Bella stared at the flashing line of the insertion point on the blank document and blinked right back at it. The computer screen switched to the bouncing screensaver for the tenth time since she sat down and she quickly moved the mouse to switch it back to the empty page. Her email was open on another window, filled with messages from nearly everyone she left in America. What could she possibly tell them? She had decided to answer her father first, but the well-constructed lie she conjured as she failed to fall asleep last night refused to flow through her fingers. She should answer Jake as well, but the way his message lacked any sort of punctuation or capital letters, and even line breaks… It scared her. She imagined him yelling all of the words to her face and shuddered.

What an enormous mess she made of everyone's lives.

And of hers as well, of course. The initial feeling of hazy displacement had just started to subside but she still felt so wrong - like she was following an invisible line into the future with no real agency, an unmedicated Donnie Darko among immortals. She wondered if she would have a panic attack or a manic episode once she found herself out of that stupor.

It was comforting, at least, to fall into a routine. To have a set schedule to follow; she felt grounded. It didn't make things any easier, but it did make her feel much better about how difficult they were, if that made any sense.

Gianna was as good of a teacher as any unwilling person would be, but Bella cared little for her curtness and even eventual rudeness. There was an insistent throb of inadequacy pestering her each day, constant like a headache, and trying to cater to Gianna wouldn't help it in the slightest. She had more important things to focus on.

The other human had to endure her either way. The fact that she was using her computer in the lobby was just a small proof of that.

She sighed heavily and forced her fingers to hit the keyboard, doing her best to pour onto the digital page the white lies she created while lying on her bed. She tried not to be too specific about things; better to let them ask for details than to try and guess which ones would call for their attention. For now, it should be good enough to let Charlie know that she decided to get a high school diploma in Italy, and that she was accepted into a university that had granted her a scholarship so he and Renée wouldn't worry about her expenses. She threw in an apology for never warning them about the trip and justified this decision by the suspicion that he wouldn't let her come on such short notice if he knew about it beforehand.

That's so lame, who would believe it?

How does someone just finish high school in Italy so suddenly anyway?

She didn't even speak any Italian.

Even taking into account that her parents were not quite the regular type, it was a leap of faith. She would have to cross that bridge when she came to it.

Jake was a much more complicated affair. She went back to Edward's message, and then to Alice's, trying to piece them together for a fuller picture of what was happening in Forks. All that she could be sure of was that the treaty was still valid and would remain so for as long as the Cullens kept their promise not to bite anyone in town.

That particular piece of information engulfed her in overwhelming relief.

Her eyes glanced over Edward's observation at the end of his email:

"It gives me peace to know, at least, that you are safe from Victoria. The only thing that could give me more peace of mind would be the certainty that you are completely safe from the inhabitants of the castle as well."

She couldn't disagree with that.

At the same time, she could never be at ease staying all the way across the world from them knowing that Victoria was hunting her back home. Alice's soothing words were, in fact, anything but.

"Don't worry, she is focused on you."

"Lex talionis", Demetri had whispered with a smirk earlier that day when he read Alice's email from over her shoulder. The right to retaliate. The law of retribution; an eye for an eye.

Except, Bella thought bitterly, that I am not his mate.

But Victoria didn't know that. Or that Bella wasn't in Forks, and if she discovered her whereabouts she still wouldn't dare going to Volterra to take Bella from inside the Volturi Castle. In that sense, she was in the safest place in the world at that moment.

She huffed at the irony.

Shaking her head to dissipate the anxious thoughts, she let the cursor hover over less urgent emails and decided to answer them first to buy some time.

Yes, let's answer Angela and get fired first. Let's leave Jake for later…

Someone sat down on Gianna's chair before she could open Angela's message. Bella held her breath when she turned her head. The large figure barely fit on the regular-sized chair, but he still held himself with more elegance than Bella could ever hope to achieve. Shimmering red eyes met hers from under thick dark eyebrows.

"Felix."

He smiled, leaning back on the cushioned office chair.

"Working hard on your novel?"

Bella huffed, causing him to chuckle.

"Yeah, something like that."

He could tell she was pretending to be calm in his presence, couldn't he?

"Breathe, Bella. I'm not here to bite."

Right. Not yet, at least.

She straightened herself up, trying not to look at him. He was terrifying in a way Emmet could never be, larger and clothed in a pressed dark-grey suit, with no mass of brown curls to soften his image. If anything, his short black hair only added to his menacing air.

"I don't know what to tell all of them," she said to justify her rapid heartbeats, not entirely lying. The digital pile of letters was putting her on edge.

Felix passed his eyes through the email she had opened on the screen and shrugged. "It matters little. Someone might think you are lying, or hiding something, but they will not come to any fantastic conclusion on their own. If you told them yourself that you are living with vampires, they still wouldn't believe you. You would have to convince them."

She bit her lip, mulling it over.

"Uhm, I guess. Well, what if my parents or anyone else wants to come over to visit?"

Felix shrugged again. "You go to whatever town the Cullens said you are living in and show them around. You'll have time to travel and know some places before they come."

"But what if they want to come now?"

He laughed, making Bella feel more stupid than she already was.

"You're worrying too much. If they want to come now, tell them you're busy. You're studying, how dare they disturb you? You have to learn a new language. They can come when schools stop for vacanze estive."

She blinked. "For what?"

He laughed again and her face burnt from embarrassment.

"You really do need to study. Tell them to wait."

She drummed her fingers along the keyboard. He was right, of course, and it was all very obvious. She was just too nervous to see it all properly. Felix watched her quietly as she composed her answer to Angela, and the clicking sound of the plastic keys was the only noise in the room for a while. She almost forgot he was there.

"Humans don't simply stumble upon this secret," he murmured when she hit send. She thought he was reassuring her some more, but then he smirked, "That is why it is such a serious offence when they know. They need to be told."

She shivered, staring into his ruby eyes with wide ones. Satisfied, he got up from Gianna's chair and squeezed her shoulder, making her jump.

"See you."

Looking around to see he was gone, she breathed.


Being a secretary for the Volturi, Bella soon learned, was the complete opposite of being a regular secretary.

Gianna walked resolutely through the halls and corridors, passing through panels and tapestries as if they hid no part of the path. Her heavy satchel must have swayed a little too much for her liking because she eventually took it in both hands and held it firmly against her chest. The carpeted floors were a permanent bane in Bella's existence, but she soldiered on and was more than satisfied to see that the other woman ignored every single one of her missteps and stumbles. It was enough to embarrass herself and require assistance from half a dozen vampires regularly.

When they stopped, Bella found herself in front of a gorgeously carved double door. Sturdy-looking dark wood stood in their way, with flowing patterns of flowers and leaves shining in gold. She unconsciously parted her lips in awe, and a soft gasp left her mouth. Gianna allowed herself a brief smile at her reaction, but soon her face morphed back to the stern expression she usually wore.

"This is Master Caius' personal chamber," she explained as she unlocked the doors. "We are instructed to use his fireplace - and his fireplace only - to get rid of all the paper trails we produce."

"Do we know why?"

She stepped inside and waited for Bella to follow.

"The position of the room in the castle makes the smoke less visible to anyone in the city than if it came from any other part of the building."

"...oh."

Bella expected a much more macabre explanation, admittedly.

The room looked beautiful in what Bella could only describe as traditionally tasteful. The walls were a rich, deep green, blending well with the dark hardwood floors. She couldn't identify the type of wood in all the furniture, but it was shiny and firm, reflecting the little light in the room in glossy waves through the skilfully carved designs. Against the green of the walls, half a dozen paintings rested in golden frames, depicting various subjects - from landscapes to crowded rooms, with a few portraits in between... She instinctively averted her eyes, feeling like the intruder that she was. The mild sense of inadequacy that poked her every day exploded in a blaze. As majestic and beautiful as everything looked, she wanted nothing more than to bolt and get the hell out of there.

Gianna marched to the enormous fireplace that stood opposite the double doors.

Unlike a regular secretary, her job was not to organise and preserve documents, accounting for their authenticity, but rather to forge and then destroy them most efficiently. She had been told to share this specific duty with Bella, and once Bella learned exactly where they had to take the papers to be burnt she understood why the Italian was so nervous about it.

She did not like the idea of going in there by herself more than Gianna seemed to like giving her a copy of the key.

"What should we do if Caius - uhm, Master Caius - comes to the room while we're still here?"

"Leave," Gianna grunted. "Obviously. Keep all the visits short, always, but if he does come and you haven't left just drop everything and leave. And don't talk to him at all unless he speaks to you first."

Not that she wanted to speak to him anyway.

Gianna hurriedly proceeded with the task at hand, opening her satchel and dumping all the paper inside the fireplace. She fished a matchbox from the front pocket and tossed it to Bella, who miraculously managed to catch it despite an initial struggle. Bella approached the fireplace cautiously, slightly intimidated by its size. The firebox was almost as tall as them, and it was so wide that she could surely lie down with the paper with ease. The lintel reached Gianna's forehead and the mantel shelf stood several inches above her head.

"This is the only occasion that requires us to enter this chamber," she warned Bella with severity. "Do not enter for any other reason, ever. Try not to come too frequently. As you surely have noticed, this is a lot of paper, and this is the reason for that. We should keep our visits to a minimum."

Bella nodded and lit a match, throwing it at the disgruntled pile of paper. The flames soon grew tall, and the paper blackened and shrivelled up, creaking soundly. The smoke was promptly sucked up and thrown outside, leaving no trace in the room. Bella realised that the fireplace was not simply big - it was also incredibly well-projected and masterfully built.

"We stay until we're sure it's all gone," Gianna instructed. "As soon as there is nothing but ashes we leave with no further delay. If a single letter or mark is visible, we light it back up."

Bella nodded in acknowledgement. She felt strangely disconnected from reality, as if inside a dystopian book, so absurd it was what she was living.

"It's Fahrenheit 451", she thought and had to refrain from giggling at her own joke.

It was a quick burn. Just as quickly as the flames grew, they died out.

"Come."

With the satchel now empty, Gianna went as fast as she could without running in her heels. Bella tried to keep up without tripping, but even in flats, she managed to land face-first on the carpet outside Caius' chambers.

"Porca miseria!"

The Italian grabbed her arm and pulled her to her feet, huffing in exasperation and straightening her pencil skirt.

"Keep up."

Bella took in a deep breath and shook off the need to cuss her. She was too obviously distraught to be judged too harshly.

"Aiutarmi… non ho bisogno dell'aiuto di una idiota!"

Bella tuned out the angry mumbling - she couldn't understand it anyway. Instead, she tried to memorise the sequence of twists and turns as she followed Gianna away from the frightening burning chamber.

I guess I'll just call it that in my head.

It felt better than to think of it as Caius' chamber.

Gianna stopped in front of another pair of doors, these much simpler than the previous ones. Framed by an elegant but plain archway, they stood only a few inches taller than the two humans. Through the glass panel, Bella caught a glimpse of several bookshelves lined up in a dim room.

"The library," she whispered with bubbling excitement. Gianna threw her a sideways glance as if confused by her reaction.

"Yes."

She turned the golden doorknobs and pulled the doors open, stepping inside like she would rather do anything else in the world. The only light coming in was courtesy of thin glass windows way up in the stone walls, near the ceiling. The faint, musty smell of old paper and leather hit her like a nostalgic shockwave.

"We have acceptance letters from various schools in the country, as well as many other documents we may need to replicate in the next few years. Let's find them."

Bella nodded, instantly understanding the next assignment. The first lesson was destroying; the second one was forging.

They entered a corridor covered by index cabinets from top to bottom, and Gianna handed her a flashlight.

"No lights in here."

Turning it on, Bella paced through the corridor, pointing the light to every cabinet she met on eye level, but so very few of them were in English that she started to wonder why Gianna bothered to give her a flashlight in the first place. Wouldn't the one they needed be in Italian anyway? Then she noticed the other woman didn't have her own flashlight - she was looking at the cabinets that Bella illuminated. Bella herself was not supposed to look for anything; she was just a walking, breathing lamppost.

Ugh.

Her suspicion was confirmed when a slender manicured finger pointed at a drawer and Gianna barked, "Hold it over this one."

Irritated, Bella complied, holding her flashlight so Gianna could flip through the index cards until she picked one up.

"Hm, this should do."

Sliding the metal drawer back to its place, she marched deeper into the room as Bella followed her closely, their dissonant footsteps making the only audible noise. Bella felt the excitement slowly evade her as she felt the eeriness of the place, her footsteps suddenly sounding like the sad echoing cries of a forgotten wonder. The quietness was not comforting or sacred, it was just sad. It was a dead, cold, abandoned place.

"Does anyone ever come here?"

Gianna shrugged.

"Not very frequently. Why would they? With a perfect memory, you only need to read anything once."

She searched the archives on the far left with exasperated purpose as Bella held the flashlight over her head. As her fingers rapidly worked through piles of yellow pages encased in leather folders, clouds of dust flew up in the air, fairly visible as they danced in front of the artificial light. Bella couldn't understand how the secretary could read anything without taking the folders out and properly opening them, but soon she noticed the woman was comparing the index card to the folders' index tabs.

"Che palle! I should have remembered we would need masks!"

Bella bit her lip to keep herself from answering, holding her breath so as not to sneeze.

It only took a few more minutes before Gianna sighed and pulled a folder from the cabinet. Bella followed her to the nearest table and looked curiously at the papers they needed so much.

"Aren't these outdated?" She dared to ask. "I mean, wouldn't the papers from this same school be different nowadays?"

Gianna arched a thin eyebrow.

"Will your parents notice if they are?"

Well, she has a point.

"But probably not, these are only about ten years old."

When the younger human kept her silence, Gianna turned back to the frail papers and gave them a once-over before returning them to the folder and handing them to Bella.

"I'll take care of it, just leave them on my desk. Now you know where Master Caius' chamber is, and also the library. I'm sure you still remember where your own chamber is, so you can just put these on my desk and go back there if you like."

Blinking at the sudden dismissal, Bella watched Gianna promptly leave the library. Processing her words, she realised there would be no lesson. Gianna was just making her assist her without actually teaching her anything of substance.

Then she remembered she was already expected to know her way through the castle and walk around by herself.

Great.

She didn't have her map on her and hadn't memorised the entire thing – that would probably take all her damned seven years to do. Considering Gianna didn't give her a deadline to put the papers on her desk, Bella decided it would do no harm to get back to the emails she was ignoring.

She then remembered Jake's emails and wasn't so sure about it.

He was just in a hurry. Or maybe he just types all emails like that, maybe it's a teenage thing I never caught because I had no friends.

She took in deep breaths before approaching the computers Caius had mentioned, a few to calm herself and the rest so she could hold her breath before messing with the equipment and lifting more curtains of ancient dust. They were sad little things, even older and yellower than Gianna's. Bella was sure they were at least her age, probably older, because she had never seen those models in real life and much less had to use one. They almost seemed like a joke, a prank the immortal creatures felt like playing on her to brighten their long, dull existence. Tiny boxes with even tinier screens sitting on top of bulky bricks. The keyboards looked like they could kill an adult man if thrown with enough force.

God, do I know how to turn these on?

They didn't look that different from the ones she knew, so she tried to look for the same features and buttons. Surely the first step would be plugging them into an outlet?

She stopped and then frowned at the darkness. She had been holding a flashlight ever since she entered the room, were there even any outlets?

There had to be. Right? Gianna said no lights, she didn't say there was no electricity. Then again, English wasn't her first language.

On the other hand, why would they have computers but no outlets?

Right. Let's look for outlets in the dark, I guess.

She scanned the walls, throwing the light around and deciding that it was no use trying to feel the stone for them. If they were there, the wires would be visible. The vampires would probably not damage the outer structure of the building to install them. She then turned her attention to the floors but could still not see anything resembling an outlet.

"There."

She squealed and jumped at the feminine voice suddenly coming from the shadows behind her, dropping the flashlight. The vampire caught it before it hit the floor.

"Forgive me. I should have announced myself."

A tall, stunning woman stood next to her. Her hair was long, its waves shining in a warm brown even in the dark. Her astounding beauty reminded Bella of Rosalie, though they looked nothing alike. Her clothes were bright-coloured and tight, scandalously hugging her curvy form.

Bella faked a smile. "It's ok."

The vampire smiled as well, pointing to the floor beneath the computer desks.

"There," she repeated, moving the light to circle the area. Bella crouched while the woman gracefully kneeled next to her, falling on her side and closing her legs so her short skirt wouldn't expose her. She reached for something Bella still couldn't see and pulled it up.

An outlet tower.

"Oh. Thanks."

The immortal smiled again.

"You're welcome."

How long had the vampire been watching her there?

"Everything good in your first weeks?"

Bella pondered the question as she struggled to plug the computers in. The vampire watched her with polite, detached interest, like someone watching a zoo animal.

"Uhm, yes, I would say so. No problems."

"How nice."

Not the word Bella would choose, but it was certainly not as awful as Edward and Alice made it seem before they left. Has it really been two weeks already?

"I'll leave you to it."

Before Bella could reply, she disappeared, leaving the flashlight on the floor. The strangeness of her presence lingered in the air, and Bella wondered what she wanted with her. Such a brief encounter, and only to help her with outlets? Almost like an undead fairy godmother.

Well, it was good she helped. I would have looked for the outlets for a lifetime on my own.

She got up and pushed all the buttons she deemed necessary on the closest device, expectantly focusing on the screen to see if it would come alive. When it did, she sighed with relief, but then she frowned in confusion.

There was nothing but lime green characters on a pitch-black background.

Oh, no.

She turned that one off, deciding to try the others until she found a user-friendly interface. There were six in total, so by the fourth one she was starting to get nervous.

The fifth one blinked and came alive showcasing the Windows 95 logo.

Thank God.


Less than two hours later, Bella stumbled into the lobby, the leather folder held tightly against her chest. Gianna was nowhere to be found, so she put the papers on the desk behind the front counter and plopped down on her chair. The clock between the computer and the one page calendar on the desk ticked softly, and Bella took notice of the time. The night should just be falling outside; it was unlikely that Gianna had already retired to her room. It was almost time for dinner, so maybe she was already in the kitchen. Bella looked around before opening the folder and flipping through the pages, scanning them out of curiosity though she knew she would not understand anything written. She allowed herself a brief moment of annoyance and resentment for the secretary and wondered what the older woman would do if she just stayed there watching her work on the documents. Would she send her away?

If she did, would Bella comply?

She heard quiet footsteps, muffled by the green carpet. It couldn't be Gianna's high heels — they were too soft. She followed the sound to find Demetri gliding towards her.

She prepared herself for small talk, anticipating his inquiry — surely something along the lines of her conversation with the woman in the library, or about things in Forks — but Demetri stopped in front of her, leaned against the counter and stared pointedly at the corridor on the opposite end of the hall without a word. He could be mistaken for a statue if his hair didn't look so silky under the artificial lights.

Bella didn't dare speak. If he wanted to engage with her he would have initiated. She tried not to stare at him, following his gaze to the corridor instead. Her neck started to itch and she threw her hair over her shoulders, considering putting it up later.

Demetri flinched.

She stopped, startled by his reaction.

After agonising minutes of absolute silence, Gianna's clicking footsteps were finally audible in the distance. She jumped when she saw Demetri, but Bella almost didn't notice. She kept walking to them without breaking stride.

"Buonasera, Demetri."

He nodded, still not uttering a word. Bella fidgeted in her seat. The difference in his behaviour compared to their last interaction was about to send her into a spiral.

"You and Bella are to forge her papers together," he said instead of a greeting.

Gianna sat down slowly, hesitantly staring at him as she did.

"Uhm, I think it would be better if I handled…"

His eyes shone with a subtle, dangerous glint as he stood upright, hovering over them. Bella instinctively shrunk under his shadow. She had the impression that Gianna recoiled slightly as well.

"Teach her."

Gianna lowered her head.

"Of course. Forgive me."

He spared Bella a glance, a softer look on his face.

"Good night, Bella."

She parted her lips and stared blankly at the space where he once stood.

Gianna sighed loudly, shaking her head and massaging her temples as she rested both elbows on the desk.

"Porco Dio…"

For a moment it seemed she was about to cry, but she quickly regained her composure and lifted her head, rolling back her shoulders and taking deep breaths.

It was only then that Bella noticed the calendar on her desk had a single day circled in red, solitarily standing out four months in the future like the last match in a box.