LETS HIT THE ROAD...(Johanna's POV)

LETS HIT THE ROAD...(Johanna's POV)
February 1st, 2013
Dear Diary,
As Gabriel promised we would, we have started our trip to every place that has made him feel. I'm not exactly sure what made me want to see these places, I guess I feel that I will understand Gabriel more if I know what has had a big impact on him.
It took me a while to convince my boss to let me off work for 3 months. Well, dude, I don't know how long we'll be gone so I took off extra just in case! Then Gabriel had to say goodbye to Sophia and Vera a billion times, saying that he would definitely be coming back and that we were going on a pre-wedding. Vacation. It was really sweet how much he cares about those two girls, and how gentle he was with them. Poor Sophia, I think she thought we were leaving for good! We said extra goodbyes to the girls and then we took off to the airport with only one back pack. We weren't going to be in one place for too long and I really don't need that much crap slowing us down. Our first stop was actually my home. Fairview, Pennsylvania. I didn't want my parents knowing I was in town, after all, I was on a mission! But Gabriel insisted we at least spend one night at their house. I am so glad that they love him! They are probably waiting until he proposes to me! Speaking of that, I still have to tell them lol I can't believe I waited this long!
I knock on the door of my parents house and am greeted by my father.
"Daddy!" I rush into his arms and feel the familiar warmth of his hugs. My dad gives the greatest hugs that make you feel at home and safe.
"So its happened then?" He asks.
"What has, daddy?" I reply pulling away.
"Gabriel has proposed, right?"
I stare with my mouth open in shock. But-? How-? I didn't tell him or even show him my ring yet!
"You knew?!?!" I say in shock.
I turn around and lightly smack Gabriel in the arm.
"Of course. Gabriel called me and asked for my blessing."
Aww! I didn't know who to hug first! I reached for my dad and cried my tears of joy onto his shirt.
"I love you, Daddy."
"And I love you too, sweet pea."
"I love you, Gabriel." I say moving into my fiancés arms.
He kisses my forehead and wraps his arms tight around me.
"Dad! I can't believe you knew!" I giggle.
Gabriel and my father laugh at me and we are invited inside to catch up and talk about the wedding.
Later that night, after my parents had gone to bed, Gabriel knocked on my bedroom door and told me to come with him. I put on cute bunny slippers and Gabriel carried me threw town. We ended up where Gabriel and I first met.
I stand on the hard dirt and look around. Time seems to have stopped here. It all looks exactly the same as when I last saw it. The moon looked the same, the branches and bushes looked the same.
"It feels weird to be standing in the same place that I almost died in." I say.
"Actually, you were standing here." He points at the ground beneath his feet.
"Oh," I go over to where he is standing and stand where he told me I had almost died in.
"Oh!" I say again, but this time with more realization, "Your right! It definitely feels weird standing here!"
He let's out a nervous laugh.
"So is this supposed to be a place that made you feel something significant? Or am I supposed to feel something?" I question.
"Uh, both? I felt warm here, when I met you. For the first time in- well, since I was about seven- I felt alive and happy. And it was all because I had seen you."
I blush a little.
"Even before you told me you wanted to be taken away, I knew that I loved you."
I blush even more. My cheeks are red red now.
"So this is a happy place?" I say.
"Sort of. Its happy because I first saw you here. But every place is a happy place as long as you are standing there with me."
I reach my arms out for him to hold me. He holds me like a father might hold a frightened child, with love and warmth and comfort.
I kiss his hand, "The terror of this place is now gone. Its fled from the sight of love."
Gabriel smiles at my interesting ways of banishing his dark memories. And I smile back at the love filling his eyes.
As Gabriel is running us back to the house I start thinking of my birthday and then of his birthday. I kind of don't know much human things about him.
"Gabriel, when is your birthday?"
"I don't remember." He snaps back.
I decide not to ask any more questions about that then.
We slip back into the house and go our separate ways until the morning when we all wake up and say goodbye to my parents. I hug them both tightly and tell them I will see them very soon for the wedding. Our next stop, Gabriel tells me, is Italy.
Volterra, Italy.
I have learned that after I was assumed dead, Gabriel was hunted by this elite group of vampire kings who did not like the fact that he was going around killing everyone without discretion. Here he could kill and do dark deeds within the limits of the vampire kings but with no limitations as to the way he could kill. I understand his need for freedom, what I don't understand is the way he expresses his freedom with death. Why not go help a third world country instead? Or something like that? Why bring more suffering to the world? If suffering drove him to be a vampire then wouldn't he want to prevent suffering for others and in turn limit the desire and appeal of vampire-ism? I'm not just saying that Gabriel is doing that, I'm talking about all (or most) vampires.
Anyway, Gabriel brought me to this lovely and grand palace almost in the middle of town. The place was huge! A stone building with high cathedral ceilings and ornate carvings. He pushed open the large double doors and we slipped inside. It was kind of like stepping into a deserted dream. The hall was lined in dust and cobwebs littered the corners. The luscious reds of the carpets were worn and dimmed and the stone walls were dank.
"It used to be a powerful place," I say.
Gabriel walks down the halls and I follow him.
We reach what I assume is the main hall, I think that because of all the portraits lining the walls. I actually recognize some of the vampires there: Chelsea and Afton, Felix and Katy, Alec and Jane (her name still sends shivers down my spine). There are so many other pictures as well...and so many other people. All these faces start to blend together and make one giant face of fear and terror. But it might be the fear and terror that makes me so curios. One portrait I really like is of three powerful looking vampires standing on a balcony. They have piercing red eyes and the one with his hand on the railing has long black hair and eyes filled of amusement. The other two behind him look slightly less amused, one with wavy blonde hair and a young face the other with wavy dark hair and older features.
"Aro, Caius, and Marcus. Our forefathers and creators. They are our kings." He pauses and closes his eyes, "Were. They were our kings."
Besides their eyes, there is one other captivating part of the portrait: a man standing in the background. Blonde hair and kind golden eyes, a manner of respect but polite detachment- oh! That's Carlisle! I would know that kind face anywhere! According to Chelsea you couldn't mistake him for anyone else in the whole world, you would know him as soon as you met him.
"Carlisle Cullen." Gabriel confirms.
I turn my attention to the other side of the hall were there is another set of double doors.
Gabriel brushes away the cobwebs and pushes the doors inward. Air rushes out and I follow him inside. This room seems to be even worse than the front hall! The dust is heavier, the colors have drained. Everything is dark and in tatters...
"My god! Its like a giant tomb."
"You don't even know," Gabriel says sadly, "Its seems that time has frozen still here. The world will move outside but here it all stops."
And he is right. I could get lost in the emptiness and lack of color.
I observe the windows high above and stone benches low to the ground. Gabriel walks up to the three thrones at the back of the room and sits in the middle one.
"This was Aro's chair," he calls out, "He was the leader out of the three. He liked to collect talents. No two vampires here had the same talent, he wouldn't allow it."
I step forward, the sounds of footsteps echo off the walls.
"And what crimes could you be punished of?" I ask.
"Ruining the secret. Being obvious. Being stupid."
"How so?"
"We only have one rule, Johanna: Keep our kind a secret. As long as no armies are raised, vampires remain a scary story, and humans are still in plenty, all is well."
"Seems practical enough," I sit on the floor in front of him.
"But that's just it! We're vampires! We shouldn't have to abide to practicality!" He says in an angered voice.
"This place makes you tense."
"Yes. But I love this place. As you said earlier it holds great power. This was the home I desired when I had none. A home in which I could do whatever I wanted. I feel guilty for their death. What if they somehow come back to life and seek revenge? Why wouldn't they seek it on me? I had as much a hand in their death as the others." He says worried.
I get up and hold his face in my hands, stroking his cheeks.
"I'm not going to let them take you away from me. I love you. If, and I say IF, they somehow come back, then we'll think of something. We'll be ready for them."
"You don't understand, Johanna. They would kill you just for knowing vampires exist! I might not be able to stop them."
"You would. I know it."
Gabriel's green eyes search mine, "You've been taken from me so many times already and I don't think I could bear it to happen again."
I hold onto his waist for a while and then ask him to show me the rest of the castle.
I get to see Aro's secret laboratory, and Gabriel's room. Gabriel also reveals that he had a vivid vision of me walking into a river close by. He takes me there but it doesn't feel familiar to me, not even like I could have dreamed it.
All the time I got Gabriel to smile and laugh so when we left I could say, "All worries are gone from the sound of our laughter, we laughed them away from this place and from your mind."
Fingers laced, we travel to Romania. Now this place, I can tell that it has Gabriel on edge. He fed several times before getting there and even stopped breathing. I was expecting the scariest, ugliest, most terrifying thing possible, but instead I got a cute castle. It had ivy climbing the walls and weeping willows around the grounds.
"This should definitely be our vacation house after we're married!" I squeal.
"No. Over my un-dead body." He growls. And I know not to mess with him anymore.
Gabriel's eyes were fixed on the lowered drawbridge, they were wide in fear. I squeezed his hand to let him know that I was still here and that I wouldn't leave him. I dragged Gabriel across the bridge and into the building.
"Tell me where I am." I say.
I'm very curious as to what has my almost husband so terrified. And I'm more than excited to banish this memory from him.
"This is Kali's castle. My maker's home."
Kali. That name rings a bell. I get this image of a very thin, tall woman. She has blonde hair with sparkles in it and lavender colored eyes.
I gasp, "I dreamt of her! She was the one torturing you."
Gabriel is a little surprised that I knew her, especially since we had so many shared dreams while he was trapped here.
"What was it like for you?" I ask, "It felt like I was out of my own body and just watching this."
"It felt like I was dead." Then he asks a question, "How did you know what to say all those times?"
I shake my head, "I don't know. Its like I knew all of it. I knew that if you got rid of her heart and left her to burn in the sunlight you would be free. I think I dreamt that too actually."
"You never cease to amaze me, Johanna." A smile! Yes! Its good to know that even in a place that he has grown to fear and hate I am the one thing that can make him smile.
I force Gabriel to show me everything. Diary, I do mean everything! There were a few things he wanted to hide from me but I wouldn't let him get away with that. We ended our tour at the very spot where Gabriel watched the morning sun turn Kali's body into a pile of ashes.
How fitting that she died in the sunrise and that I will banish her with the sunset.
Before Gabriel knows what hits him, I jump up wrapping my legs around his torso, throw my arms around his neck and pull him into a kiss. It was full of passion and love, light but with a teasing hint. When I finally pulled away, Gabriel immediately brought my mouth back to his.
Diary, I lost track of time lol. I couldn't have told you how long we were like that if I tried! Lol plus, you really don't need to know
"The last of the darkness is gone, we've chased it away with the light of our love and the light of the life we live. For all the doubts she had about you, make that light brighter, to drive her further into the darkness."
"I'm afraid that she might be able to come back. She was really powerful-"
"Yeah? Well look who is dead now and who isn't?" I say playfully. I put a little force into it so he would know that I was speaking the truth. Gabriel laughed and took my hand in his, leaving the last of his worries behind.
"A happy place?" I ask as we walk towards the airport.
"I guess. When they weren't forcing me to grow up or get married it was an okay place."
"That means-"
"We're going to Russia. My home in Staraja."
-Johanna