Elise's pov
"I've got something for you," Andrea says in a sing-song voice.
She puts all the bags that aren't food down on her bed. The others went on the counter.
She takes out two pairs of shorts and a pair of jeans out of one bag. In another she pulls out three shirts, a bra and panties.
The next bag has pajamas with cute penguins sleeping on pillows and a jacket.
"You went a little over board," I sigh.
"I didn't know what you liked, or what your size was," she looks down at the clothes. "Besides, we look about the same size so if you don't like them maybe you can borrow mine or Dezerea's clothes."
"Oh I bet she would love that," I murmur.
"What?"
"Nothing," I say quickly.
One shirt is grey and purple stripped. Another is a plain blue tank top with lacing going all the way down the shirt. The last one is white and black poke-a-dots. The shorts and jeans are all blue.
"Here, if you change I'll wash your clothes," Andrea offers.
I look down at my grimy clothes. I never thought about that. "Sure," I shrug, grabbing one of the outfits.
Feeling better in my new clothes, I walk out of the bathroom.
"They look good on you," she smiles. "Do they fit?"
I nod. "Thanks."
"Do you like them? If not I'll just give them away or just throw them away and get you new clothes," she offers me a smile.
"They're fine," I roll my eyes. "Really."
"Dezerea never likes me to go shopping for her," she says admits sadly. "She doesn't like my style. It's all blue or black for her."
"I think she could do without so much blue," I joke.
She laughs then looks at her own pale skin. "I feel like I should take care of her but she doesn't want me to."
"I'm guessing you're the older sister?"
She nods. "By fifteen seconds."
"I never wanted my big brother to look after me either," I shrug.
"Why?"
"I guess because I didn't want him to hang around me while I was trying to do stuff," I explain. "And when a guy liked me it was even worse."
"What would he do if he found out you were here?" she asks.
"He'd probably cry of relief from seeing me, then scold me and say I'm never leaving his sight again but he doesn't really mean it, he's just worried," I shrug, suddenly sad.
"I know how he feels," she nods.
I grab some of my dirty clothes and Andrea grabs the rest.
We walk out of the room with my dirty clothes in hand.
"I remember one time Dezerea and I liked the same guy," she giggles remembering.
"How long ago was that?" I wonder.
"I think..." she pauses. "I'm pretty sure it was 257 years ago."
"What happened in the end?"
"He died," she answers simply.
"Was he human or immortal?" I ask.
"Immortal."
"How did he die?" I press on. "If you don't mind my asking," I add.
Her face scrunches up and she shuts her eyes. "He....I don't know, I wasn't there when he died, I only attended his funeral."
"Oh. . .I'm sorry," I put my hand on my stomach, that's awful.
She nods and we finally reach the washer.
"Is this everyone's washer, or just yours?" I ask.
"Are you crazy?" she laughs. "This is mine, there are so many people in this castle it would take so long just to do one load."
I sigh, is this girl insane?
We drop the clothes in the washer and she presses the start button.
"Hey, I'm going to go show off my new clothes," I smile.
"Okay," she brightens up. "I'll come too."
I stop. "Umm, okay?"
We walk down the hallway to Avery's room.
We visited Dezerea but she didn't really care so I suggested to tell Jace but apparently he's away. I was really trying to stay away from Avery but Andrea insisted.
The door is open but I knock anyways. He looks up from his bed and smiles but the smile drops a little when he sees Andrea.
"Hey," he gets up.
"Hey," I smile back.
"Hi!" Andrea waves excitedly. "I got clothes!"
I force a smile to look at Andrea. "Wow this is awkward," I say under my breath.
"Can you two still not touch?" she asks.
Avery and I look at each other and then look at Alexandrea.
"Nope," I say quickly.
"No," Avery shakes his head. "Actually we haven't tried."
"Oh yeah," she nods. "Probably better not to."
I turn my head to conceal my grin.
"Well I have to go, I have to do this thing with another thing...and yeah," Andrea nods. "I'll see you later, Elise?"
"Sure."
She walks out and only until we can't hear hear her does Avery shut the door.
"Hi," he smiles.
"Hi," I giggle and look down at his feet. "Why are you always barefoot?"
He looks down at his feet. "I have no need for shoes," he shrugs.
"Why?"
"I don't know, I don't ever remember wearing shoes as a kid so I don't wear them now," he says.
I nod and walk up to him. He swiftly grabs my waist. I run my fingers through his hair. "So explain to me how the immortal thing works."
"I see Alexandrea went shopping," Avery looks down at my clothes obviously changing the subject.
"A little too much," I say.
"I like it," he nods spinning me around. "It looks good on you."
"Thanks," I mumble.
"Come here," he gestures for me to stand on his bed.
He opens the window and I step up.
"Hey by the way, is Andrea bipolar or something?"
"I have no idea," he shrugs.
I nod. I know that she could really be bipolar, bipolar disorder has two stages: the mania stage and the depression stage. It doesn't change quickly like people think. The stage could take weeks or months to actually change.
"Close your eyes, I want to show you something," Avery tells me.
I shut my eyes. "So anyways the immortal thing?"
"Watch your step," He takes my hand. "Well its different for every person."
I take a step and wind blows my hair off of my shoulders.
"What do you mean?"
"Well for vampires or were wolfs it's different than for someone like Dezerea or me," he replies.
Avery's hand wraps around my waist and my feet lift of of the ground. "What are you doing?" my stomach turns upside down.
"You'll see," he says.
Finally, my feet touch the ground again.
He turns me around. "Be careful," he cautions. "Now open your eyes.
I slowly let my eyes drift open and I scream.
I grab onto Avery. "Why are we on the roof?" I say, suddenly breathless.
"Look around," he says simply. He grabs my chin softly and tilts it straight ahead.
"Oh my god," I whisper.
White puffy clouds hanging in the air. A rainbow is painted right under them and the forest sits quietly below.
Avery points in a different direction. "Look."
I turn my head and there's another rainbow. I turn my head a different direction and another. I turn completely around and one is right in front of me, another to my right in my parifrial vision and another on my left.
"This is amazing," I murmur wide eyed.
"You should see it at night," he sighs looking around. "You can see the aurora borealis."
"Really?" I look back to the forest.
He nods.
= = =
Avery's pov
I stay on the roof while Elise leaves.
Watching the clouds slowly move with the earth, I look down at the forest and notice a body.
The person looks back at the castle then hurries into the forest.
I usually don't stalk people but I'm bored. That's not an ideal thing to do when you're board but hey.
I jump off of the roof, landing silently and running towards the forest, maybe I can still catch up to them.
Whoever it was is actually really slow and I almost ran past them. I wasn't expecting them to be walking. I climb up a tree and focus on the person walking past me. Almost falling out, I notice the person is Elise.
What is she doing?
She keeps walking so I fall into step behind her, jumping from tree to tree.
She turns around and stops. Then starts to walk again. I finally get down and walk behind her.
"What are you doing?" I ask, making her jump.
"Were you following me?"
I stop to think. "I guess I was," she stops walking and I actually walk past her before turning around.
"Why?"
"You are in the woods," I begin. "By yourself. Being alone is dangerous, do you know what lays in these woods? Bears, wolves, were wolves, vampires...do I need to keep going?"
"I was just taking a walk," she frowns.
I sigh, pinching the bridge of my nose. "In a forest full of monsters?"
"I just needed to think," she looks at a tree.
"About what?" I step forward.
She opens her mouth but doesn't say anything for a while. "A lot."
"Like what?"
"I...I was thinking about my family," she blinks a couple times. "What they are doing right now?"
"I'm sorry we stole you away," is all I can think of.
She frowns and wipes a tear that had fallen on her cheek. "I haven't seen my family in three days and yet it feels like I've been away from them for a longer period of time...I miss them."
She tries to blink away more tears but there's too many so they puddle up in her eyes and fall onto her cheeks.
"I'm sorry," I repeat.
She tries to smile but it fades quickly.
Thunder booms in the sky and lightning is quick to follow after. Drops of rain fall and dampen the tops of our head.
"Lets go back, you'll get a cold if we stay out here," I say.
She looks up at the sky then looks at the ground, puddling with water. The rain gets worse but she doesn't move.
She frowns and another crash of thunder makes the sky rumble.
"Elise, you're going to get sick, please, can we go back inside," I breath, looking around. "I'm worried about you."
She starts to shake so I put a hand on her arm but a small lightening bolt snaps between us.
I yank my hand back and she looks at me. "I'm sorry," she covers her mouth and her eyes turn rueful. "I didn't do that did I?"
I open my mouth but end up closing it.
She grabs my hand then wraps her hands around my neck.
"I'm sorry," she says again.
I smile and hug her. She nuzzle her face in the crick of my neck, her breath tickling my flesh.
"Avery?" a voice calls from behind a tree.
I look up. "Yes?"
"I new it was you," a girl with black hair and black eyes come out of behind the tree.
"Desdemona," I spat.
Elise turns around and looks at the girl.
"Is she the Desdemona from the Shakespearean play?" she asks.
"No," I answer.
"Who's the mortal?" she looks at Elise and licks her dark red lips.
"What?" Elise looks at me.
"What are you doing here?" I clench my fists. My filed down nails are digging into the flesh of my hands.
"What do you mean?" she smiles, not to dare show teeth, "we haven't seen each other in years, that's not the way you treat a friend."
"A friend? Don't you remember what happened last time?"
Memories of Desdemona and I fighting each other cloud my brain. She's the reason I haven't seen my family in a century.
"I remember real well," she nods her head, stepping forward. "That's why I'm doing you a favor," she adds, purposely changing the subject.
"What is she?" Elise whispers.
"I'm pretty easy to figure out," Desdemona flashes her teeth, making Elise shudder.
"She's...she's a vampire?"
I sigh. "What is the real reason your here?"
"For her," Desdemona points to Elise.
I wrap my hands around Elise and pull her into me. "No!"
"Her beauty has clouded your sanity," Desdemona snaps. "You cannot be with be with this forbidden mortal."
"How do you..."
"Her stench is covered in the spell," she rolls her eyes then adds, "and you of course."
"What spell?" Elise asks.
Desdemona rolls her eyes again and I ignore Elise; there's too much explaining to do about the spell.
"I assume you've already been warned of the dangers?" Desdemona looks at Elise.
"Warned?" Elise looks from me to Desdemona.
"Stop!" I yell.
"What? You don't want her to know?" she smiles evilly. "She's too precious to learn the truth?"
"Enough," I say firmly.
"Your choice," she shrugs and sinks back into the woods. Before going completely invisible by the darkness of the trees she adds, "her time is either now...or later."