The Tweedles, or Felix and Demetri as most people knew them, were back for a day or two to take a short break from Romanian bastard hunting. They'd been gone for weeks but they were needed to regroup and recalibrate since the pair of scum they were hunting were sending them on a wild goose chase.
So that was what led to me sitting in the empty kitchen with a mug of warm blood accompanied by the two of them. I thought I may as well make the most of my time with them before they disappeared again, especially since they hadn't seen me since the incident.
"So you're really gifted then, huh?" Felix asked.
"Oh yeah. Not to brag or anything, but I can make glowing dust come out of my palms which disintegrates vampires into nothing."
Demetri snorted some of his blood in shock as a few crimson droplets fell from his nose onto the table. I burst out in laughter at him while he cringed and blew his nose to get out the last of the droplets.
"That's pretty cool, congratulations." Felix was still laughing uncontrollably at Demetri.
Demetri kicked a cardboard box away from the sink so he could rinse some of the blood off his face. However, Felix gasped excitedly and lifted it up off the ground.
"Look how big it is. It could probably fit me in here," he marvelled at the box which had a diagram on the side of the oven that had been delivered in it.
"Do it, sit in it, I dare you," I nodded to the box.
He really didn't need any further instruction; he placed it on the ground and climbed in feet first before sitting inside with his knees hugged up to his chest. For such a big guy, it was pretty impressive that he'd managed to fit himself inside.
Demetri glanced over from the sink as if an idea had just struck him. "You know what I'm thinking?"
Felix had a mischievous glint in his eyes. "I think I know."
There was an awkward pause while I stood there confusedly. "What?"
Felix was carrying the box on his head through the corridors with me and Demetri following just behind.
"So, we're going to ride this cardboard box we found in the kitchen…down the stairs?" I clarified.
"Eli, Eli, Eli," Felix tutted, "boxes of this size are a rare phenomenon. We must seize this opportunity while it's in reach."
"Seize the opportunity…to ride a box down a staircase?" I asked slowly.
"Not just any staircase," Demetri corrected. "The astronomy tower is the tallest tower in the castle, opposite to the east quarters. There are over 100 stairs leading all the way up to a room which overlooks the whole of Volterra."
"Wait a sec, peddle back a few steps. You said east quarters? What are the east quarters?"
They both went silent. "I am sure you'll find out sooner or later," Demetri answered cryptically.
As we circled around yet another corner, Jane and Alec were walking the other direction and glanced at us as if we'd gone mad. Well, maybe Felix had. That man child probably had gone mad a while ago.
Jane raised a suspicious eyebrow. "What are you doing?"
Felix held the box up proudly. "Box sledding down the astronomy tower. Want to join?"
The twins exchanged a silent discussion through their eyes, which they often did. It was just slightly terrifying to be honest but, in fairness, they were the closest siblings I'd ever come across so twin telepathy just made sense at this point.
"We will come but, if we are caught or gotten into any trouble, all blame is to be put on one of you three-"
"Not me!" I squeaked out before anyone had the chance to choose me for the blame.
"But Eli, the Masters would never punish you for this," Demetri insisted. "Well, it wouldn't be a bad punishment, put it by that way."
I sighed in defeat. "Fine, I will take the blame. Remember the sacrifice I made for this," I warned as we continued along the corridor.
Once we got to the end, Felix opened the single wooden door and we ran up the spiralled staircase at full speed. Demetri was right, there were 100 steps, and I was sure that I'd need to be carried up if I was still human considering how steep the incline was.
At the top was a relatively small room with a large window, providing a breathtaking view over the countryside of Italy. Summer was beginning to turn to autumn now so the weather was ever so slightly colder than it had been a few weeks ago and the leaves were beginning to fade out of colour.
I stared out into the distance. "I like the view."
"You're my best view," Felix joked.
"So what do we do? Just slide down there?" I edged closer to the staircase.
"No, no, first we do a safety check," Alec responded as if I was being stupid.
"…but we're vampires. Why do we need to worry about safety all of a sudden? It's not like we're going to die from going down the stairs in a cardboard box."
"It's better to be safe than sorry. Felix, you're our safety test." Alec held the box out for the overly-enthusiastic 6'7" vampire to take.
"I'm sorry, but is our 'safety test' literally just sending someone down to see if they die or not?"
He simply shrugged in response and stood back. Felix placed the box down on the edge of the top step and climbed in so that he was sat with his knees hugged to his chest once more. I wasn't sure how easily the box would slide, but I was curious about how this would turn out in anyway.
Demetri was stood just behind, ready to push from the back. "Are you ready?"
"Oh yeah!"
Jane sighed and held her head in her hands. Honestly same.
Without any further ado, Demetri shoved the back of the box lightly which sent it sliding quickly down the stairs. We couldn't see what was happening but, judging from the sounds of Felix's excited hollers, it was going well.
Once the box reached the corridor again, I heard it skid a metre or so before it grinded to a halt. Felix hopped out and ran back up the stairs with it, appearing only a second later, box in hand.
"Who's next?"
Demetri stepped to the side and bowed gracefully to me. "Ladies first."
I was still a little uncertain of this whole thing, so I took a step back so that I wasn't the one to go down next. "Actually, children first."
Alec had an enthusiastic childish grin on his face as he sat down first, pressed against the back of the box. Jane sat on his lap since she was only a few inches shorter, and they both seemed to fit in perfectly fine which just emphasised the fact that Felix was ridiculously massive.
This time, Felix was preparing to push them down. "Ready?"
They both nodded and I noticed Jane subtly tightening her grip on her brother's hands.
It only took a slight tap on the box to send it plummeting down the stairs. I listened as Jane lightly screamed before they both started giggling uncontrollably. It was at times like these when I was really reminded of the fact that the twins were literally just children. Just immortal, neglected children.
They seemed to reach the bottom a little faster than Felix had, but that might've been because they were so much lighter. Again, they reappeared at the top of the stairs in less than a second with thrilled expressions on their faces.
"Now it's your turn." Alec extended the box out for me and Demetri to take.
"Come on, Tweedledee, this'll be fun!" I squealed.
"Are we both going then?"
"Well, I'm relatively small, and you're much shorter than Tweedledum over there, no offence or anything, so I'm sure we'll fit just fine," I assumed.
With a rather unneeded sigh, Demetri climbed in first and sat to the back. I awkwardly followed suit and ended up sitting on his lap in this small cardboard box. He hesitantly placed his hands on my waist so that I wouldn't end up tumbling forward on the way down.
"You know, if Caius sees us sitting like this, we're dead."
"Oh yeah, I know."
Felix laughed. "You two ready, love birds?"
"I swear to fucking god Feli-AAH SHIT!"
I didn't even have a chance to finish threatening Felix before he shoved us down the stairs. Due to the curve of the staircase, the box tipped to the side as we spun around and around in loops. I screamed lightly until we finally reached the foot of the stairs and the box slid a few metres into the middle of the corridor.
We sat there for a moment until I jumped out as quickly as possible.
"We're not doing that together again."
"Definitely not."
Avoiding eye contact, Demetri picked up the box and ran up the stairs while I ran just behind him. Once we reached the top, Alec instantly took the box from us and examined it slightly.
"I think if we make some modifications, it could be even faster," he mused.
Demetri joined him. "Well, you saw how much the corners struggled to contain Felix's weight since he's such a chunky monkey, so we may need to add further support on the sides."
The next half hour was spent solely doing whatever box modifications the others insisted were necessary. Demetri strengthened the box using spare pieces of cardboard so that Felix was less likely to break it when he went down, Alec was constantly worrying about safety and ensuring none of us would fall out and tumble down the stairs, and Jane decided to take over box decoration duty by writing 'chunky monkey' on the side in glittery silver gel pen.
Meanwhile, Felix and I were impatiently fidgeting around the room, mutually agreeing that we just wanted this to be over with so we could slide the fuck down.
I groaned. "Why does it take this long? I don't understand."
"I don't understand," Felix sang under his breath.
I giggled. "I don't understand bitch, I don't understand-"
"Will you two please be quiet? Don't take it personally but your voices make it feel like my ears are melting off," Jane snarked. "Look, it's done."
For half an hour's work, the box looked disappointingly exactly the same as it did before, minus the addition of Jane's penmanship on the side and the extra few pieces of cardboard.
"Felix, want to test out the new and improved 'chunky monkey'?" Jane offered the box to him.
Felix took it eagerly and didn't hesitate to push himself down the stairs by jumping into the box and using the momentum to slide him down. It was definitely going faster than before since the bumping sounds were becoming more frequent. He hit the bottom after only a few seconds and reappeared at the top of the stairs looking utterly exhilarated.
"Who's next?"
Once Demetri and Alec had gone down next, it was finally mine and Jane's turn. Jane sat on my lap comfortably and I wrapped my arms around her waist so she wouldn't fall.
"Are you ready?" Demetri asked, ready to shove us down.
Jane sighed. "Cut to the ch-"
Her sentence was cut off when Demetri shoved hard into the back of the box without any warning. Both Jane and I were screaming in excitement as we rumbled around the spiral staircase down further and further. There was little light in the staircase but I could see the faint glimmer of daylight a short distance away.
We suddenly hit the corridor again and slid only a few inches before coming to an abrupt stop. An "oof" sound escaped my lips as I narrowly missed whacking my head into Jane's. A foot was on the front of the box just millimetres from Jane, wearing an expensive Italian shoe. As I followed my gaze upwards, I was met with an unimpressed looking Aro with his arms crossed over his chest and the kind of face a parent would pull when scolding a toddler.
He tutted disapprovingly. "What do you think you are doing here? Eliana? Jane?"
Jane clearly didn't want to be held accountable for this so instead she elbowed me in the rib to explain ourselves.
I squinted a little and grinned as I stared up at him, his dagger-like gaze enough to scare the crap out of me if I wasn't so…mated to him. "…box sledding?"
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Author's note: This chapter is honestly a mess and I'm proud. I felt like this story needed more love for the twins since they're really just children who need love and attention. And Felix is absolutely more childish than them, so it's like Eli's babysitting service at this point.
When I planned this chapter out, I don't know what was going through my head, but I'm here for it haha. Oh, and for the next chapter, things get a little steamy again so uh look forward to that, yay I guess. Again, I really want to avoid this story being, I don't know…circulated around all the smutty scenes. Basically, they sort of add a bit but they're not as important as the actual plottttt.
Anyway, thank you so much for reading, be sure to leave some feedback because I love to hear your thoughts, stay safe, and ily lots!