Life Is Just A Bowl Of Cherries

Maniacally

Maniacally - ma·ni·a·cal·ly - mə-ˈnī-ə-kəl-le

1. in a way that is affected with or suggestive of madness

2. in a way that is characterized by ungovernable excitement or frenzy

Odessa woke up groggy and confused. Her eyes blearily opened, and she blinked them a few times to clear her vision. She was laying down on a hard, cold surface, and she heard a soft dripping noise coming from the corner of the room. She sat up slowly and observed her surroundings. She was sitting in a dark room with only one source of light coming from the open doorway. The room she was in was shaped in a small square long enough for her to stretch her legs forward and wide enough for at least one other person to sit beside her. She tried standing up but realized she couldn't due to a heavy weight weighing her down. Silver cuffs tightly linked together around her wrists. She tried to break them apart, but she found she couldn't. Still, she kept at it, and it wasn't until she felt them bite into her skin that she realized they were reinforced with venom.

There was no window, so she couldn't see what time of day it was or where she was geographically. She focused on her hearing and heard light footsteps making their way towards her direction. By the lightness of them, Odessa concluded that whoever was walking towards her was a vampire. She tensed and anxiously waited for them to appear. A pale hand appeared in her field of vision and knocked loudly on the doorframe.

"Knock, knock!" they exclaimed loudly. Then, they popped their head into the doorway and grinned down at Odessa malevolently. Smirking teak eyes met bewildered teak eyes as orange embers of hair and a familiar face appeared.

"W-what?" Odessa asked unintelligibly. "What are you doing here, Jennifer?"

"I hope you aren't too cramped in there," Jennifer ignored Odessa. "I thought you should've gotten a smaller one, but Maysun insisted that you get one that allowed you a little bit of comfort."

"Maysun is here, too?"

Maysun stepped beside Jennifer with a grim frown on her face. She looked between Jennifer and Odessa, switching from looking disappointed and weary to apologetic. She looked like she didn't want to be in the position she was in, and Odessa wondered if she had even agreed to be a part of the opposition. If she hadn't, then Odessa had a chance of getting out of wherever she was unscathed. She needed to get back to the castle and find out what was going on. That attack hadn't been random; they had to have been watching the city somehow. And Odessa worried Heidi hadn't gotten back to the castle in time. Did they hurt Heidi? Was Heidi in the same building as her? Did the Volturi even know she was gone? If the opposition was going to attack the Volturi, then Odessa had to be there to help. She couldn't be wallowing away in some cell. This was something bigger than her, something that she had to protect so she could cherish later. She finally felt like she was a part of something bigger than her, and she didn't want to give it up just yet. She couldn't lose it. She couldn't lose Alec, or Jane, or Heidi, or Santiago, or Felix, or even Afton or Chelsea.

"I do not understand," Odessa told them. "Why are you here? Why are you acting this way? Is Nahuel here, too?"

"Huilen would never let Nahuel partake in something like this," Maysun reassured her.

"Besides," Jennifer started, "Nahuel is too much of a pacifist to voluntarily do something like this."

"And you?" Odessa asked incredulously. "When I first met you, you were so nice and kind. Even when we reunited, you were nice to me. You acted like you were my sister."

"I wanted to be your sister," Jennifer sighed heavily. She walked into the room and sat opposite Odessa on the floor. Her leg brushed against Odessa's as her other leg bended and curled in on her. "When we first met, I was apprehensive of you because Serena was very hostile towards you. Serena always looked out for us, so I took her lead in being wary. But then I heard you talk about our father, and I realized that we could relate to each other; you had been through similar experiences as I have, so I thought of you less with wariness and more with anticipation. I wanted to talk to you - to talk to someone who could relate to me and vice versa - but you left, and I never got the chance to." Her face was scrunched together in disappointment as she relived how she felt.