Hello everybody. I am in the middle of working on another story right now (The Choice), and I'm NOT abandoning that story. I just had a very random idea for this one-shot and decided to write it down. It's quite a bit darker than what my imagination usually creates, but I thought it was an interesting idea that I hadn't seen another author do yet. It begins the night after Bella is lured to the ballet studio by James, and it's told from Victoria's point of view.

Hope you enjoy. Please review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Twilight or any of its characters.

(Victoria's point of view)

The remains of Mimi's Ballet Studio smoldered in front of me, occasional gray wisps of smoke rising almost lazily into the black night sky. It was quiet here, this late at night, and the single dim and flickering streetlight nearby cast strange shadows. The most audible sound was the scuffling of a midnight brawl in front of a dingy bar several blocks down. The area was deserted and the firemen had left the ruined building hours ago, so the smell of human blood was very faint. The constant burning in the back of my throat was barely palpable.

This was the sort of place I would have enjoyed any other night with James by my side. He liked dark, foreboding places. He loved to hide in shadows. For it was all too easy to catch a human in places like this, where the witless creature would be too distracted by the frightening darkness to consider what might lurk within it. James loved playing games with them.

My throat blistered with new, angry heat when I realized that James would never play one of his games again.

I inhaled deeply, taking in the scent of my mate's burned and destroyed granite flesh. How strange a dead vampire smelled. I felt the urge to gag, but I could not. Just as tears could never fall from my eyes, this was something I'd given up to be with James.

James.

He'd found me, so long ago, when I'd been nothing but a weak human. I'd been walking down a street much like this one, and he'd been up to his games. He'd tried to frighten me, making strange noises from his place hidden in the shadows, and whispering horror-film-worthy lines like I can see you. But at this point in my human life, I'd had no interest in extending my miserable existence. Death was welcome. So when he'd come out from his hiding place and approached me, I'd made no attempt run. I'd stood and accepted my fate without a fight.

Apparently, this was what had saved me.

James told me after my painful transformation that he'd never encountered a human like me – one who somehow knew that the only way to save myself was by giving up. He'd been looking for a partner who would submit to his will no matter what, and this is what he found in me. He believed that I'd somehow known this ahead of time, and that I'd accepted death because I'd known it was the only thing that would keep me alive. He called this instinct of self-preservation a talent, and one he'd value me for.

We'd been together ever since then, traveling all over the world in pursuit of blood and hunts and games. I'd enjoyed the life, even if I'd had absolutely no say in it. James was my creator, my savior, and my mate. He'd reminded me of this time and again, and he'd told me I could not defy him. I never did.

And then a single human brought my whole world crashing down.

Bella.

I snarled in misery and rage, snatching a charred piece of wood from the studio wreckage and flinging it across the street towards a small playground located there. The wood crashed into a metal slide and shattered into a thousand pieces, scattering over the grass and destined to become splinters in children's feet tomorrow. I turned away.

I climbed in among smoldered debris of the studio and found a pile of ashes at its center. James. I found myself gasping for breath as I heaved with completely dry sobs. I grabbed a handful of the ashes – all I had left of the vampire I'd lived for, followed, and loved – and gripped it tightly in my fist. What I wouldn't give to be the one who'd died instead of him.

James.

I crouched among the wreckage, clenching my eyes shut and gasping for breath I didn't need, for several minutes. The burning heat of agony pulsed through my throat. My chest was tight and I could feel my dead heart ripping apart with each image of James that burst into my mind, and then disappeared. I would never see him again. I would never talk to him, touch him, kiss him....Nothing, ever again.

Slowly, as my fast-paced mind ran through the millions of memories I'd accumulated with James over our centuries together, the excruciating heat that pulsed within me hardened into ice. My breathing slowed and all the good memories flowed out of me like water. My mind was emptied of all but a single word:

Revenge.

I opened my dead and hollow crimson eyes to the darkness. Though there was nothing but smoking ruins and silence around me, I saw something completely different. I could see the human who'd ruined me - Bella they'd called her - lying on the ground. I could even hear her tortured screams as she suffered from the many wounds I'd given her. She was bleeding, but I felt no urge to drain her of her blood. No, I would not drain her.

That would be much too quick an end.

* * * * * * *

I was wrenched from my trance by the sound and smell and approaching humans. I released the ashes from my hand and flitted out of the studio's remains and into the shadows of an alley next to it. My mind was racing, full of ideas for how to get my revenge. Plan A was simple – I'd go for the kill myself – but the Plan B forming in my head was much more complex. This Bella would be well protected by the Cullen clan, I was sure, and I could not fight them all on my own. The five college-aged boys strutting down the sidewalk in my direction, however, reminded me that there was no rule that said I had to be alone.

These boys looked like they were playing at being gangsters, with their baggy jeans slung low and their baseball hats turned sideways at a tilt. James and I'd had fun with this type of human before, and I knew it was incredibly easy to lure them in. Tossing my hair back so the humans could see my face, I stepped out onto most brightly-lit part of the sidewalk.

They caught sight of me right away and exchanged a look. They picked up speed and added a bit more swagger as they approached me, and they only seemed encouraged when I made no move to get away from them. Just like with James, I recalled, drawn by a woman who will not fight them. I allowed them reach and circle me, like a predator circles its pray, looking me up and down without shame. I kept my head slightly down and my eyes veiled – they would probably be spooked by my red eyes, if by nothing else.

"Well hey there, sugar," one of them said, stepping close so his alcohol-smelling breath fanned across my face. "Want to have some fun?"

His friends laughed raucously and made vulgar comments under their breath. I remained silent.

"What, you don't like talking?" he asked, taking my jaw in his meaty hand. "Well that's alright. You don't need to talk for this."

His hand suddenly gripped my throat. His other arm wrapped around my waist as he pinned me to his side and dragged me back into the dark alley I'd recently exited. I let him shove me back against the wall and press himself against me. For a bittersweet moment I even pretended he was James, for James had often handled me this way. I forced that thought out of my mind, however, and focused on my task. I'd been distracted long enough for him to shove his hand up my shirt, and he was rubbing himself roughly against me as his companions cheered him on. I scanned the onlookers' faces in search of one who looked like he might not be enjoying this as much as the others. I latched onto a blonde boy standing among them. He was younger than the rest – maybe still in high school – but he was just as muscular and tall as his older fellows. He was smiling like the rest of the fools with him, but his eyes were dark with something like uncertainty. He did not join in the cheers. I instinctively knew that he was to be the beginning of my Plan B.

The idiot was wrenching at the zipper of my jeans now, and I could feel the sick anticipation rolling off him. He was laughing crudely, and encouraged by his audience he growled, "You're mine now, bitch."

I caught his hand at that moment, before he could finish with the zipper. "Wait," I whispered, bringing my head close to his ear.

Then, I bit him.

He screamed, releasing his grip on me and instantly to fall to the ground. Quicker than anyone could see, I bent down and slit his throat with my teeth, rejoicing in the taste of blood on my lips. The other humans in the group didn't even have time to react before I killed two more of them. I was left with the blonde boy and another. I grabbed the other's arm and broke it, twisting it so he screamed in pain. The blonde tried to run, so I finished the one with the broken arm and chased after him. I tackled him before he even made it out of the alleyway and dragged him back, forcing him to kneel in the middle of his dead fellows. He was shaking with fear, just as I'd intended.

"Please," he begged, tears falling thick and fast down his face. "Don't…don't kill me…"

I crouched down in front of him and looked him straight in the eye. His face contorted with terror and he started hyperventilating as he stared into the depths of my ruthless, crimson eyes.

"What is your name?" I asked the boy quietly, letting my fragrant breath blow over his face.

"R-R-Riley," he stammered, quivering.

I smiled. "Well then, Riley, this is your lucky day," I whispered, leaning in close and pressing my lips gently to his neck. "I will not kill you. But this may hurt, just a little."

I bit hard and deep into his flesh, ignoring the agonizingly good taste of his blood as it ran down the back of my burning throat. I pulled back immediately and sat in the pool of blood in the alleyway, tilting my head back to savor the smell and lick my lips clean. I would drain the bodies of Riley's companions soon, but I would not drain him. I needed him for my Plan B: to build an army of young, disposable vampires whose sole purpose was to hunt down Bella and to kill all who tried to protect her. I needed an older vampire to watch over the younger ones, once I started to create them, while I was off trying to complete Plan A. Riley would be this slightly older vampire in a year or so, and if I needed to proceed with Plan B, I could do so then.

I wished James were here to see this bloody feat of mine. He would have been proud of how I was restraining myself for the sake of my soon-to-be-army, much like he used to restrain himself from immediate satisfaction for the sake of a hunt. James would even be proud of my idea for seeking revenge.

James, I thought, letting sorrow wash over me one last time. This is all for you.

Hope you enjoyed. It was a little on the short side, but for some reason I just felt like writing this one down.

Please review, or even check out my other story called The Choice.