Sorry this took so long, I managed to finally get this updated, I should have it updated alongside Forever After from now on. This chapter has some spoilers for those that read my Forever After story, specifically about Matthew and his future, the story Bella tells won't be happening in Forever After, it happened in between Forever After and this story and this is the only time you'll hear about it probably until Lexi is an adult.
Elizabeth Cullen
I saw my friend lying there on the couch and all I wanted to do was cry. Was she ok? How would she live a normal life? Would my momma and daddy let her live with us? I looked over to my daddy and he nodded to me. I held my sisters hand tightly. I felt safe in her presence, just like Eddie. They were so much like me, and I was so glad that we were friends already, I wondered about meeting my big brother and sister and whether they would like me or hate me for taking away our mommy and daddy's time away from them but they didn't seem to mind at all, they loved being with me and asking me questions, Nessie always wanted to hold my hand or hug me or carry me and I loved it.
"What do we do now?" I asked everyone my voice breaking with fresh tears in my eyes. Nessie squeezed my hand and opened her arms for me to step into, I did and she lifted me up, I hugged her, my head resting on her shoulder as I looked at my friend.
"Well Lexi, you have the offer to stay with us as long as you want. I realise you'll have a lot of adjusting to do, we'd be the best people to help you with that." My mom told her softly, Chloe was still hugging Lexi on the couch, Lexi was clinging onto her like a lifeline, she didn't even know Chloe, even I didn't know Chloe that well but it was so obvious Chloe was kind-hearted and adored children it made me wish she was my sister too, I guess she was in a sense.
"Why did this happen? Why would anyone do this to you? You're only a child" Nessie said sitting down with me still wrapped around her, I sat on Nessie's lap and reached for my friend's hand. She stayed with Chloe but took my hand in hers.
"My world isn't like yours. Beth, your family is so kind to you and lets you do what you want. Mine aren't like that, the Nelifia are very strict when it comes to children like us, there's a reason people think mermaids are a myth. We're the most discreet species in the world, we live at the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean, the humans don't dare swim that deep. Sure over the years they've caught glimpse's, children have been stupid and reckless enough to swim higher than we're supposed to, humans have seen us, but that's why we're myths because they can never find us again. Most children are sacrificed by their fathers if that happens, if a Nelifia is seen by a human and the Nel find out, they're sentenced to death." She explained.
"What's the Nel?" my momma asked her.
"The law, like the police but they create laws and they know everything, they're the most powerful set of mermaids in our world, there's only 12 at a time." Like the Volturi then I pondered in my head.
"So if you knew these people would kill you why did you play with me every day, you and your sisters?" I asked her.
"Because I didn't want to be left out, and I loved you. You're not like humans, you're different. This is the only reason why they didn't kill me; my father is in the Nel and refused to sacrifice me to the Nelifia gods. He banished me instead."
"How can anyone do that to their own child?" Eddie gasped. "It doesn't matter what my daughters did, if they murdered an entire town and went completely insane I would still never disown them or kill them. It wouldn't change a thing, I'd still love them"
"That's your culture, not mine. My kind has hundreds and thousands of children born every day. My family is small with only 6 children, it's really rare for boys to be born so couples have to have a lot of children to make sure they get at least one boy, my family have been lucky, we have 2 brothers. Some of my friends have from 20 to 30 siblings, that's the average, some children are only born to be sacrifices and if anyone puts a foot out of line they become sacrifices too." She explained.
"That's awful" Nessie choked. "That girl Sarah saw? The mermaid was she killed?"
"Probably" our dad told her. "She told Sarah she was in trouble, that was probably the last time she ever left the water"
"It's just how we live. We accept it, you let murderers and abusers live in prisons, you let them go free after certain number of years so they can kill again. Your world is much more awful" Lexi said.
"She has a point" Jacob said.
"Not children though!" my momma exclaimed.
"But people that kill children." Lexi said. "To murder one of our own is the biggest crime of all; if it isn't a sacrifice to the gods it is punishable by mass sacrifice. If one murders someone their entire family is put to the gods. If the gods are forgiving the family lives and the murderer dies. It's not very often the family lives though"
"That's disturbing I don't think Beth should be hearing this" Chloe said although she didn't pull away from Lexi, she hugged her protectively.
"It's nothing the human world hasn't done in the past. No one is allowed to judge anyone." I told her.
"You're a very smart little girl aren't you?" Eddie asked me with a proud smile, I smiled back at him before turning to my friend.
"You can live with us. I'll teach you everything you need to know" I told her.
"So if you're a mermaid why do you speak English?" Chloe asked, she had no idea about Lexi, I had told Eddie and Nessie on our run but Chloe had no idea.
"We're taught human culture all through our childhood; I haven't even started the real lessons yet. I was taught by my sisters most things, we're born with the ability to speak and understand all languages. We have our own language too."
"Your name is human, if you don't mine me saying" Chloe frowned.
"I have two names, one in my native tongue, which I can't even do above water and the human name, my human name is Lexi, my sisters Elle, Nina and Arya and my brothers Ryar and Dany. When we turn 16 we're legally allowed to enter the human world and those are the names we use." She explained, I had heard all of this before but I knew for Chloe, Jacob and my siblings it was entirely new.
"What about your sisters? You said you didn't know where they were?" my daddy asked her.
"No I don't, they won't be in trouble, they're all over 16, they were allowed to come here but I didn't see them before I was banished."
"They'll come see you, I know it" I told her and squeezed her hand in mine, she smiled at me.
"I hope so. I miss my family" she said and she started to cry again.
"What is this!" she yelled in frustration.
"What Lexi?" I looked around frantically trying to find what she was talking about.
"This water that keeps coming out of my eyes, im leaking!" she said in frustration.
"Tears honey, you're sad so you're crying" Chloe told her.
"You leak water? What good is that?" she said with a frown and wiped the tears from her cheeks. I smiled at her.
"I suppose you can't really cry underwater" Chloe mused. Lexi shook her head.
"Why don't we go sit on the beach Lexi? Wait for your sisters, they'll come see you I know it" I told my friend. She nodded sadly. I stood up from my sisters lap and she moved from Chloe's, she paused before taking my hand.
"What's your name?" she asked Chloe.
"Chloe" she smiled at her.
"Will you come with me?" Lexi asked her shyly. Chloe nodded and gave her a warm smile. She took her hand and I took her other hand.
"Be back before dark, both of you" My mom told me and kissed my forehead. I nodded, that was always my curfew. There wasn't anything dangerous on the island but it gave my parents piece of mind before I went to bed.
"Daddy" I paused. Did I have to do school today?
"Of course not Elizabeth" he responded to me. I gave him a thankful smile and I led Lexi and Chloe out of the room. We ran out of the house together, at human pace to what I called the mermaid beach. It was the part of the island that I always met up with Lexi and her sisters. We sat down on the rocks and Lexi sat with her hands on her cheeks, staring out at the ocean.
"What's it like?" Chloe asked. "To live in the ocean?"
"I suppose it's beautiful, although I find the land much better, I took it for granted. We have cities and a population bigger than you can imagine, humans have only discovered 5% of the ocean. The 95% you have never seen is indescribable. Most of it is too dark for human eyes, our capital city, as you would call it sits in the deepest part of the ocean and its 2 thousand miles long but only 40 miles wide. That's JUST the city itself. There are materials, just like bricks and wood that we make our homes out of. Maybe I'll be able to draw it for you one day. Not that ive ever drawn anything" she laughed.
"That sounds amazing" Chloe gasped.
"Why is it too dark?" I frowned.
"It's uninhabitable for humans, it's too deep too, the pressure would kill anyone who tried to swim that deep and there's no sun at the bottom of the ocean Beth, we don't have eyes like you, we see everything down there as you see this island" she explained.
"Why are there some things you understand and some you don't?" Chloe asked her.
"Like I said, we have schools that teach us how to live in the human world, you've probably met a dozen of my kind in your lifetime, you just wouldn't have known. I am only 10 in human years. I still had another 6 years to learn."
"Human years?"
"I'm only 1 in my years. We live a lot longer than humans; we live 20 of our years, which is about 200 of yours. We have an entirely different concept of time"
Chloe, Lexi and I waited for hours, it had started to get dark and Chloe reminded us we had to get back.
"I'm hungry anyway" Lexi sighed sadly and stood up.
"Ok, we'll come back tomorrow, they'll come for you Lexi" I promised her, she smiled at me and took my hand as we ran back. Chloe went straight into Eddie's arms and I smiled at them, they were so cute together.
"They didn't show up" she explained.
"You can go back tomorrow" my mom explained and stood in front of Lexi and me and ran her fingers through our hair. "Now Lexi, are you hungry?" she asked. Lexi nodded enthusiastically. "I'm just making Nessie and Jake something to eat you're welcome to join."
"Don't you all eat?" she asked. My mom looked at her and shook her head slowly.
"Lexi don't you remember I told you we only drink blood, animal blood" I clarified.
"Oh yeah, sorry" she said. "Ok, I'll have some food" she said and walked over to where Nessie and Jake were. I smiled at them and ran over to my big sister, she opened her arms to hug me and she kissed my forehead. She reminded me so much of our momma; I bet she was an amazing momma to her children.
"So Lexi, have you thought about what you want to do now you're human?" Jacob asked her, she frowned.
"I haven't really thought about it. I guess I'll stay here" she said then looked at my parents.
"Of course you're welcome here darling" my father said and kissed her hair. She smiled slightly.
"It's the closest I'll ever get to home and I'll get to see my sisters I hope."
"We won't live here forever though, would you come with us to the main land?" my mom told her, she shrugged.
"I suppose" she said.
"We're not going anytime soon, but when you and Elizabeth are fully grown we'll probably end up going eventually"
"Oh yeah that will probably be fine. I don't know how I'm going to feel in 10 years"
"Then you need a name" Bella told her, she frowned.
"I have a name" she frowned.
"I know but Lexi is generally a nickname to humans, I thought it would be easier for you to have a full name, here we have 3 names. We'll get the legal documents ready for you but you need a full name. Do you understand?"
"Oh right you have surnames?" she said, saying the word surname like it was foreign.
"Right and middle names too, my name is Isabella Marie Cullen, but most people call me Bella. See? You could be Alexa or Alexandra Cullen if you like, and we'll just call you Lexi"
"Alexandra?" she asked.
"You sure she should have that name?" Eddie asked with a frown, there seemed to be something behind the name.
"Alexandra not Allesandra. Matthew won't mind" Bella told him. My family seemed to go quiet, I knew the name Allesandra all made them sad, she was the daughter of my cousin's son, I only knew the story of her, she had died long before I was born but I knew it had made a huge affect on the part of our family that ran the Volturi in Italy.
"I like that name, Allesandra" Lexi smiled.
"Well the English version of that name is Alexandra, we already have an Allesandra Cullen in the family" Bella explained.
"Did have" Nessie correctly sadly.
"Did?" Lexi asked as she started to eat the food my mom had given her.
"It's a long story" my mom told her.
"I think we have time" Lexi said with a smile. "Id like to hear it"
"Allesandra Cullen was the hybrid daughter of Matthew Cullen, he is the son of my sister's adoptive daughter and the leader of the Volturi" she began.
"Oh! I learnt about them, Aro was the leader and he had a son…. I can't remember his name but he died in a war soon after his son was born"
"Yes, that war was against us. Aro and the Volturi had done awful things to our family, when Nessie was a child we lived everyday as if it was our last, she was kidnapped twice and poisoned into a coma, they tried to marry her off and plagued her nightmares for years. We managed to win the war, wiping out most of the Volturi; the rest scattered and went into hiding for decades. We took Pancrazio, Aro's hybrid son into our family. He was only a child and didn't want to hurt people, we brought him up to be a Cullen and he loved us as much as we loved him, he was nothing like his father. He was the complete opposite. Pancrazio fell in love with another hybrid that lived in our family, Chantelle; she had been adopted by our sister Rosalie and her husband Emmett. Chantelle and Pancrazio were childhood sweethearts and ended up having two children, a daughter and a son. When their son, Matthew was 6 months old he was taken by the remaining Volturi, he wiped our memories so we couldn't even remember him. We didn't know he existed for years. Chantelle, his mother was starting to go crazy, at least so we thought, she claimed he existed but we didn't believe her, for years we told her that she was making it up and she had no son but she was right and I personally will never forgive myself for not believing her, we could have got him back for her much sooner, instead she missed all 7 years of his childhood and she would never get that back.
"Years later Matthew, a fully grown man and in charge of the Volturi had two children a son, Beniamino and later a daughter, Allesandra, he wanted his children to have both Italian and English names, being Benjamin and Alexandra but both of them went mostly by their Italian names since that's where they lived. Allesandra was only a baby, merely 7 months old which made her physically 5 years old when she was taken by people that were trying to rebel against the Volturi, the Volturi were new and although most people knew that Matthew was the grandson of Aro, they didn't believe he had what it took to lead the vampire world. They took Allesandra as a test, to see how far his loyalties went. The whole thing was a mess but of course Matthew went after his daughter and we all flew over to Italy to help him, we were sure to win and get her back but we never expected that we would end up losing Allesandra the way we did. As the fight broke out there was a huge fire going in the centre of the room, the building we were in was starting to collapse and the structure was falling but we were getting closer and closer to freeing Allesandra. She was tied up at the opposite side of the room, the fight only went on for a minute or so, we have many gifted vampires in our family and the attackers never stood a chance. Esther, Eddie and I were just walking through the room hand in hand, not one person was able to touch us with our shields. Fights were going on around us and we were centimetres from Allesandra when one of the concrete lintels fell onto her knocking her out and blocking out way. The fire had spread, and become out of control. Eddie, Esther and I started moving faster but as the fire reached Allesandra she was now surrounded by wood and it had set alight. She woke up screaming but there were so many things in the way of her, she had burned alive before we got to her and we were unable to bring her back. Her death sent Matthew into a downward spiral. He went cold, never showing emotion. I can't even imagine how he and his wife felt to lose their daughter like that. Matthew turned into a brutal leader, Pancrazio and Chantelle moved to Italy to be nearer to him, Pancrazio started leading the Volturi with Matthew and Pancrazio took over as the head leader, he became Aro in a sense that there were another two leaders, Matthew's son, Beniamino, became the third leader and they have ran the Volturi like that ever since, Ben became angry after his sister death, he wanted to kill everyone he saw that wasn't family. Pancrazio became Aro, Matthew Marcus and Beniamino Caius. Only Zio was brought up right, he leads the Volturi in a way that is very different to the original Volturi and it makes us very proud to think how well he turned out considering who his true father was, we brought him up right. Well Jasper and Alice did. They live in Italy too, helping Zio when he needs them. The Volturi are who they should be, led by Aro's descendents the way Aro intended. No vampire in our world dares to question them."
By the time my mom had finished explaining, Lexi had finished her food and had her head on her hands listening closely.
"So Matthew never had any more children" she asked.
"No, the death of Allesandra changed him; he is a completely different man."
"That's so sad" she exclaimed. "I want to be Alexandra, to honour Allesandra" she said. I smiled at her.
"I think that's a perfect name for Lexi, what about middle name?" Nessie asked her.
"Beth" she smiled at me.
"My full name is Elizabeth" I explained.
"Then Elizabeth" she corrected herself. I smiled wider at her.
"Alexandra Elizabeth Cullen it is" Bella smiled.
"I get to be a Cullen for real?" she asked with wide eyes.
"Of course you do, if you want to live here we'll have to get adoption papers, Edward and I will adopt you as our daughter"
"Thank you!" she squealed and hugged my mom.
"You're welcome sweetheart" she laughed and looked up to my dad, he nodded and went over to the phone, I don't know who he was calling but I heard him say Lexi's new name and then turn to look at us.
"Birthday?" he asked.
"We don't have birthdays like you do; we all turn a year older on the same day. It's the first day of the new year" she explained.
"1st January then" he said "that ok?"
"Sure" she shrugged and my dad turned back to the phone.
"I'm tired" Lexi frowned. "Thank you for the food Bella"
"You're welcome sweetheart. Beth want to show Lexi to your room? She can sleep with you until your brother and sister go and then we'll make up her own room"
"Ok!" I called, I was so excited to get a new sister, I knew I had only just got Nessie but she wasn't my age, I would be able to grow up with Lexi. We walked into my room and Lexi squealed loudly. I looked at her shocked.
"What-?" I was about to ask but she ignored me and ran straight to my bed.
"This is a bed!" she exclaimed. "It's so bouncy and soft! I've only seen visions of them, never touched one" she said with a huge smile on her face as she jumped up and down, she suddenly jumped to a lying position and put her face against it she gasped loudly. "It's so soft! I didn't know it was going to be soft!" she exclaimed, I laughed at her as she touched the bed.
"You don't have beds?" I asked.
"Are you kidding? At the bottom of the ocean, of course not, we sleep in shells. This is amazing!" She screamed and my family walked into the room.
"She's never seen a bed before" I explained with a laugh, my family smiled at the young girl jumping up and down.
"Maybe ill like it as a human after all" she grinned.
"well it's made for sleeping in not jumping on sweetheart" my mom said and walked over to her and held out her hands, Lexi took them and jumped off the bed to stand next to my mom, she smiled up at her.
"Sorry"
"That's ok" Bella laughed. "Let's see if we have any pyjamas that might fit you"
"If not we will in the storage" my dad said coming in. "want me to get the age 10 clothes?" he asked.
"Yeah we'll have to order some more for when Beth reaches that age" my mom said as she went through my pyjama drawer. The storage was a cabin not far from our house, it was full of clothes, clothes I didn't fit into anymore or were too big for me. My parents had bought 18 entire wardrobes when I was born, one for each year of my physical life. I would be 18 in just under 2 years and it was easier for them to have bought the clothes instead of waiting for shipments every time I grew.
My dad came back with 3 boxes with the label 'Aged 10' on the side of each one and placed them in my room, he and the rest of my family left us with my mom to get ready for bed.
I knew Lexi was sad that she wasn't a mermaid anymore but I was so glad that I got to show her our world and that she was going to officially be my new sister. I would show her everything and when we were both old enough we could explore the whole of the world together, go to Italy to see Allesandra's memorial, my parents told me she was scattered over a 6 foot tall statue of an angel it was surrounded by wild flowers that grew in various colours and that her mother laid teddy bears and dolls and all sorts of little girls toys around the angel, I also wanted to see my aunts and uncles and the Volturi, and see all my distant relatives and live where ever we wanted.
"Do you think you'll ever get to go back?" I asked her, we had said good night to my family and we were in bed ready to fall asleep.
"I don't know" she said sadly. "Probably not, I was let off lightly. I should be dead right now but I'm not, my dad is really powerful and he managed to get away with just banishing me. I doubt I'll be allowed back, ever" she said, her voice shaking.
"Being human isn't all that bad. You'll like it here, and you're my sister now too" I said and hugged her next to me she hugged me back, she was bigger than me but I felt older than her in some ways.
"I know" she said happily as I slipped into sleep, seeing my short life flash before my eyes.
The story of Allesandra was something that I actually dreamt about and its haunted me ever since so I knew I had to get it in one of my stories, since Mathew is still only a child in Forever After I knew I had to put it in this story, it also answers your questions about why so many of the Cullen's are in Italy and I always imagined Zio going back to lead, he just did it to save his son's sanity which I really liked the idea of. Hope you liked this chapter, I should be updating sometime next week.
Pictures of Allesandra and Lexi are on my blog.