All an Illusion

Emma was speechless. She really didn’t know what to say, and that was saying a lot as she was such a chatterbox. If she had been in this situation only a week ago, she would have thrown a real fit; mastered up the courage to slap her precious Nana, storm out the door to not return until late in the night. But now Emma had neither the energy or indecency to throw a fit. Yes, she was shocked, angry and undeniably upset at how her Grandmother could have done such a thing. But now a new sort of fire was growing deep inside her. Now she knew that to really get back at her Grandmother, to really show her what she now thought of her, there was only one thing Emma could do, - leave.

“Emma are you listening to me? Did you hear what I said? That I was only looking out for your mother and yourself, your Auntie was a very bad person I didn’t want her disgusting choice of life polluting your mother’s fragile mind. That’s why I’m telling you about Jade, who you thought was Rachel. I don’t want her to pollute your mind either,” her Grandmother droned on. As she spoke she reached out to stroke Emma’s hair and Emma fought the urge to push her away. How could she say those spiteful things, with not even a hint of regret of sincerity in her voice? Now Emma knew why her mother had never really liked her Grandmother, and why her mother had been so anxious to find that long lost friend of hers. It had to have been her Auntie…. Things were slowly beginning to piece together in her mind.

“Yes Grandmother, I’m just really tired. It’s been a long couple past weeks. I think I’m just going to have an early night,” Emma smiled ushering her Grandmother out of the room. She held her breath while her Grandmother analyzed her face, her eyes narrowing when Emma called ‘Grandmother’. Still she left closing the door softly behind her leaving Emma to her thoughts.

As soon as she was gone, Emma began packing. She didn’t where she was going, or if this was the right thing to do, but she did know that she didn’t want to spend another minute under her so called Grandmother’s roof. She knew her Grandmother would probably have a heart attack when she found out. Losing a daughter and grand daughter in the space of a week would surely put a strain on her cold heart. It was what she deserved. Emma burst out of the door only to step straight into the rain. Grateful that no one would be able to notice her tears she hurried down the streets not really knowing where to go. She didn’t know how she ended up at the church. It was warm and dry inside and made her heart beat slowly calm down again. Trembling from the cold, she made her way to the alter and collapsed onto her knees. As she put her hands together to pray a stunning realization hit her. She just couldn’t do it. Instead she looked up to the large, engraved wooden cross hanging in front of her. It was something she had seen hundreds of times and yet now she was looking at it in a completely different way. No longer needing to pray, Emma stood up and brushed herself down. She wrung out her wet hair and gathered up her stuff.

“Thank you,” she whispered quietly before turning to leave. Now, she knew where she needed to go. She would go and find Jade, her cousin, and the only family she had left.

Miles away in Volterra, Tuscany, Italy….
The dress was short and red, and it was somewhere between casual and formal. It ended at Jade’s knees, went in at her waist and hung neatly by two thin straps. Jade hated it. It was so impractical and uncomfortable, revealing too much of her pale legs and knobby knees. She never wore dresses when she was human and didn’t know why she had to start now. She subconsciously ran her hands down it once more, trying to smooth away invisible creases only to look up to see Fred grinning at her. Jade frowned back. He was wearing dark jeans and a red sweater. Jade wondered how he had got off so lightly while she was forced into wearing a dress, it was so unfair.

“Remind me again, why we’re dressing up?” Jade said hands on hips.

“You look fine.” Fred smiled ignoring her sarcasm. “We’re dressing up to look the part. The town will be full of people wearing red t-shirts and cloaks. If you’re so intent on seeking the Volturi, let’s at least try to blend in.”

He wasn’t making any sense. As she was trying to find the Volturi she needed to be standing out, not blending in. Jaded didn’t say anything, she knew what Fred was trying to do. “You know I’m not going to change my mind right? And don’t think I’m going to forget this either, you putting me in a dress.” Jade regretted the words as soon as they were out. Of course she wasn’t going to remember, because she was going to be dead…

“Of course not,” Fred smiled smugly, offering her his arm, glad that he had ‘won’.

It had been an awkward day. Immediately after the plane landed Fred and Jade had scarpered off to quench their thirst. They had laughed at themselves wondering why they had even chosen to come by plane when they could have easily run or drove to Italy. Still, if they hadn’t they would never have met. Fred had been less than impressed with the Cullen’s way of drinking and it was a long time before either of them were satisfied. From then on it had been pretty much had been do whatever you like for the rest of the day. Jade could tell Fred had been trying to stop her wanting to die, again, showing her the marvels of Italy. He didn’t need to. Jade loved Rome, it was her first time being abroad and she fell in love with the old buildings, the delicious pasta and food. Even the sound of people chattering this unknown foreign language around her was enough to fill her with curiosity. But nothing would change her mind. Seeing the beauties of the world just made her realize all the more how she didn’t deserve to be in it.

It was when they had seen the flyers and couple tourists wearing red for St Marcus’ day, Fred had had his amazing idea. That they would dress up as tourists too and go to the St Marcus Day festival that very evening which was in the heart of Volterra, Tuscany, Italy. It wasn’t actually such a bad plan as Jade didn’t exactly have an address for the Volturi, she had simply told her that they would find them. It was when the sun began to set and the streets really started to fill that Jade became more thankful for her red dress. Without it she would have stuck out like a sore thumb.

“Do you actually know the story of the ‘great’ St Marcus?” Fred chattered on next to her. “He was loved by the people for ridding the town of vampires when apparently he was actually a vampire himself. He…”

Jade stopped listening. Something was wrong, well not wrong, but different. It was like the air around them had just changed. A deep disturbing feeling of fear was stirring in her gut. Something wasn’t right… She looked round, her eyes aimlessly wandering through the throngs of red covered people all waving signs as the procession moved forwards. A couple of minutes later and she saw him.

He was staring straight at her, with the same mirrored blood shot red eyes. But that wasn’t what had pulled Jade towards him. It was something else, the way he was looking at her, quite shocked but mostly he looked plain terrified. Where had she seen that face before?