Chapter 10 – A Messed Up Picture

My mind is racing as I frantically look around at my surroundings.  I see the huge, now smudged mural on the cement that I'm currently sitting on. 

 "Everyone's going to be so pissed," I mutter under my breath as Demetri helps me up and brings me back into the castle.  He just laughs.  "What the hell is so funny?!" I snap at him.

"Well, you did just fall on top of a freshly painted mural, after it probably took the artist weeks to create," he tells me, as if I don't already realize that.  "And now you look like you were attacked by a blood savaging beast!"

"Huh, like a vampire?" I jauntily comment.  He gives me a look, but now I'm the one laughing, ha!  At least, until we see Aro coming our way with a man I've never seen before.  We stop in front of each other; Aro and the man are staring at the red paint covering me while I search Aro's eyes for a hint of anger.

"What's this?" he asks, looking between the two of us.

"U-uh," I stutter, rubbing the back of my neck, "I kind of had a shoe malfunction outside, which caused me to fall and land on wet paint..." I trail off.  At that statement, the man beside Aro looks like somebody hit him with a bus.

"My mural!" he exclaims, taking off in the way we just came.  Ugh, this day just keeps getting worse doesn't it?

"A shoe malfunction?" Aro asks curiously.

"Yes Master Aro," Demetri says with his eyes closed, lowering his head in a slight bow, "we believe that the shoes were illegally sold to her by somebody who participates in the selling of hallucinogens uptown.  I was planning on looking into it later."  I tear my gaze from my shoes to stare at Demetri in disbelief. 

"Actually I think I just need to learn how to pay attention to where I'm going," I tell Aro, hitting Demetri in the side.

"Just go get yourself cleaned up," Aro says, dismissing us.

"Yes Sir!" I answer, dragging Demetri with me. 

"So are we still having our flying lesson?" Demetri asks on the way back to my room. 

I sigh, "No, not right now anyways.  If we start now I'll be late for my lesson with Chef Lavitto."

"Ahh, I heard you were starting to learn Italian!" he grins.

"Yeah, well, I have to catch up to you and your four languages," I tell him.  He laughs.

"Well, if Chef Lavitto isn't around and you need someone to practice with, feel free to find me!"

"Doesn't everyone here know Italian?" I ask.

"I don't know why you would want their help when the awesome me is here!"  I narrow my eyes at his phrasing.

"You know, you remind me of somebody..." I tell him, studying his expression.  "Red eyes... for the most part," I add in, seeing that they aren't as vibrant as usual, "light hair, egotistical..."

"Egotistical?" he repeats.  I nod, still studying him.

"Well, I'm going to go change clothes, and you should probably find something to... eat.  Your eyes have been getting darker throughout the whole day."

"Eh, I'll be fine," he tells me, "But who is it that I remind you of?"

"AUF WIEDERSEHEN!" I exclaim, running the rest of the short distance to my room, laughing once I get into the bathroom and lock the door.  "Reading all those fan-fictions really pays off!" I tell myself, still smiling, that is until I see myself in the mirror.

"Oh, lovely," I grumble, shedding my paint-stained outfit for the clean outfit I grabbed quickly before getting in here.  I shake my head, of all the colors I could have landed on, why did it have to be red?  The stains will never come out now.  I dump my old clothes into the trashcan and wash off the dried paint on my hands and knees off with warm water.  Once I'm finished, I look at the clock to see that it's almost time to head to the kitchen.  I place my sneakers in the bathtub for later, hoping that at least those I can salvage, and I start walking down for my Italian lesson.

*

"Grazie e arrivederci!" I tell Chef Lavitto, thanking him for both the lesson and the delicious lunch before I head back to my room to see if I can save my shoes.

"Nessun problema!" he replies, ha, that means "no problem!"  It may not be much, but I'm already proud of myself for the small exchange, because eventually those small exchanges will lengthen into entire conversations. 

I head back into my room ready to scrub some paint, but when I look into the tub, my shoes are no longer there.  After a brief moment of confusion, I also notice that my trash was taken out, everything has been freshly dusted, and not a single fingerprint sits on the mirrors.  Either they were thrown away by one of the Volturi's servants, or they gave them to someone to try and clean.  Even with that slight chance, I have a feeling that I'll never see them again, which really sucks because they were one of my favorite new pairs.

"Signorina Trenton?" asks a small voice from outside.  I walk out of the bathroom to see a small, but very old woman standing outside my door.

"Yes?" I ask.  I wonder what's going on now?  Her hands are shaking with age as she hands me a light yellow envelope.  "Who's this from?" I ask her, seeing no return address.  Seeing her face, I realize she probably doesn't speak English.  "Grazie," I tell her.  She smiles and turns to leave.  With my curiosity level rising, I rip the envelope open and pull out the small note inside.

Dear Anna,

I was unsure of how else to get ahold of you, so I pray that this reaches you on time.  I have some concerns about you and the decisions you will eventually have to make, that is, considering you haven't already made them.  Every choice a person makes has both good and bad consequences, and I don't believe you are yet truly aware of all the negative ones.  Please meet me outside of the castle tonight at 8:00, and be careful.

Sincerely,

Raphael

"Raphael?" I question, "Why would he want to speak with me?"  Also, what is this big decision that I will have to make, if I even have to make one at all?  I'm not really sure what to do, since it's not like I know Raphael all that well to begin with.  Should I even trust him?  Amidst my internal struggle, I hear another knock on my door.

"Guten tag!" Jane greets me from my door.  Guten tag...

"German?" I ask.

"Yeah, I heard you saying goodbye to Demetri earlier in German, but I wasn't sure why.  The look on his face when I asked him about it seemed to suggest that he didn't know either," she tells me. 

"Ha-ha!  Oh, that was nothing," I laugh, "I just told him that he reminds me of a character from a show I use to watch, and that character just so happens to speak German."

"Huh, what's the show called?" she asks curiously.

"He... uh... I forgot," I lie, remembering at the last second what the show's title actually means.  It's not like it's bad or anything, but I don't want to risk it.

"You are a terrible liar," she informs me, still waiting for me to tell her.

"So what brings you to my humble abode?" I ask, gesturing around my room and hoping to change the subject. 

"Felix has business elsewhere tonight so you're training is cancelled," she tells me, looking down at the envelope in my hands.  "What's that?"

"Oh, this is nothing," I tell her, but she gives me an annoyed look.

"Again, you are a terrible liar," she reminds me, then she smirks, "I thought friends weren't supposed to keep secrets from each other?"  I stand there surprised.

"Wow, you've never actually referred to us as friends before!" I smile.  I mean, I knew we've become really great friends these past few weeks, but it's not exactly a term that Jane, Alec, or that really anyone here throws around much.  I suppose work here really does come first, and nobody can let emotions or relationships get in the way of that.

"And I'll never do it again if you don't show me your little love letter," she grins, knowing she dug her hooks in me.

"Fine," I sigh, handing over the note and wondering what her reaction will be.  After all, when we left the restaurant, there was obvious tension between Raphael and the Volturi members present.  Just as I figured, her grin starts to fade as she reads the note.

"What's the verdict?" I ask, figuring she'll tell me not to go. "I honestly don't know myself if I'm going to go meet him."

"No, you should go," she says, to my surprise.

"Do you know what he wants to talk to me about?" I ask as she sets the note down on my red bean bag chair.

"I have my suspicions," she admits, "but regardless of what I personally think about him, or how much I might disagree with the points he will try to make, ignoring him won't do anyone any good."

"Who really is he anyways?  The only things I know about him are that he's a vampire who works at an Italian restaurant." 

Jane laughs, "Obviously that shows you know zero things about him," she replies before walking out of the room.

My brows crinkle in confusion, but I decide not to worry about this meeting anymore.  Anyways, I think that I will go, I mean, what's the worst that can happen?

Author's Note

Author's note at the end this time, haha!  Anyways, I'm dedicating this chapter to JDSTD13 because you put the idea of Hetalia in my head :)  The idea of Prussia more specifically!  Now for a little blurb about my life since this is something I'm really excited about, if you guys have visited my profile page you might have seen the paragraph of Korean in my "about me" section. No, I'm not Korean, but I'm learning the language because my dream job is teaching English in South Korea. Well, I just sent in my last assignment for the TEFL course I'm taking over the summer!  After this certification I will be one step closer to my dream job! \_(ㅎㅂㅎ)_/