𝐂𝐇𝐀𝐏𝐓𝐄𝐑 𝐅𝐎𝐔𝐑:
To love and be loved
(1858)

ELOISE NEVER FELT SO LONELY BEFORE.

She always imagined herself beside someone to love and to hold. The kind of love that deserves to be kindled and tended to.

Of course, if her 18-year-old self were asked, she'd be bewildered and horrified at the thought.

But Eloise is 45 years of age now. Nothing has changed. It isn't to be shocked about, given their immortality and unageing beauty.

She seeks a companion. Not a friend, but a lover.

That will not happen. She would not let it go.

Eloise would never damn someone for this kind of life.

To take life to survive to feel what she felt.

She'll choose loneliness over regret for just being lonely and knowing she'd turned someone into a monster.

Immortality would be more endurable if she just had someone to spend forever with.

But she remembered what Maria had warned her.

Maria explained that their kind was given to them by the gods who created them in order for them to spend their immortality with someone.

A soulmate or a mate, Eloise beamed with hope when Maria mentioned it to her.

And it was quickly erased when Maria told her mates. They are not welcome in the army.

They'll be a distraction.

A weakness.

Where one goes, the other follows.

Meaning. If one perishes, the other will follow without a shadow of a doubt.

"Love makes us weak."

Maria told her. Eloise finally knows the reason the woman is so bitter.

That was why they destroyed the coven in Monterrey.

She lost her beloved when an enemy coven attacked their territory.

Maria's thirst for revenge is one of the reasons why they are conquering territories left and right in the first place.

But still, the thought of a soulmate always felt right.

She just hoped she'd not meet him soon, not in this situation, but in better circumstances.

Over the years, Eloise has thought about leaving. To learn more about what this life has to offer, an adventure.

She finds herself unable to entertain the idea further.

She felt too thankful, grateful, and indebted to Maria for saving her life.

If it weren't for the woman, she would have died without meaning, without purpose.

And that was what Eloise always thought of. What is her purpose in life?

Is it just to battle out territories? To kill? To survive? To what extent?

She feels conflicted and has been for the past several years.

Eloise wants to feel something. To be needed, perhaps.

She is needed by Maria for her skills and abilities.

She wants to be needed by a person, perhaps a lover.

To the extent that the other half can barely breathe with the idea of her being gone, someone that will cling to her in a time of grief, sorrow, and happiness.

The need to be needed was one of the things she craved the most-a purpose.

She remembered her mother and father gazing at each other with adoration and sparkle of excitement.

It was pure and fulfilling.

It was love.

She'll never know the true feeling of love or being loved at all in this immortal life.

But it isn't wrong to cling to the thought of it, to be filled with hope.

Eloise is not religious, not anymore.

But she prayed to whoever god was living in the heavens above to bless her with someone to spend immortality with.

Ironic. To pray for a miracle when all she has done with her immortality is bloodshed.

Highly unlikely to be granted. She can only hope for the best.

But one could only think of the downfall of her immortality.

Will she really live forever? Is she willing to live a life of eternity, alone at that?

Living for eternity will be worthless.

She could always decide to go to the Volturi to end her life when Maria is done with her so-called revenge.

Unlikely, as well. The Volturi will never waste a rare ability like hers.

They'll recruit her to join their coven.

It's just another cage, but with royalty decorated in it.

She wished her life hadn't gone on this kind of path.

Why couldn't fate have decided to give her a normal human life with a decent and decent future?

She didn't know what would happen in the far future.

But one can only hope that it'll get better.

That she wouldn't be stuck in another cage.

But would she really feel content with a normal human life?

She liked the adventure immortality had given her.

The ability to take risks and make impulsive decisions.

To know the unknown. to feed her unending curiosity. to seize opportunities that others could not. Learn many things. To earn memories.

To love...

How can one feel truly fulfilled if they are in a polluted environment that prevents them from blooming beautifully?

Knowing herself, she will never be able to truly leave Maria behind.

No matter how many unending voices and whispers are in her head, it's for the best.

She'll never gain the courage to act.

She will never betray her like that, not in a millennium.

She swore it the minute Maria told her that she had saved her.

One of her traits is loyalty. And she didn't know if Maria really deserved her loyalty.

But she has given hers anyway.

And she hopes that she'll not regret it.

But she always hopes that someone else will gain her loyalty and end her ties with Maria permanently.

For the better.

How can she even think of leaving Maria?

Maybe her subconscious is guiding her to her happiness.

But she does crave leaving the chaos and bloodshed behind.

Her guilt is following her. Hiding in the dark corners of the barn.

She doesn't want to do this forever.

To kill for eternity was not what she had signed up for.

She hoped that one day the world would be modern and create something new.

That will scare Maria because the threat of her doings will one day attract Volturi's full attention.

In the modern world, love is full and pure.

Author's Note:
-As you have read. Eloise is being manipulated with her life. So, no, 'Why can't she just leave Maria then' Ugh, shut up. Manipulation is hard to get out of, especially when her life is used for the manipulation.