𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐍𝐈𝐍𝐄:
Lavender
(1920)
"I WOULD LIKE TO MEET ALICE, ANNA," Mansion's voice echoes through the silent, dark, and empty halls of the hospital, approaching his adoptive daughter by the counter.
Cordelia looks up from the piles of hospital admission papers. She tilts her head with a small grin on her thin lips and releases a chuckle.
See, Mansion has been deciding whether or not to see the clairvoyant that his daughter, Cordelia Anna, has been talking about.
Part of him wants to leave the girl alone, yet with his daughter's sudden and unusual interest in the girl, he wants to meet her himself to see if Alice is the right person to be with Cordelia.
It has been two months since Mary Alice Brandon was admitted to the mental asylum. It is time to talk to the girl.
A brief interaction with Cordelia flashed in his mind, of how Cordelia mentioned that Alice's blood smells different than the other humans she has ever crossed paths with before, and that made Mansion's curiosity far too deep to even ignore.
His daughter seems to be oblivious to her own feelings.
"Impatient, I see," Cordelia says teasingly while standing up from her seat, Mansion looks at her blankly, and Cordelia just sighs, walking past him, with the man following behind her.
Arriving at Alice's cell, she peeks at the small glass to see if the girl is still awake at midnight. With her sharp sight, she sees the girl sitting on the bed as if expecting someone.
Knocking lightly on the cell door, she takes the keys in her pocket and unlocks the door.
Cordelia looks at the other side of the room to see Alice's cellmate sleeping heavily with a loud snore.
Alice stands up and skips eagerly towards them. "I've been expecting you two," she tells them quietly, smiling brightly at Mansion, and the man just gives her a curt nod.
"Alice, this is my father, Mansion," Cordelia introduces as she takes Alice's hand, leading the outside of her cell.
Alice smiles happily and looks at the man as she happily takes Mansion's hand in hers and shakes it happily, "Cordelia has told me plenty about you."
"Cordelia," Mansion says, his voice deep and looking at her, and she understands.
He wants to see Alice's abilities himself. Cordelia then turns to look at Alice, and the pixie just smiles.
Suddenly Alice's eyes glaze, and Cordelia holds her arms for balance. Mansion looks at the girl in front of her, intrigued and curious.
Then Alice's eyes flutter shut, and she releases an amused noise as she opens her eyes, looking at Cordelia as if already knowing what she was about to ask her for. "Alice, if it's alright with you, my father would like to know more about your visions?"
Alice then nods in agreement and then says, "You have a flower in your chest pocket, specifically lavender."
Cordelia shoots Mansion a grin with a look of 'I told you so.' Mansion chuckles and takes the lavender from his pocket, handing it to the girl, with the latter taking it and inhaling the scent of the lavender.
"Alice and I will get along well, Cordelia, you have rounds to do," Mansion tells her, leaving no room to argue, and Cordelia pursed her lips and nodded.
Cordelia turns around to face Alice, leaning towards her, and places a peck on the girl's forehead, and before she walks away, she gives Mansion the key to Alice's cell and says, "Before sunrise, Father."
•| ⊱✿⊰ |•
"NOW I UNDERSTAND WHY MY DAUGHTER IS SO FOND OF YOU," Mansion tells Alice as he looks at the sky. A few minutes and the sun will rise.
They are currently at the back garden of the hospital, sitting on a bench, with Alice swinging her feet, looking at the forest.
"Why is that?" Alice asks curiously, turning her attention to the man sitting beside her.
"You are full of life. Despite what is happening to you right now, you stay optimistic," Mansion tells her and adds, "My guess is my daughter found a deep sense of humanity in you."
"What are you?" Alice questions softly. The man did not seem to be bothered by her question, tilting his head to the side while looking at her and asking, "What do you think we are?"
Alice shrugged her shoulders. She lifted her legs and placed them on the Mansion's lap, "Your eyes are unusual. I have not seen any other like it. I noticed Cordelia's agility and strength when handling those hysteric patients. Most of all, I see visions of you two feeding."
The last remark made Mansion stiffen in his place. See them? Feeding? he thinks to himself, and she still sits beside me. Without being frightened, he thinks again.
Mansion takes a deep breath and finally looks at Alice, with the girls waiting rather curiously, not terrified.
Mansion did not believe the Volturi's sacred laws. He believed if he wanted to tell someone what he was, he had the choice to do so.
"We're vampires," Mansion calmly says while crossing his arms on his chest.
"Like the stories, they tell to scare children?" Alice asks, still not horrified by the fact that a vampire is seated beside her.
"I do believe so, yes," Mansion answers, then asks, "You're not afraid?"
Alice lightly laughs with a smile on her face and says, "No. You won't hurt me."
"How do you know that?"
Alice leans back on the bench and sighs, "Cordelia is the only person who treated me as a person, those doctors. They are human, yes, but they do not have humanity within them, as you and Cordelia have".
Alice thought about how Cordelia always took care of her after her electroshock treatments or torture in her own words.
She could not help to feel things, such as her heart fluttering, her being giddy and shy when it comes to Cordelia, and wanting to be around the brunette woman all the time.
How she longed for her presence when she was sleeping in her dull cell, how she found immense happiness at the sound of her laugh.
Mansion listened intently to her words, words with hidden meanings, and he knew and smiled knowingly.
Mary Alice is infatuated with her daughter. Oh, how Cordelia is feeling the same exact feeling Alice is experiencing.
The man looks back at the sky, seeing the sun almost rising. He sighs sadly, not wanting to leave the girl alone in the cell.
He has to tell Cordelia that they need to plan of Alice's great escape in this mental asylum before it's too late. "Come, now, let's get you back to that cell of yours."