Timeless Ties || Volturi Kings

16. Face The Music

So, one more night
I'm gonna choose
I don't wanna face the music
But I still wanna dance with you
Let's buy some time

—  Louis Tomlinson

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At last, the weekend had arrived, but instead of being happy about having two days without classes to cocoon herself in the comfort of her home, Alessia would have to confront what had happened over the week.

See, Alessia had long recognized a huge personality flaw, one she had partly constructed as a way to cope with things, so she had no one to blame but herself.

Alessia had a tendency to postpone addressing matters until they demanded immediate attention. When afforded the luxury of time, her initial reaction was often a flurry of panic, or tears, or rage, or anxiety, or even a mixture of these things — it was an ingrained response, she was just human, after all.

Having said that, she took great care never to display these emotions openly, except when it served a specific purpose. Emotions, in her experience, were dangerous , capable of being wielded against her in the most detrimental manner. Consequently, she guarded her true feelings closely, only revealing them when it was absolutely safe or when she believed that doing so might be advantageous, otherwise concealing them until she had the opportunity to examine them privately, free from scrutiny.

The realization that Aro, Caius, or Helios could have been slave owners was one of those things she had to confront at that very moment. And even then, her voice had betrayed her in Helios' case, serving as evidence that she hadn't been at her best. In the cases of Aro and Caius, she just had to focus on her anger because anger was far easier to conceal than most other emotions.

That being said, after that conversation was over, Alessia acted as if everything were normal — as if her outlook on life hadn't been shattered and reconstructed. She focused on suppressing her feelings and avoiding dealing with them until she had the time to contemplate it actively. The middle of the week, with her classes, was not the right time for that.

Ignoring feelings was easy , and there was an undeniable gratification in doing so. Over time, she discovered that by setting aside her feelings and not immediately addressing them, they often diminished in intensity. When she eventually confronted them, they had become more manageable and less overwhelming than they would have been had she attempted to confront everything all at once.

Be that as it may, this approach had its downside: it had transformed into a habit of procrastination, to the point where Alessia often needed to force herself to mull things over. She had a tendency to hope that, left unattended, her problems would simply dissipate on their own. This inclination represented a character flaw in her personality. Yet, she recognized that in the current situation, she couldn't afford to let things slide and hope they would resolve themselves — this time, just ignoring the issues at hand could pose a serious threat to her life, and Alessia held her life in too high regard to take such risks.

Because on Monday, Alessia had discovered that vampires and werewolves existed, that she was interacting with people from more than 3,000 years ago, and that she possessed the power to time travel.

These revelations had shaken her to the core, challenging her worldview. But she had no choice but to accept them, as the alternative was to confront the possibility that her mind had snapped.

Alessia had always considered herself adaptable, so she resolved to face this new reality head-on. However, she needed to first purposefully push aside all the astonishing revelations she had learned, except for the fact that she could time travel. This particular one was too significant to ignore, and in the midst of everything, it seemed like the most manageable aspect to address.