meliora | victoria sutherland

five

execution
"are you stupid?"

_____

she arrived at the hotel bella was staying at rather quickly, with a bit of illegal driving to support it. the car was now lazily parked in an abandoned clearing nearby, far enough to be away from any public eye.

althea strutted inside the white coloured building, immediately hit with the scents of the three inside. she walked past reception, looking confident with where she was going.

of course, she didn't recognise the layout at all, attempting to follow signs without slowing her pace down. the girl ended up at the elevator, pressing every level's button and hoped no one would actually need to go anywhere.

she realised the fire stairs would've been quicker, but there were no obvious signs of its location.

floor one, nothing. floor two, nothing.

she hit the button to force the doors closed once again, sighing as their scents were still not strong enough to be nearby.

floor three, slightly closer.

and while the elevator doors opened for the fourth time during her stay, someone was waiting for it. that someone wasn't the first person she wanted to see, but althea was confused nonetheless.

"bella?" she queried, looking her up and down. she looked frantic, sweat drops formed at the top of her forehead as the human breathed heavily. "why do you look like that?"

that wasn't the nicest way to phrase things, but the other girl didn't appear in the best state, and there was no need to sugar coat it.

"what?" she stammered, surprised to see althea standing there, "i've got to go."

she ran in just as the doors began to close, but rolled her eyes when the visitor stayed with her.

where does she have to go? the human hit the ground floor button with anger, but they weren't going to get there anytime soon.

"where are you going? this elevator has to go to every other floor before it can go back down," althea smirked, crossing her arms as she turned towards the accompanying figure, "care to enlighten me?"

she didn't want to, of course, she was frustrated at the circumstances. bella was clearly in a hurry to go somewhere, but what stumped the other was the lack of protection with her.

with a grunt, she copied the body posture of the vampire, with anger instead of sarcasm, "where's edward? i thought he was with you."

changing the topic, how wonderful. at this time, he clearly wasn't with her anymore, and althea was quite unhappy with the lack of appreciation.

"no, he's on his way," the vampire stated monotonously, "you're going to see james, aren't you?"

she wasn't expecting the human to ignore her, indicating the affirmative response that should be initiated.

"are you stupid?" she continued, baffled that it was even an option.

but yes, she was, and it was clear. the elevator had already reached the top floor, and was hurrying down by the second. althea knew the other would rush out as it reached ground level, but didn't feel a need to follow her just yet.

"i've got to save her," bella whispered in response to her remark, not facing the girl anymore. from irritated to upset, there was no doubting the atmosphere had shifted.

save who though? who's so important, that isn't edward, to save by risking your life?

the ding of the elevator indicated its arrival at the level, the human squishing through the opening doors.