Chapter 9: Finally
Elta had tried everything to entertain her. She'd played rock, paper, scissors with herself, she'd made hand puppets out of dead people's hands, she had sung, she had skipped, run, walk. And now she sighed in relief as she crawled back into her morgue slot. It was the 2nd day after being in the morgue. She heard the door on the floor above click open. Elta took a deep breath and pushed herself back into the metal cocoon, only to be slid out 2 minutes later. She listened to the voices and felt the sudden urge to cry.
"She's right here," the morgue director said, "so I will let you take care of this business. Come up when you're done." Elta was set upon the big metal table in the middle of the body room.
"Thank you, Mr. Canes," Dusk said. And that was the voice that brought non-existent tears to Elta's eyes. Dusk had been her best friend since they had met in bible school when they were 2. They were so tight, they had potty-trained together!!
Elta felt her red dress being peeled off her incredibly still body. Dusk unlaced her high tops and slid them off her feet. Elta felt a small drop of moisture land on her pinky toe.
"Gawd, why Elta? Why the hell did you do it? You had always seemed so happy! You had only talked about death once! I thought you were fine! Now I feel like such an idiot for never seeing it all!! I feel like such a horrible friend because I couldn't help you!!" Dusk was crying all her words out. Elta felt terrible. Her best friend thought that she was a horrible friend because she had never seen Elta's fake depression. And she was the one chosen to dress her in her funeral clothes. Wait, Elta thought, there could be an advantage to Dusk dressing me. Did she pick out the clothes? Or is she following my parents' rules? Elta truly had no idea. But she knew how to find out. Elta knew her parents would have dressed her very churchy. In fact, she knew the exact outfit. It would have been her modest neck-line sky blue dress with the cap sleeves that hit just below the knee. That was how her parents would want all of Volterra to see her.
But when Dusk walked up the stairs, Elta found out that her best friend had definitely NOT played by her parents' rules. Instead of the church dress, Elta was wearing her party clothes. Her long, tan legs were bared, the top part of her thighs covered in a black skirt with cheerleader pleats that had a shiny, silver chain strung through the belt loops. Dusk had clad her in a neon purple halter top that flaunted her curves and let a sliver of skin when she reached up to fix her hair. And then Elta wanted to jump for joy. On her feet was a pair of silver, strappy, 5 inch stilettos. My favorite!! Elta thought. Then she turned to the wall of metal slots and looked at her reflection. She was pleasantly surprised when she saw her eyes. They were the same distinct shade of brown as before, and Elta knew how. The Volturi had given her green colored contacts.
"Green plus red makes brown," Elta said, echoing her elementary school art teacher. Her long hair had had the fake red clip ons replaced with her purple ones. Her curls had been left to hang beautifully around her angelic face. Then she heard someone clomping down the stairs. Elta lay back down on the table rapidly, just now noticing the fingerless, black mesh gloves that reached her elbows. I love my friends, thought Elta. She stiffened as the morgue director, Mr. Canes, lifted her onto a gurney and rolled her into an elevator. Elta knew where she was going. When they reached the ground floor, she was lifted into a casket. She felt the casket loaded into the back of a hearse. It drove for a little while. Then Elta felt herself being unloaded. She was at the funeral home. She felt a thump under her as they set the casket down. The lid was opened and artificial light splayed across her face. Then she heard more voices.
"The viewing will start in an hour. Is she dressed?"
"Yes. Odd choice of clothing, though."
"Yeah, but it looks good on her. Everything looks good on someone that pretty. The purple brings out her eyes."
Elta suppressed a gasp when she heard her boyfriend Ray comment on her party clothes. The purple one had always been his favorite. Elta knew that she would never be able to see him again, even though now all she wanted was to cling to him. And then she heard the voices she had been waiting for.
"Oh my god, Dusk, I didn't think you had the guts to do it!" It was Myra, her other best friend.
"Well, duh I did it! I have more guts than you do, Miss Myra!" Dusk countered. Then Elta heard a matching trio of giggles, one huskier than the other two. The Triplets.
"Dusky has a point, My," Tristan said.
"Yeah. You didn't wanna go dress her 'cause you were afraid Mr. De Luca would have a cow all over your ass!" Ileana shot at Myra. Elta could just see her doing the head thing.
"Guys, have some respect will you? Think about where we are and why we're here!" Gabe said. He was the male in her trio of identical friends. She could just picture them all: Tristan and Ileana with their long and straight waterfalls of lush dark red hair and Gabe with his shaggy cut of the same color. With their skin like moonlight and eyes like the sea. Elta had always envied their gorgeousness. Dusk and Myra were beautiful too. Dusk had shoulder length light brown hair that was wavy and layered. Her skin was and beige color and she had the most entrancing emerald eyes. And then there was angelic Myra. She had and ivory skin tone and long, long silvery blonde hair to match her gray eyes.
And then as her friend's voices faded away, she heard one of the most beloved voices in the world. Jayla Elizabeth De Luca, Elta's 21 year old sister. She had been in Germany, attending college for the past 3 years. But now she was here. And Elta almost let a sob rip from her chest. But then Aro's words echoed in her head. "If you mess this up, Elta, you will be dead. Dead as dead can be!!" Elta shuddered on the inside. She had to hold it in. It's almost over, Elta thought. And then she remembered that she had the funeral tomorrow. Just. Freaking. Peachy!
The funeral was going to start in 10 minutes. Elta couldn't stand this. So much crying and wailing and so many humans! The Volturi had fed her right before they had sent her off, but now she was ravenous. They had welded and bolted the coffin shut that night. She was glad. She didn't know if she could get out, but she was doing all she could to restrain herself.
Two hours later, she could feel herself being lifted. The ceremony was finally over. Elta checked her watch. It was 8 pm. In 4 short hours, Felix and Demetri would be breaking her out, THANK PINEAPPLES! Elta felt herself being lowered into the ground. Twenty minutes later, loud thumps came from above the casket. The dirt. They were officially burying her. She checked her watch again. 8:30 pm. Three and a half hours to go.
Elta was bored. It was only 9:15, and she was bored as hell. There wasn't much you could do inside a coffin. So she sang to herself. She sang the lullaby, she sang hip hop, she sang metal, and she even sang opera. When she checked her watch, it was 11:55. 5 more minutes THANK BANANAS! Elta thought. She decided to sing a farewell song to her prison. When she was done, she heard rapid digging. Felix and Demetri. Five minutes later, the lid of her coffin was opened and Felix half whistled.
"So this is how they dress people for funerals, nowadays?" he asked with a smirk. Elta smiled.
"It is if your friends love you. Now move, so I can get out of this thing," Elta climbed out gracefully, a speck of dirt never touching her favorite outfit. "Thank apples I'm finally out of there. Now let's go. I'm starving!"