QUICK!! OMG!! CAN IT BE...?

HELLO PEOPLE!! As most of you should know, Penny and I have been writing a fanfic together, and we have finished THE FIRST CHAPTER!!
Actually, we finished it ages ago. Ben is a slow editor
THANK YOU FOR EDITING, BEN!

Chapter 1

The sun was hanging low and the street lights were already turned on when Tegan finally found a shop she wanted to look at from the inside. They were on a narrow street that branched away from a wider one that lead to the main plaza. No direct sunlight fell on the thin road, only striking the rooftops barely visible from the ground several stories below. The shop before them was a dark little boutique and Tegan beckoned for Penny to follow her inside.
“That’s great, but hurry up, it’s almost dark,” Penny muttered slightly annoyed.
“Why? I think Italy is beautiful at night,” replied Tegan.
“Sure, but-” Penny began, but she was interrupted.
“What kind of creepy creatures do you expect around here?” Tegan snorted and walked towards the store.
“You never know…” Penny answered, hesitating, but then following Tegan towards the store.
They were about to enter the shop when suddenly they heard the voice of a man behind them; a low, but somehow still beautiful whisper. “Hello, ladies,” the unknown voice said and of course Tegan had to turn around to see where it came from.
“Yes?” She asked, but there was no one behind them. Penny looked around confused, but couldn’t see anything either.
Then, they heard an annoyed sigh from the left followed by more whispering. “Hey, over here,” The voice said again, coming from a dark alley between two shops to the side that was even smaller than their current one and very dark.
“Oh no…come on Tegan, let’s keep on walking…faster!” Penny whispered, slightly frightened.
“Why? I want to know who that was,” Tegan answered.
“Why? WHY?? Are you crazy?! This could be a rapist...or worse! Let’s get outta here” Penny tried to drag Tegan forward, but Tegan herself turned back to where the voice came from. “Tegan?!”
She headed for the strange voice, and Penny slowly walked behind her. When they entered the alley, a long white hand beckoned them to follow. That was all they could see, because it was nothing but dark. The owner of the hand, who was a man judging by his silhouetted profile, started walking down the small lane, and Tegan followed, dragging Penny reluctantly behind her.
“Tegan what is wrong with you? We have to turn back before anything happens!” Penny hissed.
“Don’t be such a coward! I’m sure nothing bad will happen,” Tegan whispered back. It was like she was caught by the smooth sound of the man’s voice. Penny shook her head in disbelief.
“I am a coward?? I’m just being cautious, unlike you! How can you be sure everything will be okay?!” Penny shot back just before the man stopped walking and turned around. Tegan moved a step forward, but Penny backed away, pulling Tegan back with her. “This is so not good, Tegan, we have to go back!”
“No- Wait…” muttered Tegan, turning to grab Penny before she could run.
"What?" asked Penny, getting frustrated.
"I'm sorry if I have startled you," the man began. Penny froze in her tracks, and Tegan turned back round to face the man, her face beaming.
"It's okay!" she chirped. Beside her, Penny spluttered out a long list of profanities under her breath. The man's lip curled.
"I actually wanted to ask you something," he murmered softly. His smooth voice lilted Tegan closer, while Penny attempted to drag her back.
"Ask," Tegan urged, whilst trying to pull Penny forward. No one seemed to be winning the mini tug of war. The man ended it by taking a step forward.
"Well, you two look like you could use some marajuania, and I have some here..." he said.
Tegan paused. "You're trying to sell us drugs?"
Penny blinked, and a second past. "Absolutely no-" she began, but was once again interrupted.
"Hell yeah! How much is it?" Tegan practically shouted. The man's gorgeous face was amused. It obviously wasn't often that he met two insane girls like these.
"Uh, 35 euros for a kilo, considering that it's your first time," he replied.
There was a rustle of fabric, and a murmer of, "Penny, do you have any change?" before the money was gathered together. The strange man, bored by their sorting, began leaning against a streetlight that had gone out leaving the Alley so dark and experimented as to how hard he could lean against it without making it bend. Not that the girls noticed. The slight creaks of the metal were covered up by Tegan's squeeling and Penny's repromanding until finally, they were ready.
"Here is 140 euros, sir," Tegan beamed, handing over a handful of coins.
"Okay. 4 bags of ganja, each has a kilo." stated the dealer. Penny took two of the bags, and Tegan took the other two.
"It was a pleasure doing business with you, sir," Tegan smiled. Penny glared at her angrily. He could have easily been a rapist. Tegan however, paid no attention.
"Ladies, I don't do this often, but you both seem very...polite. Would you allow me to show you something?" enquired the dealer very politely.
"Absolutly no-" began Penny, but once again...
"Sure!" Tegan interrupted. Penny threw her a paniked glance. Tegan smiled back cooly. "I love meeting new people. Don't you?"
"You're going to get us killed," Penny muttered under her breath and the man laughed, leaving Penny almost certain that he had heard them.
"Nonsense! It'll be fun!" Tegan said, waving away Penny's concern.
"Sure," Penny snorted. "I admit, it's always been my secret wish to be slaughtered by an maniac axeman."
"Good! So we have nothing to lose!" exclaimed Tegan, completely oblivious to the sarcasm of what Penny had said.
Penny's tone shot up several octaves. "What?? I was kidding!!"
"Are you coming, ladies?" The man asked, halting their debate before Penny could reason with her friend.

"Yeah, sure" Tegan replied, pulling on a reluctent Penny's arm.
"By the way...I'm Felix." added the dealer called Felix as he turned and continued into the shadows, Tegan and therefore Penny as well, following. They went down the small alley for a short while, until they got to cross a bigger street and though it was already late, the air was still warm. No people were around, not even tourists. It seemed they had all retreated to their houses before the sun could completely set. The weak glow of a streetlight lit up the darkness of the night, and somewhere, they heard a few cats fighting. Felix kept walking past it all, oblivious to the world, but sort of annoyed by the slowness of the two girls behind him. However he wasn’t allowed to show his bad temper and again, neither innocent little girl noticed.
“Is it still far? My feet hurt,” Tegan whined.
He sighed. “No, it’s not that far.”
“What exactly are you going to show us anyway?” Penny questioned suspiciously.
“You’ll know soon enough,” Felix answered in a voice, whose tone didn’t make either of the girls feel the need to ask again. He sighed yet again. He had not expected that the girls would even follow him at all, but he was not one with a lot of patience and so was still irritated, despite his success. They passed some shops and an ice cream parlour, until they reached another alley that lead to a dead-end this time. The tapping noise of the girls’ footsteps was very loud on the pavement, while Felix seemed to move without a sound. Stopping suddenly, he opened a door which looked quite similar to the wall of the house it was built in. Most people would’ve just passed it without noticing. Felix walked into the house and Tegan wanted to follow him, but Penny hesitated.
“Tegan, you are not SERIOUSLY going into that house with him, are you?!” she asked, questioning Tegan's sanity.
“Why not?” replied Tegan, still blind to any threat posed to them.
“Are you really THAT stupid? Let’s turn back, I’m not joking!” Penny said with fear in her voice.
Felix shook his head and smirked. As if she could run away from him. This was nothing but a silly game to Felix, he wouldn’t harm them...not him. Still, he had to get the two girls in that house quietly and without forcing, or rather, hurting them or else, his work here would be useless; just a waste of time, though he had done enough of that already in his opinion so why not have some fun, when having all time in the world?
"Come now, little ones," he murmered softly. Both girls found his voice too appealing to resist. However, Penny still had the decency of being hesitant.
"Uhm, what's inside?" she asked.
"That's a secret. I'm sure that you shall enjoy it, however," he winked. They would make sure to make the girls as comfortable as possible before they became meals.
The eerie mood was instantly ruined by a delighted squeal, and a statement of, "Oh! What a lovely coat rack!!"
Felix gave an annoyed sigh. "It's an antique. It's been...in this family for well over a century."
Penny glowed, distracted from her fear now, "Do you have more antiques around the place?"
"Yes, but that is not what you are here to see. Now, come along," he huffed, openly annoyed now. The girls trailed along behind him again through several hallways, each painted white with a pale grey carpet, until finally, they saw they were headed towards some doors that were entirely coated in gold. However, before they reached those doors, Felix stopped and revealed a single hidden door in the wall and ushered them through into a large circular stone room with 3 thrones placed at the head on a raised dias. The walls looked very solid and stretched up several stories to a circle of wide verticle slits that let in the rapidly failing light. "This is what I wanted to show you," Felix said, his eyes flashed menacingly. Penny gulped, realizing the danger they were in whilst Tegan just looked ahead, facinated as 3 men wearing black cloaks walked onto the risen piece of floor, and each took a seat at a throne. The man on the centre throne had long black hair and exceedingly pale skin and it was he who now spoke.
"Welcome to the Volturi castle," he greeted, "I am Aro, and these are my brothers, Marcus and Caius." Aro gestured towards the two tall men sat beside him. One of them also had long black hair as well as super pale skin and a bored expression that seemed to be etched into his face. The other man had equally long pure white hair, so bright that it was almost blinding. He too had the pale skin, but remarkable different was the fact that he wore a cruel smile. The main simularity between the men, aside from their pale and also thin and brittle looking skin, was that they all had dark red eyes that were misted in the middle and made them all look very sinister. Penny cowered behind Tegan. She had already figured out that the men were planning on something cruel. Tegan either wasn't as fast, or really didn't care.

"Your eyes are sooo pretty! Are they natural or do you wear contacts?" she asked in a chirpy tone that didn't match the scene at all.
Aro raised an eyebrow before replying, "They're natural."
"Oh my! You're so lucky!" exclaimed Tegan, and she launched into a speech about how boring her eyes were, "I mean, brown eyes are nice and all, but they are very plain. I keep meaning to buy contacts, but I get freaked out by the idea of putting anything near my eye. There was this one time-"
"Tegan!" Penny hissed. "Shut up!"
Felix gave a dark chuckle. "I suppose that I shall be leaving you to your meal, masters." He turned to exit the room.
"Wait," Aro said suddenly, a bemused smile on his face. "I could not possibly meal on such a fascinating young one. She and her friend shall stay at the castle...as guests."
The man with white hair looked outraged. "They cannot stay here! Have you forgotten that humans are not allowed to know about our kind? Having two strange girls staying at the castle will not help our conquest."
Aro waved his hand lazily. "Brother, humour me and permit me a little entertainment. They won't be any trouble. If they are..." his sentence trailed off suggestivly. Penny gulped. Somehow, he was able to keep his voice light and friendly, yet cram more menace into his words than should be possible.
"We're staying in a castle? AHH!! HOW AWESOME!!" Tegan shrieked.
Penny smiled. They weren't being killed and a rush of euphoria spread through her, leaving her seeing no reason not to be hyper like Tegan and she squealed, "Bwahaha, we shall have fine meals and wear SILK!"
"OMGEE!! SILK!!!!" Tegan practically screamed in return.
“Uhh, wait a second, what do you mean with ‘conquest’?” Penny asked with a suspicious glare at Caius, suddenly remembering what he had said.
Tegan, in a rare moment of concentration, also thought about what they had said and of all things, stopped squealing, turned to Caius and asked, “And why are we strange??”
“This is not your business, girl. Keep out of..." he began to rebuff them but Aro interrupted him quickly.
“Haha, he can be very amusing, can’t he? Anyway… Jane? Jane, where are you?” he called. A girl appeared between the thrones, and looked up to who had spoken. She seemed to be at the same age as Penny and Tegan were, though she was very small. Like most of the others, she was really pale and had full lips and wide, dark red, unclouded, eyes. Her hair was short and dark brown, and one could have almost taken her for a boy, but her face was too pretty.
“Yes, master?” Jane asked.
The one, who was called Aro took her hand. “Will you show the girls their guestrooms, my dear?”
She smiled at him. “Of course, master.”
Tegan wondered why she was jealous of this girl. As if she read her thoughts, Jane turned towards Tegan and glared. Tegan glared back, but flinched. Something about Jane seemed creepy. Jane only smirked and concentrated her attention back on Aro.
“If I may ask, who are these girls, master?” It didn’t seem like she really cared.
He laughed. “Why not introduce yourselves, young ladies?”
“Of course! Okay, my name is Tegan and I...” Tegan began, but Penny cut her off.
“Wait a second. What kind of weird sect is that here?” she asked the men in front of her. “What’s that with you all wearing these dark cloaks, and...why are your eyes so red?? I would like to know what’s going on, first.” She crossed her arms and glared at everyone suspiciously.
Aro took a step forward. “Well, we…”
“What?! But master, we can’t tell!” Felix whispered in a low voice, so only Aro could hear it.
“Felix… Don’t you think I know what I’m doing?” Aro sighed.
“But master! You wanted to tell humans! And ones we don’t even know! What has come over you?” Felix was really taken by surprise.
"I-" he glanced at Tegan briefly. "I don't know. Take them to their rooms."
Jane smirked again, and turned around to face the two giggling girls. "Come now," she smiled threateningly.
Tegan perked up at her words, "Okay! Come on, Penny!" Penny glanced at Tegan, her expression worried.
"Is she safe?" she whispered.
"Yes! Look at her! She's adorable!" Tegan replied, her voice practically a squee. Jane scowled at her before...
"Jane. Hurry along please," Aro said sharply. Jane stalked through the door, obviously expecting Penny and Tegan to follow her, which they did obediently. Penny first, then Tegan following behind, glancing at Aro as much as she could before they reached the door. They followed Jane through some corridors and up some stairs, sounding like elephants in comparison to Jane, who's light, graceful footsteps made no sound at all. Standing on one of the corners was a tall boy, who looked to be the same age as Jane. His face was equally angellic, and his black hair went down to his shoulders. He, like Jane, wore a very dark grey cloak with the hood down.
"Alec!" Jane smiled, and skipped forward to kiss his cheeks.
"Hello Jane," he smiled lazily. "Who's this? Not a snack, surely." His gaze was focused on Penny, who blushed.
"No, guests actually." Jane's tone was disgusted.
"Who are you?" Penny asked curiously. Tegan nudged her.
"I'm Alec. Jane's my sister. What are your names?" He was still looking at Penny.
"I'm Tegan! This is Penny," Tegan chirped, gesturing to Penny.
"It is spectacular to meet you, caro..." he took Penny's hand and kissed it. She blushed bright red. Tegan smirked.
"Okay, we'd better get going to our rooms, you lovebirds," she teased.
"If you like Jane, I would be happy to assist these ladies to their rooms," offered Alec.
Jane glared at him. "Fine, but you better not be long." And with that, she stalked off.
"Follow me ladies," he murmered, winking at Penny. Tegan snorted.
"Tegan!" Penny hissed.
"What?"
"Shut up!"
"I'm sorry." Tegan hung her head guiltily. Penny, who was used to it, didn't fall for the act. After following Alec for a few minutes along the plain grey and white corridors, they came to a stop outside of a door.
"This is your room, Tegan. Penny, your room is over there. I shall take you to the door, if you like." He flashed a smile and Penny swooned. He gave Penny a sign to follow him and walked across the long hallway to a door at the other end of the corridor. Hesitatingly, Penny moved over to Alec, who was still waiting at the door. She looked back, but Tegan had already disappeared into her room. Alec grinned and opened the door with a flourish. It was a very grand and bright room, with a big window on the other side. The walls were all a yellow colour and there was a large matching bed, a few chairs and two matching couche; all seemed to use only silk. There was a large inbuilt cupboard to one side and the door was finely inlaid with an intricate pattern that Penny couldn't make out from her position in the doorway. Another similar door that was ajar appeared to lead to a bathroom. “Welcome to Volterra.”
Penny walked towards the window and looked outside. The rest of the city stretched out below her, the alleys and buildings all visible from her bird's eye position. Lights shone through windows and on street lamps and the whole city seemed to glitter in the darkness. Italy really was beautiful at night.
“It’s lovely…” She stared outside and watched the people down on the streets. “I have a few questions…”
“Go ahead…” Alec said, suddenly right behind her. Penny didn’t even hear him shut the door. She suddenly felt very trapped in this room in this castle with the beautiful, graceful, red-eyed boy. For the first time since seeing him, he fear returned and she wondered what fate awaited them here.
“Uhh,” She turned around a bit confused. “Well … can you tell me what this is all about?” she tried.
“What do you mean?” He asked with a smile on his face. Either he had no idea or he was a practiced lier.
“Why do you have red eyes? Why does everyone wear those cloaks and… why do you all … live in a castle? What is going on here?” Penny asked, rushing the questions slightly. “And what did Felix mean with ‘meal’?” She finished, whispering now.
Alec recognized fear in Penny’s eyes, or maybe it was the slight quaver in her voice. He gazed at her for a few seconds and seemed to be considering her. Suddenly, he came to a decision and his expression changed. Gravely, he looked at her. “He… meant you and your friend.”
Penny gasped. Her mind raced through several questions, answering each on it own and finally arriving at, “What… What are you?"
Alec took a step backwards and lowered his eyes. “We call us the Volturi; I am one of the guards. We are what you humans call vampires, and we drink human blood to … live, if you can call it that.”
Penny was quiet for a long while. Again, her mind raced through a chain of logical conclusions until it arrived at the decision whether this could be real or not. When she spoke, she laughed nervously. “Err, what kind of sick joke is that? Do you belong to a sect or something?!”
Alec still didn’t look up. “No. This is all true. We are faster and stronger than any of you humans can ever be. Our senses are better, and some of us have special powers.” To prove his point, he walked over to the bed and lifted it easily from the ground, with only one hand...one finger. Penny gaped wordlessly as she tried to wrap her mind around what she was being forced to believe. "I'm sorry, did I scare you?" Alec asked quickly, his eyes, ironically, were full of fear. Penny looked at her feet for a moment. Maybe it was a combination of all that had happened to her so quickly and the shock had finally got the better of her, but when she looked up, her face had a huge grin on it.
"Are you kidding?? That was TOTALLY COOL!! Special powers? Do you have a special power??"
Alec's jaw had dropped open. Realising that he probably looked like an idiot, he regained his posture. Unsure what was going through her head, he decided to answer, but keep it simple. "Yes, my power is that I can take away someone's senses completely. It can come in handy at times..."
Maybe it wasn't the shock. Perhaps a puff of marajuania had escaped her backpack and affected her. Either way, the concept of having the life painfully sucked out of her by this immense creature suddenly seemed really good to her. "Oh my! That is AWESOME! You are going to eat me and Tegan, right?"
"No, of course not!" Alec was, for some reason shocked by the idea of doing that to this girl as he replied. "It was the...original plan, but Aro seems to have changed his mind for some reason. I wasn't there, so I only know what I heard."
Penny nodded. "Do I smell yummy??"
"Yes, very..." Alec closed his eyes for a second, as if trying to put some painful thought or memory out of his head. "But I'm very in control. I should be after being around for so long."
"What do I smell like??" she pressed eagerly.
Alec looked at her strangely. "Well, you kind of smell like freshly picked apples, but it's not the same to us."
Dizzied or drugged to the point of stupour now, Penny asked what should have been a really stupid question, but strangely, wasn't. "Are you my friend?"
The last question shocked Alec. He blinked, before replying, as if having only just realized it himself. "Yes, I suppose I am." And somehow it was true.

I know that this chapter took a long time to post. It's been written for ages - tell Ben to edit faster.
Of course, thank you for editing, Ben


Chapter 2

Penny and Alec had talked to each other for a while longer, just about basic events in their life. Alec refused to tell her any more new things about vampires for fear of overloading her. He was unsure if what he had told her already might have affected her mental stability. As the evening became late night, he remembered that she would need to sleep and insisted on leaving her to do so. Penny herself, was far too awake from everything that had happened and ditched the sleeping idea in favour of sneaking over to Tegan's room to fill her in on the details; an event which made Tegan, if it's possible, even more hyper than Penny. Tegan's room was like hers, and yet also completely different. The rough shape was the same, but the patterns on the door, the wood it was made from, the style of the furniture were all different. The dominant colour in here was red and satin covered everything, not silk.
"...and then he lifted up the bed with ONE HAND!" Penny squeed.
"That is SO COOL! Do you think that Aro can do that?" Tegan squeed back.
Penny rolled her eyes at how Tegan had ignored Alec and started talking about Aro yet again. "Yes, I'm sure he can, Tegan, they all can."
"Oh, good. Do you think that it's stalkerish to go and see him tomorrow? I mean, it's only our second day here, and-" she began to rant, but experienced now, Penny cut her off.
"Be quiet! I am telling you and about me and Alec!"
Tegan's face beamed. "You mean that you two are an item?? And you're going to get married? Can I be the maid of honour?? Pretty, pretty please??"
Penny blushed furiously and her reply was flusered. "No, no! Calm down. I just mean...well, we're friends, he said so, but..." She wasn't really sure what to say, or what she even felt so quickly for this strange vampire.
"Don't worry!" Tegan smiled knowingly, infuriating Penny and making her blush even deeper. "You two will be together before long!"
However, Penny was worried; not just about what might happen between her and Alec. “I’m not sure about…”
“Aww, cheer up!…I noticed how he looked at you,” Tegan grinned and nudged Penny, interrupting yet again. That made her smile a little.
“But isn’t it like we’re only, eh, food to them?” Penny frowned. “I mean, he seems great and not that I want to compare it with fancying a tomato, I know that’s different, but…”
Tegan snorted at the tomato comment. “Well, once they were human, too, right?”
“Yes…I suppose you’re right,” Penny sighed and sat down, leaning her chin on the back of the chair. Then she cleared her throat, going on the offensive. “Anyway…What was that about Aro?”
“Err, I think he’s…interesting” Tegan coughed and looked away.
“Uh huh,” Penny nodded. “Interesting. Come on, tell me! Which one was him again, the guy with the white hair? Isn’t he …very, very old?” She grimaced.
“No, actually, he was not that one,” Tegan hissed. “He’s the one who spoke all the time. The one with this lovely voice…” her sentence trailed off dreamily, but she didn’t notice.
Penny blinked. “But Tegan! He’s like...I don’t know…thirty years old, maybe!”
“WHAT?! Never! I doubt he’s older than… okay, at least twenty-five.” Tegan narrowed her eyes.
“Tegan you are not SERIOUSLY telling me that you have a crush on this old man!?” Penny tried to hold back laughter.
Tegan glared at her. “I-I didn’t say-did you just call him old?!”
Penny smirked. “Yep!”
Tegan grasped a pillow from her bed and threw it at Penny’s head, which made her fall off of the chair.
She gasped and got back up. “Tegan! You did not just do tha-” And another pillow hit her head. Penny tumbled backwards and landed on the ground again. Penny suddenly noticed how big these pillows were, and resultingly, very heavy. Tegan began laughing at Penny led stunned on the floor. She doubled over shaking, but then she got bowled over herself by the two pillows sent simultaneously flying her way by a wrathful Penny. Meeting the challenge, she grabbed one of them and rushed Penny, pounding her with every word she said.
“You-did-not-call-him-old!”
Penny dodged under the last swing and took the second pillow to whack Tegan this time. “He-is-old-face-it!” Tegan blocked her last swing, then span on the spot to knock Penny's gaurd away and strike her on her left side. Penny stumbled back a step and then assaulted Tegan again. So their pillow fight continued for the next few hours amongst more and more mess and continually growing laughter. Hyper from all that had happened and their new interests, the two of them were able to carry on without tiring until mid morning without noticing the passage of time. At 7AM, there was a knock at the door. Neither of the girls knew if they should get the door, or pretend to be sleeping. They looked at the mess around them and the pile of burst pillows, looked at each other and gulped. There was no chace of hiding it all, so after a few seconds, Penny braced herself for being eaten and called out "Come in!" at which a beautiful woman with long mahogany hair opened the door. She was too stunning to be human.
"Your breakfast has been prepared. I can take you down to the dining hall or I can bring it up to you," she informed them.
Tegan glanced at Penny, then turned her head towards the woman. "Will Aro be down there?" she asked as Penny rolled her eyes.
"No, I believe that they are in the main hall."
"Oh, can we go down there-" Tegan began, but it was now penny who interrupted her.
"Is Alec in the main hall with them?" Tegan nudged her.
"Yes," the woman frowned. "Aro, Marcus and Caius plus the entire guard are down there."
"Okay! We'll have our breakfast down there, then!" Tegan decided.
"Actually, they are, er, having their own meal down there now. It would be unwise to interrupt them."
"Okay then, we'll have our breakfast in bed," Penny said quickly, wanting to have breakfast, not be it. The woman nodded and closed the door behind her, leaving to fetch their breakfasts. The two sighed in relief at not being in trouble and Tegan opened her mouth to say something, but the woman was back with two silver trays.
"Here you go," she smiled, placing the two trays on the bedside table, glancing around the room and then disappearing out of the room so fast they could barely see her, let alone thank her.
"Oh my gosh!! Yummy!!" Penny squealed. On each plate there were 10 slices of cheese toast. "I can't believe he remembered!"
Tegan blinked at her. "Who rememebered what?"
"Last night when Alec and I were talking, I mentioned to him briefly that my favourite breakfast food is cheese toast." Penny admited, blushing.
Tegan's face showed that she was confused. "Why were you talking about your favourite breakfast food?" she asked.
"Nevermind," Penny sighed, taking a bite of one of her pieces of cheese toast. Tegan followed suit.
"I like bacon better," Tegan pouted.
"Tegan! Pigs are creatures too!" Penny gasped.
"But you were eating ham just the other day..."
"That's different!"
"Is not!
"It wasn't even ham! It was an illusion!"
Tegan frowned. "It was not." And she threw a piece of cheese toast at Penny's head.
“Ugh, why did you do that?” Penny glared at her.
Tegan shrugged.
Penny sighed. “Eww, Tegan! Now my hair is full of cheese and butter!”
“…But…That’s good for your hair, it makes it glossy and stuff,” Tegan assured her.
Penny picked some of the toast out of her hair. “And what do I do with that, now?” She asked angrily.
“Uhm… Eat it?” Tegan suggested.
Penny shook her head and then ate a different piece of toast.
“Err, Penny, you know you’ve still got some cheese on your head, right?” Tegan asked casually, after they’d finished breakfast.
“This is your fault. You threw the toast at me,” accused Penny, poining at her hair.
“Is that the reason for keeping it in your hair? I don’t want to offend you… But you look really stupid with a cheese toast on your head.”
“Well, at least-“
Then suddenly someone knocked at the door.
“Who’s there?” Tegan asked.
“It’s me, Alec. I wanted to know if Penny was here, I didn’t find her in her room,” a voice answered from behind the door.
Tegan smirked. “Yes, she is here.”
“Oh, alright. Can I come in?”
“No Tegan, don’t you dare to-” Penny hissed.
“Sure!” Tegan grinned.
Alec opened the door, and took a step inside the room. He stood perfectly still just insode the open doorway dressed in the dark grey cloak again.
“Good morning-” He blinked astonished. “Uhm, may I ask why you’ve got a cheese toast on your head, Penny?”
She coughed. “It was Tegan-“
“Err… The cheese keeps her hair from drying out?” Tegan burst out laughing. Penny glared at her.
“Thank you very much,” She hissed sarcastically and picked the cheese out of her hair.
Tegan snorted. “You still have some butter on your head...”
Alec glanced at the two girls. “…I could come back later, if you-”
“No, please stay; it’s all Tegan’s fault. I just wanted to eat my breakfast, but no…” Penny glared at Tegan again, who was still laughing. “I see you’re having lots of fun with that, right Teg?” She muttered.
Alec started towards the door. “I really think you both should sort this out without me…”
“No!!” exclaimed Penny, a little too urgently.
He blinked. “What?”

“Err, I mean, it’s okay, you don’t have to go.”
"Okay..." Alec didn't move from his position, moving, if that were possible, even less. Penny glowed, but Tegan just looked impatiently betwen them as they stared at each other for a moment and then huffed and interrupted.
"Are you guys finished eating? Is Aro free?" Tegan bounced.
"Yes to both questions," Alec answered. "Why? Are you going to see him?"
Penny giggled. "I think that she likes him," she teased in revenge for the cheese toast.
"Really?" Alec snickered. "I'll be sure to mention it to him-"
"No!" Tegan blushed furiously. "I mean, I just wanted to ask him some things. Don't be silly." Tegan looked pannicked and guilty and Penny and Alec shared an evil smile.
"Are you sure? I could always-" Alec began.
"Bye!" Tegan called, and practically fled from her own room. There was a pause of silence, then Alec regarded Penny again.
"Well, we're all alone," Alec purred. Penny shifted on the bed uncomfortably, unsure what to say or do.
"Umm, thanks for the cheese toast?"
"No problem," he winked. "I really enjoyed our conversation last night..."
"Er, me too. Maybe we should go see what Tegan's up to?" she suggested, looking for a way out. Her high from the previous night had finally run out and now she felt uncomfortable alone in a bedroom with a vampire that she liked.
*****
Tegan was skipping down one of the many off white hallways on one of the many floors of the building trying to find the main hall. She turned left at a junction...and found herself facing yet another identical corridor. She sighed, exasperated and slumped against a wall round the corner with her back to the way she had come. "Hello?" she called out helplessly. Directions had never been her thing.
"Hello," a familliar voice behind her greeted. She whirled around. It was Felix.
"Hiyah!" Tegan smiled. "Could you please show me the way to the main hall?"
"I could, but I think that I may have something else that you might be interested in," he said with his hypnotically convincing voice.
"What could that be?" she asked curiously.
"I know that you were interested in the marajuania. How about I give you some magic mushroom, no charge?"
Tegan blinked. "Why would you do that?"
"Uhh, for a welcoming present." He seemed to be thinking quickly, looking for an excuse, but as always, Tegan didn't notice.
"Thank you! That would be-"
"Felix, what are you giving our poor guest?" a cold, and yet comforting to Tegan, voice asked. She whirled around again in delight to face another corridor where a figure in black robes was approaching. Aro!!!
"I've been looking for you," Tegan swooned. Felix rolled his eyes.
"Shall I leave you two alone then?" he asked, suggestion heavy in his voice.
"Yes, but don't go too far," Aro commanded, ignoring the not-so-hidden meaning of Felix's words.
Tegan skipped to his side and took one of his arms, which was only possible because it hung slightly away fom his body. His flesh was rock solid and had his hand been in a pocket or something, her actions would have been impossible. Another thing she noticed was that he felt cold, even through the thick material of the cloak. She marvelled at the paper thin, but perfectly smooth look of the skin of his hand, then looked up at his face, beaming.
"Are we going somewhere?" she bounced.
"Err, is there anywhere that you want to go?" he inquired, curious as to her strange behavior.
"Not really. Let's walk" she proposed, tugging ineffectively on his hand. He hesitated a moment, then allowed her to lead him and walked forward as she skittered alongside him. "I'm Tegan!"
"Doe-like beauty..." he murmered. Tegan frowned at him, unused to someone being to recite the meaning of her name from memory with no warning.
"Do you spend your time going through babyname books or something?"
"I get bored sometimes in 3000 years," he laughed.
"3000 years? Penny was right, you ARE old!" she exclaimed in surprise.
"Have you been talking about me?"
"Maybe."
Aro frowned. "What do you mean by 'maybe'?"
"It's just ... Penny said you are old."
"Well, she is right with that. I've been around here for ...many years."
Tegan looked at him. "You don't seem to be that old.."
"Haha, physically, I'm not that old, that's right," Aro laughed.
"Do you remember everything?"
"...Everything?"
"You said you've been alive for 3000 years. Do you remember all of what you ever experienced?"
"Yes. Vampires never forget, didn't anyone tell you?"
"Actually, no. Is there something else that could be interesting to know about vampires? Do you have a special power, or something?" Tegan was still holding his hand.

Aro smirked. “Yes, I do have a special power.”

“What is it?”

“I can read minds. Every single thought one has ever thought…” His sentence trailed off.

But Tegan was curious. “And… how do you do that??”

“By touching someone.”
Tegan gasped and quickly let go of his hand and Aro laughed gently.
“I'm sorry, I should have told you earlier.” He winked and Tegan blushed and to try and cover it up, she coughed and looking away.
“Well… What is behind this door?” Tegan pointed to a door ahead of them, despirate to change the subject. The door was a double one made of thick oak and again, with an inlaid pattern across the entire face of it. Daylight showed through the crack between the two doors and Tegan could feel a draught around her ankles. All in all, the door looked very out of place against the office-block corridors.

“It’s not very interesting, it’s just a door that leads outside, to a pretty boring place,” He answered, somewhat evasively.
“I want to see it! I bet it’s more fun than walking down a corridor," persisted Tegan. Aro sighed, looked reluctantly at Tegan for a second and then opened the door. They stepped out into a high-walled courtyard. All the walls and floor were the same pale yellow stone as the rest of Volterra. Aside from the door they had just stpped through, the only entrance was a pair of huge wooden gates in the wall opposite made of the same oak, but without the ornate patterning. There were no holes in the walls and all the light came over the top of them five or six metres above. There was a place, surrounded by a few huge walls without any windows, and a gate between two of them. No plants grew anywhere and in fact no earth showed for them to grow from. Nothing even grew between the stones of the floor as would usually be expected. The place had a dead feel to it and it was eerily obvious that no birds came near it. The creepy, morbid sensation seemed to emanate from a rusty drain in the centre of the courtyard that the floor sloped down slightly to and a small red stain could be seen on the ground next to it, left by some liquid that had failed to drain away down it.
“Oh,” Tegan said, her cheerful demeanour fading quickly. “Yeah… it’s really not very interesting. What do you use this place for?”
“It doesn’t have any purpose.” He didn’t sound like he’d mean it.
Tegan glanced at him. “Tell me.”
Aro sighed again. “So, if you really want to know, it’s just a place for the guards to ...eat their meals.”
Tegan stared at him. “You… kill people here?” She looked back to the open room in shock but Aro pulled her back into the hallway.
“I told you it was nothing you needed to know.” He continued down another corridor and there was a long minute of silence as Tegan allowed herself to be pulled along briskly and obediently.
"Do you need to kill people?" she asked at last, biting on her lip.
Aro looked down at her sorrowfully. "Well, we can live off of animal blood, but that is very...uncomfortable."
"Uncomfortable? How?"
"It's doesn't...taste as nice as human blood. I'm sorry if I'm scaring you."
"No, I'm fine." Tegan replied faintly.
Aro stopped and faced her. He cupped her face in his palm, and turned her head up to meet his gaze. "Do you want me to live off of animal blood?"
Tegan thought long and hard; mostly because she was afraid that if she answered too soon, he would let go of her face. His fingers were comforting. "No...It makes you seem more sadistic in a way. I like that," she grinned.
Aro laughed. "You are strange," he murmered. Tegan could feel her pulse speeden, and suddenly remembered that he would be able to read her every thought as long as he touched her. She pulled away regretfully, a hot blush stained across her cheeks.
"Umm, let's keep walking." Her voice was quiet, but she knew that Aro could hear her, with his vampire powers and all.
"Tegan! Aro!" Penny's voice called from down the hall. Both Aro and Tegan turned to see Penny and Alec behind them. "We found them, Alec!"
"Yes," he smiled, the gleam in his eyes fading a little. "Shame. We were having such a lovely time together."
Penny laughed. "What have you been up to?" Tegan turned to face her and saw that Penny had at least had a chance to get the cheese out of her hair.
Tegan coughed evasively. "Nothing much. Just...having a tour. How about you?" she asked, eager to change the subject.
"The same pretty much. Alec was showing me around," she beamed, looking up at Alec. He smiled down on her, clear devotion in his eyes.
"Is there anything that you wanted to do today?" Alec asked Penny.
"Not really." She glanced at Tegan and Aro. "Do you all wanna do something together?"
Aro looked down at Tegan, who nodded. "Of course," he said. "What do you have in mind?"
"Well, I haven't thought that far yet-" began Penny.
"Shopping?" Tegan suggested. Penny rolled her eyes. She knew that Tegan could live quite happily as long as she was in a shop and had money to spend.
"Maybe not," Alec said, noting Penny's less then enthusiastic response.
"Well, if it's what Tegan wants to do-" Aro began, but was interrupted.
"No, it's okay," she assured him. "Err...bungee jumping?"
Penny glared at her. "Absolutely not."
"I was kidding!!"
Alec sighed. “So, I guess we're just hanging around today…”
“Not necessarily…” Tegan began. “What about visiting some places around here? Kind of sight seeing?”
“That sounds quite nice,” Penny agreed, glancing at Alec.
“Okay, why not… Where do you want to go, Tegan?”
“Uhm… what about … Verona? I wanted to go there someday, anyway.”
Aro was already convinced. “Of course, if you always wanted to see this city, we’ll go there.”
“But, isn’t that a bit far?” Penny worried while they walked towards the main hall.
“Not for us vampires,” Alec grinned.
“What do you mean?”
“We can run really, really fast, I told you, remember?”
“Right… Do you run faster than a car can drive?” She asked curiously.
Alec snorted. “Vampires can be faster than ANY car!”
“Well, that’s great for you,” Penny sighed. “But I’m slightly worried that Tegan and I couldn't keep up with you.”
He had to laugh resoundingly. “You were not seriously thinking you’d have to run on your own, right?”
Penny had to think for a second. “Oh,” She said, as she got it.
Alec smiled at her.
“Uhm,” Penny began, to skip the silence. “Your eyes are much brighter than yesterday; they were almost black… What happened to them?”
He hesitated for a second, considering whether to answer, or not. “…Breakfast,” He said and shrugged.
“Oh. I … could have guessed that,” Penny murmured.
Aro opened a huge door that led into the main hall, which the girls had seen on their arrival, and they entered. it was empty; only two unknown guards leaned against a wall and talked. Both looked up as they saw Aro, but continued their conversation after he passed them.
“How long did you plan staying in Verona?” Aro asked her.
Tegan thought about it.
“A few days would be nice… Why?”
“Because I have to make sure everything will work out here, while we’re gone… Maybe we should take Jane with us,” he answered.
“Oh, if you believe that it’s necessary…and she isn’t needed here…alright then…” Tegan didn’t sound like she was sure.
"It's just so that you and Penny have extra protection," he assured her, hearing the reluctance in her voice.
Tegan tried to think a way around this and had an idea. Her eyes lit up and she said, "Ooh! How about if Felix came!?"
"Yeah!" Penny quickly agreed.
Alec shook his head at Aro briefly, and Aro nodded. "That would not be the wisest idea."
"Oh."
Of course, Penny and Tegan were both quite tired from staying up all night the night before. Especially after all of the pillow fighting.
"Can we go get some coffee on the way there?" Penny yawned. Tegan nodded in agreement.
"Okay, we'll stop in Starbucks," Alec promised, mostly to Penny.
"Can we leave already?" Tegan asked.
"Yes, come on. We can just walk to the border of Volterra, then run from there," Aro planned.
All together, they walked out of the castle, out the door that Felix had brought them through the night before. Aro, Jane and Alec were both wearing cloaks to hide their skin from the sun. Jane's and Alec's cloaks was grey and Aro's was black.
They reached Starbucks very quickly. The vampires, though trying to look like they were walking normally, were still a little too fast and the girls found themselves jogging to keep up.

NICE WORK GUYS. KEEP IT UP