Till Death (Volturi / Twilight Fanfiction)

34: Dead or Undead

It was raining outside, perhaps that would be a good enough excuse to stay in. 

It was past noon then, Taylor had slept over 13 hours in total yet she did not feel at all refreshed. Pursing her lips she looked down at her coffee mug, it was halfway gone, black, and probably cold. She tapped her finger against its' side pointedly as if trying to find a beat in the rain. It was all a distraction, poorly executed. Maurice had greeted her in her waking when she finally thought to get out of bed. He warned her to be quiet, that ears were everywhere, and told her his plan. Rather theatrical but that seemed to be his style. She'd have a very long night tonight.

She swallowed, stopping her tapping, staring next to the mug into nothing. Just letting her mind wander for a bit. In that moment she was far away, in a tin-roofed cabin in the midwest. It was raining there too and her father and mother were out working as usual. The R.V. was outside but Taylor enjoyed the cabin they had rented for meetings and the like. She smiled. She shouldn't have complained about the show then, it was much simpler to deal with what she knew. Her smile fell. Vampires...didn't see that coming.

"You do not look well." All at once, Taylor was in Italy again. She blinked, shaking her head, before turning to Francis. He looked casual with his hair down and more worried than anything. Taylor gave a weak smile and shrugged.

"A bit groggy. That's all."

"Do you have a sore throat? Are you getting sick?" Francis asked. Taylor paused, pulling her hand away from her neck. She hadn't noticed she was rubbing it.

"I'm not getting sick." She assured. Francis still stared while walking further into the kitchen. He crossed the island and began preparing a sandwich for his lunch.

"You look like you are getting sick." He noted. Taylor just sorta glanced at her reflection in her phone as it faced up on the countertop. She did look a bit rough, her eyebags had eyebags and her hair was a mess. Honestly, Francis is lucky she thought to throw on a robe before stumbling down here. She was rather out of it. For a moment she thought about just leaving the conversation, now knowing that everything she said could be heard by castle employees if they happened to pass by. Or if they were watching her. But she felt heavy enough with that burden of knowledge she could never share, so she was as honest as she could be about what happened in her dreams.

"I died last night." She stated simply. Slowly, Francis turned around holding some peanut butter and a knife. With a perplexed expression.

"You seem better now." He said. Taylor half chuckled.

"Yeah, I guess so." Her chuckles faded away as she became more somber. Yet, she still held that smile. "When I came here I had a spirit in my mind, sorta protecting me from others trying to push into my head. She'd been with me for a while so you know, I don't know. We cared for each other and all that. I was helping her to move on someday but I also sorta got used to having her around. Then that thing in the throne room snatched her away so..." Francis made his lunch as he listened. The weird stuff that came with working close to the Johnson family was something Francis was getting more used to as he was around it. Agatha's weird out of the blue predictions, and even Darnell's nature to push into the unknown and frightening. Taylor was bound to be just as strange. He took a bite of his sandwich.

"So what?" He asked with a full mouth. Taylor cringed before answering.

"I was made to feel how a spirit died in my dreams last night because I had no one guarding my mind. He, uh, was decapitated. Violently." Taylor shuddered, rubbing her neck again.

"I'm sorry." Taylor nodded at Francis who didn't know what to say. Curiosity won out over sympathy. "You felt it then? You felt his decapitation? How did it happen, was he still conscious after being beheaded?" Taylor shrugged, thinking quickly.