Alice was born in 1602 and she got bored and tired of her life easily. She always got tired and bored of things easily.
Her family was poor and she and her sister sold in the market in the city what their parents planted in their fields. Every day was the same and Alice hated how boring it all was. She didn't hate having to work, she was happy and proud to help her family, but she just hated the monotony.
Every single day she would wake up early and head to the city with her younger sister Charlotte. They would enter the market and sell their produce. When it got dark they would get back home, eat and go to sleep just so they could repeat everything the next day.
1620
"Good morning!" Charlotte exclaims as soon as Alice sits up on her bed.
Alice just can't understand how excited and happy Charlotte is every single morning.
"Good morning." Alice mumbles and gets out of bed.
"Why are you always so cranky?"
"Why are you always so excited?"
"Life's exciting." Charlotte answers with a smile and the same happy tone that drives Alice insane.
Alice mumbles something that Charlotte doesn't understand as she gets ready for the day but Charlotte ignores her.
Both girls leave their bedroom and join their parents in the kitchen. There are vegetables and fruits on top of the wooden table, ready to be taken to the market by Alice and Charlotte.
The parents greet the girls but quickly get out of the house to head to the fields to work, making sure they have more produce to sell on the next day.
Alice and Charlotte grab all the produce their parents left them and leave the house. They head to the city to go to the market and Alice gets ready for another boring day in her boring life.
They get to the market and display their produce, making sure everyone that passes by them gets a good look of the vegetable and fruits.
The market is crowded and hot, filled with people screaming and walking in every direction. The hours pass slowly for Alice, as she and her sister sell the produce in front of them. The most exciting thing that ever happens is when some vendors fight with each other, especially if Alice is involved. And it looks like today is one of those days.
Benjamin and his sister Cora, who also sell produce in the market, display their things in front of Alice and Charlotte. Alice shoots them a death stare but they completely ignore her.
"Leave them be." Charlotte tells her sister. "It's not like they're going to interfere with our sales. They're selling different things."
"They're in front of us. People won't even see us. Of course they'll interfere." Alice says and approaches Benjamin, tapping him on the shoulder.
"I know it might be hard for you tiny brain to understand what I've already told you a thousand times, but I'll repeat it. Get the hell out of our way!" Alice exclaims.
"Or what?" He asks her in a mocking tone.
"Or I'll take you out of my way."
"Okay, let's all calm down." Charlotte tells them both. "Alice, you're scaring people away."
"That's the goal here. To scare this idiot away." Alice replies.
"Well, you're scaring away the wrong people then." Charlotte is losing her patience with her sister.
Alice doesn't even properly listen to what her sister is telling her, she's too focused on trying to scare Benjamin away with her death stare. It isn't working though, so she tries a new approach. The physical approach.
"Don't say I didn't warn you." Alice says and pushes Benjamin, making him fall on top of his produce. He didn't also fall on top of his sister because she moved out of the way in time.
"You bitch!" Benjamin quickly gets back up and gets ready to hit Alice back, but before his hand can reach her someone grabs his arm.
"Did no one ever told you not to hit a woman?" The man grabbing Benjamin's arm asks him.
"I can fight my own fights." Alice tells the young man who defended her and he lets go of Benjamin's arm.
"Come on, Benji, let's go somewhere else." Cora tells her brother before he can do anything. "You've already caused enough trouble for one day."
Benjamin grunts but helps his sister take their things away from Alice and Charlotte.
"Are you alright?" The man asks Alice.
"Yes, I already told you I can take care of myself." She answers rudely.
"Alice!" Charlotte reprimands her and turns to the stranger. "She meant to say 'thank you'."
"I did not." Alice says. "This was probably the only slightly exciting thing that was going to happen to me this year."
The man laughs and Alice looks at him with her arms crossed. She doesn't find it funny.
Now that she's actually looking at him, she realizes that he doesn't really fit in that environment. He doesn't look like someone who would come to the market. He looks rich.
"Mr. Walker, there you are!" A woman exclaims and walks in their direction. She does look like someone who would come to the market. She's probably his maid or something. "I thought I had lost you."
"I'm right here." He tells her.
"I told you it wasn't a good idea for you to come here, Sir." The woman says.
"And I told you I wanted to get to know the city better. The places my parents don't take me to. And I'm glad I came." He smiles to Alice.
"But maybe it's better if we go now."
"Yeah, but I'll come back." He's still smiling to Alice.
"Well, next time make sure you buy something. Mr. Walker." Alice tells him and he laughs softly.
"I'm glad there's a reason for you to want me to come back." He smirks and then walks away.
On the next day, as promised, Mr. Walker is back. This time he makes sure to buy vegetables from Alice and Charlotte and stays for a bit to talk to Alice. She learns his name is Isaac and also tells him hers.
For the next weeks, Isaac visits Alice in the market every day. Sometimes Charlotte stays in the market alone to sell their produce while Alice spends some time talking to him. He's definitely the most exciting thing that has ever happened in Alice's life and he's saving her from the monotony of her days, so she enjoys spending time with him. However, she knows she doesn't like him as much as he likes her.
After a few months of visiting Alice every day, Isaac invites her and her family to have dinner at his house.
When she tells her family about it, they're all sure he's going to ask her to marry him. She thinks so too, but she's not sure she wants to marry him. He's a good man but she doesn't love him. But she's also not sure she will ever love anyone. Also, she knows that if she married him she would have more money and would be able to help her family have a better life. And her own life would probably be less boring and monotonous. And, on top of that, out of all the people she has met, Isaac is probably the only one she could see herself spending her entire life with and not get bored.
For those reasons, Alice accepts Isaac's marriage proposal and they get married a few months later.
1646
One of the reasons why Alice got married to Isaac was because she thought she wouldn't get bored of him and their life together, but she was wrong. After over twenty years of marriage she's definitely bored. Isaac is still as nice and funny as he was before, but she's just tired of her life again. It's almost as monotonous as it was before, just in different ways.
She knows she's a lucky woman, when compared to her friends and even people who are richer than her. She has a nice husband who loves her and does everything to make her happy, but she doesn't seem to find it enough. She just wishes something more excited would happen.
Alice and Isaac never had children. None of them ever wanted to and, since Isaac has an older brother, he wasn't pressure by his parents to have children. His brother, on the other hand, had five children to make sure at least one of them survives to inherit the family business.
Since Alice doesn't have any children to take care of, she spends most of her days working with Isaac. Well, she mostly just watches.
Isaac deals with the people who come from Britain and bring textiles. He buys the textiles from them and then sells them to the people in the city.
Alice usually just accompanies him and helps make the deals, using her charm. She has gotten much better at hiding her impulsive and aggressive nature. Now she seems like a charming and calm woman.
There are boats arriving today and she goes with Isaac to the port.
Among all the ordinary and boring faces Alice sees, some are known and others are completely new, she spots two people leaving a boat. They look completely different from all the people surrounding them. Their clothes are beautiful and vibrant and they're extremely gorgeous themselves. They're probably the most beautiful people Alice has ever seen.
The two beautiful strangers get off the boat and a couple dozen people follow them, bringing chests full of products.
"Come on." Isaac calls Alice, bringing her back to reality. She realizes she has been staring at the strangers for a long time.
She follows her husband and realizes he's heading in the strangers' direction, which makes her feel both excited and nervous and she's not sure why.
The strangers open the chests and some of them are filled with textiles Isaac is interested in. The man and the woman talk to Isaac but Alice notices them looking at her more than people usually look at her during these trades.
Isaac finishes his trade and he and Alice walk away from the beautiful strangers.
On the next day, Alice leaves the house alone to go take a walk in the city.
When she reaches the park she sits on a bench and concentrates on the way the sunlight is warming her skin, closing her eyes and resting her head on the back on the bench.
"Miss." A male voice calls and Alice opens her eyes.
Alice is shocked to see the two strangers of yesterday's trade standing in front of her.
"Yes?" She asks confused. Maybe they have something else to trade with Isaac.
"My name is Edgar and this is Leanna." The man tells Alice and points to the woman by his side.
"Yes, I heard your names yesterday." Alice is still confused as to why they're talking to her.
"Of course. And you're Alice, right?"
"Right..."
"Well, I'm sure this all must seem very strange, but we have a proposal to make." Leanna tells Alice. "You might have noticed we're not exactly like everybody else. And we're not really just traders, we have a bigger purpose for our trips."
"We're gathering people for our community and we think you have some potential." Edgar says.
"You met me a day ago." Alice tells him, still confused.
"That's what you think. We showed ourselves yesterday. Every time we come here we try to take someone knew with us to make our community grow. And we keep an eye on new potential people."
"We've been watching you for a few years." Leanna says. "And we know you're not happy with your life because it lacks excitement. If you come with us, your life will be nothing short of exciting."
"I can't just leave my life behind. And how can you assure me that my life would be exciting?" Alice asks.
"Because the boring factor in you would be gone. The human factor."
"Yeah." Edgar agrees and shows Alice his fangs, startling her. "We're trying to build a community of a superior species, where we can live our lives away from humans who want us dead. There will be no more boring humans in your life, Alice. You'll be even more exceptional than you are now."
"What about my family?" She asks.
"You can bring your sister if you want. We have been watching her too and we know she isn't married and doesn't have children. And she seems to have some potential too. We also know your parents are no longer alive."
"And about your husband... we know you don't love him." Leanna tells her. "But if you don't want him to suffer, we can make him forget about you."
"You can really do that?" Alice is overwhelmed by all the information that was presented to her, but she's excited about the promise of a never-ending exciting life.
"We can do anything." Leanna smiles. "And so can you if you join us."
"What do you say, Alice?" Edgar asks her.
"Count me in."