It was never-ending; the days blurred into one. One year became two, two became four, four became eight and eight turned into fifteen within the blink of an eye. But each day dragged as soon as it disappeared with the sun over the rolling hills of the Tuscan countryside. Feed, patrol, guard and then visit her. It was a never-ending cycle.
After the end of the first year that drew into the second, he began, with a heavy heart, to come to the realisation she might never wake up. Aro had visited her on the eve of the second year, her mind gone quiet, almost as though she were sleeping. He could still feel her presence, showing she wasn't gone, but there was nothing. No fire. No screams of mercy. No cries for someone to free her from this agony. There was just nothing.
It wounded his determination to believe she would wake up. His sire had merely taken his hand, patted it like he was a child in need of consoling, and left him to be with his twin, a constant figure of support. He understood that she didn't particularly like the silent immortal, but he knew the desire to see him whole once more was overwhelming for her, and to hear that he might never be again?
Well, he had looked at her long enough, and known her long enough, to recognise the crumpling of her pretty features as she too, saddened by this realisation that her beloved flesh would never be whole once more.
He threw himself into the repetitive cycle, doing his duties to the highest standard, but something wasn't right. He knew it, and so did everyone else. They avoided him for the most part, the lower guard disappearing when he came into view. Good. They always were irksome, the greedy gazes of the women, who strived to be held in high regard than the rest of their lower guard, following him as he walked through the endless hallways of the castle.
It was nearing the fifteenth day of the fifth month of the fifteenth year when the wives summoned him. It was no question to see them; both of them, the Lady Ceres and Lysandra, had been instrumental in making he and his sister feeling welcome after such a violent entrance to this life. He credited them both with the reason that he and his sister didn't wreak havoc beyond the first year.
Honey blonde hair and kind red eyes greeted him as he was given entrance to the tower, their owner uncurling her legs from the chaise she had been relaxing on as she stood, making her way to him. "It has been a while since we've seen you," the Lady Lysandra breathed as she enveloped him in an embrace. He didn't react, just stood there limply. She steered him, pushing him into the chaise opposite her own. Her smile was warming, but it didn't do much for his own.
Her smile turned sympathetic. "My husband tells me she has not yet awakened," her soft words caused pain to spike through him, but he pushed it down before it could contort his face, giving him away. "No," he confirmed quietly. "No she hasn't. Master Aro seems to think she won't. He's given her another year to awaken before he grants her mercy from the poison."
The saddened look she sent him was heart clenching. "And how do you feel about that?" She inquired softly, folding her hands in her lap. He honestly didn't know, knowing she would then be gone permanently. He relayed this to her and she nodded, a door opening to the left of him, the dark, curly haired figure of his sire's wife coming out. She sent him a gentle smile of her own. "Ah, Alec, I've missed our visits from you and Jane," she breathed, coming to sit just as gracefully beside her coven sister.
He didn't miss the look the two women exchanged, no doubt seeing him looking so pathetic, so broken, so unlike himself. He even knew it; it was ridiculous what he'd been reduced to over the last decade and a half. Enemies no longer feared him, they mocked him for being such a shell of himself.
Their laughter soon turned to panicked screams when his gift came into the equation however.
Lady Ceres gave him a pointed look, never one to 'beat around the bush', as the humans said. "Aro tells me her mind has quietened," she stated calmly, looking for a reaction, anything out of him. He nodded. "I am aware. He said it is as if she lingers close by, a breath of her still inside her body, but not of mind." He quashed down the emotions that threatened to make themselves known to the two women and the five Felix sized men that stood around the room.
The dark haired woman gave him a reassuring smile. "That doesn't mean she's gone, old friend. That merely means she could be preserving her energy to fight this plague inside her body. It does not mean she's gone from her body; my husband even said this himself. It merely means she's putting up a fight, and if I know anything about her from what I'm told and having seen her bravery on the battlefield, then there is much fight in your mate yet to come."
The sounds of a pen scratching against paper were the only sounds in the still infirmary. Beds lined the grey stone walls; twelve in total. Only one was occupied. Red eyes, a slight pale tinge over them from their age, glanced up at the occupied bed. No change, just as it had been for fifteen years, five months and sixteen days.
Chelsea looked back at the papers before her. Research done on the cursed blades wasn't seemingly going anywhere at the moment. Nothing made sense. There were no scripts on them, not even dating back before her own time some three thousand years ago. There was just nothing but the small entry the masters had on the weapons. Her lip curled down as she glanced at the still woman. Weapons of mass destruction indeed.
She had stood guard over the woman for the last decade and a half, watching as the world continued to move forward while she remained stuck in the past. The dark haired boy still came and stood by her side, but his visits were not as frequent as they had been. Where he had spent every moment of his free time here, now he spent it in his duties, visiting the same hour every two days, throwing himself into the work he was expected to do.
It was a sombre sight to witness, his visits. She often sat at the small desk that was in the corner office, the big glass windows in it providing the perfect look into such a private encounter. She often watched as Alec took the seat he always did, sometimes deciding to forgo the chair and sit on the bed beside the silent girl, merely watching her still face.
It was a sombre sight if she ever saw one like it.
The pen scratching return as she began to write a few of her own observations of the last month -the same as it had been for the numerous months before this one. Nothing changed. A dull thump broke through the scratching and she paused, eyes tight and strained as she looked around the room to find where it came from.
Thump, thump, thump. There it was again. She frowned, her forehead creasing as she pushed her chair back, trying to find the source of the sound. She frowned deeper. The thumping, it was picking up speed, and it had a wet sound to it, her brows furrowing further as she looked around. She recognised the sound. Heidi wasn't due for another feeding for a week, and the human secretary was home in the city. The heartbeats of the city above were more distant. Was there another human close by, perhaps? She listened closely. No, this was right beside her.
Right beside me, those words drifted in her head before she realised, her eyes falling to the dark blonde haired teenager beside her in the bed, her eyes widening as she saw her chest rise, the thumping of her once dead heart as it began to gallop like a horse taking off across a field, like the wings of a hummingbird, now apparent. She couldn't believe her eyes. It wasn't possible, her mind screamed at her. How could it be? The child hadn't been showing any sign of life, even mentally, for the last fourteen years.
Eyes opened, black fading into the deepest blue possible, almost navy as they changed. A strangled breath came out, and the immortal reacted instantly, bellowing for someone to fetch Master Aro. One of the guards who stood outside the infirmary scarpered immediately towards the founding members chambers, the private lounge they had upstairs away from everyone. The choked breaths came out quicker, wheezing. Chelsea rippled across the room, fetching the oxygen mask and canister she'd had for years just in case they ever needed such a thing. She fastened it around the mass of blonde waves and pushed the struggling girl backwards. "Breathe, Olivia," she ordered, the girl fighting to bring in even a simple breath, her lungs must not having caught onto her heart just yet -that was pounding away, increasing to a dramatic speed rather quickly. A panicked sound escaped the struggling lungs of the somehow human girl in front of her. It was an amazing sight, a rare miracle indeed.
Perhaps that was what the cursed blades did...
The doors to the infirmary slammed open behind her but she didn't turn, Aro already appearing beside her, his eyes on the suffocating teenager as she wheezed, struggling to take in air, her dark blue eyes confused as she looked around - no doubt due to the lack of her vampire senses. Chelsea shuddered. What a thing to lose.
Aro gazed down before he looked at Chelsea, the woman wide-eyed herself. He looked at Olivia, lips blue even beneath the plastic mask secured to her face -he could hear the hissing of the oxygen as it filled the human contraption- and for the first time in his existence, he was lost for words.