𝐥𝐮𝐧𝐚𝐫 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐝𝐨𝐰𝐬 | carlisle cullen (3)

(𝐜𝐡𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐧𝐞) deep in volterra

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CAIUS SAT UP STRAIGHTER IN HIS CHAIR, a glint in his eyes. Estella looked lost as she walked further down the stone stairs into the room. She'd always hated it, this deep cavernous castle, so obnoxiously rich and lost in a completely different century. Her eyes traced over the paintings above her head even when she'd memorised the movements of acrylic paint before.

Although Marcus looked bored by her statement and Caius looked rather terrifying as he leant forwards, blonde hair hanging gently over the side of his face, Aro looked concerned. He stood from his seat in his perfectly tailored black suit.

"You need our help?" Aro frowned, "forgive me Estella but, you have never come for our help before. Why now?"

"I told you, there's no one else who can help me anymore and believe me I've thought of a lot of people" Este sighed as she stopped a good distance away from their thrones. She felt Caius' eyes burning into the side of her head and presumed he wished she was anywhere else. Her mind twinged.

"I know we pretend to like each other" Este continued, "play nice because the opposite path could be devastating and although I appreciate what you have here, what you do, I also loathe your pretentious attitude and the way you look on members of my family like prey, you've tried to destroy us before and I always have my guard up... I'm asking... pleading that we put anything behind us, I don't know what you really think of me Aro but I presume you know this truth. I wish I wasn't here, I wish I could be anywhere else in the world right now but unfortunately fate has drawn me right back"

"Our job is to aid our kind" Aro remained standing, "maybe our message got lost in translation... messed with my desire to collect gifts but I assure you, there is no hard feelings over the past"

Caius scoffed gently to himself and Este knew exactly what he was thinking. She found it strange that after all of these years he was still remaining by Aro's side. It was clear that the opinions of blonde vampire wildly differed from whatever the others believed. He sat apart even in his throne, leant on his hand.

"I'm glad to hear it" Este smiled lightly, "because I'm losing my mind"

Caius' eyes twinkled, he leant back now, arms on either side of the ornate golden chair as he crossed his legs. In his eyes there was pride that Este overlooked for some smug glance. She believed he must be happy that something like this was happening to her. She looked away, back up to Aro.

"Losing your mind?" Aro looked confused, "I've never heard anything like that before, not for our kind... can you explain?"

"Edward thinks it started a decade ago at the least because he can see it in my mind, or feel it... I don't know exactly how his power works. He says it's taken hold so deeply that it's lodged inside all areas of my mind. But... I only noticed it about a year ago. We went to Arizona to protect Bella from James, a tracker. I hadn't hunted and I was starting to lose sense of who I was, I was angry and thirsty and... monstrous. I bit Bella when we found her with James and... if Edward hadn't had the ability to suck the venom out, she might not have made it. Before that I used to get panicked by simple things, Carlisle said it could be anxiety at the beginning because it used to attack my senses and I would break down about it... I felt a lot of pressure to be a certain way for my family but over the last year it's just grown and grown, worse and worse. Recently I've been completely losing myself, I've been hearing voices telling me to kill Bella, to kill Carlisle. In those moments I can't control what I do, I'm not me it's like there's someone in my mind. It was so much worse back in Forks... because I couldn't hunt, the wolves have been annoying and um... Bella was right there. I've hunted since on my way here but even then... I can hear the voices and the pressure it puts on my mind hurts... it's so painful. I just don't know what to do anymore, I don't know what to do anymore"