verona hale and alec volturi; two lonely immortals so immersed in their petty coven rivalry that it's almost too late when they realise they're in love with each other. almost.
the twilight saga / alec volturi
new moon ― breaking dawn
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CHAPTER FIVE: THRILL OF THE CHASE
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VERONA HALE WAS NEVER going to forget the moment her human life fell apart. She was fifteen at the time, returning home from her best friend's house late one evening, only to find the front door hanging from its hinges. Furniture was knocked everywhere, pieces of shattered glass crunching underneath her shoes as she crept into the silent house, her heart plummeting as she took in the chaos.
Something terrible had happened and she only learned what when she entered the dining room, stumbling across her mother's body slumped across the wooden floorboards, a rope twisted around her broken neck, the skin bruised from the strangulation. Verona let out a terrified scream as she tripped over one of the broken dining chairs, landing inches away from her father's bloodied corpse, his eyes glossed over as he stared at the roof above, a knife sticking out of his chest. Her screams grew louder and she raced from her home with blood staining the hem of her dress, only to be declared delirious by the people she came across, who frowned upon her friendship with the strange girl who claimed to see the future.
And within a day, the horrifying situation only got worse.
She was hauled into custody the next morning, announced as insane by the state as rumours that she was the one to end her parents' lives spread like wildfire. No one would listen to her, no matter how much she screamed that she hadn't done what they were accusing her of, that she was innocent. She was growing up in a narrow-minded time period, and there was nothing she or anyone else could say or do that would prevent what was going to happen next.
When the state declared someone insane, they shipped them into the nearest mental asylum. Alice was sent there alongside her, having lost her mother just a week before, and after confronting her father when she learned the reasons behind her death, the sheriff came knocking on her door, ready to take her away. They both fought with everything in them to escape, but they were quick to be defeated. There was no stopping the inevitable, not then at least.
Verona would never forget what she endured in the next two years, the acts of torture she and her best friend were put through to fit society's standards of normal. She'd never forget the moment she woke up as a vampire, realising her best friend couldn't remember anything from their mortal life, nothing more than their names and faced. She was never going to forget any of it, and that was by far the most tragic part of all.
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"AND YOU'RE SURE THAT thisis where you saw her?" Carlisle asked with wariness, eyeing the trees around them.
"She's almost here," Alice nodded, her eyes glassy as they looked into the future.
Verona's shoulders tensed, her hands clenching into fists as she stared into the never-ending darkness. They'd been standing in the forest for what seemed like forever, waiting for Victoria to show her face. Alice had seen her attacking Bella that evening, and they hadn't hesitated to send the human girl to visit her mother for the weekend. Edward had chosen to accompany her, leaving his family to take care of the problem. And while they had no issue helping out, the tension that swallowed them whole was starting to grow thicker with each moment she was absent.
