"Marcus, brother?"
Aro stood in the doorway to Marcus' private quarters, where he was slumped glumly against the wall. His head hung below his shoulders, and a few unfortunate items of furniture had already been entirely obliterated during his emotionally-confused rage fit.
"What is it Aro?" Marcus droned.
Aro sat down at the wall beside him, though he'd always found sitting on the ground rather uncomfortable. How humans did it so frequently, he would never truly understand. "I spoke to Olive," he started.
Marcus lifted his head an inch. Nothing but exasperation was felt towards his brother. Aro had a habit of intending to make situations better but only complicating them further. "You did what?" he asked, as if daring him to repeat that sentence again. "What did you say to her?"
Aro smiled to himself slightly, a relief that Marcus did feel some kind of emotional attachment to the girl. It was a good start, at least. "She knows what our species is, but is unaware of the reason why she is here. Though, it was rather amusing to listen to her many guesses as to our kind," he humoured to himself. "She still does not know who you or any of the others are. You have a clean slate, brother."
Marcus sighed. "What is this curse?"
"I do not know," Aro admitted. "One thing I do know, however, and have seen for myself, is that she is very open-minded. She is a little emotionally stressed at the moment, given her current predicament, but she is such a kind soul. She is Didyme, Marcus."
"No, she is not," Marcus replied impatiently. "My Didyme is gone-"
"Then explain this phenomenon, brother. This girl is so identical to her, she is beyond a simple doppelganger. By the grace of gods, you have another chance. She is Didyme, just with a different name, a different upbringing. If Didyme could love you, so could Olive." Aro exhaled deeply. "At least try to speak to her, brother. She could do with some company."
Olive was alone, yet again. At least, she assumed so. It was difficult to tell these things, and her very brief chat with Aro the human-eating vampire just served as further evidence of that.
She decided to sit back on the bed a little. The gradual darkening of the room indicated that the sun was beginning to set. Sure, she didn't have a clock, but very soon it would be midnight if her guess was any close to the truth.
Or, at least, the room didn't have a clock of any sort—but her phone did. She stood up from the bed and reached at her right back pocket of her jeans, only to find it empty. She then tried her left pocket, the front pockets, the pockets in her denim jacket, and even her bra since she'd definitely left things in there before. No phone.
Now she was panicking. "No, no, no, no, no . . ." she muttered to herself as she dashed around the room like a headless chicken, looking under any furniture she found, and even going so far as to tear the sheets off the bed. But her phone was nowhere to be seen.
Her phone was her only remaining chance of escaping, and not only that but her only contact with her sister. Candace was likely still in the hotel room, she guessed. Knowing her, she was spam calling her phone to find out where she'd gotten to, and Olive definitely hadn't left it on silent so if anything it should've been making a ton of noise.
Half way through her frantic search, there was yet another knock on the door. Olive closed her eyes and winced. Her guess was that it was Aro, yet again, here to . . . well, she had no idea at this point. The man was a psychopath.
"Yes?" Olive called slightly irritatedly.
The door creaked open softly. A short woman—no, vampire—maybe even shorter than Olive walked into the room so silently that it was as if she was on mute. She placed down on the bedside table a steaming bowl of pasta as well as a neatly folded stack of clothing, all in darker colours. Olive stared at it with her eyebrows furrowed.
"Is there anything else you'll be needing, milady?"
Olive's eyes darted upwards at her. Unsurprisingly, like Aro's, her eyes were deep red, but at least they seemed marginally more vibrant than his. "Who are you?"
"Oh, I am Corin," she introduced herself with a beaming smile, one that would've been perfectly friendly if she didn't suck blood. "I will be in charge of seeing to your needs. Do you need anything at all?"
". . . Um, my freedom would be nice to be honest, I wouldn't mind that. But maybe some water? My water bottle ran out." Olive shrugged.
"I will have some sent up now." Corin smiled again, showcasing her dazzling teeth, and spun around on her heel to leave.
"Wait!" Olive called after her. Corin stopped and glanced back at the girl. "You're vampires, right?"
Corin hesitated for a moment. She wasn't entirely sure how much had been said between her and Aro just minutes prior. ". . . That is correct. Who told you, if I may ask?"
"Uh, the black haired dude with the fancy suit. Aro, I think it was," Olive replied quickly, eager to get to the main question weighing down on her mind. "Do you know why I'm here?" she asked her hopefully.
Unbeknownst to Olive, Corin knew exactly why she was here. The guard were still absolutely buzzing with excitement. Master Marcus had been mourning the loss of his beloved Didyme for several millennia now, for longer than any of them had even existed, so for her to return to him in another life, this much time later, was arguably the most incredible thing to have happened around there in the history of the coven.
"It is not my place to say, I'm afraid," Corin responded. The last thing she wanted was to be on the receiving end of one of Master Caius' punishments for stepping out of line. "Though I am sure the answer to your question will be made aware to you soon enough. Is that all?"
"One last thing," Olive began. "How did you know that I've been craving this specific pasta? And that I needed clothes?" She glanced at one of the labels. "And my size?"
Corin cocked her head to the side. "What exactly did Aro tell you?"
"Better question, what didn't he tell me?" Olive countered.
Corin paused for a moment. "I am certain that, if he had wanted to make any further information known to you, he would have informed you himself. Do call me if you need anything else, milady."
With that, the door was again closed in virtual silence. Alone once more, Olive took a moment to glance through the clothing she had been given. It was all dresses—no, mostly dresses, since there were several skirts too. It appeared that Corin had also brought up shoes too, though Olive wasn't entirely sure how she hadn't noticed that. They were all heels, though, the kind of stilettos that could snap an ankle in half with one wrong step.
Olive sighed and glanced at the food that had been brought to her. Everything that had happened that day, including being kidnapped and held prisoner in Italy, had completely put her off her appetite. Instead, she removed her black Converse shoes so that they fell to the floor by the bed and climbed under the silk sheets.
What now? What about going home? What about her sister? What about her job which she kind of had to get back to? She wasn't exactly someone who could go missing too easily. She curled up into herself with her knees drawn to her chest. And with what Aro had said, about this being her home now, about her never leaving . . .
Olive felt a lump form in her throat. As much as she tried to hold it in, a tear rolled down her cheek and fell onto the sheet beneath her. It was soon joined by a second, and then a third. Before long, her even breaths had become shallow gasps and sobs. She buried her face into the sheets.
God, she hated Italy. She just wanted to go home.
That evening, the entire coven minus Olive gathered in Aro and Sulpicia's quarters. On one end of the loveseat sofa in front of the fire, a forever disgruntled Caius was playing with the ends of Athenodora's hair as she leant comfortably into his chest. Sulpicia scrolled through her iPhone had with her legs draped over Athenodora's lap, occasionally turning the screen around to show her blonde sister.
On one armchair, Aro was busy rifling through a rather thick stack of paperwork. It was all data he'd managed to gather on Olive, from medical information to school grades to her address and insurance details.
The opposite armchair, as usual, was taken up by Marcus. During every coven meeting they had, which occurred once or twice a week, it was the same story with him. He stared blankly into the fireplace for the duration of their discussions without a word, and then would always be the first to leave. Even when he left, he walked at such a slow human pace that today had actually served as a reminder to them that he did still know how to run.
This time around, however, Marcus still stared into the fire but his eyes had lost that distant and glassy look to them. Something within his expression indicated that he was more in the present than he usually would be.
"So, tell us about our new sister, cuore mio." Sulpicia bounced slightly in her seat as she spoke to her husband. Thousands of years, yet she still had the same amount of lively energy as she had when she first joined the coven permanently.
"She is not your sister yet," Athenodora reminded her. "The girl barely knows any of us. The only one she has uttered a single word to is Aro."
"Fine, soon-to-be sister," Sulpicia corrected.
"Amore, maybe it is for the best if you don't put that kind of pressure on poor Marcus," Aro reasoned gently as he tried to curb his own excitement and his wife's, "but Olive has an exact likeness to Didyme, so much so that it is almost a little off-putting. For instance, like Didyme, she is very loyal and kind-hearted, yet will say whatever she pleases. There is," he chuckled lightly, "quite the smart mouth on that one."
Caius scoffed, reminding himself of the comments Didyme used to make about his hair. He was used to being harassed around every corner with endless taunting and nicknames. "Here we go again," he muttered.
Marcus growled slightly at Caius scoff which took everyone in the room by surprise. They all looked over to him to find him, for once, genuinely engaging in the conversation . . . somewhat, if a growl could be considered as such. He seemed to already be developing some kind of protectiveness over her.
Aro continued, to relieve the sudden tension Caius had caused. "She has an adoptive older sister, as I have mentioned, named Candace. They are very close, and she is currently staying in a hotel somewhere in Volterra. Olive seemed terribly concerned about her wellbeing, understandably." Aro sighed. "I do not want to give too much information away. Much of this Olive will likely tell you herself if you were to ask, since she is quite the open book."
"What arrangements will we have for…," Caius fought with himself to not say 'the human' out of pure habit more than resentment, "Olive?"
"She has been given the main guest room on our wing and will stay there for as long as she needs," Aro responded. "I think it would be awfully inappropriate to place her in Marcus' quarters if she has not even met him yet."
"What have you got there, brother?" Athena glanced pointedly at the papers in Aro's hand.
"Ah yes, this is all of the information Chelsea was able to find on Olive. Her medical history for example." He held up the little booklet. "Though, she has led a relatively healthy life. The only section of this that stands out at all is the injury she gained a few months ago, but she is still undergoing physiotherapy and has almost fully recovered."
Marcus' attention was instantly gained. "Injury? What injury? How serious was it?"
"Do not fret, brother," Aro reassured him. "She simply tore a ligament in her knee. Apparently she was in a children's play park and fell off the zip wire." He laughed under his breath.
Caius let out a hum of disapproval. "And exactly why was she at a children's play park as an adult?"
"Vita mia, she is only 19 years old. That is only a few years past her childhood," Athena said.
"In our day, women were married and had families at 19," Caius argued.
"Society has changed much since our day," she reminded him calmly.
He rolled his eyes. "Regardless, she was too old to be at a play park. These forms of entertainment should only be amusing to infants, not 19 year old women."
She opened her mouth to argue but stopped when they were hit by the sound of crying. The five of them went completely silent as they listened to the muffled sobs and hiccups that came from the guest room just a few doors down the hall. It wasn't just any cries, though—they were exactly how Didyme's used to sound whenever she was upset.
Athena shot a sympathetic look at Marcus, who looked like he was on the edge of losing all sanity. From the way he gripped the armrests, almost tearing holes in the fabric, it was clear that just sitting there and listening to the girl cry while being unable to do a thing about it was killing him. For someone who hadn't wanted anything for several millennia, he wanted nothing more than to hold her in his arms and console her, a side of him that he had to internally fight down.
"Maybe one of us should check in on her," Sulpicia offered. "Just to ensure she is okay."
"As kind as that is, maybe it is for the best if we leave her to compose her emotions herself this time rather than overwhelm her further," Aro murmured. "I think she has seen enough red eyes for one day."
"In that case, let us change the subject to something less grave," Athena suggested brightly in an attempt to lighten the tone in the room. "Have you listened to some of Olive's music? She is quite the young talent if I am honest."
Caius sighed exasperatedly. "Cara, for the last time, we do not listen to the humans' ridiculous new-wave music," he snapped.
"Oh but this one is such a good tune. And remember, humans have music videos now too, so this should be interesting."
Ignoring her husband's discontentment with listening to music, Athena snatched the iPhone from her brunette sister and, a quick search later, had begun playing a more recent song of Olive's. The others in the coven peered over at her screen, and even Marcus seemed to have gained a little amount of interest.
It had to be said—Olive wasn't bad at singing, not at all. Her voice was quite pleasant and melodic to listen to, and the song was oddly catchy.
However, Marcus was finding this rather torturous. He'd been forced to cope without the company of his mate for longer than should be possible, only for her to reappear in his life with a musical gift and a fear of his brother thanks to his weak attempt at socialising.
Unable to tolerate much more of this without acting out, Marcus stood up from his armchair and left at such a high speed that the rest of the coven almost missed the action. By the time they glanced up, all they saw was the door slam shut with a bang. Athena paused the music.
Sulpicia pursed her lips and pointed towards the entrance door with her thumb. ". . . should we maybe-?"
Aro knew exactly what she was going to suggest, but interrupted her before she could finish. "Leave him, my dear. It has been a long day for the poor soul."
⊱ ────── {.⋅ ✯ ⋅.} ────── ⊰
Author's note: Did I put off finishing my math homework so that I could put up this update so soon? That's a secret I'll never tell . . .
I'll be honest, this chapter is shorter than the others, but don't worry because things are about to get pretty interesting pretty soon. Next update, you have Marcus and Olive's meeting to look forward too!
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, stay safe, and ily lots!