Sulpicia POV
"Come on Sully you are delusional" Airlia laughed laying back on my cot.
I pouted and sighed.
"I'm not lying Airy he was real and his eyes were red" I told her.
Airlia laughed until she was gasping. "How much did you drink last night?" She asked her laugh chiming through the room.
She locked her crystal eyes on mine and finally calmed down.
"You're serious?" She finally said her voice flat and calm.
I nodded.
"Oh but listen Sulpicia red eyes? Doesn't that sound a little far fetched?"
"But they were and his friend he had a friend with him with red eyes too" I pleaded
"Huh guys with red eyes? Sounds like there's some new malaria or something going around…oh Sully I didn't mean it like that!" She cried remembering my parent's deaths.
"It's fine" I said softly and left before she could say anything more.
The orchard was the first place I thought to go to.
The trees cast shadows on the ground and the leaves whispered in the breeze above me.
I shivered in the breeze but kept walking until exhaustion took over and I laid at the trunk of a large tree.
I must've fallen asleep because when I opened my eyes it was dark.
I sat up and felt sick my head pounded and I was dizzy. Something told me I wasn't alone and I looked up to find Aro a few feet away.
His robes here the blackest black and blended into his jet black hair.
"You…came back" I sighed my voice high and whispery.
"Yes and you're not well" he said.
I sighed and noticed everything going in and out of focus. Aro knelt beside me and took my hand his hands were surprisingly cold and rock hard like marble it reminded me of the cold stone that the beautiful temples and towers were made of made to last the test of time.
"Sulpicia" Aro whispered his voice far away.
Then I remembered the water I'd had yesterday a woman had sold it to me at the market. It tasted weird but my first had overruled me.
"I'm dying…bad water" I sighed.
"Sulpicia wake up" Aro told me.
I opened my eyes and met his blood red ones. This close I could see they really were completely red.
"I can save you" he told me.
"How? Who what are you?" I asked my voice weak.
He leaned in closer his sweet breath fanning across my face. I felt dizzier and tired.
"I-I want to be like you" I whispered my words slurred and incoherent. His hand touched my cheek trailing slowly down to my chin.
"No you don't" he replied softly.
I gathered the strength to open my eyes recognizing what was wrong I'd seen this before with my parents.
"Malaria" I whispered.
"Sulpicia I'm giving you a choice" he told me. I tried to focus on the perfectness of his face and the depth of his eyes.
"I want to be like you" I said.
"You have no idea" he told me.
"I'm dying Aro you said you could save me" I told him.
Aro sighed and using they hand on my cheek turned my face sideways. His cold breath blew across my next before there was a stab of excruciating pain and I drifted into blackness.
