4. Escape

The first thing I was aware of was the loud whistling of the wind. I lay with my eyes closed for awhile listening to the sound, and not sure why I was afraid to open them. I was usually pretty good at waking up and remembering exactly where I was , but now was an exception to that. Slowly, and with great courage, I opened my eyes. I was in a dark room , with a lamp softly glowing from behind me. I was facing a window, all I could see was the moon, its cold light streaming in and mixing with the warm glow of the lamp. I rolled over to see what was in the other side of the room only to be met with a pair of two red eyes.

"You" I said with a bit more venom in my voice than I had meant as recognition washed over me. He was sitting in a chair , looking up from a rather heavy looking book. Of course it was hard to remember exactly why I was angry with him, the moon was gleaming on his flawless skin making him look even paler than usual , as though he were some moon god. The most dominant feeling taking over me though, was shock.

"Well I told you I would see you again didn't I" those words brought everything back. He , the seemingly innocent boy I had met at the shop where I bought my dress did wear contacts , not because he was an albino, but because he was a vampire. I remembered the dark look that had crossed his face when I had told him Heidi was my tour guide, and how certain he had sounded when he said he would see me on Saint Marcus's day , and lastly I remembered the beautiful voice that had saved my life.

" You hit your head pretty hard on the floor, is it okay?"He asked, worry tinting his voice. As if on cue , my head began to throb. He put the book down and brought over some aspirin.

"Vampires have aspirin?" I asked skeptically raising an eyebrow.

"Well no, but I thought you might need some" he replied shrugging.

"Thank you" I said taking the bottle. "Why did you do it?"I asked after swallowing

"What, get you the aspirin?" he asked chuckling.

"No, why did you save me out of all those people?" I asked my voice disbelieving " there were so many , why me?"

He hesitated. "well, I don't know how you figured this out, but I and those others you saw are vampires."

" I heard Heidi talking on the phone back at the hotel."

"And yet you still came here" he said incredulously "why?"

"That's beside the point" I said , ignoring his glare " don't change the subject." He said a few things under his breath really fast that were too low for my ears to hear, then came over and sat beside me.

"Well" he said " if you know so much, did you hear about vampires having powers?"

"Yes"

"I have a strange and rather inconvenient gift" he said 'gift' like it were fowl tasting " you see I can feel peoples emotions , much like that Cullen, Jasper, as far as I know he is the only other who shares that gift with me. But in addition to sensing their emotions I also feel their physical pain"he said scowling

"Is that what Aro meant?" I asked " when he said it was difficult for you to feed?"

He gave me an odd look "well it's a bit hard to feed and feel exactly what your victims feeling while your doing it, it makes feeding rather tedious"

"Ah" Was all I could say , trying to imagine what it would feel like , while at the same time

trying not to.

"The reason" he half spoke, half sighed "that I went up to you in the first place at that shop, was because among all the happy shoppers , you were surrounded with misery" he began speaking really fast " and although I can sense peoples feelings, I can't tell why they feel them and I was curious as to of what brought on such great unhappiness. Obviously I couldn't just go up to you and ask 'hello, why are you so miserable?'" he stoped, as if waiting for something. He wasn't disappointed, I could already feel the anger welling up inside me.

"So the only reason you saved me was because you wanted to quench your curiosity" I said angrily.

"Your angry" he sighed

"Ha!" I barked "well you don't miss anything do you, too bad you don't have Edwards or Aro's power then maybe you could get it through your thick skull as of why!" I stood up angrily, but too quickly because everything went white, and I was forced to sit back down with a loud huff.

"You know Edward Cullen?"

I replied by crossing my arms and glaring at the chair at the end of the room. I could sit like this all night if I had to, but my stomach betrayed me with a loud growl.

" I almost forgot, Its funny that Aro should be the one to remind me that you would have to eat" he said as he got off the bed and went to the door " since it wasn't that long ago when I was human"

After he closed the door, I sat still, listening to the wind. I tried getting up again, this time slowly. It worked, I was able to get up without being blinded by white. I walked over to the door. It was locked. So this was how it was going to be, I was a prisoner of the Volturi , and didn't know if I would be turned into one of them or into their next meal. I walked over to the window and pressed my face up to it letting the cold spread over my cheek , it seemed to clear my head. I suddenly realized that my room/prison was on the ground floor , this was encouraging. I tried opening the window , and this time I was lucky and it kindly opened .Suddenly I heard the squeaking of wheels and quickly closed the window, hiding evidence of my discovery. I rushed back to the bed into, hopefully, the same place I was before, and tried to calm my racing heart as the door opened.

"I wasn't sure what you liked"he said , wheeling a silver trolley into the room. "So, I gathered Italy's finest, and here it is!" he said beaming as he rested the trolley beside a small table I hadn't noticed before. I debated on whether or not I should go, another growl of my stomach made the decision for me. I slowly got up and headed for the table, as I sat down my personal guard took the seat opposite me . I was momentarily dazed but the smell of food brought me back to my senses . It turned out I was famished.

"How long was I out?" I asked reaching for the most familiar thing on the trolley. Pizza.

"Thirteen hours"

"That explains a lot" I said devouring the defenceless pizza and reaching for a brochette . He was silent, staring at the table, his eyes distant.

"There was something else"he said so quietly I had to stop eating to hear. " I don't know what it was , but when I saw you , there was something about you that seemed so familiar, yet I knew I had never seen you before." he finished , his face reflecting his confusion.

I wasn't sure how to respond to this, so instead I took a sip of the wine that had been on the trolley.

"Im sorry"

I looked up and immediately had to look away, the intensity in his eyes seemed to be boring through me. " for what?" I asked still looking down.

"Everything, this mess, I should have done something."

I heaved a sigh and finally looked up at him " its not your fault" I said, "I'm just very unlucky"

"I should have at least stopped you from going back to the hotel"

"And say what" I said " I doubt I would have believed the truth"I said smiling .This seemed to help as the intensity finally left his red eyes.

"So" I said trying to lighten the mood " how old are you and exactly how long ago did you move here?"

"Well, I was born in 1806 so that would make me two hundred and one years old, and I came here in 1924." he said smiling.

"I thought you said you were human not so long ago"

"Well I was comparing myself to Aro"

"True" I was silent for a moment "You wanted to know why I was so miserable?" I asked.

"You don't have to tell me" he said looking down at the table.

"Well I'm going to"I said " funnily enough , that was one of my happier days."He raised his eyebrows .

"It was new years" I continued "I was at home sick , when a little after two in the morning the door bell rang. I opened it to be told by two policemen that my entire family had been killed in a car accident. I was told that they had been hit from the side and were pushed into the Rideau river because of the ice covering the road. They said it was a minor hit but with the ice and cold water...The strange thing is that they never found the vehicle that hit them." I finished with a sigh.

I thought I saw a flicker pass through his eyes, but suddenly the door banged open to reveal Heidi.

"D'arcy, Aro wants to see you" she said looking at my guard, "don't worry" she said seeing the look on his face " I'll keep guard for you"

" I'm sorry" he said looking back at me, his eyes once again troubled, but this time with a new ferocity in them. He walked out the door and Heidi gave a curious glace in my direction.

Assuming that Heidi would be just outside the door, or close enough to hear me, I figured it wasn't safe to try my window escape plan.

Even though I had been in bed for thirteen hours, I was still tired. I turned the light off and flopped back onto the mattress. So my rescuers name was D'arcy. Now that I thought about it I had heard Aro address him as that, but in my defence I was half unconscious. Aa I drifted off to sleep I felt something sharp against my neck and realized I had not taken off my necklace or earings, but I was too tired to remove it and fell asleep.

When I woke up, with a glance around the room, I realized D'arcy still wasn't there. I looked at the clock, it was ten fifteen. I was about to get out of bed when the door banged open to reveal not D'arcy, like I had been expecting, but Felix. I fell off the back of the bed in my haste to escape, before realizing that trying to escape was utterly pointless. Felix just smiled. I backed up until I felt the cold wall against my back. He took his time, he knew as well as I that I had no chance of escaping.

"I was hoping we would meet again" he said smiling menacingly " you know it's for the best, that I kill you now. You wouldn't want to wait only to get your hopes up and be disappointed, because you will be disappointed" he continued smirking as he took a step closer. What he said next made me freeze. "If they were going to change you , they would have done it by now."Then a very angry D'arcy barged into the room accompanied by Heidi and Demetri . Seeing that he was outnumbered Felix grudgingly left the room with one last glance at me. D'arcy started yelling at Heidi on how she should have been guarding me. It was then that I realized I wasn't being guarded just to keep me from getting out, but to keep others from getting in. The damage was already done, Felix was right. Why was it taking so long for me to become a vampire? My plan to escape seemed more important ever.

Unfortunately it also became more difficult to follow through with. After Felix , D'arcy would hardly ever leave the room making it impossible to get out. Of corse there were times when I didn't want to leave, but Felix's words echoed at the back of my mind reminding me that this little utopia wouldn't last. I finally had a change of cloths because D'arcy had gotten Heidi to get them from the hotel, she seemed sincerely sorry for what had happened. Of course she also had to get all the other guests things as well to avoid suspicion as of why thirty some guests decided to leave with all their belongings left behind.

My chance came when Heidi was busy 'fishing' so D'arcy had to get my dinner. As he closed the door, I sat still for awhile contemplating on whether or not I should leave. I knew I had to.

I quickly grabbed my black sweater and hurried over to the window. I half worried it wouldn't open with all of D'arcy's extra security measures , but thankfully it did. The sun was hanging low in the sky , and the trees were casting long shadows. I was standing on the edge of a steep decline, with the full force of the wind blowing against me. At the bottom I could see the ocean with small specs of boats, maybe I could get on one and get out of here. It would be harder for the Volturi to follow my scent, but would I really want to be on the run for the rest of my life? I had to at least try. It was hard to try and quickly escape down a steep slope without falling. I was about halfway down when my foot suddenly caught on a root jutting out of the ground. I tried to put my other foot out to stop me but I was falling too fast. I threw my arms out to try and brace myself for impact, when I was pulled back by two cold hands. I was whipped around to be face to face with a very angry D'arcy.

"What are you doing!" he yelled over the howling wind.

"What do you think" I yelled back, still a bit breathless.

"Do you know how dangerous it is? Some of us might not want to see you dead, but others would be more than happy to have an easy snack."he said his face wrought with worry.

"Well at least this way I had a chance of escaping, back there it's like waiting for my death sentence"

"What?"

"Well If I were going to be turned into a vampire, wouldn't they have done it by now?" His face was like a fireworks display of emotions, first surprise, then anger, then he seemed to pull it into a somewhat calm and collected expression. He half walked half dragged me over to a place that was semi protected by some rocks and low trees, here the wind was a low whistle and we could actually talk without yelling.

"Actually" he said sitting on one of the rocks "Aro gave that decision to me"

"Then what's taking so long! Did you decide I would make a better snack than vampire" At first he looked like he was going to yell some more, but then he surprised me by smiling.

"That's not funny" he said still smiling. He pulled his face into a more serious expression " the reason I haven't changed you yet is because I met Edward once when he came to Europe a while ago. He told me what he thought about how when you become a vampire you lose your soul. It's a big decision, usually people are on their deathbed when turned into one , its one thing to take away someone's life , but their soul? that's a terrible burden."He seemed he had more to say.

"But?" I persisted.

"Well...what if it isn't true, even Edward believed , for a second ,when he thought he was dead, that he was in heaven. Yes we are turned into beings who rely on blood to survive, but humans kill each other for less important reasons and animals without a thought, and what exactly is the definition of a soul? The capability to love, to care for others. What are humans but a higher form of animal to us?"

"Wow, you have put a lot of thought into this!" I said laughing

"But there still is a chance that the change does take your soul, and that is reason enough to not want to risk it."

"True" I replied " but if you don't I'm going to be killed, either because I know too much, or just for a meal." He looked at me, his eyes deep in thought.

"Do you want to be turned into a vampire?" he asked " even if three days of excruciating pain follow and there is a chance of losing your soul?"

"Yes" I said firmly.

"Well in that case" he said, and leaned his face towards my neck.

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Playlist: Glow, showtime, No Hay Igual, do it-Nelly Furtado

Reason-Cascada

who's to say- Vanessa Carlton