing what all I would see once I went into the building. It appeared as if we had entered some sort of torture chamber during the Dark Ages or something. I shuddered as we walked past an executioner dressed in a long black cloak, reminding me more of the Volturi guard than anything.

What had made me pause, however, was the replica near the entrance of a giant wolf. Everything about it reminded me of the coat of a real wolf. Wasn't there something about werewolves mentioned a while back? I stopped and stared at it. Demetri noticed, and he came up behind me, leaning down to my ear so I could hear him whisper. "This was one of the werewolves we killed over a millennia ago. Caius had him stuffed."

I turned around so fast that I almost gave myself a feeling of whiplash. "It's real?"

"Very. Tough and annoying creatures to fight, but thankfully, the majority of them have been eradicated, and the race is nearly extinct."

"Why?"

A few tourists came over our way, so before Demetri answered, he took my wrist and pulled me to another part of the museum that was currently void of other visitors. "Aro never told you about what went down with Yevgeni and Caius?"

I shook my head. I had wondered, but if Aro wanted me to know something, he usually just told me. "It wasn't my place to ask, and no one had really brought up."

Demetri hummed as if he understood the reasons behind why no one brought it up. He probably did. Even I saw the tension and reactions between Caius and Yevgeni a short hour ago. "Yevgeni saved Caius's life by killing a werewolf when it tried to attack."

"Really? If that's the case, then why do they seem to hate each other so much? I mean, Caius knocked off Yevgeni's head like it was nothing."

"It wasn't the first time." Demetri grinned. "It was one of the reasons why Yevgeni left four centuries ago. The two were close once, and then suddenly everything changed. But it's not for me to tell the whole story."

My babysitter for the day took off, and I caught up to him next to a weirdly shaped coffin with spikes. Why did everything have spikes? Nearby, on the wall, were shackles and manacles, as Demetri called them, and I began to wonder, if all of these things belonged to the Volturi as part of their special collection, did that mean that they had some point used all of these items on people? And more than that, were those people human or vampire?

The museum was making me very uncomfortable, to say the least. I may not have seen items like this used before, but I had seen others tortured before. Even I had- Screaming, all I heard was screaming. Clawing at my skin, the sensation had to go away. I hated this, I hate this, make it stop. Demetri grabbed my hands. I hadn't slipped entirely yet; I was still here in the museum. Demetri was in front of me.

"Ari. Look at me."

I did, and I tried to calm my breathing like Aro had suggested I do. It all cleared up quickly, almost like it had never happened, and I shook my head, wiping the tears that had fallen from my eyes as soon as Demetri let go of my hands. "Sorry. I don't know what happened."

Demetri nodded. "It's okay. Why don't we go back outside?"

I agreed, and a minute later, we were outside of the museum, back in the square. We walked for a little bit, heading back in the direction of what I had learned to be the city hall, which is where the Volturi lived, mostly underground. We were far enough away from the main crowds, so I said, "Can I ask you something?"

"What's that?" Demetri replied.

"Why were there so many things with those spikes in them?"

Demetri glanced at me. "I thought that would have been obvious. There was a lot of blood, and we're vampires."

Why didn't I think of that? It made sense. Either way, I didn't want to think about Caius using anything like that on anyone. I wondered what he was doing at that moment. It still shook me a bit to think about what had happened not too long ago between Caius and Yevgeni, but what caused me the most anxiety was the fact that I had defended him. Yevgeni had been right, I was only a human. He could break me easily. So could Caius. So could Aro, and he was proving that all the time.

"Let's grab you something to eat before we head back. You didn't eat much for breakfast this morning."

Of course, Demetri would be thinking about getting my meals in me. I didn't see why it mattered so much if I ate all of my food or not. I mean, sure, I understood that Aro didn't like to be wasteful, but he was on me about it constantly, almost as if he had some sort of food fetish. I didn't want to think about that.

I shrugged, not seeing much of a choice, and Demetri found a small restaurant where he ordered me something, not even really asking what I wanted, which was okay because I couldn't read Italian anyway. This was only the second time I had ever been out in the city, and the last time it had been dark outside. It was amazing to see how lively the restaurant and the streets were with residents and tourists both. I heard a lot of Italian spoken, but I recognized a few couples who spoke English, and some who spoke languages I couldn't even begin to pinpoint.

Demetri grabbed the food box once it was ready, and we headed out of the cafe back to the city hall, a building that was a mixture of a prison and my home all at the same time. Chelsea greeted us as we entered the building, and she smiled brightly at me.

"I'm glad to see you were able to get out for a while. I've been telling Aro for weeks that it would be good for you and might help," she told me. I smiled. I wasn't really sure how to reply to that. "I believe Aro is waiting for you downstairs. He's very excited about what Eleazar discovered today."

Right, I could see into the past. That was great and not useful at all, even if Aro said it would be. "Oh. Yeah, I guess."

"We shouldn't keep him waiting, then." Demetri nudged me along as he spoke, and I sighed. Besides the slight moment at the museum, the last hour or so had been really nice.

When I entered Aro's quarters, Demetri handing me my food box before disappearing, I went to set it down on the table by the sofa. Aro grinned when he saw me. "Good. I see Demetri made sure to get you something to eat while the two of you were exploring."

"Yep." I had nothing else to say, so I sat down on the sofa, removed my shoes, and pulled my feet up so my knees were to my chest.

"You should eat, my dear." Aro encouraged me by opening the box and then handing it to me. The utensils were already placed inside, and I opened them from their plastic wrappings after crossing my legs and resting the box on them. "What did you get?"

"I don't know. Demetri ordered it. I can't read the menus."

He hummed. "Perhaps I should start teaching you some Italian. Just a little so you can read what you see."

Sighing, I met his eyes as he studied me. "You know I can't read."

"Of course you can. I've seen you read plenty of times," Aro interjected. "You struggle with it. That's all."

Slowly, I took a bite of whatever was in the box, some sort of ravioli from the looks of it. Aro's eyes never left me as I chewed, and I sighed again. Part of me really wanted to ask why he liked to watch me eat, but he already knew I was curious about it. He also had never offered up the answer. Asking him now, he would probably find a way to talk around it. He was good at that.

Aro finally went back to sit at his desk. "I hope that what happened earlier didn't frighten you too much. Yevgeni was too audacious, and Caius acted impulsively. I have already spoken with them both, though Caius seems to think that you have a death wish all of a sudden."

I bit my lip. Because of what I said to Yevgeni? I still couldn't answer why what Yevgeni did made me even angrier than I already was. Even thinking about it now, on top of the fact that Aro was pushing me to eat when I just didn't want to, and everyone staring at me like I was some sort of animal. I guess to them, I kind of was. "Why do you even care?"

I sat the box of food down on the sofa, then stood up, went to the bedroom, and slammed the door. I thought for sure Aro would come in after me, but the other room seemed eerily quiet. I sat down on the floor, my back against the door, not that I could stop Aro from entering if he wanted, and I heard Aro stand as the desk chair was pushed back. "Ariana…"

"Just leave me alone!" I hadn't meant to shout, not really, but I had.

The door behind me began to push open, and when he realized I was sitting against it, Aro shoved it a bit harder so that I was forced to move. When he entered the room, the expression on his face was a stern one, an expression that I recognized very well from others. I had never seen it on his face before, and I knew that I never wanted to see it again.

My heart pounded as I realized what I had just done, and I edged away from him to the bed to put more distance between us. I started crying immediately as he walked up to me, and I covered my face with my hands as I curled up into a small ball. Whatever he was going to do, I didn't want to see it coming.

"Look at me." Aro's voice was cold, and I shrunk away as far as I could, the frame of the bed digging into my spine.

"I'm sorry."

"I didn't ask for an apology," he corrected. "I told you to look at me."

I shook my head. I was positive that he would either reach out and force me to look at him or do something worse, and I was surprised when it never came. When I heard the door close, I allowed myself to breathe again for a minute. I continued to expect Aro to return at any moment, but he never did.

A/N: I am not overly happy with this chapter, but it does set something up that will be happening soon. I amazingly slept nine hours Saturday night, but before that, I had barely slept an hour a night. I am still terribly exhausted, but school, a 22 hour per week internship, and all four of my jobs (two full-time, two of the jobs are at the same place so I combine the hours, and a part-time) have started up for the summer, and I just don't have the time to sleep. Hence, why I am not overly happy with this chapter. I really feel like I'm missing something because I can't think straight. Anyway, I hope you still enjoyed it. I'm off to bed to try to get a couple of hours of sleep before I have to be up for work. Please review! The emails make me very happy, and it's nice to get an email that isn't work or school-related every now and then.