FRANKENSTEIN
16 | California Gurls.

"IF any of you even so much as allow Frankie to be looked at in the wrong way, I'll have you punished immediately." Aro's voice carried out sharply.

"Yes, master." Felix, Demetri, and Chelsea all spoke in unison. Currently, I sat in the back of a yellow Chevy Camaro with Chelsea next to me, Demetri in the passenger seat, and Felix driving. Eventually, the clothes Alice had packed for me would run thin, therefore Aro was allowing me to leave with some of his most trusted guards to go shopping.

As much as he wanted to accompany me himself, he had to attend court today. It took both Caius and Marcus to convince him that it was more important for him to be in court rather than, going on a shopping spree.

They wanted to leave early in the morning so that by the time we'd leave the mall, it wouldn't too bright out. Much to my dismay, Aro woke me up around thirty-minutes ago, at 5:00 - and walked me down to the garage to meet up with his guard. I was blown away by the rows upon rows of car they had.

"Are you wearing pajama pants?" Chelsea questioned, looking down at the pants I was wearing.

It was true. Aro literally had to force me out of bed - once he successfully did I simply threw on converse, put a sweat-shirt on, and tossed my hair in a messy ponytail. Other than that I did nothing, I was far too tired for this.

"Yeah." I yawned, resting my head against the back seat.

"Perhaps, you should change first?" Aro suggested placing his hand through the open window resting it on my cheek.

"Please don't make me change," I begged groaning.

Aro held a conflicted look in his eye before sighing and giving in. "Okay, I will see you all in exactly six hours," Aro said sternly.

"Yes, master." They all replied.

Slowly Aro pulled away from the car and watched as we pulled out of the large garage. As soon as we were out of the garage we were in an underground tunnel. Felix drove through the tunnel at high speed before turning onto a clear dirt road.

It was odd watching Felix drive, as the driver's seat was now on the right side of the car vs the left. For the first twenty minutes or so we continued down the dirt road with no markings what-so-ever. However, soon we came upon the end of the road leading into a highway.

For the most part, the hour's drive to Florence was in complete silence with Chelsea softly singing along to the Italian music, and me falling in and out of sleep.

Finally, we all pulled into a large three-story mall that seemed to almost be empty. "Why is it so, deserted?" I questioned as we all got out of the Camaro.

"It's just past six a.m, no sane human gets up this early." Demetri snickered at me.

"Thanks a lot, Aro." I detested him sarcastically, speaking his name in a slightly condescending tone.

"Ha! Don't let him hear you say that!" Felix laughed as we all walked inside.

"Okay come along, all of you! Chop, chop!" Chelsea strutted to the front leading us all into a store titled 'HARMON'.

~

"Chelsea, I don't know about this. I don't think the kings will appreciate so much 'modern' clothing." I stated, looking at myself in the mirror.

On my body was some of the most 'modern' clothing of 2017. A black sweater with a rose stitched onto the top right and ripped jeans with fishnet stockings underneath.

"Nonsense! Come out!" She yelled from the other side of the dressing room door.

Silently I walked out and Chelsea began thoroughly examining the outfit. "Perfect!" She nodded and pushed me toward the dressing room once more.

"Wait, where are the other two." I looked around for Felix or Demetri.

"Went to get a snack." Chelsea scowled before pushing me into the dressing room once more.

This time it was high waist shorts with a tucked in long-sleeve black shirt. I detested this outfit, but Chelsea insisted that I get it, even though we both knew I'd never wear it. Apparently, she wanted me to take advantage of the fact that I had no dress code limiting my clothing options.

This went on for the next hour with Chelsea pulling me into multiple different shops, each for clothes. Finally, after an hour I was able to persuade her into moving onto shoes, which in hindsight I should have foreseen as worse.

"Ouch! I can't walk in these!" I complained just as I tripped on a pair of nude heels.

"Okay, look we'll meet in the middle half the shoes will be my choice of heels, the other half your choice of what-ever you call those," Chelsea stated pointing to my Converse cringing.

After much debate Chelsea won getting exactly thirty-pairs of shoes, fifteen being a multitude of heels, the other fifteen being a mix-up of Vans and Converse. After we had left the final shoe store both mine and Chelsea's arms were filled to the brim with shopping bags.

It was now 9:00 a.m and the mall was barely beginning to fill with people. Chelsea had opted on placing a thick scarf over her head along with sunglasses.

"Are we done, yet?" I complained slowly following along with Chelsea's fast footsteps.

"No, we still have undergarments!" She practically yelled causing a blush to form on my cheeks.

"But, I already have plenty of undergarments. Trust me." I said thinking of Alice packing me all those inappropriate clothing choices.

"Oh, I know. I checked your suitcase before we came. That Alice sure does have style, I, unfortunately, can't say the same for Bella. Anyway, we're still buying some undergarments. I want some new ones anyway." She stopped flipping her hair over her shoulder.

The limited amount of people who were in the mall kept their eyes on us. Females looked at us in slight awe, and males simply looked with desire.

"Felix and Demetri! Where on Earth do you think you're going!" Her eyes suddenly snapped to something behind my shoulder, her voice ringing out loud and proud.

Turning around I saw Felix and Demetri attempting to sneak away. "I should have known something was up, after the twenty minutes of them not returning," Chelsea grumbled, the both of us watching as the two grumpily walked over.

"Make yourselves useful for once and take these to the car." Chelsea snapped at them once they were to our side.

She pushed the multitude of bags she held to Demetri, while Felix took the bags from me. I gave him a relieved smile once all the bags were out of my hands. He simply chuckled in reply before he and Demetri began walking to the car.

"Come on." Chelsea gave an excited smile pulling me to the one and only 'Victoria's Secret.'

As soon as we were in Chelsea wasted no time in pulling multiple lingerie off the shelves and running into the dressing room. I decided on not picking up any and simply sitting outside the dressing room.

Each time Chelsea had on a new pair of underwear she'd walk out and asked if I liked it. I told her 'yes' on all of them because I truly did like them. With her vampire nature, she looked like a goddess in the underwear.

Once she had found her pick of undergarments she glared at me and stomped away. I looked around confused as to why she was mad. A couple seconds later she came back with an employee who sized me. Then, the both of them teamed up and went around looking for 'sexy' underwear that I would wear.

'Oh, Aro will love this.' Chelsea would say while throwing an extremely lacy looking bra at me.

Not only that, but they would force me into the dressing room to try it on and made me show them after. Unfortunately for me, Chelsea ended up buying every single pair of underwear I tried on.

Once we left Victoria Secret we each held at least five bags each of our own undergarments. "Can we leave now?" I asked earning a sigh from Chelsea.

"Yes, but after we get you something to eat. Master Aro will be angry if we bring you back hungry." Chelsea said before leading me to a food court.

I noticed immediately that Felix and Demetri sat at a table. There were two seats open in front of them one of which had a plate of food. I assumed that food was for me and sat in that seat.

"Purchase anything interesting." Felix waggled his eyebrows suggestively earning a hiss from Chelsea.

My focus was on the food though. Don't get me wrong it looked delicious pizza with olives, tomatoes, jalapenos, cheese, peppers, and onions. The only problem? No meat. It's not me being picky when I say I only eat food with meat or something high in sugar. It was simply only what I could eat, no one knew exactly why it was that whenever I would eat something considered a 'vegetarian' dish I would get sick - but it happened. The last time I ate a salad it was like I had the terrible flu for three days straight, and I didn't even eat the whole thing!

"We weren't sure what you'd like, so we just went with what the human employee said was most popular. The Garden Pizza." Demetri flashed me a nervous smile.

As I looked at how nervous he was about getting me the wrong thing, I knew I couldn't crush his spirit. With a deep breath, I sucked it up and gave him a believable smile.

"Yeah, it looks good." I lied.

"Thank god, I didn't want to go back up there and return to that creepy human." At Demetri's comment, we all turned to the shop he'd gotten my food at, only to see an odd looking man.

He was on his phone mouthing the words to a Britney Spears song while shaking his shoulders in a dancing motion.

"Yeah, he needs to die." Felix stated as we all turned back in our seat.

With a small breath and words of self-encouragement, I began eating the 'vegetarian pizza'. It didn't taste bad, or anything. It tasted quite good, in fact. But I knew better, within a few hours time I would be extremely sick - thanks to this 'vegetarian' food.

I ate as fast as I could scarf down the whole thing so that we could get back to the castle hopefully before the illness set in.

"You must've been hungry. Did Chelsea take it out of you with shopping." Felix chuckled as we all began leaving, my empty plate left on the table.

"Yeah, it was so good." I smiled tightly as we walked to the car.

"Ha, if you think shopping with me is bad - try Heidi. Even I can't handle shopping with her." Chelsea shook her head while Felix and Demetri looked scared at the thought.

"I don't think anyone can." Demetri snickered.

As soon as we got outside, both men pulled their hoods up and placed their sunglasses on. Chelsea already had on a scarf and sunglasses.

"Give those here." Felix took mine and Chelsea's bags placing them in the trunk with all the other bags.

"God, Chelsea. Why'd you get so much." Felix complained having trouble closing the overflowing trunk.

After a few minutes, Felix got it closed and the three of us entered the car. The car screeched out of the parking lot and onto the road at high speeds. I leaned my head against the window and closed my eyes.

I already regretted my decision of trying to save Demetri from that man. I could feel my stomach beginning to protest.

"Hey, before we get too far on the road you think we could stop at a gas station? I need to use the restroom, and I'm sort of thirsty?" I questioned forming a small plan in my mind.

"I don't see why not." Felix pulled into a gas station. "Here." He handed me a golden credit card.

"Thanks, I'll only be a second," I said getting out of the car and entering the gas station.

As I swung the doors open I was greeted with the smell of greasy food, and the sound of Slurpee machines. The real reason I wanted to come in here was to buy a hell-tone of medicine in hopes that it may help the oncoming storm - even if only the slightest bit.

I walked into the restroom of the station, as true to my word I really did need to pee. After doing business I washed my hands and looked at myself in the mirror. I was already starting to look paler in my opinion. Naturally, I was already pale, so I looked almost like a vampire now.

Shaking my head I splashed water on my face and pulled my hair up into a bun. A sudden thought occurred to me, I heard from Laura on multiple occasions that Ginger Ale was her mother's cure for almost all stomach issues.

Quickly I walked out into the store and grabbed a bottle of Ginger Ale from the refrigerator. Walking toward the back I thoroughly examined the medication shelves. I took Tylenol, Ibuprofen, Advil, and Benadryl from the shelf. Just as I walked to the front a Hershey's bar, practically screamed my name.

Maybe if I fill myself on stuff that I'm able to digest properly, then it will slow the sickness down?

With my free hand, I grabbed the chocolate bar and brought all the stuff to the counter. Dropping the pill bottles, chocolate bar, and Ginger Ale I flashed the man a smile. He gave me hesitant one back, obviously finding my purchases odd. As soon as I had checked out I took the Advil bottle from the bag and opened it. Taking out five pills I swallowed them all and washed it down it down with the Ginger Ale. I placed the bottled back in the bag and pulled out the candy bar.

Ripping open the package I took a large bite out of the chocolate and looked to the cashier who watched me if I was crazy. "Have a nice day," I said with a mouthful of chocolate leaving and walking back to the car.

As soon as I got in the car Chelsea laughed at the chocolate I was eating. "Couldn't resist, huh? I heard from some of the newer vampires that chocolate is one of the things they miss most. It wasn't around when I was human, so I wouldn't know."

"Yeah," I said back with a false smile. "Let's hurry and get back to Volterra. I'm just dying to see Aro." I said feeling my stomach begin to protest.

I did want to see Aro, but the main reason was that I could feel the sickness coming faster than I first thought.

"Let's hit the road then." Felix smiled stepping on the gas, Italian music blaring through the speakers.