Although she had been detached from humanity for the majority of her life, surrounded by vampires who valued bonds of mating that bound their very beings to each other above legal contracts, Felicity had always been led to believe that, in human society, a woman's wedding day was the happiest day of her life. A day where she felt treasured and special in the eyes of all those she loved. It was meant to be a day filled with love and hope for the future that would soon be shared between husband and wife.
Felicity felt no such feelings on the morning of her wedding day.
She felt desolate, empty as she stared at the woman in the mirror of the vanity table. This image held nothing true to the woman Felicity knew herself to be. The make-up far too thick upon her pale face with bloody red lipstick, too dark blusher making her face feel heavy and pitch black eye-liner caging the vibrant sapphire of her eyes, dulling and drowning their glistening appeal. Her hair had been brought back into a tight bun that pulled the flesh of her face taught upon her skull, feeling like her skin would split at any moment. If this was what Irene Travelli considered to be a healthy look, Felicity would gladly choose to be pale and free of make-up for the rest of her life.
The dress did anything but help the misery that she felt on this 'joyous' wedding day. She had always been a petite woman, never having stood taller than 5ft 4" without the assistance of heels before. The dress drowned her, the skirt like a giant meringue that hid the voluptuous curves that she had always been secretly fond of and bodice pushing her breasts up high, making her feel exposed and too vulnerable to scrutiny of her body as she cringed and wrapped her arms around her waist in a weak attempt at comfort.
This wasn't what she had wanted for her life, to have the memories of her utter misery towards her own wedding day hanging over her like a black cloud. She wanted to run and return to the only place she could ever call home. She wanted to see the faces of her three kings and remember what it was to feel truly happy in the presence of others. She wanted to go home.
Since Roxanne's visit, she had argued with herself constantly over the advice she had given, knowing that if she chose to look upon the two separate outcomes of this day. Whether she chose to stay or return to the Volturi, nothing would ever be the same. And that was what terrified her the most, the fact that her life would never quite be what it once had been. But she had put it off for too long she thought as she gave a shuddered breath and focused her mind's eye, allowing it to travel ten years beyond what her physical eye could see. It was time to make her decision and accept the fate that either choice would deal for her.
She would start with her future with Julian.
*Visions of a loveless hell*
She stood within the kitchen of the house she would never truly call home, tired eyes staring out of the window with an emptiness within her heart as she watched her children play in the afternoon sun. Her face was withered, haggard beyond her true years of thirty-five with the tears she had shed for the mistakes she had made in the past. There was no life left within the stormy eyes that had once blazed, her heart unable to feel anything beyond the grief that now formed the woman she had become.
Felicity was a shadow of her former self. The beauty of her youth lost to the recesses of time and the strength of her heart diminished by the consequences of her own actions.
"Have you done the ironing yet?"
She turned to face the man at the breakfast bar, eyes remaining void as she stares upon the man she married. She does not love him, not does he love her, this was always a marriage of convenience for them both. He had wanted a beautiful young trophy wife to show off to his friends, and she had wanted a chance to appear normal in a world she understood little about.
She cannot even find love for her own children anymore, they are too much like their father, spend too much time with their grandmother and it sickens her to know that they have had so much to do with the shaping of the lives that she had nearly died to bring into the world. Their birth had been difficult, twins that had nearly bled her to death as she pushed them into this world. She could bear no more children for the Travelli family and, for that small mercy, she was grateful.
"Yes. It's hung up in your wardrobe"
She turned back to the window, continuing her observation of the children born from a loveless marriage. Her chores around the home were the only time she could ever use her telekinesis anymore, in the moments when the children were at school and her husband out at work or entertaining himself with one of the many women he believed Felicity didn't know about. He had been having affairs from the moment Felicity had become pregnant with his spawn.
Her gift as a seer had been dormant since the night of her wedding. Felicity had no desire now to see what lay ahead for her. Knowing that she could never return to her three kings now, the beauty they had known in her long gone and her spirit truly broken, and knowing that her only escape from the hell she knew as her life would be either the death of Julian or of herself. She had long since accepted that her life held no hope or joy for her now.
Death was her only saviour now.
*Vision end*
A hand swiped quickly across her face as Felicity brushed the tears away, smudging her eyeliner with the motion. It hurt as much as she knew it would to realise the truth of what would have happened if she chose to go through with her wedding, but she couldn't stop now. She still had the future with her three kings to reveal.
She focused her mind once more and allowed the images to flow over her once more, finding her heart swell with love in the process.
*Visions of her own utopia*
The days all roll into one after more than a decade of a sleepless existence. But she finds that she does not mind the way she has lost track of the years.
Her face is still the same as it was all those years ago, the perfection of her youth set like marble and untouched by the years that would once have withered her human flesh. Her turning from humanity had not been as smooth as she would have liked it to have been, but she knew that she would not have change a single thing as she looks upon the faces of her three lovers and feels her un-beating heart nearly burst with the love that she feels for them, knowing that it is returned a hundred times more as they each stand sentinel around her, protecting the woman that gave them the love they had longed for.
"Mama! Mama! Come play with us!"
The smile that lights her flawless face is filled with love as she removed herself from the protection of her three husbands, their own smiles vibrant as their three little ones, two boys and a girl, enter the throne room astride the shoulders of Felix, Demetri and Roxanne. The red heads turning had been at the same time as her own, the event bringing them closer as friends and helping them to set the past behind them.
She may not have given birth to them herself, but Felicity finds that could not love anyone more than the three rascals that jump from their perches and rush to crowd around her, their own eyes filled with a love that reminds Felicity that, whilst she may be classed a creature of hell by human standard, she has found her own personal heaven.
"And what would you wish to play my angels? Should we play a game on your papa's?"
Her tone is teasing as her three kings smirk and prepare to join the game she will create for the all, winking at the three guards who laugh and smile at jovial behaviour of their leaders, each picking up a child and turning tail with their queen as their kings give chase.
Felicity's laughter is the loudest as they flit through the corridors, feeling arms wrap around her waist as she looks upon the face of Aro before turning to see her children held in the arms of Marcus and Caius, both smiling with all the love they feel for their little family.
The path that had brought them to this perfect utopia may not have been a clean or easy one, but none of them would ever wish to change it. That would be an injustice on the outcome that now filled their lives with such pure happiness.
*Vision end*
She couldn't quite understand when her hand had begun to remove the clips from her hair, only noticing as the final long of gold fell to her shoulders and took its former glory back. The tears had begun to fall once more, ghosts of the final vision floating through her mind as she reached for a wet wipe and cleaned her face of the make-up that adorned and tarnished it.
How could she have been so stupid to believe a future with Julian could rival that of her three kings? The realisation hit her hard as she gave a choked laugh and reached for her mobile that lay within her handbag. She had always felt this love, she had just been too stubborn to open her heart to the feeling, believing such feelings to be wrong towards the men she had known for so long.
They were not wrong, And she would set things right now. She smiled with relief as she brought up Roxanne's contact and began to type her message.
'I've made my decision... I was a fool. Please, I want to come home
-Felicity'
She didn't have to wait long before the reply came back, a laugh forcing past her lips as she sent the directions and she removed the last of her make-up, made sure her hair was completely free of restraint and grabbed for her hand bag. It was time to return to the place she truly belonged.
'On my way, look for The Bugatti Veyron
-Roxanne'