Marlastiano: I have no idea how you've done it (unless I dropped a hint on my other stories and forgot) but you found my secondary profile xD well done! 'Excuse you?' be updated regularly as well ( I hope.)
We followed Dahlia down the long hallways of this building. It was like a castle for christ's sake, everything made of stone and it was all grey. Why have so much money and the ability to see so well if you're going to make it all boring to look at. Dahlia was stomping, literally. Each step she took she'd huff and mutter something to herself, Ali was beginning to grin and I was just confused. I wanted in on the secret.
"Ali?" I asked hesitantly as I tugged on her sweater's sleeve. She immediately turned her attention to me as she hmm'd in response.
"What are you smiling about?" I whispered as I looked over at Dahlia. Alice giggled and then shook her head as she made a dismissive hand gesture, she'd tell me later. I sighed and laid my head on her shoulder as we walked. It was a long ass hallway and it was damp down here. Ew.
Eventually we reached whichever room was ours and Dahlia banged open the door, gesturing for us to go inside.
"Here's the bathroom, bedroom, living space, How the hell did you get engaged?" She'd been giving us a tour when she stopped suddenly and turned on me. She was accusatory, like I'd done something horrible to her as she stuck her hands on her hips. Ali started to giggle again and now I knew why, she'd seen this coming at some point on the way here.
"Uh.." I replied with a very much intelligent response as I deadpanned. I began to feel a subtle pressure around my ears, but not quite inside them. It was right over them, I frowned and then shifted back into the conversation.
"Was I supposed to like wait for you?" I asked and tilted my head, fuck this chick. She glared down at me and took a step closer, this set Alice off. She leapt in front of me, hissing at Dahlia who hissed back. She took a step closer and Alice literally snarled, snapping at her. They'd now become a mixture between a cat and a dog, great. I put my hand on Alice to still her and she looked back at me part way, still keeping an eye on Dahlia in front of her.
"Ali..." I said warily with a inside thought that screamed 'stop it.' She snarled at Dahlia once more for what seemed like good measure and took a step back, wrapping an arm around my hips. I resisted the urge to snuggle into her side and breath in her scent in order to talk to Dahlia. We had a lot of history and a lot of unspoken issues that were starting to come to mind.
"Dahlia, you left. I moved on. I was 15, not exactly the age of waiting." I added as I slowly moved to lean on Ali. She was everything to me, safety, comfort, warmth, just literally everything. Dahlia had been that once but she let go of me so I had to do the same. She growled and looked like she was about to take another step closer when Alice growled back, sounding a lot more scary. The pressure around my ears went away and I'd decided it was whatever Dahlia's ability was. Thank god I was a shield.
"Take one more step and I'll pull off your legs." She threatened and I had 0 doubts that she would. Ali sounded calm and collected, like she was discussing the forecast for later on today.
"I never expected you to wait but I never thought you'd get engaged. Like date another person, of course. But...this?" She said sounding exasperated as she motioned to the grumpy vampire I was laying my head on now. I shrugged. I liked my grumpy vampire.
"You could do so much better. I mean look at this thing, she's short and has her hair all spiked out and she's not that cute or sexy. Like its not the 90s anymore, you can let go of it now." She did the full body motion to Alice again and I rolled my eyes when she discussed Alice's hair's decade. I had 0 cares yet again.
"I like her. Decided to keep her." I mumbled as I hugged my Alice. She was doing the safety net thing again and that was something Dahlia had failed miserably at as a human. When we were together it was a rush, from one stupid plan to the next, but she was never really safe for me. She was fun but she wasn't home. I liked this one already. I could feel the vibrations from Ali's chest as she chuckled into my hair. I looked up right as Dahlia narrowed her eyes and left the room in a blur. She was angry but I couldn't seem to care.
"Decided to keep me, huh?" I looked up as Alice said this sounding amused.
"Sounded good in the moment." I shrugged and she giggled, pulling me closer.
"I was really worried about coming here. I thought this could be the rift that yanked us apart, but now I think it's just going to make us stronger and better." She mumbled into the top of my head and I tried to nod to where I didn't head butt her in the nose. It was difficult to do in the position we were in so I tried to move us more onto the bed. I didn't want to do anything but cuddle with her.
"Alice? Your presence is required in the throne room." A quiet female voice sounded from outside the door and I watched with a pout as she got up to open it. There was a girl at 5"3 with light brown hair and the red eyes that seemed to be very much a common trait here. Alice looked suspiciously at her and if anything, stood a bit taller.
"Chelsea." She said stiffly, looking down at the girl. I got up and came to stand by Alice, looking up at her curiously.
"Why is she needed in the throne room?" I asked looking at her. She seemed to struggle to think as she opened and closed her mouth several times before shaking her head.
"Aro wishes to speak to her about something that she has seen." Chelsea replied almost robotically and I peered at her. I was beginning to feel a fluttering pressure around me. There was something weird going on. I could literally feel it as it shifted from around me to around Alice. Alice sighed and pushed past her to go out the door when I grabbed onto her hand. She looked back at me at first confused then worried.
"Theres something weird going on." I explained glancing over at Chelsea who was frowning as she stared at us. Ali cracked a smile and took my hand, kissing it softly.
"Its her. She's able to manipulate relationships, don't worry though. I've known you for far too long to ever let you go, baby." She calmed me down and kissed my hand one last time as she let go and went off down the hallway. I sighed as I looked over at Chelsea, she was trying harder and I could feel it. The fluttering had turned from something soft and light to big strong waves moving through the air.
"You can stop any time now." I said warily as I looked at her. She was mumbling something about a job and it seemed like she couldn't quite hear me. I waved a hand in front of her face, there was no reaction. Her eyes were glassy, like she didn't know I was there or that she was here. I'd become quite concerned with her as I kept trying to start conversations with her. I hadn't even realized someone walked up behind me.
"She's not going to stop until I tell her too, baby." Dahlia sneered behind me and I jumped from the surprise. I honestly needed to start paying attention to my surroundings more often.
"You're still on that sinking ship?" I asked sadly as I turned around to look at her. We both knew she was alluding to Ali and I, and we both knew I wasn't about to let her go.
"You know me. Always a sucker for a lost cause." She replied sarcastically and I frowned. When I was younger and with her, I'd gotten into massive amounts of trouble. The counselor used that exact term when Reneé and I were called into her office for an intervention, and she knew it.
Dahlia had taken up so much of my time that I forgot about Bella, school work, classes, grades, everything. She'd tell me she wanted a new necklace or a ring and I'd have to get it for her. Of course as a 15 year old, I couldn't afford to actually buy it. She really did just have a way with words, it'd make sense that it'd travel over to her vampiric life.
"Thats a little harsh." I responded moodily. She was just rude now and I was getting annoyed. There was no Alice to calm me back down.
"Still sensitive I see." She looked back down at me and rolled her eyes, baiting me. I could feel a twitch come on in my left eye and I thought about punching her in the jaw.
"Still a bitch I see." I responded with a sweet smile as I glared at her. She raised a brow and took a step closer. She was all in my face now and if she leapt at me, I really was going to just punch the shit out of her.
"Wow. Give the girl a metal, she's learned a cuss word." She was bordering between sarcasm and teasing versus complete and utter cruelty. I glared up at her and almost raised myself on my tippy toes, though it wouldn't have made much of a difference. She was 5"2 while I was merely 5". My toes weren't going to do shit.
"Not the only fucking thing I've learned." I was threatening her now and she knew it but...Dahlia was special that way. The more risk, the more she wanted to do it. She didn't have any parents to tell her otherwise and honestly I think her foster parents were too afraid of her to say something. I'd begun to lose that fear the more time I had spent with her. All our fights ended with a heavy make out session and that should have been a warning sign to me honestly.
"Yeah? You learn to suck guys off better yet?" We were nose to nose at this point and I snapped. I swung hard at her but she caught it and instead pulled me to her, making our mouths smack together.
Everything felt all kinds of wrong, I hated this, I didn't like it and I wanted out. She wasn't Alice. I want Alice. I tried to pull away to find that she had some how gotten stronger than me and I wasn't sure how. So I tried to shut everything down in her head but I couldn't focus on it enough to do so. I kept feeling like crying from hopelessness, fear, and frustration. This wasn't okay at all. I betrayed Alice, now she'd never want me again.
Dahlia finally pulled away, letting go of me as she did. She looked down at me triumphantly and I started to slide down the stone wall, crying. I'd lose Alice forever because of this, how could she ever want me again? I'd cheated on her.
"Well...that is a new one for you." She said in response to my tears, sounding surprised. She looked down at me and I started to cry harder. I just wanted Alice. I could feel the cold, damp, stone on my back and the dampness in the air as I pulled my knees to my chest and dropped my head onto them.
"Irene?" I could hear Alice's voice from the other end of the corridor. I picked my head up to look for her, bleary eyes searching until I saw my pixie.
"I'm s-so sorry." That was all I could get out at the moment, each breath felt hard and I needed air to speak. She started to run as a new wave of sobbing hit me and I dropped my head back down. It was useless. She'd leave me after she found out what I did.
"Get the fuck away from her!" Alice was yelling at Dahlia now who merely scoffed. I could feel the air shift, hitting me gently on my exposed shins and an arm wrap itself around my back and under my knees. There were pulling me back toward it's owner but it didn't feel bad like it had when Dahlia picked me up. I peeked open one eye to see black hair and wrapped my arms around her, breathing in how she smelled. She was humming something and I didn't know what but it made me want to curl into her more.
"Seriously? You two are still a thing? Wasn't the kiss enough, Ira?" I could hear Dahlia over the humming, she sounded both annoyed and incredulous. The humming stopped and turned into a growl.
"What kiss?" Alice snarled and I could feel her dropping me down to the ground again. She was letting go of me, she didn't want me anymore. I knew this would happen. I started to hear the noises of Alice sniffing me, she was sniffing my hair then neck and froze there. She could smell Dahlia. She could smell how I betrayed her.
"I didn't want oo." I sorta got the words out as I tried to hang on to Ali for as long as I could. I didn't want to let go but she made me by setting me on the ground and forcing my arms to unwrap from her neck.
"Baby, I'll only be a minute. I promise." She whispered into my ear and I could feel the crying feeling pull back by a lot. She called me by my pet name and she said she'd be back, she even promised. Maybe she didn't hate me. I picked my head up to watch her like a hawk, I wanted to make sure she didn't get too far away in case she wouldn't be back. I didn't expect her to tackle Dahlia though.
I watched as Dahlia's eyes became the size of saucers as they went to the ground. She tried to fight but apparently Alice had experience, dodging every bite and even landing a few of her own when Dahlia tried to swing her arm around. Alice twisted her head off and threw it to the side while she snarled like an angry panther. It bounced off the side of the wall as she ripped into the arms and legs. Removing those as well, flinging them across the hallway. They started to twitch once they landed. It was little disgusting honestly.
One hit Chelsea in the back of the head, seeming to have woken her up. She jumped and looked surprised as she looked around. When she spotted Alice and Dahlia, I thought she'd jump Ali but instead she just seemed to grin and walk back the other way. I guess Dahlia wasn't well liked around here either.
AND SO THE DARKER ALICE ARRIVES.